He knew what she hid from herself. He saw it in her eyes, in her voice, in the hunger in her expression. He had her heart, she just had to realize it. And getting Marey to realize what she didn’t want to see would be his hardest battle.
He drew the blanket further over her back before rising from the bed and heading for the shower. He had waited, watched, knowing the day would come when Marey would drop her shields and allow him the chance he needed to break into her heart. He was in there now, though he was certain she would deny it to herself as long as she could.
He also knew something else about Marey, something she had revealed hours before. She loved the sensual dominance he could give her. She liked the fiery pleasure-pain and walking that fine line of carnal intensity. He would push her, he couldn’t give her time to think, to consider the evolving relationship he could see coming. If he did, she would run. And he couldn’t allow her to run. He wouldn’t allow her to run.
“When you get ready, I need to run in to the office for a few hours,” Sax announced as Marey sat silently after breakfast, fortifying herself with caffeine, wondering how she was going to manage to escape this new situation.
Sex with Sax was incredible. Too incredible.
“Go ahead.” She took the final sip of her coffee. “I’ll get ready and you can drop me off at a hotel.”
The tension that filled the room was like a punch in the gut. She raised her eyes, staring back at him as he watched her silently, his eyes narrowed on her.
“Stay a few days,” he finally suggested casually, as though it didn’t matter either way, as though there was no risk in such an action. “At least until they’ve picked Vince up, Marey. You aren’t safe in a hotel. You’re safe with me.”
She breathed out wearily, pushing her fingers through her still damp hair as she sat back in her chair and watched him directly.
“And if Vince decides to blame you for the fact that I’m here, rather than where he can get to me?” she asked him defensively. “What then, Sax? He’s not sane. He won’t go after you with his fists as he does me. He could come after you with a gun.”
A savage smile tightened his lips.
“I would look forward to it, Marey,” he snarled. “Unlike you, I know how to deal with bastards like that. He won’t get to me easily, I promise you that.”
Were all men insane? Or just the ones she knew?
She closed her eyes as she clenched her teeth and held back a furious growl.
“And what makes you think you’re invincible all of a sudden?” she snapped, coming to her feet, ignoring the glint in his eyes as they dropped to her bare legs beneath the long hem of one of his T-shirts.
“I don’t think I’m invincible, Marey,” he assured her, his voice deepening, thickening with lust as he watched her. “But I know the type of man Vince is. A bullet isn’t personal enough, it doesn’t prove his strength, and that’s what’s important to him, proving his superiority.”
In that, he was right. Vince couldn’t tolerate believing an opponent could be physically superior to him. He didn’t own guns, he owned fists and knives.
“And I’m supposed to just accept the fact that you’re placing yourself in his path,” she snapped belligerently. “I don’t think so, Sax. I don’t need these problems.”
“Do you think he can beat me, Marey?” Genuine amusement reflected in his expression then. “Are you afraid your man can’t protect you?”
“You aren’t my man,” she muttered, using the only defense she could come up with. “And right now, you’re acting like a little boy playing one-upmanship.”
“One-upmanship is not a child’s game,” he informed her with a slow, sexy smile. “It’s a man’s game. Want me to show you?”
Oh man, the sound of his voice, the look in those dark eyes. Her pu**y was suddenly humming in need, creaming furiously to the pure sexuality there.
“That’s okay.” She scuttled quickly out of his way, watching him warily now. He could turn her knees to mush and her resistance to no more than a passing thought. There wasn’t a chance in hell she was going to let him touch her. “You go on to the office. I can just lounge around here. Use the hot tub.” Call a cab and find a good hotel.
He tilted his head questioningly. “If you walk out of here now, we’ll never know what could have been, Marey. Is that what you really want?”
Was it? No, she didn’t want that, but neither did she want to see Sax pay for her mistakes.
She drew in a harsh breath. “After they catch Vince—”
He was shaking his head before the words were out of her mouth.
“I don’t want a woman who can’t trust me to protect her.” He crossed his arms over his chest, staring down at her somberly. There was no anger, no fury, just pure male stubbornness.
Marey stared back at him, bemused. He should be furious, not calm. In hindsight, she realized she had more or less given the impression she didn’t trust him to protect her. She hadn’t meant to. She had never felt that way. But his male pride should have at least been pricked. There should have been anger, a snarl, snapping sarcasm. Something besides somber intensity, steadiness.
Her hands clenched in the material of the T-shirt as she fought to come to grips with this new brand of male species. Who knew they could be so damned hard to figure out?
“I trust you to protect me,” she finally answered, clearing her throat nervously. “It has nothing to do with that. I’m used to protecting myself, Sax.”
She had been doing it for a long time. She might have messed up a time or two, but for the most part, she thought she’d done a fairly good job.
“And Vince is determined to hurt you, no matter the cost to himself,” he told her quietly. “You know you can’t fight him, Marey, you’ve seen that. He tried to kill you.”
“I don’t need you to stand in front of me.” She turned away from him, furious herself now as she paced to the sliding glass doors that led to the deck. “Dammit, Sax, why do you think I’ve stayed away from you? Why do you think I’ve lived like a nun in that damned fortress Father built, and forgot I was woman all these years? He’s crazy. He could try to kill someone.”
“Yes, he could,” he snapped, but not in anger, more in frustration. “And that someone could be you. Because he knows you’re not strong enough to fight back. Until the sheriff apprehends him and the courts put him away for good, you need to stay safe. I can keep you safe.”