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SIX

Eagle

Kane walks out, leaving me staring.

What is happening? Why does my heart feel this way? I don’t know why he makes me so breathless, so reckless.

Spinning, I push both hands into my hair, only to wince. Ouch. My body hurts. Tonight wasn’t supposed to be like this.

I needed space. Room to plan something… anything to get me away from Dad and men like Charles.

Moving closer to the fire, I kneel on the floor, staring at the leaping flames. Kane built a fire. The men I’m used to being around wouldn’t know how to start a fire if they were dying of hypothermia. They have people for that. Just like they have women for…

Show? Of course they’d expect sex, just like Charles said. He wanted me in his bed.

But I don’t want that. I want passion. I want… love.

“Why did you come out here tonight?”

I look up at Kane, his impossibly tall form standing by the hearth. A Viking warrior—that’s what he reminds me of. I start to speak, but catch a sad sound in my throat instead. Dashing my forearm across my misty eyes, I shake my head. “I just had to get away from the house.”

Kane lowers himself onto his knee. My mouth dries—almost painful—when he lays his palm against my cheek, turning me to look at him. Kane’s hand is warm and large, the length of his fingers reaching all the way around the back of my neck.

“What happened? I need to know.”

“It was…” Fighting to keep all the bad feelings at bay, I whisper, “Nothing.”

This makes Kane tense, his fingers twitching against my neck. “You said it. So something happened. Tell me now, baby.”

Baby?

A sensation zooms through me. I love it. But I hate this conversation.

“Charles just said some things.”

“That motherfucker,” Kane grates out, “I’ll break?—”

“Please don’t do anything rash. He was just being his usual idiotic self.”

There’s an unnatural glow in Kane’s gaze. As if he could breathe fire any second. “I don’t like leaving when you’re in the house with your father’s friends.”

But I barely hear what he says; his thumb is stroking over my face, getting closer and closer to my bottom lip. A tremble hits my mouth, making me touch the corner with my tongue.

“God damn.” Kane’s fingers dig into my hair, forcing my head back until we’re eye to eye, inches apart. “Do you know how desperate you make me?”

“No. N-no.”

He leans down until we’re forehead to forehead, his mouth a fraction of an inch from mine, the tease of his exhales making me nearly weep.

“I want things from you, Eagle.”

Surprising myself with how husky my voice is, with words that come from deep inside me, I reply, “I want you.”

A man of action, Kane doesn’t waste one more single breath; he drags his mouth across mine, cursing, “Fuck, I can’t stop myself from kissing you.”

He draws me closer, his other hand nestling against my lower back, the fingers neading into me. This time he opens his mouth against mine, tasting me. Slicking his tongue against mine, making my insides quiver.

Every stroke is deeper, the grip in my hair tightening, the rasp of Kane’s breathing getting faster. Sounds start to come out of me. Whiny little moans, and the more my body makes them, the rougher Kane gets until he tears away from me.

“Oh fuck.” His pupils are gigantic, swallowing the blue of his eyes. “I’m not a good man, sweetheart. We have to stop that right fucking now.”

I climb up to my feet, my hand going to the hem of my shirt. Kane’s staring at me so hard, his hands clenched into two iron fists.

When I draw the material up and over my head, a rush of cool air makes me goosebump all over.

“What,” he rasps, his mouth hinging open as he clutches his chest, “are you doing?”

“I’m going to take a bath, the water’s probably getting cold. But I think you should help me take the rest of my clothes off.”

He sways, his hand going to the gigantic ridge inside his jeans. “You won’t make it to the bath if I touch you.”