Can’t take it. Have to be inside her now.
He pulled back, breaking the lock of her legs as he stood.
“What?” she asked, pulling herself from her unceremonious sprawl up onto her elbows.
“Too many damn clothes,” he growled, pulling his T-shirt off.
She licked her lips, then got with the program, wiggling out of her sweats on the mat as he shucked the rest of his clothing. She was gorgeous, all lean muscles and slight curves…except for those hips. They flared out from her narrow waist into the most spectacular arse he’d ever seen. He’d always thought himself a boob man, but he’d been watching that fine bum for days now and knew that he just had never seen one as perfect as hers. The desire to flip her over, pull her back on her knees, and then drive into her from behind just so he could see that wonderful arse while he banged her was like a vicious monster in his system. But he wasn’t a complete bastard, so that would wait—until the second time they’d had each other at least.
He reached down for her. At the same time she sat up, reaching for him. They collided with a resounding smack, her nose to his jaw.
“Ow, shit…” She fell back down, clutching her nose.
“Are you okay?” he asked anxiously as he knelt beside her.
She chuckled, though the sound was laced with tears. If her nose felt anything like his jaw it was no wonder.
“Sorry, that was…smooth.” She gingerly wiggled her nose, sniffled. “Can you tell I’ve never done this before?”
His heart thudded behind his ribs, which all of a sudden seemed way too tight. She couldn’t possibly mean…“Wait. Done this as in attacked your partner or done this this?”
She lowered her hand, her lips pressed tight together and her eyes wary as she met his gaze.
“Bloody hell.” He drew back, sitting on his heels as he regarded her. She’d seemed so sure of herself he’d just assumed…but she was innocent and he was…well, a man-whore. And though he didn’t have many scruples, one rule was inviolate: He didn’t have sex with virgins. With Annie that rule had the added weight of her heritage. She deserved to have the option of giving her innocence to her mate. He wouldn’t take that from her. He liked her, genuinely liked her, and sometimes he thought maybe…but even he had to admit much of his fascination with her could simply be her gift’s ability to calm his beast. With her he could be alone in his own head. No one else’s emotions messing with him. He could be as selfish as he bloody wanted and not consider her emotions at all. Which was just plain fucking wrong. If she was his mate, then wouldn’t her feelings be all that mattered?
“I think I better go.” He stood, grabbing up his trousers from the floor, and began pulling them on. Behind him, Annie leapt up, laying a hand on his arm.
“Wait! Does this have anything to do with my father?”
“You don’t think Jacob wouldn’t kill me if he came in here and found us like this?” He found that he was breathing heavily, not because he was really worried about what Jacob might do, but because of what he’d almost done. He’d almost stolen something precious and meaningful to her—worse, he would have done it simply to satisfy some damn curiosity of what sex without his gift could be like.
She folded her arms across her breasts, her legs crossed awkwardly as if that might protect her too. “I’m of age. By more than a few years, too.”
“You’re a virgin!” Taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes. Thank God he couldn’t read her. This was damn hard enough as it was. “Get some clothes on, Annie.”
“I thought…”
“You thought what?” he asked, though he knew exactly what she thought. She thought what almost happened here meant something. She thought maybe…Don’t go there, you bloke. Way too fucking complicated. We like simple, remember?
He heaved out a frustrated breath. “Annie, let me teach you a little something about men and sex.”
Her lips pulled in tight, her eyes turning wary, but she gave him a subtle nod.
“Men are men and sex is sex. Don’t confuse it with being something more.”
“But you won’t have sex with me,” she said, her voice but a whisper in the supercharged air. It wasn’t hard to read the underlying question there: Why? Why if men were the dogs he claimed wouldn’t he have sex with her? He knew she was trying to read more into his actions, which was dangerous, for both of them. She wanted more than a player like him could ever give, but he knew, just knew that if she offered more of the heaven she’d just given him a glimpse of he wouldn’t be able to refuse. Which meant he needed to ensure that she never did.
“I don’t fuck virgins. It’s as plain and simple as that,” he said and took himself from the room.
Chapter 15
Annie stared at the open door, half-expecting Bennett to come back through. That couldn’t be it. She couldn’t be that wrong, could she? He was her mate, wasn’t he? But as the minutes stretched out and he still didn’t return, she had to face one glaringly depressing fact: obviously he didn’t think so.
Numbly she turned from the empty doorway and stepped back onto the center of the mat where her world had just fallen apart. How sad that her life could be reduced to a pile of rumpled clothing and a whole bunch of could have beens that now wouldn’t be.
She’d been a fool. The flirting, the hand-holding, the way he’d held her, letting her cry on his shoulder when Aaron was hurt, the wide smile that had become his standard expression when he saw her…obviously it had meant a hell of a lot more to her than him. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Bennett wasn’t her mate, nor was he her savior. He couldn’t help her escape herself, and how did she ever believe that he, a warrior, could find a partner in her? She was cursed. She couldn’t even leave the building without drawing enemies to them. Anyone who loved her would be in constant danger. And that’s not what mates were supposed to be. Mates were partners in mind, body, and soul—that’s what her father had told her. She should have seen that past the sweaty palms and racing heart. She could not be the other half of Bennett’s team. She was a handicap that she couldn’t blame him for not wanting to be saddled with.
But that hadn’t stopped her from hoping. Hadn’t stopped her from dreaming, and planning, and…falling. She’d fallen in love. He hadn’t. And now she didn’t know what she was supposed to do next.
I should get dressed.
She bent down and retrieved her sweats, carefully pulling them on one leg then the other. Her T-shirt was a few feet away. She shuffled toward it, listing slightly as she plucked it from the floor.
Once it was on she turned back toward the open door, figuring she should close it or something before someone else came along and saw…what?
Me crying.
She cursed, swiping at her eyes, but the tears kept on coming. She swallowed, the tears catching in her jagged throat as she frantically looked for something to plug the waterworks with. There, on the floor.
She swooped down and grabbed the camo-green T-shirt and buried her face in it. His scent flooded her nostrils. She gasped, pulling the shirt away and staring down at it.
Bennett’s shirt. In here. Her room. What a cruel, cruel knife to the gut.
She sucked in a breath, then another, unable to get enough air into her lungs. It felt like the walls were crushing in around her.
Have to get out. Have to escape.
Tossing the T-shirt down like it was a bundle of hot coals, she bolted out of the room, her bare feet slapping on the hard floor. It wasn’t until she reached the stairs, the echo of voices drifting up through the chimney-like area, that she realized she had nowhere to go. As a compromise for not having a constant guard, her father had assigned round-the-clock double watches to all the exits, and there was no place to go inside the walls that wouldn’t result in personal contact with another. She couldn’t go back to her room. Not when…not with…