His to Command #2: The Capture by Opal Carew Page B

Ileana had told her after that night. She had opened Kate’s eyes to what he was. Her stomach clenched at the memory.
    Now Matt would have the ability to control her company, and thereby control her.
    She walked to the couch and sank onto it. The fire still crackled and blazed cheerily, but the warmth no longer touched her. A chill had started around her heart and now crept outward to encompass her whole being.
    “Why are you doing this?”
    His lips compressed. “Why do you think I’m doing it?” He sounded more quizzical than demanding and that confused her.
    She shook her head. “I don’t know. After what happened…”
    Damn, she didn’t want to get into it. Didn’t want to hear him tell her why he’d been willing to subject her to that kind of pain.
    His eyes narrowed. “What exactly happened, Kate? Between us?”
    She stared at him in raging disbelief, then slammed her glass down on the coffee table and shot to her feet. “How dare you ask me that? After what you put me through…” The raging emotions flooding through her locked the breath in her lungs and words failed her. She paced across the floor.
    “After what I put you through?” He placed his glass on the mantel and paced toward her. “We really do have some talking to do.”
    “No.” She slashed her hand through the air. “I don’t want to talk to you about this. I don’t want to hear your explanations.”
    His hard gaze sharpened. He stepped forward, his presence like a storm cloud descending on her, a turmoil of mixed emotions swirling in his eyes. He raised a hand and stroked her cheek with one outstretched finger. She forced herself not to flinch.
    “Kate, was it my fault that you left? Did I…go too far with you?” The words came out soft and…uncertain.
    She felt her composure crack as old feelings flared inside her. Heat suffused her cheeks and a longing she’d buried in the depths of her soul stirred. No, don’t let me feel this. I don’t want to feel this.
    Oh, God, she knew she still loved him—because, quite simply, she’d never stopped—but she couldn’t give in to the destructive emotion.
    She stepped out of reach and turned away. Striding around the armchair to the fireplace, drawn to the flames and the warmth she wished would penetrate the numbness gripping her, she concentrated on collecting her composure.
    She felt the fine hairs on the back of her neck stand up and realized Matt stood behind her.
    “Kate, please tell me why you left.”
    She turned and stared at him in amazement. How could he ask her that? What he had done had been unforgivable.
    Her throat closed up and she couldn’t have uttered a word if she’d tried. She wrapped her arms around her body, rubbing her hands up and down, trying to banish the dreadful cold.
    “Damn it all, I loved you.” He stepped toward her and she stopped herself from backing away. His hands clenched into fists at his sides. “Don’t you understand? At first, I thought something terrible had happened to you.”
    The look of raw pain slashing his features shocked her. With all that had happened, she hadn’t really thought her leaving would hurt him so much as it would make him angry.
    And it seemed she had hurt him badly.
    Now, seeing his vulnerability, her heart constricted. She longed to reach out and touch him. To stroke back the loose waves of hair that had fallen onto his forehead. To soothe away the pain.
    His eyes narrowed. “Kate?”
    Her name, soft and questioning on his lips, sounded too right. She wanted to hear him say it again, murmured in the dark shadows of the night. Her heart ached and hot moisture formed in the corners of her eyes.
    “Kate?” he repeated. Concern etched his features.
    In the softening of his eyes, she saw the Matt she had once known. The Matt she had loved. But she couldn’t allow herself to fall for him again. Not knowing what he really was.
    Yet she stood there, helpless, as he tipped up her chin and gazed at her with questioning