His fingers slid out a second later. She groaned at the emptiness he left behind, but pressed herself against his erection and rubbed...rubbed...

His gaze hot on hers, he brought his fingers to his mouth and hungrily licked away her desire. The sight...the very thought that he was taking a part of her inside himself...the sweetest part...she flew over the edge, rubbing him harder, rubbing him faster, using her core to kindle his climax and stoke her own. Suddenly he roared her name.

He cupped her ass, his fingers digging into her giving flesh, and jetted into his underwear, wetting the material and her hand. She’d feel him tomorrow—and she’d love it.

She collapsed against him, utterly spent, her breathing as labored as his, her mind reeling. They hadn’t had sex, and yet he’d made her come twice.

This man...oh, this man. He affected her.

“Off,” he said, surprising her. When she failed to move fast enough for his liking, he stood, ensuring she slid off his lap.

Her legs were the consistency of jelly, and it required a conscious effort to remain on her feet as she stumbled away from him.

“Get dressed,” he said, looking anywhere but at her.

“I will, but only because I want to dress.” A pang of hurt, but really, had she expected anything different? He didn’t like or respect her. As if he’d really want to cuddle with her now.

You need me, he loved to tell her. The implication? He didn’t need her.

Anger overtook the hurt. “Well, well. Look who’s in a rush to change his underpants. You unloaded a bucket’s worth of batter, didn’t you?”

He tossed her discarded garments at her, silent. Motions jerky, she covered her nakedness; her efforts to hide her trembling were wasted.

“Just so you know, you had a great start but a deplorable finish,” she muttered, smoothing the material in place.

“You enjoyed yourself,” he snapped.

“And so did you. So what’s your problem?”

“Maybe all the contact pained me more than I admitted.”

Maybe...wasn’t really an answer. The single word removed both truth and lie from the sentence. What didn’t he want her to know? “Maybe you’re beginning to have feelings for me, and you don’t like it.” The taunt echoed in her mind, and her eyes widened. Her feelings toward him had certainly softened, so why couldn’t his have softened toward her?

“You should pray that doesn’t happen,” he said quietly, menacingly. “I’m dangerous.”

Not to me. Even when he’d thought she’d betrayed him, he’d offered her pleasure rather than punishment.

He added, “There’s darkness inside me, and it’s only growing. I have no light.”

“Well, guess what? There’s light inside me, and when darkness and light go head to head, darkness runs and light saves the day.”

He frowned at her. “You think you can save me?”

“Don’t be silly. One person can never save another. Not in the true sense of the word. We all make our own choices. I’m just saying I’m willing to share with you.”

His frown intensified, but he remained silent.

“A demon once inhabited you,” she said, “but you kept your wits until the end and overcame him. Right? Mind over matter. Now you can do the same with the beast.”

“You make it sound easy, yet you have no idea the battle—”

“Oh, I know it’s a battle. Your own mind is often your fiercest opponent.” Her smile held an edge of sadness. “When I lost Peter—”

“Peter?” The name lashed from him. “Who is Peter?”

“My fiancé. Before Alek.”

Baden relaxed, but only slightly. “Who broke things off?”

An invisible hand wrapped around her heart and squeezed. “Neither of us. Alek killed him.”

He softened. “I’m sorry.”

“Thank you. The point is, I wanted to wallow in my sorrow, but I didn’t. I couldn’t because my dogs needed me.”

“Dogs Aleksander later took from you.”

Her chin quivered as she nodded. “You saw what happened when I did wallow.”

“I also saw what happened when you stopped.”

“I had to change the direction of my thoughts. Instead of lamenting about what I lost, I had to focus on what I had left. My emotions soon followed my mind. The same can happen for you.”

He pondered her words and for a moment, she thought she had him. Then he scoffed at her. “Our situations are different. You weren’t influenced by an outside force.”