Free Love and Decay, Kane's Law by Rachel Higginson Page B

down at his calloused hands. After long
moments of pensive silence, in which I waited with my breath caught
in my lungs, he looked up at me and said, “Untamed. Kane, she’s
wild.”
    I forced my body into submission so I
wouldn’t react to his words meant as insults. I knew those things
about her. They were part of the unavoidable force that drew me to
her. “She’s been on her own.” My words sounded hollow even to my
own ears.
    My father offered me a consoling smile and
said, “I understand the appeal, Son. But is she really the kind of
girl you settle down with? She’s the one you want to claim?”
    I hesitated for only a moment. “Yes.”
    My father sat back in his chair and looked at
my brother. “What do you think, Miller? Has Kane met his match or
can he break this one like all the others?”
    “She’s not a horse,” Miller mumbled through a
swollen mouth, but then his sometimes-wiser-beyond-his-years eyes
met mine and he gave me a one shouldered shrug. “I don’t think
you’re her type.”
    For some reason Miller’s opinion started the
fire of bitterness and rage faster than even my father’s comments.
“What do you know? You can’t even go for a walk without getting
beat up.”
    “Screw you,” he lisped.
    I ran my tongue over the roof of my mouth,
made it push against the back of my top teeth- a soothing habit I
had since I was little. I shoved my hands into my pockets and
focused on all of Miller’s already inflicted injuries. He didn’t
need me to hurt him more.
    Although, I could. Easily.
    “Kane, are you getting upset at something
Miller said?” my father sounded so incredulous, shame flushed
through me, hot and acidic. “What does he know about women?” He
snorted and shook his head at me. “It doesn’t matter what her type is, you’re the man that picked her. So, she’s a
challenge? I think that’s part of her appeal. Am I right?” I
answered with shallow nod. “Then there’s nothing else to discuss.
I’m not thrilled with the idea of you choosing someone before
they’ve been fully probated here. But I understand your urgency
with wanting your stamp on her. I’m not going to deny you something
you so clearly want.” He made her sound like a patch of lawn I
wanted to pee on. But I understood his point. “Be careful with her.
That’s my only advice. She seems like a headache to me, but I want
you happy, Son.”
    “It’s her then,” I assured him. “She’s what
makes me happy.”
    “And what does she think of it here?” he
asked as if he already knew.
    “She’s adjusting.” And because I couldn’t lie
to my father, I said, “She doesn’t like the Feeders in the hallway.
She thinks we’re inhumane.”
    My father rolled his eyes and sagged his
whole upper body on his desk, exaggerating his exasperation. “Of
course she does. Same kind of woman as your mother.”
    “Is that a bad thing?” I asked on a grin.
    My father shot me a pointed look. “Doesn’t
have to be. Just be prepared to fight for every inch of that
woman.”
    “That’s the plan,” I confirmed. Suddenly my
hands felt empty without her in them. My arms felt useless if she
wasn’t filling them. And we’d barely touched. What would it be like
when she finally gave me permission to have her body? What would it
be like when I finally got to take what was mine?
    Bliss.
    It would have to be. Incomparable, undisputed
bliss.
    “Then take the rest of the day off,” my
father answered. “Let her get acclimated. Show her around. But I
want you at dinner. Your mother would like to spend more time with
her.”
    Miller made an indignant sound in his throat
but this time it was easier to ignore him. My father smiled at me,
and I chose to ignore the reserve settled in his eyes. He had given
me permission. That was all I needed.
    And suddenly I’d been desperate to get back
to her.
    Dinner had been a kind of religious
experience for me. She continued to reveal these layers of herself
that I found