Deadly Oath

14. Kian

14

KIAN

I grin at her as she says it, taking in her still-flushed cheeks and tangled hair. “We should get a shower, then, if I’m going to stay any longer,” he says. “I should’ve cleaned up after that fight hours ago. You wanna show me to where the shower is?”

Sabrina hesitates for only a moment, but in that brief second, I can’t help but wonder what she’s thinking. Is the idea of sharing a shower too intimate for her, even though only minutes ago, I was fully inside of her?

Her eyes narrow, as if she’s caught me in something. “You know where my shower is,” she accuses. “You’ve been in my bathroom before.”

My grin turns to a teasing smirk, as I hold her gaze. “Maybe I’ve forgotten how to get there.”

She chews at her lip briefly and then nods, sliding off of the bed with the throw blanket still fully wrapped around her.

I know I shouldn’t laugh, but I can’t help it. The sound escapes from me before I can stop it, and Sabrina freezes, turning to look at me with narrowed eyes.

“ What?” she demands, a bit of venom in her tone, and I chuckle.

“It’s just—I didn’t think anyone ever actually did that, outside of movies. Got up after sex with a blanket wrapped around them.” I gesture at the knitted throw wrapped around her breasts.

Sabrina’s cheeks flush. “I’ve never been naked in front of anyone before,” she snaps. “I don’t exactly feel comfortable just strutting to the bathroom like this.”

I shrug. “Suit yourself, princess. Just come get in with me.”

Her eyes widen the slightest bit, but she leads me down the hall all the same. I already know where the shower is, but I want her to show me—mostly because I want her in there with me. I’m not ready to let her get away from me yet, not when the memory of her soft skin and lips, the heat of her enveloping me, is still so close.

I turn on the shower as soon as we step inside, looking over at Sabrina as I strip out of my clothing for the second time tonight. Her hand tightens around the blanket at her chest, and I turn to her, fully naked again, as I step forward and hook my finger in the fold of it just above her breasts.

“Get in the shower with me, princess,” I murmur, as I give it a single tug.

Sabrina lets go. The blanket falls away, and she’s also bare once again, all that creamy, still-flushed skin visible to my gaze. I look down at the apex of her thighs, and I can see the trails of my cum on the flesh there, dripping out of her.

My cock twitches, swelling, and Sabrina bites her lip.

“What would you say if I said I was going to fuck you again?” I murmur, stepping forward so that she has no choice but to back into the counter. “Fill you up so that you’ll still be dripping my cum in the morning?”

Sabrina flushes instantly, a blush traveling all over her body. “I think I might be too sore,” she ventures, and I chuckle darkly, caging her in as steam from the shower starts to fill the room.

“You’re mine now, rabbit.” I reach up, dragging my knuckles over her cheekbone. “If you want out of the trap, you’ll have to let me know. Because otherwise, I’m going to do as I like with my little toy.”

My cock stiffens further, rising with an aching throb as Sabrina looks up at me with her porcelain-doll eyes, wide and blue. “I?— ”

“Do you want out, rabbit?”

She bites her lip, clearly afraid of taking my cock again. Excitement runs through me at that realization, thrilling up and down my spine, arousing me nearly to the point of pain. She shakes her head with a quick jerk, and it takes everything in me not to flip her around and bend her over the bathroom counter. I can almost feel the sensation of her wet heat closing around my swelling cockhead again.

“Easy there, rabbit.” I stroke my knuckles over her cheek once more. “I don’t want to break you the first night. I’ll let you recover.”

Relief and disappointment flicker in her eyes, warring against each other as I turn to get into the shower. She follows me, and I duck my head under the water, feeling a sense of relief as the hot spray washes over me.

The exertion of the fight, coupled with the rough sex afterward, has left me wrung out, my muscles tight and sore. I let the heat wash over me before I realize that Sabrina is probably cold, standing at the other side of the shower naked, and I swap places with her as I look for shampoo and soap.

“You can use mine,” she says as she gets under the water. “But you’re going to smell like peaches and strawberries.”

“That’s fine with me.” I grin, reaching for the strawberry-scented shampoo. I recognize the smell as soon as I flip open the lid—I’ve smelled it every time I’ve kissed her, run my tongue down her throat with the scent of her hair in my nose. “It’ll be a nice change from mountain lion and crashing waves, or whatever they say men’s stuff smells like.”

