"How do you know it doesn’t?’ He continued to watch her intently. Too intently. His gaze sliced through her defenses. "You've never tried. "
"And I can't start now. " Once she released the fragile barrier between her and the world, she knew it wouldn't end. The pain would go on forever.
"Yes, you can. And you will. " His voice was hard. Determined.
Megan found herself stepping back as his arms uncrossed, the power and strength in the hard muscles of his chest, his biceps, drawing her gaze. They rippled as he moved, much like the huge lions his DNA came from.
"I can't do what you want. " She forced the words past her lips, seeing the steely determination in his eyes. "I'm sorry, Braden. I can't be what you need. "
She turned and left the room, moving quickly toward the stairs, her only
clear thought to escape him, to escape herself. She felt too much when she was around him. She had fought for too many years for the measure of peace she had found in her life, only to learn that all the planning, all the hiding, had been in vain. A curious sense of failure swept over her.
As she raced up the stairs, she was instinctively aware of Braden behind her, coming for her. He had no intention of letting her escape so easily.
As she reached the second-floor landing, his hard arm latched around her waist, pulling her against him a second before she found herself against the wall. A gasp left her lips as his hand slid between her thighs, cupping her, holding her heat captive in his palm.
"You are more than I ever dreamed I would find in this desert," he growled. "But that doesn't mean you'll control me, Megan. It doesn't mean you can run from me or that I will allow you to hide from yourself. "
His fingers pressed closer, adding a heat and pressure to her swollen clit that had her gasping in surprise. Her juices eased from her vagina, dampening her further as she felt the muscles swelling, pulsing erratically for his touch. The taste of cinnamon and brown sugar lingered on her tongue, reminding her of his taste, the heat of his kiss.
"This isn't going to solve anything. " She struggled against him, biting back her moan as he held her firm, his other hand moving beneath her
shirt, his fingertips skimming her stomach before flattening just below her breast.
"I'm not here to solve anything except the danger stalking you," he reminded her, his voice a dark, deep male purr. The sound of it excited, terrified. "This," he pressed closer to her back as his fingers began a gentle rubbing motion between her thighs—"isn't meant to solve. It isn't meant to be comfortable, or a place to hide. Starting here_" She whimpered as he pressed harder against her clit, rubbing more firmly as she went to her tiptoes to escape the extreme reactions racing through her body. "This is to show you. To tempt you_" A smile filled his voice a second before his teeth grazed her neck. "To remind you_
I'm the boss, baby. You will do it because I say you will. You will learn how to use your gift, you will learn how to fight, because the alternative is death, and that is unacceptable. And you can do it one of two ways_" His voice deepened. "The easy way" His hand smoothed over her stomach. "Or the hard way. " His fingers pressed, stroked, rotated.
Megan's eyes widened as wildfire skipped through her veins and pleasure popped through her womb.
It wasn't an explosion. It wasn't an orgasm meant to destroy her senses or bring her to her knees in submission. It was meant to tease, a taste of ecstasy, a deliberately seductive, erotically diabolical surge of pleasure that would ensure she could never forget. Never forget who gave it, or where the ultimate pleasure could be found.
"Remember that cupcake. " He growled before turning and stalking to his room, anger radiating from him in waves as she watched him disappear.
She was still trembling, shuddering from the excessive pleasure and her inability to control it. She couldn't control the need, herself or him. Oh boy, she was in so much trouble now.
Chapter Eight
She wasn't in the best of moods the next morning. She had tossed and turned in bed, aroused, furious, and scared.
Scared of the sensations she felt when Braden touched her, of her own reaction to him, and the bonding she could feel tying them together. The last was the crux of the matter. She had never bonded with anyone outside her family, especially not a man as hard and as formidable as Braden.
She knew what he wanted from her, knew he wasn't going to let her hide or ignore the very things she had fought to ignore for so many years. It would have been easily avoided if she could convince herself it wasn't something she want
ed; but she knew it was. She wanted to learn how to control her talents, how to separate herself from her abilities and sift through the echoes of emotions to the knowledge beneath. She had never succeeded on her own, and though she feared the failure of trying again, she knew she would. She would, because the opportunity was there; because she knew it could well be her last chance.
With the emotions churning so restlessly inside her, it was no surprise that when Lance called, ordering her into the office for a meeting, it irritated her.
"Broken Butte isn't a large town," Megan lectured Braden as they drove past the city limit sign just before noon. "We're a very close-knit community. We don't mind outsiders, but we don't like governmental types. " She sneaked a look from the comer of her eye as he slouched in his seat, his Stetson pulled low to shade his eyes.
Damn, he looked good in that hat. And she didn't want to remember how good he looked; didn't want to acknowledge it. She was still burning from his touch the night before, so desperate to be taken it was a wonder she hadn't gone to his bed last night.
"I promise I'm housebroken, Megan," he drawled.
"Only because it suits you at the moment. " She grunted, shifting in her seat as she entered the outer edges of town.
She was aware of the long look he directed at her. It was impossible not to be aware of it. Her body was so highly sensitive now that she swore she could feel his gaze raking over her.