And that was far too dangerous.
“What are you doing to me?”
Gypsy couldn’t force any of this to make sense.
This wasn’t her. She didn’t tell her secrets, not any of them. If she trusted anyone with one of them, then she would be tempted to trust more. And she knew better than that. Yet she wanted to tell him her secrets. She needed to talk to him, needed him to listen, to understand the why of so many things.
“I think we’ve talked enough—”
“I watched my mother die.” His head turned to her, his eyes so brilliant they burned.
“What?”
“In those labs,” he told her, his voice rough. “I’ve never spoken of it to anyone, including the brother forced to watch with me. We had two young siblings to protect. If we showed emotion, they would have been killed instantly. But we were forced to hear her screams and the screams of the Breed she loved as they were dissected while still living. The memory of those screams, of hearing the death of the woman who fought every day of her life to find a way to get her children, no matter that they were forced upon her, out of those labs, torments my nightmares. So should you awaken to my screams, perhaps you will simply awaken me, share your warmth and your courage with me, as I would do for you should the nightmares come to you as well.”
The offer shattered her.
She felt her lips tremble as she stared into his gaze, saw the torment, the loss, the pain he suffered in a way that only made him stronger in her eyes.
“I would hold you through those nightmares if you allowed it, Gypsy.” His fingers cupped the side of her face as he stared down at her.
“If I could,” he continued. “I would hold the nightmares at bay for you.”
“If I could, I would throw you out of my apartment and out of my life,” she whispered painfully, her fingers gripping his forearms, feeling the hard muscles beneath the tough flesh as she stared up at him. “I don’t want you here. I don’t want you messing with my head and ruining my plans and my life.”
“And what plans have I ruined, little Gypsy?” he questioned her gently, his eyes disbelieving as he brushed a soft kiss over her lips. “Your plans to exist like the perfect frozen little princess? To deny yourself something so basic as this?” The backs of his fingers caressed down her cheek, her neck, sending tingles of pleasure racing through her.
“You’re the reason Jonas offered my parents a chance at that contract, aren’t you?” she accused him, the way she’d been maneuvered still chafing at her.
He grinned. A self-satisfied, smug smile. “I would hate to have to attend the parties and gatherings I’m certain you’d send me to alone, if you could.”
Her frown turned to a glare. “Because of you I have to wear a dress I had designed just for another event this fall. A ball that’s damned near impossible to be noticed at without a dress as intriguing as it is unique. Your last-minute invitation to that Breed ball just ruined those plans.”
The dress wasn’t really the objection she had to it, Gypsy admitted. Hell, she’d admitted it to herself hours ago.
“Why do I sense far more than your ire that a dress is being sacrificed?” he asked gently, and she hated him for that gentleness.
She hated him for making her want to reveal things he had no need to know and to force her to attend a party she’d had no intention of attending.
“I hate being manipulated,” she bit out between clenched teeth, moving to pull from him, expecting him to let her go.
Instead, his hold only tightened as a flash of male, dominant sexuality sparked in his eyes.
“And I hate aching, hungering for a woman who wants me just as desperately yet finds herself too terrified of the past to take what she wants.”
The accusation struck far too close to the truth.
“So, should I just sleep with you and thank you very nicely for f**king me once you’re finished?” she demanded with mocking sweetness. “Did you think that damned contract would get you into my bed, Rule?”
His lips curled with just a hint of amusement. “A man can hope, but I have to admit, I wasn’t betting on it.”
“You’re an arrogant ass,” she accused him roughly.
And she was insane. Somewhere she had managed to lose what common sense she possessed.
“It’s time you le—” She didn’t have a chance to finish the rest of the demand. His lips came over hers with a powerful, dominant force that had a surprised moan slipping from between them. Her hands rose to his shoulders, nails digging into the material of his shirt as she was drawn to her tiptoes, suddenly so desperate to get closer that the need was exploding through her senses.
She could taste the chocolate and peppermint candies he was known to enjoy. The taste of the sweet was licked onto her tongue as he pressed past her lips and stroked over it. It filled her senses and gave her a whole new appreciation of the candy.