It wasn’t as if any conversation she had with him was ever pleasant. He insisted on provoking her at every opportunity and generally did his level best to see just how angry he could make her. His blue eyes were cool, calculating, watching her with an amused mockery that made her ache to scratch them out. That need was in direct conflict with the overpowering urge to f**k him silly. She was in heat. She hated it but had no choice except to admit to it. After eleven long years of pain and fear, she now knew why her body turned traitor on her, beginning with an overwhelming arousal and ending with a bleak, almost agonizing pain before slowly diminishing. For one month of each year, she had been going into heat. And she had suffered because her mate had already taken her, had already programmed her body to accept no other touch but his.
If he had been a Breed, she could have understood it. Merinus and Roni had been marked by their mates, their bodies conditioned by the hormonal fluids that eased from the swollen glands just under the men’s tongues. But Sherra knew that on the single night she had spent with Kane her own hormonal glands hadn’t been active. And she sure as hell hadn’t made the mistake of kissing him since he had barged back into her life. Not since learning the signs of the mating heat and knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt that Kane was her mate.
He was leaning negligently against the kitchen counter, cup in hand, his tall, leanly muscled body relaxed and tempting. His jeans bulged between his thighs. She swallowed, dragging her gaze away from him. He was hard and ready to f**k. And only God knew just how badly she wanted him to come into her. Strong and thick, his c**k surging up her wet pu**y until she screamed. She almost shivered at the thought as heat rushed over her, through her.
“Ohh, now there’s something interesting.” His amused voice was pitched low as he obviously caught the betraying color. “What’s the blush for, kitten? Getting overheated?”
Turning from him, she pretended nonchalance as she laid the files on the table in preparation for the rest of the Pride’s arrival.
“Kane, you’re starting to irritate me,” she told him coolly without turning back. “The cute little remarks are getting on my nerves. Keep it up, and I’ll show you how a Feline really fights.”
He grunted, the sound filled with sarcasm. “Be nice, Sherra, or I’ll sic our little angel on you. She’ll bite you, remember?”
Cassie had actually growled at her the day before when Sherra had snapped at Kane over something he said. The little girl was amazingly protective of him.
Sherra glanced back at Kane as she shook her head in pity. Poor Cassie. She was learning such bad
habits from him.
“We promised to keep her away from you,” she said. Kane was not a good influence on the child.
“You’re going to turn her into a little monster if you keep spoiling her the way you are.”
He smiled with smug amusement.
“Beats the little doll you and Merinus would turn her into,” he retorted. “Let the kid be a kid, dammit. It’s not like she’s had much chance in the past two years.”
That was no more than the truth. From Dash Sinclair’s reports, the little girl had lived through a nightmare of constant attacks and desperate flights as her mother fought to keep her safe. She was the first known Wolf Breed child to be conceived outside a test tube, and the price on her head was astronomical. But that didn’t mean Kane had to turn a perfectly sweet child into such a little tomboy.
“She’s a little girl, not a ruffian.” Sherra turned on him with a frown. “Kane, you had her in a mud fight yesterday. There is no excuse for that this late in the year.”
He smiled. A slow deliberate curve of his lips as his blue eyes filled with glee. “I know. Damn, that girl has good aim, doesn’t she? And it wasn’t that cold, it was warm as hell and she was having a good time. That’s all that was required.”
Kane and Cassie had both been covered in mud from head to toe. The minute Sherra had stepped out the door, berating Kane for the mess, a blob of the gooey earth had spattered against the side of her head. The little angel, once known as Cassie Colder, had informed her quite ferociously that she was a wolf and Sherra was a cat and if she wasn’t very nice to Kane then she was going to get bitten.
“At the rate she’s going I’m going to have to put you both on a leash,” she told him heatedly. “Stop encouraging her. She’s just a child.”
In a second his expression went from smug laughter to intense, dark sexuality.
“A leash, huh?” His voice turned velvet rough, his gaze dropping to her br**sts as they rose beneath the cotton T-shirt she wore. She could feel her ni**les hardening. “Can we include handcuffs? I have some, you know.”
Heat erupted between her thighs. Damn him and his teasing. He was only stoking the progression of her heat, making it harder for her to fight. And he was going to insist on making it worse. Could the day get any worse? she asked herself sarcastically.
“Only if you’re the one in them,” she snapped back, trying to ignore the image of him chained to her bed, straining beneath her as she lowered herself on the rigid length of his erection. The vision was too tempting to allow for long.
Unfortunately, her caustic words had little effect on him. Her insults rarely gained her so much as a glimmer of irritation within those dark eyes. But it did gain her the scent of hot, aroused male. She could smell his lust now, like the rush of a sudden thunderstorm slamming into her senses. His eyes glittered, his expression darkening with hunger. If she looked lower, she knew that bulge in his jeans would more closely resemble a thick steel rod eager for release.
“That could be arranged,” he murmured agreeably as he stepped closer, his heavy body moving with fluid grace and male power. “My room or yours?”
She was going to orgasm from the sheer intensity in his voice alone. Sherra felt her pu**y flood with her juices, felt the hard ache of her ni**les beneath the cloth of her shirt and wanted to hiss in fury. Why couldn’t life, for just one year, be kind to her? she wondered in dejection. What had she done to deserve this?
“Only in your dreams.” She managed to drag the derisive words past her lips. He chuckled then. The sound was low, stroking over her already inflamed nerves as he moved closer to her. She wasn’t about to retreat. If she did, he would only follow her. If he followed her he would learn just how desperate she was to keep as much distance as possible between them.
“You have no idea, baby. Want me to tell you a few of them?”
He paused before her, his broad chest no more than inches from her br**sts. She fought to keep her breathing slow and even, but she was aware of the fact she was failing. As she knew he was. His head lowered as he watched her br**sts rise harder before he lifted his lashes, staring back at her suggestively.
“No.” She shook her head, trying to turn from him. She didn’t need to hear about his dreams. The temptation of his touch was too great.