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“Don’t run away, Dove. You know we need to have this talk if we’re going to move forward in our relationship.”
She held on to her calm façade, but inside, she was out of control, throwing mental chairs through windows and then setting fire to pretty much everything.
Which wasnother. At least it didn’t used to be her. The past six weeks had changed her greatly. It was as if she hit a threshold of how much stress she could handle before she lost it.
Turning her head, she threw a side-eye at her lover. “I don’t really want to talk about any of it. Can’t we just call this what it was—a stress reliever?”
He yanked her down so fast that she didn’t have time to open her mouth to protest. Her back hit the bed and he pounced, bracing his weight over her. His eyes burned.
“It definitely relieved some stress, that’s true. But it’s more than that, and you know it. Save us some time and admit it.”
She returned his look with one of challenge. “When are you going to stop telling me what to do? Why do you think our fling was even more sordid when you had all the power over me?”
He jerked. His shocked expression mixed with the hurt in his eyes had her stomach sinking. She’d gone too far, but she’d spoken her mind, and that wasn’t something she could regret.
“Our relationship was off-balance. And whatever this is”—she waved between them—“still is. The past two meetings, you’ve bossed me around and told me where I’m going and what I’m doing. You’ve even told me that it’s time to have this talk!”
He went still. His tense muscles put off a vibration that her own body picked up and tripled until she was jittery.
All of a sudden, he rolled off her and sat on the bedside, hands braced on his knees.
She scooted into a sitting position and gathered her scattered thoughts.
“You think I pushed you into sleeping with me?” His voice was low and gritty.
She stared at his stiff spine, her throat growing thick. “No, I wanted it too.”
“Because I couldn’t live with myself if you thought I coerced you in any way. I hate that you believe I am trying to control you, Dove.”
He didn’t turn to look at her, which was almost worse than seeing his haunted pain.
“Look, Quaide. Things aren’t so easy between you and me.”
He launched off the bed and whirled to face her. His nude body seemed to swell with harnessed power. “It can be easy! Have I ever given you a reason to think you can’t trust me?”
She didn’t need to think about it. “No. But you have so many rules. I don’t want to hear why I shouldn’t think or feel or act a certain way because it goes against some code or section of a manual.”
“You have some false belief that you’re still working under me and I’m on a power trip? We both know that’s bullshit, Dove.” His jaw flexed as he clenched it hard.
“I don’t need help is all. I can handle Rain.”
“Maybe, but can you handle the hitman after her? And whoever else might be tied to her criminal ex-boyfriend?” His eyes sparked with something she’d rarely seen in her time working with him—true anger.
She dropped her gaze from his and something else caught her eye—his very hard, impressive erection.
“Are you…getting hard…because we’re arguing?”
He sliced a hand through the air. “It happens.” His stare landed on her bare breasts. “Are your nipples hard for me?”
Oh god, they were. Now that she tuned in to her body, she recognized the light pinch of need between her thighs too.
He threw himself at her. She met him halfway. Their naked bodies collided and he bore her back on the bed, plunging inside her in one hard thrust.
Oh god, she’d missed this so much. The burning ache deep in her core that only Quaide could stroke to completion. He flattened her hands to the bed and stared into her eyes as he churned his hips fast and furious. The dark tightening inside her core raised a growl to his lips.
His dark eyes blazed. “You’re mine. We belong together.”
He never said these things before. Though this sex was just as wild, it came with a new titillating level of emotion that she could never have guessed he felt. Her stoic boss lived, ate and breathed the rules. But between their stolen nights and burning looks in the office…he’d fallen in love with her.
