Free Enraptured by Brenda K. Davies Page B

trying to drive it through his heart right now. “Monster.”
    “You’ll never know the truth.”
    “Just kill me and get it over with.”
    “I’m not sure what we’re going to do with
you, but we don’t murder innocents. We will do everything we can to
keep our family and friends safe, which may include locking you up
for the rest of your life.”
    She sat back on her heels. Her shoulders
slouched as some of her feistiness finally left her. He felt bad
frightening her, but at this point it had become necessary. He
didn’t know what else to do with her, and no matter how much he
felt the urge to protect her, she was a threat to everyone he cared
about.
    “I’d rather die,” she retorted.
    “If others had their way that would be a
good possibility.”
    She rose back to her knees and threw her
shoulders back. “Then grow a set of balls and get it over
with.”
    He smiled at her as he tapped his fingers
against the door knob his hand rested on. “Honey, I’ve got a bigger
set than you’d know what to do with. I could show you if you’d
like.”
    Paige had never been so tempted to hit
someone in her life. He was the most infuriating man she’d ever met
in her entire lifetime. Her jaw ached from grinding her teeth.
“Fuck you!”
    “That can be arranged too.”
    If it was possible, he truly believed her
head might explode. There were stop signs that weren’t as red as
she was right now. Her chest heaved as she inhaled rapidly through
her teeth. “Asshole.”
    “Ah, dirty talk already.”
    With an incensed shout, she lunged to the
side, grabbed the plate Emma had left behind and threw it at him.
Ian laughed as he took a casual step to the side to avoid the plate
aimed at his head. It smashed against the door with a bang before
shattering into a dozen smaller pieces. Glass exploded around him,
bits of it got caught up in his shirt and scattered around the
room. One shard sliced across his forearm, drawing blood. He
leisurely wiped away the broken pieces, and the blood from the
already healing scratch, before returning to his position.
    “Temper, temper,” he chided.
    He had to admit it was kind of fun to watch
the fury playing over her features and the heaving of her chest.
His eyes were drawn to her breasts as they pushed against the baggy
shirt. “You haven’t seen anything yet,” she grated.
    “I believe that.”
    Before he knew what she intended, she
lurched to the side and seized hold of the rickety table beside the
bed. Ian leapt forward; his feet thudded on the bed as she swung
the table upward toward him. He grabbed hold of the leg of the
table before she could smash him with it. Her chest heaved; she
tried to jerk it away from him, but he refused to release it.
    Her eyes narrowed, her nostrils flared. He
loomed over her, resisting the urge to tear the table away from
her. “Let go,” he said calmly.
    A muscle in her cheek twitched; her hand
tightened on the leg. All she wanted was to jerk it away from him,
but even though his grip on it appeared loose, she knew she’d never
be able to take it from him. “No.”
    She’d half expected him to tear it away from
her, or tear out her throat. Maybe she hoped he would, just so
there would be some sort of resolution to all of this. Instead, he
quirked an eyebrow at her as a smile curved his full mouth. He
shifted his weight on the bed, causing the mattress on both sides
of her to sink from his weight. How could he appear so casual and
carefree while standing hunched over on a bed in order to not hit
his head on the ceiling?
    He’d moved so fast across the room she’d
never seen him leave the door, before he was looming over her. Why
hadn’t he killed her?
    Ian leaned closer to her; his hand wrapped
around hers. Ever so gently, he pried her fingers from the leg of
table. He felt the brush of the rough callouses on her palm before
he succeeded in freeing her grasp from it. “That wasn’t so bad, was
it?”
    She glowered at him as she folded her