Taming the Fire by Sydney Croft Page B

down to the floor on her belly. His arm came around to take the brunt of the impact, but then he was straddling her thighs and pushing her coat up around her waist. He left her skirt covering her butt, but his warm palm came down hard on one cheek.
    “Don't,” she yelled, even as a shock of pleasure lit into her. “Please. I—I can't.”
    “I seem to recall saying the same thing.” His hand came down again. “And you didn't listen. So why should I?”
    “You don't… you don't understand.” Oh, no… no, no, no… inside, the fury was building. She had to get away from him.
    As if he knew, he shifted his weight and eased his big body over hers, pinning her. Strangely, it was a comforting hold, not restraining, the latter of which would have had the beast exploding out of her skin.
    “Make me understand.” He nuzzled the back of her neck while stroking her arm, and she felt herself loosen up as the beast settled down, warily, as if it were trying to decide if it liked being petted or not. It definitely hadn't liked being spanked, and tension vibrated her organs even as her muscles relaxed.
    “I can't explain,” she whispered.
    He rested his forehead on her shoulder and sighed. “I know what it's like, you know. To need the control because you've got something inside that's always fighting you. Always haunting you. Sometimes, you just have to let someone help.”
    “Is that why you've come to me? For help?”
    “Yeah.” His voice was rough, and she squeezed her eyes shut as if that would close off her ears too. She didn't want to hear any kind of emotion from a man she needed to stay away from.
    “Well, I don't need any help. So let me up.”
    “Only if you promise to see me again.”
    She jerked in surprise. “Fuck, no.”
    “Why not?”
    “Let. Me. Up.” She began to buck as panic frayed the edges of her control. Trance put more weight on her, and squeezed her thighs between his strong ones, effectively immobilizing her lower body.
    “Give me a reason, Rik,” he said smoothly, as if he gentled wild animals for a living and knew exactly what tone to use. “Make it a good one.”
    A sob fell from her lips, a humiliating sound she hadn't made in front of another human being in years. “Too many reasons,” she said, wishing she could be more specific. She was too dangerous, too damaged, too scared.
    Too not human.
    “That's not good enough.”
    “Damn you,” she croaked. She began to tremble, so afraid she was going to shift into a monster and tear him apart. “Please. Please!”
    He inhaled raggedly and rolled off her. Immediately, she tried to scramble away, but he dragged her into his arms. The sheer pleasure of being held took the fight out of her momentarily, and she let herself just sink into him, feeling broken and so very tired as tears spilled onto her cheeks, and his shoulder.
    Several minutes later, she realized she was crying. On a client. Whom she'd had no business hunting down. Son of a bitch, she was weak. She tore out of his grip, struggling with the half of her that wanted to rip out his throat for daring to touch her. When he reached for her, she hissed, spun on her knees and slapped him hard across the face.
    “Don't touch me,” she growled. “Don't ever touch me again.”
    She left him sitting on the floor, the startled expression on his face branded in her mind. She felt so torn in half, angry yet sorry for hitting him, joyful at the moment of comfort he'd given her, yet fiercely pissed off for allowing it.
    Making matters worse, she had a feeling he wasn't going to let this go. Running off to her flat wasn't going to be enough. She needed to give notice at the club and move on.
    She definitely had to get away from him.

    The file was sitting in the middle of Dev's desk the next morning, on top of the pile of paperwork Marlena had left for him. Dev was more than aware that a new recruit shouldn't be taking up his focus—no, he had bigger troubles in the form of Itor Corp and