really is incredibly small,' she said. 'If you'd rather go home and get a good night's sleep, please feel free to—'
'Don't tease me. I'm not in the mood.'
The harshness of his tone froze her into place for a second. She exhaled, and resumed unbuttoning her blouse. She tried to act nonchalant as she shrugged off the blouse, hung it up.
'Your energy is strange tonight,' he said. 'I can't tell whether you want to jump my bones or rip my head off. It's got me off balance.'
She reached behind herself and unhooked the bra. She tossed it away and shook her hair back. 'If you're so off balance, Connor, maybe you'd be better off lying down.'
He stared at her bare breasts, bright streaks of color in his cheeks. 'You're pissed at me, and you're coming onto me at the same time. What's that all about, Erin? What's the catch?'
She smiled at him, merciless. 'It's a mystery,' she said. 'You've got to take your chances.' She shucked her panties and walked naked in the burning spotlight of his gaze to the bed. She slid between the sheets. Looked at him. Lifted a questioning eyebrow.
He shook his head. 'I don't know what to do next,' he said. 'I can't figure you out.'
'So why don't you stop trying, and get your clothes off?'
His shoulders jerked in silent laughter. He opened up his duffel, which she had not even noticed him bring in with him. He pulled out one of his squealers and mounted it swiftly onto the door.
He sauntered over to the bed. He stared at her as he placed his gun on the bedside table and started yanking off his clothes. Seconds later he stood before her naked, smoothing a condom over his jutting erection. She scooted over to make room for him.
He shook his head. 'This thing is even narrower than a twin bed. Do you want to be on top, or on the bottom?'
He loomed over her. She stared at the shadows that limned every curve and cut of his muscular, powerful body. He emanated a blast of fierce, macho energy that infuriated and excited her at the same time.
'Oh, go ahead. You be on top, Connor. Why fool ourselves?'
He wrenched the quilt down and shoved her flat on her back. 'Where the hell did that crack come from?' he demanded.
Oops. Very smooth move. Now he was furious again. She placed her hands against his scorching chest, her breath quickening. 'I don't know. It just comes to me. I can't help it.'
He put his thigh between her legs and shoved them open. She was already wet, and he hadn't even touched her. She had transformed in the last thirty-six hours, and Connor was the catalyst. He was so volatile and bossy and sexually insatiable. He didn't politely disappear when she climaxed, like her fantasy Connor had. He stayed with her, his arms jealously tight. Taking up space, demanding attention.
She almost wanted him to shove himself inside her with crude force so her restless, prickly anger could be justified. She was hungry for his strength, his heat. Breathless with anticipation. Maddened.
'What?' she snapped. 'Come on, Connor. Aren't you going to show me who's lord and master?'
He cupped her face in his hands. 'Is that what you want?'
She wiggled against him. 'Since when has what I wanted mattered to you?'
'That's not fair. I may have pushed you around about your millionaire, but I never forced you in bed. You came to me, remember?'
Did she ever. It was maddening, how much she wanted him, and how much power he wielded over her because of it. 'What are you waiting for, Connor? Now who's being the tease?' she demanded.
'You're too angry,' he said calmly. 'You're setting me up.'
She thrashed beneath him. 'Oh, please. For God's sake,' she flared. 'I'm not that treacherous!'
'You don't even know how treacherous you are. This is wilderness territory. For both of us.'
'Connor—'
'Tell me exactly what you want, Erin,' he said. 'Don't set me up to be the asshole, because it's not fair. If you want me to be rough, I'll be rough.'
That did it. His arrogant, self-righteous tone infuriated her. She shoved at him. 'Oh, don't do me any goddamn favors!'
He seized her wrists and wrenched them up over her head. 'OK. I think I've nailed the vibe you want tonight, sweetheart. No favors. That can be arranged.' He let out his breath in a sharp sigh when he slid his fingers between her legs and found her wet. 'God, look at you. You are such a wild thing, Erin Riggs. You just can't wait, can you?'
'No!' she snapped. 'So hurry.'
He was still laughing when he kissed her, his tongue thrusting deep into her mouth. She could barely move. She was stretched out, every muscle straining beneath his weight, arms yanked up high.
He took himself in hand, pressed himself against her, and slid just the tip of himself inside her. He teased her with tiny, teasing thrusts, bathing himself with her slick moisture, and then drove inside her. She clenched around him with a muffled cry. He let her move just enough to find her body's answer to his sensual invasion, the tight, clinging demands of her secret flesh upon his thick shaft.
Finally he gave her what she wanted, grinding his hips against her. Each deep, heavy thrust pushed her closer to the resolution of the enigma burning in her mind. She needed all his strength for ballast to drive her toward the answer to all this aching, screaming tension. She struggled closer, straining up, almost there—
'No.'
Her eyes popped open. He shifted, and lifted the pressure away from where she so desperately needed it. She clenched her legs around him to draw him deeper. 'Connor, I need this! What—'
'No favors.'
She almost screamed with rage. 'Are you punishing me?'
'No favors, Erin. You'll come when I let you come. Not before.'
'Why are you doing this?' She thrashed wildly beneath him.
He subdued her effortlessly. 'Because I can.'
'I hate you,' she hissed. 'You evil, controlling bastard. This isn't fair. I give you an inch and you take a mile. Every damn time.'
He shook his head. 'No. Give me an inch, and I take everything.'
There was absolutely nothing she could do. She was spread so helplessly open beneath him that there was no way to clench herself around him and work herself to climax of her own volition. She was at his mercy.
Three more times, he brought her to the brink and then drew back. When he began again the fourth time, she was too exhausted to thrash and writhe. She just squeezed her eyes shut and trembled. He leaned down and kissed her. 'Beg me,' he said.
'Forget it,' she murmured. 'Bastard. I'd rather die.'
'Just beg me, and I'll give it to you,' he coaxed. 'It's worth it.'
She opened her eyes, stared into the pure, hypnotic green depths of his eyes, and he pulled her in. 'Please,' she whispered.
He released her arms and surged against her so deep and strong it almost hurt. But the pain was just a glowing delineation around a deeper, hotter pleasure that grew and swelled until it broke, sending all the tension he had wrought with such cruel skill crashing down on her.
Violent spasms of pleasure jerked and shuddered through her.
She didn't open her eyes for a long time afterwards. It was the only privacy she could maintain, with her body so penetrated, his eyes so intent upon her face. He waited patiently, curved over her body.
The ripples widened, spread, softened to her chest, her throat, her eyes, and suddenly she was weeping, a soothing rush like a summer rainstorm. The enigma had been solved, but the solving of it had uncovered an even bigger mystery, one that mere love games could not resolve. She draped her arms around his neck, pulling his face to hers. 'That's enough of that,' she whispered. 'Be gentle with me now.'
He stiffened, and hid his face against her neck. 'Oh, no,' he muttered. 'Erin, I thought this was what you wanted. I thought—'
'I did. I did want it,' she reassured him. She grabbed a hank of his hair and pulled him up so she could pet the anxious furrow between his brows with her fingertip. 'And you gave it to me. And now I want something different, that's all. No big deal. Just ease off.'
