“No!” Wylder snapped. “I can figure out how to feed myself. Just go.”
She made a tsking sound with her tongue, but she headed for the door with the others. I stood up too with every intention of leaving.
“Where do you think you’re going, Kitty Cat?” Wylder asked in a growl of a voice when I was halfway to the door. The others had already vanished into the hall.
I turned, folding my arms over my chest, my skin pricking with an unsettling energy that wasn’t exactly unpleasant. “I thought you wanted us to leave.”
He prowled toward me, every bit of muscular power in his well-built body on display. “I didn’t say you.”
“You kind of made it sound like all of—”
He stopped in front of me, close enough that I could feel his breath as he fingered the hem of my T-shirt. His gaze stayed fixed on me, utterly predatory. “Why are you in such a hurry? Missing their attention already?”
I glowered at him. “What are you even talking about?”
He waved toward the open door. “I think you like having them all focused on you. Fawning over you like you really are some kind of princess.”
Oh, for fuck’s sake. I leaned closer, holding his gaze, every nerve alight with the electricity building between us. “I am a princess. The Claws Princess, as you like to remind me so much.”
“And you love that too.” His face tipped even closer to mine, those gorgeous green eyes flashing. “It’s my attention you crave the most, isn’t it? You like to pretend you don’t care, but I know you better than that by now.”
I snorted even though an eager shiver had rippled through me at his words. “Spoiler alert: not everything is about you.”
“No, but this is.”
I cocked my head, my neck straining a bit as I glared up at him. “Maybe this is about you. What are you so pissed off about anyway? Annoyed that I ruined your valiant rescue effort yesterday by rescuing myself?”
His jaw clenched. “I would have torn through every one of those assholes.”
“But instead you’re tearing into the rest of us. Nice.” I exhaled sharply and started to turn. “Maybe I should just go—”
Wylder grabbed my elbow and jerked me back toward him, his fingers scorching my skin. I shoved at his chest instinctively, and he shoved right back—pushing the door closed and me up against it. “I didn’t say you could leave.”
“I don’t answer to you, you prick.”
“Then it’s about time you started.”
“You have some nerve,” I spat out, and then his whole body was against me, pulsing with heat. It was all I could do not to melt right into him.
“You’re so fucking sexy when you’re furious,” he said, and then his mouth crashed down on mine.
I should have pushed him off me. That would have been the sensible thing to do. But sensible wasn’t exactly my specialty, and the truth was, my entire being had been craving this moment since the first time Wylder had touched me—hell, since the first time he’d looked at me.
It felt as inevitable as gravity or a magnetic force. We’d been bound to collide eventually. Why the hell should I deny it?
Especially when it felt this fucking good.
His mouth moved against mine, furious and urgent. I gripped his shirt and kissed him right back, refusing to back down.
His tongue traced the seam of my mouth before flicking inside. Mine tangled with it, dueling for dominance. I felt the grin on his face as our mouths mashed together. Neither of us had any plans to give up control.
So it was probably a good thing that it turned out we both wanted the same thing.
Wylder twisted the lock on the kitchen door and then swung me around to set my ass on the nearest countertop. The cool granite bit into the backs of my thighs for just a second before he heated everything up again by pushing between my legs.
I grinded against him, giddy at the feel of the hard bulge already pressing against the fly of his jeans. My hands pulled at his hair before slightly massaging his nape.
He groaned against my mouth, and that only turned me on more. I liked this version of Wylder who wasn’t Mr. Cool and Cocky but lost in his lust, even if I was lost here with him.