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her bedroom. She knew it was Kai as surely as she knew anything.
    Startling the soldier so much he could do little but gape, she threw herself at him and began screaming as she beat and clawed at his chest. “Let go of me!”
    Kai filled the doorway like an avenging angel, his face contorted into a raging mask. He plucked the soldier into the air and sent Sarah reeling. Weeping, she knelt against the far wall, her arms crossed over her breasts.
    “Kai… wha —” the man said, his face paling.
    “Did you touch her, you piece of shit?” He shook Lewis like so much fluff. “Did you fucking touch her?”
    “I didn’t know she was off-limits, Kai. I swear it!” Scared sober, Lewis held his hands up, pleading. “I swear! I had too much to drink—”
    Kai glanced at Sarah, the look on his face enough to make her stomach clench in fear. “Did you fucking tell him you belonged to me?”
    She nodded, weak. “I did.”
    His fury was a terrible thing to watch. He let go of Lewis, then hit him in the face, and Sarah flinched at the sound of bone crunching. Lewis’s body thumped to the floor, blood spraying from his nose. His pants were still around his ankles, his now soft dick delicate and small.
    Kai followed him down and punched him again, looking up only once. “Get out of here.”
    Sarah scrambled for the door and ran into the room that held her extra food and water, some of which she’d hidden away for her escape with Con. Surprised her hands were shaking, she decided to put on the kettle for a cup of tea. It would help calm her.
    The sounds of flesh against flesh still came to her. Lewis’s pleas quickly faded. Silence reigned for a moment, then footsteps, heavy, slow. Kai would be carrying the unfortunate man from her rooms.
    Then he would be back. She wrapped cold hands around the teacup.
    She was ready for him.

Chapter Eight
     
    She waited in bed, sheets pulled to her waist, hair covering her breasts. Impatience warred with the anxious knots in her stomach, and she had to race to the bathroom twice to urinate. Damn tea.
    Dim sounds of the party still drifted up the stairs. If Kai’s men were anything like Sampson’s, they would carry on until dawn knocked them unconscious.
    The door banged against the wall, and he stood illuminated in the doorway. She had no doubt it was him this time, not some wandering soldier.
    He walked to her bedside and stared down at her, his eyes hot and intense enough to burn through the darkness. The only light streamed through the window. Kind, soft light stolen from a full yellow moon.
    His hair was weighted with dampness, long and straight against his neck. That he’d taken time to shower pleased her.
    “You’re a witch.” His voice was gentle, but his fists were clenched and his body nearly vibrated the bed with its energy.
    She didn’t move. “Why do you say so?”
    He shook his head, long, slow side-to-side movements, his gaze never leaving hers. “How else could you have enchanted…my men with only a glance?”
    “Then you must be called witch as well. For you have enchanted me.” It was not a lie. Not a lie. She was doomed to betray a man she felt for. What a cruel joke.
    The words seemed to soften him, as she had known they would. He sat on the bed, his weight causing her to shift slightly toward him. Outside, it began once more to rain, hiding the moon.
    Her breath caught in her lungs as he reached toward her and scooped up a length of hair from her breast. He brushed her nipple with his fingers, and it stiffened immediately, reaching for him. Her skin goose-pimpled, and she nearly cried out as liquid heat gathered in a heavy pressure between her thighs.
    “Do you believe everyone has a mate, meant only for the other?”
    She expelled the air she’d been holding. “I…I don’t know.”
    But he didn’t appear to expect an answer. In deep silence, he ran the ends of her hair through his fingers, his gaze tracing her face.
    “A long, long time ago, I