She wasn’t used to this. It was too much. And there was Alex, doing nothing, not a damned thing, to hide that bite on his neck as he leaned against the wall and watched her.

“It’s after eleven,” she told all of them. “Nearly my bedtime.” She gave them a false, bright smile. “I’m

sure it’s nearly yours as well.”

She didn’t want to deal with hours of placating the worry and concern she saw in everyone’s eyes. She just wanted them to go away.

“Natches and I are going to stay all night, Janey,” Chaya decided. “We’re worried.”

Janey inhaled, then lifted the wine. She took a long sip, staring at Chaya and Natches over the rim of the glass. Her brother’s face was calm, but his eyes raged.

“I thought that was Alex’s job?” She looked at Alex. A mocking half smile tilted his lips.

“Not tonight,” Natches told her, his voice even.

Janey shook her head. “Fine, the two of you can stay and I’ll get a hotel room. Not a problem.”

Natches dropped his head back on the chair and closed his eyes as Chaya patted his knee.

“Janey, please . . .” Chaya began to protest.

“It’s his apartment. It’s in his name.” She shrugged. “It’s not a problem. I’ll also be posting ads this week for a manager for the restaurant. I’m thinking about going back to college.”

Strangely, Natches looked back at Alex. Alex stiffened, his eyes narrowing.

“Sudden decision, isn’t it?” Alex asked.

“Not really.” Janey shrugged. “I need a break . . .”

“Bullshit.”

Alex’s voice was carefully controlled, his gaze flat and hard.

She sipped at her wine again, her gaze locked with his.

“I’ll find another manager before I go, but I’ll be leaving within a few weeks.”

Ray, Maria, Rowdy, Kelly, Dawg, and Crista rose from their seats as Alex’s jaw tensed and Faisal watched the Mackays worriedly.

“Yeah, time for us to leave.” Dawg stretched and wrapped his arm around his wife before heading for the door. The others followed. Chaya and Natches stayed in place.

“Come here and give us a hug, Janey,” Dawg commanded.

“I, too, will leave.” Faisal watched Natches in concern. “But I do not like the thought of Janey leaving this town, Natches.”

Janey hugged Dawg as she listened to Natches and Faisal talking. She hugged Ray and took his kiss on the cheek, and Maria’s. Kelly’s hug was tight and hard, and Rowdy kissed her hair with a whispered

“Nice try.”

Crista smiled and hugged her, then Dawg wrapped her in his arms, lifted her against him, and almost made a tear fall with his muttered “Don’t leave us. We love ya, ya know?”

“I know, Dawg,” she whispered back. “College calls, though.”

He chuckled at that. “You wish.”

Faisal stood before her then, his dark face and gleaming black eyes concerned. “I would not enjoy losing the aunt I have come to admire as I admire you,” he told her.

“You’re a hell of a nephew, Faisal,” she assured him with a quick smile. “Get back home. I’m sure you have classes tomorrow.”

She closed the door behind him, then moved back to her wine.

“I’ll go pack my bag.” She finished her wine. “I’ll call a cab from the bedroom.”

Chaya stood from Natches’s lap and curled into the corner of the couch as Natches lifted his head and stared back at Janey.

“Running away again?”

“Shut up, Natches,” Alex said calmly. “Take your wife and go home.”

Natches turned and gave him a long, level look. Alex missed it; his gaze didn’t leave Janey’s.

“Hell.” Natches pushed himself from the chair and looked at Chaya. “You ready, honey?”

“Not really,” Chaya said calmly. “I don’t like how the two of you are railroading her. I think I’ll stick around and play referee.”

“Thank you, Chaya.” Janey smiled tightly. “But I know how to fight my own battles when someone’s not holding the threat of a gun to my brother’s head.”

Natches tightened, the reference hard to miss. Yeah, Dayle had made certain she understood exactly

what stepping out of line meant.

“You should have told me he was threatening you with me,” he growled.

She shrugged. “My bad.”

“Your bad?” He blinked back at her, anger glittering in his eyes. “What the hell is up with you?”

“Me.” She stared back at him, her lips firm, her gaze steady as she breathed heavily. “I’m tired of this, Natches. This isn’t my home. No matter how much I want it to be, it’s not going to happen. Now’s a damned good time to accept that.”

“Hell, Natches,” Alex drawled. “I finally met a Mackay that knows how to quit. Now, here’s one for the record books. Congratulations.”

His gaze never wavered from her.

“Looks that way, doesn’t it?” she retorted coolly. “You can leave, too, by the way. I don’t think your services are required anymore.”

“My services?” His brows arched. “Well now, ain’t that too bad. But we can discuss that little particular after your brother leaves.” His gaze moved to Natches then. “Or not. All according to how pissed off he wants to get tonight, I guess.”

Chaya rose from the couch. “Yes, time for us to leave, honey.” She caught Natches’s hand as he glowered at Alex. “Now, Natches.”

“We’re going to discuss this,” he warned Alex.

“Uh-huh. Add it to the rest of the subjects you’ve warned me we’re going to discuss. I’m sure I’ll get around to it later.”

