Free Her Tender Tyrant by Elizabeth Lennox Page B

deserved so much more.
    “Yes. Sometimes.” Her grin widened. “And sometimes I send them the message that they really don’t want to mess with me. Hitting my car…no one would know. But it would leave a wretched, horrible scrape on their car. It’s all about perspective, right?”
    He laughed but had to agree with her. “I bet you’re a menace on the road most of the time.”
    She shrugged. “People with money, yourself included, tend to be bullies.”
    He pulled back, but didn’t take his hands from resting on her hips. He suspected that she didn’t even know he was doing it or she’d be telling him to stop. He wasn’t going to stop. It felt too nice to be touching her right now.
    “Why do you think I’m a bully?” he asked, not really caring about her answer since she felt so good, so soft and incredible at the moment. He was taking advantage of her passion for her subject to move in. He should be ashamed of himself but he didn’t give a damn. Their interactions lately had been all about confrontations and arguments. Until yesterday when she’d let go and come apart in his arms, he hadn’t realized exactly what he wanted. Now he knew. He wanted all of her. And damn if he wasn’t going to take every advantage he could get.
    “You are a bully,” she said, looking down at his hands where they rested on her hips. “You are always trying to intimidate me.”
    His hand moved up her arm, sending ripples of sensation throughout her whole body. “I’ll have to work on my technique,” he mumbled, paying more attention to how silken her skin felt under his fingertips.
    Juliette’s eyes moved upwards, staring at his lips, her mind trying to grapple with what was actually happening between them. Why were they not fighting? Why were they not growling at each other? And more importantly, why did it feel so good to have his hand touching her?
    She was startled by how badly she wanted him to lean down and kiss her. “I guess I’d better get out of your way so you can work.”
    Marcus stared down at her for a long moment wishing he could come up with some way to keep her here. In his mind he had about a dozen things that he needed to get done, but all he wanted to do was talk to Juliet. Well, not all he wanted to do. He wanted to let his fingers dive into her hair, or kiss those soft, full, pink lips and taste her. He wanted to let his hands run over her soft full curves and discover all the secret places on her body that turned her on.
    “Well,” Juliette looked up at him nervously, trying to figure out what was going through her mind as well as his. This new sort of truce that they had together didn’t feel natural. Besides, fighting with Marcus, arguing with him about everything, helped her keep a mental distance from him. He was too good-looking and his body too tempting for her to start thinking of him in any way other than as the enemy. “I guess I’d better get back to work. Thank you for listening to me, I know you have a lot to do as well.”
    She hesitated a moment longer, but in the end she turned on her heel and walked out of the room. When she knew that she was finally alone, she leaned against the wall, closing her eyes and trying to get her pulse back under control. What was this crazy feeling that she had every time she came close that man? She didn’t like that he had so much power over her. And she didn’t like that she had so little control over herself when he was around.
    Marcus stared at the door through which Juliette had just left, his mind sifting through the details of the conversation they just had together. He wanted her. There was no way around that now. Perhaps it was time to change tactics.

Chapter 6

    “Okay, what’s going on, girlfriend?” Mindy asked from the other end of the phone call. Mindy, a longtime friend, was also in the graduate program. She was working on her thesis while employed as a school counselor. They’d been friends since their freshman year of