“I think you should tell her you aren’t mad at her anymore, Kane,” the little girl said solemnly. “You hurt her feelings really bad.”

He had hurt more than her feelings and he knew it.

“Come here and give me a hug. I’ll make sure Dawn gives you a cookie tomorrow. But that’s it. One. You broke the rules.”

She jumped to his arms, hugging him tightly and planting a loud kiss on his cheek. “My momma will be all done soon,” she whispered in his ear. “And my daddy Dash will need me to go to him really fast so Momma will be happy. You have to fix Sherra, Kane. I don’t want you to be all alone when I’m gone. My fairy worries about you.”

He stiffened, watching as she snuggled back under her covers, staring back at him with eyes that were too old, too knowing.

“Cassie, about this fairy,” he said hesitantly.

“You have your fairy too, Kane,” she told him, her childish voice at odds with the knowledge in her eyes.

“Sometimes I see her. She’s got all this pretty dark hair that looks like a cloud around her face. It looks like Merinus’ hair. And she has blue eyes, and she smells like real roses. Not the perfume kind. The real kind.”

He stilled. Despite the fever that made him rush to Sherra, the danger he could feel moving closer and his own worries about Cassie, he couldn’t stop the shock that filled his system. His mother had smelled like roses. The real kind. The very ones she so loved that still filled the backyard behind his father’s house.

“Roses, huh?” he asked her softly.

“She’ll talk to you if you let her,” Cassie said softly, her eyes drooping with sleepiness now. “’Cause she loves you. Just like my fairy loves me…”

Kane rose to his feet, shaking his head in confusion. Damn, that kid could bring armies down if she tried. He drew in a deep breath, tucked the blankets around her snugly and headed from the room. He had an appointment with his mate.

Chapter Seven

Sherra was able to hold back the pain until late that night. She knew it was coming. She had enough experience with the symptoms of mating heat to know what would happen. After the explosive episode in the weapons shed, the rest of the day was so busy, so filled with the fight to survive that she was able to train all her senses on her job, rather than the increased arousal that began to build. But when darkness fell and weariness tugged at her body, it slammed into her harder than ever. Her womb spasmed painfully. Life. She could feel her body screaming out for the life-giving pulse of Kane’s semen spilling into her, his cock throbbing, swelling within her, spurting into her. She didn’t want his fingers, she wanted his thick erection. She wanted all of him, coming over her, pinning her down, taking her with erotic fury.

She whimpered as she paced her bedroom, her flesh almost electrified, overly sensitive and in need of his touch. She had removed her uniform earlier, showered and dressed in the soft, lightweight cotton of one of the long gowns she preferred to wear. The tunic-style material fell to her feet, with long slits running to her knees and giving her freedom of movement.

The bodice ghosted over her breasts, rasping her nipples gently as the small straps over her shoulders held it in place. Between her thighs, her juices dampened the small panties she wore, almost making them useless. Her pussy was so slick, so wet, she knew it would suck Kane’s cock to its very depths within seconds.

She closed her eyes as she curled up on the couch in her sitting room, her head cushioned on the thick armrest, her thighs clamped together. Her breasts were tortured, hard curves of radiant heat that had her nipples nearly popping through the material of the dark gown. Her tongue was throbbing, swollen, and every so often she could feel and taste the pulse of the hated hormone in her mouth. Spitting it out didn’t help, she had tried that before. There was nothing she could do but suffer through the nights and stay as far away from Kane as possible when it became so intense. She should have stayed away from him last night and run hard and fast this afternoon. The memory of his cock tunneling into her mouth, throbbing against her tongue, so hard and hot, had her biting back a moan of overwhelming hunger. She would have sucked him to completion if he hadn’t been so weak. She had been possessed, so hungry for the taste of his seed spilling into her mouth that she had lost her sanity. Instead, she had lost her control. She hadn’t been any stronger that afternoon. She hated this. She wrapped her arms across her breasts, drawing her body into a fetal position as she fought the need to go to him. He was her mate, her mind screamed out in protest of her denial. Go to him.

She shook her head. She wouldn’t. She couldn’t. The heat lasted a month for her—she had no idea how long it would affect Kane, what it would do to him. He had nearly died for her once. He put his life on the line for her family daily. She couldn’t face the potential that he would be hurt further, in ways she could not anticipate.

Sitting up with a ragged groan she pushed her fingers through her damp hair and fought to push the thoughts of him out of her mind—the tanned contours of his muscular body, the thick length of his cock, his lips as they whispered over hers and his erection pushing inside her greedy pussy. His hands, holding her as he fucked her with hard, deep thrusts.

“Oh hell…” She cursed her hunger as an abrupt knock sounded at the door. Raising her head she watched in resignation as the door opened and Kane stepped inside. Her eyes widened in alarm as she stared at the scarred chest, then lower to the rippling muscles of his abdomen and the straining length of his erection tenting the sweatpants he wore. He closed the door, clicking the lock in place.

“God, don’t do this to me.” She shook her head desperately as he pushed the gray pants over the straining flesh and down his powerful thighs.

“And watch you suffer instead?” he asked her quietly. “Suffer myself? The hell I will, Sherra.”

She whimpered. “Please, Kane.”

“Take the gown off.” He advanced on her.

