Page 76 of Forbidden

“They won’t,” Kane answered instantly. “I’ll make sure of it.”

I gave a slow nod. A few hours ago, I wouldn’t have trusted him at all with the knowledge of her, but now I didn’t have much of a choice. I left my brother, making my way back through the interconnecting doors…to face my goddamn replacement.

SEVENTEEN

Kane

I couldn’t waitto leave, heading out of our quarters the moment my brother left. My steps were quiet, barely more than a whisper against the hard, tiled floor. I pressed my card against the scanners, then pushed through, slowing the moment I saw her door.

He had her.

The woman who’d evaded my every single attempt at seduction.

Now she was here.

I lifted my card, pressed it against the lock of her room, and opened the door. But I didn’t enter, just stood in the doorway watching her turn around.

“Kane,” she murmured, her pupils widening in fear.

I fought the urge to smile. Instead, I crossed my arms and leaned against the doorjamb. “What kind of game are you playing at here, Helene?”

Her brows narrowed before she shook her head. I pushed off the doorjamb and stepped inside, rounding her side before I stopped at her back. I never touched her, never even brushed a strand of her hair. Not this time. She’d caught me off guard before, made me forget who I really was. It was so easy to slip into the promise of someone else. The falseness. The mask. The doctor.

But no more.

Helene would get the real me now. The man I’d tried to hide.

“If there’s one thing I know, it’s the fact that there’s no such thing as coincidence. So, let me ask you one more time. What kind of game are you playing at?”

This time she didn’t shake her head.

“I…” she started. “I was crossing the road.”

“Lie.”

She froze.

“It was fate, wasn’t it?”

Her head bowed.

There.

That’s it.

I brushed her hair aside, staring at her neck. “Tell me, are you in that pit of desperation right now, Helene? Do you feel that blackness, that uncontrollable urge to cut and burn?”

Her head dipped lower. “Yes.”

I stared at the perfect line of her throat and fought the need to lick my lips. I could almost feel how soft she was, how fucking sweet she’d taste, all broken and ruined. “I told you before, I can give you a better form of release. The rush of surrender. The power of using your body as a weapon.” I lowered my gaze along her curled shoulders to the rise of her breasts. “By letting your mind go and just feeling.”

She turned around and met my stare. Still she said nothing as she searched my stare. I saw that same hunger now that I’d seen in our sessions. Her breaths deepened, her eyes shifted to my mouth. She wanted this…she wantedme.

All she had to do wasgive in.

No wonder my brother was obsessed. One look into his eyes and it had been obvious.

Now, Helene Montgomery was trapped…and under our complete control.

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