The Beholder (18 page)

K
ane’s innate night vision utilized body heat, and Nina’s petite frame glowed like a red beacon in the darkness. He drank in the sight of her, long hair spilling over her quivering breasts, flat waist, sensual bottom and shapely thighs, all exposed for his viewing pleasure. When he first met her, he had thought she was too small. But after seeing her naked, the high, pointed breasts and slight, flaring hips that tapered to shapely thighs, he knew she’d hidden a luscious body beneath the layers of clothes. He had wanted her for centuries it seemed, and seeing her naked and exposed ignited a need to protect her, to cover her, bond to her, drink his fill of her. He had wanted to keep his distance, but he could no more deny his desire for her than he could stop breathing.

He zeroed in on her position and stood up, the water
only waist-deep. In seconds he had his arms locked around her hips.

“Ohh!” she yelped as he pulled her off balance.

He caught her in his arms, then dunked her underwater.

She came up sputtering and spewing and swatting at his chest as she said, “Totally unfair.”

“I know.”

“I thought you said you wouldn’t seduce me again,” she said, her voice jagged and unsure.

“I lied. Don’t you know better than to trust me?”

“You’re despicable.”

“I know. What else am I?” He shifted her so that the front of her body slid down his chest, the wet slickness singeing him. When her feet hit the bottom, he clasped his hands around her, pinning her arms at her sides.

“Brute,” she said, not struggling now.

He kissed her, taking his time, running his tongue along her lips, nipping her lower lip. No need to rush things this time. This time he’d savor every inch of her, commit it to memory, for he knew this would never happen again. “Anything else you want to call me?” he asked.

“Give me a minute, I’ll think of something,” she said in a yielding bedroom gasp.

He felt her breathing grow rapid, even as her body become soft and pliant in his arms; his for the taking. He released her hands, and she touched his chest, splaying her fingers, pressing and discovering. Her fingers left a trail of fire on his skin, and he moaned, feeling his nerve
endings going crazy, every part of his body demanding more of her attention.

She opened her mouth for him, and he explored the dark, sweet recesses, the taste of her stirring him like no female ever had.

He ran his tongue and the edge of his teeth along her jaw, learning the insatiable taste and scent of her. She tasted so erotic he felt light-headed. Her skin lacked the hair that most seniph females had. It was silky smooth, the texture of cream. “You have the softest skin,” he murmured, his hands dipping into the curve of her back.

“Yours is opposite, rough and hard,” she said, kissing a line down to his Adam’s apple.

The sensation of her lips on his neck almost sent him over the edge. He moved to the base of her throat and ran his tongue along the pulse there. He felt her heartbeat, not only with his tongue but with his whole being. It was an erogenous zone for seniphs, the gate to pure sexual connection.

Kane nipped the delicate skin, careful not to use his teeth, only his lips. He slid his tongue and the edge of his teeth along the hollow above her collarbone, learning the taste and scent of her.

“Kane, this is torture.”

“My kind, sweetheart.” He kneaded her flesh, working his way along the base of her throat in a primitive pattern that was as old as his culture.

“I don’t—” She gasped and said, “Oh, my gosh. This is awesome. I feel strange, and—”

His lips moved back across her neck as he slid a hand
down between her legs. He parted the soft wet flesh there and stroked her. “Kane…”

“Shh,” he said. “Relax and go with it, Nina.” He continued to nip and stroke in an ancient rhythm.

She bucked against his hand and cried out as she reached a climax.

She grabbed his hair and forced his face to hers.

Her ardor inflamed him, and he plunged his tongue into her mouth while he felt the softness of her flat belly, her ribs. It took all of his control to slow it down and not make her his.

Her breathing sped up, and she gave a little sigh of pleasure as he cupped her breasts.

She arched against him and moaned softly.

He pulled her against his erection, his tongue mating with hers even as he teased her nipples into hard little nubs. “You feel and taste too good,” he whispered, his breath hot and ragged against her lips.

“You, too. Your tongue feels—”

“Different.”

“Yes, rough.”

“I’m half cat, sweetheart. It’s best you don’t forget that.” He braced himself against the side of the pool and lifted her until her hips rested on his stomach.

