Off Limits(77)

“You probably just made him the most popular kid in junior high school,” Kade added as we continued our meal. “Are you sure you can handle that?”

I laughed, my eyes drawn to Kade. With his dark brown hair and chiseled jaw, he could have been a model himself if it weren’t for the eternal glint in his eyes. He was handsome, athletic, and on top of all that, very intelligent. Of course, when you graduate with honors from Stanford Law, you have to be intelligent.

The truth was, Kade was too much of a man to be just a pretty face. I know that sounds like I’m putting myself down, and maybe I am. But most of the people in modeling who do more than just a few local shoots do it because it’s the best way they can make good money. Nobody puts up with the egotistical designers and photographers, the demeaning treatment by a lot of the public who see us as nothing more than airheaded sex objects, or the physical hell you put yourself through just to maintain the look that got you popular if we had another way to earn six figures. I was one of the lucky ones, in that I was in a comfortable niche, not in the high-fashion, stick figure world, but still making good money without having to take my clothes off.

Yet I also knew my limitations. I wasn’t going to ever graduate from Stanford like Kade did. He’d certainly be quite the catch for any girl.

“I think I can handle it,” I finally said to Kade, and turned my face back to my plate before my thoughts betrayed me. As I finished my meal, I mentally chastised myself. I mean, sure, Kade was the proverbial all that and a bag of tortilla chips, but he was also my stepbrother. I wasn’t supposed to have any attraction to him.

He’s not blood, a little voice whispered inside my head. No blood, no foul.

I was still confused by the change in my thoughts when we got home, going to bed before anything else could happen. I knew I was intentionally avoiding Kade, but I couldn’t help it. I felt like one more look from those too-discerning eyes, and I’d spill the beans on everything, including things that I didn’t want him or anyone else to know.

As I lay in bed, I was trying to read a book, nothing too serious, just a light novel from my teenage days that I’d never gotten around to throwing away. The words blurred in front of my eyes and I closed them for a second, the world dissolving to inside my brain.

The hand came up behind me, grabbing me and spinning me around, pushing me against the wall. Sydney grinned at me, his eyes glowing red and evil, the smile on his face telling me exactly what was on his mind. Everything else was black, like I was surrounded by velvet. “Week’s up, Alix.”

“No, no,” I begged, trying to push him away, but his body was as hard as iron, and my hands flailed uselessly against his chest. He grabbed my right wrist in a vice-like grip, pulling it down despite my best efforts against him to touch between his legs. He was hard and burning hot, even through his jeans, and I squealed.

“Oh, you’re going to scream more than that,” he giggled insanely. His right hand came up to smash me across the cheek, when suddenly something came out of the darkness surrounding us to grab his wrist, stopping it in his tracks.

“Get your goddamn hands off of her,” a powerful, rich voice boomed from the darkness, in that thrilling bridge between tenor and baritone that seemed to speak directly to my soul.

With a yank, Sydney was pulled into the still impenetrable blackness, his yelling cut off like a power switch had been thrown. I stared in the direction he’d been yanked, seeing nothing until, like a ghost materializing out of nothing, Kade walked toward me. His eyes glowed too, but unlike Sydney’s glowing of madness, his glowed with something else—deeper, exciting, and holding the promise of something I’d been missing my entire life.

“Kade . . . ” I whispered before he gently pulled me into his arms, his body strong and comforting. I laid my head against his chest, listening to his heartbeat, knowing that as long as it was Kade, I’d be safe.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Kade said, pushing me back enough to look into my eyes. Even though his eyes glowed with a black light, they were still full of potential and acceptance. I could never lie to those eyes, could I?

“I . . . I’m sorry,” I answered, unable to look away but not wanting to anyway. “I was ashamed of what he was trying to make me do.”

“That wasn’t what I meant,” Kade replied, his lips curling in an amused little smirk. “I understood that. I meant, why didn’t you tell me how you felt about me?”

I felt my mouth open and close silently, unable to confirm or deny what Kade was saying. How could I, when the truth was looming so large? Instead, I blinked and pulled him tighter. Kade’s reply was to lower his lips to mine, and like two puzzle pieces, we kissed. I’d never felt such a sensation. There were no words capable of describing it. Soft yet powerful, smooth yet rough, it was everything I could ask for in a kiss and more.

We stayed there like that for an eternity, just kissing, my soul satisfied with that and nothing more, until Kade’s hands roamed down, lower than my waist to cup my suddenly naked ass. I pulled back to realize we were both naked, and the black had pulled back to reveal Kade’s bed at the mansion. Lifting me up, he carried me over like I weighed nothing before he laid me on the sheets like I was a precious jewel.

“You know there’s nobody better for you than me,” Kade said, kissing me again. I couldn’t refuse his caresses as his hands rubbed my arms and shoulders, his body pressing me into the soft mattress. I was on fire, my skin swimming in wonderful sensation as our bodies touched. “If we do this, there’s something I need.”