Just the realization of how painful that would have been for her made him tremble with fear. He’d have left bruises on her h*ps while holding her still to keep her where he’d wanted, might have made her bleed from his rough entry when he began to f**k her and he wouldn’t have been able to stop once he’d started. Memories of how good she felt assured that.

“Justice?”

Her timid, unsure voice tore at him and he opened his eyes, gazed at the high ceiling of the bedroom and knew he should leave. He owed her an explanation at the very least. He lowered his head and met her concerned stare.

“I’m so sorry I scratched you. Your back is bleeding.”

“It’s not that.”

His voice came out too gruff, with a harsh edge in it that he wished he could remove but his emotions were too close to the surface. That other side of him that he tried to keep in check wasn’t about to be leashed behind the facade he showed the world outside the walls of Reservation and Homeland. He was a Species male at that moment, one with feelings for a woman he knew he couldn’t have and it tore him up inside.

She huddled in the middle of the bed, appearing smaller than normal, pale, her bright red hair spilling down her chest, hiding her br**sts. She looked like a nymph—so innocent, completely the image of a female who never should be at his mercy in a bedroom.

“What’s wrong? Why did you stop? I’m still on the shot. I’m not taking anything that will mess it up. I was sure to ask that at the hospital before they released me.”

She remembered that he’d worried about pregnancy and that made him hate himself a little more. Jessie took everything into consideration, remembered the little things about him that caused him concern, yet he hadn’t managed to remind his raging hormones to play nice with her delicate body when he’d had her trapped under him.

She wouldn’t have been able to stop him and had zero chance of fighting back when the pain began. He rated even higher on his bastard scale.

“The truth is, I nearly harmed you, Jessie. I wanted you too much, too strongly, but thankfully I pulled it together enough to release you before it was too late.”

He faced her, knew his dick still strained upward with need. She noticed too—her gaze dropped there before she met his eyes again. Fear didn’t show on her features at the sight of how much she affected him but Jessie Dupree was a brave woman. Between her job and the way she’d handled the attack by the Species male, he admired her courage. Another woman would have run screaming away from him by now but she held still.

“Desire isn’t a bad thing and I’m totally onboard with it.” She dropped her arms from hugging her legs and leaned forward, her hands flattened on the bed and she exposed her lovely, rounded br**sts to him. “You appreciate bluntness so that’s exactly what I’m going to be. Inhale and you’ll know how much I want you if feeling how wet I am wasn’t enough to convince you. Use that enhanced sense of smell of yours if your sense of touch didn’t convince you.”

“I came at you without regard to your fragility.”

To his amazement, she grinned and her blue eyes sparkled with humor. “I’ve been described as a lot of things in my lifetime but that term isn’t used often. At least not more than once because I usually take down guys who pull that crap. I’ll make an exception for you because you’re as cute as can be and you’re different from other men.

I don’t think I could take you down in a sparring match, not with your reflexes and strength. You aren’t going to break me in bed though.”

“I forgot you were human,” he admitted.

“Is there a difference?”

“Yes.” He closed his mouth, not wishing to speak more on the matter.

“I’m smaller than your women, not as strong or as buff. It doesn’t mean I’m less tough though. I can promise you that.”

His body wanted to believe her but his mind was in charge. “I could have harmed you severely. You need to understand that.”

“Okay. I do but you stopped whatever you thought would hurt me.”

She lowered her chin a little and her blue eyes tracked him as she crawled a little closer. He couldn’t help but react to the incredibly sexy picture she made on her hands and knees, coming at him. His heart hammered, his c**k jerked in response to the need to take her and he resisted the urge to tackle her flat and f**k her.

“We’ll work through this, take it slow, so you don’t get scared.” Her smile widened.

“We did this once and I want to do it again.”

“Jessie,” he growled in warning. “Stop. I touch you and have a difficult time keeping in control of my urges.”

“Your urges felt pretty fantastic until you stopped.” She halted and sat up, her legs parted and her hands gripped her inner thighs.

His breathing increased to a pant, his gaze lowered and a purr tore from his throat.

It alarmed him that he couldn’t stop doing that with her, embarrassed him slightly, but the scent of her need drove him insane. He wanted to shove her onto her back, bury his face between those lovely thighs and taste her.

“You want me,” she whispered. “I want you. What’s the problem?”

“You have no idea.” He trembled again and knew he should leave. His body didn’t respond to the demand to stand though and his gaze refused to budge from the sight of her tempting strip of paler red hair, which barely concealed where he wanted to put his mouth. “I’m dangerous.”