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 cock 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 cock 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 cock jerked in reflex at her words.

“Just the thought?” he asked her, his voice strained as the hard muscles of his abdomen tightened beneath her head.

“Well, the intention?” she asked as her tongue flicked out that last small distance and swiped over the throbbing head of his erection.

Kane gasped, his hands tightening in her hair as he lifted his hips, pressing his cock firmly against her lips. Sherra opened wide, her tongue licking greedily around the flared crest as her mouth sucked him in. His groan was a dark, rough growl of passion and need that sent her own pulse rate rocketing and her pussy flaming.

She clenched her thighs to relieve the pressure, a moan slipping past her throat as she tasted more of the salty seed that spilled into her mouth.

“Come here.” Kane’s order was harsh, the words dragged from his chest as his hand lowered to her hip.

“Come over me, baby, let me taste that sweet kitty.”

Fiery waves of lust seared her womb as she lifted to her knees, her mouth lowering to take more of his erection as he guided her until her thighs bracketed his face. The first touch of his tongue caused her to flinch with the pleasure. A second later she pressed her pussy closer, eager for more, desperate to feel his tongue plunging deep inside the hungry depths of her cunt. Her mouth lowered on the flesh rising hard and eager from between his thighs, trying to swallow as much of the thick shaft as possible. The steady, greedy licks of his tongue and the suction of his lips on her pussy as he drove her insane was all she needed to lose what little sanity she still possessed as she tried to consume his cock.

She wanted all of him, his semen filling her mouth, spilling down her throat as he sucked every drop of cream from her pussy. She wanted it now. Needed him now.

The sounds of heated moans and hungry suckling mouths wrapped around her. Her fingers cupped and caressed his balls as his lips surrounded her clit and two fingers pushed demandingly inside her vagina. She jerked, driving herself harder on the penetration as she took his cock deeper, sucking it eagerly as his mouth ate with greedy ferocity at her creamy cunt.

Her orgasm was building. She could feel it tightening in her womb even as she felt Kane’s scrotum drawing up tight to the base of his erection as her other hand pumped the hard length of his shaft. She wanted to taste him. Wanted to feel every hot drop of his seed shooting into her throat. She felt his fingers thrusting into her harder, deeper, a second before he withdrew, drawing her juices back to the entrance of her anus before pushing them deep inside her pussy once again, joining them with a firm, heated stroke of a finger up her ass.

Sherra tightened, a scream escaping her throat, vibrating around his cock as she exploded. At the moment of her release, Kane groaned hard and deep, his fingers quickening inside her, his tongue lashing at her throbbing clit as his hips thrust upward, burying his cock deeper in her mouth as his come began to pulse in fast, hard jets from the tip of his cock.

He filled her mouth, the taste driving her higher as she swallowed every rich drop, her moans a plea for more.

“Enough.” He lifted her away from him, pushing her to the bed when she struggled against him, her hands pressing him back to the mattress.

“No. Like this.” She rose above him, throwing her thigh over his hips, rubbing the wet flesh of her cunt over the hard ridge of his erection before allowing the wide head to tuck against the entrance to her pussy.

“Hard, Kane,” she whispered, lowering her lips to his as she prepared for the invasion. “Hard…”

Her back bowed, her wail of satisfaction and pleasure piercing the silence of the room as he impaled her, separating the gripping tissues with one fierce, determined thrust. There was no struggle for control, no attempts to delay the driving need for orgasm. The sounds of wet flesh slapping together, whispered, hungry growls and heated cries filled the air around them. Sherra lowered her head to his chest, her tongue licking over the mark she had given him a second before she scraped it with her lethal canines and applied a firm, erotic suction to the overly sensitive flesh. His release triggered hers. Hard, convulsive, it ripped through them, tying them together, binding them, and once and for all piercing the final barriers to Sherra’s soul.

