“They’re gossiping about me, Mac,” she whispered. “Hell, I haven’t even done anything yet and they’re gossiping about me.”
She raised her hand as he started toward her, his expression suddenly quiet, thoughtful.
“I need to change clothes. Shower. Think.” She shook her head as she headed for the stairs. “I’ll be down later to fix dinner.”
“Keiley.” He caught her arm as she headed to the stairs.
Keiley stared at his fingers wrapped around her wrist before lifting her gaze slowly to Mac.
“I said I need to think,” she told him icily. “I will not step into this little game you and Jethro want to play without considering where it will go and how it will end. Don’t make the mistake of thinking you can alpha me into this, Mac.”
“Alpha you?” His brow arched. “Is this another word for force?”
“It’s another word for all this supersexy dominance you think you can suddenly control me with. The dominance doesn’t control me, Mac. You don’t control that. And you won’t use it to get what you want until I decide it’s what I want. Do you understand me?”
His other hand moved, lightning fast, cupping the back of her head as his fingers speared into her hair.
“Understand me,” he said then with heavy sensuality as he pulled her closer, his lips a hairsbreadth from hers, stroking them, reminding her of his kiss last night, of the fiery storm that had overtaken her. “Our sex life is just that. Ours. I’ll take care of Delia. I’ll take care of anyone, anywhere, who decides my business is theirs.”
Keiley gasped as he pulled her to him then, one arm going around her back as the other hand held her head in place and his lips covered hers.
Like the night before. Like every kiss they had ever shared combined into one. The heat that blazed from it was searing. The feel of his tongue controlling hers, his lips holding hers, his powerful chest beneath her palms.
She couldn’t touch him enough. He couldn’t kiss her enough.
Her hands pushed up his chest, twined in his hair, pulled him closer to her. Dragged him closer into the kiss, tried to climb into him.
Damn him. Damn her. A whimper left her throat as her back met the wall and Mac lifted her to him.
Rage and fear flowed through her. Rage at Delia Staten for daring to strike at where she was most vulnerable. Fear because she had been struck. And hunger. Oh, God, the hunger he inspired in her was too much to bear. It burned through the anger and the fear. It wrapped her in white-hot wonder, filled her with blistering pleasure.
“I tried to be what I thought a good husband should be,” he snarled as he drew back from her, one hand covering her neck before moving to the buttons at the bodice of her dress. “I tried to give you what I thought you deserved.”
Buttons were falling away beneath his fingers as a storm raged in his eyes.
“What do I deserve?” She arched against him, one leg rising to hook at his hip, to draw closer to the steel-hard bulge beneath his jeans.
“Everything.” The material fell back to reveal the black lace pushup bra she wore beneath the dress. “You deserve everything I can give you. Every touch. Every cry of pleasure, every whisper of sensuality that I can give you.”
“And you know how to give it all?” she panted, her head falling back against the wall as his lips trailed down her neck.
His head lifted slowly. “I know how to make certain you get it all,” he amended.
Keiley licked at her lips, feeling the blood pounding through her body, pleasure ripping over her nerve endings. She was so aroused, so wet now, so desperate for everything his eyes promised that it terrified her.
“No matter how it destroys us?”
He shook his head slowly. “I would never let anything destroy you, Keiley. Ever. I’ll always shelter you.”
His love sheltered her. She had known that from the beginning, from the first night when he had looked into her eyes and told her he was hers forever.
“You’re my forever,” she reminded him then.
“Always,” he promised, his lips touching hers once more.
“I need to think.” She closed her eyes against the promise in his eyes. “I can’t just—do this.”
“There’s nothing to do, sweetheart.” He caught her bottom lip, licked at it, nipped it before slowly releasing her and stepping back.