“I’m not bluffing.”
“Fine. You want what we’ve been doing made public, go right ahead.”
“What we’ve been doing? Fucking, you mean? Well, guess what, sweetheart. I don’t have a problem with telling everyone in the goddamned world. You’re the one who’s buttoned up so damn tight I’m surprised you can even come.” She knew she sounded like an irate child and she didn’t give two hoots. “Of course it’s so quick you probably don’t have time to really get into it. Ever heard the phrase one-minute man? That’s you.”
His smile might as well have been a blade, it was so sharp. “Doesn’t say much for you if you’re so hot to keep me in your bed, now does it?”
She ignored him. “Do you even know how to relax enough to enjoy sex, Spencer? Real sex? The emotional connection that comes when you know who the fuck it is you’re balling?”
“You know all about emotional connections then, I assume? Was it emotion driving you to rank your lovers according to some system? I’m curious. What symbol will I get?”
A shattered heart, she thought vengefully, turning away before she erupted. Well, worse than she already had. Sadly she could get much,muchworse.
“We have to work together. I’m not getting in a pissing match with you.”
“You started this.” He grabbed her arm and spun her back to face him. For the briefest instant, his face was alive with heat and fury and passion. She’d never seen anyone so beautiful in all her life. “You’re not getting the phone back. Not yet. Maybe not ever. Not until I’m done with you.”
She didn’t know whether to rejoice or slap him across the face. “When you’redonewith me? Like an old tissue you can toss away? What if I say we’re done right now? Then what?”
“Say it.” She didn’t know if he was daring her or begging her, his eyes were so raw. “Say it, Kelly.”
She wanted to. God, she wanted to throw the words at him to see if that fleeting heat returned or left nothing but ashes. But she couldn’t. She didn’t know why or what made him different, but for the first time, she couldn’t just walk away.
Her chin trembled. She knew he saw it because his expression gentled. His hold loosened, the pinch of his fingers erased by his pervasive warmth.
Spencer lifted his free hand to stroke her cheek, a brief touch that conveyed all that was unsaid. He didn’t want her to go. She could tell just from the way he was staring into her eyes.
Hard-ass Spencer didn’t really exist. At least not as much as he wanted her to believe. Why he preferred she think he was a bastard, she had no clue.
If this was a game, someone had forgotten to tell her the rules.
A long moment passed before she whispered, “Just take me home.”