LITMIR.BIZ

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off a second later. “I'm certainly not laying out traps for you—”

      “Oh, no?” Nathan countered quickly, apparently enjoying interrupting her for a change. “No traps, huh? Did it happen to escape your notice that we didn't use any protection?”

      Keira blanched for a second. Damn it, it had escaped her attention. Then his words hit home. A trap? “First I'm a slut and now I'm trying to trap you and your golden sperm? Aren't I the busy little bee?”

      “You're deliberately avoiding the point,” he said. “We didn't use anything and—”

      “Well, jeez,” she said, interrupting him neatly for the umpteenth time, “color me human. You know, I don't actually travel with condoms in my jeans on the off chance that some spoiled, snotty rich guy will want to have sex with me and then insult me!”

      He grabbed two fists full of his own hair and yanked. Hard. Then, his voice rumbled through the kitchen at a level just below howling. “For God's sake, I just told you I could have made you pregnant and you take that as an insult, too?”

      “I'm not pregnant,” she snapped. “Just so you know, I'm on the Pill, so no worries there, Mr. Barrister. Your personal fortune is safe from this particular gold digger.” “I never said you were a—” “But as long as we're on the subject,” she continued, her voice rolling right over his, “how about you?” He grimaced. “I'm not on the Pill.”

      “Not the best time to develop a sense of humor, just so you know.”

      He raised his hands in mock surrender. “Fine. Fine. I'm healthy. No worries there. You?”

      “Contrary to certain people's opinion, I am not a slut and, therefore, I, too, am very healthy.” She crossed her fingers over her heart. “Of course, I'll be happy to get you a letter frommy doctor to alleviate any further concern …”

      “Damn it, Keira, I'm not calling you a slut for doing whatever you have to do to get what you want. That's how the world works. The real world, that is, not your own personal little Xanadu here.”

      “Believe it or not,” she shouted, “I did not have sex with you to keep you here for the month!”

      “You keep telling yourself that,” he said tightly.

      “Jeez,” Keira muttered, shaking her head. “Are you really so far out of touch with humanity? Does everything in your world carry a price tag?”

      “There are price tags everywhere in the world. Wake up and maybe you'll notice them.”

      “You lead an ugly life,” she whispered.

      “At least I live with my eyes open,” he countered. “I know that people are mostly out for themselves and willing to do just about anything to take care of number one.”

      “So I slept with you to get what I want?”

      “Wouldn't be the first time it's happened.”

      Keira flinched at the coldness in his eyes. He really did believe that anyone getting close to him was out for his money. His lifestyle. How sad. How unbearably empty his world must be. And the saddest part was, he didn't even realize it.

      “And so, because you've surrounded yourself with sycophants and users, you naturally assumed that I was one, too.”

      He gritted his teeth and a muscle in his jaw twitched. “And you're telling me you're not.”

      “Yeah,” she said, “I am. And what's more, you know it. Somewhere in that cavernous emptiness you call a heart, you know it. And you insulted me on purpose.”

      He glared at her. “You are the most—” He caught himself, dragged in a gulp of air and then fired his gaze into hers. “Okay, yeah. I did.”

      “Finally!” Keira shouted and scooted a little closer to the kitchen fire, nudging Nathan out of her way. “The question is why?”

      “Why?”

      “Why did you want to insult me, Nathan?” She tipped her head to one side, stared up at him and asked, “If you wanted me to leave, all you had to do was say so.”

      “I didn't want you to leave,” he admitted, though it was clear he wasn't happy about the confession.

      “Then why?”

      “I honestly don't know,” he said and pulled her up close against him. When she tried to push herself free, he simply tightened his hold on her middle, pinning her body to his until Keira could feel his need building again.

      Was he so unused to people wanting to be with him just to be with him? Was his world so insulated that the only people he ever saw were the ones who worked for him or wanted something from him?

      Slightly mollified, Keira stared up into his eyes and saw questions still lingering in those pale blue depths. The man did things to her she had never expected. He had a way of touching her heart at the oddest moments and she was more than a little confused about that.

      She could continue the fight, which, let's face it, she was enjoying. She could give him answers to his questions. She could even make him wonder about lots of other things.

      Or, she could do what she most wanted to do.

      Tugging the lapels of his thick, cashmere robe aside, Keira stroked his bare chest with the flat of her palms and watched his eyes narrow into slits and his jaw clench as he hissed in a long, slow breath.

      Deliberately, she teased him, spreading his robe open, baring his body to her touch. She slid her hands over his still cold skin and felt heat bubble beneath the surface at her touch. Then she tugged the belt of the robe free and swept one hand down to capture his hard length in a soft, firm grip.

      “You know, Nathan,” she said, smoothing her fingers up and down his erection with slow caresses, “the simple truth is, I've wanted you almost from the moment I first saw you. That's why I stayed. That's why I want you again now.”

      He groaned as she slipped her free hand down to cup him. “Works for me.”

      Eight

      The rich scent of Alfredo sauce was beginning to fill the kitchen, but Keira was hungry for something other than food. Strange, but even fighting with Nathan was stimulating.

      Her body was quickening as his hands moved to tug her robe open and pull it down off her shoulders to let it pool on the floor at her feet. The air in the kitchen was still icy from the wind that had whooshed inside when the door was opened. Yet she didn't really mind it. Instead, that sensation added to the others already coursing through her body, mingling together, causing a ripple effect of near turmoil in her system.

      His hands swept up and down her body, his long, talented fingers exploring every curve as she ran her own hands over him. His broad, muscular chest was clearly defined, sculpted and tanned, making him look as though he were carved from the same kind of honey-toned wood that graced the lodge.

      But he was warm and ready, and his body was already pressing into hers, letting her know that he felt the same blood pounding need she did.

      “Why do I want you so much?” he whispered, his fingers stroking, sliding down her body to caress the heat between her thighs.

      Keira sighed and swayed unsteadily on her feet as a rush of something delicious began to build within. “Why do you ask so many questions?” she answered.

      He smiled, and her heart flipped in her chest. A weird sensation, but a shockingly good one.

      “You're the one with all the questions,” he murmured, dipping his head to kiss the curve of her neck, to nibble at the base of her throat.

      Her hands moved to his shoulders and she clung to him desperately as he continued to smooth his fingers over her damp heat. Instinctively, he found that one most-sensitive bud and concentrated his attentions on it, thumb and forefinger gliding,

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