by Riley Storm
She followed after him, deciding to grab her shoes, just in case. The door led into what appeared to be a storage closet, but Kincaid reached down and slid the floor out of the way. The casual ease with which he slid the panel compared to the heavy grinding it made told her that he was perhaps even stronger than she’d thought.
“How strong are you?” she asked curiously as she followed him into the basement, pausing as he slid the panel shut behind them and secured it.
“What do you mean?”
“You’re stronger than a normal human, aren’t you?”
Flicking on the lights, he waved a hand at the illuminated area for her to see what they were working with.
“Yes,” he answered, following her down the stairs, to an area suitable for leaving her shoes and a jacket if she’d had one. “Much.”
“Oh.”
“I heal faster too.”
For the first time, Haley realized that many of the marks and bruises she’d seen on his face had faded since he’d first been deposited into the cell next to her. “Holy shit!” she gasped, reaching up to touch him, to examine his skin. There were still some areas that were purplish or yellow, but the swelling was gone, and many of the marks were completely gone.
“It’s a nice feature. Comes standard,” he joked, then suddenly wobbled, reaching out for the countertop of the kitchen that ran down the middle of the room, parallel to the stairs on the far wall.
“Kincaid?” She rushed to his side, wondering if she could support him if he fell.
“Fine,” he said, his voice unsteady. “Just…low energy. That run. Took a lot out of me.”
“What can I do?”
“Cupboard. Food.”
“I hate to break it to you,” she said, “but none of the food here is going to be any good after ten years.”
Kincaid rolled his eyes at her, as he slid to the ground, his face growing wan. “It’s not been that long. Probably some tuna, some soup. Things like that. Energy bars.”
Rummaging through the cupboard, she grabbed a selection and then dumped them in his lap for him to choose from, while she sat down next to him, munching on a trail-mix bar of some kind that had an expiry date still six months from then.
“Listen, Kincaid,” she said after a few minutes of silent eating. “I think it’s time we discussed why I came with you.”
The huge shifter turned his head to her, lifting an eyebrow. “You mean it wasn’t just to help me out?”
“No.”
He didn’t look surprised by her answer. Haley hadn’t expected him to be.
“I’m going to take the keys now,” she said, standing up and taking them from the counter where he’d dropped them. “You’re safe, you do you.”
“Where are you going?”
“To the authorities,” she said. “The proper ones. Ones that won’t arrest me for not having done anything wrong. I’m going to tell them that Kvoss has threatened me and imprisoned me in his house. I won’t say anything about the shifters or anything. But I’m going to have him stopped. I’m going to follow the rules, Kincaid.”
Even as she spoke the words, delivering the speech she’d practiced in her head over and over, Haley couldn’t help but question her own motives. Was this really the right move, involving the human authorities? What could they possibly do against a family as powerful as the Ursidae? Anything? Or would she just be putting herself in danger?
“You can’t do that,” Kincaid told her. “It won’t work. There’s no proof, and the authorities are rather unwilling to touch us. We…provide a lot of donations and funding.”
“You bribe the fucking cops, you mean,” she said dryly, understanding the implication. “Is there anyone in this town you don’t own?”
Kincaid, his features already looking better as he finished off his second can of tuna, nodded. “Yes.”
“I swear, if you say ‘you’, I’m going to lose it.”
The big man just shrugged, then stood up, facing her. “Haley, I want you to answer me something.”
She eyed him up and down, instantly wary at the soft tones, and the way he took a step closer to her. But only one.
“What do you mean?”
“I want you to tell me why you’re so scared?”
Another step.
She backed up this time, trying to keep distance between them. “What do you mean?”
“I want to know.”
“Know what?”
They both moved again, him coming closer, her backing up. Haley knew she was running out of real estate, and a moment later her shoulders bumped up against the wall. Kincaid was between her and the stairs. She doubted he would stop her if she was determined enough to leave, but for now, he was back in her personal space.
Just like he’d been in the tunnel…
“I want to know why you’re so scared of breaking the rules. What happened to you Haley? Let me in there,” he said softly, reaching up to caress the side of her head. “Let me help.”
She looked away, crossing her arms in front of her. “What makes you think you can help?”
“I don’t know,” he admitted, taking one of her hands and peeling it back without letting go. “But I want to try. I want to…I want to be there for you. You’ve done so much for me. Let me do something for you.”
Looking the other way as he took her other hand, Haley stayed quiet. She didn’t want to let him in. To tell him why. It was so embarrassing.
“Please.”
He was right on top of her now, looming over her even as he held both hands tight. Nothing about it threatened her, however. If anything, she felt safe with him nearby. Safe and comfortable. Kincaid might be guilty, though she was beginning to heavily doubt there was any truth to that, but one thing she believed strongly was that he would never let anything bad happen to her.
Maybe she could trust him, even just a little bit. Especially if it would stop him being so close and making her heart do all sorts of weird things.
“It was in college,” she said quietly.
Kincaid only nodded, staying silent so she could talk at her own speed and comfort level. He did, however, give her hands a gentle squeeze, using pressure to let her know everything was okay.
