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the aura of danger that suddenly emanated from him.
    “You don’t want to piss me off, little girl,” he warned her softly. “Especially not right now. That bullet you let your friends put in my leg hasn’t been forgotten. Neither is the fact that they would have preferred it being my heart. Now shut the hell up, get your ass in the shower and get dressed. This is a ranch. Everyone does his or her part here, and you’re here to pitch in. Whether you want to or not.”
    He moved then, one hand insinuating itself between the door and her body as he unwrapped her fingers from the knob and pushed her lightly toward the bathroom. She wasn’t about to do a damned thing that he ordered her to do.
    Melina turned, staring back at him furiously, shaking with the need to smack the knowing smirk off his face as she retreated.
    “You’re wrong,” she informed him angrily, though she could tell he had no intention of believing her. “Won’t you even check it out? I have a brother. Joe Angeles. At least contact him. He’ll tell you who I am.”
    She didn’t like the amusement that glinted in his eyes. “He wouldn’t tell me anything new, little girl.”
    “I’m not a little girl.” She felt like stamping her feet in fury. “And I’m not Maria. I have to go home. I have to take care of my cat. Who’s going to take care of my cat?” That sudden, horrifying thought slipped into her mind. She had forgotten all about Mason. Her baby. What would happen to him?
    He would be all alone. He would be frightened without her. Lonely. He had been the only creature in the world who had stayed by her side all these years, and now she wasn’t there to care for him?
    “Don’t worry about that mangy animal,” Luc suddenly snarled. “He’s in the barn with the other—”
    “In the barn?” She practically screamed out in surprise and fury. “You put my cat in the barn? My baby is in the barn?”
    She stared at him, unable to believe the words that came from him. Who would be cruel enough to put sweet little Mason in a barn? He couldn’t do this. Her fingers curled, flexed, as she ached to attack him.
    There went his arms over his chest again. “So?”
    “So. You can’t put Mason in the barn.” She propped her hands on her hips, fighting mad now. She would not allow him to abuse her cat. “You go get him now.”
    He frowned at the harsh demand in her voice.
    “If I were you, I would worry about my own problems, not that black mouse chaser,” he snorted.
    Outrage flew through her. She felt fury vibrating violently through her body.
    “Mason does not chase mice,” she informed him coldly. “And Mason does not sleep in barns. He sleeps in my room, on my bed, next to me. I want my cat. Now.”
    He tilted his head, watching her with a sudden, inquisitive expression.
    “How bad do you want that cat back, Catarina?” he asked her softly.
    She wanted to slap his smug face. At least he was calling her by part of her given name. Even if it was one she shared with Maria. He was going to blackmail her. She could see it in his eyes, in his expression. The son of a bitch was going to use her baby against her. She wanted to tell him to go straight to hell.
    Instead, she gritted her teeth, counted to ten and said, “What do you want?”
    Melina was aware there had to be something wrong with loving a black little ball of fluff that rarely gave her the time of day. Unless she cried. Then, he was all over her, comforting her, letting her hold him, even if it was with an air of supreme boredom. He had gotten her through the past two years when there had been no one else. She wasn’t about to leave him in a dirty, dusty barn.
    Luc stepped back to her, pulling her against his harder, taller body as she stared up at him in shock. She hated the awareness that flared in the pit of her stomach as his hard cock pressed into her. Hated the hunger she could feel welling within her.
    Her lips parted as he stared down at her, his gaze flickering