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“I didn’t intend to get held at gunpoint, to get tied up, and almost get kidnapped. I didn’t think anyone would be after me tonight. I—”
“Didn’t you listen to anything I said earlier? I’m fucking tired of you not thinking.”
She narrows her eyes at me. “Isn’t it your job to keep me safe? What if I had been kidnapped from my room? You and your men wouldn’t have been prepared, so why should I trust you?”
“Why should I trustyou, when you don’t tell me you’re leaving? You snuck out to see another man in the middle of the night.”
“Kit isn’t just some man; he’s the love of my life. And if you don’t want to deal with me anymore, I’d be happy to leave and go marry him.”
“And you’d be dead within the week.”
“At least I’d spend my last week happy. With you, I’ll just be miserable, that is, if you can even keep me safe.”
I take a step toward her. Her eyes widen, and her mouth closes. She’s a spitfire, a hellraiser, a confident woman unafraid of anyone. She thinks she’s weak because she doesn’t know how to hold a gun or throw a punch, but she’s much stronger than she thinks she is. She wouldn’t have survived this long otherwise.
For her safety, I’m not sure if I should show her how strong she is or break her to make her feel weak. The latter state is definitely easier for me to protect. If she realizes her strength, she’ll become even more brazen and an even bigger pain in my ass.
I wish I could say protecting her is because I care about her. While I’m not a completely heartless man, keeping Rialta alive and happy has little to do with her and all to do with my end goal. I can only accomplish my mission if I marry Rialta and she stays alive.
To help me decide, I test the waters to see how she’ll react to my touch. I reach my hand out, touching the side of her cheek and then slowly running it down her neck to her exposed clavicle.
She shivers. “What are you doing?”
I continue running my hand down her body, down her arms, down the curves of her side until my hand reaches the hem of my shirt she’s wearing, barely above her ass.
I wait to see her tremble in fear.
I wait to hear her tell me to stop.
Instead, she looks at me more defiantly.Show her how strong she is it is.
I stare at her with lust-filled eyes as I let my hand run down her thigh. It isn’t hard to show attraction to her—she’s a beautiful woman.
What I don’t expect is the glint of longing in her eyes. No matter how hard she tries to deny it, she’s attracted to me almost as much as she loathes me. She may think she’s in love with Kit, but she can’t be if she reacts this easily to my gaze. Someday she’ll realize that.
I shove my shirt up her thigh, feeling her ice-cold skin heat beneath my touch. I drag my hand up her thigh and over her hip, teasing her with where my hand might slip to next.
“What are you doing?” she tries again.
“Do you know how easy it would have been for those men to touch you?”
She grinds her teeth together. “I don’t need you to tell me.”
“I think I do.” I slide my hand over her bare ass. She stiffens but still doesn’t tell me to stop. “You don’t understand what was at stake when you left my apartment.”
“I understand. I don’t need you mansplaining anything to me.”
I pull her to me, feeling her chilled body flush against mine. She has to crane her neck to look up at me. My hand continues slinking up her body, over the dip at her waist, and up to the swell of her breast.
She sucks in a breath.
“When you left here without telling anyone, without taking security, without tellingme—you put your life at risk.” I reach for her silky wet hair. “I could be cleaning up your brains off the street.”
She swallows hard.
“You could have been taken, locked in a dungy basement without any food, left to starve.” I run my hand over her bare stomach. “Do you know what it’s like to be hungry, Princess? I doubt you do. You wouldn’t like it.”
Her eyes swell, but she still doesn’t fight back.
