“You don’t have to thank me, Delilah.”
“Yes, I do.”
She’d been protected by this man, and she felt protected now. She’d always viewed a man’s protection as a gilded cage—both alluring and costly, the price too high. But with this man, it gave her a different feeling. A feeling of security that somehow coexisted with her need for freedom. Strange and unexpected, that.
And she knew.
She had to have him.
Not to show her gratitude, like what happened between the lines of some of the racier novels that Juliet read on the sly. But simply because the pull of their magnets had become too forceful to ignore.
Her body absolutelyneededto be touching his this very instant.
On a sudden wave of determination, she planted her palms square on his chest, using her momentum to shove him back and pin him to the ground. She grabbed his wrists and held them above his head, her face inches from his, her legs straddling his waist—the feel of him,right.
She knew him to be a solid, substantive man. But the substance of him now was so very real and immediate.
His golden gaze took her in evenly, even as his mouth curved into a knowing, arrogant smile.
A smile that once infuriated her.
A smile that now sparked lightning through her.
The presence of that smile told her all she needed to know—she sensed it with a womanly intuition she’d only discovered in the last few days.
She would get what she wanted from him tonight.
“What you did a few days ago,” she said into the intimate space between their mouths.
“Yes?” rasped against his throat.
“Could you do it again?”
“I could.”
She could hear abutin there.Denial.The man would deny her.
No.
He wouldn’t.
He couldn’t.
“The way I see it.” A change of tack was necessary.
“Yes?”
“You owe me a debt.”
A heavy beat of time passed as his gaze remained steady on hers, daring her to look away, to take back what she’d said. “That’s rather cheap of you, Delilah.”
“I’m not sure I care.”
“You might regret it on the morrow.”
She shook her head. “I regret nothing from this morning.”
He was waiting for her to say more.
