She felt the seat against her back as Wyatt pressed her into the passenger seat, and, still kissing her, snapped her seat belt around her. Only then did he lift his head. She felt dazed. A little drunk even. Her bones had turned to liquid and every brain cell she had was seriously fried.

Wyatt closed her door firmly and she watched him move around the hood of the car to the driver’s side. Even the way he moved, all fluid and easy, was sexy. She had sex on the brain. Maybe that was the trouble and once she gave in, she’d be over him.

Wyatt slid in beside her, smoothly clicked his seat belt in and started the Jeep before looking down at her. “Honey, you’re broadcastin’ loud and clear. You’re not goin’ to be over me. We’re goin’ to have sex, lots of it, often, and you’re still not goin’ to get over me. Just put that right out of your head.”

She closed her eyes against his cocky, sexy grin. “You do it on purpose, Wyatt, and you’re playing with fire. What happens when I can’t resist you anymore and I stop trying to protect you from me?”

“Paradise, sugar, that’s what’s goin’ to happen for both of us.”

He set the Jeep in motion, gave a little wave to Ezekiel and Malichai, who were busy with a new security system – cameras, motion sensors, alarms. The Fontenot property was large and they had a lot of work to do to make it into a fortress.

“I can’t shield everyone for too long, Wyatt. It takes a toll on me. I don’t know why it’s so difficult, but after an hour or two I need a respite. My head feels like it’s going to explode. What do you think is going to happen when we’re in town and I just can’t do it anymore?”

He reached out and covered her hand. She hadn’t realized she’d been rubbing her palm up and down her thigh. At his touch the burning between her legs grew hotter and she snatched her hand away. The Jeep’s interior didn’t allow her to shrink away from Wyatt’s warmth. He was everywhere, surrounding her with his scent, his masculine hunger beating at her every bit as strong as her own.

“I think you should drop those shields right now, Pepper. It’s just the two of us. You and me. You know where this is goin’. So do I. I want to be inside you. I dream of bein’ inside you and I know you dream of havin’ me there. I want to feel your body wrapped around mine. I want to taste every inch of you. It’s goin’ to happen and both of us know it. There’s no need to hide from me. Be as sexy as you like. Seduce me. I’m a grown-up, babe, and I can handle a woman. I can give you whatever you need.”

He was killing her. He didn’t understand what they’d done to her. The heat and fire inside that burned and burned until she thought she’d go insane. If she dropped her guard, as connected as they were, and he saw the erotic images in her head, saw her cravings and her terrible need for him – for him – she would be lost. He would always be able to control and manipulate her. She wouldn’t be the weapon, he would be.

Desperate, she actually touched the door handle, thinking she might try to escape. There was no escape from her body’s demands. None. She couldn’t quiet the terrible hunger crawling through her veins, centering between her legs like a torch. Her mouth craved to wrap itself around his heavy erection every single time she saw it – which was hourly. He always seemed to be as hard as a rock.

She couldn’t think with wanting him. She couldn’t sleep. Her skin was hot and her breasts ached. She needed him… She just plain needed.

Wyatt swore in Cajun French, a bastardized version of the French she knew. “That’s it, Pepper. That’s all the time you’ve got. I was goin’ to do this the right way, courtin’ you like you deserve, showin’ you we could be a normal couple, but I underestimated what they did to you. The hell they gave to you. Needin’ sex is damned uncomfortable, and no woman of mine is goin’ to suffer when I can do somethin’ about it.”

Pepper just looked at him, feeling despair. She was fairly certain other men didn’t contend with the mother of their children needing sex the way she needed it. She was suffering. It was agony. She’d had a handle on it until she met Wyatt; now she couldn’t think of anything else.

Wyatt turned off the main road onto an adjacent road, much narrower, one that ran along the river for a distance and then veered away from it for a while.

“Pepper, take it down. The shield. Let it go. Give yourself to me.”

Her gaze dropped to the front of his jeans. His fierce, thick bulge. She licked her lips. Her mouth watered. The fire grew between her legs. It hurt to have her clothes on. Did she dare do what he asked? Reveal the dark side of herself to him? What would he think of her then?

“Damn it, babe. Open your blouse for me. Unbutton all those cute buttons. The moment you put the damn thing on, all I wanted to do was unwrap you.”

His eyes cut sideways toward her, his gaze so hot she felt her stomach somersault. Hot liquid spilled between her legs. Fine. There was no saving either of them and right then she didn’t care. The Jeep was hurtling through the swamp now on some old dirt road. He knew where he was going and he wanted to get them there fast. She hoped it would be fast enough.

Very slowly her hands went to the top button of the blouse Nonny had found for her. She might never get this chance again. She’d never been with a man who mattered, one she wanted, one who wasn’t training her. Aside from whatever made her outwardly tempting to men when she walked into a place, she was skilled and knew how to please a man, how to bind him to her. Never once had she ever wanted to use her craft. She hated it. Despised it. Until that moment. Her one chance.