His to Command

“Kate, please tell me why you left.”

She turned and stared at him in amazement. How could he ask her that? What he had done had been unforgivable.

Her throat closed up and she couldn’t have uttered a word if she’d tried. She wrapped her arms around her body, rubbing her hands up and down, trying to banish the dreadful cold.

“Damn it all, I loved you.” He stepped toward her and she stopped herself from backing away. His hands clenched into fists at his sides. “Don’t you understand? At first, I thought something terrible had happened to you.”

The look of raw pain slashing his features shocked her. With all that had happened, she hadn’t really thought her leaving would hurt him so much as it would make him angry.

And it seemed she had hurt him badly.

Now, seeing his vulnerability, her heart constricted. She longed to reach out and touch him. To stroke back the loose waves of hair that had fallen onto his forehead. To soothe away the pain.

His eyes narrowed. “Kate?”

Her name, soft and questioning on his lips, sounded too right. She wanted to hear him say it again, murmured in the dark shadows of the night. Her heart ached and hot moisture formed in the corners of her eyes.

“Kate?” he repeated. Concern etched his features.

In the softening of his eyes, she saw the Matt she had once known. The Matt she had loved. But she couldn’t allow herself to fall for him again. Not knowing what he really was.

Yet she stood there, helpless, as he tipped up her chin and gazed at her with questioning eyes. She couldn’t help but remember those blue eyes filled with desire. Her lips trembled.

He drew her face toward him, and captured her lips. Passion flared as his tongue glided between her lips, seeking the warmth inside. Clinging to her wits, she kept her teeth firmly clenched and slid her hands to his chest to push him away, but the warmth of the silk fabric under her fingertips, pulled taut across the hard muscles of his chest, sent her into a sensual whirlwind.

She opened to him, welcoming his tongue with her own. Her breasts swelled in reaction and she couldn’t stop her tiny gasp of pleasure at being in his arms again. It took every scrap of will she possessed not to wrap her arms around him and melt into his embrace like hot honey. She wanted him so badly; needed him with an agony that transcended time and space.

Abruptly, he broke their embrace, holding her at arm’s length, looking as shaken as she felt.

“Oh, God, Kate. Why did you leave me?”

The agony in his voice was too much to bear. Kate sucked in a gulp of air and jerked away from him, trying to pull herself together. Grabbing her wine, she took a sw

allow and concentrated on the cool, tart liquid washing down her throat. He snatched it from her hand and flung it across the room. Droplets flew from the glass like blood-red tears as it shattered against the ceramic-tiled hearth.

He grabbed her arms and pulled her toward him. The brush of his body against hers sent a shimmer of heated torment through her.

“I want an answer.”

She could feel tension emanating from him in waves.

“Can’t you see? I need to know.” His words—tight beads strung out on a thread of anguish—shook her.

The depth of his emotion showed clearly in the way his hands tightened on her shoulders.

“Matt, you’re hurting me.”

Instantly, he loosened his hold, but he did not release her. His features sharpened into harsh relief.

This wasn’t like Matt. The Matt she’d known had always been in total control of his emotions. Memories of time they’d spent together fluttered through her mind like a film stuttering through an old movie projector, hazy and erratic.

Of the way his lips would claim hers with potent authority. Of the way his touch could send her to ecstatic heights. And as they lay in bed together, their naked bodies entwined, of loving words murmured in his sexy, rumbling, bedroom voice. She wanted to throw herself into the strength of his arms and give herself to him.

It would be so easy to forget everything that had happened. To allow these feelings to sweep her away, and seek the comfort of his arms. To allow their passion to flare again.

He must have seen the surrender in her eyes. A shiver raced through her as his face moved toward hers.

A cell phone warbled.