how good it would be.” He stretched her trapped arms higher. Swiveled his hips, and pleasure throbbed through her, from groin to nipples, flushing her face, making her thighs clench, her knees contract, her toes curl.
This had to stop. “Good for you, maybe,” she shot back.
“I know,” he murmured. “You would never let me please you the way I know that I could. You would never open yourself so wide, let down your guard so much. You have not been fortunate in your lovers?”
Hah. What a joke. Novak flashed through her mind, Georg, Stengl. “You think you could please me?” Her voice shook. “Men always think they have the answer to women’s prayers bouncing between their legs. It makes them pathetically easy to control.”
His smile faded. “You’re afraid. You have been abused? By who?”
“Fuck off, Janos.” She renewed her struggles, but with a deft shift of his weight, he immobilized her again.
“It is a terrible crime to hurt a woman in this way,” he said.
The gentleness of his voice both infuriated and embarrassed her. Condescending son of a bitch. How dare he feel sorry for her. “Do not presume to understand me, you prick,” she hissed.
His face was somber. “Ah, yes. I see. Compassion. The biggest insult of all.”
“Compassion, my ass. You’re a cold fish, Janos. You’re just jerking me around at random until you find out what strings and buttons make me jump. I’m bored with the game.”
“I don’t believe you’re bored.” His low voice rumbled, caressing her. “Your body is hot and soft. It vibrates under me. Your face is pink, your lips are red. Your eyes are lit up, shining. You’re having fun.”
Laughter jerked out of her, the words were so incongruous. “Fun?” she squeaked. “You call this fun? Having a muscle-bound lout throw me on the floor, sit on me, and fuck with my mind?”
“Since you have not invited me to fuck with any other part,” he said philosophically. “And yes. It is fun, for a complicated woman like you. How long has it been since anyone challenged you? Since someone gave you anything real to push against? You have to play hard to find your pleasure, no? How long since someone brought you to orgasm?”
Years. She shut her eyes, as he rocked against her. She shuddered with the hunger, and the snarled, painful memories and shame that came with it. “Stop,” she said. “I don’t want it.”
“You are lying,” he said. “You are so close. Fight me. Throw me off. You’re strong. The strongest woman I have ever known. Try harder.”
“Arrogant dickhead.” She writhed desperately, and before she knew it, he was kissing her, his lips dragging over hers. He tasted good, so smooth and hot and fragrant. So strong and sensual, his muscular body hard and unyielding. She wanted to flip him over onto his back and devour him. But he was too big, too heavy. She couldn’t control him. It was driving her mad, the helplessness, the heat.
She struggled. Every desperate jerk, he answered with his hips, his tongue. He murmured low, sexy words of encouragement, nudging her closer to…no, her shattered nerves weren’t up for this kind of voltage, she was going to explode, disappear, die…no…yes.
Yes. The wave broke, crashing through her. The fear, the fury, all blended with a pulsing pleasure so sweet and hot and deliciously endless, widening out to a shimmering glow…
The crash of a door being slapped open broke through her floating languor. Janos went tense with readiness on top of her.
“Holy freaking shit. What the—Jesus, Tam!”
Tam turned her head. Davy and Nick stared down at her, mouths agape, guns pointed at Janos. Janos looked at her, and silently raised his eyebrow. He did not let go of her hands.
Tam licked her lips. “Ah…um,” she said, inanely.
Davy slowly lifted his gun. “Help me out here, Tam,” he said carefully. “You hit the panic button, right? So what’s the deal?”
Panic button? Oh. Yes. The button. Tam’s gaze dropped to her thigh where the band with the panic button was strapped. In the throes of heaving on the floor with her legs clamped around Janos’s thighs, the button had tripped itself. Against the floor most likely. Very funny.
It took effort, under Janos’s weight, to suck in enough breath to speak. “M-must have gotten pushed by accident. Sorry for the adrenaline rush, boys. Thanks for the speedy response. Nice to know you care.”
“So, uh, I assume then that everything’s cool then?” Davy’s voice was wary. “We can, er…leave you to it?”
She smiled coolly. “Yes, gentlemen. Thank you for your concern, but I have the matter completely in hand.”
Davy’s eyes flicked to her wrists, still clamped in Janos’s unwavering grip, and cleared his throat. He was trying not to grin without much success. “Yeah. We’ll just disappear. Right? Bye.”
He slunk out the door, but Nick lingered, a huge, shit-eating grin on his face. “Man, I take my hat off to you,” he said to Janos. “You must have monster cojones to tangle with this hellcat. I suggest you watch out for ’em.”
“Oh, but I will,” Janos said.
“Piss off, Nick,” Tam snapped.
Nick ducked out the door, still chortling. The door swung shut.
Tam forced herself to meet Janos’s gaze, and realized, with intense discomfort, that she could think of nothing to say. That earthshaking orgasm had wiped her brain clean.
“A panic button?” He smiled. “No microphones? I’m glad to know that our conversation was private, at least.”
“You can let go of my hands.” She felt, oh God, almost shy.
“You’re wearing sixteen different kinds of death draped over your body,” he pointed out.
“I won’t cut, spray, scratch, or stick you with any of them,” she said. “At least, not without fresh provocation.”
He gave her a cautious smile. “How do I know you’ll keep your word?”
“You don’t,” she said. “You have to risk it. Didn’t you just strip me bare, read my mind, make me come? Don’t you trust your instincts?”
He grunted. “No. I do not trust anything. But I will trust you, Tamara…this once. Just because I want to. No other reason.”
Tears stung her. Ridiculous. She was going soft. This was probably just a deeper level of his clever games, but if so, it was subtler than she was. “That’s dangerous,” she whispered.
“I know.” His words sounded heartfelt. He let go the steely grip he had on her wrists and rolled off her body.
Tam rubbed her sore wrists as she sat up. Heat lingered in her face and glowed in her body. She felt so light, without him on top of her. Like she might float away. A silly, frivolous girl. Insubstantial.
And