Janey watched, forcing back the trembling in her hands, feeling it settle in her stomach as her brother and sister-in-law left. Slowly. Natches was angry, but for once he was reining that anger in. That didn’t bode well for her. Alex didn’t move from where he leaned against the wall. His head tilted, his gaze growing curious as the door closed, and he reached out and slid the locks home.

“I asked you to leave as well,” she told him, keeping her voice low, the quiver out of it.

“You sure did.” He nodded his head slowly.

“Then why are you still standing here?”

“Because my dick’s still hard,” he answered her. “You made some pretty heavy promises tonight, Janey.” He straightened slowly. “We’ll see to those first. Then we’ll discuss that insanity you just spouted about going back to California.”

A shiver raced up her spine as he took a step toward her.

“I changed my mind about the supposed promises.” She tried to sneer. “Sorry, Alex. Go find blondie; I’m sure she’ll take care of that hard-on for you.”

He smiled. And that smile sent a nervous reaction shuddering through her so hard that this time, her hands did tremble. Her pussy quivered. Her clit became so hard, so sensitive, she swore the rasp of her panties was going to cause her to come as the reaction punched into her womb.

He looked wild. Sexy. Dangerous.

“Doesn’t work that way,” he growled. “Oh, baby, not even in your wildest dreams does it work that way.”

His arm snaked around her waist, jerked her to him. His hand cupped her neck, holding her in place.

“Now I’ll just show you exactly how it does work.”

TEN

Alex couldn’t explain, even to himself, why the hell the thought of her leaving, running, affected him like it did. It made him crazy, made him wild. Made him determined to show her exactly why she wasn’t walking away from Somerset, or from him.

He’d warned her he was hard, warned her he wouldn’t be an easy lover, yet when his lips came down on hers, he found himself pulling back, holding back, more eager for the heat and seductive pleasure than the wild, hard clash of pure lust.

There was something about her small, fragile body that made him feel bigger, stronger than he was.

Something about the strength of her hunger that filled him with a sense of awareness, of the primitive possessiveness that he had been fighting for years.

Janey was different. There was something so special, so intrinsically unique, about her, that he knew she would never recede into the back of his memories as every other woman had.

Janey would always demand his attention. Without design, without even trying; if she was near, she would always enchant his senses.

A terrifying thought for a man who had ensured that no woman ever chained his soul. If he had enough sense left inside him to think.

The moment his lips touched hers, there was no thought. There was nothing but Janey. Her lips opening beneath his, wild and hungry as her arms curled around his neck and she all but climbed his body in her attempt to get closer.

He clasped her neck, feeling its fragility beneath his palm. He could feel her pulse pounding in the side of her neck, and beneath his fingers he could feel the tension building at the back of the slender column.

Her shy little tongue touched his, then licked, sucking his tongue into her mouth. She moaned as his lips slanted over hers.

She was as untamed as the wind. He had felt it in her, sensed it in her, even before he saw her dancing at that damned bar. Before he felt her body swaying, moving against his, and saw the exquisite joy she found in the dance.

Now he’d show her a different dance.

“You think it’s so easy to walk away,” he murmured against her lips. “Get up in the morning and walk away from this. I dare you.”

He deepened the kiss, leaning her into the wall as he lifted her, forcing her legs around his waist and pressing his cock between her thighs as he braced her against the wall.

One hand held her neck, the other her ass. His fingertips caressed and stroked as his tongue commanded her lips, her mouth. Deep, wicked kisses. Kisses that seared his soul even as those desperate moans echoing in her throat became more imperative.

Her hands were at the back of his head, trying to hold him to her. Sharp little nails pierced his scalp, adding to the sensations. He could feel the dominance, the hard-core sexuality inside him rising to the fore. But it didn’t overwhelm the kiss. Something else, a heavy vein of gentleness, a need for tenderness, tempered yet heated him further.

God, he was burning for her. His balls were on fire, his cock harder than it had ever been. If he didn’t get her to a bed then, he was going to end up fucking her against the wall.

He moved, stumbled a bit, trying to kiss her and get them to her bedroom at the same time. He wasn’t about to let her go yet. To release those lush, pouty lips that moved beneath his, suckled at his tongue and moaned with such earthy pleasure.

Damn her. She was twisting him in so many different directions he didn’t know what the hell to do with the feelings he could feel breaking free inside him.

He’d never known this rich, desperate tenderness for any other woman. Tenderness mixed with a lust so overwhelming he wondered if he would survive it.

Laying her back on her wide bed, Alex rose over her, holding her hips to him as he settled against her, both hands clasping her head as he moved his lips from hers to her jaw, then her neck.

He could feel the mark she’d left on him burning against his skin. Her mark. A brand. He’d never allowed another woman to mark him. The primal wash of lust he’d felt when she had done it, though, nearly had his cock pumping his seed into his jeans. And it created a hunger. A hunger to mark her just as effectively. To brand her. To leave his stamp of ownership on her.

Her neck arched and tilted to the side as he felt her breathing become harder, rougher. His lips slid over her neck, moved to the juncture of her neck and shoulder, where he knew she was most sensitive. He