Even Dane couldn’t dispute that. Yet his scowl deepened.
“You don’t seem to understand that this family doesn’t work without you.”
I sucked in a breath at his intensity. “It doesn’t work without you, either.”
We stared at each other for endless moments. Finally, Dane nodded.
“Okay, then,” I added. I stood and crossed to where he’d stopped pacing. Fury still oozed from him, but I surmised it had more to do with circumstance and the big picture than what Kyle and I had done about Wayne Horton.
I splayed my hands over Dane’s abs and stretched on tiptoe to kiss him. A tentative gesture, to gauge his mood. When I pulled away, he smirked. The sexy, bad-boy one that made my insides sizzle.
“Really?” he challenged as he crooked a brow. “Now you play it safe?”
“Just testing the waters. You can be very intimidating when you want to be. Which is, like, all the time.”
A heartbeat later, he swept me into his arms and marched off to the bedroom.
The baby wasn’t in his bassinet, so I figured Rosa had him nestled somewhere close to where she worked. Her current vice was sewing clothes for him. Given her creativity and skill set, I was on the verge of offering to help her financially launch her own clothing line, if that was what she wanted. I didn’t even bother shopping for my child, because he had a new outfit or two every week, thanks to Rosa.
Dane kicked the door shut behind us. He set me on my feet and then swiftly pinned me against the wall, his hard body pressed to mine. Gripping my wrists, he raised them above my head. His eyes burned with heat, rage, need. The heady combination made my blood sing, my body tremble.
“Don’t defy me again,” he said in a low, territorial growl.
Exhilaration rode magma through my veins. “Promise.”
“I can’t live without you.” His green irises were piercing, hypnotic.
“I can’t live without you.”
With his jaw set in a hard line, he said, “I’m seriously pissed, Ari.”
“You have every right to be.”
“I love you too much to lose you. We can’t take chances like this. No more.”
“Understood.”
His mouth crashed over mine, claiming me in a possessive kiss filled with lust and fury.
A mix I found thrilling. Scintillating …