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And after that, long into the night, each release slammed harder inside her soul. This wasn’t like the first time. He had been drunk, a little clumsier, and had taken her with haste rather than finesse.
Dawg didn’t have that problem tonight. There was no hesitancy, no clumsiness; there was only hunger, intensity, and strength. Eroticism filled each touch, and his voice, guttural and rasping, explicit and dominant, filled her head.
By the time he collapsed beside her and dragged her against his chest, she was soaked with sweat, immersed in the scent of their lust, and on the verge of complete exhaustion.
His hand curled around a breast as his chest heaved for breath behind her.
“Mine,” he reminded her, his voice hoarse, exhausted. “Remember that, Crista. You’re mine. ”
Mine. Not theirs. Not one of the Nauti playmates. Just Dawg’s.
FOURTEEN
“So tell me about your lovers?”
Crista’s gaze jerked from the last of the full breakfast she had made while Dawg was in the shower the next morning to his icy light green gaze. She had really hoped he was going to forget about that.
“I didn’t say they were my lovers. You did,” she pointed out as she laid her fork on the plate and finished the last of her coffee.
He didn’t deserve explanations, and Mark and Ty’s relationship was their own. She wasn’t going to make him feel better or ease his little mind by giving him explanations he should never be asking for.
“You slept with them. You admitted it. ” He scowled back at her.
“So?” She rose from the table, collected their plates and cups, and paced to the sink. “Do I ask you about your past lovers, Dawg? How many you shared? How many you didn’t? Have I asked you to explain those choices to me?”
She turned back to face him, bracing her back against the counter and watching as his jaw bunched with angry tension.
“I didn’t walk away from you because of the sharing,” he said harshly. “You did. ”
“Mark and Ty never, at any time brought another woman to their bed, or another man. Would Rowdy and Natches have loved me enough to give up other women? I don’t think so. ”
Mark and Ty had never been her lovers. They were each other’s lovers. Sometimes though, when the nights were too dark and the pain followed too closely, they would draw her to their bed much as parents would a child. There, they sheltered her between them and gave her the warmth she needed to hold on to at the time.
His eyes narrowed as his expression turned stony.
“I’m not going to argue with you over this. ” She finally shook her head as she glanced at her watch. “The lumber store will be open in half an hour. We should go. ”
“I never open. ” He shrugged.
“Which is a lousy way to promote a locally owned business,” she informed him. “And I know you know better than that, Dawg. You’re more of a businessman than this. Besides, I have work to do, and I do my best work in the morning. ”
“My business. ” His smile was tight and hard. “Not yours. ”
“As long as I’m getting paid to organize and manage that hellhole of an office, then I have a vested interest in your business,” she told him sweetly. “And holding me hostage here because you don’t like my answers is not going to get you what you want. ”
He uncoiled from the table. Despite his size and the obvious power in his body, he moved silently, gracefully. Like a panther on the prowl, his predatory green eyes narrowed and glittering behind pitch-black lashes, his body tense but prepared. As though she would attempt to run from him.
Crista stood her ground instead, her arms crossing over her breasts as she stared back at him guardedly.
“That store could burn down around its foundations for all I give a fuck,” he sneered, shocking her with the latent fury in his voice. “I keep it to piss off the holier-than-thou relatives who tried so damned hard to take it away from me, period. Its success is due to nothing more than luck. ”
And she didn’t believe that. She knew better. He wanted to pretend he hated it, but the stories related to her the day before by the employees showed something totally different.
Dawg did care about that business, but for some reason he refused to admit it.
“It was your father’s business. ” She tested the waters gently. “I know your relationship with him wasn’t close, but surely you don’t hate him enough to let the store suffer. ”
“I bet he’s spinning in his grave. ” Dawg’s smile was tight and vicious. “I’ve hired people from the families he hated the most, and I’ve made certain people he would never give credit to, have it. The fact that that damned place makes money never fails to amaze me. ” He shook his head as thou
