She stepped back and stared up at him sadly. Her body still vibrated, her sex ached and the hunger for him burned hotter and brighter inside her.
He was her other half as well.
Her right hand.
Her warrior, her partner, her strength as well as her weakness. Anger bit at her soul that he refused to accept her as she accepted him.
“I need to be alone—”
“No, Diane . . .”
Her hand snapped up as she moved farther away from him. “I need to think, Lawe. I need to know I can be what you need before this goes any further.”
“It’s too late to deny it.” His heavy and brooding gaze speared hers. “Mating heat doesn’t work that way.”
Her chin lifted.
Like hell.
“Nothing rules me, Lawe. Not mating heat, not emotion or need. Not even you. I’ll accept it willingly, or it will not be a part of my life. And I need to consider what I can and cannot accept.” She stalked to the door and opened it slowly as he followed. “Please leave.”
“We’re not finished.”
She took his parting words as a statement of intent.
“We haven’t even started,” she informed him. “And we won’t, until I decide I’m ready.
“I should have just kissed you.”
“And I should have never returned here,” she snapped back. “You’re not my boss, nor are you my jailer. Now please, leave. At least allow me the chance to accept what can’t be changed here and to go on from there.”
His lips thinned. He didn’t answer. He stalked past her, striding into the hall before turning and heading toward the elevators once again.
As Diane closed the door, she knew her life had just taken a turn. And it was, quite possibly, a turn for which she wasn’t entirely ready.
CHAPTER 4
Somewhere between point A and point B, she had managed to lose her f**king mind.
Somewhere between Lawe moving behind her and a release that had erupted like a volcano inside her, her common sense had taken a vacation and left her libido in charge.
Bad idea.
Very, very bad idea.
Because her libido had no common sense and it sure as hell had no self-preservation instincts.
Standing beneath the pounding spray the next morning, her eyes closed as water sluiced over her body, Diane admitted that she may have made the worse mistake of her life when she allowed herself those few moments of pleasure.
Yes indeed, allowing Lawe Justice a window into a woman’s greatest weakness was a no-no. His touch was her greatest weakness, his kiss her fantasy, his possession an aching hunger that tore at her senses.
And he would be her destruction if she allowed it.
Last night had to have been some sort of breakdown. That was the only way she would have allowed it to happen, she assured herself. After all, her common sense was normally firmly intact. Her uncle hadn’t raised her to be no man’s dummy or his favorite pet.
And she could so easily see Lawe attempting to turn her into his favorite little pet.
She shuddered in horror at the thought. But it had nearly happened last night. She had allowed him to do far more than touch. She had allowed far more than the weakness that came with a moment of pleasure.