“Make certain he remains bound,” Noah stressed to Abram, although the Mind Demon wouldn’t have thought to do otherwise. “And don’t worry about the flaws in his actions. I have faith that the mistakes of youth can be overcome and tempered into miraculous things.”
It was so strange how she suddenly knew things to be the absolute truth and yet had no shred of proof to support her belief. Yet she knew. When she opened her eyes, she just knew that he had manipulated her into sleeping, exactly the same way he had manipulated her into getting back into bed with him. This time when she awoke, however, she didn’t move even the smallest fraction of a millimeter. She just opened her eyes and lay quietly as she absorbed everything around her.
She was lying cozily across his chest still, her cheek pillowed on an impressive pectoral muscle. She could feel wiry little hairs under her cheek and tickling her nose as well, and each time she took a breath she was inundated with that smell. . the smell of a strong, sexy male lying warm and within her reach. God, it had been such a long time since she’d lain intimately naked with a man, just quietly absorbing his presence. And even then, she couldn’t recall any man having as much power in his presence as Kane seemed to have.
He was perplexing and confusing, everything about the entire situation seeming surreal and crazy, but in that moment it was as if she’d settled into the perfect niche. It was as if she belonged exactly where she was, even if she wasn’t quite sure what that meant. The realization gave her an uncontrollable chill, gooseflesh running over her skin until she shivered, giving herself away.
“I already knew you were awake,” he said, his voice hoarse as it whispered above her head.
It was fully dark now, and she wondered just how long she’d been asleep.
“Only an hour or two. It was sunset when you woke before.”
“Okay, has anyone ever told you just how creepy that is?” she asked him sharply, lifting her chin to try to see him in the darkness. “How do you do that?”
She felt him shrug in spite of his awkward positioning. “I was born this way.”
“People aren’t just born that way. Not real people. Imaginary people maybe, comic book people or sci-fi movie people, but not real people.”
“My people are born this way,” he corrected her, the soft emphasis on the way he said “my people” making her take note of his distinction. “Not all, but many.”
Still, she didn’t ask. She wasn’t sure she was ready to know.
Corrine sat up, pushing off against him to do so, grateful to find she could move with comparative ease. She paused a moment, trying to recall the layout of the room. She slid up along his side carefully, and then reached across him, the shortest distance to the nearest lamp. She braced herself as she fumbled for the switch.
Kane had to bite back a groan of pure craving as the tip of her breast brushed just beneath his nose. As she leaned further forward he could smell the delightful musk of her sleep-warmed skin. Better still, he could smell himself on her, impressed into her from the hours spent lying close together. Oh, every minute of it had been utter torture, but it had been worth it to have this sweet result. Even now, as her sleek, bare body brushed in haunting teases all against his, he swallowed down the agony of his need and reveled in the minute pleasures of her warmth and softness being so close to him.
She finally found and figured out the key to the lamp. Since it wasn’t electric, the gas flame surprised her and made her draw back with a little gasp. The reaction brought that same luscious breast back across his lips and this time Kane couldn’t resist the temptation. He opened his mouth and snaked out his tongue, catching the soft flesh of her nipple quickly against his taste buds. Corrine yelped in surprise and jolted away from him, forcing Kane to curse his bound hands. Had they been free he could have caught her and held her to himself. He could have sucked on her until she completely discarded the impulse to escape and began, instead, to give in to the virulent chemistry he knew she was already starting to feel.
Corrine pushed away from him awkwardly, her shock at his boldness doubling when she felt the fiercely stunning flood of sensation that burst over her entire breast and embedded itself deep into the heart lying beneath it. That devastation of feeling compounded itself yet again when she got a good look at him. With his arms stretched taut over his head and his chest and belly on tight display, he looked every inch the restrained beast. He was shifting restlessly, his hips moving in an attempt to angle away from her, but it was a futile maneuver. Once again she could see that he was blatantly aroused. The massive bulge behind the denim was unrepentant, even if the owner was a little bit more so. Corrine couldn’t help the knee-jerk flush of heat that rushed down the center of her body and up her neck to her cheeks.
“Stop,” he rasped suddenly, the plea drowning in aching need. “Stop looking at me. Stop thinking. .”
Kane groaned and Corrine realized abruptly where her thoughts had begun to drift and that he could read her mind. Blushing in earnest now, she tore her eyes from him, covering her hot face with cold hands and trying not to mentally acknowledge the damp traces of arousal left between her legs.
“Oh my God, what’s wrong with me?” she gasped, a flustered tinge of red spreading all over her fair skin. Kane couldn’t bring himself to look away, his gaze fixed as the lamplight flickered over her, illuminating the paths of pink that tinted her pale skin. She turned, searching, he sensed, for the top sheet that had been left on the floor earlier. She wanted to cover up the evidence of her reaction to their Imprinted chemistry. He was immensely satisfied when she couldn’t find it. Knowing she would be stupid to waste her energy climbing down off the bed again, she crossed her arms from shoulder to shoulder, hiding little more than the stiffened points of her nipples.
“Nothing,” Kane answered with a gruff croak of his voice. “Nothing is wrong with you. You’re perfect.”
She laughed at that, a hard sound full of bitter denial. “If that were true. .” She stopped, a moment of panic lighting her eyes. She was remembering he had access to her mind, but it was too late already.
“If that were true,” he finished for her, “then you wouldn’t be alone.”
“I. . I’m not alone,” she denied quietly, her face turning from him. “I have my sister.”
“Corrine, there is nothing wrong with wanting a companion in your life,” he told her.
Perhaps it was the infinite compassion in his voice that made her look back at him, but the sight of her brimming eyes stabbed into Kane like a huge, butcher knife.
“I’ve done everything I was supposed to do,” she said softly, a hard sniffle trying to force back her feelings. “I went to school. I’ve got a good career. I live a strong and independent lifestyle. I’m good to other people as much as I can be. I take care of my family. I try so hard to do everything right. .”
“Corrine, your lack of a partner has nothing to do with some kind of cosmic scorecard. Not in the way you think,” he countered. “Destiny isn’t punishing you by forcing you to be alone. Very much the contrary, sweetheart. She was simply making sure you were ready and open when your true mate came along.”
She pushed back at the thick coiling curls of her cinnamon-fire hair and gave him a dirty look. “And let me guess. That special guy just happens to be you, right? How friggin’ convenient for me that I just happened to get so lucky as to be held prisoner by your side, eh? Oh, wait. That’s not luck, that’s you insisting I’m going to croak if I budge so much as an inch off this bed! And can someone tell me again why I believe that ridiculous claim?”