Extreme Danger (McClouds & Friends #5)(43)

“Believe me. You opening your legs feels pretty goddamn important right now.”

She crossed her arms over her chest, a flush of anger heating her from the inside. “Sure it does. Until your hard-on’s taken care of. Then you’ll brush me off like the useless, inconvenient piece of fluff that you think I am, and off you’ll go, to do whatever dangerous crap you do all day, and forget that I even exist.”

He looked cautiously amazed. “Whoa. What, do you feel left out of the action? You mean you actually want to participate in more of this suicidal bullshit? Haven’t you had enough?”

“That’s not the point!” she raged. “I’m just sick of feeling like a…a thing! A toy to be used and passed around!”

He moved so fast, it felt like a split instant. She was across the room from him, and suddenly, her shoulders were clamped in his tight grip. He was lifting her up off her feet and onto her tiptoes.

Her eyes were inches from his searing gaze.

“I never passed you to anyone,” he said, his voice deliberate. “I never treated you like a thing. I killed four men tonight trying to get you out of that hellhole. So you can just back off.”

Her mouth worked, but no words came out. She just stared at his face, immobilized by the anger burning in his eyes.

“Do not blame me for what he did to you,” he said.

“I—I d-don’t blame you,” she stammered.

“Yeah? You don’t? Good. What’s your f*cking problem, then?”

She stiffened in his grip, bracing herself by grabbing his broad wrists. “My problem is that look you’ve got on your face, you jerk!” she shouted. “I messed you up, so now I owe you? You saved my life, so I have to give you sex? Is that your macho reasoning?”

A smile touched the edges of his mouth. He set her onto her feet.

“It’s simpler than that,” he said. “My macho reasoning is, every time I touch you, you can’t stop coming.”

The rest of her furious diatribe dissolved in her muddled mind, utterly forgotten.

“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 goddamn name? 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.