“Don’t touch me again,” I hissed, narrowing my eyes and daring him to do it again. “Because next time I won’t be so kind.”
He laughed, and phew, he was so gorgeous when he laughed. An unusual stirring happened inside me, but it was a weird attraction that didn’t sit well with me. His laugh turned into a grin, which was strange because he was more the grimacing kind. I shook off the attraction and gazed at him.
His voice finally broke me out of my stupid trance. “So the princess ballerina knows self-defence,” he said.
I arched a brow, refusing to react in the way he wanted and instead smirked the same way as him. “The ballerina’s father wanted her to protect herself.”
He grasped my hips, his fingers splayed tightly. Glimpsing down to his hands, he pushed me onto his hard cock. I swallowed at how hard and big it felt.
“You wish.” I pushed my palms on the floor and raised my body away from him.
But he was still holding my hips and flipped me over and straddled me, pinning my hands over my head and our eyes gazed at each other for what seemed too long. My chest rising and falling with deep breaths.
“I learned judo too,” he said.
“I know more than judo. Get off me or I’ll break your legs.” Because I could end him so quickly if I wanted to. He didn’t have a clue I was holding back on what I could do.
His lip curled on one side. “I heard you are more than capable of that.”
“Then you need to believe everything you’ve heard about me because I can and will break those legs of yours,” I hissed.
There was a flash of what looked like irritation in his eyes. He cleared his throat and the look disappeared. “But Carter didn’t say how fucking sexy you were when he told us you were coming to this university.”
“What did Carter tell you?”
“Nothing much. I think he was trying to keep you to himself.”
“I’m not Carter’s,” I said. “And what’s your role?”
“Like the others, to protect you.”
I laughed. “Honestly, what is it with men thinking women need to be protected?”
He smiled again, and it was a pleasant smile and I realised then I’d never seen him without his moody look or a smirk on his face.
“I know you’re different,” he whispered, and stared at me for a beat. He cleared his throat. “But we all know you’re different and I know you know you’re different and you don’t have to do it all yourself,” he said. His words were soft, almost a whisper. “Though I know you can.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “So you’re the riddler of the four musketeers?”
He closed his eyes and laughed, then stopped as he stared at me. “Maybe, but I will work you out, Lacey.”
“There’s nothing to work out.” It was my turn to laugh, Kane, the brooding, silent one who was deep as an ocean and was saying he could work me out. “Whereas I expect you have a lot of secrets.”
“I do.” He smiled and lowered his lips to mine, left a gentle kiss. No tongues, just two sets of lips on each other. “But we are the same,” he said when he raised his head. I didn’t know what he meant by that, and I really should have asked him, but I didn’t because we stayed gazing into each other’s eyes for a moment.
His tongue swiped over his bottom lip, but he wasn’t trying to be provocative because there was something different behind his eyes, like he was about to tell me something—tell me his secret.
“What is it?” I asked, trying to help him come out with the words he seemed to find difficult to say. “I know you want to say something.”
His eyes met mine and his lips pursed together before he rolled them inside his mouth.
A key clicked into the lock of the door, jolting us both from what loomed in the air. He pushed his hands on the floor and projected himself to a standing position, pulling my hand to drag me into one too.
“Lacey, you’re home…” Polly said. Her words were to me, but she ignored me as her eyes never left Kane. “Have I interrupted anything?”
“No, Kane was just leaving.”
He cocked one eyebrow. “I want to speak to you about Carter.”