CHAPTER THREE
Hot water had never felt so good, and Kenyon was the first to admit that the shower would have been a lot more interesting if he’d had company. Instead, Sage sat out on the full size bed, her phone in her hand, more than likely planning her next rescue mission, the one that would take place after she helped him free his brother. The one that would finally take her from him forever.
He never should have agreed to let her go, but the steady set of her chin, the way her eyes all but pleaded with him, told him it was time. Every time she’d come back in the last several years, it had been because someone had needed her. Either her family or his had called her back. She had never returned because she missed him, because she wanted him. The truth of that situation felt like a knife deep in his gut, and there was no way to deny that he was in love with her.
It wasn’t even his pride that kept him from admitting he was in love with her. Instead, it was something that went much deeper, like the way she pushed him away from her in one breath and pulled him back in the next. He’d never been able to hold onto her for very long, and every kiss they had ever shared always felt like it would be the last.
Wiping the condensation from the bathroom mirror, he looked himself in the eyes just to be sure he wasn’t lying to himself.
“You love her,” he said the words softly, even though he could hear music drifting in from the next room. There was no reason to let her overhear his inner turmoil. “Fucking hell.” He rubbed the stubble on his jaw, realizing how wild he looked, how completely untamed. A guy like him would scare the hell out of any girl worth her salt with his piercing yellow eyes and the marks running all over his body. He knew what he looked like. Danger and sin wrapped up in a big, brooding package. But he also knew Sage had always seen the other side of him, the side that grew hot with longing and would die to protect her.
Raking his fingers through his wet hair, he gathered it and pulled it into a ponytail, reminding himself he needed to cut it. There hadn’t been a lot of time for anything other than trying to track down Nik in the last few months, but now that Sage was here, he found himself wanting to look appealing for her, less like an enemy, which was clearly how she saw him. After he shaved the stubble from his cheeks, he wrapped a towel around his waist and emerged from the bathroom, a cloud of steam behind him rising off his skin.
She looked up at him as soon as he stepped into the room, and his heart stopped. Faded blue jeans replaced her business skirt and a white tank top took the place of her button up shirt. She was sitting with her feet dangling off his bed, her lips parted, her chest rising and falling. Her hand immediately went to her throat and he could smell her arousal, could sense it from across the room. Whatever she thought about him, at this moment, she wanted him, and there was no way she could deny it.
Wordlessly, he stalked over to her, aware of the way his cock hardened beneath the towel, pretty sure she could see the evidence of what she was doing to him. When he stood over her, his legs spread, arms across his chest, she looked up at him, and he knew he could take her here and now. Could, but wouldn’t. Not yet. Not until he had driven her beyond crazy with longing for him, not until she felt just a portion of what he’d felt all those years she had been gone.
“Feel better?” When the words came out, he didn’t miss the raspy tone of her voice, the way it was thick and needy, filled with the same kind of longing coursing through him.
“No. Just clean.” It only took one more step and he was standing between her legs, pushing her thighs apart to make room for his body.
“Kenyon…”
“Shh. No words. I just want you to feel.”
She sucked in her breath when he reached out and pulled her flush against him, her core connecting with the towel, connecting with what was under the towel, sending a growl through his body which ended up vibrating from his lips. His hands still on her hips, he leaned forward and pressed his forehead to hers, his eyes holding hers the entire way. Her tongue darted out across her bottom lip, and it took every bit of strength he had not to nip it with his teeth, show her the alpha beast living inside of him. But he didn’t. Instead, he let the rumbling in his throat do the talking for him, the purring sound filling the room, surrounding them both.
When he felt her shiver beneath him, he knew he had her, knew she was his. She could talk about freedom and family tradition and wanting to let go all she wanted, but he knew she was his and she would never be able to walk away from what they had.
“Get off me.” Her hands were on his chest, pushing against him, but the movement wasn’t very spirited. She couldn’t have swatted a fly away with that gentle touch, but it was enough to cause his cock to jerk in reaction.
“Not until you admit you’ve missed me.” He nuzzled against her ear with his lips, resisting the urge to take the lobe between his teeth and bite her, demand her submission. It was part of their mating ritual, of what they’d always done, how they’d always been. She remembered. The way her body was calling out to him, her scent permeating his brain, he knew she remembered and wanted him as badly as he wanted her.
“If I admit it, will you go away?” Her nails grazed against his shoulder, her actions in opposition to everything she was saying. A low moan escaped her throat, followed by a gasp, as if she had stopped herself—or tried to stop herself—from reacting to him.
“You’ll never get rid of me. Even if you live to be a hundred and you disappear into the Colorado wilderness, I will always be part of you.” He nipped her ear this time and was rewarded with another gasp, another moan. “You want me, Sage. You haven’t seen me for three years and your body needs me like it needs to breathe.”
