Charm Of Sensuality

Chapter 26

"You all seem to forget what my ranking was," Kane said calmly. The room was quiet now, Vidal was no longer writhing in pain but instead was still, her eyes closed in what seemed to be a contented slumber.

"You think because I was branded, and considered disgraced that I've somehow lost strength?" Kane snapped, "You all seem to forget that I was one of four of the Mage King's Knights. I was not appointed to that position due to charm alone. You may come after me, that is nothing new here. But my mate? If any of you dare, you had better kill me and succeed."

He turned from the silent crowd, making a beeline for Eden. He wrapped an arm around her waist, leading her toward the door. As he pulled the door open and led Eden out, he stopped to say menacingly behind him, "When Vidal opens her eyes tomorrow, remind her that it was me."

The door shut with a hard slam. He grabbed her hand, and they moved down the corridor in silence. As they exited the building, still they said nothing, moving down the sidewalks littered with yellow petals. It felt as if they walked for an eternity that way before they arrived to their designated "home." Once they were inside Eden watched as he sank onto the leather sofa in their living room. He stared absentmindedly into the open firepit. His eyes were a light with something she had never seen in him before.

She rounded the sofa, standing in front of him. His gaze ran over her frame, starting from her head, down to her toes.

"Are you afraid me of now," he asked quietly. His voice barely above a whisper. Almost as if he anticipated her answer being a kind of rejection.

"No. I'm not afraid of you, Kane." She answered back. She took a step toward him, "But this place. This place is like poison. I've never felt this way before, I've never seen..." Her words fell loose.

He met her gaze, spreading his legs wide, his arms on the back of the seat. "You've never seen what, sweetheart?"

"This place brings out the worst in people."

He licked his lips, the motion slow. "Come here."

She moved toward him, standing in between his legs. He leaned forward, his hands on her hips as he pulled her closer. He placed a kiss against her stomach through her dress, breathing her in. "When we first met, I told you I was a manifestation of all your desires. Do you remember that?"

"Yes," She breathed as his hands travelled down the length of her dress to touch her skin. He trailed his hands up her bare skin, softly caressing her legs.

"That's what this place is, Eden. It's dark, and twisted, and requires you to be the parts of yourself wish you weren't. It's not inherently evil or bad. It simply is the release of your inhibitions. It takes away pretense and ideals of righteousness and leaves you with your baser needs. Desire, satisfaction, a need for power, a want to seduce..."

His hands moved higher, reaching the apex of her thighs. "For some, the desire is not love or sex or a yearning to be loved... for some it is power, unadulterated and complete. Some will do anything to have it and that is what makes this place unbearable. That is what makes this place suffocating. How people chase their desires at the detriment of themselves and those around them."

Eden shivered, her body felt as if it were on a tight rope, one pluck away from falling apart.

Kane lifted her dress higher, the tip of his nose rubbing against her mound. She gasped, her hand at his shoulder. "Kane, your back. It's not healed."

"It has been a month. Touching you isn't enough anymore, Eden. I'm telling you that I want you. That I need you. Everything about you intoxicates me."

"How can you say things like that with a straight face," she mumbled.