“I wanted to kiss you,” he replied.

“Like that? In front of half of Timaru?”

She looked sexy when she was angry. He itched to pull her back into his arms.

“Don’t get me wrong,” she continued. “It was amazing. Like, wow. But where did it come from?”

“They were looking at you,” he growled, staring at his feet. This couldn’t end well. He’d never been jealous over a woman before, but he knew it wasn’t a good thing.

“Who?” She was baffled.

“The men,” he snapped. “They were all looking at you.”

“So, you kissed me because...?”

“Because you’re mine.” The words came out wrong. He knew it as soon as her mouth fell open in surprise. It was the truth, though. Even if he was only now realizing it, she’d been his since he’d kissed her on the porch, and he was going to make her see it somehow. He’d make her change her mind about dating him. “They wanted you. That surfer wanted you. But you’re mine.”

“Don’t I get some say in that?”

“This thing between us... this attraction... I know you feel it too.” The way she’d melted into him proved she was as attracted to him as he was to her. “I don’t want any other men looking at you, or touching you, or giving you pleasure.”

A slow smile worked its way across her features. “You’re jealous,” she said wonderingly.

“I am not.”

“You are.” She grinned and traced a finger down his chest. “You want me.”

Eli shivered involuntarily beneath her touch. “Of course I want you.”

“Eli, those other men don’t get to touch me,” she said. “And Hemi is only a friend.”

“Hemi?”

Her lips quirked. “The surfer. We dated once, but it didn’t work out.”

The surfer had a name. He was her friend. He’d been with her before Eli, and chances were, it hadn’t been Hemi’s decision to end things. “Hemi doesn’t feel friendship toward you. I know desire when I see it. He desires you. But you desire me, I know you do.”

To prove his point, he slicked an open-mouthed kiss across her lips. “That’s the taste of desire, Ri.” Then he remembered. He swore, tearing himself away. “Therese is here. We have to get her home.”

“Teri is going to a movie tonight with some kids from Itirangi. She’s catching a ride back with them.”

“You didn’t think to clear that with me first?”

“I thought you’d be glad she was making friends.”

He would usually have thought her presumptuous, but in this context, it was a blessing in disguise. He grinned like the wolf with Red Riding Hood in his sights. “You’re right. This time.”

She blinked, bemused.

“Now, there’s nothing and nobody to worry about except for you and me.”

Understanding dawned. “I have plans tonight,” she said.