Claimed (Diamond Tycoons 1)

“Then how do you know that no one else is available? Stephen Vardeaux operates out of New York now and Byron M—”

“I don’t want someone else,” he snapped. “I want you.”

“Why?” she asked suspiciously, her voice louder than usual with the same frustration that was rushing through him. “Because you think you can use our past to influence—”

“Goddamn it!” He roared as he finally lost his grip on his temper. “What have I ever done to make you think I would use you like that? What have I ever done to give you these kind of qualms about me?”

“Oh, I don’t know. Made me fall in love with you and then tossed me out like I was garbage?”

He froze as her words registered, and so did she. “That’s not what happened.”

“I know.” The look on her face said otherwise, though.

“You never loved me.”

“You don’t get to tell me how I felt.”

“You never loved me,” he insisted again, a little shocked at how shaky his voice was. How shaky he felt inside. “You betrayed me.”

“I didn’t betray you. I was caught between two untenable positions—”

“Being with me was an untenable position?”

“Don’t put words in my mouth!”

“I’m not. Maybe you should think before you speak.”

“God!” She made a sound of total exasperation as she headed out of the kitchen and back toward the front door. “I told you this wouldn’t work. You need to leave.”

He grabbed her arm, spun her around to face him. “I’m not going anywhere.”

“Well, you’re not staying here.”

He raised a brow at her. “Wanna bet?”

“You need to go!”

“I’ll go when you come with me.”

“I’m not going anywhere with you. Not now, not ever again!” She was breathing fast, skin flushed and chest heaving. Tendrils of hair had escaped from the wild updo she’d pulled it into and burned like flames around her face.

They were in the middle of a fight and never had she looked so beautiful, so enticing, so delectable. A part of him wanted to shake her but a much bigger part wanted to take her. To shove her against the nearest wall and plunge himself inside her until she forgot every objection she had about him and he forgot every problem he had with her.

Until the past didn’t matter anymore.

Until nothing mattered b

ut the fire burning so brightly between them.

He reached for her before he could stop himself, pulled her body flush against his. She cried out, her hands going to his shoulders—to cling, to push him away? He couldn’t tell. And by the way she arched against him, he didn’t think she could, either.

Her breathing was harsh, her nipples peaked against his chest, and all he wanted to do was slip a hand between her thighs and find out if she was as turned on as he was. If she was as wet and hot for him as she’d been last night.

Overwhelmed with desire—with lust for her that just wouldn’t go away—he lowered his head to take her mouth with his. And she almost let him...right up until she shoved at his shoulders hard and ripped her body away from his.

She stumbled back a few steps, staring at him with wide, bruised eyes.

He didn’t follow, no matter how much he wanted to. Didn’t grab hold of her and pull her back into his arms where a part of him was convinced she belonged. No, when it came to sex—to intimacy—between them, there was no way he would take that choice away from her. No matter how much he wanted her. No matter how certain he was that she wanted him, too.