Page 13 of Kane's Kind of Trouble

Yeah, I fucking said that. I kick open the door and carry her over the threshold. The meaning does not escape me, making some kind of weird possessiveness cram itself up behind my sternum.

“I’ll draw you a bath, just rest here.” Reluctantly, I lower her down, making sure she’s steady. But it’s impossible to move.

Eagle stares at me a little, letting her gaze trace the cords of my neck, the edge of my tattoo rising up above the collar of my T-shirt. “You’ve done too much already.”

“Never, there’s never too much when it comes to you,” I tell her hoarsely, fighting the urge to press my hand to my chest to ease the building tension.

With a sigh, Eagle glances down, tangling her fingers together before she meets my gaze again. “Kane, you don’t have to pamper me. I know your job is to just get me and take me back.”

Yes. No. I don’t know the answer to what my job is anymore. The lines got blurred months ago.

When I force myself to move away, I pause by the open doorway to the bathroom. But I can’t look back at her slight form standing there in the rustic cabin. In the kind of place I like, not some fucking antique-filled multi-million dollar mansion. Scrubbing my hand over the back of my neck, I try not to remember how Eagle felt nuzzled against me. Warm and trusting.

She needs to know who I am.

My voice goes rough. “Sometimes doing the job right requires a lot more.”

SIX

Eagle

Kane walks out, leaving me staring.

What is happening? Why does my heart feel this way? I don’t know why he makes me so breathless, so reckless.

Spinning, I push both hands into my hair, only to wince. Ouch. My body hurts. Tonight wasn’t supposed to be like this.

I needed space. Room to plan something… anything to get me away from Dad and men like Charles.

Moving closer to the fire, I kneel on the floor, staring at the leaping flames. Kane built a fire. The men I’m used to being around wouldn’t know how to start a fire if they were dying of hypothermia. They have people for that. Just like they have women for…

Show? Of course they’d expect sex, just like Charles said. He wanted me in his bed.

But I don’t want that. I want passion. I want… love.

“Why did you come out here tonight?”

I look up at Kane, his impossibly tall form standing by the hearth. A Viking warrior—that’s what he reminds me of. I startto speak, but catch a sad sound in my throat instead. Dashing my forearm across my misty eyes, I shake my head. “I just had to get away from the house.”

Kane lowers himself onto his knee. My mouth dries—almost painful—when he lays his palm against my cheek, turning me to look at him. Kane’s hand is warm and large, the length of his fingers reaching all the way around the back of my neck.

“What happened? I need to know.”

“It was…” Fighting to keep all the bad feelings at bay, I whisper, “Nothing.”

This makes Kane tense, his fingers twitching against my neck. “You said it. So something happened. Tell me now, baby.”

Baby?

A sensation zooms through me. I love it. But I hate this conversation.

“Charles just said some things.”

“That motherfucker,” Kane grates out, “I’ll break?—”

“Please don’t do anything rash. He was just being his usual idiotic self.”

There’s an unnatural glow in Kane’s gaze. As if he could breathe fire any second. “I don’t like leaving when you’re in the house with your father’s friends.”

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