Alpha Ember (ALPHA KANE BOOK 2)

28. Alpha-like

Ember

The timing. Ugh.

Since the morning class was the only one I shared with Kane I'd been planning on buying him a box of pizza on the way home as a reconciliatory gift. I was supposed to hand him the box with mature composure before making him sit down and talk to me. Very alpha-like.

Instead he'd caught me squawking like a crow and barely able to walk from laughing. Very idiot-like.

Meanwhile he was the picture of the composure I'd coveted for myself, elegant but imposing in his expensive-looking coat, ripped jeans and black boots. His hair was wind-blown in that irritatingly movie character kind of way, exposing the sharp angles of his face and the startling blue of his eyes. The sight of him was enough to startle anyone, but this time I felt a particular jolt because I suddenly- and inconveniently- remembered how desperately his arms had held me against him, how rough his voice had been at my ear-

Tell me you're mine.

My face heated. Needless to say, my humor was no longer in residence. I stopped leaning on Victor with an awkward cough. "Kane," I said. "Hi."

Kane's gaze went frosty, a look that shouldn't have made me nervous after the day we had yesterday but it felt like our argument had negated any positive progress we made. I couldn't stop myself from pulling a face, which surprisingly thawed the ice in his look...and then he glanced down at our clasped hands and the snowstorm was back in full swing.

Faster than I could say 'It's not what you think', he pushed his way between Victor and I, arm banding around my waist and lifting me into his tall figure. "Shh," he said when I started to talk, breath a whisper of warm air on my lips before his own closed the short distance.

I'd once caught a glimpse of Helen and Kane in the past during their public make-out sessions and although I'd usually turn away, for some reason that time I was stuck in frozen horror. Staring at Helen's lavender painted nails as they fisted on Kane's shirt, her body restlessly trying to get closer, to increase the intensity of the kiss. But Kane's hand circled her wrist, keeping the kiss slow, cool and controlled even during an activity that melted other men. Then his eyes had lifted to meet mine...and I'd hauled my butt out of there.

This kiss was anything but cool.

It stole the breath out of my lungs and the strength out of my legs until I had to cling onto him to stop myself from falling, had to rely on his hand to hold the back of my head while his mouth set the sensory nerves all over my body on fire, melting and malleable until there wasn't anything I wouldn't do for him in that moment.

That's when it hit me: he was trying to dominate me.

In public. Again.

The realization, as well as the residue of the memory of him and Helen together changed the heat he was building up inside me into a darker emotion.

The last time I'd bitten him on the lip he hadn't cared, so this time I went for his tongue.

He grunted, mouth withdrawing.

I planted my feet back on the ground, glaring up at him. "Do you have a problem with me hanging around a new friend, Kane?"

He lowered the hand he'd used to cover his mouth, glaring back. "I do if you ask him to give you what you were screaming for-"

Eyes nearly about to fall from my sockets, I slammed my hand over his mouth. He gave the hand a slow lick, arm pulling me into the possessive jerk of his hips.