KanesBounty Page 4

  She wanted him deep inside her, longed for the pleasure-pain that would rip through her when he first slammed into her, stretching the unused muscles. She leaned back on stiff arms. The glass table felt cold against her hands, but still she never took her eyes away from the place where they would join. Why was he taking so long?

  He inched closer and the thick head touched her sensitive flesh, but went no farther. She groaned and slid her ass forward on the table, silently demanding he take her. Kane leaned his head down and kissed her neck and shoulder. He was teasing her. His mouth left a trail of heat from the pulse at her neck down her chest. His mouth closed on her nipple and she screamed. He tugged on the hard bead and a shock of electricity shot from her nipple to her clit. His teeth nipped and his tongue swirled around the areola. She arched her back, wanting more. Her eyes closed and her head fell back. He rewarded her by giving the same attention to the other nipple.

  She trembled with need. His mouth pulled away and she heard the scrape of a chair against the marble floor. It was a struggle to bring her head forward, but seeing him seated between her legs as he leaned forward and pressed his mouth to her pussy was worth the effort. He licked her as if she were an ice-cream cone.

  “Kane.” Her body jerked involuntarily at the contact.

  He smiled up at her and licked again. “You are so sweet, Lena. I could eat you for breakfast, lunch and dinner.”

  He slid one arm under each of her legs and pulled her forward until she was resting on his shoulders and her slit was against his mouth, then he devoured her. She screamed again. Sensations pulsed from her clit and her pelvis tightened. Her arms shook from the strain and she sank to her elbows. The new angle exposed more of her to his mouth and his tongue dipped inside her, fucking her sopping pussy. He sucked and licked her clit, then plunged his tongue inside her.

  Her body bucked against his face and she cried his name and maybe called for god too. She wasn’t at all sure what came out of her mouth. She only knew her climax was building and she wanted more. His hands gripped her ass, but she felt them moving just before his thumb pressed inside her. He sucked her clit hard and she cried out again, fucking his face by pressing her thighs against his shoulders and digging her heels into his back. His thumb probed deeper and he licked around her sensitive cluster of nerves before pulling it back inside his mouth and sucking again and again.

  Pure rapture descended on her and shot outward. Her pussy pulsed around his thumb while he continued to suck her clit. She bucked and twisted while the orgasm crashed around and within her.

  As her climax subsided, Kane lifted her ass back onto the table. It was cold again against the heat of her pussy. She watched him move the chair he’d been sitting on to the right just below her foot. Then he took a second chair and placed it under her left foot. She put one foot on the corner of each chair with her legs still wide, and pressed her hands against the table, lifting her bottom past the edge. Kane moved forward into the space between the two chairs. He tore the condom open and rolled it onto his cock. He was once again at her apex, his thick head touching her pussy. He gripped the shaft and slid the head through her wetness. While he held himself at her opening, she eased herself onto his cock. He stretched her deliciously.

  She was gasping for breath.

  “Look at me, Lena.” The rasp in his voice got her attention more than the words.

  She looked up into those stunningly blue eyes. A bead of sweat trickled from his temple. She straightened her elbows and looked down as the base of his shaft slid from inside her, then bent them again, swallowing him to the hilt. He gripped her ass and helped her find a rhythm. She watched his eyes grow darker.

  “Lena, you are so fucking hot.”

  He gripped her ass tighter. At her core, she could feel her orgasm building again. She quickened the pace. Kane groaned as his orgasm racked his body. He kept thrusting into her, brought one hand around and rubbed her clit. She threw her head back and screamed as she came for the third time. Her sheath clutched at his cock and she bucked one last time.

  He slid from deep inside her and carefully placed her back on the table. She watched him disappear into the bathroom. Once the door was closed, Lena jumped down on wobbly legs and opened the closet. She found what she was looking for and wrapped the soft hotel robe around herself. Then she made her way out onto the verandah. The ocean lapped loudly along the white beaches, bringing with it a warm breeze, and the sun warmed her skin.

  A minute later, Kane joined her, wearing the bathing trunks he’d bought. In his hand, he held the Stones of Adeline. He held them out, she opened her hand and he placed them in her palm. The familiar charge from the energy of the stones shot through her.

  “They’re oddly magnetic, aren’t they?” he asked.

  He had felt their power. Was that even possible? “You could feel it?”

  He sat down and looked out over the stunning views, then back at her. “Can I assume from your gaping mouth that this is not normal?”

  She closed her mouth. “The stones only respond to Adeline. It was the one piece of information Oscar hadn’t known when he pursued a romance with me. He thought he could just take the stones and then get rid of me, but they wouldn’t work for him. To him, they are just shiny pieces of blue rock.”

  “But he knew what they were. He’s a dowser. He knew they were powerful.”

  She closed her hand more tightly around the stones. “He’s a very powerful dowser. He knew exactly what the stones could do. He surrounds himself with the most powerful people and objects.”

  “But he didn’t know only you can use the stones?”

  “No.” She opened her hand and offered them back to him. “But you feel their energy when you touch them?”

  He didn’t accept them. He closed his fingers around hers and trapped the stones in the middle. “I feel something close to a magnetic field. What do they do?”

