Because You Are Mine Part I by Beth Kery

looking stunned and dazed. He grabbed frantically for his ear, as if to assure himself that it was still attached to his head. Niall realized that the man who stood with them in the hallway must have twisted it viciously before he threw Evan off her.
    “Get out of here,” the stranger said tersely.
    Niall stared up at the man in amazement. His tone had been one of annoyance and profound distaste, as if he’d just come out into the hallway and seen a dog humping her leg instead of a man pawing her body without her consent. It was especially striking, that tone, since Evan was the picture of urbane sophistication in his tuxedo and black cashmere overcoat.
    Her savior, on the other hand, brought to mind comparisons to ruthless cowboy outlaws and primitive, raw sex.
    Niall blinked in surprise at her turn of thought. Well, it wasn’t the first time her mind had strayed that way against her will. It had done the same on the other two occasions she’d seen the man who lived across the hall from her, especially when she’d been forced to breathe his spicy male scent in the six-by-six-foot confines of an elevator.
    He made her nervous, agitated . . . stirred up.
    At least on the elevator he’d been wearing clothing, though. Tonight he wore nothing but a partially fastened pair of faded jeans that looked like they’d been washed and worn so many times that they’d shaped themselves perfectly to his lean hips, tight butt, and long, hard thighs.
    Niall forced her eyes away from that compelling sight when she heard Evan speak.
    “Who the hell are you to think you can tell me to leave like that?” Evan sputtered in furious disbelief. He took several rapid steps down the hallway, however, almost tripping on his own feet, when Niall’s neighbor abruptly lunged toward him. The tall man never responded verbally, but Niall thought she saw Evan’s answer in his rigid profile and steely gaze.
    He’s the guy who looks like he’s ready to kick your ass from here to next week if you don’t get a move on , Niall thought.
    “You’d better just go, Evan,” she managed shakily. “Please,” she added when Evan opened his mouth like he was going to argue. He finally turned, keeping the grim, tall figure that menaced him in the corner of his eye until the last second before he headed down the hallway.
    Niall exhaled unevenly when she heard the ding of the elevator door as it closed. She found it difficult to meet her neighbor’s stare.
    “Thank you,” she said.
    “You okay?”
    His voice reminded her of a stark landscape of open plains domed with the vast mystery of a starlit sky.
    “Sure.” She laughed a little unevenly. “Feeling a bit dense, actually. I didn’t see it coming.”
    “How about a drink?”
    She shook her head. “No. I’m all right. He just caught me off guard, that’s all.”
    “I wasn’t asking if you wanted to have a drink with me in order to calm you down.”
    Her eyes snapped up to his. For the first time, she saw that they were a light gray, the outer rim edged by a defining black line.
    A second passed . . . then several. A tiny smile pulled at his well-shaped lips, softening the hardness of his mouth infinitesimally.
    Had he really just propositioned her so casually? Niall questioned herself. And was she really considering taking him up on the offer?
    Something flamed to life inside of her as she met his steady stare . . . something Niall had assumed had been snuffed out of existence three years ago. His lips twitched slightly, and she realized she’d been wrong.
    What she experienced at that moment wasn’t anything she’d ever known in her thirty-three years of life on this planet.
    “All right,” she agreed softly.
    He stepped back so that she could move past him toward the door of his apartment. Niall noticed that he didn’t look smug at her acceptance.
    Nor did he seem even vaguely surprised.
    Niall smiled a moment later as she glanced around his living room while he moved about