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I DIDN’T KISS KANE to slam up walls. I kissed him because I wanted to and I don’t regret it.
I’m doing a lot of questionable things lately that I don’t regret.
Doesn’t mean the consequences won’t catch up to me and as I enter the castle for the prince’s mid-afternoon snack, I fear it might be today. There’s no whiskey on offer to calm my nerves. No invitation to talk. Apparently I’ve done something to piss off the monster.
He pats the spot beside him on the couch. “Come.”
My heart cramps as I approach, as all our previous conversations come full circle to complete the nightmare living inside my head. He married out of duty, a royal duty to ensure an heir to the crown and coldly poison his new bride in the process.
I feel nothing for the princess, but the prince’s soulless personality doesn’t bode well for me if he ever discovers my deception with Nial.
He leans in as soon as I’m seated, brushing my hair over my shoulder with a gentle touch that sends spiders crawling over my skin. I clasp my hands in my lap and brace my spine for what comes next.
I’ve already decided I won’t use Kane, not like this. I’ll just have to find another source of strength, another way to endure the loathing and live with myself.
The prince snaps his jaw to extend his fangs and cocks his head to look at me. “Your heart is pounding.”
I meet his frosted blue stare with a determined grimace. “Does it bother you?”
“Not at all.” One hand scoops around the back of my neck and his mouth lowers.
My eyes snap shut on the bite that pierces my veins. I don’t cry out. There’s no scream to swallow. My pain threshold is adjusting to my lifestyle. How sad is that?
I feel his lips against my throat, the pull on my blood and the warmth slipping into me. I feel his hand on my neck, his thumbprint on my skin as the languid desire spreads with the beat of my pulse. His scent draws into me with every short, shallow breath and I can’t do it, I don’t have the strength after all.
I only have Kane.
I reach for him and he’s there, he always is, to catch me as I fall into the sensual trance.
His stone-baked eyes heat into me as he rubs his hands down my arms to thread his fingers through mine. I’m breathing in ash and pine. His hair is messed, his face a swarthy map of untamed beauty that melts the marrow in my bones.
He guides our joined hands to the small of my back, slowly brings me in close as he dips his head and shapes his mouth to mine in a deep, crushing kiss that burns with need and I’m swept away to our cave. Pressed to his hard body and wrapped in his male heat, held together by his strength and this place inside me that knows there is nowhere I can fall where he won’t be to catch me.