pte

ngers lightly over her body. It felt so good, making her want to arch and stretch like a cat

ng her like that? So gentle. So light. So sensual. As if s

she couldn't quite put her finger on. The touch changed, too, becoming more demanding, more overtly sexual, pinch

osh and yo

wasn't a sensualist, and he wasn't much for lingering. He didn't demand. He l

n her thighs anyway, and then there was a firm pressure against her clit, insistent, and a finger s

it was, because although she was certain it was Josh, there was th

lights appeared, coming toward her, and she pushed on the brake to slow down. But it didn't work. No matter how hard she put her foot down,

er by the throat, her whole bod

of her scream echoing off the wa

ng, her sheets damp and sticking to her skin. Fear was pulsing through her, yet weirdly th

time, or a nightmare for that matter, so

t pe

it bounced off the wall. The sound jolted her, making her heave in a breath and push herself groggil

standing in

e very

bolted down her spine as her brain tri

ry tall, with massiv

e

he himself let them. Which meant that of course it was him. And that should ha

kiss

emory of what he'd done to her in the library echoing

asked. Josh had asked before he'd kissed her that first time, his blue eyes full of gent

it to him or not, and he'd been ruthless. Pushing down her bottom lip with his thumb, his tongue sliding deep into her mouth, one hand hard on the back of her neck, the other hard

g inside her had just erupted like a volcano exploding. A wild, primi

ospital bed in a coma. A part that didn't care that she was in love with one man while being

touch. The warmth of all that animal energy that lived in him. The fi

the silence and loneliness of that hosp

tion had te

ght very well turn around and go back into the library for more. She didn't stop running until she'd gotten to her room, where she'd locked the door then turned on the shower, switching it to cold. And she'd

omen he'd wanted were redheads. Didn't think about that needy, aching part of

t herself in that instead. Then s

way, stalking toward her, loose l

he grabbed quickly for the light swi

ts she'd gotten for him, not coming to see her. Unless they weren't su

ugh, brutally handsome features. And her heart

k in an almost snarl. He had his hands in fists at his sides, and if

an unconsciously protective movement. "What's

ded, low and rough, cont

hat do y

ide the bed, his whole posture stiff, radia

o her room in the middle of the night simply because he'd heard her scream? That seemed o

her voice sounded steady.

omeone creeping up behind him, but there was no one there. "Are you sure?" His attention returne

ding himself strangely, his massive shoulders hunc

ng the gleam of sweat on his forehead. And .

he kept her voice l

tayed there. "Of course, I'm fucking

was strange. She wouldn't have thought a man like Pero de la Cruz would b

chest expanding as he took in a breath that sounded sha

ked before she co

't needed to, of course. Wou

nd it's not because

oom, instead of his office or his gym or his library, the rooms she n

threat here, and he must know that. Or was it diffic

thing shift in her chest, the last remnants of her own fear fading away. He'd heard her scream, and he'

r because she'd

ng at all-but it made the part of her that always wanted to

gination. But it seemed he wasn't a beast all th

he wa

e more, as if he was seeing things that weren't there, those big hands of

normally so powerful, so arrogant. So confi

tted his vulnerability, she understood that instinctiv

ld dist

even as the thought oc

tantly his gaze snapped back to her, following the movement. Her nightgown was white

breasts, his attention zeroing in on her the way it often did. And then the tension in his posture abruptly rela

ard body, that dark electricity crackling around him that had goose bumps rising all over her skin. That made her shiver

s a mi

was staring at her with a kind of consuming intensity, as if she alone was holdi

a little huskily. "I'm okay now. You don't have

an explain something to me, Vera Taylor. I had two gorgeous, naked women in my bed, both of wh

with those women? She shouldn't care, and yet it

inside her. "I got you the women you told me to

k at it. "But I don't want them. I don't want to touch them. I don't want to fu

inside her, like an ex

she'd thought she'd been right in her initial assumption.

ently

on't know why-" She broke off as he moved again, restless and

you. They don't sound like you. And when I kissed them, they didn't taste like you. And that was all I could fucking think about." His e

ation crawling over her. As if she'd passed too close to a

g to sound like her usual calm self and failing.

aning forward, his face inches from hers. "Why did you run from me

herself back into the pillows, put some distance between them. But that would b

kissed me back. Don'

ean I want to s

tensity she began to feel like he was trying t

rrible part was t

nside her, banked coals smoldering, ready to bur

she didn't want him. Not this man sitting right next to her, leaning over her, the hot masculine scent of

Too challeng

how sexy or otherwise the man sitting next to h

ero asked roughly. "More money? I'll pay t

ed. That was

e to worry about Jo

iling up, month after month as Josh's condition stayed the same, was

erself be bought? He certainly thought he could buy whatever he wanted, and sure enough, he did. But she didn't want him to

to teach him that if he wanted her, he was going to ha

hem snapping and crackling. And that desperate, hungry par

just now," she said. "Tell m

black and hot, and it flared. "

he cut him off, meeting his g

w if he was going to ignore her and force himself on her again,

"I told you. I came bec

d yet again, loosening. Okay, so it

ant you v

reath. "Why did th

question bothered him. "I . . . I don't k

d to her feelings, he was blind to his own, too. For some r

ay to have in your bed," she said quietly

conversation is getting old. I want

patient and some perverse part of her liked that. Liked that she was pus

hand and jerked the sh

or the cotton to cover herself, but he was too fast, gr

ed and yet . . . No, God, that wasn't fear. At all. It was desire, thic

otions inside her, she asked in what she hoped

holding her wrists, hi

s a breath on hot coals, and it made the fear inside her clench tight.

you feel lik

rge, strong hand, holding on tightly. Then with his free hand he reached down t

gers against her bare calf were so hot, so electric, it felt like he was conducting lightning through t

p g

s his fingers slid to the back of her calf, curling around it, c

ile the prickling sensation washing over her skin got more intense. She shi

murmured, low and dark, "

'm n

was moving higher, to her thigh. The tips of his fingers felt

ts, the cotton cool against her tight, aching nipples. And maybe he knew, because his gaze dropped

s full of a deep, very masculine kind

o .

nst the soft damp cotton of her knickers, right against the crotch. She pulled against his imprisoning grip on her wrists, try

rush, pleasure following in its

dn't look away. Because it was all there in his eyes, all laid out for her to read, hiding nothing. R

e, responding to Pero's dominant t

line up the center of her sex, pushing against t

her throat, the part of her that was st

ric, and she couldn't stop the sound that broke

ig and rough and insistent, spreading her open with his fingers, stroking through the sli

you like this. You

r than having him ask her every single time what she liked and what she didn't. Questions she didn't know how to answer and never had, even with her first boyfriend. It was like an emptiness opened up inside her every time som

r legs, watching her every expression, she felt vulnerable. As if

You just never wante

again, in a long slow downstroke, then testing gently the entrance to her body, circling around it. "So be hon

cle, making her want to lie back and spread her legs, let him touch her however he

hat you wanted. He tol

hed her and she hadn't thought she'd miss it. But she did. For the past two years, all she'd had was constant worry and desperate lonel

and pressing down. She stiffened, her spine a lightning rod conductin

d. "Tell me, Vera.

t. Coaxing out the wild part of her that she didn't want to admit was there. Something was b

re frightened of. You we

res, of what she wanted. They felt too raw, too intens

es, I want you. But if we

ce for one long, aching second. As if he was either trying to work out

a dark, feral smile. "N

mo