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I’ll be damned if I’ll pay for anymore of Maria’s sins.”
    He smirked at her. Melina bit her tongue as her eyes narrowed on his smug expression and her fists clenched at her side as she fought not to jump across the bed and claw his eyes out.
    “Sweetheart, I’m sure you wish you had a sister who could get you out of this,” he said complacently. “But since we both know you don’t, you can stop with the innocent act because I’m not buying it.”
    Melina drew in a deep breath. If she could get her hands on Maria she would strangle her now, she thought. As though the past twenty-two years and all the times she had willingly tried to save her sister wasn’t enough. Now, Mr. Hardass, who thought he could reform the wrong damned woman, had kidnapped her. It was too much. Even for her.
    “That’s fine,” she gritted out. “Because I’m not trying to sell a damned thing. I assumed you were a reasonably intelligent person…”
    “Just like you assumed you could let your buddies kill me and Jack when we helped you deliver that crate of drugs?” he asked snidely. “Or how you assumed your parents could ruin the names of two good men when charges were brought against you? How about the assumption that your parents’ money can get you out of anything? This is the end of the line, little girl. You might as well buckle down and save the lies for someone willing to believe them.”
    Melina could feel the fury brewing in her chest. Vivid and hot, it flared in front of her eyes like a matador’s cape.
    “Or save the truth for someone with enough brains to see what’s right in front of his face,” she snapped back heatedly. “Get real, Mr. Jardin. Do I look like a drug addict to you?” She waved her hands to her side, indicating her body.
    She expected him to look; she just didn’t like the flare of arousal that lit his gaze when he did so. Nor did she like the way her nipples beaded as his gaze paused on them, or the heat that flared in her pussy when his eyes then moved to her thighs.
    She could feel her skin sensitizing, her vagina dampening, and she didn’t like the sensations in the least. It was bad enough she had done nothing but fantasize about him for the past two years, she didn’t need to become aroused after he kidnapped her as well.
    “Look, I know you’re angry over what Maria did to you and your friend. But this is a mistake…”
    “The mistake is yours.” His sharp voice caused her to flinch in surprise. “Don’t think for a minute you can lie to me again. Now get your ass in the shower and get ready to face the day or you can get on your knees and see if you can’t convince me another way.”
    On her knees? Convince him? She blinked in outraged surprise at the suggestion. And she was ignoring the crazy flash of desire and hunger that seared her body at just the thought of accepting his cock into her mouth. The brief touch of it on her lips was enough of a temptation, thank you very much. She did not need to find herself lusting after this man anymore than she already did. As a matter of fact, she needed to be as far away from him as possible.
    “You’re crazy. I’m going home. Now.”
    She turned on her heel, heading quickly for the bedroom door. She’d had enough of this. Accepting Maria’s punishment because she decided it was okay was a far cry from accepting because this man decided she would. She didn’t think so. It didn’t matter how big or how good-looking he was. It didn’t matter that he deserved his pound of flesh. She wasn’t about to let him take it out of her hide.
    Her hand had just wrapped around the doorknob, her fingers tightening on it, when a broad palm smacked the wood above her head and a hard male body pressed her tightly against the wall.
    A hard, hot, muscular body. One that surrounded her, his heat pouring off his flesh in waves and wrapping around her. A male presence that smelled of long sultry nights and forbidden desires. Melina swallowed, feeling