“I’m the man trying to save your pretty ass,” he bit out furiously. He jerked her into his arms.
“I will not allow you to sacrifice my family,” she raged bitterly. She couldn’t believe he would suggest such a thing. That he would even believe she would consider it.
“By God, I will sacrifice Stephen Taite, his son, and a hundred more like them to protect you!” Savage determination hardened his expression. “Don’t doubt that for a fucking minute, Tehya. No one, but fucking no one, matters as much to me as you and your safety.”
His anger barely registered. All she could feel was her own, her complete rejection of ever revealing herself to her family.
Even her mother had refused to go to them. Despite their wealth and power, decades after her abduction her mother had vehemently opposed contacting them anytime it was suggested. Until Boyd had been killed. Then, she had contacted her parents, and she had paid for it with her life and with theirs. Tehya vowed she wouldn’t make the same mistake.
Now Tehya would not go to them, and she wouldn’t have them pulled into her battle.
“Too late, Tehya,” he told her, his tone harsh, the cool logic lost as his eyes flamed with blue fire. “You can go along with it or we’ll go on to the next plan. Anonymously informing both Stephen Taite, as well as the press, of your existence and your whereabouts. Now we can fight this battle privately or, by God, we can do it publicly. Take your damned pick.”
He was furious.
Tehya had never seen him so angry, his eyes glittering with fiery emotion. But she couldn’t remember the last time she had been so pissed off, either.
Rage bit into her, fueling the aggression rising inside her.
“How dare you barge into my life and think you can make such autocratic decisions where I’m concerned! You are not my father and you’re not my husband, so you can fucking back off.”
“But I am your damned lover now and I won’t back down. I didn’t back down for Sorrel and I won’t back down for whoever the hell thinks they can continue to torture you. And I sure as hell won’t back down for you.”
Her lips parted to rage at him, to spew the fury boiling inside her, when he abruptly jerked her closer and his head lowered, his lips suddenly covering hers with a dominant, furious hunger.
As though the touch, the kiss, filled with his own fury and protectiveness had lit a fuse inside her own lust, Tehya began fighting, not for release, but for control of the kiss.
She nipped at his tongue as he licked hungrily at hers, his lips slanting over hers as her hands moved suddenly from his chest to his hair.
The force of her teeth against the sensitive flesh had him jerking back, but only momentarily. A second later his hand gripped her jaw, holding it as his lips covered hers forcibly once again.
The dominance, the incredible seductive force of the action, had a hungry moan passing her throat as her fingers clenched in the material covering his chest.
Buttons popped. The material parted and a second later the sexy mat of curls on his chest tingled against her sensitive palms.
It was incredible. Force meeting force as he groaned and the kiss deepened. Her nails rasped over his chest, her hands caressing, lowering along his abdomen to the low band of his jeans.
Beneath the tough denim material, the hard ridge of his cock tempted her, causing her to flatten her palm over the heavy width as a desperate cry vibrated in her throat and she returned to tearing at the metal clasp.
She wanted to taste him, to own him. To control all that hard strength and dominance for just a moment. To feel the hunger and the need that she knew he couldn’t deny when held in that intimate caress.
Finally the metal snap released, allowing her to work the zipper over the thick length.
Wickedly hot, the heavy flesh met her touch, sending trails of heated sensation to whip across her nerve endings.
Her nipples ached, felt too tight, too sensitive. Her clit throbbed in agony and her vagina clenched with emptiness. Need sizzled over her flesh, making her body ultrasensitive, receptive to even the slightest touch, aching for it, as she felt his hand slide into her hair and clench the heavy curls.
Fiery pleasure-pain whipped through her scalp. Heated need tore through her, striking at her clit, at her pussy, and causing her