“Stop,” she rasped, slamming her fists against his back. “What are you doing?”
With a smooth motion he had her off his shoulder and dumped onto the mattress. She landed with a furious gasp, tangled in her yellow silk dress.
“You’re not leaving until you tell me what’s wrong with you,” he warned.
“Wrong with me?” She shoved herself onto her elbows, glaring at him with a combination of fury and something that might have been fear. Not of him. She had to know he’d never do anything to hurt her. At least not physically. Her fear was of losing control of the situation. “You’re the lunatic who won’t let me leave.”
“I will once I have the truth.”
Her lashes swept down, hiding her eyes. “I told you the truth.”
“That you spent the past eight years plotting revenge because I hurt your feelings?” he demanded, anger still clouding his mind.
“You humiliated me,” she muttered, refusing to meet his outraged stare. “And I didn’t spend eight years plotting. As you pointed out, I’ve built a successful career. That doesn’t happen without dedicated attention to my work.”
“Exactly,” he snapped. “Which means you should have outgrown this petty need for vengeance a long time ago.”
She hunched a shoulder. “You ruined what should have been a special occasion.”
He had.
There was no denying he’d botched the entire night. Starting with showing up at the trailer in the first place. He’d known she was innocent, and that she would expect more than he could offer at that time.
Still it seemed extreme to devote eight years to payback.
In fact, it seemed preposterous.
He frowned, forcing aside the fury clouding his mind.
Madison wasn’t a bunny-burner. She was intelligent, driven, and successful on a level that only a small percentage of people ever achieved.
So why be obsessed with one lousy jackass from her past?
“No.” He gave a sharp shake of his head. His disreputable past as a womanizer meant he understood human nature. Especially when it came to the fairer sex. This wasn’t adding up. “There’s more to this.”
She turned her head to glare at the far wall, a brittle tension vibrating around her. “If you insist on this pointless conversation, would you put on some clothes?”
He snorted. “Why? Does my body bother you?”
“I’m tired of seeing you na**d.”
“Odd,” he purred, his gaze sliding down her slender form. The sundress had twisted around her thighs, revealing the spectacular length of her legs. Legs that had recently wrapped around his waist as he’d pounded into her. “Just a half hour ago you couldn’t wait to see me na**d,” he reminded her, taking pleasure as she flinched. “And you certainly weren’t complaining about my lack of clothes when I was buried deep inside your body and you were groaning in pleasure.”
She jerked her head back to meet his mocking gaze, her cheeks flushing with embarrassment.
“No one could ever claim you aren’t a stud who knows how to use his equipment. You’ve practiced enough, after all.”
His eyes narrowed at the hostility that edged her voice. “That’s it.”
She frowned. “What?”
“That bitterness,” he said. “It’s more than a woman disappointed at having her virginity taken by an immature son of a bitch.”
Her breath caught, her gaze becoming wary. “No. You just can’t accept that for once you are the one being used and dumped.”
“I’ve been used more times than I can count,” he dryly assured her. Women weren’t the only ones who were chosen just because of their looks. “Certainly enough times to know the difference between a woman who is just looking to scratch an itch and one who is so consumed with need for me she melts at my touch.”
“Arrogant bastard,” she muttered, scrambling off the far side of the bed and heading toward the door.