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thought I’d found my mate. It proved untrue. As did she.” His lips quirked, but his eyes were serious. Sad.
    How could anyone be untrue to him? Mentally, she snorted. You ask that, when you would murder him if need be?
    “Perhaps she was…unexcited at the prospect of sharing you.”
    He raised an eyebrow. “Sharing me?”
    “You keep a lot of women.”
    “I would have bedded only her.” He placed the strand of hair back where he’d found it, then smoothed it with a soft touch.
    She nearly came off the bed. “Oh…”
    He smiled, pretending to think her exclamation was because of his words, not his touch. “Oh yes. I would never ask of my lady what she could not expect of me.”
    Air hissed between her teeth at his continued stroking. He scraped his fingers over her nipple. She bit her lip, her back arching. God, what he did to her.
    “You don’t believe me, Sarah?”
    “I…”
    “Yes?”
    “Does it matter what I believe?”
    He didn’t answer. He gathered her thick hair in one hand and pushed it from her breast, exposing the tortured flesh to his gaze.
    Her breathing sounded like a bellows, adding to the thundering sound of her heartbeat.
    Just as slowly, he pushed back the hair hiding her other breast, then grasped the top of the sheet at her waist. Carefully, he began to pull the sheet away.
    She closed her eyes.
    “Sarah.”
    Her eyes popped open at his soft command, and she stared, panicked at her loss of control.
    From the open window, fresh, damp night air caressed her legs as he took the sheet from her body. Every sound was magnified, every touch a screaming intensity of sensation.
    The sheet billowed in midair as he tossed it, catching wind beneath it and falling in slow motion to the floor.
    Her bare body quivered beneath his stare. His eyes were like a million tiny, hot fingers that stroked her wherever his gaze landed.
    She closed her eyes.
    His sigh was a whisper of disappointment, and the mattress shifted as he stood. “Do you hide from pleasure or from me? You are so afraid of losing control. Poor Sarah.”
    She bit her lip as he ran the back of his hand over her cheek. “No.” But she wasn’t even sure what she meant.
    “Have you ever lost control, Sarah? Part of you is always shut down. I can feel it. Have you ever let yourself get messy, dirty, free ?” He withdrew his hand.
    Her eyes flew open. He was leaving her, like this? Could he be so cruel?
    But he leaned over and scooped her from the bed and walked toward the door.
    She wound her arms around his neck, frowning in confusion. “What…?”
    He didn’t look at her or speak as he strode down the stairs and through a darkened, silent house.
    She buried her face against his chest, enjoying the feel of her naked body warmed by his clothed one.
    Someone must have opened the doors for him; one minute they were inside the house and the next, cooling, wet night air caressed her overheated skin. She tightened her arms around his neck. He was going to make love to her outdoors? In the rain? The thought wasn’t unpleasant.
    She turned her head to look. They weren’t at the front of the house, but behind it. The dim perimeter lights cut milky beams through the dark, and great trees guarded the backyard like a huge canopy in the sky, shielding them from much of the rain. Still, the ground was wet, and though some of it was covered with thick, short grass, she heard splashes as he stomped through puddles.
    It was in one of these puddles that he placed her, and she came to life with a scream of rage and surprise. Sputtering and splashing, she lashed out at him, struggling to her knees.
    His laughter joined her curses as the mud and water painted her body and rain fell upon her head. He’d walked them past the protective trees into an open, muddy patch of ground.
    Tears gathered in her eyes as she slid through mud, humiliated that she’d softened toward such a monster.
    He wound her hair around his thick wrist, halting her progress, and