Free Taming the Night (Creatures of the Night Book 1) by Tisha Wilson Page B

the eyes I wouldn’t be here right now. You would be long gone and I would forever think I’d had some wild dream and then met the woman of my dreams the next day. You would have walked out that barroom door and never looked back at me.”
    “The woman of your dreams? You don’t even know me. I’m more like the woman of your worst nightmares.”
    He felt his blood boil and spill over at her words. He was out of his chair and in her face before he knew what he’d meant to do. He took her face in his hands and looked into her eyes. Suddenly the eyes were crystal clear and violet again. Hard steal pressed against his chest. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to know where she had produced the small pistol from.
    “You are the most beautiful and exciting thing that’s come into my life in a long time.”
    “Isn’t that ironic. I was just thinking to myself this very afternoon how beautiful a monster I am. I wouldn’t even need this gun to rip your heart out with my bare hands. You better remember that the next time you decide to touch me without my permission.”
    He took the hand that wasn’t holding a gun and pressed it up against his chest. Her hands were so small in comparison to his larger ones and it did something to him. “Go ahead and do it then. You’re not going to scare me off with that line. You are not a monster, no matter what you say. You saved my ass out there and I’m not going to sit here and listen to you bad mouth yourself for it.”
    She looked confused all of a sudden as she pulled away and ga zed up at him, her eyes large and innocent looking. “Why?” she asked him.
    “Why what?”
    “Why do you even care? The last time you met me you ended up in a hospital room with a broken arm and stitches. Can’t you tell that being around me is a hazard to your health?”
    He thought about that for a moment. It was impossible to tell what was going through her mind.
    *
    She looked up at him unable to believe what he’d said. He was telling her that she couldn’t talk bad about herself. She couldn’t even count the number of times in the last few years she’d saved the life of one person or the other, but never, not once, had she seen this in their eyes. He looked at her as if… as if he wanted to save her. She tried to pull away but he held firm.
    She could get away if she wanted to. She knew he knew that if she wanted to, she could toss him across the room. Instead… she was holding her breath like some stupid little school girl, afraid that that protective look would leave his eyes.
    “It’s just the cop in you that has to say that,” she said grasping at something, anything, to deflect the emotions that had suddenly risen in her at his simple words. She tried to pull away again but he wouldn’t release her. She watched the muscle flex in his arm as he pulled her up to him.
    “What’s the matter? Does me saying that you don’t deserve to be called an animal bother you? Am I the first one to want to break through that front you put on? Am I the first one to think that you have more to offer than this beautiful body?” he asked as his hand snaked down and cupped her ass, pulling her up against him.
    The look in his deep chocola te eyes nearly drowned her. She was completely unprepared for the attack on her senses. “Whoa there stud. We haven’t even had a first date. It’s a little soon for that kind of talk.” She tried to sound flippant but it came out a little breathless. She pressed into him and felt his desire pressed hard against her abs. Her breathing got so heavy she could nearly be moving under water.
    “I told you not to do that. What does it matter to you to care about me a little? You’re going to do the whole Brachial Stun thing later so I won’t remember right?”
    She smiled, despite herself. He had gumption. He wasn’t going to fight her on what she had to do , which made him all the more adorable to her.
    “Why don’t you just fall in love with me for the next few