Sabrina laughs at that, one of those bright, genuine laughs that sounds as if it doesn’t happen all that often. I realize that I like the sound more than I should. “Now you’ll just smell like one of those fruit baskets people send.”

“Delicious.” I scrub the lather through my hair, pausing to meet her gaze. “Just like you, princess.”

Her cheeks flush deeper. It’s so easy to make her blush, and I find myself enjoying that, too. It’s like a game, seeing what I can say that will turn her from pale to pink to red, and it’s not a difficult one to win.

We swap places again, and Sabrina hesitates, looking over at me as she chews on her lip—a tic that I’ve come to realize, means she’s considering something.

“What is it?” I ask, and she sucks the corner of one lip between her teeth.

“Are you going to stay the night?”

The question startles me, although I suppose it shouldn’t, really. I just took her virginity—it shouldn’t be surprising that she might want me to stay afterward. “Do you want me to?” I ask, and Sabrina hesitates, clearly unsure of what she’s supposed to do here.

“It’s fine if you don’t want to,” she says quickly, but there’s something odd in her face. A hint of fear that I don’t believe has anything to do with me, or the situation, or what’s happened between us tonight, and I frown, stepping towards her.

“Is there something you’re not telling me, Sabrina?”

“I—”

In one quick movement, I move in on her, backing her against the tile wall of the shower, caging her in with my hands on either side of her head. My cock instantly stiffens at her proximity, the tip slapping against my taut abdomen as it eagerly pulses for her, but I ignore it. I’m more concerned about what’s causing the fear lurking behind her eyes right now, what’s frightening her enough that she doesn’t want to be alone.

“I saw a footprint,” she says in a small voice, low enough that I almost don’t hear her over the slap of the water against the shower floor. “Outside. A boot print that looked big enough to be a man’s.”

An ember of hot, jealous anger burns to life in my gut, fanning outwards as I stare down into her wide blue eyes. “When?” I demand, and she flinches a little at the steel in my voice.

“Two days ago,” she says softly. “I took a picture of it, but?—”

“And you didn’t tell me?” That anger flares, and I stare down at her, my jaw clenching. “What were you thinking, Sabrina?”

“That you keep having to save me!” An answering anger sparks in hers. “I can’t get used to you taking care of me, Kian. Not when you’re the kind of man who wasn’t even going to stay the night after you fucked me for the first time, not until you thought I might want you to.”

I narrow my eyes at her. “You’re the one who said you wanted to go slow, princess. I thought maybe you’d want some space, afterward.”

She snorts inelegantly. “We barreled way past slow when you put me on my knees and called me a slut while you pushed your cock down my throat.”

A jolt ripples through me at the sound of her saying cock , the filthy words on her delicate mouth making my head swim with arousal. “Don’t distract me,” I growl. “You saw a footprint outside? Two days ago? Anything since?”

Sabrina shakes her head. “No. I figured maybe—” She swallows hard. “Maybe it was just a coincidence. Someone cutting through my yard, or ending up at the wrong house drunk or something before they realized their mistake. And there hasn’t been anything since then. I haven’t heard any noises, or seen anything—” She trails off, and I grit my teeth.

“I’ll stay until you fall asleep,” I say firmly, shutting off the water as we switch again, and I rinse off. “Then I’m going to go scout around the house.”

“You don’t have to?—”

“I’m going to.” I cut her off firmly. “Sabrina, even without all of this—” I gesture between the two of us, “this is my job. I’m the sheriff here, so if there’s someone creeping around and looking into people’s windows, then I should know about it. I’ll wait until you fall asleep, and then I’m heading out.”

“What if I can’t fall asleep?” she asks softly, and I give her a narrow look as I step out, my cock still half-hard from being so close to her.

“Then I clearly didn’t wear you out enough, princess.”

I follow her back to her bedroom, reluctantly putting on the clothes I wore here and wishing for something clean. Sabrina slips into a pair of small cotton sleep shorts and a tank top, and my fingers itch to strip it all right back off of her. Once wasn’t enough. It’s been barely an hour, and already I want to fuck her again.

But I have other priorities, right now.

I crawl into bed next to her, atop the covers, as she slides beneath them. She doesn’t snuggle against me, as if she’s unsure of what exactly the protocols here are, and she draws in a sharp breath when I slide my arm around her shoulders, pulling her closer as I lean back against the pillows and stare up at the ceiling.

She lets out a small, satisfied hum as her body curls around mine, and I try not to think about how good it actually feels to have her warm, slender shape pressed up against me. I’ve never been the type to cuddle after, and the feeling of having someone so close to me in bed is strange. It feels better than it should.

