“I have often wondered about you,” she told him. Regaining some of her poise, she retreated as far away from him as the little space would allow, and sat down again. She was careful to tuck the unfettered joy and surprise at seeing him again away beneath half-lidded, guarded eyes.
The position forced her to look up at him to see his face, but he seemed more comfortable this way, without her attaching herself to him, that is. Kane would always be more at ease in the dominant position, she realized with sudden clarity. And she found the desire to submit to him oddly natural, though she rarely submitted to anyone or anything. She crossed her legs and scooched back up against the window to give him some more space, another thing that she instinctively knew he needed a lot of.
“Have you?” he asked, looking even bigger than she remembered. Kane’s voice was deep and resonant in the otherwise empty corridor. It still held the seemingly infinite power, tugging at something deep in her core as no other voice had. She let it rumble through her, but was careful not to let him see how much she enjoyed it. She had a feeling it would piss him off, and she had no desire to do that, not after unexpectedly finding him again.
“Yes.” She reached out and plucked one of the candies from his hand. “These aren’t the same ones from the jungle, are they?” she asked. “Because if they are, I have to tell you... ew.” Without waiting for an answer, she unwrapped it and popped it into her mouth anyway.
“No,” he assured her, his lips twitching slightly. Those hypnotic blue eyes hadn’t wavered in their gaze once. It warmed parts of her that had absolutely no business being warmed. She cleared her throat self-consciously.
“So what are you doing here?” She rolled the candy around in her mouth, letting her eyes trail down, over the impossibly broad shoulders and chest, along the natural V toward his trim waist and hips. In jungle camo he’d been hot. In faded Levi’s and a white thermal that hugged his muscular form he was a god. The masculine scruff along his jawline and the shaggy black mane gave him a wild look that had her heart beating fast and furious.
“Believe it or not, this is my home town.”
A grin tugged at her lips as she made the connection. “Michael’s your brother, isn’t he?”
Kane nodded, his expression implacable once again. She should have known; the resemblance was there. Michael had the same dark hair, though considerably shorter than Kane’s was now. The same piercing blue eyes. Kane was quite a bit larger, but they had the same basic features, the same body structure.
“No wonder he looked so familiar.” She thought back to the two that had helped her at the village. He had called them his brothers as well.
“And... Shane... and...Kieran. Just how many of you are there?”
“Seven.”
Lord, have mercy. Seven men that looked like this? It was a wonder this little town wasn’t listed as a top-ten vacation destination among females.
“You’re the oldest.” She knew it with certainty. Just as she knew he was the biggest. The strongest. The fiercest. With the fluorescent light behind him, a nimbus appeared around his blue-black hair. An archangel, that’s what he was, she thought, remembering her first impression of him. Now that some of the shock of seeing him again had worn off, she could see that her savior was not an archangel at all, but a grumpy, gorgeous, bear of a man with obvious control issues. That, she could handle. She certainly had enough experience.
“I am.”
The power around him intensified, and Rebecca felt the pull somewhere deep in her center. That strange humming tingle – the one she had attributed to the fear and adrenalin of that night in the forest – resurfaced, even more powerful than it was before.
Except this time she couldn’t blame it on the situation or the heat of the moment. There were no distractions. Just Kane and her, a scant foot or two separating them, in no immediate mortal peril and not another soul in sight.
Right, she thought, tucking her hands beneath her thighs so that she didn’t accidentally reach out to him again without thinking. Time to change the subject. “So. How’s the hip?”
*
“It’s good.” Kane tried to keep his voice level while the shock of her unexpected full-frontal assault began to wane. Because after three months of searching for her, finding her where he least expected - right here in his own backyard, he was having trouble adjusting. He held himself in check, resisting the powerful and totally irrational urge to reach out and drag her closer to him again. This way was much safer. For both of them. Because now that his body had a chance to fully process what had occurred, it craved more.
Kane felt her gaze, felt her approval as she reconciled the figure before her with the man from the jungle. It was a bit of a surprise to him; he would have expected her to be more afraid than she seemed to be. Then again, nothing about this woman should have surprised him. Everything was unexpected with her.