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He frowned at that statement. “This isn’t true, Risa. Do you think I’d be perpetually hard for you if you weren’t attractive? I can barely walk for the stiff cock torturing me.”
Something gleamed in her eyes. An edge of hunger, perhaps the faintest hint of belief that she was indeed beautiful.
“You’re odd, though,” she stated with a hint of amusement. “Your opinion doesn’t count.”
“My opinion is the only one that counts.” His arms tightened around her as he pushed his cock against the seam of her silky thighs. “My dick is the only one that matters, because it’s the only one in this bed.”
“That’s true,” she agreed somberly then. “Only you.”
She would end up breaking his head before this was finished. He would end up hurting her before the day was out.
He’d already made up his mind what had to be done to finish this particular operation.
“Remember that, Risa.” His hand tightened in her hair as he held the back of her neck. “In the future, when you take another lover, remember, your beauty is unsurpassed. It’s strong and wise, and it’s a beauty that goes clear to your soul. Remember that, and whoever sees you will know it as well.”
The thought of her taking another lover made him want to be violent. He’d have to mark Atlanta off his places to train, he warned himself. He’d never be able to come to the city without checking up on her. And he’d never be able to control his rage if he saw another man touch her.
“When I have another lover?” she asked, almost thoughtfully. “You don’t intend to stick around for a while then?”
“You’ll be safe soon. You won’t need me after that.” He kept his tone casual, kept the furious regret and unending hunger from reflecting in it.
Micah felt her breath catch, felt the tension that tightened through her body as she stared back at him.
He couldn’t tell her he was sending her away, not yet. He couldn’t make himself speak the words, couldn’t force them past his lips.
“I see.” She lay still against him. Micah couldn’t feel a sense of anger from her, or even hurt. She was perfectly composed; whatever she might be feeling was perfectly hidden.
It infuriated him.
She was hiding again, even more than he did. Pushing her emotions so far inside her that even Micah couldn’t sense them.
“What do you see?” He couldn’t help but ask the question.
“That I had better enjoy what time I have with you then,” she said quietly. “However you want to spend that time.”
RISA FELT AS THOUGH she were breaking apart inside. She had told herself over the past week that Micah was nothing to her. He was just a man who made her feel wanted. One who wouldn’t be staying long. She had known he wasn’t committed to hanging around af
ter Orion was disposed of.
But maybe a part of her had hoped. Maybe there was a fragile thread of emotion, something building inside her, that she hadn’t wanted to acknowledge until now.
It wasn’t that big of a deal; she would survive just fine when Micah was gone. And she was lying to herself. She knew she was, even as the thought drifted through her mind.
“I know how I want to spend this time with you,” his voice whispered in shades of the desert. It was rare for the hint of an accent to slip free. Rare that the oddly fluid cadence was allowed to stroke over her senses.
She shivered at the sound, at the intent that suddenly tightened his body.
Risa licked her lips nervously, though why she was nervous she wasn’t certain. She shouldn’t have been. He’d touched her many times, he had taken her no more than hours before, and he had showed her the beauty and the pleasure of a touch that had brought her nothing but pain in the past.
He was wiping the past away, she realized. As she lifted her head, her lips parting for his kiss, she let the warmth of his touch steal over her.
She wasn’t accustomed to his body yet, she told herself when his palm moving to her breast caused her to catch her breath in rising excitement. She was certain after a few more times it wouldn’t be so cataclysmic, would it?
His kiss surely wouldn’t steal her breath each time he kissed her for weeks on end.
Or would it?
A whimper left her lips as she arched against him, feeling his hand palm her breast, his finger and thumb as they found the stiff peak of her nipple and gripped it in a heated vise.
