Page 39 of Brutal Mate

Determined not to be distracted by his act, Miley quickened her pace and headed deeper into the orchard, crossing her arms against the cool evening.

“Miley, stop!” Kane ordered her, but his dominant tone only made her quicken her pace further. “Miley, wait!”

He really had no clue just how stubborn she was. She moved even faster.

“Miley, I said stop!” he growled at her, gripping her arm and yanking her back around to face him.

“Get your hands off me!” Miley yelled at him, yanking her arm away before she gasped, “How did you—”

She glanced back over her shoulder, astonished at how quickly he had managed to reach her.

“That doesn't matter,” Kane said, brushing it off with a shake of his head. “What matters is that I’m here, Miley, and I'm here for you.”

He reached out and gripped hold of both her forearms, pulling her close in a way that made her turn her face up to his.

Defensiveness was her only instinct, and she tried to pull away again. “Yeah, right! You're only here for yourself.”

Kane gripped her tighter. For a second, panic threatened to overwhelm her. Then, his gaze caught hers, and her breath caught in her throat.

He growled low in his throat, an animalistic sound that should have frightened the life out of her, but instead it spoke to something inside of her. It awakened something, something that made her feel powerful.

“Miley Peters, you are the foulest, most stubborn, annoying woman that I have ever had the displeasure of knowing,” Kane growled, his gaze never leaving hers. “Give me one good reason why I would be doing all of this for myself?”

He shook her a little, pulling her closer. His eyes traveled from hers to her mouth, and for a second, she thought rather foolishly that he might actually be about to kiss her.

Then he met her gaze again and whispered, “Give me one good reason why I should feel the way I do toward you?”

The heat that sizzled between them was like nothing Miley had ever experienced before.

Kane's grip on her forearms loosened, and disappointment surged through her. The passion in him seemed to have passed.

Was it her fault? Was she so stubborn that she'd gotten in her own way without knowing it?

Then, in the blink of an eye, Kane's hands tightened on her forearms again, and he pulled her so close that she was flush against him.

Instinctively, her arms slipped around his waist, and his hooked around hers, pulling her so tightly to him that there was no escape to be found.

And yet, she didn't want to escape. Instead, she melted into him as his lips possessed hers.

That new feeling inside her grew as he kissed her, a new life born as somehow it felt as if an old one was being snuffed out.

In that instant, as he picked her up in his arms and carried her to the grassy patch beneath one of the apple trees, the old Miley died.

And when she was laid beneath him, the new Miley was born.

The new Miley didn't think. She only acted, tearing at Kane’s leather jacket to shove it off his shoulders and yank it off his arms.

She was frantic, her skin on fire, desperate for his skin on hers.

All the sex dreams she'd had over the years, all her memories of hearing stories and watching adult movies in her teens, all the recent dreams she'd had of him, flashed through her mind.

But nothing could compare to the real thing when his large hands slipped beneath the hem of her t-shirt and caressed up her ribs.

He growled again, the sound rattling on her lips, making her skin tingle. And she returned the sound in a much more animalistic way than anticipated.

Any fear or confusion she might have felt at that moment was lost as Kane unbuttoned her jeans and slid them down her thighs.

Heart hammering in her chest, Miley reached instinctively for the buckle of his belt.

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