Warnings had never worked before with her.
“If you’re sure, take off your clothes.” Lust and anger burned in his eyes.
“No.” The word came as naturally as breathing.
He smiled, and desire beat harder inside her. “Your legs are twitching. You want to run? Want me to catch you?” He looked like he wanted to hunt her down.
Yeah, she’d like that. But she looked around the tiny apartment. “There’s nowhere to run.”
“Exactly,” he murmured.
Her legs trembled this time, and she flashed back to when they’d been wrapped around his strong hips. “I want you, but I think we should handle some of the anger between us first.” She wasn’t a complete dumbass.
“Oh. I can fuck you with lies between us but not anger?” A muscle ticked in his jaw.
Yep. That aroused her even more. She was so screwed up. “Tell you what, Ace. A small wager, if you will.” Her voice came out all breathy, darn it. She angled into the living room.
“What’s that?” Excitement darkened his high cheekbones.
“You have five seconds to catch me. You win, do what you want with me.” Even the words weakened her knees. “You lose, and we sit and talk out your feelings for an hour. A full hour.”
“My feelings? I’m pissed. There they are. All out.” He leaned back against the counter in a casual move. “But I like the first part of the wager. So, I’m in.”
“Good.” She moved farther away, putting the sofa and coffee table between them. “Go.”
In a surge of graceful power, he came right over the sofa, as she’d known he would. Instead of dodging to the side, she lifted the cheap table, let him plow into it, and shoved him back onto the sofa. She paused in one second of triumph before pivoting to run, making a fatal mistake. In one smooth motion, he flipped the table over, came at her, and pinned her against the wall with the table legs on either side of her. “Five,” he murmured, his face close to hers.
Her heart hammered so quickly her skin hurt. “I think that was six.” It wasn’t. It was five seconds.
For the briefest of moments, those dark eyes softened. “We both know it was five seconds, Brigid. No more lying.”
“Fine,” she burst out. “No more lying. But no stupid spanking, either.” The words were sexy, the reality not so much.
“You said I could do anything with you,” he reminded her, his breath minty on her face. “Remember?”
She winced, even as her body went full burn and ready for him. Think, damn it. “We have a dangerous mission tomorrow. Surely you don’t want to spend tonight in such a way?”
He threw the table to the left, where it hit the wall by the door and splintered into several pieces. “No. I want to spend it like this.” Moving in, he took her chin and leaned down to kiss her. Hard and fast, anger and power in the movement. In the firmness of his touch and the depth of his kiss.
He was everything and more, not holding back in the slightest. It was how she’d wanted him from the first time she’d seen him all uptight in that nice suit. But now, oh now. She wanted it all. Not just him physically, but the rest of him. He’d love as intensely and completely as he did everything else.
But it was too late. She’d lied to him, and he was all about control and loyalty.
His tongue thrust into her mouth, tasting of mint and Raider. He dominated in that simple touch, curling her toes and escalating her need to unbelievable heights. She lifted her hands and immersed them in his thick hair, curling her fingers and digging deep.
He growled into her mouth, and she quivered, pressing her body against his harder one. The power there, the danger, she’d seen it firsthand. Every time somebody had challenged him, had threatened her, he’d taken them down with moves as graceful as they were deadly.
His hands clamped on her hips, and he twisted her, spinning her to face the wall.
She gasped, her hands pressed against the faded wallpaper. Turning her head, she rested her heated cheek against the coolness.
He tilted her head even more to the side, elongating her neck. His breath blew over her ear, and she shivered as his talented mouth slid down. A lick of his tongue to the sensitive skin where neck met shoulder spiked more arousal in her.
With one smooth and oddly gentle movement, he pulled her shirt over her head. Then his hands, those calloused, strong, big hands, cupped her breasts over her cotton bra. Her nipples hardened, and her knees weakened, forcing her to lean back against him. He pinched her through the material, the bite just enough to shoot shockwaves to her clit. She gasped, her eyes closing. “Shouldn’t we go to the bedroom?”
His mouth was suddenly at her ear again, while he ground his erection against her backside. “Bad girls who lie don’t get the bedroom.”
Oh man, she might orgasm right now from the dark tenor of that Southern timbre. “What do they get?” she asked breathlessly.
