backed up a pace. Her heart began to pound too fast and too loud in her
head.
"What's ridiculous is you thinking you can handle every damn thing by
yourself. And I'm tired of it."
She sputtered, hating herself. "You're tired of it?"
"Yeah, and it's going to stop. I can't do much about your working
yourself half to death, but I can do something about the rest. You don't
make arrangements at the pub to see you're safe, I will. You're going to
stop asking for trouble."
"Asking for it?" Outrage gushed through her in such a boiling wave, she
was surprised that the top of her head didn't simply blow off. "I wasn't
asking for anything. That bastard wouldn't take no for an answer, no
matter how many times I said it."
"That's just what I'm talking about."
"You don't know what you're talking about," she said in a furious
whisper. "I handled him, and I would have kept handling him if--"
"How?" There was red around the edges of his vision. He could still see
the way she'd been pressed up against the bar, her eyes wide and
frightened. Her face had been ghost-pale, her eyes huge and sheened like
glass. If he hadn't come ina
And because the thought of what could have been scraped raw at the
center of his brain, his already slippery control shattered.
"Just how?" he demanded, in one quick move yanking her hard against him.
"Go ahead, show me."
She twisted, shoved. And her pulse began to race. "Stop it."
"You think telling him to stop once he's got your scent's going to make
a difference?" Lemons and fear. "Once he feels the way you fit?" Subtle
curves and long lines. "He knew there was no one to stop him, that he
could do anything he wanted."
Everything inside her was in a mindless rush--her heart, her blood, her
head. "I wouldn't--I would have stopped him."
"Stop me."
He meant it. A part of him wanted desperately for her to stop him, to do
or say something that would hold the wildness in check. But his mouth
was on hers, rough and needy, swallowing her gasps, inciting more and
reveling in her fast, hard trembles.
When she moaned, when her lips yielded, parted, answered his, he lost
his mind.
He dragged her onto the grass, rolled with her, atop her. The thick bolt
he'd kept locked on his desires exploded open, and what poured out was
reckless greed and primal lust. He ravaged her mouth with the
single-minded hunger of a starving wolf.
Swamped with needs so long buried, she arched against him, straining
center to center, core to core. Her system stuttered with shocked
pleasure, then roared into full raging life. Pumping heat, strangled
moans, quivering delights.
This was not the Ethan she knew, or the one she'd dreamed would finally
touch her. There was no gentleness, no care, but she gave herself to
him, thrilled at the sensation of being swept away.
She wrapped long limbs around him to bind him closer, let her fingers