Angelus discreetly hungback.
Shae pulled free, rubbing her wrist. He stood there in front of her. Head lowered. Hands on his hips as if trying to get himself undercontrol.
“Did you have to drag meagain?”
Slowly, he lifted his head. “Drag you?” Ice edged his tone. “Your powers are escalating, your life’s in danger, and you’re in aclub?”
Hurt flooded her that he refused to understand how hard this was on her. With her mother gone, the appearance of her new power, along with this impossible attraction to him, everything was caving in on her. She blinked back the burn in hereyes.
“I had to get out. I was suffocating on that mountaintop, doing nothing but train—for two fulldays—”
“Because you have to learn to shield. Your ability could have manifested, and the heavens know where you would’ve ended up with your shakyshields.”
“I know what’s at stake, and I’m not completely helpless,” she snapped, anger sparking at his inflexible attitude. “If you think I’m such a damn liability, why the hell don’t you lock meup?”
“Don’t tempt me, Shae—” His nostrils flared. “I’mthisclose tolosing—”
“What? Your temper? You wouldn’t know how if it bit you in your—oomph!”
His mouth slammed down on hers in a searing explosion of fury. Her breath escaped in a rush of shock. His one arm banded around her waist, the other tangled in her hair. He may be kissing her in anger, but she couldn’t deny that she savored the feeling of his mouth on hers. Dear God, it was like a drug to her senses. She slipped her hands around his neck and kissed himback.
“Gods, Shae…” A tortured groan escaped him, the sound impossibly seductive. “You drive me beyond sanity with thatmouth—”
He deepened the kiss. Wild. Decadent. A dangerous kiss as his fangs brushed against her lips and tongue. And every nerve in her body flared alive with sensation, desire hijacking her thoughts. He kissed her deeper, drawing her tongue into his mouth, sucking on it, intensifying the exquisite ache pooling between herthighs.
He picked her up and backed her against the building wall, not breaking their kiss. Her skirt slid up as she wrapped her legs around him. His rigid sex rubbed against her panty-covered core, creating a friction that had her body in flames, craving the release only he couldgive.
She could barely think straight. Yet, some deep part of her realized she’d pushed him becauseshewanted this—wanted his mouth on hers, wanted him to wanther—not those otherwomen.
He’s a vampire; he’s always going to seekthem.
At the icy slap of reality, desirefizzled.
“No—” She tore her mouth free. “Let me go, I’m not one of those women you pick up everynight.”
“What?” His chest heaved, his brow furrowed inconfusion.
Reeling with jealousy she had no right to feel, she shook her head. “Let medown.”
A tic pounded in his jaw. He lowered his mouth to her ear, his erection pressing into her core. “If that asshole pharmacist touches you again, human or not, Iwillkillhim.”
She tried to push away from him, but the damn wall behind her, and his hold on her hips, kept her trapped against him. “No, you won’t. Why do you care anyway? I’m just a job to you,remember?”
He stared silently at her for a long second. “You are mymate.”
The word, so full of promise, pierced her in the heart like a dagger. Anger, fast and furious, exploded. “Whoa! You don’t get to use the mate card when it suits you, you tookthatoff the table the momentyourealized the truth. As if I want to be tied to the most anal-retentive man—pardon—immortalever.”
With a growl, Dagan dropped her. Shae tripped, but he grabbed her arm. She shoved off his hold. “I hateyou.”
“No, you don’t.” He rubbed his unshaven jaw wearily. “It’s why this is so damn hard.” He pulled out a cigar from his pocket, struck a match on the wall, and litit.
Her mouth opened then shut. She pivoted and stumbled out of the thoroughfare, bleakness sweeping through her at hiswords.
No, she didn’t hate him. Somewhere in the last few days, she’d gone from being impossibly aggravated with him to wanting him. Yes, he desired her, but he refused to do anything about it because he didn’t want amate.
“Angelus?” Dagan’s low voice drifted to her. “Take her back. Keep hersafe.”
“Of course,sire.”