“I told you, I wanted to go into politics. Well, I was heavily involved. Student Council, working with local and state elections. I knew most of the people involved, and I was, in a way, an aide to the governor. Unpaid intern really, but it was my in. All I had to do was keep working at it, and when I graduated, I could get a job, and eventually run for office of some sort myself.”
Falling silent, she relived those days, some of the good times, both with her school friends and then on the campaign trail. She’d truly enjoyed doing that in her spare time, even while she studied business.
“What happened next?”
Shaking herself from the memories, she continued with the story after a minute or so.
“We were within months of graduating,” she explained. “My friend convinced us to go out. I wasn’t a big partier, but it was also my birthday, and they wanted to celebrate. So, we went out. We drank, a lot. I’ve been drunk before, but this…this was one of those nights.”
Kincaid nodded, letting her know he understood what she meant. Everyone had nights where they drank and had a good time. Every so often though, the night lined up perfectly, and it became one of those nights. There was no drama, no tears, nobody puked, they danced, flirted with boys and drank champagne from bottles bought by people they’d never see again. It was a good night.
“Then the end of the night came, and we walked home.” She looked down, embarrassed about what happened next. “I made the mistake of not going to the washroom before we left, and about halfway home, I had to go. By this point I was absolutely wasted. It was like three in the morning, we were full of booze and late-night pizza. I just decided what the hell, it’s fine, I’ll go in the bushes over there.”
She hiccupped once, trying to fight back tears as th
e memory of what happened next burned its way back into her memory, pouring heat into her face as shame she’d forgotten about resurfaced.
“Someone caught you,” Kincaid supplied when she couldn’t go on.
“The police. Turns out we had been making a lot of noise and someone called to complain about us. Well, they just so happened to roll up while we were on a public schoolyard.” She felt warm liquid drip down her face as she started to cry. “They arrested me, Kincaid. They charged me. Because it was a place with children, I’m now a registered sex offender! For peeing in a bush at three in the morning on a weekend!”
She broke down into sobs, wanting nothing more than to sink into the ground and disappear. “All because I broke the rules. I shouldn’t have gone out. If I’d just stayed in like I wanted to, I would have it all. Instead they took it from me. Everything. No politician is willing to touch me now. Not with a record like that.”
“You can get that expunged,” he said.
“I know. I did. But it’s too late now. I’ve been barred. Black-listed.” She shivered as he used the sleeve of his sweater to gently wipe away her tears. “I can’t let that happen again Kincaid. I just…I can’t.”
He let go of one hand, reaching up to gently brush back the hairs that kept falling into her face, lovingly tucking them behind her ear to keep them out of the way. She tried to look down, to obscure her face, but he tilted her chin up, forcing her to meet his eyes.
They were the same blue as always, a gunmetal, tinged with gray, but the hardness was gone from the edges. Instead, they swam with caring, compassion and sympathy for her. Kincaid let her know, by simply staring into her and letting her gaze back, that he was there for her. That she didn’t have to worry. She was safe with him.
“I won’t let anything like that happen to you,” he promised. “You’ll be safe with me.”
“Kincaid, we’ve already ended up in jail once. I don’t want to go back a third time. Three strikes and you’re out,” she whispered.
“I got sloppy and believed we had more time. Now I know what we’re up against, and soon I’m going to find out who,” he growled, his voice vibrating so powerfully she felt it in her chest. “Then we’ll end this and put it all behind us for good. We can move on with our lives.”
She knew he was making it sound far simpler than it actually was. They still had no leads, and things were only bound to get worse before they got better.
“I don’t know if I can do that,” she admitted. “I’m scared, Kincaid. I’m so scared.”
Without speaking, he crouched down, wrapping his arms around her body and picked her up, holding her tight to his chest as he walked to the far end of the basement where he sat into the couch, still holding her tight. Haley rested her head on his shoulder, one arm draped across his chest, the other holding tight up his back.
“I know,” he said, kissing her forehead softly. “I know. It’s going to be okay. We’re going to figure this out. I promise you.”
He kept kissing her forehead, and the top of her head. Then he trailed it down her cheek as she slowly raised her head.
Kincaid didn’t stop. His lips found hers, and the instant they touched a blazing bolt of lightning exploded down her spine. The shock woke her instantly to his presence, setting nerve endings on fire and kick-starting the flow of blood from her heart.
They started off slowly, gingerly. It wasn’t anything like the hurried, rough kiss that they’d shared in the hallway. They had time now, time to do it right, and they both took it without consulting with the other. They were simply on the same page now, their desires finally lining up at the same time and bursting forth.
Haley hadn’t known she was interested in going that far with him, but as his hands ran up her sides, denial became useless. Whether she’d been blissfully unaware, or purposefully blinding herself, it was clear some part of her body wanted it.
Although she still had her doubts of the situation as a whole, when Kincaid began to gently lift her shirt, Haley didn’t resist. She raised her arms, her only regret the time she spent not kissing him as the sweater and her own shirt all came off as one.