She didn’t deny it, and he made note of that fact. Instead, she pushed against him again, this time causing the towel to slip a little, causing his cock to press against her even more. “I never said I didn’t want you.” Her breathless tone sent a shiver through him and he swore he was on the verge of coming right then and there.
“Good. Because I have never stopped wanting you.”
Sage pushed against him one more time, hoping that this time he would let go of her, would move away from her and let her maintain at least a little of her sanity and dignity. She was about a half a second away from begging him to take her right then and there, to hell with everything she’d said earlier. Every part of her pulsed with longing for him, wanted him inside her, felt like it would die if he didn’t take her, but she couldn’t have him like this with no promise of tomorrow. Even worse, with the certainty that they wouldn’t have tomorrow because she would be leaving as soon as Nik was freed.
But God, he felt so good, his skin still warm and wet from the shower, his damp hair brushing against her skin, his goatee teasing her neck, his lips wreaking havoc on her sanity. Then when his teeth grazed against her, she knew she would come undone with one more touch. She’d never forgotten the way his hands and teeth felt on her, the way he bit into her neck when he took her, the way he held her so gently yet so completely in control. He was right, she could live to be a hundred and would always long for his touch.
Those were dreams of a foolish girl, though. The real Kenyon, the one who existed the rest of the time, was not the kind of man she could ever settle down with. He lived for his clan, for his family, for the tiger tribe which ran wild in the Louisiana woods, and he lived by the laws set forth a hundred years ago. And she knew if the two of them were together, it would be out of obligation on his part, out of horniness maybe, but not out of the one thing she wanted. He wouldn’t be with her because he loved her.
When he finally released her, moving away, the towel slipped and she saw the tangle of dark hair just below his bellybutton. She felt mesmerized by the way his stripes disappeared into the darkness, leading the way to the part of him she needed most right now. Of course, the stripes were all over his body, winding across his chest, down his sides, down both arms, covering his thighs, his back, his ass. God, she wanted to run her fingers along those stripes, relive every detail she’d fantasized about for so long.
“Like what you see?” That permanently crooked eyebrow, the one scarred by a tree branch years ago was mocking her as was his tone. “Maybe I should drop the towel and let you look at the rest of me.”
“I’ve already seen the rest of you.” She tried to act nonchalantly, but the truth was, her pulse was racing at the thought of seeing him completely naked.
“And I’ve seen the rest of you, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to see it over and over again.” He turned his back to her and shed the towel, giving her a nice view of his backside. Her breath hung in her throat as she watched him bend over to pull a pair of jeans out of his bag.
Her tongue darted out across her bottom lip as he slid them on commando, then turned around to look at her as he put on his black T-shirt, covering most of the stripes from her view, but still giving her enough of a peek at them to make him look completely dangerous.
“I’m starving. And if you’ve enjoyed the show, I’d like to go get some food while we figure out what to do next.”
His words didn’t quite register, even though she was listening to him. She was too busy focusing on his mouth and on the sensual things he could do to her with it. Her skin still burned from where he’d touched her, still alive with longing from where his lips and teeth had staked their claims.
“Fine.” She shook herself back to reality and stood, careful not to stand too close to him. The last thing she needed was for her body to move of its own volition and wrap itself around him before her brain could slow her down. “Is there any place to eat nearby?”
“I know of a truck stop with lots of fried food on the menu.” He tucked a gun into the back of his jeans before reaching for his jacket.
“I don’t think that’s a very smart move. You were just arrested there a few days ago. If you want someone to case the scene, I should go. They don’t know me. Besides...” She shrugged. “Isn’t that what I’m doing here?”
“Eco-terrorism is your specialty.” He grinned.
“I don’t think of myself as a terrorist. I never hurt people. I only help animals.” He would never understand why she did the things she did. Freeing those animals didn’t help her. She was locked into who she was, what she was. Maybe she freed them, because she couldn’t free herself.
“And cause destruction of property. Don’t tell me you’ve never killed in the line of duty.”
She tugged at her bottom lip with her teeth. She couldn’t in good conscience tell him that. As far as she knew, she had never killed, but she’d burned enough buildings to the ground and caused enough ships to capsize. There was always a possibility. “You go find food and I’ll go check on your brother.”
“I have a rendezvous point set up a couple miles from the truck stop. Off highway 190, about a mile out. You can’t miss it. Old barn in the middle of a field. I want you there by nightfall.” There was no question in his voice. He was back to commanding Kenyon, the one who got what he wanted.
She nodded. “I can follow orders.”
“Somehow I seriously doubt that. You’ve been doing whatever the hell you wanted to do ever since I met you. I don’t expect that to change now, but I do expect you to stay safe. Don’t do anything foolish. Go check out the situation and get back to me.”
“Fine.” He’d reduced her to repeating one-syllable words. She jutted out her chin, hating that he was in charge, hating that she wanted to please him, that she wanted to free his brother not just because it was the right thing to do, but because it was what he needed her to do. Maybe when all this was over, she could figure out if she really could live without him or if she was prepared to live with him under less than ideal terms. Who knew? Maybe somewhere underneath all those stripes and all that machismo, he did have feelings for her. Either way, now was not the time to explore it. Now was the time to save his brother.
