she tried to speak. “Yes, yes, you can kill them yourself—I’m not disputing that. I just like that you have backup. Sue me.”
Giving him a mock scowl, Devon knocked his hand away. “I wasn’t going to needlessly remind you that I’m capable of protecting myself.” Okay, maybe she would have prefaced her statement with that, but whatever. “I was going to say that there are far worse things than dying, and that maybe we should make an example of anyone we discover played any part in what happened rather than killing them outright. We should make them suffer; let others know what fate will await them if they make the same mistake.”
Tanner looked at her, his mouth curved. “I like that idea.”
“Yeah, I figured you would.” His kind were as bloodthirsty as hers. Devon downed the last of her herbal tea and stood. “I need to get home.”
“You’ll be happy to know that your car is back in action,” said Jolene. “I had Richie park it in the lot outside your building earlier.”
Tanner pushed to his feet. “I’ll give you a ride, kitten.”
Her stomach plummeted at the “we need to talk” look he gave her. After the weird evening she’d had, she really wasn’t in the mood for that conversation. In fact, she wanted to just relax on the sofa with a tub of chocolate chip ice-cream and watch TV. But she didn’t fight him on taking her home, not trusting he wouldn’t say something like “You didn’t mind me giving you a different kind of ride last night” right there in front of God and everybody.
Neither of them said a word during the drive to her place. The silence was far from comfortable, since the air was static with the same sexual energy that pulsed through her body. It was an honest to God relief when he pulled up outside the building.
As they climbed the stairwell, she was keenly aware of every move he made—the bunching and flexing of his muscles, the heated glances he sent her, the way his nostrils flared as he occasionally leaned in to inhale her scent. “Stop sniffing me!”
“Stop smelling like candy.”
And what could she say to that except … “You’re an idiot.”
Once they were inside her apartment, she headed straight to the kitchen. Mostly because it was the biggest room she had, which meant she could put a good deal of space between them.
Folding her arms, Devon lifted an expectant brow. Standing a few feet away, he stared at her and … God, he was just so intent on her. Snared her with a laser-focus that made her feel as if he saw no one else.
He planted his feet. “Time’s up, kitten. I need an answer.”
Swallowing hard against the impact of the rising sexual tension that was thickening the air, she tapped her arm with her nails. “A month is too long. One more night.”
“No.” He shook his head. “Another night won’t cut it.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Yeah, I do.”
God, he was so damn stubborn. “Forty-eight hours,” she tossed out.
“A month.” Tanner took a single step forward. “I intend to take you every way a man can take a woman. Need more than forty-eight hours for that.”
Well damn if her feminine parts didn’t pull out the pompoms. “Forty-eight hours is the most I’ll agree to.”
“A month,” he insisted.
Devon’s fingers flexed with the temptation to grip him by the throat and shake him. “If you’re not even willing to compromise, there’s no point to this conversation.”
He slanted his head. “Why don’t you want to give me a month? What are you afraid of, kitten?”
Honestly? That she’d get used to having him around. Devon relied on herself and met her own needs. A guy like Tanner would barge his way into her life and make a place for himself there. He’d insist on doing things for her, on being there for her, and on having her trust. He’d coax and push and badger and entice, set on having exactly what he wanted exactly when he wanted it. And then he’d leave, and she’d be alone again.
“I’m not keen on letting someone into my life who fully intends to walk straight back out of it once he’s had his fill of me,” she said.
Tanner felt his jaw harden. She made it sound as if he saw her as nothing more than a faceless fuck, which she had to know was pure bullshit. The truth was he’d never get his fill of her. “We can’t give each other