Sophia broke the kiss, throwing her head back with a gasp. “Drink first.”
“Naked first,” Kane countered, pulling at her shirt and then pulling it over her head once Sophia raised her arms.
Her bra was shed a second later and what sounded like a purr rumbled out of Kane as he cupped her breasts and squeezed gently. “You are so beautiful,” he breathed, his lips latching onto a stiff nipple.
Sophia’s breath hitched, her eyes closing to indulge in the feeling of his tongue flicking over her sensitive flesh. “They’re too small,” she panted.
“They’re perfect,” he countered, moving to lavish attention on the other breast.
Cupping the back of his head in her hands, she held him closer for a moment, before she reminded him, “You need to drink.”
His eyes flicked up to hers, and pulling back slightly, he gave one last lick to her nipple before saying, “You’re not fully naked yet.”
Rolling away from him, she went to unbutton her jeans when his hand on hers stilled the movement. “I want to do it,” he told her.
Undressing had never been so erotic. Despite her urging him to hurry, Kane took his time, licking and sucking every inch of skin he revealed until Sophia’s body was so sensitized and needy she thought she would scream if he didn’t enter her soon.
“Kane, please,” she moaned, her ragged breathing loud in her ears.
His hands skated up her thighs, over her belly to cup her breasts once more as he rose over her. His fangs were fully distended, she saw, his brown eyes gone red with hunger. Her own eyes, she knew, were the gold-flecked green of her dragon. She licked her lips in anticipation and arched her neck to give him better access.
She felt the sting of his bite and her hips lifted under his, felt the seal of his lips on her throat as he drank and the giddy, slightly light-headed feeling like she was drunk. “I want you inside me,” she gasped.
Spreading her legs wider to receive him, she felt the blunt tip of his erection at her entrance and tried to nudge him inside with her hips. He didn’t make her wait. She moaned as he thrust home, thick and long, filling her up so perfectly. Wrapping her arms around him, she gripped his strong backside, urging him to thrust faster, harder.
Kane detached from her throat, his tongue stroking over the mark he’d left upon her skin before he threw his head back with a growl. She was so tight, gripping him so perfectly, while her potent blood raced through his system like wild-fire. Leaning up slightly, he slid a hand between their bodies, his thumb finding that silky wet and swollen bundle of nerves that was his best friend. Sophia’s cry of pleasure was music to his ears and sent what felt like a bolt of lightning shooting down his spine. He was going to come, he couldn’t hold it back. His thrusts became jerky, his breathing turned to short, staccato pants, and as he felt her inner muscles clamp around him in a stranglehold. He let out a hoarse, guttural groan as she cried out his name, her orgasm pulsing sweetly around him as he released inside of her.
Kane collapsed with a harsh expulsion of breath and quickly rolled to the side so he wouldn’t crush her with his weight before pulling her into his arms. “I love you,” he panted, stroking her hair and her back.
She kissed his shoulder and her hand stroked his bearded jaw. “I love you, too.”
Letting out a little sigh, Kane settled deeper into the pillows, his eyelids heavy with that logy feeling of having just fed. “I like hearing you say that,” he murmured.
“I like saying it.”
Her fingers were moving over his chest, drawing patterns and he imagined having her in his bed every day, the warmth of her body close to his as they both drifted off to sleep. The thought was as close to heaven as he could imagine.
“I want to marry you,” he told her.
That had her propping her head up as she grinned down at him with a raised brow. “Are you asking me or telling me?”
Kane’s answering smile was full of mischief as he teased, “That depends on how you’d answer that question. Trust me, I’m Born, I’m not above kidnapping you and holding you captive in my evil lair until I convince you that we’re perfect for each other.”
Sophia let out a little chuckle. “Isn’t the dragon supposed to be the one to kidnap the princess – or prince in this case?”
Kane’s fingers laced through her hair and gently gripped the nape of her neck as he shook his head. “The fairytales got it wrong.”
“How so?” she asked, still grinning.
Kane’s expression turned serious, as he told her, “It wasn’t a dragon guarding a princess. She was a queen. And she was the dragon.”
