Page 7 of Dark Visions (Strange Gifts #1)

Kane couldn’t believe it. This beautiful woman was touching him, touching his face, his neck, his lips, and she was practically crawling over him, begging for more. He let his thoughts briefly think evil thoughts. She wanted something. She needed something. But the honest desire and passion emanating from her body were more than even his logical brain could argue with.

“Aislinn, baby, you taste so good,” he whispered against her lips.

“So do you,” she smiled. “Like eggrolls and something totally decadent.”

“Decadent?” he laughed.

“Yes, decadent. You taste like you. No nightmares, no visions, nothing except kindness, goodness. It’s, well, it’s refreshing.”

“Aislinn, honey, how many men have you kissed?” He looked down at her waiting for her answer. In his head, he knew that she must have risked a great deal to allow a man to kiss her or touch her.

“Four, counting you. Two were… two were evil. They didn’t murder anyone, but I saw the visions just the same. They were planning to rape me. I ended both relationships immediately.”

“Who are they?” he asked in a low growl. His alpha male instincts went on high alert, and he couldn’t help his own reaction.

“They live in another city,” she said, kissing him again.

“And the third?” he asked.

“The third man I dated for a while, but there was nothing there. No spark, no passion. He wanted to move the relationship along, but I knew it was only because he was safe, and that wouldn’t have been fair to him.”

Kane looked into her rich brown eyes, melting into their sweetness. She was an innocent.

“You’ve never been with a man.” He made it a statement, not a question.

Aislinn looked at him as if he were stating the obvious. Speaking of such things had never bothered her. When you see visions of violence as she did, something as natural as sex wasn’t exactly off-limits for her.

“No. I’ve never been with a man.”

Kane let out a long breath and leaned his head back on the sofa. Being with a woman like Aislinn was something he never dreamed would happen for him. She was beautiful, intelligent, sexy as all fuck, and the best part was, she didn’t even know it.

“Is that a problem? My not having been with a man? I mean, I would think it would be a good thing.”

“It is a good thing, Aislinn,” he said, grinning at her. “I just want to be sure we take this slow. I also want to be sure that we’re both not doing this for anything other than the right reasons. You’re recovering from the visions, the headaches. I don’t want to take advantage of you.”

“The right reasons? You mean you want to be sure I’m not a willing partner only because touching you doesn’t send me into nightmares?” She gave him a sly grin, and at first, he felt the need to defend his statement, then he understood that she was teasing.

“It’s more than that, Aislinn. I haven’t had a significant relationship since my injuries. I won’t lie to you. I’ve had my fair share of one-night stands. Women that thought it was their duty to make a wounded warrior have a good time or had some perverse need to help the guy with the mangled face. But I haven’t had a true relationship where I truly cared about another person.”

“That’s awful!” she said, sitting up straight.

“I can’t claim innocence in that, Aislinn. I took advantage of that, having my own needs to think of. I was a typical male, and I regret doing it.” She nodded again, tugging on her bottom lip between her teeth. “I guess what I’m saying is I feel something for you, Aislinn. Something different, something foreign to me, and I want to be sure I do this right. That I do right by you.”

“I’m a grown woman, Kane. I know what I’m doing.”

“You are a grown woman, Aislinn, but you’ve never been with a man, in a full-on relationship with a man. I want to do this right.”

She nodded again, staring into his eyes. For the first time, Aislinn noticed the green of his eyes, the thick covering of black lashes draped around them. He really was a beautiful man. Beyond the scars, because of the scars, he was a beautiful man.

“Kane? What do we do about my vision? I mean, I can’t call the police. We both know how that turns out. I can’t just sit here knowing that he is going to murder someone or several someones tonight.”

Kane nodded and pulled Aislinn closer, hoping just to have her near him for a while longer. Instead, she crawled onto his lap, the growing bulge in his sweatpants becoming more difficult to hide. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders, laid her soft, smooth cheek against the crook of his neck, the skin rough and textured from the skin grafts.

No woman had ever sought out his touch, the feel of him. At least not since his injuries. She made him feel as though the world didn’t exist. He was the only person that mattered to her.

“I want you to stay here and wait for me. I’m going to go back to the hospital and see if I can follow him.”

“Why don’t we call and see if his shift has ended? If not, then you could catch him. If it has ended, we may not be able to find him tonight.”

“That’s actually a great idea,” he said, grinning at her. “We make quite a team, don’t we?”

“I think so,” she said, staring up at him. She kissed his lips once more, and he gripped her hips, stilling her movement against him. Aislinn might be innocent, but she was more than aware of how a man reacted to a woman he was attracted to.

“Aislinn, baby,” he said, moving, slightly hoping she wouldn’t feel his growing attraction.

Instead, she felt the full-on heat and hardness he was sporting. The little vixen had the audacity to smile at him. “Let me call the hospital,” he said breathlessly.

