Free Beyond the Dark by Lora Leigh

finally fraying? Poor baby. So much for all that Breed training to control your baser impulses."
    Had she really said that? Obviously she had, because he was staring at her as though she were crazy.
    "Have you lost your mind?" He asked her slowly. "Do you think that now in any way resembles the last three weeks? Sorry, baby, I hadn't tasted that hot little pussy then. I have now, and trust me, the need for more is wearing my control thin."
    "It was a decision you made, not me." Her finger poked into his chest. "How many low-cut blouses did I wear? Would you like to know how many times I didn't wear panties under my skirt or took my bra off after we came to my apartment? It didn't bother you then, why should it bother you now?"
    And he was right, she was crazy. She was aroused, and she was mad. This was her damned vacation, and he was messing it up. What was worse, he had been messing her life up for three weeks, and now she found out that she couldn't even have a hot one-night stand with him without committing for life.
    She would be damned if that was fair. Because she knew he was right. Sex with another man would never satisfy her, because he held her heart. She was in love with a killer, and she wanted to kill him for it.
    "Do you think I didn't know what you were doing?" His head lowered, his lips only inches from hers as he scowled down at her.
    "Do you think it was easy to try to be one of the good guys? To not take advantage of you and force you into this heat?"
    "One of the good guys ?" Her eyes widened, as her voice rose. "Where in the hell do you see yourself as a good guy? You are so fucking bad , you give the word a new meaning."
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    CHAPTER NINE

     
    Grace stared at Matthias in shock, as the words slipped past her lips. Amazingly, he didn't become angry. He didn't take her accusation in the worst light, and that wasn't how she had meant it.
    Though, she wasn't certain how she had meant it. She just hadn't meant it in the sense of the killing she had witnessed. The thought of that had her sobering further.
    His eyes crinkled at the corners. "You like bad boys," he accused her. "You told me you did."
    "That's beside the point," she huffed. "And stop making me crazy. You are making me crazy, you know."
    "Because you love me." There was so much confidence in his voice that she grit her teeth in agitation.
    "Don't tell me how I feel, Matthias. I don't like it." She glared back at him. "You have to be the lousiest kidnapper in history."
    "Should I tie you to your bed?" He mused, his expression strained, despite the amusement in his eyes.
    "You'd enjoy that too much," she finally sighed before turning away and moving a few paces along the finely ground dirt that bordered the lake. "Would you give it up?" She finally asked, turning back to him.
    "Give what up?" he asked, but she saw in his eyes that he knew what she was talking about.
    "What you do." The killing. The bloodshed. The danger.
    He pushed his fingers through his long black hair. The moment he released it, an errant wind blew it back around his face, giving him a savage, warrior appearance.
    He breathed in deeply, stared out over the lake, then turned back to her. "For you. As long as no danger threatens you."
    She felt herself trembling, hope surging through her, burning through her mind, as he stared back at her, his expression stoic.
    "You wouldn't hate me for it?"
    "Grace, dammit, I love you," he snarled. "Do you think I'm unaware that things have to change if you accept me? That what is acceptable as an unmated male would be unacceptable as a mated one? For God's sake!" He glowered down at her. "Do you think I was born stupid?"
    She shook her head slowly, a smile trembling on her lips. "No. You weren't born stupid, Matthias."
    "What about you?" he growled. "Could you forget Albrecht? Could you forgive what you saw for a life with me?"
    She licked her lips slowly. "I understand why you did it. Why you feel you had to do it. Because of what he did to you