Reckless Love

"Didn't anybody ever tell you a girl shouldn't use such language?"

The muffled sounds from beneath Ty's hand told him that Ja

"Bastard son of a one-legged whore and a one-eyed, flea-brained-"

Abruptly Ty's hard mouth covered Ja

The fierceness of Ty's mouth and the wild penetration of his tongue shocked Ja

Ja

Chapter Seventeen

When Ty finally tore his mouth away and stared down at Ja

"Don't you ever run from me again," Ty said, his voice hoarse and his eyes almost black from the dilation of his pupils.

Ja

"You can let me g-go," she said shakily. "I w-won't run."

For the space of several breaths there was only silence and the wild glitter of Ty's eyes. Abruptly he let go of Ja

"Christ," Ty said through clenched teeth. "I'm sorry, little one. I've never forced myself on a woman in my life."

Ja

"Like hell it is," he snarled. He turned his head and looked at her with eyes as hard as stone. "You don't belong out here, Ja

"If you do that, Joe Troon will kill Lucifer, assuming he hasn't already. That could have been the rifle shot we heard."

Ty said something savage beneath his breath, then added, "You don't understand."

"No, it's you who doesn't understand," Ja

"I don't? What the hell do you think just happened?" Ty demanded, hardly able to believe his ears.

"I made you mad and you got even." Ja

Ty started to ask what Ja

"God," Ty groaned, putting his head in his hands, hating himself. "Ja

"But you didn't." She looked at him anxiously when he didn't respond. She put her hand on his wrist where the shirt ended and his warm flesh began. "Ty? Honest. You scared me a little and confused me a lot, but you didn't hurt me at all. And I've changed my mind. I'll help you get Lucifer before Joe Troon does."

For a long moment Ty stared at the hand resting on his wrist. The fingers were long and delicate, gently browned by the sun, the nails beautifully formed and pink with health, the skin supple and warm. He wanted to pick up that feminine hand and kiss the hollow of her palm, lick the sensitive skin between her fingers, bite gently at the pad of flesh at the base of her thumb until her breath broke and her hand curled around his touch like a sleeping flower.

"Stop looking at me like that," Ja

Ty opened his mouth to tell Ja

"And I've been trying to thank you for saving my hide by saving yours in return," Ty drawled, "but to hell with it. You want to run around here risking your scrawny little self, you go right ahead. Me? I'm just thanking God that He made you so damned unappealing to men. Any other woman and I'd be tempted to find out what was beneath all the rough clothes. But you? You're like a baby quail, all eyes and mouth and frizzled features. With you I'm as safe from the temptations of the flesh as any monk in a monastery."

"Why, you-"

Ty's hand shot out, covering Ja

"You should be down on your knees thanking God that I feel that way," Ty said savagely. "If I ever put my hands on you, it wouldn't be violins and roses. I'm too woman hungry to stop short of taking what I need. And that's all it would be. Taking. No promises, no soft words, no wedding vows, nothing but male hunger and a handy female."

Ja

She smiled rather bitterly and decided that she would make him eat every one of his cutting words about her lack of womanly allure. From that moment on she would redouble her efforts to remind him that she was a woman and he was a hungry man. She would bring him to his knees with desire… and then she would laugh in his face and walk away, leaving him as miserable and unhappy as she was now.

"Now that we understand each other," Ja

Ty told himself that the hurt and anger he saw in Ja

Ty told himself that, but he wasn't sure he believed it. He would be gentle with Ja