“I love you,” Kane cried out as he jerked beneath her, filling her with his seed, his hands hard on her hips as he held her to him. “God help me, Sherra, I love you…”

Her head raised, a languorous satiation spreading through her body, leaving her drowsy, weak, and yet filled with a strength she hadn’t known she possessed.

Her hand reached out, her fingertips caressing his cheek as his surprise at the touch filled his eyes. And Sherra knew in that moment, if she ever lost him again she wouldn’t, couldn’t survive the pain.

* * * * *

“I’d like you to move your things into my room.” Kane made the surprise announcement as they were gearing up for the day.

Dressed in her customary snug black pants and matching tank top with her hair braided down her back, Sherra was pulling on her jacket when he spoke. She paused before shrugging the material farther up her shoulders and carefully checking the weapon holstered on her thigh.

“Did you hear me, Sherra?” She could feel the determination emanating from him and hid her smile at the sound.

“I hear you.” She cleared her throat lightly. “I can take care of that this evening after I meet with Doc.”

Silence descended behind her, a thick anticipatory silence that throbbed like a silent heartbeat. It could be felt, but it couldn’t be heard with anything more than the internal senses.

“I won’t let you go. Ever,” he told her then, moving behind her, his arms coming around her waist as she allowed her head to fall back to his shoulder.

“I haven’t asked you to,” she said. “I’m stubborn, Kane. I’m not stupid.”

It wasn’t easy for her, letting go of the pain and dealing with the fears that still haunted her. But she knew she hadn’t truly been living until Kane reappeared in her life. She had been existing, nothing more. She didn’t want to exist any longer. She needed to live, she needed to love.

“Very stubborn,” he amended, kissing the side of her neck softly. Sherra smiled, a wry curve of her lips as she acknowledged the statement.

“It won’t be easy,” she finally whispered. “I won’t be easy. There are still scars,” she warned him. His arms tightened around her. “We’ll heal them together, Sherra. However we need to.”

She nodded slowly before standing straight again. “Time to go to work, stud,” she said softly, her voice filled with amusement. “You can play later.”

“Sounds good to me,” he chuckled as he released her. “I’m heading to the guesthouse with Callan and Taber this morning. Lawrence has proposed an idea that could work to get the houses we need in place faster, combining both our ideas,” he said, more than a little amused. “Lawrence Industries has a small construction sideline headed by one of his most trusted friends. He’s willing to provide the materials at a cut-rate cost as well as technical assistance in training our men to build what they need themselves,” he told her. “We have enough land here to make them self-sufficient to a degree, and I still feel that’s the best way to go.”

Sherra sighed in resignation. Unfortunately, she agreed with him, but they needed buildings now, not months down the road. Perhaps this could be the solution to it.

“Let me know how it goes.” She finally nodded in agreement. “I have to do another inventory check today. Somehow the count on the rifles Merc insisted we buy is off by one. I have to figure out if it’s our mistake or the supplier’s. I hate it when weapons are off, Kane. It makes me paranoid.”

“No kidding. Let me know what you find out. We’ve not had any non-secured personnel other than the Lawrences, and security on them has been too tight to allow for a theft that far away from their guesthouse, but we need it solved.” He grimaced as he pulled on a light jacket over his dark blue cotton shirt. “I’ll get hold of you later and see if we can’t meet for a little…uhh, lunch.” He wagged his eyebrows at her as he grinned wickedly. “Later, kitten.” He kissed her lightly on the forehead before leaving the room and heading down the hallway.

Sherra stood still, aware of the silly little smile on her face as Kane left. There had been no choice left last night but to trust him, to give him everything blooming within her. Not just the hunger for his cock, but the hunger for his touch, his smile, his laughter. A chance to heal.

“Damn man. I can’t understand him, and Merinus won’t let me kill him,” she drawled in amusement as she shook her head and moved for the door. She might as well just give in and love him, she finally told herself as she headed to her own room. And why wait to begin moving into the life he was offering her?