~Videl~

Videl felt extremely awkward entering Kane's place. Kane immediately went to his room, and a few moments after his bedroom door shut, she vaguely heard the sound of water running, like he was taking a shower. Videl's panties were ridiculously  wet from their intimate moment in the hallway. She didn't want to join Dare in the kitchen - who was searing up meat and chopping lettuce and tomatoes. She had an irrational fear that Dare could somehow just look at her and magically know that she was soaking wet, and that felt wrong on so many levels, even if she knew it was unrealistic. She ducked her head, holding her hand over the mark Kane had given her on her neck, and made her way to the couch. But the wetness of the fabric between her legs was so unsettling, and she couldn't distract herself from the awareness of it. She got up from the couch abruptly - she had to take them off. Holding her bag with her wet swimsuit, she paused at Kane's bedroom door. Luckily, it wasn't locked and it slid open for her to enter, and slid closed behind her once she stepped in. She hit the lock button, and waited for the click. Kane's bathroom door was closed, and she could still hear the shower running, so she had time. She just had to be quick.

Videl untied the drawstrings on her sweatpants and started shimmying them down her legs like she was being timed. The adrenaline she felt at the possibility of being caught (quite literally) with her pants down made her hands shake. She had to kick off her shoes so she could finish getting her pants off. One of her shoes smacked into his dresser with a thump  that made her stomach do a somersault. The shower wasn't running anymore.

"Oh Stars!" Videl whisper-shouted, hurrying to slide her panties down her thighs. She had just managed to slip them off and was frantically stuffing them in the bag with her swimsuit when the bathroom door slid open, and she was caught red-handed, naked from the waist down. She hadn't gotten to put her pants back on yet. Kane stood in the doorway with a towel wrapped low around his waist, and the knowledge that he was naked beneath it would have undoubtedly ruined the dryness of her pants - if she had actually been successful in getting them back on before he came in.

"V, what - " Kane might have been about to ask why she was hanging out in his room, but whatever it had been that he was going to say vanished from his mind when he realized that she was exposed. His free arm that wasn't gripping the towel jerked as if he was about to respectfully shield his eyes, but he didn't. He was frozen - blinking like he couldn't believe what he was seeing.

Videl's cheeks burned fiercely as she covered her most intimate place with her hands.

"I'm sorry!" Videl squeaked, dropping down to reach for her heap of pants on the floor. She had to force the explanation out of her mouth, nearly choking on the words. "My panties were so wet, I had to take them off! I felt really weird sitting on the - "

She was so embarrassed that she felt like crying as she slipped her feet into her pant legs as fast as she could. As she straightened and began to pull her pants over her knees, she forced herself to look up at Kane. Her heart skipped a beat - the expression on his face was scary. His eyebrows were pulled together, making him appear to be glaring. The muscles in his jaw were flexing as he clenched his teeth. His nostrils flared like a caged animal being teased with fresh meat that was just out of reach. When he spoke, his voice sounded eerily dangerous. His eyes dropped to her still-exposed flesh.

"Are you trying to ruin me?"

Kane sounded angry, broken, accusing, lustful. He dropped to his knees in front of her, stilling her hands from their hasty attempt to pull her pants up the rest of the way and cover her shame. He leaned his forehead against her lower abdomen, his breathing shaky and ragged. Videl gasped sharply, a part of her anticipating him to put his mouth on her vulnerable exposure. She suddenly felt dizzy - imagining what she had thought for a second that he had been about to do. She was initially scared of it, almost squirming away to stop him, but then in the next second, she began to ache for his mouth on her so severely that her warmth was throbbing with need. She wanted him to do it, needed him to. He was so close. She didn't know whether to apologize again, or say "please."

"V . . . " Kane growled, head still resting against her lower belly. "Tell me to stop."

He began to trail kisses from her belly-button toward the place on her body that was burning for him. So exposed, so needy for his caress.

"I can't," Videl breathed. "I don't want you to stop."

He groaned against her skin, and there was a desperation in the sound that tugged on her racing heart. He couldn't stop himself, not without her command.

"Please," she pleaded when he only hovered, his lips centimeters away from her need.

His silver eyes snapped up to hers, blazing white-hot. Her plea was answered. His warm mouth clasped over her, and explored the delicate place that resembled a rose bud and its petals. Her back arched and she bit her lip hard to muffle her whimper. Her legs wanted to give out, but when her knees buckled, he grabbed her by the waist and gently pushed her back until she was perched on the edge of his bed. He sighed against her wetness, hummed with delight at the taste of her.

"Mmmh . . . "

The sound of him enjoying her made her want to melt in his mouth like candy.

"Kane," she whispered, her voice wavering with ecstasy and fear, as his intensity increased, and her pleasure started building.

He growled, his hands tightening around her hips. He wasn't going to stop now - he couldn't stop. He was going to bring her to a peak.

"Kane!"  Videl gasped, on the edge of an orgasm. It felt like she imagined it would feel to be on a roller coaster inching up the track that would soon go over and make its sudden drop. She was scared of it. Her hands buried in his hair and the waves of pleasure that had grown into a tsunami crashed over her, leaving her shaking and moaning and writhing. She had to blink away the stars in her eyes, and when she looked down at Kane whose face was still nestled between her thighs, as he licked and sucked and nipped gently at her over sensitivity, she noticed that the colors around her looked brighter. Once he pulled away from her, licking his lips with a satisfied smile at her taste on them, she suddenly felt surprised at how empty she felt without him between her legs. She felt like she was in a daze as he stood to his full height. There was a hard line under his towel, and feeling like she was dreaming, she reached out as if to trace his length through the terry-cloth fibers.

