FOUR
Devil narrowed his eyes on the young woman that stepped into his office before closing the door with careful emphasis behind her.
The long spiral red curls that fell around her head and down her lithe, toned body should have reminded him far too much of Lobo’s stepdaughter for the reaction that immediately knifed through his body.
He’d never had a sexual interest in Khileen, no matter her harmless flirtation at times. If only he could feel the same brotherly affection toward her Irish friend.
Emerald eyes flashed with fiery anger, immediately rousing the animal instincts that surged through him. As though all the human and animal dominant qualities he possessed were immediately awakened, his body tightened, tautened until he was all but jumping from his chair and dragging her to the floor to f**k them both into exhaustion.
And doing so wouldn’t take a lot of effort. Push the gauzy little skirt she wore over her hips, tear what was sure to be sexy, silken panties from her body—all could be accomplished in less than a second. In the next heartbeat, he could be buried, full length, inside her.
“Why do you dislike me?” Delicate hands curved over her hips defiantly as she glared across the room at him. “What have I ever done to you to make you want to see me dead?”
His brow lifted. “Little girl, if I wanted to see you dead, it would be easy enough to accomplish,” he informed her.
Dead wasn’t exactly what he wanted, and that was what pissed him off.
“Little girl?” her eyes widened then narrowed suspiciously. “Are you so terrified of seeing me as a woman that you can’t even acknowledge the fact that I am one?”
Bingo. Give the girl a prize for getting the answer on the first try.
But he snorted instead before resuming his seat behind the wide desk scattered with files and reports.
“Why don’t you go plan a party or a shopping trip with Khileen,” he suggested, injecting just enough mockery in his tone to piss her off further. “The adults on this ranch have to actually work.”
That was a little low, he admitted, but God help him, he had to get her out of his office before his c**k managed to burst past his zipper and the instincts driving him to possess her overcame his determination not to.
Shifting the files around, he picked one from the desk, any one, he wasn’t even certain what he was staring at, waiting for her to leave.
Instead, her scent moved closer.
“Why are you allowing Lobo Reever to know that you’re displeased over his decision to allow me to stay here?”
She stomped to the desk, but she didn’t stop at the front of it as she should have. Hell no, she moved right beside it.
Her pretty hands braced against the top of the desk within his sight, her delicate, oval nails drawing his gaze.
“You haven’t answered me,” she reminded him.
“I don’t owe you any answers.” But he laid the file aside before leaning back in his chair and staring back up at her. “You should leave this office now.”
“Should I?” she snapped. “Not before I know what your problem is.”
She wanted to know what his problem was? Did she really want to know?”
Before he could stop himself, before she could avoid him, he came out of his chair in a surge of motion, gripped her arm and jerked her to him before wrapping his arm below her ass and lifting her to the table.
In the space of a second he had her legs spread, the denim covered length of his c**k pressing against her sex as he leaned closer, and he was slowly forcing her to lean back on the desk.
“This is why,” he snapped, staring into her widening, darkening gaze. “Because all I can think about is f**king you. That makes you a danger to this ranch and everyone in it.”
“No, it makes you a danger.” She had to force the words past her lips.
“But I’m not just visiting,” he reminded her. “You are.”
Her lips parted to argue, to say more; rather than allowing her to do so, he shut her up in the only manner at his disposal.
His lips covered hers.