Someone Like Her(55)

 “You’re overreacting, you know. I did what I thought was best for you.” She sat on the sofa and clasped her hands between her knees.

 He opened his mouth, then snapped it shut before he said something he couldn’t take back. How she could say that with a straight face was beyond him. A battle raged inside him, half of him wanting to yell at her for trying to hide the fact Fortunada had had his hands on her, the other half wanting to wrap his arms around her and keep her there where she’d always be safe.

 Turning on his heels, he went into the kitchen and filled a glass with water. If he took his time drinking it, maybe he would calm down. He wasn’t used to losing control of his emotions, could keep his composure on a battlefield with bullets whistling past his ears and bombs raining down around him. How then did one slip of a girl turn him into something he just wasn’t?

 Maybe he wasn’t meant for a long-term relationship, didn’t have the right DNA for it or whatever the hell it was that made a man want to stay with one woman.

 Footsteps sounded behind him, but he didn’t let on he’d heard her. She slipped her arms around his waist and pressed her face against his back. Resisting the urge to turn so he could hold her, he set the glass down and braced his hands on the sink. There was no way to make her understand she had all but said he wasn’t man enough to handle knowing she’d been attacked.

 “You’re right and I’m sorry,” she said. “I should have told you. I just didn’t want to worry you when you’re about to leave on a dangerous operation.”

 “Yes, you should have.” He felt her arms tense, a barely discernible squeeze on the sides of his waist. What did she want from him, that one little “I’m sorry” returned his man balls back to their place?

 “You know what, Jake?”

 When she didn’t answer her own question, he pried her hands away from his stomach and turned. “No, can’t say I do.” Even as he said the words, he knew he was being an ass, but she’d pushed his buttons. He didn’t know how to unpush them.

 If the flare in those black eyes had been real fire, he, she, and the kitchen would’ve just gone up in flames. In zero to sixty, his cock went rock hard. Obviously, his brains had decided to relocate south.

 She took a step back from him. “I was going to say get over it, but now I think I’ll just say to hell with you. Good-bye.”

 “Get over it?” Before she made it past the kitchen table, he moved in front of her. “To hell with me? You planning to walk home, Chiquita?” The flinch she gave at hearing his pet name for her only spiraled his blood pressure.

 “If you can’t understand I only did what I did because I’m worried about you, then screw you.” She pushed at his chest.

 “You really should stop talking, Maria.” Any hope of reason deserted him, and he backed her—step by step—against the nearest wall and seized the hands poking at him. To make good on his threat, he captured her mouth with his and kissed her as if his life depended on it.

 He’d gone insane. He didn’t care.

 Only when he’d yanked his zipper down did he think of needing a condom. A sliver of reason returned and he rested his forehead against hers. “There’re two possible answers to my question, and I may or may not agree. Do you want to go home?”

 “I don’t know.”

 “Not the right answer.” He scooped her up and headed down the hall.

 “I don’t want to go home, but I’m also mad at you.”

 “Then we have something in common,” he said as he dropped her to her feet next to his bed. “I’m mad at you, too.” In two seconds flat, he had her dress off. Since he liked the way the lacey, yellow bra and matching panties looked against her tanned skin, he decided to leave them on. For now.

 “Lie down.”





CHAPTER FIFTEEN




Even if she stood on a block of ice barely clothed as she was now, the heat radiating off Jake’s body would keep her warm and toasty. He was still angry with her, Maria could see it in his eyes, but he was also turned on.

 “I said lie down.”

 “You’re awfully bossy,” she said, not moving. The words were no sooner out when she was lifted and tossed on the bed. Although she’d never admit it, this domineering side of him excited her. When she started to scramble to the other side, he came down on top of her, none too easy.

 “Going somewhere?” He ground his erection against her. “Think again.”