Kane watched her pull back behind this caustic display with a sense of fascination. It was almost enough to make him forget the insistent desire punching through his body repeatedly. She was so beautiful. Even when she tried to be as prickly as a cactus, he found her utterly gorgeous.
“Because,” he replied absently as his eyes dropped of their own accord over her bare curves, “you’ve seen the proof of it. You left me and it hurt you. Drained you. Now, after only a couple of hours near me, you’re able to sit up again.”
“It’s called rest,” she argued. “You had nothing to do with it!”
“Oh really?”
“Yeah, really!”
“Then prove me wrong. Come here and kiss me.”
Corrine gaped at him. “And just what the hell is that going to prove, besides the fact that I’m a gullible idiot?” she demanded.
“Come and kiss me and see.”
He watched with amusement as she debated the wisdom of falling for what she thought was a prank, a way of conning her into cheap thrills. He forgave her for thinking so little of him. After all, she hardly knew him. He, on the other hand, knew everything about her. He’d staked her out, observed her, read her mind, and hunted her down. There wasn’t a single thing about her, not even the deepest secret she had, that he wasn’t privy to. He knew exactly who she was, and Kane knew she was everything he could ever have wanted. He also knew he was everything she had ever wanted. It would just take a little time to make her see that.
She chewed on her bottom lip for a long minute, forcing herself to keep her eyes on his face, studying him very closely to try to read what kind of game he was running on her. After a minute she made a little sound of disgust.
“Fine. Whatever floats your boat, sport. I’m going to love to see how you fast talk your way out of this one.” With that, Corrine scooted up onto her knees, grasped hold of him with hands on either side of his face, and leaned forward until she was just about to lay her mouth against his. Kane didn’t even realize it, but as she hesitated he began to pant heavily for breath. The closer she was, the more difficult it became for him to control the vicious hunger Samhain was beating into his body. His hands curled down into tight fists, the chains pulling taut with a chink of sound that made her glance up at his bound wrists. The small smile that touched her lips at the corners told him that she was enjoying her position of power over him. But he didn’t begrudge her that. The tables were about to turn.
Corrine was super cautious as she touched the barest surface of her lips to Kane’s. When he didn’t move or make a single sound, when he didn’t even so much as blink, she dared to move an increment closer. His mouth was nice, lax, and soft, completely lacking any aggression. Somehow she had expected him to try to press himself onto her, take instant command. . to try to prove something to her. She certainly hadn’t expected him to lie utterly passive and quiet as she tentatively kissed him. She drew back and cocked a brow at him. He chuckled, the sound short and clearly derisive.
“What are you? Two?” he mocked her. “I’ve seen twelve year olds kiss with more passion than that.”
Kane’s redheaded mate gasped with a hot flash of indignant fury. “Why you lousy son of a—!”
That was when Kane surged up at her and captured her scowling mouth. He caught the passion of that temper between them, letting the power of it loop them together like the surest of knots. It was true that all the information he and his brethren knew about the Imprinting had come from rare live examples and potentially embellished fairy tales, but one thing had always seemed to be consistent in the tales he’d heard. Nothing kick-started the Imprinting faster than fierce emotion, and some of the most ferocious was anger and outrage. Oh, he would have preferred love or even just blatant passion, but he was limited by the situation and could only work within certain bounds.
The kiss seared them together at their mouths, the crush of lips awkward and harsh at first because of his lurching, graceless attack on her. But he cheated for just a moment or two, his mind taking over her motor control so she couldn’t rush away from him, the resulting paralysis dropping her against his chest and mouth.
The result was instantaneous ignition. Like a rocket roiling out burning fuel at liftoff, the sensation exploded over them both. Kane’s libido screamed into overdrive, demanding all he had been denied when his brother and his King had bolted him down next to Corrine, forcing him to bear up under all her warm sighs and subconscious snuggling against his raw body. Her mind did not recognize him; the mores and hang-ups of her species interfering noisily, but when she’d been asleep, her body had had no doubt as to whom it craved. Now she was getting a crash course in what it had felt like for him as he had struggled through this sacred full moon. She would be untouched by it no longer. Never again, in fact. Kane growled inside in frustration as his shackles kept him from wrapping her into his embrace, kept him from dominating the moment anymore than he already had. But he knew Abram, his Siddah, who was keeping him from teleporting out of the bindings, would not free him until Noah gave him leave to do so.
So he dismissed the limitation and let it work in his favor. He slowly relaxed back into the pillows behind him and Corrine hastily moved forward to close any distance that might be created by the action. Ensnared by the shocking heat of Imprinted passion, she was stunned into reacting purely on instinct. Kane knew she had never felt anything like this in all of her human existence, but he liked the feel of her wicked delight and surprise as it burst through her in sprays of hot cinder and liquid lava. She reached to wrap her hands tightly around his head, seizing him firmly and fiercely as her lush mouth worked heatedly against his. Kane pulled for breath as his body strained with hardest heat for her. She opened her mouth and licked his lips with an achingly gorgeous invitation.
She sealed their mouths together and swiped her artful tongue against his. The pure flavor of her mouth burst against Kane’s tongue and he ground out a deep sound of pleasure. But it was nothing compared to the shout that escaped him when she unthinkingly threw her leg astride his hips and settled her weight down against his fly.
Corrine did it to catch his kisses at a better, deeper angle. When she settled over him, though, she felt his entire being clench in response and need whiplashed back into her like a raging brushfire. She went liquid against him, pressing her rapidly overheating skin to his and rocking herself against his aroused body in thoughtless want. She never once broke their kiss, her slender, sensual body writhing with kinetic energy over his until he was shaking with the intensity of his desire for her.
“Touch me!” he gasped in command against her devouring lips. “Sweet Destiny, have mercy on me, Corrine, and touch me!”
Kane was straining so hard at his shackles that they were biting viciously into his flesh, the scent of fresh blood rising up sharply to compete with the pungent delight of Corrine’s aroused body. Musk, sweet and sultry, shimmered against his senses as she drew her hands free of his hair and finally brought them down the expanse of his chest.
Corrine didn’t understand what she was doing! A kiss, a simple kiss! That was all it was supposed to be. An obnoxious little peck to disprove the claims of her obnoxious bed-partner. Except suddenly there was a conflagration of positive proof that all his claims might have more than a little value. Every second she remained connected to him she felt revitalizing energy infusing her every cell. The weakness that had dogged her was fading fast and she suddenly felt starved. Starved for food, starved for energy, starved for a passion long due her.