Hammer took a long swig and prowled into the open room. Moonlight streamed in through the window, falling silver and bright across his face. An angry red cut marred his brow. He sported another just above his eye. A bruise formed on his left cheek and on the right side of his jaw. His bottom lip looked a little swollen.
He’d been in a fight. With Beck?
“Macen, what the hell happened to you?”
Hammer’s stare zipped over to her. He said nothing, just sawed angry breaths in and out as he drilled holes into her with an exacting gaze that promised…something she couldn’t put her finger on. Fighting the urge to take a step back, she stood her ground.
“Raine.” His voice finally thundered through the room as he slammed the bottle of liquor on the bar so hard the contents spewed from the neck like a geyser. In three long strides, he ate up the distance between them. Snarling, he gripped her arms tightly as she smelled tequila. “You honestly didn’t think I’d let him get away with that, did you? The fucking bastard!”
Raine tried to block out the zip of desire at the feel of Hammer’s closeness and his grip on her. Which fucking bastard did he mean? “Beck?”
“Yeah, Beck. Though I wish to hell it had been Liam’s face I’d rearranged. But he was too busy fucking you. Yeah, I heard you scream his name.”
His condemning tone made her feel a little sick. Not with shame, exactly. Not just embarrassment. And he sounded…jealous almost. But Raine held her tongue. What could they say that hadn’t already been said?
“Want to tell me why you’re throwing things and trying to wake everyone in the place up?”
“Leave me alone and go back to bed. Let Liam sink into your hot little cunt some more. I’m sure he hasn’t gotten his fill of you yet. In his place, I wouldn’t have,” he snarled. “But then I’ve got six years of ache for you to fuck out of my system, and I could never sate that in one goddamn night. I’d tie you to my bed and devour you for weeks. Months. Until you were sore. Wrung out. Exhausted and begging me not to fuck you again. And that still wouldn’t stop me.”
This from the man who had thrown her from his room for trying to seduce him? Raine stared at Hammer as if he’d spoken a foreign language. His every word burned desire into her. It sizzled her belly, seared her pussy. She couldn’t let herself be swayed. Crap like this was easy to spew when one was nursing tequila.
“Bullshit. You’re drunk. I’m going back to bed.” Raine whirled away, knowing she should leave the room, but just couldn’t let his little speech go. She turned back to him, hands on her hips. “Just when I think you’ve still got a decent bone in your body—Beck told me that he’s a damn doctor and that he wasn’t supposed to hurt me—then you try to B.S. me. When I came to your room, I gave you every opportunity to work out any ache you might have for me. But no. Because you don’t have one. If this is some effort to save my ego or whatever, just...stop. I know you’re never going to tie me to your bed.”
And she didn’t want to hear Hammer confirm that fact, so she belted Liam’s robe around her more tightly and, shoulders stiff, pivoted toward the stairs again.
“Goddamnit, don’t turn away from me. You look at me. Now!”
The force of his demand sent a startled glance over her shoulder. Where the hell had his anger come from?
“Am I drunk? Fuck, yeah. Because of you! Don’t think I’m doing anything to save your ego, precious. I’m saving your goddamn life.”
She turned back to him and crossed her arms over her chest with a snort. “Riiiight... I know your reputation, Hammer. You trying to warn me away from your big, bad Dom self because you want me to worry that you’d tie me to your bed and what? Fuck me to death?” She rolled her eyes. “Please... You’re so full of shit. I don’t even understand this game, but I’m done playing it. Put the cap on the bottle and go to bed. And try not to throw any more barstools.”
He rushed toward her with a burning glower, then pulled her to his broad, hard chest. His steely erection throbbed against her, prodding her from beneath his trousers. “You think I wouldn’t tie you to my bed, precious? Trust me, given the chance, I’d live out every nasty fantasy I’ve hidden for the past six years. I’d make you my dirty little whore and you’d beg me to use you in ways that would make the devil blush.”
Raine went wide eyed. She barely had time to process his silky threat before he grabbed her hair and tugged, forcing her gaze to his. His stare delved, branded, commanded.