“The more you practice, the better you’ll get at it. Five knives per hand. You’ll never be helpless again.”
She wiggled her fingers and looked up at him. Somehow, he’d known that mattered. But he had more to say. “Body hits only make us mad. Aim for the eyes. Or the throat. Our only real weak spot is the brain. Penetrate it or deny it oxygen. That’s the quickest way to a kill.”
Jessie swallowed. She avoided squishing caterpillars on the sidewalk. The thought of striking to kill... but then she thought of Braden.
Some things were worthy of being slashed to ribbons.
“My personal favorite take-out punch has always been somewhat lower,” Jessie admitted.
Kade stared at her little knives. “Remind me not to get you angry.” He huffed a laugh. “But on that note, let’s focus on your hand being human.”
She smiled. “Coward.” But she closed her eyes and concentrated on her fingers being just fingers.
“Good,” he said.
She opened her eyes and spread her very human fingers. He wrapped his around them.
“I want you to know something else.” His voice deepened as it lowered. “I know you are with me because you have to be. But I alsowantto do this. To be with you. Have since the moment you came after me with that tiny knife.”
A knot within Jessie released at that moment. He’d said something similar to her beneath the crabapple tree, but she’d needed to hear it again.
And he’d known that, too. For a big, tough guy, Kade revealed many hidden depths.
“Knives as foreplay.” She tried to smile. “Only Sabres would think like that.”
Kade went very still. Had she offended him? Jessie reached to run trembling fingers along his jaw. Everything about him was built strong, like a mountain. Many might think he was cold. He often seemed so remote. Hard. Uncaring.
But that wasn’t what she saw in him.
Events over the last few days had granted her glimpses into his depths. And what she’d seen confirmed the truth. He was red-hot inside. Like a volcano, carefully contained, and wrapped in walls of grim silence. His veins ran with molten lava. The only external clue was the fire in his golden eyes.
Those eyes searched hers, now. What did he see?
“I want you to know”—her voice trembled—“that if we would have had more time, I would have liked to take you out for chocolate cupcakes.”
His mouth twitched. “Chocolate cupcakes?”
“Yes. Much better than muffins.”
His big hand cupped her jaw, the thumb tracing the soft skin beneath her eye. “I’m more a maple bacon kind of guy. But if you like chocolate cupcakes, so do I.” His voice was almost a purr. Then he bent low, pausing inches from her face.
He didn’t close his eyes, leaning in for a kiss. They glowed at her. She was lost in the moment, sinking past the man at the surface to the beast that lay coiled within. A molten beast of passion, chained and caged. Roaring to be set free.
From within her, came an answering cry. His fingers at her jaw tried to guide her so that his lips’ first touch was light, so gentle—as though she would break. But the wild thing inside her grabbed hold. So she stretched her hand up behind his head, pulled him closer, and kissed him hard enough to feel the ridges of the fangs beneath his lips. Her hand slid beneath his shirt, fingers spreading across his chest. The taut muscles shivered.
Their steel was encased in skin laced with scars. Her fingertips traced them, and he shivered again.
Intoxicating. Her pulse raced. She couldn’t breathe. Powerful arms wrapped around to lift and set her on the ground. Not cold or hard—she sank into thick moss, living and green and soft as a mattress. Scents swirled around her. Leaves and grass overpowered by the animal, musky scent of aroused male.
The beast strained against its chains, but it was still Kade that loomed, trailing his lips over her forehead, her eyes, along her jaw. He held himself above her with one arm, while he paused the other at the hem of her shirt. His fingers pushed beneath the fabric, dancing along her bare skin. Each touch sent little electric zings, firing every nerve.
Would they go up, or down? She didn’t care, so long as theymoved, dammit. But he continued to play, and his fingers had grown claws. Not long ones, only short, but pointed, and they left little fiery trails wherever they traveled.
They weren’t traveling far or fast enough. Jessie writhed beneath their torturous touches. Her fingers curled, digging the nails into his flesh. The hand on the back of his neck tightened.
“Dammit, Kade,” she whispered.
He rumbled. Not a laugh, not a growl. Arumble. It pulsated straight through to her core. The subsonic vibration penetrated the earth and air and plants surrounding them. Sound had never been sohot.
