“What rules?”
“No more sketches of the men who come here.”
“What about you?”
“You want a remembrance?”He grinned at her.
“I want to see you hang,” she said recklessly.“Maybe a picture will help.”
“A few moments ago you wanted to see me in prison,” he mocked.
“That was a few moments ago.”
“I thought you were against violence.”
“You’re making me reconsider.”
He shook his head.“Such fragile principles.”
“At least I have some.”
“You lose principles in prison, Miss Randall.”
“I think you lost a lot more than that,” she said.His jaw set, and a muscle throbbed in his cheek.He was reacting as if she’d dealt him a body blow.
“Very perceptive, Miss Randall.Tell me more about myself.”
That was the quickest road to hell, and Shea knew it.So she remained silent.
“Caution again?”
He said it in such a smug way, she wanted to slap him.He was waiting for that, waiting for a reason to retaliate.She didn’t know why he felt he needed an excuse, but apparently he did.
“Isn’t that what you want?An obedient prisoner?”
He scowled at her.“I don’t think you’re a damn bit obedient.”
“Why is that?”
“Because I’ve been where you are, lady.You’re thinking of escape.Every moment you’re thinking of it, and you’ll risk everything for it.”
“Did you?”
He didn’t answer.He didn’t have to.She already knew enough about him to know he had.It must have been devastating to him to fail.
“You’re comparing me to you.I’m not like you.”
“Aren’t you?”he asked.“Don’t you feel a little bit desperate?”
She did.More so than before, because he apparently knew everything she was thinking.“Does that give you pleasure?”
“Like going through your belongings?Not much.I like my pleasures more direct.”
Her face flamed again at the innuendo.Other parts of her were also on fire, and she had no control over the sudden surge of heat.The air between them was magnetic, full of storm winds blowing temptation.
He felt it too.She knew he did.He didn’t move, seemingly locked in place as she was.A muscle throbbed in his cheek, and she felt a throbbing of her own deep in the most private part of herself, a throbbing she’d never known before.
The longing it created in her was bittersweet.And terrifying.Of all the men in the world, this one should be the least likely to stir such vivid and exotically painful feelings.
