“A month.” Tanner took a single step forward. “I intend to take you every way a man can take a woman. Need more than forty-eight hours for that.”
Well damn if her feminine parts didn’t pull out the pompoms. “Forty-eight hours is the most I’ll agree to.”
“A month,” he insisted.
Devon’s fingers flexed with the temptation to grip him by the throat and shake him. “If you’re not even willing to compromise, there’s no point to this conversation.”
He slanted his head. “Why don’t you want to give me a month? What are you afraid of, kitten?”
Honestly? That she’d get used to having him around. Devon relied on herself and met her own needs. A guy like Tanner would barge his way into her life and make a place for himself there. He’d insist on doing things for her, on being there for her, and on having her trust. He’d coax and push and badger and entice, set on having exactly what he wanted exactly when he wanted it. And then he’d leave, and she’d be alone again.
“I’m not keen on letting someone into my life who fully intends to walk straight back out of it once he’s had his fill of me,” she said.
Tanner felt his jaw harden. She made it sound as if he saw her as nothing more than a faceless fuck, which she had to know was pure bullshit. The truth was he’d never get his fill of her. “We can’t give each other anything more.”
“You wouldn’t even if you could,” she accused.
Tanner ground his teeth. Like most male hellhounds, he didn’t like being in relationships. Didn’t like having people interfering in his life or treading on his independence and freedom. He also wasn’t a person who leaned on people, trusted them with his feelings, or dropped his guard to “let them in.’” And females often didn’t like being with a guy who put his job before them. But … “I’d have given it my best shot.” Because it was her.
She sucked in a breath but said nothing.
Closing the distance between them, he idly played with one of her curls. “I’m calmer when I’m with you, you know. Like all the shit in my head just stops for a while. My role as sentinel takes up so much of my day that I find it hard to switch off from it. But you … I don’t know how you do it, but you make it all fall away. No one else has ever done that for me.”
Sighing, she lowered her arms. “Tanner—”
“If you think I wouldn’t want more of that in my life, you’re wrong. But our demons would never go for it. I can’t give you what’s not in my power to give.”
Looking a little off-balance, she licked her lips. “I know, I get it. I’m not turning you down out of spite. But the fact is all you want is impersonal, uncomplicated sex—that’s something you don’t need me for. My pussy isn’t magic or anything. There are billions of others out there.”
He breezed his fingers over her folds, feeling the heat of her pussy even through the denim of her jeans, and she almost jumped. “I want this one,” he said. “It’s snug and warm and fits my cock just right, almost as if it was made to take me.”
“I don’t want to be someone’s plaything.”
“You could never be just a plaything to me, kitten … although I do like to play with you.” Tanner grazed her lower lip with his teeth and gave it a sharp nip, breathing in her soft gasp, needing more. “Give me your mouth, baby.” He could have taken it, ravished it, but he needed that surrender from her; his demon needed it. She didn’t give it to them.
He hadn’t exactly expected her to fall in line with what he wanted—things could never be that simple with Devon. And, honestly, he probably wouldn’t find her half so interesting if they were. But he also hadn’t expected her to believe the whole thing would be meaningless to him; that he’d think of her as nothing more than a sex toy. It wouldn’t be like that at all.
“You’re putting a dark spin on this because then you’ll find it easier to turn me away,” he said. “What we’d have would just be sex, sure, but there’d be nothing impersonal about it.”
Devon stared at him. Was he being serious? “Taking someone to bed with no real thought other than to fuck her until you no longer want her is impersonal. A whole month of being used that way? I’m not up for that.” Engaging in a fun, harmless fling and letting it play out until it lost its charm … well, that would be one thing. He was suggesting something else. “Besides, my demon would never give you a month of its time. Not when it’s on the hunt for a—” His large hand snapped around her throat so fast that she didn’t even see it coming.
“Don’t say it,” he warned through his teeth. “Don’t.”
Her demon snarled at him, but it didn’t push to surface. Likewise, Devon didn’t fight him, sure to her bones that he’d never use his strength against her. “I thought you said I calm you.”
Seconds of tense silence ticked by, and then his mouth canted up. “You just did,” he said, sliding his hand around to cup the side of her neck.
She sighed. “I don’t want to argue with you, Tanner, okay? I say we just leave this at a one-night stand and carry on as we were. There are plenty of women out there who’ll give you what you want.”
“I told you, this”—he glided his fingers over her folds again—“is the only pussy I want. You’re not keeping it from me. You’re gonna give it back to me, Devon. Maybe not right this second, but you will. Soon. I’m getting my month with you. In the meantime, nobody else gets anywhere near this pussy. They don’t touch it. They don’t taste it. They don’t fuck it. Understood?”
She gaped at him. “I’ve got to give it to you, Tanner, you’ve got brass-fucking-balls.”
“Not a single soul gets near it. Tell me you hear me.”
“Oh, I hear you. I just can’t imagine why you think I’ll bow down to your wishes.”
Tanner pitched his voice low as he said, “You don’t want to call my bluff on this, Devon. If someone else touches you, they’ll pay for it in blood. That’s not a threat, it’s a promise. If you’re thinking I don’t mean that, you’re wrong. You don’t know the things I’ve done. You don’t know the things I’m capable of.”
“Is this where I quiver in terror?”
“No, it’s where you heed me for once, because we’re far from done.” He kissed her. Took her mouth like it belonged to him. Licked and bit until the tension began to leach out of her spine. Yeah, she got his message loud and clear.
Tanner pulled back and released her, satisfied by the flush on her cheeks and the need spicing her scent, despite that she was glaring at him. “Remember what I said.”
As he turned to leave, she prompted, “Or … ?”
He glanced at her over his shoulder. “Or you’ll learn just how far I’ll go not to share you. Don’t test me on this, kitten. I’ve killed enough people in the many, many years I’ve walked this Earth. But then, what’s one more to add to the tally?”
CHAPTER NINE