“You smug son of a bitch!”
In a breath, she was on me, all of her pent-up aggression coming out through her hands. She was trying to beat me with them. I had to stop myself from laughing at her, at how cute she was being. It was a waste to call this warrior woman cute, but she was still a woman, and she couldn’t crack my armor.
Subduing her wrists in my hands, I moved her toward the wall, almost slamming her into it.
Her breath came out in pants, and fuck me, I breathed her in. I breathed in the passion she tried to disguise as pure hate. Her heart pounded against my chest, trying to go to war with it. She wanted to claim mine so she could quit the game of tug of war with hers.
She had no idea. I was born without one.
I looked down at her and my grin came slow. Her eyes were narrowed into slits, but I saw the truth she couldn’t deny in them. “We’ll see how much you hate that forked devil’s tongue when it’s making you speak in languages you never knew you had.”
“Fucking doesn’t equal love,” she said through clenched teeth. “You might have my body, but the rest—you’re going to have to bleed for. Love lives in the heart, Marauder.”
“No doubt about it, darlin’,” I said. “But I’ve bled for much less.”
“A heart is a bright place. Full of sunshine and rainbows. A real heaven. I can’t wait to see you try to steal love out of it.” A mocking smile came to her face. It was childish, something I’d never seen on her before. “You speak of pride. Then you should know love doesn’t deal with pride. It abolishes it. You, you conceited bastard, will be sayingpleaseandthank youafter love gets a hold of you, and there won’t be a fucking thing you can do it about.”
“Ah, but not all hearts are the same, darlin’. I don’t think yours is made of sunshine and rainbows. Princess bullshit, isn’t that what you said at the fair? I know yours is the exact opposite. Yours is a fortress. One that needs to be battled for. Bled for. Once inside, it belongs to whoever wassmugenough to believe he could get past the gates.”
I released one of her wrists, my free hand moving a strand of hair from her face. She trembled, and something inside of me echoed the reaction. She closed her eyes, releasing a faint breath. “Then those eyes, those heavenly eyes, belong tomealone,” I said.
Her eyes flew open, meeting mine, and before I could move, her lips slammed against mine. The heat from her body was like an inferno, and all of my defenses were made of paper buried in snow.
She made wild noises as our tongues warred for more, as her hand searched my body for bare skin to penetrate. When my hand slipped underneath the silk of her shirt, sliding between her tits, a breath hissed out of my mouth that she inhaled.
The same spot that I touched on her, center of her chest, was fucking burning me, like she’d lit it on fire.
She ripped herself away from me in what felt like an explosion to end it all. Not only were her hands trembling, but her entire body. She took slow steps back, keeping her eyes on me the entire time, until she hit a wall. “Where—” She cleared her throat. “What happens next? I mean—my family. This party. Scott.”
I took a step closer to her, feeling a bead of sweat roll from my temple to my neck. She tried to take a step back but couldn’t. She had already hit the wall. In a move too swift for her to protest, I took her left hand in mine, dug into my pocket, and slipped the ring Raff had picked up on her finger.
“Enough—” I cleared my throat “—said.”
“No one is ever going to believe this,” she said, not looking at the ring, but at me. “No one. Least of all Scott.”
“Kee.”
A minute later I turned my eyes to Harry Boy, who stood in the doorway of the kitchen. It took even longer for Keely to look at him.
He looked between us, his eyes narrowed, a frown on his face. “If I wouldn’t know any better—” He shook his head, not finishing his thought. “The door. For you.”
“Who?” Her voice was low, almost dazed.
“Stone,” he said.
I sensed her stomach’s reaction. It had taken a deep dive.
“Keep him out front,” she said. “I’ll meet him in a minute.”
Harry Boy nodded and left.
She took a step away from me, fixing her hair, and then she ran a cool hand along her neck, which was on fire. “He’s not,” she said, the force back in her voice. “He’s not going to believe this! What do I say? What do I do? I don’t want you to kill my brother if I fuck this up!”
I took her hand, leading her toward the front door. “The truth, you’re mine, and not a damn thing else, darlin’. Not a damn thing.”
11
Keely