Sophia’s eyes welled with tears though she was still smiling as she leaned down to kiss him. Against his lips, she whispered, “I love you, Kane Fletcher, and if you ask, my answer would be, yes.”
Kane closed his eyes with a dreamy smile. “Now I just need to figure out the best way to ask.” He yawned widely, adding, “Things like that should be memorable.”
A moment later, he was sound asleep.
∞∞∞
“Now that Evangeline is out of the picture,” Sophia said to Kane as she whipped the eggs with a whisk for the breakfast she was making him. It was nine o’clock at night rather than nine in the morning, Kane having slept the entire day away thanks to his injuries, but she was still determined to make him breakfast despite the hour. “We can focus on finding Kevin Thompson. I’m ready,” she quickly added, heading off any protest. “I’ve been working out, building my strength. I’m a fair shot with a gun, and I’ve even practiced tracking.”
Kane’s expression turned sheepish as he ducked his head and scratched the back of his neck. “Er… About that,” he cleared his throat.
Sophia stilled the whisk and Kane grimaced at the thought of disappointing her. Shit. Kevin Thompson was her vengeance, her closure for what had been done to her, and he’d forgotten about that in his attempt to get Nicky out. He could have done things differently, there were millions of ways of incapacitating a body and he wished he had thought of at least one at the time so that he could have presented that rogue bastard to Sophia as a gift to exact her revenge.
“I, ah, already killed him.”
“Oh.”
The whisking resumed, though a bit more violently than her previous strokes he noted, and Kane winced. “I’m sorry, Sophia. He was with Evangeline –”
“There’s no reason to be sorry,” she cut in with a tight smile. “I mean, you told me right from the start that he was a target of yours, and you planned to take him down.”
He had said that, yes, but he had also agreed that should he find Kevin Thompson first, he’d bring him to Sophia to punish. Fuck. Rushing around the breakfast bar, he grabbed the bowl of extremely well-beaten eggs out of her hands and pulled her into his arms. “I’m sorry. I fucked up. I wasn’t thinking.”
He both heard and felt Sophia take a deep breath and release it, then her arms came around him. “It’s okay,” she told him.
“It’s not okay. Tell me how I can make this up to you.”
Sophia shook her head. “He was the only one left.”
Kane grimaced. “I know. Shit. I know. I’m so sorry.”
Pulling away he let out a frustrated groan and ran his hands through his hair as he paced into the living room and back again. Stopping, his face brightened as he offered, “You can hunt Edward if you want. You won’t be able to kill him, of course, I like the guy too much to let you do that, but it could be fun to chase him. We’ll give him a twenty-four-hour head start and see how long he can elude your new tracking skills.”
Sophia’s laughter was a beacon in the dark and lifted the weight from his heart as she pointed out, “Edward’s probably not a good target. He’ll worry you’ll miss an appointment and turn himself over to us just to remind you.”
Kane let out a short bark of laughter. “You’re probably right.”
Her face sobered. “I need to see him.”
“Edward?” Kane ask
ed hopefully.
“Kevin Thompson.”
He was afraid she was going to say that. But when he’d said he’d do anything to make it up to her, he meant it. Nodding, he said, “All right.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Kane had insisted Sophia arm herself and arm herself well before they left, pointing out that with a giant hole torn in the side of the warehouse, there was no telling who or what might have gotten inside in the past twenty-four hours.
Several of the witches that had been outside to cast the perimeter spell had volunteered to stay after everyone had left, and clear the place of any supernatural evidence that might otherwise be stumbled upon, so Kane wasn’t even sure if Kevin Thompson’s body was still on the premises. But he assured her, that if it wasn’t, he’d speak to Jourdain to find out what had been done with the corpse.
Taking a deep breath, she mentally asked herself for about the hundredth time if she really wanted to see a dead body. No, not really. But she felt like she needed to, felt like she needed that closure. All the others that had hurt her, even Nate, were dead, their bodies long since disposed of. Hell, she hadn’t even been able to go on a fiery rampage and destroy Olivier Rodolfo’s Garden District villa where she’d been held captive for five years – even if she hadn’t been conscious of the time passing in her stasis – Kane and the pack had already demolished the place. And she may have come a long way in healing thanks in large part to Kane, her brother, Morgan, and Jamie, but there was still so much anger, especially in her dragon. She was almost positive that was why she continued to have control issues. And perhaps, seeing the last of her attackers dead would placate her beast enough so they could finally move on.
