Tanner listened to the water running in the big claw-foot bathtub as he set out food for a meal. He had left her alone long enough. He needed to check on her. If a Breed had nerves, then his were rioting with concern. He could have sworn she didn’t have the energy to drag her ass into that big tub, let alone get herself out later.
He stalked to the curtain-covered entrance and jerked the velvet curtains aside, his gaze going instantly to the tub. And he swore the breath froze in his chest but flames began to lick at his balls.
Water still flowed into the deep, old-fashioned tub, hot, steamy water that had barely reached the tips of those damned luscious tits. His cock jerked, throbbed. He swore he felt cum boiling up the shaft as he stared at the hard rosy nipples bobbing in the water.
The animal growled, and unfortunately, the
sound slipped past his lips.
Scheme’s lashes drifted open as the water slowly eased over those perky, berry-ripe nipples. His mouth watered. What he wouldn’t give right now to taste those sweet tits.
“Negotiations for privacy?” she murmured, her voice lazy, drowsy.
“Sure. ” Damn, he could still form words. He was doing good. “Tell me why your father sent your ex-lover to kill you. ”
Tallant was a dead man for that alone. There would be no way in hell that he could stop himself from killing the other man now.
Her eyes closed as she turned her head from him.
“Watch all you like. ” Her lips quirked. “Exhibitionism excites me, didn’t you know that?”
Oh yeah, he knew that. He knew all the nasty erotic adventures she had experienced over the years. Knew about them and relished the thought that when he got her beneath him, he would have a woman who understood pure pleasure with a dash of the extreme.
She wasn’t promiscuous really. After Chaz St. Marks, she had chosen her lovers outside her father’s organization. Men who understood the brief affairs she was looking for, men who tried to give what she needed without asking for more themselves. He wondered if she had found exactly what it was she was looking for in those affairs. He knew that for himself, he never had. No matter how extreme, how depraved, nothing had ever stilled the hunger for her that rode him.
“You haven’t answered my question. ” Anything to hear her voice. It stroked over his senses in a way that made him check his tongue against his teeth again.
Her lashes peeked open once more, giving him a glimpse of chocolate brown eyes so deep, so dark, he swore there was a chance of drowning.
“Which one?”
“Why did your father send St. Marks to kill you?”
“The assassin. ” Her smile was bittersweet. Son of a bitch, she felt something for the bastard willing to kill her. “You enjoyed killing him, didn’t you?”
“What do you think?” The only sign of emotion was the slight flinch of her lashes.
“I think you enjoyed it very much. In answer to your question, he believes I betrayed him. ”
“And did you?”
Her expression was weary, sad. “Perhaps I’ve just been sloppy. I’ve made a lot of mistakes in the past few years. I’ve become a liability. ”
It wasn’t exactly a lie, but Tanner could detect a shadow of deceit. It wasn’t sitting well with him.
“So you heard everything?” she asked then.
“Pretty much. ”
She didn’t say anything more. Instead, she lifted one gracefully turned ankle out of the water and used it to shut off the water.
Her expression wasn’t cold, but neither was it one of emotion. It was reflective. Almost thoughtful.
“And then you kidnapped me,” she said. “Why?”
“Some would say I saved your ass,” he pointed out.
“I’m free to leave then?”