“I’m going to go," he said."All right."He didn’t move. Then: "I don’t want to.""Do it anyway."He chuckled. "You’re a hard woman, Faith Devlin.""Hardy.""I didn’t know him. He isn’t real to me. Did you love him?""Yes." But not the way I love you. Never like that.”

“You see?" he asked, his voice softening to a velvety punas he felt her tremble. His warm breath stirred her hair. "All I have to do is touch you. It’s the same for me, Faith. I don’t like this worth a damn, but by God, I want you, and we’re going to do something about it.”

“You were happy last night. This morning is a different story.""You think I have a hangover. I don't. Well a little headache, but not much. Just let this be a warning to you if you keep me from sleeping again tonight.""I kept you from sleeping? I kept you from sleeping?" he repeated incredulously. "You are the same woman who shook me out of a sound sleep at two a.m. yesterday morning, aren't you?""I didn't shake you. I kind of bounced on you, but I didn't shake you.""Bounced," he repeated."You had a hard-on. I couldn't let it go to waste, could I?""You could have woke me up before you started not to let it go to waste.""Look," she said exasperated, "If you don't want used, don't lie on your back with it sticking up like that. If that isn't an invitation, I don't know what is.""I was asleep. It does that on its own." It was doing it on its own right know, as a matter of fact. It poked her in the stomach.She looked down... and smiled. It was a smile that made his testicles draw up in fear.With a sniff, she turned her back on him and ignored him as she finished showering."Hey!" he said, to get her attention. Alarm was in his tone. "You aren't going to let this one go to waste are you?”

“She felt both relaxed and protected with him, at least from outside forces. Nothing, it seemed, could protect her from him, and tonight she wasn’t even certain she wanted to be. Claimed, and mated. She was his, but was he hers? And if he was, what in hell did they do about it?“I don’t even know what you want,” she said fretfully, beginning to lose herself in rising sensation.“This,” he muttered in a dark, rough tone. “You.Everything.”

“Oh, Jesus,” he said, wheezing with the effort it took to controlhimself. He wiped his eyes with the back of his hand. “You littleinnocent. I’m fluent in French, but it isn’t my first language.” Itwas plain by the mortified expression in those green eyes that shedidn’t understand, so he explained. “Baby , if I can still thinkclearly enough to speak French, then I’m not totally involved inwhat I’m doing. It may sound pretty , but it doesn’t meanany thing. Men are different from women; the more excited we are,the more like cavemen we sound. I could barely speak English withyou, much less French. As I remember, my vocabularydeteriorated to a few short, explicit words, ‘fuck’ being the mostprominent.”To his amazement, she blushed, and he smiled at this furtherevidence of her charming prudery. “Go to sleep,” he said gently.“Lindsey didn’t even rate a replay.”

“You guys take over while I go put on a shirt."Mrs. Kulavich had edged close enough to hear him. She beamed at him. "Don't bother on myaccount," she said. "Sadie!" Mr. Kulavich said in rebuke."Oh, hush, George! I'm old, not dead!""I'll remind you of that the next time I want to watch the Playboy Channel," he growled.”

“He whirled her against the refrigerator, his hands hard on her waist. Startled, she dropped her purse and keys to the floor and looked up at his set face and narrowed savage eyes. “Don’t ever do that to me again,” he said with clenched teeth.She didn’t have to ask what he meant. Those moments when Pavón’s pistol had been trained directly at her head had been long and terrifying.“I stayed in the—” she began, but he cut her off with a kiss that was wild and hungry and deep. He lifted her onto her toes and pressed in hard against her, grinding his erection into the softness of her mound.She yielded immediately to that outraged male aggression, wrapping her arms around him and transforming it into sheer lust.”