  “They bring the future into view,” she said.

  “What is that supposed to mean?”

  She got up and was about to walk to the other side of the verandah. Talking about her gift made her uncomfortable. Kane caught her wrist and tugged her into his lap. He wrapped his arms around her and kissed the top of her head.

  She rested her cheek against his chest. She liked the feel of his breathing against her face. She matched his breath. “You said they feel like a magnet. Well, in a way, they are. But the stones don’t attract metal; they bring a vision of the future.”

  “Whew… No wonder Thorn wants them. With that kind of power, he could do anything.”

  She waited for him to wrestle the stones from her hand. She expected at any moment he would thrust her aside and run with her gift.

  He nuzzled her head, moving it until he could gain access to her neck and ear. He kissed her pulse and nibbled her lobe. “Don’t think so meanly of me, Lena. I don’t take what’s not mine or offered freely. I don’t want your stones.”

  She turned her head to look him in the eyes. “What do you want, Kane? If it was sex, you’ve had that. What more can you want from me? I don’t have anything. I’m a fugitive from the law and Oscar. I can tell you your future, is that what you want?”

  She pushed on his chest to get up and away from him, but he held her firmly.

  “I don’t know what it is about you, Lena. I don’t know why you are different than any other mark I’ve ever brought back for trial. I don’t even know why I believe your story. The point is, it doesn’t matter. You are a fugitive. You have to go back and face trial or you will be running forever.”

  Her gut clenched. “If I go back, Oscar will have me killed to protect his secret, or worse, he’ll keep me prisoner until I read the stones for him.”

  “You were married to him, didn’t you read them for him?” Kane asked.

  Regret washed over her. “I read them when we were first married. Each time, his questions were about business deals. I would tell him the outcome and he would make business decisions based on m
y visions. Each time, his questions would be more valuable to him. After a year, he asked me about some associate of his. When I told him the answer, he used the information to financially destroy the man. That was when I began refusing and when Oscar started to use other means to get me to comply.”

  “He beat you?” His voice sounded furious. She wondered if Kane wanted to hit Oscar or if he just opposed spousal abuse in general. He hardly seemed the type to hit a woman.

  “Your friend Wade hit me.” She gingerly touched the lump on the side of her head.

  “He’s not my friend. He just works for the same company I do.” He waited for an answer to his question.

  “Sometimes Oscar hit me, but that didn’t get me to give him what he wanted. He tortured my friends, the few I’d made when I moved to Boston. He burned down the business of one and had another mugged in the street. He threatened my grandmother. That worked for a while. Then I managed to get her hidden away. After that, he got really mad. He tried torture, which worked more often than not. He broke my arm.

  “It turned out to be a blessing. He had to take me to the hospital and that’s how I escaped. I hid out, got a lawyer and filed for divorce.” Saying it out loud somehow made her feel powerful. Oscar had taken all her power in the two years they had been married. She had taken it back. Even if it meant staying on the run, she would never go back to him.

  Chapter Three

  The fact that she’d escaped custody was incredible. She must have skills she had not yet shown him. Kane tried to be neutral in his feelings for her, but it was impossible. The idea that her ex-husband had tortured and beaten her sent fire to his guts. He would make Thorn pay. He didn’t know how, but he knew he would hurt the wealthy entrepreneur before this was over.

  It didn’t change the fact that she was a fugitive, all because of some rocks. It was ridiculous. Thorn had claimed Lena had stolen seventy-five million dollars from him. If that had been true, then she would never have been captured. That kind of money was enough to stay off the grid for decades.

  “What were you meeting Porter for?”

  She’d gone inside their room and ordered room service. She’d just hung up the phone when he asked the question. “I needed money.” She made her way back out onto the balcony.

  “How do you know Porter? He’s a money launderer.”

  She put one hand on her hip and narrowed her eyes. “How do you think? Oscar used his services all the time. John came to the house for dinner.”

  “What made you think he’d help you?” Something didn’t fit. Kane couldn’t put his finger on it, but something in this whole scenario bothered him.

  “Why are you interrogating me? I thought you were just going to turn me in to the Boston authorities and be done with me and my troubles.” She didn’t raise her voice, but there was fire behind her words.

  She was adorable, angry with him, yet hopeful that somehow things in her life would work out. He loved the swirl of emotions always flowing around Lena. She emanated hope. He’d never met anyone like her and sure as hell not a fugitive. Most marks were devoid of positive energy. Usually the people he picked up spewed hate and derision from every pore. She was definitely different.

  “Try to think of it as a fact-finding series of questions,” he said.

  “Whatever.” She rolled her eyes. “John always liked me. He was nice to me when other associates of Oscar thought of me as a nuisance, if they thought of me at all. I hoped he might loan me a few thousand dollars so I could get out of the country.”

  “Did he say he would help you?”

  She shrugged. “He said he would need a few hours to get the money. He may have been stalling long enough to call Oscar and get me captured.”

  Kane nodded. “It was probably Porter’s call that sent Banta and his men to Savannah. If all you wanted was a few thousand dollars, he probably could have taken it out of his wallet and handed it to you.”

