"What?"
He lifted his hand, crooking his fingers in a wave back toward himself.
"Come here," he repeated.
She moved toward him slowly, hesitantly. He didn't know what it did to her to be too close to him, how much he made her want. It rose inside her like a hungry beast, tearing at her soul with a need she had pushed back all her life.
"What?" she asked again as she paused by the couch.
"Touch me, Harmony."
"I told you…"
"I didn't say f**k me, dammit, I said touch me," he growled. "Right here." He thumped his chest. "Just touch me."
She bent and placed her palm on his chest.
Heat. Harmony felt the weakness that flooded her as she went to her knees beside the couch, feeling the incredible heat of his body moving into hers. The phenomena was unlike anything she had ever known with another person. She had touched others, she wasn't a virgin, but she had never experienced this.
"This is why, Harmony." He brushed her hair tenderly back from her face, his thumb caressing her cheek as she stared into his eyes. "Feel my body giving to you. I've never done that before. As though my soul knows what you need, just as my body knows, and it gives to you selflessly. That's why I can't walk away. It's why I claim you as mine, even knowing that isn't what you want. Because that bond is already there. It was there when I pulled into the parking lot of that bar when all I wanted to do was head home. It was there the second my eyes met yours, my skin touched yours. Run away if you have to, but at least be aware of what you're running away from, baby."
He looked so sincere. His eyes darkening, his expression pulled into lines of worry and concern. As though he cared.
"Why?" She couldn't stop the question from passing her lips even as the heat of his body poured through her palm. "Why do you care, Lance? I kill…" He shook his head slowly. "What the child was forced to do is not her fault," he whispered. "What the woman has done to survive, and then to wreak vengeance, can be forgiven. It's where you go from this point that matters. Learning the difference between what is just and what is justice could mean the difference in your freedom or your own death. But what's between us goes deeper than life or death."
"It's a chemical reaction," she snapped, attempting to jerk her hand back. His hand gripped hers, forced it to flatten against his chest once again as his gaze turned fierce.
"How many one-night stands have you had, Harmony? How many men have you picked up in bars and spent the night f**king?"
"Stop!"
"Answer me. Or should I answer it for you? None." His voice lashed at her as his anger, lust and need seemed to lie in the very air around her. "You've never done it before. Why?"
"It's none of your business."
"Why, Harmony?" His voice rose, trapping her in place as effectively as his hand trapped hers against his chest. His arm had come down from the pillow behind him as his free hand shackled her other wrist, keeping her in place. "Answer me."
"I didn't want to."
"The truth, damn you!"
"Because their touch didn't matter." She tore away from him then, the memory of her first night with a man, a man she trusted, lashing at her brain.
She had forced herself to go through with it, forced herself into an intimacy she knew she didn't want. Dane was her friend; he had helped her, had given her a place of safety to hide. His touch hadn't sickened her, but neither had it heated her, drawn her.
"My touch mattered then." There was no smugness in his voice as she heard him rising to his feet. "Just as your touch matters to me, Harmony. You matter to me. Hiding isn't going to help you, or me. If your enemies find out you were here, whether you've been gone a week or two years, they'll find me."
Harmony stared back at him, her breathing rough as fear began to race through her mind. He was right. It wouldn't matter; the Coyotes and Council soldiers still stalking her wouldn't care. They would strike for the hell of it.
"Run now, Harmony." He waved his hand toward the door as she turned back to him.
"There's the f**king door. Do you think it's going to make a difference?"
"Why are you doing this?" she cried out desperately, her fists clenching at her sides.
"Why can't you let it go? Let me go?"
"Because you f**king belong to me!" he yelled back, his voice furious, his blue eyes blazing. "Mine, by God, just as much as I belong to you. Deny it. Go ahead, Harmony, look me in the eye and deny it."