She gasped again, this time with indignation even as her face flamed hot because the rest of her flamed even hotter. “I am not!” she lied sharply. “Don’t think so much of yourself! And get your hands off me!” She wriggled as if to throw him off her, but his grip was like iron and it was laughable to think she was any contest to his incredible strength. Even weakened as he was, there was nothing she could do to fight him. And besides, half of her heart wasn’t in it because he was right. He was right to say she was overwhelmed with craving. There was a part of her that wanted him to do as he said, touch her there and prove her a liar.

“Li’le liar,” he said, as though he could read her mind. His hand ran down from her breast and she began to breathe so hard it was a wonder she didn’t pass out. He swept his fierce touch down her belly and over the front of her jeans. He cupped her then with powerful fingers and used his grip on her to jerk her hips up, his erection so bold and hard against her thigh she felt her knees go weak.

“There now,” he hissed. “I can feel the heat of you. And how could I be so hard that my bollocks hurt from it if you were as cold tae me as you say you are?”

“I’m not responsible for the state of your … your …”

“Bollocks,” he said with smug amusement.

“Yes. Shut up!” She didn’t think she could burn any hotter with embarrassment, not to mention other things. He moved his hand then and ground himself against her and she felt herself responding wetly. A moan escaped her and he chuckled.

“I canna help it. ’Tis my nature, lass. Gargoyles are a lusty lot even under the weakest of circumstances, but when we sense lust toward us from another … you ken there’s no resisting it. In other words, I wouldna be feeling it if you were as cold tae me as you claim.” He exhaled against her neck, his breath steamy and rich. “And there’s nothing cold about you,” he reminded her, his grip on her tightening just enough to get her attention. “Now I’m going tae slide my hand under this denim you’re hiding behind and I’m going tae prove tae us both how wet you are.”

“So what!” she blurted out. “Okay, so what if I am. I-it’s been a-a long time and of c-course I’m going to feel something when you’re touching me like this! It’s not as though you’re hard to look at and all muscley and testosteroney! I’d have to be dead not to respond to that. What girl in her right mind wouldn’t want a-a man like you?” When he exhaled with satisfaction into her hair she made herself go stiff in his hold. “It doesn’t mean I actually am going to have sex with you! I’m a discerning woman and … and you’re … you’re …”

“Go on and say it, lass,” he urged her, his voice like churning gravel, a sense of grimness to his tone. “I’m a Gargoyle. I’m a thing you don’t understand. An inhuman thing. Go on. Say it.”

“No,” she said, deflating in his hold, half the tension in her body disappearing. “A Gargoyle, yes. A person I don’t understand. But not inhuman. I don’t think of you like you’re inhuman.”

His hand slid away from intimate areas, coming to rest low on her belly. “Well,” he said, “that’s something I suppose. Something tae start with. And you’ve admitted you want me. Another thing in my favor.”

She huffed. “You don’t give up, do you?”

“Nay, no’ when it comes tae you. I promise you that.”

The promise affected her in unexpected ways. It made her feel … cherished. Did he mean it that way? Everything he’d said up to that point had been just hot hard lust, but that one statement made it more … personal. As if … as if it was more about her than it was about his sensual nature. As if her affect on him was somehow special.

“Will you let me go now?” she asked softly, still aware that he held her very tightly and that he was still as hard as steel against her. Good God, she couldn’t help but recall how … endowed he was. It ought to be terrifying, and, she supposed, she was a little bit terrified. But that fear meant she was contemplating him actually using it with her and she couldn’t let her mind go there.

Only, it was clearly already there.

No. No, she lectured herself. You can do this. You just have to be firm.

Firm. He was firm. Oh yes … very, very f—

Shit. Shit shit shit! Stop it, Katrina Christina Haynes! This is a slippery slope and you’re just going to fall on your ass if you keep this up!

“I canna let you go when you keep squirming again’ me. Feels too bloody good.”

“I’m not squirming! And even if I were, it wouldn’t be so you could get your jollies with it! It’s because I’m trying to escape, you big oaf! Now let me go.” Oaf? Really, Katrina, was that the best you could do?

“I will, but on one condition,” he said, his eyes light with amusement.

“What is it?” she asked warily.

“That you promise me another kiss. No’ now, but later on, at a time of my choosing. If I ask, you have to give over. Just a kiss, Kat lass. One wee li’le kiss.”

Kat bit her lip, her heart thundering in her chest. Not just because of all that had happened thus far, but because the idea of him calling in a marker like that at any given moment in the future well and truly excited her as if he were already kissing her all over again.

“All right,” she breathed. “But just one. And no tongue.”

“Oh, there’ll be tongue and plenty of it,” he countered. “I doona do things halfway and I willna expect otherwise from you. But just a kiss. Whatever comes after, now that’s up to you.”

“You promise?”

“Aye, I swear it.”

“Okay,” she assented.

Slowly, with obvious reluctance, he relaxed his hold on her, letting her move away from him in small increments. She was about a foot away from him, sliding toward the opposite side of the bed, still bathed in the infernal heat he was giving off, when he reached a hand to her neck, stroking a long caress against the side of her throat and then up into her hair.

“Good God, you’re beautiful,” he said on a low breath. “ ’Tis no’ because I’m tryin’ tae make headway with you that I say it, but only because ’tis the truth.”