She rose back to her knees and threw hershoulders back. “Then grow a set of balls and get it overwith.”
He smiled at her as he tapped his fingersagainst the door knob his hand rested on. “Honey, I’ve got a biggerset than you’d know what to do with. I could show you if you’dlike.”
Paige had never been so tempted to hitsomeone in her life. He was the most infuriating man she’d ever metin her entire lifetime. Her jaw ached from grinding her teeth.“Fuck you!”
“That can be arranged too.”
If it was possible, he truly believed herhead might explode. There were stop signs that weren’t as red asshe was right now. Her chest heaved as she inhaled rapidly throughher teeth. “Asshole.”
“Ah, dirty talk already.”
With an incensed shout, she lunged to theside, grabbed the plate Emma had left behind and threw it at him.Ian laughed as he took a casual step to the side to avoid the plateaimed at his head. It smashed against the door with a bang beforeshattering into a dozen smaller pieces. Glass exploded around him,bits of it got caught up in his shirt and scattered around theroom. One shard sliced across his forearm, drawing blood. Heleisurely wiped away the broken pieces, and the blood from thealready healing scratch, before returning to his position.
“Temper, temper,” he chided.
He had to admit it was kind of fun to watchthe fury playing over her features and the heaving of her chest.His eyes were drawn to her breasts as they pushed against the baggyshirt. “You haven’t seen anything yet,” she grated.
“I believe that.”
Before he knew what she intended, shelurched to the side and seized hold of the rickety table beside thebed. Ian leapt forward; his feet thudded on the bed as she swungthe table upward toward him. He grabbed hold of the leg of thetable before she could smash him with it. Her chest heaved; shetried to jerk it away from him, but he refused to release it.
Her eyes narrowed, her nostrils flared. Heloomed over her, resisting the urge to tear the table away fromher. “Let go,” he said calmly.
A muscle in her cheek twitched; her handtightened on the leg. All she wanted was to jerk it away from him,but even though his grip on it appeared loose, she knew she’d neverbe able to take it from him. “No.”
She’d half expected him to tear it away fromher, or tear out her throat. Maybe she hoped he would, just sothere would be some sort of resolution to all of this. Instead, hequirked an eyebrow at her as a smile curved his full mouth. Heshifted his weight on the bed, causing the mattress on both sidesof her to sink from his weight. How could he appear so casual andcarefree while standing hunched over on a bed in order to not hithis head on the ceiling?
He’d moved so fast across the room she’dnever seen him leave the door, before he was looming over her. Whyhadn’t he killed her?
Ian leaned closer to her; his hand wrappedaround hers. Ever so gently, he pried her fingers from the leg oftable. He felt the brush of the rough callouses on her palm beforehe succeeded in freeing her grasp from it. “That wasn’t so bad, wasit?”
She glowered at him as she folded her armsover her chest. His gaze darted down to where the IV had been inher arm. Mandy had bandaged it, but her sudden movement had knockedthe bandage free and caused the small wound to start bleedingagain. His mouth watered when his eyes settled on the bead of bloodglistening on her pale skin. The scent of it drifted up to fill hisnostrils.
Paige’s breath froze in her lungs when shesaw what had caught his attention. This was how she was going todie. He wouldn’t be able to deny the scent of her blood. No vampirecould deny fresh blood.
Taking a deep breath, Ian climbed off of thebed and placed the table back beside it. He would give anything totaste just that trickle of her blood, but he wouldn’t be themonster she believed him to be. Bending down, he scooped up some ofthe bandages that had fallen off the table when she’d grabbedit.
Opening one of the bandages, he pulled outthe gauze inside and placed it on the crook of her elbow. “Here,”he said with far more composure than he felt.
Paige frowned at him as she pressed thegauze into her arm. He could have killed her so easily. She hadnothing to defend herself and he knew it. Her blood had excitedhim, she’d seen that in his eyes, and yet he placed the bandagescalmly on the stand and turned away from her. He returned to thedoor and crossed his legs before him as he watched her.
Ian studied her as she watched him with afurrowed brow. She had no idea what to make of him, and it made himfeel good to know he wasn’t the only confused one in this room. Aknock on the door drew his attention away from her. “What?”
“Everything ok in there?” Ethandemanded.
“Fine,” he replied.
He could feel his brother hovering on theother side for a few seconds before turning and walking away. Paigehad regained control of her temper when he focused on her again.“How long have you been tangled up with the hunters?” he inquired.“And why are you involved with them in the first place?”
“My life and what it involves, is none ofyour business.”
“It is when you’re risking mine.”
Another knock on the door sent a spurt ofannoyance through him. “What now?”
“Open the door.” Ian stepped back and openedthe door. Stefan thrust a phone out to him. “Here.”
Ian stared at the satellite phone beforestepping aside to let Stefan into the room. “Hello?”