She couldn’t breathe for the excitement. He looked savage, determined. His eyes glittered with lust, with emotion. Emotion hell, it was love, she knew it was love and hated herself and everything she was for

what she was putting them through. Yet, she couldn’t stop. If she stopped, she would splinter. If she gave in, the pain she had held inside for so many years would tumble free, destroying them both.

“I can’t.” She trembled as he came to her, standing before her, his cock gleaming with the pre-come beading at the tip.

Sherra licked her lips in hunger.

“What eases the pain, Sherra?” he asked her. “What makes it better?”

She shook her head. Nothing eased it, but she couldn’t take her eyes off the glistening, mushroomshaped head of his cock.

“Your mate’s semen eases it,” he told her softly. “Sexual release and my seed spilling inside you. I can give that to you, Sherra.” He stepped closer as her lips parted involuntarily.

“I can’t force you,” he said softly. “I won’t force you, but by God I’ll make sure you’re so hot you can’t walk straight if you don’t do it willingly. I won’t let you run. Take the gown off, Sherra. Let me give you every drop of what you need.”

What she needed was his cock shuttling hard and deep inside her, pumping into her in mindless orgasm, his seed filling her hungry womb with rich, potent heat.

“Kane…” she whimpered desperately as her tongue slowly ran over her lips, moistening them a second before the tip of his erection brushed them.

With a tortured cry she leaned forward and enveloped the head in her mouth, sucking it in, tasting the salty sweetness of his come on her tongue as it mixed with the potent spice of the hormone releasing in her mouth.

Ah, God. She worked her tongue over the hard flesh, greedy for every lick now, every taste, every ragged moan out of his mouth as she began to consume every inch pressing back to her throat. She wanted more. Needed all of him. Her hands gripped his hips as she suckled at him strongly, filling her mouth but still never managing to take the full length.

“Sherra, baby.” His hands gripped her hair. “Oh yes, kitten, swallow my dick. Eat it all up, baby.”

The explicit words flamed in her mind. Before, during the night in the labs, he had held back. She had sensed him holding back in both his needs and his words. He wasn’t holding back now. He was taking her, showing her the man he was and the need vibrating in his body. Sherra took the wide head deep inside her mouth, her tongue working on the sensitive underside as she tried to open her throat for him. He was thrusting in and out with long, controlled strokes, his breathing hard and heavy, rough amid the slurping, gasping sounds of wet hunger that spilled from her lips.

“Ah yes. Swallow it, baby.” His cock was throbbing hard, pulsing against the back of her throat with each thrust. “Milk my cock with that pretty mouth. Come on, baby, take it. Take it all, sweetheart.”

He was moving faster now, harder, his flesh swelling on her tongue as she sucked and licked with greedy abandon until she felt the first hot pulse of creamy fluid erupt at her throat.

His hands were tangled in her hair now, holding her close, sliding his cock as deep down her throat as it would go as he released stream after stream of hot, silky liquid down it. Sherra swallowed desperately, tasting him on her tongue, in her mouth, filled with the excess of his release as he cried out above her.

When he pulled back from her still suckling lips he bent, gripped the bodice of her gown in both hands and ripped it from her body.

“Kane…” Her protest was filled with fear as he went to his knees, hands gripping her thighs and pulling her hips to the edge of the couch.

He stared down at the bare flesh of her mound, his lips swollen with passion, his eyes darkening as the lust built.

“I want to taste you,” he whispered. “Like I did before, my mouth buried in your pussy, my tongue driving you to orgasm.”

He would consume her. Panic flared inside her. She was so wet, so juicy from her need. That fluid contained the same hormone that spilled from the glands in her tongue, only less potent.

“Don’t.” She tried to jerk forward, a last weak protest before he could bend to her. His eyes narrowed for long seconds, darkening further as she watched angry determination begin to build in his expression. He pushed her back until she reclined once again, moving closer to her, his cock aiming for the convulsing entrance of her pussy.

“For now. Just this for now.” His voice was consumed with lust. “I’m not taking,” he panted roughly.

“I’m giving. See, kitten, watch me give.”

Her eyes dropped to her splayed thighs, widening as the head of his cock parted the slick lips of her pussy.

“Kane…” She tilted her hips, drawing her feet up until they rested on the couch edge, opening her further, allowing her to watch as he began to sink into the blistering depths of her cunt.

“Look how pretty.” His thumbs parted the pink folds until she could feel the head of his erection stretching the small entrance of her vagina as he began to push inside her. “The tightest, hottest little pussy I’ve ever been inside, Sherra. Suck me in, sweetheart. Just like you did with that pretty mouth. Suck me in as deep as I can go.”

She held onto her ankles with a desperate grip. She couldn’t touch him, couldn’t allow herself that weakness. Her head rolled on the back of the couch, her hips writhing as he began to work his cock inside her.

“More.” She was panting as he moved slowly, making her feel each inch of her tissues parting around the broad head.

She could feel the protest of unused muscles giving way to steel-hard width. The greedy wash of fluid eased his way into her, the throb of the satiny cock head as it forged inside the narrow channel.

“No.” He was breathing roughly, taking her so slowly she was shaking, her hips jerking roughly as his hands clasped hers, holding them to her ankles. “You won’t kiss me, won’t let me lap at your soft little pussy, then I’ll make up for it here.” His voice was dark, so rough it stroked her senses like a firm loving hand.