Damn vampires. They could smell everything.
“You’re both angry and aroused,” he murmured, making her point for her.
She slammed her hand on her hips. “Angry, for sure. How dare you take such a risk?”
He cocked his head to the side, tension swelling from him and filling the room. “My job was to take out that helicopter.”
Her eyebrows raised so quickly her skin hurt. “Yourjob? Seriously. Your job as the strategic leader of the Realm is to climb cranes and shoot at helicopters.” The derision in her voice had an obvious effect on him . . . and it wasn’t pretty.
“No,” he rumbled, pushing off from the door. “My job, the one I take to my heart, is to secure your safety at all costs.”
She swallowed and took a full step back. “Not at the expense of our children.”
He shook his head, his gaze not moving from her face. “Garrett and Logan weren’t in danger, not really, until you left the safety of that stairwell. At that point, their concentration could’ve become fractured as they worried more about you than protecting their own hides.”
Well, she hadn’t exactly thought of that. “I took out one guy and then I also took out the demon.”
“Yes, yes, you did.” He stalked her, patiently, taking two steps for every one of hers. “But I didn’t want them taken out. I wanted them in custody so we could figure out what is going on here.”
“So, why didn’t you just capture the last guy?” She eyed the layout of the living room and then fought a yelp when her back touched the wall.
“He had a gun to your throat, Cara,” Talen snapped, the band around his control obviously stretching dangerously. “That meant he had to die, and rather painfully. Or perhaps the bastard lived, but recuperating from multiple holes in his head and body from the rebar will take time.”
“You wouldn’t want a weak little mate who cowered while others fought, would you?” she asked, trying to sidle down the wall and away from him.
He stopped moving. “There’s nothing weak about using strategy, which we needed to do at the moment.” His growl filtered through the room and rolled through her body as if it licked every part of her with just a little too much heat. “The demons wanted you, so you needed to stay hidden until I captured them.”
She frowned.
He took another step toward her, bringing warmth and tension. “When Dage was targeted by that feline group out of Australia, we locked him down until we took care of the problem. That’s what happens.”
That was what had happened, and the king had been pissed but overruled by his brothers. She cleared a potted plant and calculated the distance between her position and the other side of the sofa. Her lungs trapped her breath, and anticipation flittered through her abdomen. Her panties dampened. “So I didn’t understand the plan. It happens.”
Slowly, so deliberately, he shook his head. “It will never happen again.”
She stopped moving, defiance rising fast and heated. “Oh, really?”
His expression turned dark and foreboding. “Yes. In battle situations, I expect to be obeyed without question. Not just by soldiers, not just by the boys . . . but by you.”
Lust and denial flamed through her at his natural show of dominance. Her spirit rejected the order, while every feminine nerve in her body thrummed to life. The man had been made for her, yet sometimes, he seemed to forget her strength. Knowing she was going too far, knowing she’d probably pay, she forced a mocking smile. “Not in a million years.”
She moved quick, jumping around the sofa, and he let her.
Oh, the vampire could be quicker than a jaguar striking prey, and he could’ve stopped her. Instead, he rolled into motion, his steps slow and sure, raw hunger glittering in his eyes. “You should never run from a vampire, baby,” he whispered.
Her sex clenched. “Why not?” she breathed.
“We can’t help but chase, and when we catch, we’re not gentle. You want gentle, right?” he crooned.
Hell to the no. She wanted Talen—all of him. “You’re assuming you can catch me,” she taunted, her back to the storm outside.
He was getting closer, too close to the sofa. She couldn’t tell which way he’d round it, so she remained still, her legs bunched to run. The second he moved, she’d go the other direction. If she made it to the door, it’d be a miracle, but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t give it her best shot.
His concentration narrowed in focus just like a wild animal’s as he stalked her. Sexual awareness cascaded along her arms, wrapping her in a hunger with sharpened teeth.
“I’m going to catch you, mate, and I’m taking you down hard,” he whispered, coming closer. “You’re going to beg for more by the time I’m finished with you tonight. Then you’re going to promise to obey me next time . . . and you’ll mean every word.”
Her clit ached with enough need she wanted to jump him and tear off his clothes. But no. That wasn’t how the night was going to happen. “Meh,” she said. “We’ve already done the taking down hard. That all you have . . .mate?”
