“You are such an arrogant ass,” she hissed furiously, unable to contain her summation of his character a second longer.

Fury and confusion pulsed through her when she saw the trace of sarcasm cross his handsome face. He glanced down at her contemptuously.

“You really do turn that act on and off like a light switch, don’t you?”

“What is wrong with you?” she grated out, stunned by his disdain.

His lip curled into a snarl. Suddenly it seemed impossible to Lin that she’d thought he’d been cool since Kyle and Nina had arrived. He wasn’t just simmering with emotion. He was about to boil over.

“Wrong with me? Maybe it turns my stomach to watch you smile and charm and look like a beautiful doll all night long. You always have the perfect line on the tip of your tongue, don’t you? Does anybody ever see the real you, Lin? I wonder if you even know who she is.”

“You son of a—”

He caught her flying hand in midair. A shock resounded in her flesh. She gasped in disbelief. His blazing eyes burned right through her. She’d never told herself to do it, but she’d been about to slap him before he’d stopped her. Dozens of diners would have witnessed the spectacle she made through the glass windows of the posh restaurant. She’d never lost control in public like this before. She rarely did in private . . .

Kam’s nostrils flared in anger. Lin’s lungs burned. She couldn’t draw air. He jerked her wrist and her body thumped against his. Electricity seemed to jump from him to her. Against her will, she felt herself respond to his long, hard length.

“So the polished little kitten has claws. Well, that’s a start at honesty, I guess,” Kam muttered through a clenched jaw. His remark bounced off her; she was still momentarily stunned by her actions. He put out his hand to hail the next waiting cab. Lin said nothing when he held open the door for her. She couldn’t believe he’d goaded her so easily. Her entire body seemed to vibrate with chaotic emotion.

Kam slid into the seat next to her and tersely gave the driver the address to his apartment before he slid the plastic divider between driver and passenger seats closed. Lin turned to him, her mouth opening to accuse him of being a manipulative bastard. Kam opened his hands along each side of her jaw, holding her in place, and seized her mouth in an angry, searing kiss.

All her confusion about her desires, all the longing she’d felt ever since she left Kam’s arms on Monday morning, all the bubbling emotion she’d been feeling since Ian had told her about Kam’s plans, all of that and more found a channel in erupting lust and need. It roared to the surface, both a threat and a potent thrill that was impossible to resist.

Still, she was outraged. She wrenched her mouth free after a moment and tore his hands from her face. Their gazes clashed in the city-lit cab. She saw the dangerous glint in his light eyes.

“Do you honestly think I only want you because I want you to work for me? I wish that were true. I haven’t had a moment of peace since the first second you walked into that restaurant,” he growled ominously, sounding furious at that fact.

“Damn you, Kam,” she whispered, affected by his raw admission whether she wanted to be or not.

“Damned is right,” he assured her before he bent to her again. This time, his kiss was every bit as dark and dangerous, but it was more controlled. It was the devil’s seduction. His tongue claimed her mouth, sweeping it everywhere. He moved his lips in a sensual enticement, sucking at her, pulling her in to him in a way that was impossible to deny. Lin tangled her tongue with his, angry, aroused, overwhelmed. He wrapped a hand at her waist and pulled her closer against his hard body, and Lin knew she was something else.

Lost.

Kam pulled her after him once he’d distractedly handed a pleased cabdriver a twenty for a six-dollar fare. He pulled her through the lobby like he thought he was evacuating a fire, but going in the wrong direction. The doorman behind the desk greeted her by name when they arrived, and Lin gave a breathless, unintelligible reply. She’d been there countless times to Ian’s penthouse. Kam immediately swept down on her without waiting for the elevator doors to close. Despite the fact that she was aware of the doorman’s eyes watching them curiously as they got onto the mahogany-paneled elevator, she turned her face up and put her arms out to receive Kam’s hot, demanding kiss. She melted against his length. The doors closed and she felt herself rising, lifted on the steam of single-minded desire.

Kam’s mouth burned her throat. He reached beneath her wrap and began to loosen the single strap of her dress. She arched against him when his hand brushed a prickling nipple, tempting him to touch her. She moaned and nipped at his snarling mouth when he filled his palm with her breast, then plucked at the aching nipple with his fingertips. He bent and ravaged her mouth again.

