"It's cold," he told her, raging inside. The need to hold her burning as deep and as fierce as the need to let her go.
He could feel that darkness racing inside him, pounding in his head. A hunger he only associated with Kia, some unknown surge of emotion that had him enforcing his control over it.
He'd never known before what he could feel tearing at him now. He was naturally dominant, naturally sexually hard, and she was so sweet, so soft, she terrified him.
He stared into her quiet, watchful expression as he helped her up, helped her adjust her clothes before he adjusted his own.
He should never have gone to her tonight, and he knew it. He saw the hope in her eyes, and he saw the fear. And he knew, tonight, he would end up destroying himself.
Kia watched his face as he reached around her and zipped her dress. His expression was torn, his eyes roiling with emotion that she knew he wasn't going to let free. She could see it, she could feel it. But he would never let go of it enough to trust it in her care.
She wondered if that was the battle. If he wanted to trust her, hold on to her, and had to push it back. Or if that darkness in his expression, in his eyes, held something more.
"Chase."
He laid his fingers over her lips when she would have asked, when she would have tried to whisper her own feelings.
"Let's get you home." His jaw tightened. Flexed. "Before you catch a cold."
She stared back at him, torn, knowing, feeling the distance he was suddenly placing between them. Just as he had when Khalid joined them. Just as he always had.
Damn him. Something inside her exploded in grief as he helped her back into the car. He waited until the door closed behind her before buttoning his shirt, moving around the car, his head down, his expression savagely controlled. For just a second she had seen the pain in his eyes, a flash of savage darkness that tugged at her soul and tightened her chest.
When he slid into the driver's seat, he looked as presentable as he had at the ball. No one would have known he had just taken her on the hood of his car, whereas she knew she looked mussed, perhaps still a bit drowsy from the pleasure.
That haze was easing away quickly, though.
She sat silently as he drove quickly off the Sinclair property and headed back to Alexandria. He didn't waste time; he maneuvered the vehicle efficiently, quickly, and, too soon, they were pulling up in front of her apartment.
She was surprised when he got out of the car and came around to her side.
He helped her out and kept hold of her arm as they moved inside the building. As though eager to get her to her apartment and be on his way.
"You don't have to go up with me," she told him. "I'm perfectly capable of getting upstairs on my own."
She didn't want him to come up with her. She didn't want what she sensed was coming, the pain she knew would explode inside her.
"I know you are."
He stepped inside the elevator with her anyway, punched in her floor, and watched the digital display as they rose up.
Kia took the key from her purse as the elevator doors opened again, and was once again surprised as he gestured for it.
Seconds later, her door opened and she stepped inside. Chase didn't follow her. He stood in the open doorway, watching. She turned to meet his gaze.
She slid the cloak from her shoulders and tossed it to the couch. Kia had to force back the shiver that wanted to race over her body, the betrayal of anger that wanted to rise inside her.
"Are you staying the night?" she asked him, her voice cool, remote.
She wasn't taking this anymore. Damn him to hell. She was falling in love with him. Bastard that he was—cold, remote, distant— something in her heart responded violently at the flicker of emotion in his eyes, and his battle to hide it.
His jaw clenched. "No. And you don't really want me to."
Her lips twisted mockingly as the anger that would have surged inside her days before remained at a slow simmer. She wasn't even surprised. She thought, perhaps she had expected it.
"You know, Chase," she finally said. "I want a lover, not a f**k every now and then. I'll tell you what. Close the door as you leave, and we'll pretend none of this ever happened. I've had enough."
She couldn't take this ride. It was tearing her apart inside, leaving her scrambling to hold on to something, to make sense of herself and her own emotions. She couldn't handle it anymore.
He stepped into the apartment then, and with a controlled flick of his hand, the door closed with a bang.
Kia didn't flinch. She stared at the door, then back at Chase as she crossed her arms over her chest and shook her head.
"First, you couldn't take me alone. Now, you take me alone, but I don't want you to spend the night in my bed, according to you." She waved her hand back at him. "Give you a way out, and what do you do? You step in and slam the door closed." Her smile was one of angry mockery. "I thought women were the ones who had trouble making up their minds, not big tough private investigators."
His eyes narrowed on her. "You've enjoyed every minute we've spent together," he informed her harshly. "You can't cry foul now, Kia."
"I'm not crying foul, Chase," she assured him. "I thought you got the message the other night. I want more. I'm not a doll to be taken out for your enjoyment and content to sit on a shelf until you're ready to play again. If that's what you want, go hire a call girl. They won't give you near the problems over it that I will."
"You knew this was just for the pleasure," he snapped.
She could see the anger in his eyes now, the pulse of hunger and of dark intensity.
"Well, as far as I'm concerned, the pleasure involves more than kinky sex," she retorted. "There's more to the pleasure than that, Chase. And if there isn't, then I don't want a part of it. I want more than you're offering; you don't want to give it. Fine. Walk the hell out of my life and stay out of it."
Perhaps she was being unfair to both of them, but the needs rising inside her overwhelmed her. She wanted more. She ached for more from him, despite her promises to herself that she wouldn't let this happen. She was tired of staring into the night, wondering if tomorrow he would deign to hold her, talk to her, just be with her for more than the sex.
She needed that from him. She needed that in ways she couldn't combat any longer.