The warehouse looked different tonight, dark and quiet, whereas last night it had been a lightning storm of unleashed power and raw animal aggression. But the witches had done a fair job of cleaning up, she noted. There were still a few blackened scorch marks on the corrugated metal walls from her and Travis’s fire, but the bloodstains had been cleaned up and everything that had once been Evangeline’s had been removed.
“This way,” Kane said, motioning her forward. He brought her to a back room with a heavy steel door that could be bolted from the outside. “This is where I left him.”
She nodded, grabbing the handle, but Kane’s hand on her arm stopped her. “I can smell him,” he said. “So he’s still in there.”
Sophia nodded again. The witches must have focused on the main part of the warehouse, assuming the battle hadn’t spread to any of the back rooms.
“Are you sure you want to do this?”
Sophia didn’t hesitate. “I need to.”
Kane’s lips were set in a tight line, but he didn’t try to discourage her. “Whatever you need to do, for however long it takes. I’m right beside you.”
Taking a deep breath, she opened the door wide and stepped through. Kevin Thompson was sprawled on the floor, his shirt askew and partially open, the buttons having been torn off, perhaps in a struggle. His skin was a ghastly grayish blue, his mouth partially open, and his dead gaze seemed to look right at her.
Unnerved by the sight, she moved around to the other side of the body so he was no longer staring at her. His blond hair was stained a deep, dark red, the hilt of a knife still protruding from his skull. Spotting the bite marks in the man’s neck, Sophia took grim satisfaction in the sight. Kane had drunk from him, nourished himself, taken strength for the fight that was to come. At least the man had been good for something.
Sophia had read the file on Kevin Thompson. As a human, he’d been a common thug. As one of Rodolfo’s men, he hadn’t been much better, his main job, securing the women brought in that Rodolfo sold to the highest bidder in his flesh trafficking trade. How many of those women had he hurt as he’d hurt her?
An image of him, crouched and snarling over the torn and bloody flesh of her thigh, her blood smeared across his face and splattered in his hair, flooded her mind and a scream of rage ripped out of her mouth. Her foot lashed out, kicking at the corpse over and over again as she continued to shout and bellow, raining expletives down on a prone body that had died too quickly, too mercifully, for the pain and suffering he’d helped cause.
She stopped only once her throat was sore from screaming and her leg hurt from repeated kicks and stomps. A clicking growl rose in her throat and she turned narrowed, dragon eyes on Kane. “We should dispose of the body, right?”
He nodded.
With a snarl, Sophia spat a fireball at Kevin Thompson’s battered corpse and watched him go up in flames. Her dragon writhed within her in both appreciation and satisfaction.
Kane stayed beside her, an arm wrapped around her waist, a silent pillar of support, while Sophia cried out the last of her suffering. Neither of them moved or spoke until nothing remained of her previous tormentor but a smoking pile of ash and bone. Her past was at rest – her future awaited her.
∞∞∞
Leaving the warehouse after disposing of the bones, Sophia had been in the mood for barbecue, and after stating as much to Kane, she watched with a grin as he dissolved into hysterical laughter. Placing his arm around her shoulder and tugging her close to kiss the top of her head, he said, “Dark and hungry. A woman after my own heart.” But he did take her to a barbecue place to indulge her admittedly macabre craving.
It was after she’d finished a rather messy basket of ribs and was wiping her sticky fingers clean that she looked at Kane and said, “Ask me.”
Kane’s eyes popped wide. “What? Here?”
Sophia grabbed up another napkin and wiped a stray bit of sauce from his beard, smiling fondly. “Yes. Here. When it comes to us, a proposal over food seems perfect.”
Leaning forward, he whispered, “But I don’t have a ring.”
She shook her head, still smiling. “I don’t care.” Sobering, she added, “Five years of my life was stolen. I can’t get that time back, but I can control what happens next, and I don’t want to waste even a moment of that time that could be spent with you.”
