The possessive flare of anger at the mention of the alcove he’d seen her slip out of with Despenser was so intense it took Alex a moment to realize that she was baiting him. It took an even longer moment for the haze of lust to clear. The feel of her hips circling against him set off dark, primitive instincts he didn’t even know he possessed. He could imagine what it would be like to be inside her, and he wanted it so badly he thought he would go mad.

Why was she doing this, damn it? The reason flickered in her eyes. She is scared, he realized. Lashing out like a cornered animal. Trying to shock, anger, and disgust him into forgetting about her.

What she didn’t understand was that it was already too late for that. He could no sooner forget about her than he could forget to breathe. She was his and had been since the moment he’d felt her lips under his. He hadn’t realized how certain he was of that until this very moment, and nothing she could do or say would change it. But she was trying, that much was obvious. What he didn’t know was why.

He shook her arm, forcing her gaze to his. “Why are you talking like this? This is not you.”

The seductive mask slipped from her face, revealing just a hint of the torment underneath. She was so good at hiding her emotions that the fierceness of what he saw—if only for a moment—took him aback.

By the time she looked away, however, her voice was dull and devoid of feeling. “You don’t know me, Alex. You don’t know anything about me.”

He tipped her chin, forcing her eyes to his. Wide set and seductively tilted, they were so blue he thought he might be content to drown in them forever. Christ, what was happening to him? This young girl had him utterly bewitched.

“But I think I do,” he said, tilting her face to his. “Much more than you want me to.”

Her mouth was too close, her lips too inviting, her eyes too full of longing. It was pure instinct to lower his mouth to hers and press her lips in a soft, tender kiss. The fact that it was the middle of the day, that anyone could walk by and see, that his honor had obviously gone to shite, didn’t seem to matter. It was as natural as the sun rising in the morning and setting in the evening. As summer turning to fall and winter turning to spring. Nothing could hold it back—or turn it back.

Her lips were so impossibly soft and sweet he ached to taste her deeper. To slide his tongue into her mouth and possess her fully. To force her to acknowledge the force of the passion that burned between them.