“Of course, and even the ones I don’t have fascinate me.” He took her hand, linking fingers firmly. “It’s said some people are able to sense another’s aura, or personality if the word suits you better, by a simple clasp of hands.” His palm was warm and hard as he kept his eyes fixed on hers. She could feel, cool against her hand, the twisted metal of his ring.

“I don’t believe that.” But she wasn’t so sure, not with him.

“You believe only in what you see or feel. Only in what can be touched with one of the five senses that you understand.” He rose, drawing her to her feet. “Everything that is can’t be understood. Everything that’s understood can’t be explained.”

“Everything has an explanation.” But she found the words, like her pulse, a bit unsteady.

She might have drawn her hand away, and he might have let her, but her statement seemed to be a direct challenge. “Can you explain why your heart beats faster when I step closer?” His face looked mysterious, his eyes like jet in the candlelight. “You said you weren’t afraid of me.”

“I’m not.”

“But your pulse throbs.” His fingertip lightly touched the hollow of her throat. “Can you explain why when we’ve yet to spend even one full day together, I want to touch you, like this?” Gently, incredibly gently, he ran the back of his hand up the side of her face.

“Don’t.” It was only a whisper.

“Can you explain this kind of attraction between two strangers?” He traced a finger over her lips, felt them tremble, wondered about their taste.

Something soft, something flowing, moved through her. “Physical attraction’s no more than chemistry.”

“Science?” He brought her hand up, pressing his lips to the center of her palm. She felt the muscles in her thighs turn to liquid. “Is there an equation for this?” Still watching her, he brushed his lips over her wrist. Her skin chilled, then heated. Her pulse jolted and scrambled. He smiled. “Does this—” he whispered a kiss at the corner of her mouth “—have to do with logic?”

“I don’t want you to touch me like this.”

“You want me to touch you,” Hunter corrected. “But you can’t explain it.” In an expected move, he thrust his hands into her hair. “Try the unexplainable,” he challenged before his lips closed over hers.

Power. It sped through her. Desire was a rush of heat. She could feel need sing through her as she stood motionless in his arms. She should have refused him. Lee was experienced in the art of refusals. There was suddenly no wit to evade, no strength to refuse.