Dark Secret by Christine Feehan

his mouth rested against her tempting pulse. Their bodies were swaying together to the music, a dark erotic tango they shared together. He inhaled deeply, taking her scent into his lungs, his body and soul, so he would know her anywhere, find her anywhere. Deep inside him the demon raised its head and roared for supremacy. She could sate his ever-present hunger. She stopped the emptiness, the cold gray world, she could quench the firestorm burning out of control in his blood. He would have her at any cost. She belonged to him.
    “You can breathe, querida. ” His voice was soft, gentle even when his arms were like steel bands. “You are afraid totake me inside your body, afraid of my possession, but you will come to accept it.” His accent was thick, sexy, a temptation, and no one had ever tempted her before. She gave a small gasp at his choice of words, but the pad of his thumb brushed a caress over her lower lip, effectively halting her protest. His mind was working on the secret of hers. What protected her from his invasion? It wouldn’t protect her forever. If he took her blood, he would have her. She would never escape him. “You will not, you know, not ever.” He said it aloud, as if she might read his thoughts, testing her, even as he bent his head to her neck.
    She felt his teeth tease her pulse, scraping back and forth, nibbling, caressing. Her entire body clenched in response. Her womb throbbed and ached. Her breasts swelled, nipples tightening into hard peaks. Gasping in sheer shock at her own response, Colby tilted her head to look up at him. His face was dark with desire, his eyes smoky with a raw intense hunger now. He had the look of a natural born predator. He didn’t try to hide it, or soften it, he simply stared into her horrified gaze. She had the strange sensation of falling again, of moving toward him, embracing him, asking him into her mind and soul.
    “Let go of me!” She hissed the words between her small clenched teeth, suddenly terrified in a room filled with people. A room filled with tough cowhands, every one of whom would fight for her protection. Deep down, where it counted, Colby knew they wouldn’t win against him. No one would defeat him. Not alone or together. No one would be able to save her from him if he decided to forcibly take her. Rafael De La Cruz was truly a dangerous man under that very thin veneer of civilization. The knowledge was there, strong in her mind.
    He held her for another long moment, savoring the feel of her body pressed so close to his. Her eyes were beautiful, sparkling with a hint of temper, but mostly fear. “You think to escape me, pequena, but there is no chance for you. You may as well accept it as you accept the air you breathe into your lungs. And I don’t like you saying no to me. No one says no to me, least of all you.”
    It wasn’t even what he said that disturbed her, it was the way he said it, the sound of his voice, sexy, husky, heavily accented.It was the intensity in his black eyes as they moved so possessively over her face.
    “You’d better get used to it, then. Go back to your home, Mr. De La Cruz. You can’t have my brother and sister and you certainly won’t get them by trying to seduce me,” Colby said insultingly, her words muffled by the thin silk of his shirt.
    He let her go, his soft laughter a mocking male amusement that filled her ears with a kind of menace, with a promise. She lifted her chin at him, her expression defiant as she turned on the heel of her worn boots and stalked across the crowded floor. Halfway to the door, Joe caught her up in his bear grip. Joe, the perpetual clown. She’d known him all of her life. Easygoing Joe. Safe Joe. Joe didn’t move the earth or shatter mountains with one touch. She went into the safety of his arms, allowing him his dance, acutely aware of a pair of mocking eyes following them around the dance floor. She didn’t talk, she couldn’t, so shaken was she by her encounter with