  “Why would Oscar hire both Wade and Banta?” she asked.

  “That’s a good question. Maybe Wade isn’t working for Thorn. Who else knows about your stones?”

  “My grandmother, me, Aunt Peggy, Uncle Bill, Oscar and now you. I don’t think Oscar is broadcasting what he really wants from me. If that were the case, he wouldn’t have made up all the crap about the cash. Did you notice, no one even asked him why he would have that kind of cash lying around for a terrible person like me to take?”

  He hadn’t given it any thought. He’d been given an assignment and a promise of a good payoff and taken it. That was what he did. She was not going to make him feel ashamed of his job. He shook it off. “You think he paid off the judge?”

  She gave him a look that said “duh”.

  “Okay, so your ex pays off a judge and maybe a couple of attorneys and has you arrested. How did you escape?”

  Lena walked around so she stood in front of him. She’d put on the bikini he’d bought her. The tiny scrap of red material barely covered her full, round tits and shapely ass. Everything about this woman was a distraction.

  “I bribed the guard.”

  His gut tightened and he could feel the muscle in his jaw twitching. “With what?”

  She narrowed her eyes. “What do you think?”

  He had a feeling this was a trap. He’d tread carefully. “I don’t think you’d like what I’m thinking and I can tell you I don’t like it much either.”

  Her hands were back on her hips. “Can you actually read my mind?”

  God damn, but he loved those hips. “Only if you think hard on a particular thing. I know how you feel and can sense a yes or a no if I ask those kinds of questions. I’d know if you’re lying or hiding something. Though you block your mind pretty good. If you wanted to, you could keep me out.” He expected her to shut down. Half of him wanted to be out of her head. It was dangerous to have feelings for the fugitive he was responsible for. She remained open to him. His body ached to be back inside her. He couldn’t remember ever wanting anyone as much.

  Kane forced himself to focus. “What did you bribe the guard with?”

  “Right now, I know what you’re thinking too. Maybe I’ve discovered a new gift.”

  “Lena,” he warned. If she noticed the tenor of his voice or the anger and lust building within him, she gave no indication.

  “I used the stones to tell him the future. He’ll be a very rich man from what I told him,” she finally said.

  “So the guard knows about the stones too?”

  She shook her head. “I keep them concealed when I read people’s futures. They just think I’m precognitive. Honestly, most people don’t believe my predictions anyway.”

  “Then why do they ask?”

  She shrugged. Even that little movement of her shoulders and the way it made her breasts bob up and down turned him on.

  “At home, we are kind of a tradition. People would come and ask Grandma what they should do. She would tell them what she saw in their future and they could make plans. I told the guard his wife had a surprise for him one night. He came home to a big surprise party. The next day he asked me about his son. He was very casual about it, but I could tell he was worried about the boy. I saw the teen in real trouble with drugs. I told the guard where he could find his son and recommended he go quickly. The next day, I refused to help the guard with his questions about an investment. He continued to pester me and I continued to refuse. Three days later, he said if I helped him, he would help me.”

  “He let you out?” Kane asked.

  “He left the cell door ajar and I found a series of open doors. Once I was out of the jail, I borrowed the guard’s car.”

  “Borrowed?”

  He told me what kind of car he drove and left the keys inside. I read in the paper that the vehicle was recovered, so ‘borrowed’.”

  “Amazing.”

  “That I escaped?”

  “That you can predict the future to such a degree and you would risk your life for the ability.”

 
He felt the shift in her attitude. Sorrow and doubt. “You don’t understand. The stones are my responsibility. I can no more relinquish them than you could not turn me in.”

  He averted his eyes. “It’s my duty.”

  “We all have our jobs to do, Kane.”

  The arrival of room service ended the conversation. Kane tipped the server and closed the door. “Why don’t we eat and go for a walk?”

  She nodded and tore a piece of pastry off before popping it in her mouth. A shiny bit of sugar remained on her bottom lip. If those stones were a magnet attracting the future, then Lena was a magnet attracting him. His body shifted forward of its own accord and leaned over her in the chair.

  Her eyes were wide as she looked up at him, but she didn’t back away. He licked the sweetness from her lip and she gasped. As soon as her mouth opened, his tongue made the move inside. Lips and tongues battled and caressed with equal passion. She sighed against his mouth.

  The sound and the feeling of her arousal had him hard and ready. He lifted her from the chair. She rested her wrists on his shoulders, keeping her sticky fingers away from his skin. Kane turned his head and sucked a sweet digit into his mouth. The sugar slid over his tongue as he wiped the pad clean. Her erotic reaction drummed in his mind.

  His eyes were riveted to hers as her finger slid from his mouth. “God damn, Lena.”

  She widened her eyes. “Do you want me to close off my thoughts? I can block you.”

  “No!” He said it with much more force than he’d intended. Her baser emotions called to him as if they were an addiction he couldn’t shake.

  He walked to the wall. His duffle was next to them on the couch. Gripping her under the ass with one hand, he reached inside the pack with his other and pulled a condom from the pocket. “You’re going to have to help me, baby.”