She nodded and moved to the sofa again. The butterflies in her stomach were swarming back and forth. Aislinn had avoided men for so long she wasn’t entirely sure she was doing anything right with Kane. What she did know was that he was a good, decent man. She watched his tall, muscled figure reach for his cell phone, his forearms flexing with the simple movement of picking up his phone.

“Yes, I was wondering if Dr. Krauss is still available,” he asked. “I see. No, no message. Thank you.” He turned toward Aislinn, the bulge slightly less noticeable now.

“He’s gone?”

“Yea, he left about an hour ago.” Kane walked toward the large metal desk in the corner of the loft. Tapping on his keyboard, he pulled up a directory. Seven Dr. Krauss’s popped up on the screen. “Damn! Who would have thought there were seven with the same name?”

“That is unusual, but maybe they’re related. I mean, sometimes sons and fathers work together.”

“True. These two are related, but they work in endocrinology on the West Side. They wouldn’t have been working emergency medicine.” She nodded, looking over his shoulder, her long brown hair brushing against his face. He gritted his teeth, trying not to be distracted by her every movement. She reached over his shoulder and pointed at the screen.

“This one and this one, they work together downtown, but it’s oncology. Again, I’m not sure they would have been in the emergency room.”

“None of them are emergency medicine. It doesn’t make sense at all.”

“Could he have been a fake?”

“Geez, that would be seriously fucked up, wouldn’t it?” She nodded, a frown crossing her face, the lines on her forehead deep with concern. “I don’t think we can do anything except wait.”

“I hate this. This is the worst part for me. I wait for hours, days, sometimes weeks before I know that the vision was real. I’ve never had a vision that wasn’t real, but this could be the first. God! I hope it’s the first.” She stood and pulled her hair away from her face, twisting it into a long ponytail.

“You’re exhausted and it’s late. Why don’t you take the bed, and we’ll just wait and see what happens in the morning?”

“I can take the sofa. I’m smaller.”

“Aislinn, I’m not letting you take the sofa. Besides, it’s huge. It’s why I bought it so that it could accommodate my size or the size of some of my former teammates. For a while, they would come into town once a month to check on me.”

“That’s really nice to have friends like that.”

He stared at her and wondered if she had friends that she could confide in, friends that would have her back. As if she sent a message to his brain, he knew the answer.

“Why don’t you have a friend to rely on, Aislinn?” he asked with compassion.

“I-I just… It’s easier. Women aren’t nice sometimes, Kane. When I would get my headaches, I was so sick sometimes that their boyfriends or husbands would offer to take me home. The women, well, they thought it was all a ploy to get their men. I seriously didn’t understand it. The last roommate I had was six years ago. I decided to move out when I got this vision of her. She wasn’t killing anyone, but it was anger and so hate-filled it made me choke. I realized later the vision was about me.”

“Fucking hell! Dudes certainly have their shit with each other, but we usually just punch it out and move on.”

“Yea,” she laughed, “well, I would have been happy to do that, but it didn’t seem she was a willing participant.”

Aislinn stood and moved toward the big bed. It was larger than a normal king-sized bed. It seemed longer and wider, maybe to suit his larger body. Sliding the sweatpants down, she wore only her plain white panties and the sweatshirt.

Kane couldn’t look away. He knew he should. He should give her some privacy, but she had no inhibitions about stripping in front of him at all. She was innocent as to the effect she had on him. She never even looked up. Her long hair spread across his pillows, and he thought he would never wash those sheets again. Sitting up, she stared across the room at him.

Busted!

“Kane? Sleep in the bed with me. Not to, I mean not to do anything, just…”

“Aislinn, are you sure? I won’t do anything you’re not ready for, but this is all very fast.”

“I know it is. I can’t explain it, Kane. I’ve never met anyone like you before. Certainly, never met anyone that understood what was happening with me. I just, I just can’t lie here alone tonight. Not when I know that you’re only a few feet away.”

The sweet, sexy tones of her voice glided over his body, enveloping him in a warmth and peace he hadn’t experienced in his lifetime. He nodded his head and slid between the sheets, his sweats and t-shirt still on. Unlike Aislinn, he wore no boxers or briefs beneath his sweats.

Her eyes closed immediately, and she rolled to her side, facing him. He did the same, staring into her beautiful, perfect face. He noticed every inch of her. The small dimple in her left cheek. The thick black lashes that lay against the contrasting white of her cheeks. She had a tiny pair of diamond earrings glittering from each lobe. Her lips were red and slightly swollen from their simple kisses, another sure sign that she was as innocent as he suspected.

Aislinn’s hands lay in prayer on the pillow, and Kane mimicked her. Closing his eyes, he felt her reach for him, lying her small hand between his two larger ones and then the other on top. It was such a sweet, simple gesture. But for Kane Jackson, it was something he never dreamed he would have.

Drifting off to sleep, he felt the familiar zing in his dreams but let the euphoria that was Aislinn Carter take him away.