Despite her protest that she might not be able to sleep, her breathing turns soft and even almost immediately. A smirk curls at the edge of my mouth as I look down at her, brushing a lock of hair away from her face with my thumb.

“Wore you out, didn’t I, princess?” I murmur, and then I carefully detach myself from her, slipping out of bed and getting my shoes to head outside.

As I get up, I hear a sound. Not necessarily a person, but I can see why it would alarm Sabrina. It sounds like leaves being shuffled around, moving along the side of the house, and while it could easily be a raccoon or a possum, to someone not used to living out here, it sounds very much like footsteps.

But then again, considering what she said she saw, it could also be footsteps.

I shove my feet into my sneakers and slip out of the house, staying in the shadows as much as I can. I slip along the side of the house, staying quiet as I move towards Sabrina’s bedroom, when I hear the sound again.

It sounds too heavy to be a small animal. My jaw tightens, and I glance over to where my truck is parked, where my gun is. I could go and get it, but there’s no guarantee that what—or who—ever is sneaking around the side of Sabrina’s house wouldn’t slip away into the night before then, or that they wouldn’t hear me, and make a run for it. I’m not exactly practiced in being stealthy.

I’ve taken one man down with my fists tonight, and I can manage another.

I stay close to the wall of the house as I move towards the source of the sound, trying to remain as quiet as possible. There’s that shifting sound in the leaves again, and as I angle myself towards the small copse of trees where I hid that night that I looked in on Sabrina, I see a dark shape moving towards her back window.

Shit . I have the element of surprise, at least, and that makes all the difference. I dart forward, lunging towards the shape, my hand twisting in the back of a collared jacket at the same moment that I slap my hand over the mouth of what I now see is a black-garbed man. Stubble scrapes over my palm, and I tighten my hold, pulling him away from the window.

He tries to shout, flailing in my grip like a hooked fish, but I don’t let go. I drag him backwards, towards the copse of trees, my fingers digging into his cheek as he tries to bite me.

“I don’t have the fucking patience for this tonight,” I snarl, bringing my knee up sharply into his back. He cries out again, bowing backward from the pain, and I wrap my arm around his throat, squeezing hard until I feel him slump.

Easy enough . With a heave, I sling him over my shoulder, hauling him to my truck and hoping that none of the noise woke Sabrina.

I don’t want her to know about this. Not right now, anyway. If she knows I actually found someone, that FBI agent who’s in charge of her might come sniffing around sooner rather than later. The last thing I want is him to dig deeper into the business of this town. Into my business.

When none of the lights in the house flick on, I drive straight back to the station. I carry the man—who I handcuffed before I chucked him in the back—through the dark lobby and back to the cells, unlocking one and depositing him inside. And then I wait, sitting across from him until he comes to .

It takes nearly a half hour before he starts to wake. He blinks blearily, looking up at the fluorescent lights as if they’re hurting his eyes, and then at me.

“Shit!” He sits up sharply, looking around as he winces, like the quick movement hurt his head. “Where the fuck?—”

“You’re in a cell,” I tell him smoothly. “You poked around the wrong house, and now you’re going to tell me what you were doing there.”

“I’m not going to tell you shit,” he spits out, sneering at me. “Not a chance in hell?—”

I’m out of patience. I was out of it when I walked out of Sabrina’s house earlier. I got what I wanted tonight, and now I want to go home and sleep in my own fucking bed.

In a quick flash of movement, I press a taser against the man’s calf. The electricity crackles, and he shrieks, almost falling off of the bench I deposited him on in his urgency to get away from the pain.

“I’ll keep moving higher,” I tell him calmly. “The next one is around the knee. Then, the thigh. I’m sure you can imagine where we’ll go from there.”

“This is fuckin’ police brutality!” he cries out, writhing away from me as best as he can with his hands still cuffed behind his back.

I chuckle, standing up as I deposit the taser back onto the bench I’m on, grabbing one of two pairs of additional sets of handcuffs. The man tries to scramble away from me, but he’s still dizzy, and he tips sideways as I grab one ankle and cuff it to one end of the bench. When I go for the other, he tries to kick me, but I grab it deftly, twisting his foot down until he screams in pain.

“I’ll fuckin’---”

“What?” I look up at him curiously. “What, exactly, will you do? Other than start answering my questions, to save yourself some pain.”

