“No.”
“Then just say it and be gone.”
He hesitated. “I don’t think you want an audience.” Or he didn’t. For reasons she could only guess at, he didn’t want the Catrell brothers, each now staring at Deke intently over her shoulders, to hear what he was about to say. If he said more of the filth he’d spouted to her a mere twenty-four hours ago, then he’d come off smelling like shit. He should know that…but maybe he didn’t. Deke was hardly a master of the social graces. The chance to give him enough rope to hang himself made her smile.
“I don’t mind. Shoot.”
“Okay”—He shrugged—“Yesterday, when Luc and I had you naked and spread across our kitchen counter with our mouths on your—”
“Stop!” she gasped, feeling furious heat dash up her cheeks.
The brother whose name she couldn’t remember chuckled in her ear. Deke smiled smugly. Bastard! He’d come to fight dirty and had gone straight for the jugular. Why hadn’t she seen that coming?
“She belong to you and Luc?” Adam asked Deke.
“Yes.”
“Hell no!” she blurted at the same time.
That muscle in Deke’s jaw began working again. “Come outside with me so we can discuss this.”
Did the man just not know when to quit? “I don’t belong to you and your cousin, I’m not coming near your kitchen counter again, and I’m certainly not going outside with you.”
“I came here to say something I think you want to hear.”
“I’m not interested in being just another wet hole to you, and I’m too pissed to care.”
One second, Deke stood two feet away, not touching any part of her. A blink later, he crowded in and hovered toe-to-toe with her, one arm around her waist, the other tangled in the hair hanging halfway down her back.
“I’m not going to ask again. Come outside and talk with me or I’m going to find the nearest chair, pull that little skirt up over your ass, and spank your pretty cheeks red with the entire crowd watching.”
Kimber didn’t waste the breath necessary to say, “You wouldn’t.” She knew better.
Irritation poisoned her thoughts. He was a high-handed SOB. Even as she thought it, though, her belly fluttered with something… No, that could not be arousal.
“You have no right.”
He shrugged. “I’ll sure enjoy it.”
Adam shoved his way between them. “As much as I’d like the view, there’s no violence or nudity in the club, y’all. You’ll have to take it outside.” She whirled on him, jaw dropping. The jerk was letting her go and feeding her to the wolves all in one sentence? Figures the men would stick together.
“You know what? Go screw yourselves—all of you. I’m going home.” The Catrell brothers laughed. Blood raging with fury, she stormed toward the exit.
Assholes, the lot of them! And she wasn’t stupid enough to believe that Deke would leave it at that. He was following her; she felt him about two steps behind.
Damn the man.
As she reached the club’s door, the music started up again. Kimber found the biggest, meanest bouncer of the trio clustered around the door and smiled his way.
“Can you escort me to my car? I’m being followed.” She sent a nasty glare over her shoulder at Deke.
“Aw, honey,” Deke crooned and wrapped an arm around her. “Don’t be mad.” Before she could tell him where to shove his comment and inform the bouncer that he was an annoying stranger, deranged stalker—something—Deke hauled her against him, dropped his head, and trapped every furious word on the tip of her tongue with a blistering kiss.
She struggled, but within moments, all she knew was Deke. Warm male, ripe with persuasion, soaked in sin, invaded her senses. His mouth coaxed her. Kimber resisted. She really tried. Despite the fury swirling through her, Deke incited a familiar leap of pulse, a surge of want, that doused her protests. With a brush of his lips, a slow caress of tongue, the soft slide of his palm down her back, he enveloped her in desire—and not just hers. His own was so tangible, she tasted the tang of his arousal on her tongue.
His kiss melted her with the restrained urgency of his own need, softened into a tangle of lips, breaths, and tongues she would never have imagined Deke Trenton capable of. Timeless, weightless, thoughtless, Kimber let herself float away into the heart-racing, heat-pooling power of his kiss.
Until he nipped at her lip, soothed it with a tender lick, then slid a soft brush of his mouth over hers. Without thinking, she leaned into him, seeking more kisses, more contact, more him.