“I’m not complaining.” She instantly wrapped her thighs around his waist and her arms around his neck, feeling the water’s buoyancy supporting her.

He brushed aside her long hair and found her nipple. He flicked out his tongue and licked and suckled. He felt her quake in his arms.

She dove her fingers into his hair and forced his mouth closer to her.

He suckled the delicate flesh, aware of her racing heart pounding in his ears. The sensation of her rounded nipple hardening in his mouth, the feeling of her clinging to him, set him on fire.

She let out a little frustrated gasp. “Kane, I need you.”

She settled against his erection.

A primitive yearning to make her his in every way burst inside every atom in his body. He’d never felt this drawn to a female, like she was a part of his essence. “Kane, please.”

He felt her hot plea against his lips, and he settled his hardness firmly against her bottom and moved his hips. She moaned at the friction.

A wave of desire swept through him, so powerful and so heady it caused him to shimmer.

“Whoa!” she said in a husky voice. “That feels interesting.”

Kane marshaled his animal force and lust as he saw her gaze down at him. “It’s just the energy when I shift.”

“No, I mean this.” She slid her hips up to his waist; then her hand closed around his erection. She explored the soft tip.

Kane sucked in a ragged breath, testing the last thread of his self-control. “Don’t, Nina.” He pulled her hand away. “You don’t know what you do to me.”

“I like this power over you,” she whispered, moving her hips seductively against him. “What else can I make
you do?” She licked and nipped his throat while her hands explored his chest, his nipples.

“You don’t want to find out.” Kane took her mouth as he parted her thighs with his fingers. He found the center of her desire and stroked her until she cried out.

When he knew she was on the verge of an orgasm, he slid his hard sheath into her soft magic. He felt her maidenhead only for a second; then she cried out and stiffened.

“Are you okay?” he asked; it took all of his willpower not to move inside her tight, moist heat.

“I am now,” she gasped, as if she’d been carrying a burden and just set it down.

“Why didn’t you tell me you were a virgin?”

“It isn’t something I go around announcing— Hi, I’m a twenty-one-year-old virgin—”

“Thank you for letting me be the first.” He heard the emotion thick in his voice before he cut off her words by kissing her. He’d never had a virgin before. It made that primal protective need come alive in him again.

“I’ve been waiting for this my whole life,” she murmured against his mouth.

He couldn’t hold back any longer, and he began to move ever so slowly inside her, widening her, letting his hardness fill her, allowing her to get used to the sensations.

Then she began moving with him. Kane felt her taking him deeper into her tight, hot sheath, touching her womb. They rode to a higher plane. He waited until she came with him and they both cried out in unison. Then he felt himself tumbling back to earth. In Nina’s
arms he’d forgotten Ethan and killing Daphne. He’d forgotten everything. Now realty came crashing down on him.

“I’ll throw another log on.”

Nina watched Kane sit up beside her. He’d pulled out the sleeping bags from the backpacks and made a comfortable bed for them by the hot spring. The top bag pooled around his hips as he bent and threw another piece of kindling on the campfire. She watched the firelight glowing along his broad shoulders, the muscles rippling beneath his skin.

She touched the scars that crisscrossed his back in thick slashing lines and asked, “How did you get these?”

“Long story.” He seemed to grow self-conscious and turned to face her, hiding his back from her view. He nestled down beneath the sleeping bag and pulled Nina into his arms.

She cuddled up against his warmth and laid her head on his chest. A shifter’s normal body temperature must be higher than that of a human. His skin felt like an electric blanket turned on high. She just wanted to wallow in his warmth. She couldn’t believe how beautiful and hard his body was, and she’d never get enough of touching him. She burrowed closer, wrapping an arm around his waist and settling her ear over his heart. She eavesdropped in on the steady strum of his emotions, detecting reticence, grief and sadness. They were acute and stabbing. She knew the scars must have
involved a life-altering tragedy in his life that he didn’t want to talk about.

She encouraged him by saying, “We have all night.”

