side as he leaned up and opened a high cupboard she hadn't been able to reach. Her eye fell on his right biceps, on the tattoo there - three slashing lines, they reminded her of the markings on Lucas Hunter's face. "When did you get inked?"
A grunt was his only response. Curious, she peered at his back to check out the tattoo she'd glimpsed earlier. There it was, on the back of his left shoulder, an exquisitely detailed leopard curled up in sleep. Animal and human in one, she thought, understanding his need to acknowledge the leopard as he had never been allowed to do as a child. "I like the cat," she said, watching him close the first cupboard and open the one beside it. "Who did it?"
"A guy I knew from juvie - turned into a hotshot artist," he muttered. "Where the hell did I put it?"
Hopes rising, she stood on tiptoe beside him, trying to peek inside. "Chocolate?"
He reached deep into the space. "Chocolate." Pulling out his hand, he put a bar of luscious dark chocolate in her palm.
She could've kissed him, growly face and all. "Do you like chocolate now?"
"Hell, no. I can't stand the stuff." He closed the cupboard and leaned his hip against the counter. "Sascha, however, has a love affair with it. She gave it to me." He sounded puzzled.
"Maybe because she likes you?" Talin suggested, setting the milk to warm on the small heating unit she guessed was powered by an eco-generator. Everything in Clay's house seemed to have been designed with the forest's delicate ecology in mind. "She wanted to make you happy and probably figured that everyone likes chocolate."
"I guess." He yawned again but didn't move from where he stood only two feet from her, all dark masculine beauty. "You do this a lot?"
"Most every night," she admitted. "I don't sleep much."
"I'll need to get more chocolate, then."
"No." She looked up from peeling open the bar. "I can't stay here."
His eyes gleamed. "Why not? Afraid I'll bite you?"
"You already did," she reminded him with a scowl.
"You survived." He sounded very much like a cat at that moment.
"You know why I can't stay. We keep setting each other off. It's not exactly a peaceful environment."
"When did you get so hung up on peace?" He nodded at the milk. "Put in the chocolate."
"What? Oh." She broke off several chunks and dropped them in. "This kind makes good hot chocolate. Some of the others end up tasting weird."
Reaching into a drawer in front of him, he gave her a wooden spoon. She began to stir, inhaling the rich scent into her lungs with a sigh. "Heaven."
When Clay didn't say anything, she looked at him. He was watching her with a stare that was frankly assessing...and very sensual. Her heart kicked and she broke the searing eye contact, tucking her hair back when it twisted out from behind her ear. "Don't."
A hint of steel entered his languid pose, as if with her rejection, she'd pushed one of his damn male buttons. "Why not?"
The arrogance in his question put her back up. "Because!"
"You're a clearly sexual female. I'm a male. You want me. I want you. What's the problem?"
Her hand trembled as she turned off the heating unit. "Who says I want you?" She pointed the dripping spoon at him.
He winced as a drop of hot chocolate hit his chest but didn't move. "I can smell arousal, Talin. You get hot every time you see me half-naked."
The erotic need that flared through her body was mortifying. Perhaps that explained the stupidity of her next words. "Maybe I get that way for every half-naked man."
He stilled, becoming so very motionless that she felt like some tiny forest creature in front of a beast of prey. "So you'll have no problem spreading your legs for me, will you?"
Chapter 14
Putting the spoon very carefully on the counter, Talin picked up a mug from the stand. "Go away."
Clay had expected anger. This calm distance left him flatfooted. She sounded so focused, so controlled, she might as well have been Psy. "Talin, look at me."
She picked the pot up off the stove and poured her drink into the mug. He waited until she'd put the hot object safely into the sink before grabbing her wrist. Her skin was damp, cold. "Talin?"
"What?" She looked at him, face serene in a way he'd never before seen. Tally had too much energy, too much emotion, to ever be that quiet.