27
The feeling of air on suddenly exposed skin sent a shiver through her entire body. Kincaid noticed and paused, leaning back from her.
“We can stop if you’re not comfortable,” he whispered, still stroking her head gently but avoiding any sort of sexual contact besides the fact that she was sitting on him.
“I was just cold,” she explained. “A shiver. You need to come here, I think. Come closer, keep me warm in your arms.”
Kincaid growled excitedly, lifting his own shirt free. “I can do that.” He kept kissing her as he lay her back onto the couch. “I can definitely do that.”
She wrapped her arms around his neck as he lowered himself to her, the furnace that was his skin blasting her with warmth as he pressed tight. Her one leg was pinned to the couch, but Haley wrapped the other around his waist.
The gentle drag of his skin across her body, and the gentle rustle of his small patch of chest hair left her breathing heavy and aching for more of his touch, but the couch was simply too small for him to do more than support himself on.
“This isn’t working,” she announced.
Kincaid frowned. “What? I thought you said you were okay?”
“The couch,” she said, snaring his lips and parting them with her tongue, making it very clear she didn’t mean him. The heat she was feeling was no longer being generated just by Kincaid. Her own body was responding. Haley could feel it most between her legs, what started off as warmth was now becoming a burning need.
Lifting her clear of the couch with a casual display of his strength that had Haley once again biting her lips in anticipation, Kincaid brought her to the bedroom. Holding her up with one arm, he pulled the covers down, pushing her back into the sheets themselves, treating her gently.
He was about to follow, but she raised a hand, a slow, sensual movement that had him frozen in his tracks before he knew what he was doing. Rolling onto all fours she crawled to the edge of the bed and began fiddling with his pants. Kincaid took this time to slide his hands down her bare back and caress her ass.
The touch of his giant hands was so firm, so possessive that a soft moan slipped through her lips. She didn’t stop him when he reached around her sides and swiftly undid her own belt and button, having much better luck than she was having with him.
“Fix this,” she said, putting as much sass into it as she lay back and stripped off her own pants, too busy watching him to put any effort into making it sexy. She simply yanked them down and tossed them on the floor. Her mind was elsewhere now.
Haley needed him. Needed his touch. She wanted to feel him against her, in her, and she had only thoughts about that. The moment he dropped his underwear, she began to think of what it would feel like to have him take her.
His body was hard. All of it. His abdomen rippled with muscles, each one perfectly sculpted, right down to the little v-shaped handles that stopped just above his hard cock. She’d never been with anyone so in shape before, and the excitement of that served to amplify her already considerable desires.
She thought about taking some time to play around, but not today. Today she was too impatient. It had been too long. They could take their time as he slid inside her, but she was more than ready.
Kincaid seemed to read her mind, climbing onto the bed and atop her, his knees gently spreading her legs wide, exposing her completely. As he leaned in to kiss her, one hand slid up the inside of her leg, gently teasing her with soft, slow movements, until Haley was practically shuddering in anticipation of what would happen next.
“Stop teasing me,” she said, the words coming out in a growl. “I want you inside me. Now.”
“I don’t want to hurt you,” he whispered, gently sucking on her earlobe as he waited for her reply.
“Then go slowly, but don’t you dare waste any more time.”
T
here was no getting around it. She was going to be sore the next day no matter what, but just then she needed what she needed, and Kincaid was going to give it to her.
She shivered with nervous anticipation as he moved up closer. The pressure of him against her was almost more than she could take, but it was only when he first slipped inside of her that Haley lost control. It was unexpected and took her completely by surprise. The eruption of dormant desire burst its seal without warning.
Muscles locked up, then spasmed. Her back arched and she bit down hard on her arm to keep the cries from growing louder than they already were. Bucking her hips upward, she tried to capture more of him, all of him, but succeeding with only another inch or so.
Stars exploded across her vision. Haley had forgotten what it was like. What it felt like on such a primal level to lay with someone and make love. She’d so long buried that urge that the wonder and ecstasy accompanying it had faded into the dust of her memory, dimmed by the long time between partners.
Now she remembered. Now she experienced it anew, and with it came the hunger for more. More…
“More,” she gasped. “Please. I want more.”
Kincaid growled and bit her neck, pushing deeper inside her.
Haley screamed. It hurt, but beyond that, past the pain, there was more. Much, much more. “Oh, my God,” she said. Probably. Her body wasn’t responding properly, it might not have said anything intelligible.
A presence descended over her. Kincaid lowering himself onto her completely, his elbows on either side of her head, his massive body atop hers. She welcomed the closeness, reveled in it, in the way he seemed to read her body, to listen to her breathing and feel her muscles. Each time she began to relax, he moved further inside her, until they were hip to hip, grinding against one another.
“Kiss me,” she ordered.
Kincaid grinned and obliged her. Haley had long ago lost all sense of time. They could have lain together for an hour. At least twice more, she climaxed. Her body was battered and weary, but above all else, it was satisfied. Almost. There was one thing missing.
