The Marriage Trap by Jennifer Probst

I don’t think the word ‘obey’ was in our vows, Michael. Anyway, I told you I was kidding about the blind date thing. At least you don’t have to worry about that.”
    “This is not funny.”
    She snorted. “Listen, I had no choice. She was hysterical, and I needed to calm her down. If you hadn’t treated her like a five-year-old, maybe I wouldn’t have had to do it.”
    “Carina is an innocent and I intend to keep her that way.”
    She snorted again and his temper reared. “Wake up and smell the coffee, Count. She’s on the edge of exploring her sexuality. She’s gonna do it anyway, and we might as well be her guides.”
    “Not under my roof. I have a duty to protect her and I will. She needs to finish college and start her career. Boys are not in the picture.”
    “She’s hot for Max.”
    “ What ? ” His roar boomed off the walls. “Did he do something to lead her on? I’ll kill him.”
    “Geez, calm down. He didn’t do anything. He sees her as a child, too. I’m just trying to tell you to cut her some slack. It’s not easy crushing on your brother’s best friend.”
    He jumped up from his relaxed position on the bed and paced the room. In minutes, she’d elicited arousal, anger, and frustration. At this rate, he’d be dead by the end of the week. “Max is family and Carina would never view him like that.” A horrible thought occurred to him. “Why? Are you attracted to him? Did you put these ideas in her head?”
    That made her whirl around. He almost stepped back from the blast of ice vibrating from her body. Green eyes narrowed dangerously. “Contrary to your opinion of me, Count, I don’t come on to every man I see. And Carina is capable of making up her own mind. You just have to get your head out of your ass and actually listen to her.”
    She turned her attention back to packing.
    He closed the distance, grabbed her upper arm, and spun her to face him. “You are on dangerous ground, la mia tigrotta, ” he growled. “I will not have any interference from you this week with my family. You are not taking Carina to this shoot, and I will handle this problem with her myself. Capisce ?”
    Another woman would cower. This one stood on tiptoes and got right back in his face. The sensual scent of amber and sandalwood swarmed him and wrecked his concentration. “I have no interest in messing with your family. Go ahead and play dictator if it makes you happy. I’m trying to tell you your sister needs a listening ear, not a lecture.”
    “And you are the convenient listening ear?”
    She gave a cheeky grin. “Guess so. Lucky I’m here, huh?”
    Her dismissal of his authority burned and tilted his temper toward something else. Something more dangerous.
    The slippery fabric of her pajamas slid through his fingers and he imagined an endless expanse of smooth golden skin beneath. He craved to hold her head and plunder her lips and see how sweetly he could turn anger to surrender. He grew hard at the thought, challenged on every level to claim and possess and conquer. When had a woman wreaked such havoc? Dimly, he wondered: If he allowed himself to take her to bed, would the need disappear by morning? It always did. Maybe he needed to satisfy his craving in order to rid himself of the itch to push between those thighs and make her forget anything and everyone but him.
    “You put bad ideas in a young girl’s head. I take care of my own,” he warned. “One lousy day and you’ve already made a mess of things. You don’t know what my sister needs. You don’t know what anyone needs. Hell, you don’t even know what you need.”
    He regretted the words the moment they left his lips. She stiffened in his arms, and raw pain flashed within those eyes. The memory of something in her past reared its ugly head, and he watched as she battled the monster and slammed it back into the closet.
    An aching need to hold her and make it all better squeezed through him. What was this crazy combination of