it is not something that you forget.”
An awkward silence lengthened between them. He had cut her anger off neatly at the knees. He had a frightening talent for that.
It could be a lie. But something about the spareness of his words, the look on his face made her think that perhaps it was the truth.
Truth. There it was again. That volatile, changeable, dangerous word. Dogging her at every turn. At the center of everything.
“So…now you’re fine?” she asked. “You’re all over it?”
He shrugged. “You find ways to take your power back.”
“Yes, that’s exactly it. Taking my power back,” she muttered. “That’s exactly what I was trying to do.”
He frowned. “I don’t want to play games with you.”
“So what the fuck do you want? I was giving you the benefit of everything I have to give a man, everything I know, and you reject it, you ungrateful son of a bitch. So what do you want? Spell it out for me!”
He opened his hands, looking bewildered. “It is…a feeling. I do not know how to explain it. I never felt it before. It is like seeing without eyes. Something beyond the senses. But it was amazing.”
The desire to believe every word he said, to fall into this honey-baited trap, was so strong, it almost swept her away. But he was too damn smart. Sharp enough to read her mind, to know exactly what would tempt her, what would melt her.
She wiped angry tears away. Gave him a hollow laugh. “You want something that doesn’t exist, Janos. Or something that’s long dead.”
His face turned obstinate. “I felt it before you took me in your mouth. You were there with me, and suddenly you were not, and I was being fellated by a beautiful cortigiana, her mind and heart a million miles away from me. I am sorry. I did not mean to hurt your feelings. But it made me feel lonely.” He gave her a rueful shrug.
Tam rolled her eyes. “Oh, crap. I’m doing the one man in the whole world who gets depressed and lonely when a woman blows him.”
“Yes, yes. I know. There are worse things,” he cut in impatiently. “I have no reason to complain. You almost killed me with pleasure. But it is not enough, after feeling the other.”
“Keep in mind, the last time you screwed me, I was high, remember? I won’t let you do that to me again. What you felt was not real. It was just a chemical fantasy.”
“I did not take the drug, so the drug could not have created it,” he said stubbornly. “It only removed your barrier to it.”
“Same difference,” she informed him. “My barrier is up and it’s staying up. So put your clothes back on and get your high standards and your tight ass out of my hotel room before I—”
“No,” he said.
“What do you mean, no?”
“Me putting on my clothes and leaving you alone tonight is not one of the options you have right now,” he announced. “In fact, you have no options. There is only one outcome possible. Resign yourself.”
His implacable tone infuriated her. “Don’t you dare throw your weight around, Janos. I know you’re strong, but no one compels me. Trust me, it’s not worth the price I would make you pay.”
His eyes gleamed. “Is it not?”
“Want to die?” she asked. “I am not speaking figuratively, Janos.”
His face brightened. “Excellent!” he encouraged. “I prefer you murderous and for real to smiling and false.”
“Oh, you are nuts.” She lunged for the door. He yanked her up off her feet from behind, his hard arm clamped under her ribcage, holding her against his hot body. She tried hooking his ankles, elbowing his ribs, twisting like an eel, but his strength was enormous. “Goddamn you,” she whispered furiously. “Put me down.”
“Shhh,” he murmured. “You’ll wake the child.”
She started to feel panicked. “Put me down! This is where you get back at me for the necklace, right?”
“Shhh. Not at all,” he soothed. “I do not hold a grudge. That was my fault for letting down my guard. I will not make that mistake again.”
His cool, controlled tone drove her mad. “Oh, no,” she said, breathlessly. “You’re not angry. While you won’t let me go and threaten me with forced sex. Not angry at all. Right.”
He kissed the side of her neck. “Don’t be foolish,” he said. “You need me to be strong for you. Gently now. Or you’ll hurt yourself.”
“No,” she snarled, writhing. “I’ll hurt you.”
“I will not allow you to hurt me,” he said calmly. “You got the better of me today with your necklace, but I have you now and I will not let you go until I get what I want.”
Tears of pure frustration pricked and burned in her eyes. “I told you already, stronzo. What you want doesn’t exist!”
“No?” He turned her until they both looked into the mirror. “Look at you,” he said. “Finally, color in your face. Your eyes are shining. You are on fire.”
“Of course,” she snapped. “I’m furious with you!”
“Good, then. It works,” he said. “I know what you want. You like strength. You must have been so disappointed in me this afternoon, going down so easily, like a slaughtered pig. But I will make it up to you. I will not let you win again. You are safe this time. Trust me.”
Trust him. Hah. What a joke. He bent her forward, so her trapped arms rested on the cold marble countertop. Her eyes met his in the mirror. Her breath was shortened by rage—and excitement.
He knocked her legs wider with his knee.
She bit her lip as his hand slid between her legs, touching the lips of her pussy. Slipping between them, a slow, tender glide. Up and down, and up…and tenderly around her clit. Over and over. Her breath caught. “You’re with me now,” he said roughly. “That is the feeling I want.”
“Sure, I am. I’m helpless and immobilized, you prick,” she said sharply. “Is that how you like it?”
“Helpless? You?” He bit her earlobe. “You are the furthest thing from helpless I have ever met. You are a man-eating female tiger in the jungle. Perhaps you will rip out my throat afterward, but it will be worth it.” He dragged his teeth tenderly down the side of her neck, as he prodded two fingers between her slick folds and thrust them slowly, deeply inside.
She gasped silently and clenched around the intrusion.
“I would love to lick your clit, make you come with my mouth,” he murmured against her skin. “But you are so tense, so electric. I would have to restrain you hand and foot to do it properly. Someday I will do it. If we ever have the privacy. If we ever have a chance to use a bed.”
One