He hesitated for a long moment, the only sound the pop and hiss of the fire and his deep, even breaths. Finally he said, “I should start with my father. He was a hard man, demanding, but he was a good provider. He cared about the pride and was well-liked.”

Emptiness and unhappiness hovered around the borders of his mind while he spoke of his father.

“But Ethan and I never could live up to his expectations.”

“I never knew my father. My grandmother told me he died when I was young.”

“Do you miss having a father figure in your life?” he asked.

“Not really. You don’t miss what you don’t have.”

They were quiet for a beat, absorbing that bit of wisdom. Then Nina said, “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to interrupt. Tell me what happened.”

“I guess things began to fall apart when Ethan started showing symptoms of gleanerism. My mother noticed the mood changes and the flashes of red in Ethan’s eyes before he actually turned.”

“And you kept it from your father?”

“Yes, but with good reason. My father was the alpha male of our pride. I guess you know the rule.”

“I do,” Nina said, stroking his chest softly in hopes that he’d relax. “The alpha is responsible for killing gleaners.”

“Yes.” He grew quiet and seemed lost in a dark place.
After a moment, his Adam’s apple moved in his throat as if it was hard for him to swallow as he continued. “My mother couldn’t bear having my father destroy his own son.”

“I’ve heard the ritual is brutal. The alpha shifts and fights the infected seniph—”

“To the death,” Kane added.

She hated asking her next question. She’d heard vague stories of the ceremony, but she didn’t know all of it. “What if the gleaner wins?”

“Then the whole pride takes part in the killing, and the alpha loses his status.”

She wondered why seniphs still lived by such primitive rules. “The brutality alone would make me cringe,” she remarked.

“It bothered my mother, too. She was fragile.” He picked up a lock of Nina’s damp hair and rubbed it absently between his fingers as he said, “She couldn’t deal with losing Ethan that way, or any way, really, so she asked for my help and vowed me to secrecy. We arranged Ethan’s escape together. I drove Ethan to the airport and put him on a plane to South Africa. I told my father the truth that night, along with a few lies.”

He paused, deep in unpleasant memories, then said, “The punishment for letting a gleaner go is to fight the alpha. I knew my mother didn’t have a chance against my father, so I told him it was all my doing.” He paused, his green eyes darkening to almost black.

Nina could see Kane rushing to defend his mother. His bravery was boundless; she’d seen that in the way he wanted to protect his brother. What an ordeal it must
have been, losing an only brother, knowing his mother would pay for the deception with her life. She hated to ask her next question, for she knew the outcome. “Did you have to fight your father?”

“No, I refused.” He nodded, his expression marred by remembered anguish. “I went to the council and told them what I’d done. I asked them for the Right of Punishment.”

“What’s that?”

“A pride law that states the council can determine a fitting punishment.”

“You were beaten?”

“You could say that.” He nodded.

“I’m terribly sorry.” She ran her hand along his back, feeling the deep ridges, hating that he must have suffered for a long time.

After a moment, he seemed lost in thought and said, “But it wasn’t as bad as afterward.”

“What happened?”

“The council stripped my father of his title and he was forced to fight a contender for alpha—part of my punishment. He killed my father.” There was a solemn catch in his voice and in his breathing.

She felt him take a jagged breath, then another until he forced his breathing to normal again. She couldn’t imagine the agony and helplessness of seeing his own father’s cruel death. No wonder she sensed such darkness in Kane.

He added, “Then I fought the champion and became alpha.”

The harsh, merciless tone in his voice sent a shiver
through her as she asked, “What happened to your mother?”

A sad gleam flickered in his eyes. “Her car ran off a mountain shortly after my father died.”

“Suicide?”

“I’ll never know. But I suspect she couldn’t live with my father’s death, or Ethan’s disease. Wherever she is, I’m sure she’s happier.”

His loss and sorrow pulled Nina into the bleak dark hell that Kane had lived through. She didn’t know how he could bear all that he had. Some people’s lives seemed destined to ill fortune and misery, and he’d had his share of it. She also felt Kane’s love for his brother. Kane had sacrificed everything for him, including his own life. She didn’t want to give Kane another blot on his heart by destroying his brother. There must be another solution in dealing with Ethan.