CHAPTER FOUR
Kenyon didn’t breathe again until he got the call from Sage telling him she was on her way. She had seen Nik and taken the time to examine his cage and scope out the comings and goings at the truck stop. The information she’d given him went into his files with the information Carlos and Woods had collected the past few nights. The fewer people involved in this operation, the better, but Kenyon knew it would take more than just two of them to shut down the security cameras and set Nik free. There were two sets of iron bars he’d have to cut through, and time would be of the essence if they planned to make the escape without getting caught.
He leaned over the table in the old barn, staring at the maps he’d put together. The truck stop was right off the interstate, but there were enough old highways twisting and turning near the area for him to be able to plan an escape route. Or two. Even if everything went off without a hitch, he needed to be able to get them out of there quickly, and having more than one avenue of escape was crucial to the plan.
Nik was an unknown factor as well. It was very unlikely that he would look up, change back into a human and say, “Thanks, bro, glad you could make it.” He was more than likely fueled with rage and ready to lash out at anyone who came near the cage. Kenyon had never been trapped in tiger form, but he’d heard of men who had and knew that it sometimes took years to recover, if at all.
Then there was Sage. The sooner Nik was set free, the sooner Sage would be leaving, and Kenyon planned to let her walk away in one piece if he couldn’t convince her to stay. Of course, he planned to give it his best shot, determination fueling him. He had seen the way she’d looked at him earlier and he knew she still wanted him even if she wanted her freedom, too. There was a way to have both, and the idea was somewhere in the back of his mind, foggy and unformed. He knew there had to be a way because he couldn’t live without her.
As soon as she stepped out of her car, he could feel her coming toward him, his body locked onto hers like a target. Her scent preceded her, wrapping around him, sending carnal thoughts straight to his brain. The low rumbling in his throat came out before he could stop it, the sound filling the old barn as she pulled the door open and stood bathed in moonlight.
She had changed clothes again, probably as part of her scouting mission, but he couldn’t imagine what a short skirt and tight top had to do with finding out information about how to rescue his brother. He knew she was an expert at this kind of thing, and he trusted her judgment, but he hated to think she’d used her feminine wiles to get information. His possessive streak flared inside him and he imagined ripping apart any other man who had ever touched her.
“You can stop growling at me.” She closed the barn door behind her, essentially locking herself in with the beast he wasn’t sure he could hold at bay.
“No. I can’t. And you know as well as I that I’m not growling.”
“Then purring. Whatever you want to call it. You can stop it.”
“Why don’t you make me?” He raised an eyebrow, wondering if she would take the bait.
It was hard to miss the way her eyes glazed over as she came closer to him, the way her lips parted as she let out an exasperated breath. “We have a mission to take care of.”
“I’m aware of that.” He leaned over the table, so close to her he could almost touch her. His fingers ached to do just that, to run along her skin, to tangle in her hair, to force her to look at him and to admit what they had between them.
“So are you going to stand down or are you going to continue to rumble at me?” Cocking her head to the side, she folded her arms across her chest, pushing her breasts up and out, and he realized the appeal of her shirt. It was all designed to turn a man on. Just thinking about another man gazing on those breasts made him wild with anger.
Clenching his hands into tight fists, he slammed them onto the table, causing her to jump and the pens on the table to rattle. “I’m on edge tonight as you bloody well know, and seeing you dressed like that isn’t helping matters much.”
“I do what I have to do in order to get the job done. You weren’t complaining when I was able to give you an employee schedule earlier.”
“I didn’t realize you’d used your assets to do so.”
“What does it matter?” She pushed away from the table and turned her back on him, taking a few steps toward the door.
He moved even more quickly than he thought he could, his hand closing around her arm, pulling her flush against him. Spinning her in his arms, he let his passion control his words. “When are we going to stop playing this game, Sage? When are you going to admit you are mine?”
One hand went up to rest against his chest, to steady her, to hold him at bay, to put some kind of distance between them, but he knew exactly what she was doing, and he wasn’t going to let her go. Twisting her arm around so it was behind her back, causing her to arch against him, he grinned down at her. “Let me go, Kenyon.” There wasn’t a hint of pleading in her voice, no tinge of demand. Instead, the words were said with a breathy desire that set his blood on fire.
“Sage...” Her name was a soft plea on his lips, and he wanted to lean down and taste her, raise her body up against his and drive into her until she called out his name. “Why do you keep coming back to me?”
“You know why.”
“I know you can’t stay away from me. Is that the reason why?”
She didn’t answer. Instead, she swallowed hard, so hard he saw the motion of her throat, felt the vibration in her body. It was the closest thing to admission he was ever going to get from her, and he would take it.