“I’m not convinced.” He was close enough for her to feel his breath on her lips, and it took everything she had not to chase that faint caress with her tongue. “How do I know who’s a fuckface and who isn’t? It’s not like they wear signs. It’s better to just keep everyone at bay. Rely on yourself and no one else. Enjoy people when they appear, like I’ve decided I’m going to enjoy you, but I’m not about to let you get too close.” Too close. Yes, he was definitely too close. She could feel his body heat coming off him in an intoxicating wave. “It’s not a bad way to live. I’m already getting used to it.”
“Oh, I’ll bet you’ve kept everyone at a distance long before now. Probably ever since you were left alone in this world. I can just see you,” he went on when she didn’t answer, instead settling for a quelling frown that bounced off him without leaving a mark. “I’ll bet you were the tough kid that refused to cry at Daddy’s funeral, weren’t you?”
Shock ripped through her, followed by a surge of anger that took all her strength and the tight lacing of her hands to clamp down on it. She who loses control, loses. She who loses… “Thanks for the gift, but I think it’s time for you to leave.”
“I can just picture what you must’ve been like—all gangly arms and legs, refusing to make even a peep so no one would reach out to try and comfort you,” he went on, all the while watching her face like a hawk. What the hell was he looking for? “People reaching out to you would’ve been the last thing a rely-on-no-one kid like you would’ve wanted, am I right? Where was your mom in all this?”
She shifted her shoulders. “She died from an undiagnosed brain aneurism when I was two.”
“So your pops was all you had. And then you didn’t have him.”
“That’s usually what being orphaned means.”
A faint scoff escaped him. “Yeah, you definitely didn’t want people trying to comfort you. I’ll bet you just shut down and shut up, and that’s where the real you has been hiding ever since. Tell me I’m wrong.”
“If you’re not going to leave, why don’t we have sex?” The only defense she had was to go on the offensive, so she threw herself into it with everything she had. Anything to avoid letting him know he was right on target. “It’s what you came here for, right? Let’s hit the pause button on the overcommunication and get busy with getting busy.”
His eyes narrowed speculatively, but otherwise he didn’t move. “Sex is a form of communication.”
“No, sex is sex. It’s fun, but that’s all it is.”
“You’ve obviously been doing it wrong if you believe that.”
Goddamn it. “Come into the bedroom and prove it. Better yet, prove to me all that chrome on your chopper isn’t the overcompensation I thought it was.”
A low growl sounded deep in his throat. “My God, woman, you could tempt a fucking saint, you know that?”
“Good thing you’re not one of those.”
“I can see that the world’s been tough on you, Alice Halliday,” he said with a shake of his head, still not moving in the direction she indicated. “Like the survivor you are, you went and got tough right along with it. So, in a way you’re right. You don’t need anyone to protect you.”
How nice that he finally understood at least that much about her. “Exactly.”
“But I’m thinking you’d like it if someone in this fucked-up world gave a damn about you enough to want to protect you.”
She blinked, surprised and more unnerved than she was willing to admit. “What?”
“You heard me. You want someone to give a damn about you enough to protect you, so fine. That’s me. I’m the guy who gives a damn about you. I’m the guy who’s going to spoil you so fucking rotten you’ll wonder how you ever lived without me.”
Alice could feel her eyes widening with each word he spoke. By the time he was done, it was a wonder they hadn’t popped out of their sockets. “Don’t,” she managed, and when she heard how weak it was, she realized she’d stopped breathing. “Don’t make me believe I can rely on you, okay? Neither of us wants that.”
His brows shot up. “We don’t?”
She shook her head. “We’re not going to have that kind of relationship.”
“Two things, woman,” he said, his expression turning fierce as he stepped right into her space. “Don’t tell me what the fuck I want, and don’t say what kind of relationship we’re going to have. You don’t get to decide any of that shit.” Before she could think of a suitable reply, he pulled her up to meet the hungry descent of his mouth.
It was a wonder the world didn’t explode with the impact.
Alice couldn’t stop herself from closing her eyes as the now-anticipated wave of heat rolled over her. She’d never experienced anything quite like it before, but without fail Loki’s kisses melted her from the inside out. Her skin became hyper-sensitized, her head spun in a kind of giddy delirium, and the heat between her legs was so distracting all she could think was that her panties would catch on fire if they weren’t getting so freaking wet.
And all he was doing was kissing her.
What would happen when he got between her legs?
Most of her couldn’t wait to find out.
Most of her.
He was there for sex. She knew it, and so did he. Considering all the tension she had in her life right now, a little fun in the sack would do wonders for her outlook. If she could just get him into bed without any more talking, any more thinking, she might be able to ignore the small voice in her head insisting that if she had sex with Loki, her world would never be the same.
Which was ridiculous, she thought, even as feverish lust made her intimate folds slick with need. Sex couldn’t change worlds. It couldn’t change her.
To prove it, she rolled up onto her tiptoes and dived deeper into the kiss. His hands released her upper arms to roam down her back, seemingly taking delight in learning the narrowing ladder of her rib cage before getting to the indentation at her waist. She’d always been on the lean side, but she had enough hip to hold her pants up, and he seemed to enjoy that, too. Then he moved on, his hands roaming downward until his fingers dug into her ass to pull her up against him.
Hello.
There was no doubt about the growing hardness rubbing against her pelvis, though for a few seconds she couldn’t fully absorb the reality of it all.
Oh, my.
Had she actually believed this man was inadequately endowed just because he owned a Harley and a Hummer? Maybe that overcompensation theory was true for some guys, but clearly Loki Colgrave wasn’t just some guy. He was an original.
An original with one hell of a bulge going on down south.
No wonder he’d laughed when she’d suggested he had a small penis.
At long last he pulled away just far enough to look into her eyes. “That mouth of yours is going to get me into all kinds of trouble,” he murmured, surprising her. “That’s the first thing I noticed about you. Well, that and your legs. I’m a leg man, so no surprise there. But then you shot off that mouth of yours, and all I wanted to do was close it with mine.”