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“Tell me.” He snarled.
Her gaze became cutting, furious. “Because he knows me, Saban. I threw him out of our house; I divorced him despite his pleas. Once he knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that he didn’t have a chance, he would have left. He would have hated me, and that was fine, but he would have left.”
“And what could you have said to convince him of it when fear of me didn’t?” He growled. “For God’s sake, Natalie, there’s nothing you could have said.”
“I could have told him I love you!” she cried, shocking him to silence. “I could have told him that if he didn’t leave, then I’d not stand between him and your fists ever again. Damn you. I could have made him see reason.”
“Why would you want to?” He shook his head. She had said she loved him, and she meant it. He could see it in her eyes, in her face, he could smell the sweet, burning scent of it now. She loved him.
“Because I can’t stand to see animals or fools bloody and dying. Geez, Saban, letting you loose on him would be like letting an alligator free in a chicken house. Complete annihilation.”
“You were protecting him,” he growled.
She rolled her eyes! Right there, staring right at him, she rolled her eyes at him as though he were an idiot. It shouldn’t have pleased him, but it filled him with pride.
“No, asshole, I was protecting you from defending yourself against a murder charge,” she snapped back. “If you haven’t noticed, you’re not exactly rational where he’s concerned.”
“Because he’s consorting with Council scientists,” he yelled impatiently, glowering down at her. “For God’s sake, Natalie—”
“Well, I didn’t know he was that stupid,” she muttered. “Intense, yes; paranoid, sure; that’s Mike Claxton, but he didn’t used to be incredibly stupid.”
He shook his head, amazement filling him. “You’re serious.” He couldn’t believe it. “You expected me to be rational when he was clearly violent toward you—”
“He’s never hit me.”
“No, he would just turn you over to monsters.” His voice was rising. “Trust me, you’d have preferred that he try to hit you.”
“That’s not the point.”
“Not the point?” He was going to pull his own hair out.
“The point is,” her voice softened, “I love you, Saban. I’d have done just about anything, said anything to get him out of our lives. I thought Mike was smarter than he was. I was wrong. I was wrong, and it will never happen again.” Her voice hitched as her eyes filled with tears again. “But it won’t change the fact that you left me, that you couldn’t even look at me or find out for yourself why I felt I had to do it. Nothing will change that.”
“That, mate, is where you are wrong.”
FIFTEEN
Natalie would always remember the sight of Saban jumping into the van with that nasty little scientist, refusing to look at her, refusing to give her a chance to explain. It didn’t matter that she had realized she had made a mistake even before Mike had attempted to kidnap her. What mattered was his refusal to even ask her why. She would have asked him why. She would have demanded to know why.
Shaking her head, she struggled against him, jerking at her wrists as he held her easily, staring down at her with those brilliant eyes, spiking her heartbeat with the look in them.
Possessive, dominant, everything she thought she would abhor and was now finding herself drawn to.
She stilled beneath him, watching him from under her lashes, growing angrier by the moment. Fine, he was the big, bad, strong Breed, but she hadn’t been raised with her brother for nothing.
The minute she stopped struggling, his hold loosened on her wrists, just the slightest bit, but enough for her to jerk her upper torso up and to bring her lips to his. Where she bit him. A sharp little nip to that delicious lower lip before she was back, writhing, twisting beneath him.
“You little hellion.” His voice was filled with wonder as a small bead of blood formed on his lip. “That was no love nip.”
“How would you know?” she panted. “Maybe you’re not the only one who likes to bite.”
She managed to free one wrist, and before he could grab it again, she reached out, locked her fingers into the muscle of his chest, right around his nipple, and twisted.
He jerked back with a muttered curse, releasing her wrists, giving her the room she needed to twist away from him.
“I don’t need a man who doesn’t trust my love,” she yelled furiously as she freed herself.
“You need a man to paddle your delectable little behind for being so damned stubborn,” he snarled, rubbing at his chest as he stared back at her almost wonderingly.
