Luc took another long swig from the bottle. “I’m . . . sorry.”

“I get it. In your head, we’re from different worlds. You’ve put me in my place, and I won’t overreach again.” She stiffened her spine and headed for the stairs, then turned back to him. “For the record, Tyler’s visit was about the break-in at the club. At tonight’s sweep, he thoroughly investigated the entire upstairs. Seems that my stalker left me another knife and ‘love note’ embedded in the pillow of my bedroom at the club. And this one not only called me a whore; he said he’d put a stop to me for good very soon.”

Chapter Six

ALYSSA marched up the stairs. One foot in front of the other. Get to your bedroom. Shut the door.

No damn way was she showing Luc Traverson her tears. She’d already given him too much power to hurt her. And he’d used it thoughtlessly.

“What did you say?” he demanded. A moment later, he darted up after her and grabbed her, spinning her around to face him. “The same pervert who broke into your car broke into your club?”

“And threatened me. No need to trouble yourself with my safety. That’s Tyler’s job, which is why he came here tonight. Now, if you’ll excuse me . . .”

She tried to jerk free from Luc’s grasp. His heat and musky scent were getting to her. Those burning eyes, his tautly muscled body, were making her weak-kneed.

Never had she thought of herself as one of those stupid women who stayed in a destructive relationship with someone who held more contempt for her than affection. Apparently her heart was as susceptible as anyone else’s.

It was a bitter pill.

“Luc, let go.”

He shook his head, took her face in his grasp. “I can’t.”

On the shadowy landing, Alyssa saw the intent in his glittering eyes a moment before he lowered his head. God, she wanted his kiss so badly. Muscle, bone, blood, all strained forward to join with him. Touch him. Give him anything he wanted.

Why did he suddenly want her?

Because he fears Tyler just had you.

She turned away, biting the inside of her cheek against the pain of denial. A debilitating pang settled in her chest. As his lips fell to her cheek, tears stabbed her eyes.

“Don’t do this,” he begged in her ear, pulling her so tightly against him she smelled the park’s freshly cut grass on his clothes and the whiskey on his breath. His touch was riddled with desperation as he wiped her tears away. Alyssa felt herself weakening.

God, how could she want a man so badly who held her in such low regard? She was supposed to be too smart for that game.

“You can’t want me only because Tyler does.” She sobbed. “I’m not a sexual trophy in some fucking competition. Just . . . let me go.”

She tried to wriggle free, mentally flaying herself for the stupid hope that had encouraged her to seduce Luc in the first place, to lure him close with the silly idea that he might fall for her. He probably wanted someone like Kimber: wholesome, with a bright future and a squeaky clean past. Someone without a string of former lovers and a résumé in the sex trade.

If that was what he wanted in a woman, Alyssa was completely doomed.

He cupped her cheeks and brought her face back to his.

“You’re not a trophy to me, I swear. I know I have no right to tell you what to do.” He brought her even closer, and even in the dark, she saw pain contort his face. “I was jealous. So fucking jealous, it was eating me alive. The thought that you gave him what I so desperately wanted.”

Jealous? Maybe he cared a little bit . . .

“I offered myself to you—more than once.” The words came out like an accusation.

“I tried to be gentlemanly. Smart. Use my restraint and not ravage and plunder you again. I didn’t want you to think I was a caveman or a madman. I didn’t want to lose control. I have a specific future in mind, and I don’t see how we fit together in that picture. But . . .” Pain laced his voice; then he exhaled raggedly. “I can’t ignore or deny what I feel anymore. I’m worried as hell about you, yes. I’m terrified at the thought of this sick stalker getting his hands on you and hurting you. I’ll do whatever it takes to keep you safe.”

Whatever it takes. He sounded as though she really did matter. Yes, it hurt to hear that she didn’t fit into his future, but for the right here and now . . . His words tugged at her heart, broke down the dam holding her emotions in. She was moments from a flood of tears. “Luc—”

“I can’t live another moment without touching you. I need you more than my next breath.”

Raw honesty ripped across his features as he leaned in again, thumbs brushing her jaw. His touch, like his stare, pleaded. Alyssa didn’t have the will to refuse him.

She thrust her hands into his hair and pulled him to her. Their mouths met in a rush, a gasp, a melding of lips, a moan. The tang of alcohol and need burst across her senses. Luc threw his arms around her and lifted her against him, as if he could suddenly make them one.

Instinct guided her to wrap her legs around him. He was there to support her with a hand beneath her ass and another blistering kiss.

He sank deep, desire searingly evident in the way he fused their mouths together. Nothing had ever been so intimate. He kissed as if he wanted to savor every bit of her, memorize her. Alyssa kissed him back with the same fervor, though she’d memorized him long ago.

In her head she knew this embrace might not mean to Luc all it did to her. Clearly, he wanted her—at least for now. But what did he really feel for her? Anything?

Wasn’t she too far gone to care?

Tomorrow would come soon enough, and with it, a load of recriminations. But from now until dawn was purely about pleasure. About connecting again.

Luc slanted another kiss across her mouth and stepped toward her bedroom, every move brushing their bodies together. Alyssa sucked in a breath at the incredible friction. He was really here. With her. She held him closer and moaned against his throat, stringing kisses up his neck, across his five-o’clock-shadowed jaw, until she met his mouth again. He was waiting, open and voracious. She melted under his onslaught.

Moments later, her world tilted; then the bed was at her back, and Luc was above her, propped on his arms. Breathing hard, he looked down at her through the moonlight.

“I’ve wanted you again since the second I walked in your club.”

She met his gaze, which glowed with raw passion and truth. He meant every word, despite what else he believed about her. Despite what he thought she had done with Tyler tonight. Despite the empty months since they’d last joined.

