Her Tender Tyrant Page 0,1

he’d settled down to read the reports his assistant had sent to him.

“I’m Juliette. And I’m armed!” she warned, her big, brown eyes revealing her terror.

Marcus registered her fear quickly enough and told him that she wasn’t a threat. At least not a threat in the traditional manner. “Okay, Juliette, how did you get through the alarm system?”

She stuttered for a moment before finally spitting out, “Damien Alfieri showed me how to disarm the security system, but it’s still on. And the security company has probably already sent the police here.”

Marcus almost laughed at her threat. “I don’t hear the alarm ringing.”

“It’s a silent alarm,” she lied, praying that he would just go away. It suddenly occurred to her that she wasn’t necessarily afraid of this man. Not that he would hurt her so much as…well, she wasn’t really sure why she was so nervous. There was just an instinctive knowledge that she knew he wouldn’t hurt her. So why was she shivering so violently?

Marcus leaned in closer, trying to ignore her soft body pressing against his. She was in his house illegally; he shouldn’t be turned on by her. “It isn’t a silent alarm. If the alarm were going off, the people in town would be able to hear it,” he countered. “Why are you here?”

Juliette wasn’t sure who he was, but their position was becoming a bit awkward. “Um…do you think you could take your hand off of my breast?” she asked, looking all pretty and blushing now. “Please?” she whispered.

Marcus looked down. It wasn’t that he hadn’t known his hand was on a breast. And this one was extraordinary. But since this was a stranger, albeit a gorgeous one, he really should release the luscious flesh.

Slowly, his hand opened up and he moved back, but not far enough that she could escape. All of a sudden, a cold blob fell onto his shoulder. He looked down, remembering the cold splash to his face several moments ago. He realized that there was a blob of ice cream melting on his shirt, soaking through to his skin.

“You’re stealing ice cream?” he asked, looking disgusted as he pulled the chunk of ice cream off of him with his fingers, flinging it into the sink behind her.

“I’m not stealing anything!” she countered, offended that he would even suggest something like that. “And who are you? What are you doing in Damien Alfieri’s house?”

“Damien Alfieri is my father. I’m Marcus Alfieri, little Ms. Juliette. So I believe I have a right to be here since I grew up in this house. Which still doesn’t explain what your adorable butt is doing in my parents’ fridge, eating ice cream.”

Juliette suddenly realized the crazy situation and started to laugh. It was just a chuckle at first, but as the hilarity of the scene started to dawn on her, the laughter grew until she was doubled over, laughing and almost crying, holding her stomach as the adrenaline slowly left her body.

When she could finally stop laughing, she stood up, taking a deep breath and pushing her hair back off of her face. “Oh, goodness. I needed that laugh. It’s been a really tough week so far.”

“It’s Wednesday,” he said, enjoying her laughter but still not sure what she was doing in his parents’ house. She was cute, in a sexy kitten kind of way. Not too skinny but definitely not fat. Curvy, he thought. And tiny. Hell, she barely reached his shoulder in her bare feet. She was small enough to be a kid, but her figure told him she was all woman. A woman he wouldn’t mind exploring a bit more. If he could just figure out what she was doing in this house.

“Yes, well, so it is,” she said, and reached around, putting the top on the tub of ice cream. “Well, your mother read a paper of mine that was published recently. She and I have been talking, getting to know one another. She heard about my thesis and invited me here to study her horses, to prove or disprove my thesis.”

One black eyebrow curved upwards. “My Mom and dad went to Texas.”

She smiled slightly, her eyes taking in his extremely muscular arms and those sexy hands with long fingers that…Juliette shook her head, trying to focus on the suspicious look on this scary man’s handsome face. “Yes. I know. When she called me to tell me she was going out of town suddenly, I tried to back out of the study,