her. You know me. You know how far I’ll go to protect what’s mine.” He took Khloé’s arm and ushered her toward the private elevator. “Go,” he told Thea. “There’s nothing for you here. I’m not interested in you or anything you have to say.”
Khloé raised her finger and said, “I did try to tell you that, Raini.” She gave a dramatic wink. “It was lovely chatting with you.”
After he’d swiped his keycard and punched in the code, the metal doors slid open. He shepherded Khloé into the elevator and jabbed the up button. Thea hadn’t moved. She was staring at him, her eyes wet and hurt. Security guards surrounded her just as the shiny doors closed.
Keenan spun Khloé to face him, his eyes hard and dark with anger. “Why the fuck would you give her the time of day?”
“She came here posing as Raini.”
“You obviously suspected it wasn’t Raini, because you didn’t let her up to the penthouse. You had to at least also suspect it was Thea, given that she had a kid with her. But even if you didn’t think it was her, you shouldn’t have gone down to see a total stranger.”
Her brow furrowed. “Don’t you growl at me.”
“I’m serious, Khloé. Enoch is going to try all sorts of ways to get to you. He might even hire an assassin to do the job for him. So if a stranger comes calling, you tell the receptionist to send. Them. Away. You hear me?”
“Look, I get that your emotions are still all over the place after what happened earlier—”
“Tell me you’ll do that, Khloé,” he said, ignoring her words. “Tell me you’ll send any strangers away.”
“Or what, Don Juan?”
He towered over her, all sex and fury, and curved a hand tight around her nape. “Or I’ll fuck the answer I want right out of you.” He took her mouth with a territorial snarl, sweeping away any other objection she might have made. The kiss was hard and wet and hungry, and it woke her body in an instant.
Need—so raw and terrible—roared through her. Her blood heated. Her nerve-endings tingled. Her hormones went haywire.
Keenan kissed her hard and deep, so greedy for her he almost shook with it. A powerful, primitive need crawled through him, thick and hot. He wanted to fuck her. Possess her. Pleasure her. Claim her.
His fear of losing her to the fucking infection sat like a lump of lead in the pit of his stomach, driving him to officially make her his. He couldn’t imagine not having her in his life. Her smile, her laugh, her way of making him feel alive—even when she was poking at his patience—warmed his soul. Just looking at her each morning set him up for the day.
He got why committing to a mating would be scary for her, but he wasn’t going to give her up. Not to her fears. Not to the infection. Not to anything.
He was done holding back on claiming her. He couldn’t do it any longer. He needed her in a way he’d never needed another person. Needed her to belong solely to him, because he sure as fuck belonged solely to her—all the way from cell to bone.
Struggling to breathe, Khloe tore her mouth free. “Wait.”
“No.” He bit down on the crook of her neck. “You’re mine, and I’m going to claim what’s mine.”
Khloe’s heart thudded. Claim? A contradictory mixture of panic and joy spiked through her.
Realizing they’d arrived at the penthouse, she backed out of the elevator. “You don’t really want this. You’re not thinking straight because you’re mad and—”
“Mad?” He prowled toward her, his face cold, his eyes alive with something that made her stomach twist. “I’m mad about a lot of things. I’m mad that my ex came here. I’m mad that you’ve got an infection ravaging your system. I’m mad that Enoch’s sending dead fucking bodies after you. I don’t do well with feeling helpless, Khloé. But I’m helpless to protect you, and I absolutely fucking hate it.”
She kept on backing away, but he just kept on stalking her. She licked her lips. “I’m doing what I can to stay safe—”
“Doesn’t matter. It wouldn’t matter if you were surrounded by armed fucking guards every single minute of the damn day. I’d still worry.”
“Then I’d say it’s a control issue for you. You don’t like that you can’t take charge of this situation,” she accused, expecting him to go on the defensive.
“You’re right, I don’t. Control is important to me