Run Among Thorns by Anna Louise Lucia

his face betrayed his anger. He came close, and she tensed herself, anticipating she knew not what, but he just brushed by her, like a shark toying with its prey. She snapped.
    “Say something!” she screamed, and then snapped her mouth shut on the tail of the sound.
    He turned back to face her. Watched her for a long while, saying nothing.
    She wanted to run to the bed and hide under the covers. But because she wanted that, she held herself rigid, struggling with the shakes, and lifted her chin stubbornly, matching him stare for stare.
    “You want me to say something? Fine.” His voice was quiet, measured, faintly derisive.
    “One: don’t run away from me. Ever. Two: I will always find you. I will always bring you back. Three: piss me off again, and I’ll do more than just bring you back, I’ll bring you back in pieces. Four: it is really, really stupid to underestimate me, sweetness. Five: …” He stalked over to her and caught hold of her chin, lifting it to keep her gaze trapped with his.
    “Five.” His voice gentled, faded to a thread of a whisper, and Jenny fought the urge to close her eyes and savour the sound of a voice that could almost, almost , be taken for concerned.
    “Five,” he whispered, “if I want to kiss you, I will, and damn the consequences.”
    He kissed her.
    Back to square one , she thought, inanely. And then she couldn’t think at all.
    Kier’s mouth on her, his tongue tasting, possessing. Kier’s hands on her, his fingers holding, stroking. The smell of him. Everything about him. The whole combining into one overwhelmingly, fabulously, frighteningly male package battering away at all the little no’s in her battered mind.
    No, no, no . The little beat of words echoed round her head. Round and round like a prayer, like a mantra to ward off evil, building walls around her threatened resolve.
    He dropped one hand down her back, cupped it like a second skin over her backside, lifting her, pressing her to him. The feel of his erection pressing hard against her belly made her shudder, made her conscience, her judgement run away, scurrying for cover. They didn’t want to deal with the sensations Kier was provoking in her, with the knowledge that he wanted her, her , for whatever nefarious reason of his own. And she didn’t blame them for running, because her heart didn’t want to have to deal with that, either.
    Not when it was obvious, even to her, that she wanted him right back. Which was crazy, which was wrong, which just couldn’t be.
    But what couldn’t be, was.
    Somehow the mantra had changed, slewed round, morphed into something else entirely, compromising her defences. Laying her wide open to assault.
    “Yes,” she breathed against his mouth, and felt him stiffen. Then he came forward in a rush, pressing her up against the wall, crushing her against the hard heat of his body.
    Something poured through her, sweet and liberating, and she smiled against his mouth, lifting her hands to press against that shockingly gorgeous chest. The thunder of his heart made her palms tingle, and suddenly she wanted to touch him, skin on skin.

    Kier felt her hands skitter on his chest, fumbling for a button, even while her mouth meshed hungrily with his. He murmured approval, still half-incoherent with having her light up like a flash fire here and now. Here, with him.
    The feel of her in his arms was like rain in the desert—life giving, a miracle—and he slid his lips across her cheek to nip on her earlobe, delighting at the little squeal she gave.
    He wondered what sounds she would make as she came. He thanked God he was going to have the opportunity to find out, thanked him for the sequence of events that had put her here, under his care … in his custody.
    Kier froze.
    I can’t do it . The words in his head were almost a shout. He couldn’t do it; he couldn’t take her like this. Not when he was the bastard who was supposed to crack her open like a coconut, so others could drink