“If the results what you want, then the means to which you get it with doesn’t matter. Is that how you sell things to yourself?”

“I never intended to sleep with you,” she blurted, unsure why it was so important he believe her, unsure why her voice trembled when she never lost her composure. “It just happened.”

“I thought it was necessary?”

“I could have drugged you without staying.”

His eyes narrowed. “I doubt that, sweetheart.”

“Do you even remember how I drugged you?”

His expression darkened. “Why don’t you tell me.”

“How I did it isn’t important.” She drew a breath and let it out, softening her voice. “What’s important is that I didn’t have to get naked to do it. I didn’t. I promise you. I stayed by choice.”

“By choice,” he said, his voice tight, gravely.

“Yes,” she whispered. “By choice.”

He stared at her long and hard, and the air thickened around them. She felt his muscles coil beneath her touch, sensed the anger in him begin to shift, change. His gaze darkened, heated, flickering with something she couldn’t read, something intense, that quickly turned scorching hot. Desire radiated off of him, consuming her in the process. Suddenly she felt him everywhere, inside and out. His fingers flexed in her hair and it was as if a band had been pulled tight and snapped between them. They moved at the same time, leaning into each other, reaching for more, whatever more might be.

His mouth slanted over hers, his tongue pressing past her teeth, stroking deep, tasting her, claiming her. Passion overcame her, washing over her in a wicked flush of tingling skin and the tremble of her legs. But there was more than passion and desire. There was so much more. Too much more. There were emotions she didn’t understand, emotions that were dangerous with a man who could destroy her. And there was relief, crazy ridiculous relief, that he knew the truth now. That he knew that she hadn’t slept with him for anyone but herself. She cared what he believed of her when she shouldn’t care at all. It was insanity. He made her crazy, opened her up inside and exposed something raw and vulnerable that she didn’t want exposed. She shouldn’t even want him to touch her, but oh yes, she did, and to the point of barely being able to breath for her need for him.