Kane jumped up from his chair too fast and sent it skidding back with a loud scraping noise, drawing the eyes of the other patrons, so they had an audience as Kane knelt before her and took her still sticky fingers in his. “I love you, Sophia St. John,” he began, the sincerity in his eyes making her chest ache with love. “Yours is the only face I want to see before I go to sleep and the only face I want to see when I wake up.” He brought her fingers to his lips and kissed them. “You are who I want to play with, work with, and especially, eat with,” he added with a grin before stating solemnly, “Forever. You make me happy in ways I never imagined. Will you marry me?”
Her eyes brimming with joyful tears, Sophia wrapped her arms around his neck and slid out of her chair and into his arms. “Yes,” she said, nodding. “Yes.”
As the other diners applauded, and let out a few hoots of happiness in their honor, Sophia kissed Kane’s smiling mouth. “My king,” she murmured against his lips.
“My queen.”
Epilogue
The bride and groom couldn’t have asked for nicer weather for an outdoor wedding in the bayou. Smiling, Sophia clutched the bouquet of pink roses in her hand and made her way up the runner to the arch adorned with flowers and gauzy swaths of fabric to take her place beside an equally smiling Morgan. Turning, she glanced at the guests seated in rows of white wooden folding chairs, before turning her attention to the end of the aisle and the man escorting the beaming bride.
The assembly stood and turned, their eyes most likely on Jamie who was resplendent in a white glittering gown complete with a pair of icy-white, glittered fairy wings attached to her back that sparkled under the spring sunshine, but Sophia only had eyes for Kane.
Dressed in a pale gray suit with matching silk tie, and a pink button-down shirt with French cuffs, he looked magnificent. Even the glittery pink fairy wings attached at his back that bounced slightly with every step he took and left a trail of sparkles i
n his wake, couldn’t diminish his masculinity. Every time she saw him, he took her breath away and stilled her dragon with awe. The phenomenon hadn’t diminished over time, nor did she think it ever would.
As he drew closer, he winked at Sophia, mouthing, ‘I love you’, and Sophia’s heart fluttered in her chest. As impossible as it seemed, she loved him more every day. After his heartfelt, if impromptu proposal, Sophia had wanted to immediately rush out, get a marriage license, and get hitched. Unfortunately, she made the mistake of telling her brother, in company at the time with Morgan, Jamie, and Archer, that she and Kane had gotten engaged.
None of them, Travis included, had been unhappy about the news, in fact, he’d pulled out a bottle of champagne to celebrate, but he’d thrown a fit when she’d later suggested that she and Kane could simply pop down to the courthouse and get things done. Travis fully planned to give his baby sister away with all the pomp and ceremony he said she deserved. Of course, that also meant that out of respect for Jamie’s and Archer’s nuptials planned for the spring, that they wait until after their wedding to take their own vows.
Currently, she was grateful for her brother’s insistence they hold off. Sophia was thoroughly enjoying the planning process with Jamie and Morgan and strongly considering Kane’s idea of becoming a party planner. Even Kane’s clerk, Edward had joined their little wedding committee, the man keeping things so incredibly organized she now completely understood why Kane valued the man so highly and was thinking of luring him to her as her assistant in her new endeavor.
Of course, a delay in the wedding hadn’t meant a delay in Sophia moving in with Kane. She’d packed up her things and left the bayou the day after they’d announced their engagement. Since then, she’d gotten to know Kane even better, and even though he tended to leave wet towels lying wherever he happened to drop them, or occasionally he put an empty milk or orange juice carton back in the refrigerator, her love for him had only grown.
The sun glinted off the diamond on her left hand and Sophia took a second to admire it anew. Her man certainly hadn’t skimped, that was for sure. Her eyes had practically bugged out of her head when he’d presented it to her over a romantic candlelit dinner and renewed his proposal. The square-cut diamond set in platinum was huge, which of course, had sent her treasure-hoarding inner dragon into raptures of absolute delight and continued to do so every time she glanced at her hand.
A Hunter Found: A Paranormal Vampire Romance (Hired Hunters Series Book 3) Page 16
