Page 44 of One Steamy Night

A frown appeared on her face. “Don’t tell me you’re the male version of Clementine with an entitlement complex.”

“I won’t tell you that, but I will tell you this,” he said, crossing the distance separating them. “I don’t make it a habit to have sex with virgins. In fact, I never have before. I could have stopped things before I finished the deed, but you know why I didn’t?”

“Of course I know. The same degree of lust that consumed me also consumed you.”

“Lust had nothing to do with it for me. It was love.”

Her eyes widened. “Love?” She threw her head back and laughed. “Oh, that’s rich. Weeks ago, you said you wanted to marry me when you didn’t even know me. Now today you want me to believe you’ve fallen in love with me? Really?”

He glared at her. “Yes, really. I fell in love with you the moment we were introduced.”

She frowned and glared back. “That’s not possible. Besides, I don’t want any man to love me or want to marry me.”

“That’s tough because I do and I will.” Before she could say anything else, Jaxon leaned down and planted his mouth on hers.

She didn’t pull away. Instead, she wrapped her tongue around his the same way she’d done last night. Somehow their mouths always mated in perfect unity. An intense flare of heat consumed his entire body while he held her in his arms and continued to kiss her like he never wanted to stop. She might be mad at him but it was obvious she wanted this kiss as much as he did.

What was she afraid of and why?

When he finally released her lips, he stared into her eyes, which had a look that all but said she couldn’t believe she had let him kiss her and that she had kissed him back. Her next words proved it. “We should not have done that.”

He tilted the Stetson back from his eyes to gaze down at her. “Everything we’ve done or are doing was meant to be, Nadia.”

The glare was back in her eyes. “I disagree. I’m ready to go, Jaxon.”

“Okay, but there’s something I want to ask you first.”

“What?”

“Who hurt you?”

She broke eye contact with him to look away and then she looked back at him. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“I think you do. There’s a reason you hold yourself back.”

She threw her head back and laughed again. “Hold myself back? What about last night? If anything, I let myself go.”

“Yes, and it took you twenty-eight years to do so. I want to know what man broke your heart to make you not want to fall in love again. Twenty-eight-year-old virgins are rare these days.”

“That’s none of your business, Jaxon.”

“That’s where you’re wrong. Every single thing about you is my business, Nadia.”

Jaxon watched an angry Nadia walk over to her horse. After mounting it, she glanced over at him. “No, it’s not. I don’t want or need a man in my life.”

“Well, I want and need you in mine, Nadia.”

She glared at him before nudging her horse and taking off racing across the field.

Nadia was quiet on the drive back to the Novak Homestead. Jaxon thought about engaging her in conversation but decided against it. He’d said his piece so he let her stew. But anger or no anger, he could still feel the sexual chemistry surrounding them in the confines of the car. In a way, he really shouldn’t have been surprised. If nothing else, last night proved just how combustible they were. How well connected. For her, it might only have been lust, but for him it was love.

When he brought the car to a stop in front of the house, she got out without waiting for him to come around to open the car door for her. “Don’t bother. I can see myself inside.”

Ignoring what she said, he got out anyway and walked a few paces behind her. He shouldn’t be noticing, but he liked the way her jeans shaped her backside and loved the sashay of her hips when she walked. The woman couldn’t help being sexy no matter what she put on her body or took off of it.

When she reached the door and unlocked it, she did glance over her shoulder to say, “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome and flick the curtains or open the blinds to let me know you’re safe inside. And Nadia?”

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