"I was," he said hoarsely.
Isabelle swallowed nervously. Her whole body ached and trembled. She wanted to touch him, to feel him. She needed to with a desperate longing shaking her from head to toe.
"You've been avoiding me,” he stated.
She wanted to lie, to deny it, but it would be pointless. She had been avoiding him; he knew it as well as she did. "I've been helping my mom.”
"Ah, I see."
His finger brushed against her cheek, causing her to jump as a bolt of electricity, and need, sizzled through her. Isabelle couldn't stop herself from turning her head into his gentle touch. He took a step closer as his hand wrapped around the back of her head.
"You said you were going to stop fighting me, Isabelle."
When she nervously licked her lips, she instantly regretted the action as his eyes latched onto her mouth. The look of a starving man, who finally found food, came over his face. A small breath of anticipation escaped as she realized his objective. His head bowed to brush a kiss against her quivering lips.
He nibbled and teased as her body trembled in response. His hand tightened in her hair as the kiss deepened. His tongue thrust in to take possession of her mouth. She grasped his shirt, clinging to him as her knees grew weak, and the taste of him flooded all her senses.
Stefan reluctantly broke the kiss. He shouldn't have come here, but he’d been aggravated with her for avoiding him and needed to confront her about it. The minute he saw her, he had to touch her. To remind her of the passion that easily bloomed between them so she would stop ignoring him and driving him crazy. He made the mistake of thinking he could control his urges.
He'd been wrong.
"You are going to stop avoiding me!" he ordered in a much harsher tone than he intended.
The passion faded from her clouded eyes as anger quickly took its place. Her jaw clenched and her hands fisted in his shirt as she tilted her chin to glare at him.
"Why don't you just leave me alone and go molest your girlfriend, you arrogant, unfaithful, horny bastard!" she spat.
Stefan would have laughed if he wasn’t so hard. He almost told her Jess wasn't his girlfriend anymore, that he had ended it with her and was sleeping on the couch, but he bit his tongue. He didn't want Isabelle to know she had any power over him, but something inside of him had changed, and it had everything to do with the woman facing him. He couldn't seem to get her out of his head. Even when he slept, she haunted his dreams.
He had never been so sexually frustrated in his life, and yet he couldn't seem to do anything to ease it. She wouldn't get out of his head, and the idea of Jess revolted him so much he was forced to end it with her.
Jess hadn't taken it well at all, and she insisted on staying in the home in the hope they could work things out. He hadn't spoken a word to her since then, and the tension in the house was almost palpable.
However, there was no way the little hellion before him could know that because she went out of her way to avoid him and the house. If she insisted on being a stubborn, infuriating witch then he wasn't going to tell her about Jess. He didn't owe her any explanations. She was the one who should be offering explanations, not the other way around. The sooner she learned who was in charge, the happier they would both be. He was going to teach her that.
"And soon you will be calling me your lover."
He thought she was going to explode with ire. Her eyes turned red as her whole face suffused with color. He didn't wait to hear what she would start yelling at him. He jerked her head forward and took possession of her mouth. She shoved angrily at his chest; her mouth clamped shut as she squirmed to get free.
He kept a firm hold on her as he licked and nibbled at her full bottom lip. She would yield to him, and when she did, she would realize it was useless to keep fighting what their bodies desperately wanted.
Isabelle was so irate she almost wanted to kill the egotistical, overbearing idiot. Almost, but not quite. She desperately fought to stay angry, but his kiss melted her resolve. She couldn't yield to him; she wouldn't give him the satisfaction. But even as she thought it, her traitorous body responded to him.
Her hands involuntarily dug into his shirt as she stopped shoving at his chest. Her breath escaped in a gasp which allowed him to invade her mouth. His tongue slid over hers in a deliberate, passionate dance that left her weak and trembling, and desperately needing more. What started as a ferocious kiss on his part, turned into something sweet.
Stefan wrapped his arm around her waist; all satisfaction at making her bend vanished as he lost himself to her sweetness, and uninhibited response. He had started out to make her concede defeat, but he was beginning to realize she made him lose control. And right now, he didn't care.
"Isabelle! Issy! Where are you?"
Isabelle groaned as Vicky and Abby's voices penetrated her pleasant haze. Stefan pulled away; his eyes were troubled as he stroked her cheek. She stared at him in dazed amazement. It wasn't just a craving for him, she realized with a start, but she was beginning to like the man.
The realization caused a flurry of emotions to rip through her, all of them jumbled and confused. She wanted to sit down and cry, but she couldn't do
