Burned by Darkness - Alexandra Ivy Page 0,40
a few minutes ago.
And it involved her lips being wrapped around his very hard cock…
“Don’t,” she rasped.
“And now you’re anxious to get away from me,” he continued, the air prickling with a heat more angry than sexy. “Why?”
She licked her lips, glancing over his shoulder at the window. Anything to avoid that burning amber gaze.
“I might be forced to be your concubine, but that doesn’t mean I can pretend my real life doesn’t exist,” she insisted.
She didn’t consider the words tumbling out of her mouth. Not until she felt Baine stiffen.
“Forced?” he said, his voice a low growl.
Tayla grimaced. Rats. She’d wanted to put some distance between them, but she hadn’t intended to imply that she’d been some sort of unwilling victim.
With an effort, she met his fierce glare. “You know what I mean.”
“As a matter of fact, I don’t. It sounded as if you were saying that I forced you into my arms.” His face was dangerously devoid of emotion. “Am I mistaken?”
“I just meant…” She licked her lips, her gaze once again moving to the window. “I have a life that I can’t put on hold forever.”
His hands tightened on her face. “Tayla, look at me.”
It was a command, not a request, and Tayla found herself obeying before she could stop herself.
“What?”
He bent his head until they were only an inch apart, a small tendril of smoke curling from his nose.
“Are you in this bed because you wanted me or because you felt compelled to be here?”
“Baine—”
“Answer the question,” he snarled. “Why are you in my bed?”
They both knew why. She couldn’t resist him.
Heck, she didn’t want to resist him. At least her body didn’t.
But the words refused to leave her lips. Instead she gave a shake of her head.
“Do you have to take everything?”
He scowled at her harsh accusation. “What the hell does that mean?”
“Isn’t it enough that I’ve agreed to pay my father’s debt?”
“No, it isn’t.” The amber eyes darkened. Not with anger. But with something that made her heart clench with regret.
Her lips parted to take back the awful words, but before she could speak he was off the bed and yanking on his loose pants.
“Fine.” The indulgent lover was gone. Replaced by a cold-eyed predator who snapped his fingers with impatience. “Get dressed.”
Acutely aware that she’d just destroyed something fragile, and perhaps even precious, Tayla scrambled off the bed, keeping the sheet wrapped around her shivering body.
“Where are we going?” she demanded.
The perfect male features were hard, the tattoos swirling over his body at a frenetic pace.
“If you want to be treated like another pretty bauble in my hoard, then your wish is my command.”
CHAPTER TEN
Baine couldn’t remember when he’d been so furious.
Not when his father had tossed him out of the family lair before he’d barely passed puberty. Not when the goblin tried to sell him a treasure chest full of fool’s gold. Not even when a mob of overly-zealous humans snuck into his cave and tried to stab him with a pitchfork.
And it was fury that flowed through his veins like acid, he grimly assured himself. It had nothing to do with disappointment, or thwarted desire, or an aching heart.
That would be…madness.
Holding onto Tayla’s arm, he opened a portal directly to the deepest¸ most secret part of his lair. Then, tugging her forward, he slammed shut the opening behind them.
Once he sensed she was steady on her feet, he released his grip and took a sharp step backward, folding his arms over his chest.
He told himself it was to be even more intimidating. As if a big, bad dragon needed extra effort to bully a tiny slip of an imp. But that was better than admitting it was the only way to keep himself from reaching out to brush back the golden curls that framed her pale face. Or to touch the plum cashmere sweater to see if it was as soft as it looked.
Inside him his beast lashed its tail and breathed fire. It didn’t understand why he wasn’t back in bed with this female in his arms.
The beast didn’t care that she was stubbornly refusing to admit she melted beneath his touch because she desired him. Desperately. The dragon only knew that nothing had ever felt so good as the sensation of having his cock plunged deep into the silken warmth of her body.
Baine, however, was deeply offended at being accused of forcing a female.
Hadn’t he paid a damned fortune for her? And hadn’t he spent twenty-five years trying to