Kane's hand shot out to stop her, his silver eyes darkening with a steely, predatory glint.

"Don't,"  he warned through gritted teeth, sounding dangerous again.

He firmly pressed her hand to his bed and let go. He was struggling for composure as he pulled the waistband of her pants back up to her hips to conceal her nakedness with shaking fingers. Videl was overwhelmed by the sudden guilt that pierced her heart as he backed up until he was pressing against his dresser.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to . . . " Videl mumbled, not sure what she could really say.

~Kane~

Kane turned around and grabbed some clothes from his dresser, feeling V's eyes watching every movement.

"I'm not," he tried to lie smoothly with his back turned to her.

But he was sorry. All his self-control he had grappled for in the cold shower went out the fucking window when he saw her soft, pink mound bared in his room. And then when she explained that her panties were so wet that she had to get them off, he lost his mind. He hadn't stood a chance. He had tried to get her to tell him to stop, but she refused. She said, "Please." And he gave her what she wanted - he was helpless, then. He didn't stop until she peaked, delighting his tongue with her release.

For a moment, his hunger for her had been sated. Until she went to reach for the hardness that pressed against his towel.

"But I think - " Kane struggled to say the words as he turned around to face her with his fresh, folded clothes clenched in his hands. "I think we've gone as far as we should . . . "

He headed back to the bathroom to get dressed. "At least for today." He winked at her before the door slid shut.

She wasn't ready for what she had been reaching for, no matter how much he wanted to give it to her.

. . .

When Kane was dressed and leaving the bathroom, he was relieved to see that she wasn't still sitting on his bed where she had been writhing from the pleasure he had given her with his mouth, minutes before. He left his bedroom to make his way to the living room, finally. V was nestled on his couch playing her bubble-popping game as Dare was filling the last of the taco shells on the island.

"Lunch is served!" Dare called out when he saw Kane, already stuffing a taco in his mouth.

Dare didn't look uncomfortable, Kane noted inwardly, which meant that his bedroom door must have done a good enough job of muffling V's cries and moans. Thank the fucking Stars!  V closed her holo-menu and hopped up from the couch to take a seat at the island. Her cheeks were rosy when her eyes met his, but she was smiling. He hoped that meant that she had no regrets for what had happened.

If she had just been one of his drunken, one-night stands, he wouldn't care how her mind  felt about it. He would judge her body's reactions, and assure himself that the orgasm he gave her told him all he needed to know. Her warm, wet softness had no regrets for what he had done. But he did care. He wanted her to feel good about it. He wanted her to crave more, beg for his mouth again. He had wanted the other girls to get lost, once he had bedded them. He didn't have any desire to further anything with a girl in the wake of Darcy's betrayal. He had enjoyed the power he felt when he had them squirming and crumbling beneath him, he savored giving pleasure possibly more than his own climax. But after it was over, he didn't wonder how they felt emotionally. He only paid attention to the physicality of it all. He figured that they should just be grateful for the free orgasms, and if they felt some type of way that was unsavory amidst the process, their bodies didn't seem to mind. And if they had regrets afterward, it didn't bother him and he never worried about it, let alone cared enough to ask.

But once again, Kane had to admit to himself that V was special to him. He never hit those other girls up afterward, partially because none of them meant anything to him other than a reprieve from his loneliness and an exercise of his libido. But it was also partially to avoid repeating the past, possibly allowing the inevitable moment when one of them might have wrapped themselves in his sheets and told him that she loved him. Kane had been adamant that he wasn't going to go through that again. But even though the thought of him possibly loving V terrified him to his wit's end, a selfish part of him wanted her  to love him. The idea of her wrapped in his sheets, gazing at him with her honey eyes all gooey and warm, saying the words that he hadn't wanted to hear anyone else say . . .

It didn't make him sick to his stomach. Not even a little. He knew that it was wrong to want her love, when he wasn't sure that he could reciprocate. To want her to give him her heart on a silver platter, while he kept his safe under lock-and-key. What would he even tell her if she actually did say it? Definitely not "I like being with you" - that went real well  last time. He was being honest with Darcy when he had said that. He supposed that if he was being honest with V, he would say something like . . .

You're special to me - more special to me than anyone I've ever met.

I don't want any other guy to touch you. I want to take care of you.

I want to protect you. I want to make you happy. Is that love?

Is that enough?

Kane wasn't sure that any response other than "I love you, too" was acceptable. Was he making a mistake by getting closer to her? V deserved much better than to have her heart broken by him, that much was certain. She had been through enough.

His thoughts were twisting him inside out. He was watching V turn a taco this way and that, like she couldn't figure out how to eat it, blissfully unaware of how fucked up inside he was. He forced back his muddled emotions, erecting a dam in his heart, so he could think straight around her. Then, he reached out to tilt her taco for her and instructed her to take a bite. He smirked when the shell cracked, raining down bits of it on her plate, enjoying her innocent eyes widening at the messiness that was inevitable when eating such things.

"They always end up falling apart," Kane chuckled at her. "You just have to try and hold the pieces together the best that you can."