"I'm hungry, too," she informed him. "And I don't want any of those nasty biscuits, either. I want some real food." He set her down in the bathroom, staring down at her in confusion. "Such as?"

"I'll call Liu's. She'll have one of her boys deliver." She stared around the large bathroom before looking back at him pointedly.

An invitation to leave. That one was hard not to miss. But not yet.

"Let me know what you want, I'll have a friend pick it up for us," he suggested instead. "For the time being, I would prefer not to let anyone I don't know into the house." A small tremor raced through her body as she glanced away from him for a moment and breathed in heavily.

"Fine. I can understand that. As long as I get my Chinese fix."

He listened carefully to the dishes she wanted ordered, restraining his smile. It was enough to feed an army. It was a damned good thing he had a near-perfect memory.

"Bathe. I'll call Jonas and have the food picked up. By the time you're finished, it should be here."

He could smell the heat building in her and wanted her to have the time to enjoy the food.

"Thanks. Now go away." She waved him away with a delicate gesture of her fingers. "I don't need you in here right now." His lips quirked at her irritated expression, but he did as she asked. And he prayed. Prayed she had forgiven him for the animal he was, rather than the man he knew she needed.

"I need to go to the house for some clothes and stuff." Lyra found her gown and robe in the washroom, folded neatly on the top of the dryer after they had consumed the delivered Chinese food.

Her hunger was sated, but that was all. The steadily rising lust building in her body was about to make her crazy. It tingled in her breasts and spasmed in her vagina. And she ached for his kiss—literally. She was certain no drug could be as addictive as his kiss was.

"You can't leave the house yet, Lyra." His voice brooked no refusal.

Okay, a man could be really sexy when he was being

dominant, especially this man. But she just wasn't in the mood for it. She wanted to be fucked, but she would be damned if she was going to ask him for it. And because she knew he could smell her arousal, she knew he was very well aware of the hunger building within her.

She turned carefully, clutching the folded material to her breasts.

"Too bad. I need clean clothes and time to think…" A bitter smile twisted his lips as a raging pain reflected in his gaze.

"The time for thinking was before you decided to take my kiss."

She shook her head against the anger in his voice.

"Not about this," she informed him fiercely. "I have to decide things, Tarek. This has changed my life, you know it and I know it. There are other things involved than just you and I and this Mating Heat, or whatever you call it." Heat? Try inferno. It was killing her.

"Then take care of it on the phone." There was no give in him.

Good Lord, why hadn't she heeded the warnings of his complete male stubbornness that she had glimpsed over the months? He looked about as immovable as a boulder.

"I need clothes. My laptop…"

"You won't have time to wear clothes, or to work…" He advanced on her, his eyes lowering over the lust gleaming in his gaze. "You'll be lucky to have time to eat." Her stomach clenched at the growl in his voice as he reached out, taking the gown and robe from her before setting them back on the washer.

"I want to take you in the bed this time." His fingers tangled in her hair as he dragged her head back, his head lowering as though for a kiss.

As though she were that easy.

She didn't care how hot she was or how much the arousal was becoming painful. She was not just going to bow down and accept whatever. She might not be a Breed with a clear appreciation of this Mating Heat stuff, but she still had a mind of her own.

Before he could stop her, she twisted away from him, moving through the doorway and stalking through the kitchen to the foyer. She wasn't going to attempt the back door. But she might have a chance of getting to her own house before he stopped her through the front yard. Icy rain and all.

"Lyra. Where the hell do you think you're going?" He moved ahead of her before she could reach the door, staring back at her broodingly as she restrained the urge to kick him.

"To my own house," she reminded him. "Remember?

Clothes? Laptop?"

"No." The rough growl sent shivers up her spine and spasms attacking her vagina. Damn him. A man should never have a voice so inherently sexy.

"Tarek, you are under the impression this Mating Heat of yours somehow gives you rights you do not have." She pointed her finger into his chest, pushing back at the stubborn male muscle that wouldn't budge an inch.

Savage intensity tightened his expression, giving him a dangerous, predatory look.

"You are my mate. It's my place to protect you." He fairly snarled the words, lifting his lip to display those wickedly white incisors.

"It's daylight, Tarek," she pointed out as though speaking to a young child. Sometimes, men responded to nothing else. "I'm safe, sweetheart. I'm just gonna walk across the lawn."

"You will not." He stepped toward her.

And of course, she retreated.

The look on his face assured her that he was done ignoring her arousal and now ready to do something about it. Of course, the erection straining beneath the loose fit of his sweatpants pretty much assured her of that on its own.

"Tarek, these strongman tactics are going to piss me off," she bit out, irritation surging through her. "I don't like it."

"So?" His lips tilting in a mocking smile. "Tell me, mate, how will you stop it?"

Cool male confidence marked his features.

"I'm really going to hurt you," she muttered, frustration surging through her because she knew there wasn't really a damned thing she could do.

She could call her brothers.

But that wouldn't really be fair. Would it?

