She was ready to scream. She was ready to throw something at him. Where in God’s name had her father found the one man guaranteed to make her want to kill?
“I never imagined it did,” she snapped, a flush working from her neck and over her face, the dark pink color rising to her hairline and making an interesting contrast to her auburn hair, creating a fiery image as her eyes glittered a furious blue. He had never seen anything so gorgeous in his whole damned life.
“So, we going to make use of that bed or make use of the stove? I could be getting hungry.”
His gaze assured her that the hunger could go either way. Impossibly, she felt the anger sparking the desire as lust beat a hard-driving rhythm in her womb and anger surged through her head.
“We’re going to make use of your gun,” she choked out furiously. “One nice, neat little hole in the middle of your empty forehead.”
Kell sighed. “Let’s wait till after dinner. I’d hate to die on an empty stomach.”
“You think you know so much!” She had to fight to keep from screaming, to hold back the inner rage driving forward. “You think you have all the fucking answers, don’t you, Kell?”
“No, Emily, I don’t,” he answered forcefully, hating the pain he saw in her gaze now. “I don’t have all the answers. I only have what I see and what I learned from those dipshit bodyguards you’ve had in the past. Do you know what I see?”
She flinched. “I don’t care what you see.”
“I see a woman who loves too fiercely. One who is too aware of others’ pain and others’ heartache, and who doesn’t demand the same respect from those she loves. I see a woman who has remained a virgin, a virgin, Emily. An incredibly passionate woman dying to touch and be touched, and she’s doing without it so she won’t have to hurt her father. So she won’t have to explain to him that whoever she marries and whenever she marries is her own damned business, and not his.”
There was no censure in his tone; if there had been, she could have fought him. She could have railed back in turn.
“You’re wrong,” she whispered. “I’ve remained a virgin not because I didn’t want to fight him. Because I didn’t want others to pay for my fight with him. If you don’t believe me, give Charlie Benson a call. I have his number if you need it. He was an Annapolis graduate and my first boyfriend after I turned eighteen. When Daddy caught him sneaking out of my bedroom and I refused to marry him, Daddy destroyed a damned bright naval career. Daddy destroyed a man for my decision, Kell. And I won’t forget that. Maybe it’s something you should remember.”
There was no escape from here. She couldn’t stalk outside, she wasn’t about to spend the rest of the summer in her bedroom. That left facing him, fighting him.
But despite the humiliation she could still feel at remembering Charlie’s fate, Emily realized she enjoyed sparring with Kell. He didn’t raise his voice, he didn’t yell, he became forceful. And that forcefulness challenged something inside her, brought it to the fore and demanded that she challenge him in return.
“Benson was sneaking in to your bedroom, Emily.” Kell laughed. “You were barely days past your eighteenth birthday and he was already in his twenties. He deserved what he got.”
“Daddy had him kicked out of Annapolis.”
“He was messing with an officer’s daughter; he knew the risks.”
“See?” she yelled back. “You’re just like Dad. Charlie was young. He was being romantic.”
“He was being horny.” He crossed his arms over his chest arrogantly. “He was all dick and no brain. You deserved better.”
“And I guess you have a brain hiding in that head of yours?” she mocked in angry response.
“I’m not a kid,” he assured her, his green eyes filled with his own self-confidence. “The fact that I knew what to do when I got my head buried between your thighs should have assured you of that.”
“This is not about sex.” She pushed her fingers through her hair, gripped it and wondered if pulling the strands would pull the frustration out of her.
She was ready to scream. He was impossible.
“No, it’s about a hell of a lot more than sex. It’s about us, Emily, and your precious daddy has no dog in this race. You can tell him to keep his nose out of it or I will.”
“You wouldn’t!”
“He won’t catch me slipping out of your bedroom window. He pulls his normal stunts and he’ll catch me in your bed. You can deal with it before that happens, or after. Your choice. I’m an officer, sugar, and he’s not in the Navy any longer. He can’t touch me.”
“You are not getting in my bed!” she yelled. She couldn’t help it. He was outrageous. Demented.
“Sugar, one kiss.” He held up one finger. “Give me one kiss to prove otherwise. I’ll have you flat on your back and penetrated before you know it’s happened. Test that one out for size. Better yet.” His expression shifted, became hungry, sexual. “Try me on for size.”
Oh, my God! She lost her breath. She was certain she’d lost her womb too, because the miniexplosions that detonated inside it couldn’t have been good. And then there was the melting sensation in her vagina, the liquid heat and contracting pleasure that had her catching her breath.
“Not on your life. Sorry, Kell, but I crossed SEALs off my list years ago. I’ll just keeping looking if it’s all the same to you.”<