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“I’ve worked hard, Cabal, as have other journalists that I work with, to make certain the Breeds are portrayed in the best possible light, while still staying within the bounds of truth. You aren’t helping me at all here.”
“Truth?” He came around the counter, his body tense, wired for action as his expression tightened in outrage. “What truth, Cassa? If you found a Breed bending over a bloody body, what would you do then?”
“The same thing I’m doing now!” she yelled, her hands going to her hips as she faced him defiantly and loved every second of it. “Investigating, Cabal. I have the pictures of an obvious Breed attack and death. Do you see any damned thing in print, or do you see me trying to figure out who the hell is trying to frame the Breeds and why?”
“I see you trying to get your ass killed. That’s what I see.”
She almost laughed at his expression. It was completely male, infuriated and filled with frustration. And she wasn’t frightened. She was facing him defiantly without fear.
He wouldn’t hurt her. He hadn’t allowed her to be hurt that night in the forest, and he wouldn’t do it now. He had frightened her, brought back memories of a past she wanted to forget and pissed her the hell off, but he hadn’t hurt her.
“Well, I guess you’ll just have to let me continue on my merry little way and hope I get lucky,” she snapped. “Because there’s not a chance in hell, Cabal, that you’re going to stop me.”
Cabal could feel the heat and hunger rising to a boiling point inside his mind. She knew better than this. He knew she knew better than this. She had been around Breeds long enough, especially mated couples, to know what such vocal and physical defiance did to a mate.
“We are not normal combatants, Cassa,” he warned her, his voice dropping as the growl in his throat echoed inside it. “You know what you’re doing.”
Her brow arched mockingly. “Do I really?” She turned away from him and paced a few feet before turning back. “What am I doing, Cabal? Refusing to give you your way? Poor little Bengal Breed. He’s been so spoiled by his little toys that he thinks all women are going to kneel down and worship those pretty little stripes he has on his ass. Sorry, babe, not me. Your arrogance is pandered to enough the way it is.”
The thought of those women, a damned parade of them who had visited his and his brother’s bed, was enough to set her teeth on edge. There were times she was certain that pissed her off more than the way he’d manhandled her and fought to keep her from getting to the truth in Glen Ferris. If there was a Breed groupie he and Tanner had missed over the years, then it wasn’t because he hadn’t tried to screw them all.
“Leave the stripes out of this.” He paced closer, his growl warning.
She should have known better than to mention the stripes; Cabal was also rumored to dare his love
rs to mention them. It was said he hated the Bengal stripes, the oddly colored fine hairs that ran from a point along each buttock around his leg to end in a point on the inside of each thigh.
The unusual markings were highly erotic. She wanted to kiss every damned one of those hairs but hadn’t yet found the courage to try.
She widened her eyes in false innocence. “You mean all those snickering little debutantes you’ve fucked over the years didn’t dare mention them to you all? Why, Cabal, they were quite remiss. They’re sexy. They make me wet.” She was nose to nose with him. “They make me just want to pet you all over.”
His eyes narrowed on her. “You’re daring me,” he stated, his voice so dark and warning that it sent chills racing down her spine. “Why, Cassa? Why push me like this when you know where it will lead? Do you think I want to take you without thought? Without consideration? Why push me like this?”
If the glitter in his eyes was anything to go by, then he was more than ready to find out if he could make time.
“I never was one to enjoy playing second best.” She crossed her arms over her swollen, sensitive breasts and tightened her jaw as anger surged through her. “How many women have you had since you first suspected I was your mate, Cabal? One dozen? Two?”
“At least make the number believable,” he snarled back at her.
Cassa’s lips tightened in anger. She had watched him fuck his way through countless women over the years. He and his brother had once shared those women, had played sex games that would make most grown men blush.
“The number is very believable to me,” she stated coolly. “Really, Cabal, your lack of fidelity amazes me. I thought Breed males were supposed to be faithful from the moment they first realize who their mates are. What? Are you an exception to the rule? Need a harem rather than a mate, do you?”
She needed her head examined. She was pushing him, daring him to take her, and she knew it. Somewhere between last night and this morning she had misplaced her sanity.
“And here I thought you were here for a story.” The rumble of his voice made her clit throb. “I didn’t know you had come to claim your mate, Cassa. You should have said something beforehand. I would have made certain to take time to accommodate you.”
Angry heat flooded her face at his tone.
“You insulting bastard,” she snapped. “Go to hell. And while you’re at it, tell Jonas Wyatt to kiss my ass. I’ll just report on what I have so far. I bet it gets me a Pulitzer for revealing the real face of the Breeds.”
Not that she would ever do it. She couldn’t do that to the people she knew as friends, even for a story. But damn him, he deserved to sweat over it, and so did Jonas.
She turned to stomp out of the kitchen, to get as far away from him as fast as she could. She’d walk that lonely mountain road in the dead of night to get away from him. Snarky, snarling prick. She needed to be tied to a Breed like she needed a hole in her head. Especially this Breed.
She’d had no idea how much it had infuriated her that he had been denying the natural impulse to take her, to claim her. She knew she had denied it. She knew why she denied it. He didn’t have an excuse, nor did he have a reason for it that he could justify to her.
He was a tomcat. Plain and simple. He wasn’t taking her because he didn’t want to be tied down. He couldn’t play all his cutesy little sex games with her or make nice with every woman willing to lift her skirt for him.
