Free Blood Dark by Lindsay J Pryor Page B

not her world; it would never be her world. This was Kane’s world. This was what happened while she was tucked away at work. It reinforced how little she truly knew about him – how clueless she was about this side of him as she was about those who mingled around her.
    And when her gaze followed the escort’s path, those insecurities were exacerbated.
    Kane was sat engrossed in conversation with a male who sat on the sofa opposite. But it was the female curled into the chair between them that captured her attention.
    She was the type Caitlin had always imagined Kane to be with: sophisticated, elegant, with the added edge of unashamed sexuality – and not to forget stunning. They looked right together, not least from the way Kane leaned forward, his arm resting on the arm of her chair, his hand hovering above her thighs with an intimate edge of familiarity as they all laughed together.
    Harder to take was how comfortable they looked in each other’s company. There, Kane could be himself, a fact confirmed by him exhaling cigarette smoke into the dim surroundings as he relaxed amongst his own.
    And it knotted Caitlin’s stomach in a way she knew it shouldn’t have.
    The female looked in her direction just as the escort interrupted them, and met Caitlin’s gaze with a mutually curious assessment. The female took a mouthful of drink from her glass, playing it over her painted lower lip as she gave Caitlin a steady once over, before resting her head of long, thick black curls back against the chair.
    But the minute Caitlin’s eyes locked on Kane’s a familiar bolt of excitement shot through her.Instantly it was as if there was no one else; that it was just her and Kane, and the crowd around them didn’t exist.
    Caitlin withdrew her hands from her jeans pockets, watchful as he grabbed his jacket, his beer from the table. He placed his cigarette back between his lips, and headed towards her.
    He cocked his head for her to follow him out of the room.
    They had a rule from the outset: no show of affection, no public show of any relationship beyond the official, and that even included amongst his most trusted who made it into those back rooms. But what she had just witnessed made that rule feel tougher than ever.
    As she followed him down the length of the dark corridor, his proximity made her spine tingle, a rush of heat coating her chest. Her gaze wandered the breadth of his shoulders within his grey T-shirt, traced down the sleeves clinging to his biceps, back up to his short, dark hair, and she wanted only to touch him.
    Instead she gripped her bag strap as he led her left.
    It was a small room – slightly musty, just a hint of weak three-o’clock-daylight streaming through the elongated window tucked in the far right hand corner of the room.
    Stepping over to the table, Kane extinguished his cigarette in the ashtray. He never smoked around her anymore, unless they were in the open air. He didn’t explain why, but she knew: the smoke had no side effects on him, but he knew the effects on her. To her, it was another sign he cared. The fact it wasn’t even open for discussion even more so.
    And the fact he still stuck to his self-inflicted rule was the only reassurance he offered her amidst his otherwise almost-frosty reception.
    She slipped off her coat, hanging it over the back of the chair along with her bag and her empty shoulder holster, before she pulled out a chair and sat down.
    ‘Present for you.’ He placed the little pot of ointment on the table as he turned his head to exhale the last of the smoke away from her. ‘It’ll help with the war wounds.’
    Choosing the chair opposite, he rested his foot on the crossbar of hers in a possessive move that had her pulse racing more than she needed right then. And as his eyes met hers square on, she felt the breath snag in her throat, her heart skip a beat.
    Taking a momentary break from the intensity, she reached for the pot and unscrewed the lid, hints of tea