it comes to me. You relinquished your rights when you walked out on me five years ago!”
“What the hell kind of statement is that? You’re blaming me now for this whole mess?”
“You were always too goddamned independent. I asked you not to go on that stupid trip, but you wouldn’t listen to me. You had to do just as you damn well pleased, like always, and now look at the fucking mess we’re in.”
Kate’s eyes narrowed. “You son of a bitch. How dare you bring up something like that, something I don’t even remember. As you so easily reminded me yesterday, I’m your wife, not some measly peon you can order around and treat like garbage.”
She turned to leave, but he crossed the floor, grasped her arm, and whirled her around before she could get away. “My wife? That’s a laugh. Yesterday you didn’t want to have anything to do with being my wife, and now, when it’s convenient and you can use it, you throw it in my face?”
“Take your hands off me.”
“Or what?” He backed her against the wall, his height a looming advantage, more than evident to her at the moment. “If you’re my wife, don’t I have the right to touch you? Or are you the only one with rights around here? There’s a whole slew of reporters downstairs. Why don’t you just run down and tell them what an ass I am. They’re looking for something else to print about me.”
The heat from his hands all but burned the skin of her arm beneath her jacket. A dark fire brewed in his eyes, a hint of danger. Her pulse quickened, her senses peaked when she caught a whiff of his musky cologne.
She wasn’t attracted to arrogant, domineering men. She wasn’t. Not at all.
So why was her heart thumping wildly in her chest?
“Let go of me,” she said with as much calm as she could muster.
His jaw tightened. His eyes locked on hers. Long seconds passed as he stared at her. And in the silence, that connection she’d felt to him in the park flared hot all over again, dousing her anger and filling her with regret.
“Damn it.” He let go. Turned away.
She grabbed his arm. “Ryan.”
His whole expression softened when he looked back at her. And something in that look shot straight to her heart—a feeling she wasn’t prepared for or even expecting.
“Oh, hell.” His hands tangled in her hair as he pulled her mouth toward his. Those tempting lips crushed over hers. His tongue, rough and hot, dipped into her mouth when she opened. She reached for him before she even realized what she was doing, grasped his arms at the elbows. Dark flashes of arousal coursed through her, erupted in her center, spread through every limb and nerve ending.
He pressed her back against the wall, changed the angle of the kiss, took her deeper. The contrast in textures blew her mind—hard and firm against her hips, soft and sensual at her mouth. Need pumped through her, shooting spears of heat through her entire body.
She didn’t think to push away, only wanted more. More of his touch. More of his mouth. More of his wicked body pressing into hers. She trembled when his hands combed through her hair, streaked down her shoulders and arms to grasp her waist. Her skin tingled with each touch, every caress.
Those delicious lips trailed the line of her jaw, pulling a moan from her chest. She threaded her hands into his hair, the silky blond strands wrapping around her fingers. Dropping her head back, she offered him her throat. Shivered when his lips moved down her neck.
More, more, more. The words pounded in her brain, tightened her breasts, spread heat straight to her sex. An ache pulsed between her legs, one that needed to be filled. One that needed him to fill it. He fumbled with her jacket, thrust it over her shoulders, trapping her arms at her sides. The buttons on her blouse gave one by one; the front clasp on her bra popping open with little effort.
He eased back just far enough to look down, and a moan slipped from his lips. A moan laced with hunger. Kate’s skin tingled as he stared at her, and her nipples puckered when his hands moved over her breasts, teasing, molding, taking.
She wanted him. Needed this. When his mouth found hers again, she opened on reflex, drew him deep, tangled her tongue with his, and groaned when she felt the