“Then I guess we’ve reached a brick wall.”

My glare should have communicated everything I felt, but instead, Rix laughed softly.

“How can you look so fucking beautiful even when you want to tell me to go to hell?”

I blinked against his intense stare, and murmured, “I’ve been to hell. I don’t think you want me to tell you to go there.”

“I hate that for you. I’d kill anyone who hurt you.”

I yawned. “Too late. He’s already dead.”

“I know, and I’m sorry I can’t kill him again.”

My eyes snapped open at the pity in his tone. Reaching up, I grabbed his arm. “Don’t. Don’t even think about treating me differently because of it.”

His eyes widened slightly before they softened. “You got a deal.” Lowering toward me, he pressed a kiss to my temple. “Sleep, duchess.”

A LOW POUNDING REVERBERATED IN my head, and my tongue stuck to the roof of my mouth when I swallowed.

Opening my eyes seemed like the next logical step, but I wasn’t sure I was brave enough to do it. Two hangovers in a week was a new record for me.

I groaned and rolled over—into the warm body of another person. My eyes snapped open, and I registered the weight of an arm low on my hips.

What the hell?

Rix woke as soon as I moved. “You okay, duchess? Or you feel like you’re gonna die?”

“Why are you in my bed?”

“Don’t remember last night?”

I searched my memory and, sure enough, I remembered every single thing. I hadn’t drank that much. “No, I do.”

“Then why are you asking me why I’m here?”

“Because I guess I thought you’d leave after you’d done your good deed of getting the drunk chick in bed.”

Rix’s lips twitched before he gave me a half smile. “I don’t do good deeds because that means I’m not getting anything in return.”

“Of course you don’t,” I drawled, and then slapped a hand over my mouth at the horrible taste. I shot out of bed. Not the smartest thing I’ve ever done. My head swam, but evened out so I could walk calmly toward the bathroom.

I shut the door behind me and took care of my morning routine. Once my mouth no longer tasted like roadkill, I slipped on the robe on the back of my door, a short and silky one Rix had seen the first night he’d broken in. I ventured back into the bedroom and Rix was where I’d left him—sprawled out in my bed, shirtless, and from the look of the tent under the sheet, pantless.

“Better?” he asked.

I ignored his question and asked one of my own. “Are you naked in my bed?”

A single short nod was his only response.

“Why?”

“Because I sleep naked.”

“Which begs the question why you were sleeping in my bed?”

“Because you didn’t answer my texts last night.”

“Sure, I did.”

He shook his head slowly. “Not with the answer I wanted.”

“You were just worried that I was out with the cop again,” I said, delivering the challenge before I could think better of it.

A harsh laugh came from Rix. “Reminding me of that while I’m naked in your bed might not be your best bet.”

“Why, what are you going to do?”

My taunt was more than ill advised. Rix sprang out of bed and wrapped a hand around my wrist, dragging me back to the mattress and pinning me down. Beneath him, I struggled, but there was no way I could move over two hundred pounds of man unless he wanted me to.

Note to self: Beware of people with lightning-fast reflexes.

“I’m gonna keep you here until I have answers to my questions,” he said. “Starting with, did you see him again last night?”

“No, I didn’t. Not that it’s any of your business.”

“You’re my business, duchess, so I’m gonna have to disagree with that one.”

“Whatever.”

His face came closer to mine. “Do whatever I want to you? Is that what you mean?”

I struggled under his hold. “Of course it’s not. Now, let me up.”

He shook his head. “Don’t think so. I want answers. You seeing him again?”

“I don’t know,” I said, protest ringing from my words, and my struggles increasing.

“Easy, you know I’m not gonna hurt you.”

“Why should I make it easy for you?”

“When have you ever?” He lowered his lips almost to mine. “And for some reason it just makes me want you more.”

Heat surged within me and I tugged my hands free. Not to get away, but to pull him closer.

He wanted me? Well, I wanted him. The clear light of the morning was all the illumination I needed—along with the realization that I liked waking up and finding him next to me. It was dangerous. Forbidden. But this morning I would take it.

“Kiss me,” I said.

“You begging yet?”

“Shut up and kiss me.”

Rix hesitated a few more beats before our lips connected. Kissing him was a full-body experience. Zings of energy ripped from my head to my toes, bouncing off all the important places in between.

How could a single kiss unleash so many sensations? I didn’t know, but I strongly suspected that whatever it was made Rix even more dangerous to me.

He took, seizing control, and the kiss went on for long minutes before he pulled away and sat up.

“Can’t stay in this bed without wantin’ inside you, and you’re not beggin’ for it yet.”

“Wha—”

My protest died on my lips as I caught sight of the curve of his naked ass. I’d seen it before, but I couldn’t get over it. The man’s ass was perfection. He turned and reached for his jeans, giving me a side view of his erection and the muscles bunching in the rest of his body.

I want to paint him. Naked.

My brain not functioning completely quite yet, I blurted it out.

Rix turned and stared at me. “You want to do what?”

“Paint you. Naked.”

“That’s what I thought you said.”

“Will you let me?” I was already mentally mixing the colors. I’d already done it once before, and I was eager to do it again with him in front of me.

Rix didn’t answer, just watched me as I sat up and belted my robe more tightly.