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“It’s some kind of magic.” His voice was ragged velvet. He touched her cheek with a callused fingertip. “The way you go off for me. Like a bomb. It makes me crazy.”
“I—I—”
“But now that you put it that way, it’s true. I have had one bitch of a night because of you,” he said, in a tone of mock discovery. “And yes, babe. You do owe me. Big-time.”
She focused on his wet, bloodstained sleeve. “It’s not that simple,” she whispered.
He rolled his eyes. “You’ve got a genius for making simple things complicated. It was one of the first things I noticed about you.” He glanced at her body. “Actually, more like the sixth or seventh thing.”
She started to shake, fighting hysteria. “I’m not the complicated one. I don’t even know your name! After all this drama, and blood and sex, you’ve never even told me your real—”
“Nick,” he broke in.
She floundered, cut off in mid-rant. “Huh?”
“Nick Ward. That’s my name. Nikolai Warbitsky is the name on my birth certificate. I prefer Nick Ward. Happy now?”
She flapped her jaw, rattled. And moved.Nick.
Oh, please. She felt moved? To have his goddamnname?One of the most common, basic, cheap units of information that human beings could exchange? It was a pathetic crumb he’d offered her, not a precious gift.
Anger at her own deluded self sharpened her voice. “Happy now? Oh, yes. I’m thrilled. That’s the magic word, huh? Tell me your name, and voilà, my legs open, like the Red Sea parting!”
He let out a startled bark of laughter. “Don’t get biblical on me, sweetheart. Make a decision. You going to give me what you owe me, or are you just going to dick me around?”
She squeezed her eyes shut, shuddering with sensation as his hands stroked her bare shoulders. His fingers moved over her skin with a seductive gentleness that belied his words. He pressed his mouth against the top of her head. She felt his lips move against her scalp, felt the warm cloud of each exhalation. His tangled locks tickled her shoulders. Waiting patiently. So sure that he’d win in the end.
“Why do you have to be such a jerk?” she whispered.
He shook his head. “I don’t know,” he muttered.
His honesty made her bolder. “You make it so hard for me.”
He trapped her easily as she tried to twist away from his grasp. “Yeah, well, tough. Life’s hard for everyone, babe.”
“Shut up. Don’t be flip. If you could just be gentle…” she trailed off in a whisper.
He tried to pull her closer again.
She fought against him. “I want you to stay,” she said. “I want to say yes to you. But when you act like this, it’s almost impossible to do.”
He caught her chin, turned her face to his so she could see the hot gleam in his eye. “Almost?”
“Oh, damn you. Stop it.” Her face went hot, and her chest tightened up. Her heart tripped and galloped. Her throat squeezed shut.
He nuzzled her hair and spoke against her neck, his deep voice vibrating through her whole body. “You want me to go? Say the word.”
She didn’t answer, couldn’t move.
“OK,” he murmured. “I’m not getting a straight answer out of you, so I’m going to interpret that cryptic silence to my own advantage. If I’m wrong, tell me quick.”
She bit her lip. Two tears flashed out of the outside corners and coursed down her face.
His lips moved against her cheekbone. The hot, wet cat rasp of his tongue as he licked them greedily away made a wrenching shiver of pleasure shake her whole body. She felt a tug, a ripping sound, and the soggy peasant blouse was pulled off and flung away. She stood before him, bare naked.
A state of being that was starting to feel alarmingly normal.
She touched his face. “Wait. You’ve got, um, blood on you. I don’t want to look at it anymore. Could we, ah…”
