Before she could protest, he took her mouth. He wasn’t the least bit gentle. He didn’t feel gentle, not with adrenaline pouring through his body like a fiery, hot stream. He leaned into her, deliberately imprinting her body on his, all her soft skin and lush curves. In that moment he could care less whether or not her kiss was lethal. His hunger for her was brutal. Coupled with his volcanic anger, there was no way to stop the rising passion, the terrible need that was so primal he almost couldn’t control it.

He poured himself into her, his mouth hot and demanding, forcing her response. The taste of her burst through him like an addicting drug he would never be able to find anywhere else. Never be able to get enough of. Her arms slid around his neck and she melted into him with a small gasping sob.

Her mouth moved under his and he was lost in her sexual web. Drowning. Going under for the last time. The thing was, he didn’t want to come up for air. Not ever. He could kiss her forever and it would never be enough. The ground shifted, and he didn’t know if it was his reaction or hers. Only that the world dropped away until there was only the woman in his arms and her incredible mouth breathing for him.

He dragged her closer, desperate to be skin to skin. She was made for him. She fit. Perfectly. The chemistry just got hotter the more they kissed, inflaming his every sense until he couldn’t think straight. Until there was no way to do without her. She was inside of him, living and breathing, and without her body to sustain his, there was no Wyatt. He knew part of that was the biochemical spilling from her mouth to his, but more, he already knew the taste of her, what it felt like to be inside of her. Once he started kissing her, it was difficult to pull back without having her.

This isn’t going to work, Wyatt. It’s not.

She didn’t take her mouth from his, but she protested, and that made him all the more crazy. Thunder roared in his ears. He slammed his palm against the wall beside her head. He had never wanted a woman so much in his life. Not just wanted her – needed her. No one else was ever going to satisfy the craving inside of him, a terrible empty hole that only she could fill.

You damn well aren’t goin’ to change your fuckin’ mind because I’m angry with you. You had no business throwin’ out a lure to him and you know it.

She startled when he hit the wall, trying to draw back, but there was nowhere for her to go. Wyatt had her there, captured between the wall and his body. His prisoner. He held her there, his brooding gaze drifting over her face.

“You belong to me and no one else.”

“You don’t own me,” she denied.

He could see the panic in her eyes, feeling it rising like the tidal wave of sheer lust had risen in him. “I do,” he said softly. “You’re mine and I’ll be damned if I’m ever goin’ to give you up, so just know that, Pepper. Know as much as you belong to me, I belong to you. We’re in this together. We had this conversation. We talked it all out. I’ve been inside you dozens of times. You knew when we first started this that there was no goin’ back.”

“What is this?” She sounded as scared as she looked. “Doesn’t this scare you, even a little bit?”

Her body trembled, shivering against his. He leaned down and brushed a much gentler kiss over her mouth. Her eyes were huge, her breath coming too fast. She was very close to panic and seemed more vulnerable than ever. Wyatt realized her fear was very genuine. Pepper hadn’t been made to feel passion and attraction – only to make men feel it. She had no idea what to do with the intense chemistry sizzling between them. She had no idea what to do with him, especially when he was angry.

“You’re safe with me. You are. I’m a loyal man, a family man. You don’ have to be afraid of what you’re feelin’. I’ll take care of us.”

She shook her head. “How do you know what you’re feeling is genuine, that I didn’t cast a lure for you too?” She touched her mouth with shaking fingers. “Because a week from now, I don’t want to hear you say that.”

He captured her hand and brought it to his mouth, his teeth scraping gently at the pads of her nervous fingers. “I can not only feel the lure when you test the waters, but I can see it as well, a thin line of energy going from you to your victim. No one else in that room spotted it and they’re all GhostWalkers. What does that tell you?”

She winced visibly and lowered her lashes. They were wet. Spiky. His heart contracted hard in his chest. He pushed back the stray tendrils of cloudy waves that just refused to stay tamed in her braid.

“Don’t say ‘victim,’ Wyatt. Don’t use that word.”

“I know you didn’t deliberately seduce me, Pepper, because you’re scared to death of me – of what you feel when you’re with me. I connected us when I attempted to heal you, but you connected us long before that, when you jumped between Ginger and me and took that bite. I knew in that moment that you were the one for me. There was no sex involved right then. None. Just a woman showin’ tremendous courage, the kind of courage a man livin’ in the bayou needs when he wants to raise his family here.”

He tugged at one of the strands of silk. “Now, when I look at you, I want you with every cell in my body. Again, that isn’ you comin’ on to me, because you don’ ever do that with me. You feel what I’m feelin’ and that terrifies you. I know because there’s no denyin’ that connection between us. I can feel the intensity of your emotions. You want me just as much. I just scare you a little when I get angry, but I’d never hurt you. No matter how angry I get, I’d never hurt you.”