It seemed to last forever, and yet it ended too soon. She collapsed beneath him, fighting to breathe, drowsiness weighing at her limbs as she felt him move, and moaned at the feel of his cock sliding free of her as he fell beside her.

His arms came around her, hard, warm. Protective.

“I’m tired,” she sighed, snuggling against him as her eyes fluttered closed.

“Sleep, baby,” she heard him whisper gently. “Sleep right here. Where you belong.”

Chapter Seven

Sax sat at the edge of the bed hours later, staring down at Marey as she slept. His mind was a morass of thoughts and emotions. Finally, he had her here, where he wanted her, had wanted her for years.

The sheet was pulled to her hips, revealing the delicate lines of her back. Her dark blonde hair fell over her neck and shoulders and framed her profile like a silken cloud.

Her unique looks could never be described as beautiful, they were too strong, too stubborn for such a term. His lips quirked in a grin as he considered the stubborn part. Her expression often reflected the inner part of her, willful and determined, but it was subtle. A quality many people often missed because they were unaware of what they were looking at.

But Sax knew. He had seen it in her the first time he met her, just before her divorce. He had seen the misery in her eyes, but her determination to hide it from her friends. When she thought no one was looking, weariness and resignation would draw her shoulders down before she would resolutely straighten them.

For years after the divorce, despite the hell he knew her ex-husband had put her through, she had maintained a dignity that he could do nothing but admire. And a body that drove him crazy to possess.

He loved her. Despite the fact that she had run from him, that she had denied him at every turn, the need for her wouldn’t ease. It only grew stronger, deeper. He had her, for now, but he was smart enough to know that keeping her wouldn’t be as easy and getting her into his bed had been. He would have to keep her off balance, keep her body humming, her mind immersed in her sensuality until she knew she couldn’t survive without him.

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 pussy 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.”

He said the last sentence as he moved behind her, pulling her against his much taller body, his strong, warm body, as she fought the weakness that filled hers. He made her weak, made her want to lean on him, trust him. How insane was that? She knew better than to trust anyone.

“If you walk away now, Marey, it’s forever.” He lowered his head, pressing a kiss to her hair as his eyes met hers in the glass. “Now, are you going to the office with me, or do you want me to take you to that hotel?”

She stared back at him, their gazes locked in the glass of the sliding doors, and frowned fiercely.

“You are going to piss me off,” she finally snapped.

Surprise flared in his eyes. Surprise and arousal.

“Baby, that’s a given,” he chuckled. “Now, make up your mind and let’s get out of here. I have work waiting.”

Chapter Eight

Sax watched from beneath his lashes as Marey lounged on the couch on the other side of the room, calmly flipping through a magazine as he worked on the reports he needed to finish up for the day.

She was driving him crazy. She was as calm and placid as a mountain lake right now, waiting on him, as though it was nothing unusual to have little or nothing to fill her day. He knew she was an editor for a small publishing company, one that published extremely erotic content. She hadn’t been the one to reveal the information though, it had been Ella who had dropped that little bomb months before.

Was that how she had learned to sit so silently, immersing herself in whatever she was reading? Or had she learned patience and silence while caring for her ill parents so many years ago?

There was so much about her that he needed to know. So many ways he wanted to learn everything possible about this intriguing woman.

“Bored?” he asked curiously.

She glanced up, her gaze a bit distant as it met his.

“No.” She shook her head. “I have company.”

She lifted the edge of the magazine before returning her attention to the article she was reading. It wasn’t fluff. The news magazine was one of his favorites actually.

He shifted in his chair, attempting to ease the uncomfortable weight of his throbbing erection.

“Do you need to run by your house before we head back to mine?” he asked her then. “Pick anything up?”

She glanced up again. “No. I should have enough for a few days.”

Her attention went back to the magazine. It made him crazy. Made him horny. She was as calm and relaxed as a summer’s day, and just as damned hot. He knew how hot she could get, how wet and sweet.

“How long has it been since you’ve had a lover?” he asked her then, shifting to relieve the discomfort of his hard-on.

He watched her tense before she looked back at him, narrow-eyed and suspicious, but hot.

She glanced at her watch mockingly.

“Eight hours maybe?” She went back to the magazine.

Sax observed her for long moments. She looked cool as hell, but he could see the altered breathing, the heavy rise and fall of her breasts. She was aroused. Just that fast. Her nipples were pressing tight against her shirt, her face flushed just enough to testify to her heat.

“Before that,” he bit out between clenched teeth, waiting, his erection throbbing in agony.