No, she decided, this one she had to handle on her own. She backed up again as he moved closer, her eyes narrowing on him.

"I am not ready to have sex with you yet," she stated imperiously as she tried to escape into the living room. He smiled. A wicked, sensual smile that had her pussy weeping. Damn him.

"Aren't you?" He stalked her through the large room, her gaze moving around the heavy furniture, taking in the clean masculine lines and nearly clinical sterility of the room. There wasn't even a picture.

"No. I'm not."

Oh but she was. it was beating through her veins and pounding in her chest. Her breasts were tight with the need for it, her pussy clenching in hunger.

He stopped as she edged around the heavy cherry wood coffee table, watching him warily.

"You make me want to smile," he whispered then, his eyes filled with warmth, with longing. "Even as stubborn as you can be, you make me want to smile."

Her heart melted. Now, dammit, how was she supposed to stand her ground when he said things like that?

"Now is not the time to be nice, Tarek," she snapped, infuriated at him.

"But I want to be nice to you." He used that whiskey-rough voice like a caress, and it was much too effective for Lyra's peace of mind. "I want to be very nice to you, Lyra. I want to lay you down on that couch, spread your pretty legs, and show you just how nice I can be to you. Wouldn't you like that, baby?" The heat in the room jumped a hundred degrees. She could feel perspiration gathering between her breasts and along her forehead, and hunger tearing her apart.

She didn't run as he made his way around the table. She watched him, wondering what the hell had happened to her willpower, her strength, her determination to not let this man get around her so easily.

But he did. Not with his words. Or his intent. It was the longing in his eyes, the vulnerability, the joy that sparkled there as she faced him.

"I'm really going to get mad at you one of these days," she warned him as he stepped closer, surrounding her, his hand moving beneath her hair to cup her neck. "And don't bite me again, either. That's just too freaky."

She could feel the wound pulsing, achingly sensitive.

"You complain about the bite, but not the barb?" The casual tone of his voice was not reflected in the tenseness of his body.

"Yeah, well." She cleared her throat nervously. "The barb I can forgive you for. That bite is going to get your ass kicked if my brothers see it, though. I'd prefer to keep you in one piece." He stared down at her thoughtfully.

"I think you enjoyed the barb." He lowered his head, his tongue rasping over the small wound from his bite. "And I think you liked the bite, too, Lyra."

She shivered as his tongue rasped over it, sending currents of pleasure whipping through her.

"Maybe," she gasped in pleasure, standing still, her hands at her sides, curled into fists to keep from touching him, to keep from disturbing the emotion she could feel weaving around her.

"Come here, baby." He pulled her into his arms, leaving her no other choice but to lift her own, her hands moving to his neck, to his glorious mane of hair. "Let's see how much you like both."

His head lowered, his lips covered hers, and she was lost. She knew she was lost. Taken in a firestorm of sensual heat as the delicately flavored hormone began to surge through her already prepared senses.

She moaned into his kiss, her lips parting, accepting his tongue, drawing on it as a savage growl vibrated in his throat. Her nails bit into his shoulders, scraped the flesh, caressing him in turn as his hands gripped her buttocks and lifted her against his thighs.

She was aware of him moving her, laying her back on the cushions of the overstuffed couch as he moved over her. He pushed the shirt over her breasts, but neither of them could break the kiss long enough to tear it off. But somehow he had removed his sweats.

She could feel his cock, hard and heavy against her thigh as his hands roved over her sensitized body. They moaned, the sounds of their pleasure mixing, merging as he lifted her to him, the broad crest of his erection pressing against the slick, readied entrance to her spasming pussy.

"Lyra…" His harsh, graveled voice pierced her heart as he tore his lips from hers, raising his head to stare down at her with eyes that seemed to melt with emotion.

Oh God, she loved him. Everything about him. Every portion of him.

"Now," she whispered as he paused. "Love me, Tarek…

Please…"

He grimaced, his lips pulling back from his teeth in a savage snarl as he stared down at her in surprise.

"Don't you know, Lyra?" His smile was bittersweet. "Don't you know just how much I do love you?"

She would have smacked him, or at least yelled at him for saying it with such hopeless pain. But he chose that moment to begin pushing into her, stretching her snug muscles as he worked his cock inside her.

Fiery, agonizing heat filled her. The pleasure was lightning fast, flaring through every portion of her body as he rocked against her.

She felt him, inch by inch, sinking into her, just as he had taken her heart. Bit by bit, forcing her wide, searing her with not just the pleasure, but the sheer gentleness he used.

"I would die for you," he whispered against her ear, hiding his expression against her neck as she convulsed around him, her hands locking in his hair. "Don't you know, Lyra, I live for you now. For now and for always."

He surged through the final depths of her aching sex, pushing in fiercely before retreating with the same agonizing pace he had used to enter her.

"Tarek." She bit his ear. He was making her wild, setting her heart aflame, sending her body into quaking shudders of pleasure. "Just live for me," she gasped. "Oh God." He thrust into her quickly, retreated slowly, stealing her breath, her thoughts.