No! Despite her exhaustion she attempted to jump away from the man holding her, to escape the nightmarish visuals playing out inside her head.
“Sherra.” His arms tightened around her, his lips pressing to her forehead. “You can’t keep running, baby. You have to stop. Now.”
“Let me go.” She realized then that tears wet her cheeks, dripped to her br**sts. Sobs were ripping inside her chest as she fought to hold them back.
“I can’t let you go.” The sound of his voice had her staring down at him as she jerked back. Shock held her still for a long moment before her hand reached out, her fingers touching the moisture on his cheeks.
“Don’t,” she whimpered, shaking as her own tears fell faster. “Oh God, Kane, don’t let me do this.”
“It was my baby, too.” His voice was husky, filled with regret, with pain. “But even more than that, Sherra, you’re my soul. You’re every breath I take. I would give my life to have saved you. I would give it now if it would mean I could go back and spare you this pain.” The dampness from his eyes soaked the swarthy complexion, lined with pain and regret. “I would do anything, everything, baby, to ease this pain for you.”
She was shuddering with her sobs now, fighting to hold them back, to keep the pain inside, buried, where it could never hurt her again.
“I wanted to die,” she suddenly wailed, feeling him flinch, seeing the pain that tightened his face and
made his own tears run faster. “I begged them to kill me.” He rolled her to the bed, his arms wrapping tightly around her, sheltering her, holding her steady as her soul collapsed and her sobs echoed around them. “I begged them to let me die because I couldn’t face it… I couldn’t survive without you…” She was beating at his chest, her blows weak and ineffectual as the years of resounding agony poured free. “I wanted to die without you… And now, I don’t know how to accept that you’re here… I don’t know how to live…”
“It’s okay, baby.” He rocked her, soothed her. Against his scarred chest he allowed her to shed the tears that she had held back for so many years. “One day at a time, Sherra,” he told her huskily. “We’ll both learn to live again, one day at a time…”
The heart that had shattered within Kane’s chest so many years ago broke again. The temporary patches he had effected to survive ripped apart, leaving his soul bleeding as he held his woman in his arms and shared her agonized tears. The child he had never known had been taken from him, but the woman he had loved beyond life had been scarred in a way that had never healed, would never truly heal.
“I would dream of you,” he finally whispered, clearing his throat as he tried to talk through the emotions tearing him apart. “After they told me you were dead, I would dream of you. Dream of rescuing you, holding you. I would dream of what could have been, what should have been. When I awoke, the pain would nearly destroy me, because it was only a dream. But it’s not a dream now, baby. I’m here with you. I’m holding you. And God help me, if I have to let you go again, it will kill me.”
Her breath hitched.
“I didn’t want to love you,” she whispered. “But when I saw you again for the first time, I knew I had never stopped.” She shook her head, weariness filling her voice. “I never stopped, Kane. No matter how hard I tried.”
“I won’t let you go, Sherra. Not ever again.” He held on tighter to her, flipping the blanket over her when she shivered, cocooning her with his warmth. “Just hold onto me, baby. I’m right here. I’ll always be here.”
He felt her slip into an exhausted sleep then. Her body slowly relaxed in his arms, her head resting comfortably against his shoulder as he allowed himself to hope, to pray that the wounds would finally begin to close.
“I love you, kitten,” he whispered as his own eyes closed and sleep took him. A gentle, healing sleep, free of pain or demons, and for once without the haunting arousal that had taunted him for so many years.
* * * * *
Sherra awoke to a sweet languor that she couldn’t remember having ever known. Even after that first night with Kane she hadn’t know this sense of satiation, of complete contentment. His arms, strong and warm, had enfolded her throughout the night, the sound of his heartbeat echoing at her ear had comforted her, soothed her.
There had been no nightmares, there had been no demons rising from the twisted half memories that had snaked through her unconsciousness on even the best of nights. There had been none in Kane’s arms.
“Awake?” His voice was drowsy, rough and sexy. It sent a small tremor of awareness skating up her spine and heat spearing between her thighs.
“Awake.” She smiled, her tongue licking lazily at the reddened mark on his chest. It was sensitive. She felt the shudder of response that tightened his muscles, saw the tenting of the sheet as his c**k began to harden.
She lifted the light cover, peeking under it with false curiosity and then with heated wonder. Had she ever taken the time to really look at Kane’s cock?
She flipped the sheet off his body, moving down until her head rested on his tight abs and she watched the slow engorging of all that luscious meat. Her mouth watered at the sight of the dark, heavily veined shaft and the wide flared head that grew faintly damp with the pearly drops of pre-come that seeped from its slitted eye.
She ran her hand along the side of his leg, then over the lightly haired thigh to the heavy weight of his scrotum. She cupped the silky flesh in her palm, watching as the bulbous head of his c**k pulsed until it spilled yet another drop of its creamy fluid.
“Sherra, baby.” There was a thread of laughter in his voice. “It’s not nice to tease a horny man.”
“Tease?” Her tongue licked over the indention of his belly button as the little droplet spilled to his hard stomach. “Am I teasing?”
She blew a soft breath over the sensitive crest and watched as it flexed again, swelling further in response to the warm air blowing over it. In response to her. Amazement filled her. The first time she had seen him, so many years ago, he had filled her with a sense of wonder and excitement. All other males paled in comparison to Kane. And still, there was no other man that she could even consider doing this with.
“Sherra, kitten,” he growled. “Are you going to do anything with that hard-on you’ve brought to life or are you going to admire it all day?”
“It’s well worth admiring,” she whispered as she felt his scrotum tighten, watched the beat of his blood in the ridge of veins that extended around the thick flesh. “It’s actually a sight to make a grown woman’s mouth water at the thought of tasting it,” she assured him with a smile as the heavy c**k jerked in reflex at her words.