Page 4 of Liaising Kai

That one little hitch…and he gentled the kiss, soothing rather than inflaming, caretaking rather than conquering. She tasted so damn sweet, but she felt fragile and vulnerable, and his mission was to save her.

He kissed the corners of her lips, unable to resist taking her mouth once more. This could very well be the last time he kissed her.

When she sighed into his mouth, urging him on with a little moan deep in her throat, the part of him that was rock hard wanted to go all the way. But the man he was wouldn’t allow it.

He broke the kiss and tipped her head back just enough so he could look into her eyes. He forced a smile and a soft tone. The haze of alcohol and desire still clouding her amber eyes made it both difficult and easy.

“You should drink plenty of fluids and take some aspirin before you go to bed, Kai.”

She frowned. “What?” she asked, her gaze dipping from his eyes to his mouth, then back again.

His body ached and throbbed so much that he had to fight not to give in, and it took a lot more effort than he wanted to admit. “I’m not the man you expected to end up with tonight, an uninvolved stranger for just sex.”

Her chin lifted a fraction, showing a hint of her stubborn personality. “I was clear in the bar, Nishida. There shouldn’t be any surprise here.”

Back to his last name. That was telling. Rejection had a way of making people close down, especially when it came to being intimate. With a stranger, she wouldn’t have had to be at all vulnerable. A dumb-ass barfly would have just fucked her and be gone in the morning, but he hadn’t been able to handle that. He knew she was suffering.

“I need…this,” she whispered softly, pulling back just enough to slide her hand between their bodies and cup his thickened shaft in her palm. “I want more,” she said huskily as she stroked and squeezed the heated length of him. “A whole lot more.”

He groaned, circled her wrist with his fingers, and pulled her hand away. “You need me, but not like this.”

She stiffened slightly and tried to pull away. “Can we stop talking about this? My bedroom is through?—”

“No. I’m not here for that,” he said quickly, not letting her go. “I’m not going to take advantage of a vulnerable and intoxicated woman.”

Her quick retreat behind cool amber eyes triggered even more determination in him. “Then you’ve wasted my time. Just leave.” The defensive note to her voice was unmistakable. He needed to choose his words carefully.

He stared at her, a thick, heavy silence hung in the air around them as their gazes clashed. He hated leaving her like this, but she would thank him later…possibly…maybe.

She started to tremble, and he felt sick with what was going to happen. It was in the way she wrapped her arms around herself, like she was trying to hold herself together.

Before the first sob broke free from her lips, he was there, holding her.

“No,” she said, covering her face with her hand. “Don’t touch me.”

Her body was so stiff, and yet shaking so badly.

“Kai,” he said, wanting to help and yet feeling so helpless.

“No.” Another sob broke free, and then another, and she dropped her hand, looking at him, everything awful showing in her stricken gaze.

He moved in closer. This was going downhill in an uncontrollable way.

Tears streamed down her face in dark tracks of smudged makeup, inch by inch, he felt her crumble and begin to slip toward the floor. He tightened his grip, with predictable results.

She sobbed and slapped him. It had been there in her eyes when he caught her. The tension she needed to release with alcohol and sex wasn’t going as she planned. All because of him. So, he let her take it out on him.

The side of his face stung like hell, but he couldn’t have cared less about getting his face slapped. Not when everything was welling up inside her and getting ready to break her in a hard, aching way.

He felt hot and annoyed by his own principles, fierce and wild for her. Trying to wall away the emotion that clogged his throat, he said, “I’m so sorry about what you’re going through.” He held her in a rough, desperate embrace. “I want this to happen, Kai, but not now.” His words were gruff and ferocious, and she inhaled raggedly. “In the future, yes. But when you’re on even ground and can consent with your heart and mind balanced and committed to more than a feel-good moment.” His rib cage expanding and contracting, his voice raw and strained, he said, “I’m just not that guy. I’ll never be that guy for you.”

CHAPTER TWO

Kai’s cell phone chimed, and it sounded like a siren in her head. She jerked awake, then groaned, clutching her skull, and the huge, wracking, throbbing, aching pain in her head pounded on as the crash of the usually benign tone reverberated like hot needles were being pushed through her eyes.

She reached for the offensive, cursed technology to make it stop, fumbled and swore and flailed in the tangle of her sheets. Finally, mercifully, she managed through dry, bleary eyes to push the required button to silence the loud demon.

“Talbot,” she rasp-growled into the phone like an old woman.

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