“I could fuckin’ sue?—”

“How do you even know I’m in law enforcement?” I grin, taking a step back to survey my work. The man is leaning back against the wall now, panting, his hands cuffed behind his back, and his ankles cuffed to opposite ends of the bench. His mobility is severely limited, which is exactly what I want right now. “Unless you’ve been watching me, too.”

“We’re in a police station. In a fuckin’ cell.” The man spits at me, and I dodge it. “I’m no idiot.”

“No? Well, we’ll see about that.” I reach for the taser again, squatting between his spread legs. “Let’s start with your name.”

“None of your fuckin?—”

His epithet is cut off as I apply the taser to his opposite calf, the crackle drowned out by his sudden scream. He doesn’t appear to take pain well, which is for the best. It means I’ll be in bed sooner rather than later.

“It seems like you are an idiot,” I tell him, looking up at his clenched jaw and teary eyes. “This doesn’t have to be miserable. If you tell me what I want to know, beginning with your name and ending with why you’ve been skulking outside of Sabrina Miller’s house, I don’t have to keep hurting you. And trust me when I say that as much as I’m enjoying this little outlet, I’d rather be home and in my bed right now.”

The man’s lips thin. “It’s not worth it,” he hisses. “I can’t say. He’ll make it worse for me than you could, if I do?—”

This time, I hit his knee with the taser, and he shrieks. “I very much doubt that,” I tell him calmly. “But I’ll give you some time to come around to the idea. Who is he , anyway?”

The man shakes his head. I touch the taser to his other knee, and he cries out, spit bubbling at the corner of his mouth.

“Next is the thighs,” I warn him. “And then?—”

“It was just a little recon, that’s all!” he cries out. “Just to find out that she was definitely living there. Keeping an eye on what she’s doing. Just?—”

“And why do you need to know that?” I hover the taser near the inner side of his thigh. “She’s just a new arrival to our little town, that’s all. Who needs to know something about her?”

“I can’t?—”

The crackling is louder this time, as I turn the taser up to a higher setting. I jam it into his inner thigh, and his screams echo around the empty station.

“I need something here,” I tell him firmly, when he’s stopped thrashing. “A name of who you work for. Some information about what they want. Why you’re stalking Sabrina.”

“If I say anything?—”

My patience has worn far past thin. I tase him again, this time on the inside of his other thigh, and tears start to stream down the man’s cheeks, his body twitching and muscles cramping from the repeated voltage. “Next one is your dick,” I warn him. “So start fucking singing.”

I level the taser at his groin, and the man’s tear-filled eyes go wide with fear. “I—I was told to get information about her, that’s all! What she’s doing, who she sees, when that FBI agent comes around.”

“And why is that?”

“My boss—he found out some stuff about who she is. He runs drugs, all through Tennessee and the Carolinas. But we’ve fallen on some hard times. You don’t know who she is, man.” He shakes his head rapidly, his voice almost begging now as the words spill out. “If we ransom her, she’s worth a lot of money. No one wants to hurt her. Just get her daddy to pay us to get her back. That’s all. I bet he’d like to know where she went, too. C’mon man, don’t do that again,” he pleads, as I start to stand, the taser still extended towards him. “I’m just a grunt. That’s all I know. We’re not gonna hurt her?—”

I nod. “Well, you’re going to spend some time here, cooling off while you think about what you’ve done. And then I’m going to send you back to your boss, and you can tell him that he needs to forget about Sabrina Miller.”

“She’s not Sabrina Miller ,” the man insists. “You don’t know who she really is?—”

“I do,” I assure him, a slow smile curving my lips. “And I have my own plans for her. Plans you and your backwoods, drug-running boss, aren’t going to get in the way of. And while you’re thinking that over, I’m going to give you one more thing to consider.”

The man looks up at me fearfully, and I feel a thrill of power prickle over every inch of my skin as I lean forward, jamming the taser directly against his dick. The electricity leaps out of it, and the man screams bloody murder, shrieking like I’m frying his fucking balls off. Which, actually, I might be very close to doing.

I yank the taser away, my jaw set as I stare down at him. He’s curved in on himself, sobbing, and I grab a fistful of his hair, yanking his head back so that he’s forced to look up at me.

“Sabrina is mine,” I growl, my face an inch from his. “I’ll kill any other man who touches her. Mine , do you understand?”

The man nods, still sobbing, and I jerk my hand away, looking down at the mess that he’s made of himself.

And then I stalk out of the cell, leaving him there in his own tears and filth.