“Me, too,” she confessed.

In fact, she’d yearned for Luc since waking up alone three months ago, aching, and realizing he wasn’t coming back.

“I’ve missed you,” she blurted. “You probably don’t want to hear that, and I know you have someone else—”

“Not tonight. Right now, it’s just us.” He stroked her hair away from her face. “I’ve thought about you so often . . . From the second I got you beneath me all those months ago, you’ve been a fever I can’t shake.”

Not a declaration of love, but she’d take it. He did feel something for her. And honestly, she couldn’t name her feelings for him. She’d never had a yearning to be in love . . . until she’d met Luc.

“Be with me,” she whispered.

“Nothing could make me leave now.”

Luc took her mouth deeply, longing in every crush of his lips, every swipe of his tongue.

Long minutes later, he lifted himself away to unbutton his shirt. Alyssa caught on quickly and helped, her fingers brushing his silk-on-steel skin. He blasted heat. In the shadows, she found the intriguing trail of hair that led down from his navel to his cock. She remembered tracing it with her tongue and making him moan and shiver.

She didn’t even try to resist now. Instead, she pressed her mouth to him, low on his abdomen.

He stiffened, then hissed. “You’re playing with fire.”

A coy smile drifted across her mouth. “I like to burn.”

With a moan, she licked her way up his treasure trail, savoring the spicy flavor of his skin, the hint of sweat, his utter maleness on her tongue. So addicting.

Tensing, he thrust his hands in her hair and pressed her closer. “The first time you did that to me, it nearly made me insane. This time, I want you so much more. Dear God . . .”

She smiled against his stomach, then nibbled her way up toward his chest, unfastening the rest of his shirt’s little white buttons. Finally, she reached his brown nipples, small and male, already hard. She eyed them greedily.

“Don’t,” he warned gently. “My self-control . . . I’m hanging on by a thread.”

“Let it go.” She infused all her want into the whisper and backed it up with a hot stare—just before she closed her mouth around his nipple and sucked.

He cried out, the sound both broken and harsh.

Encouraged, Alyssa scraped his nipple gently with her teeth and sucked it again, even as her hands made their way to the fly of his jeans.

He grabbed her wrists and leaned away. “Don’t do that unless you want me on top of you, inside you, in the next ten seconds. I’m a time bomb with a seriously short fuse.”

“I would love to have you inside me now,” she said honestly. “I’ve thought about you . . . Our night together was incredible. I need more of that feeling now.”

Luc exhaled raggedly. “I don’t want to hurt you. Last time, I was too rough, too demanding—”

“Too perfect. Do it again.”

He stilled. Something crossed his face. Acceptance? Eagerness? Whatever it was made her heart pound in her chest in a crazed ra ttle.

Easing back, he stepped off the bed. She sat up, and anxiety clawed through her. Had she misread him? Was he leaving?

Instead, he shrugged out of his shirt, exposing miles of gorgeous bronzed shoulders, lean, rippling muscles, and a six-pack that made her gasp. God, he was . . . everything. Sensual, intense, so smart and engaging, not to mention talented. And he wanted her right now.

Luc tore open the button at his fly, jerked the zipper down, and shoved his jeans and underwear away with brutal efficiency, then stood naked. Fists at his sides, his chest heaved as he fused his stare to hers, piercing her with a desire that set her body ablaze, made her pussy ache.

No man had ever done this to her but Luc.

“If I hurt you, you must find a way to stop me,” he said.

And that was another reason she had deep feelings for him. Whether he wanted to care or not, he did. Her safety was always a consideration. He might have taken her profession and life at face value, but he never treated her well-being as inconsequential.

The woman who landed his heart would be completely treasured, and Alyssa longed to be her.

“You won’t.”

A hard glint entered his chocolate eyes. “Stand up.”

Shivering, her insides a jumble of anticipation and need, she did. Luc bent to her and caressed his way down her legs, fingers tracing a sensitive line from the curve of her ass all the way to her calves.

Just having his hands on her made her tremble, but his touch, full of soft demand, made her knees weak. Her longing and impatience surged.

“Luc . . .”

Without warning, he grabbed the hem of her negligee and pulled. A tear at each shoulder was her only warning before the gown slithered down her body, to pool in a soft circle around her feet.

Suddenly, she stood naked.

At a brush of the cool night air, her nipples peaked. Or was that caused by the sight of his rapacious smile? Her belly quivered as he curled his hands around her calves and urged them apart. His mouth followed, working hot and openmouthed over her shins, the insides of her knees and thighs, until she was breathing hard, reaching blindly for his hair, her fingers itching to feel its softness.

He rose to his knees and kissed the flat of her belly. “On your back.”

She complied as he lifted her and stood in a single motion, apparently too impatient to wait. She grabbed him tightly when he crushed her mouth under his and kissed with a demand that robbed her of breath and thought.

Then he laid her across the bed and looked down at her, naked, his cock heavy with arousal. Those sinful dark eyes both threatened and promised pleasure unlike anything she’d ever known as his gaze latched onto her face. Slowly, his stare lasered its way down to her breasts and lingered, before scraping down her belly and fixating on her pussy.

“Spread your legs.”

She’d seen his dominant side before. But Alyssa had a feeling she was going to experience it on a whole new level. His dark tone made her shiver. The commanding look on his face confirmed the gravity of his words—and stole her breath. Her chest could barely contain the chugging of her heart. But she did as he asked, parting her thighs a few inches.

“More.”

His expression demanded that she make herself open and vulnerable to him in every way. Alyssa had no doubt he would take everything she was willing to give, then, like last time, coax more from her until she was hoarse and sore and sublimely satiated. She eased her thighs farther apart.