The elevator doors dinged open. She broke their kiss and whimpered his name when he didn’t appear to notice, but just continued to consume her. When the doors started to close, he moved away from her quick as a lightning strike, halting the doors and pulling her after him.

The luxurious, muted hallway was a blur; the snick of the metal lock giving way beneath Kam’s key sounding illicit and secretive. The interior of the apartment was dark, the main source of light the rows of high-rise after high-rise glittering like a sparkling necklace along the body of black water. Lin’s spell of hazy lust wasn’t diminished even when Kam gave a harsh demand to a bounding Angus, telling the excited dog to go into the dining room. Then Kam was pulling her over to the couch and urging her to lie down, her head at the corner. He came down over her, sealing her tight in the cocoon he spun around them of heat and forgetfulness and blind need. His kiss was dark and addictive, his touch on the naked skin of her shoulder, breast, and thigh desired above all else.

The next thing she knew, he was rearing over her, a dark, powerful presence, his arms bracing his body on the back and armrest of the couch, one of his feet on the floor and his knee between her thigh and the cushion. Her dress was rucked up around her waist, her panties evaporated somewhere into the darkness. Her bare breasts rose and fell rapidly, looking pale in the city lights. He lowered one hand to her shin, pushing her bent leg onto the back of the couch, opening her to him. The hard, swollen knob of his cock moved along her labia. She was slick with arousal. She could hear the subtle sound of him moving in her flesh, and it ramped up her excitement. He gave her clit a firm caress, and then he was pushing against her slit, demanding entrance.

“Say my name,” he muttered hoarsely from above her.

“Kam.” She repeated it, his name on her tongue a pleading endearment. He flexed his hips. Her lips opened into a silent scream as he filled her.

Kam could see her face from the glow of the city lights as he burrowed into her clasping pussy. Hearing her chant his name and watching her lips open into an O of rapture as he slid into her to the hilt left him desperate.

He wanted his name to be the only one seared into this woman’s brain. Her heart. The very marrow of her bones. He wanted it in that moment more than he’d ever wanted anything in his life. It was like a fire racing in his blood. He’d burn both of them with it.

He began to fuck her, continuing to brace his upper body at the corner of the couch, his foot on the floor and his hips powering his thrusts. Her cries were sharp. Wild. He couldn’t take his eyes off her beautiful face pinched tight with desire.

“Is this what you want from me, Lin?” he rasped, his pelvis smacking in a steady, hard-driving rhythm against the back of her spread thighs and buttocks. He looped his arm around her silky thigh in a snug hold and used his grip to increase the force of his deep thrusts. She was helpless to deny his consumption . . . his total possession. “You need it like this?” he persisted. His blood was boiling. He rode her like a man on fire . . . or with a demon at his back.

“Yes,” she grated out, her head coming off the pillow, her face tight with the sweet, harsh agony they shared.

She wanted him, all right. He could feel the inferno building in her. She wanted his cock. She was using him to quench a desire for another. The knowledge was a burr under his skin that he couldn’t ignore, despite his rabid lust. His need.

He cursed bitterly and pulled his furious erection out of the heaven of her. She gasped his name, sounding pained. His cock felt like it steamed in the cool air. He kicked off his shoes and jerked his pants and underwear off his legs, followed by his socks. His cock bobbed a furious protest when he glanced back and saw Lin’s splayed, pale thighs and her confused expression.

“Come here,” he said gruffly, reaching for her. She sat up, and he caught her around her waist. He felt the soft, warm bursts of her panting breath against his neck and the delicious spill of her long hair against the roughened skin of his arm. He grit his teeth in barely leashed restraint as he stalked down the hallway to the bedroom. He had this moment to blaze away all the ghosts, if only for tonight.

He set her on the edge of the bed and found the zipper at the side of her dress. It was the only thing he hadn’t taken off of her completely yet. When he’d removed the dress, her long hair spilled around her shoulders and down her arms. She stared at him with large, dark eyes, her mouth trembling slightly.

“It’s not fair, how beautiful you are,” he told her fiercely.