Chapter 3

Kita swung the door open, expecting to find her father. Instead, she saw Creed Raines standing on the other side.

He’d witnessed her humiliation, witnessed her running. God, she hated that.

“What do you want?” For some unknown reason, she wanted to throw herself against him, to release the tears she was holding inside and feel his arms surround her.

Comfort. She wanted his comfort, and she had never wanted or needed that with the same strength as she did now.

He stepped inside, moving around her as though it was a foregone conclusion that he was welcome.

As though he belonged there.

“Close the door.”

She turned and stared at him in mocking amazement.

“Did someone call and inform you that you were in charge or something?” She gave the door a hard push, though, before turning to face him.

Damn, she was just fucking pretty.

Creed watched her brush back a stray strand of hair, tucking it into the rest of her shoulder-length, dark blonde waves as she glared back at him with soft, doe brown eyes.

Damn, he loved her eyes. He also loved the way she pulled her lower lip between her teeth and pressed down, just a little bit. Just enough pressure to make his body tighten, his dick throb harder.

She hadn’t changed out of the miniscule bikini she had worn by the pool, though it was somewhat obscured by the thin violet wrap she’d put on over it.

She looked good in that dark purple color. Good enough to eat and come back for seconds.

“Would you like to get away for a while?” Where the hell had that offer come from?

She blinked back at him before her gaze narrowed. “Where?”

“Does it matter?” he asked, crossing his arms over his chest. “Let me surprise you.”

There was a part of him standing back in amazement and simply shaking his head in amused resignation. But the part of him inviting her out, that was standing there with his cock throbbing in anticipation, and his blood pounding in unusual excitement sent a sense of life burning through him.

There were times when he had felt like a robot, like a man without a course. But that was before he had stepped into the Engalls’s home and met the princess he was to stay close to, close enough to gain her trust, her father’s trust, so he could turn her over to Jonas Wyatt if needed.

“You’ll surprise me?” He watched those dark, doe brown eyes suddenly gleam with anticipation. “What if I don’t like your surprise?”

Oh, that wasn’t happening. He knew her. He thought perhaps he knew her better than he knew himself.

“You’ll love my surprise.” His voice dropped, became rougher, a growl barely hidden now.

He moved toward her, the scent of her drawing him, the awareness of her feminine moisture gathering between her thighs, the subtle scent of it teasing his senses, intoxicating him.

She wasn’t moving away from him either. She stared up at him, her breasts rising and falling heavily beneath the soft material of the wrap, her nipples pressing hard and tight beneath it.

The top of her head barely came to his shoulder, and as she tilted her head back farther, the fragile line of her throat was revealed. Beneath the cosmetic dental work that had been done to hide his canines, Creed swore he could feel a hollow ache, a need to clench into her flesh, to hold her in place. To dominate her.

His hand lifted, his fingers cupping the fragile curve of her neck, feeling the blood beating hard and heavy beneath the silken flesh.

“Why are you doing this?”

He almost smiled. No one could say Kita was stupid. She was flushed, aroused, and ready to fuck, but she was smart enough to realize he was acting out of character.

“Because, you need to get out.” He stepped back, putting distance between them. “I don’t want you slipping out, Kita. I can’t protect you if I’m not with you.”

Disappointment filled her eyes as she slowly shook her head. “I don’t need your pity, Creed. And I’m not a child to need a treat to obey the rules.”

She turned back to the door, opened it, and stood aside in silent invitation.

“Don’t try to slip away,” he warned her. “Your father is focused on the Breeds right now, but there are a lot scarier things in the world.” And he had been there, seen them.

“What could be scarier than a Breed?” Doubt filled her tone. Like many non-Breeds, she had no true idea of the evil that could be found in the world.

“The pureblood societies who believe your father is holding the research your uncle is rumored to have done on several drugs that they believe could destroy the Breeds,” he told her. “Those societies would take you if they had the chance, Kita. They would take you and use you against your father. If he doesn’t have what they want, they would punish you, Kita, in ways you can never imagine.”

And he knew the horrors of it. He had seen the results of it.

She didn’t speak. As she stared back at him, he saw the flicker in her gaze, and he knew she would do exactly as he suspected she was preparing to do.

Kita was going to run.

“Don’t do it.” Before he realized his intent, he was leaning forward, almost nose to nose with her, the dominance rising inside him and nearly overwhelming him.

Creed was a perfect covert enforcer for a reason. He always kept his cool. He never gave in to his impulses. He kept them bottled, kept them hidden, only releasing the tension during sex. And he had partners for that. Women who didn’t mind the rough foreplay, women who didn’t mind fucking a Breed.

But never had it risen so rampantly, so quickly as it did now.

“Don’t do what, Creed? Don’t have a life?” she whispered bitterly. “Don’t have a desire to live or a desire to be more than Daddy’s little princess? Sorry, but the glitter wore off the princess act when I learned my father and my uncle had spent their adult lives torturing the Breeds.”