She wasn’t certain if she should be amused by his consternation at being left out or outraged that it was the only reason he wasn’t contacting her brother.

“Dawg’s going to kick your ass, Graham. If Natches doesn’t beat him to it.” Crossing her arms on top of the table, Lyrica watched him worriedly.

The grin that tilted his lips was a little too playful. He sat back in the chair and watched her closely. Lyrica was trying damned hard not to think about the invitation she could see in his gaze.

“Natches isn’t going to take a bead on me for not calling nor will he kick my ass. He’ll throw his fist. Once. Dawg will get his turn and it will be over.” He seemed far too calm about it.

Lyrica shook her head. “That might be true, but you’re not considering one thing.”

“Oh, yeah?” His grin was confident, self-assured.

“Rowdy.”

Graham’s eyes narrowed back at her as though considering her answer. “Rowdy’s pretty laid-back. He lets Dawg and Natches get the bruises.”

“It all depends on how far you push him,” she informed him. “And I’m pretty certain that neglecting to let his wife know one of Dawg’s sisters, who she claims as her niece, is safe, would push him to that limit. Rowdy can be dangerous.”

“Rowdy also has the amazing ability to understand simple logic. Something Dawg and Natches aren’t so good at,” he snorted.

She couldn’t argue that one.

“But we’re not discussing Dawg and Natches.”

“Lyrica.” He leaned forward slowly, his amber eyes suspicious now. “Don’t you trust me to protect you?”

It had nothing to do with trust, Lyrica knew. It was desperation. If he was determined to do this, then he might need help.

“Backup never hurt anyone when guns are involved, Graham. You should know that,” she pointed out archly. “My family makes good backup.”

“Your family’s full of control freaks,” he snorted with a laugh. “Baby, you and I both know there would be no backup. They’d rush you out of here so damned fast it would make both our heads spin. And I think that’s what you’re counting on. Now, I’ll ask you again.” His voice lowered, his expression becoming more serious. “Don’t you trust me to protect you?”

She did.

Lyrica knew Graham would be a hell of a force to be reckoned with, just as she knew that if she stayed with him, she would end up being owned by him.

“I trust you to protect me, Graham.” She finally nodded as she clasped her hands on the table and stared down at her nails for a long minute. “I don’t doubt for a second that we’ll both survive and when the smoke clears, just like Dawg and the others, you’ll be victorious.” Mockery edged her voice as she lifted her gaze then. “But why do I have a feeling that if it wasn’t for the fact that they are my family, you would have called them the second you had a chance?”

“Of course I would have,” he answered, his gaze gleaming with unabashed laughter. “There’s no one I’d rather have at my back. But they’re not the only game in town and they aren’t even in town at the moment. Remember? I have other friends. And I have other friends just as well trained and just as adaptable as the Mackays are.”

She looked around the kitchen slowly before arching a brow and meeting his gaze once again. “Are you hiding them in the closets?”

“That’s as good a place as any,” he informed her with a little wink before leaning forward and pulling up the recorder program on his phone. “I’ll see if they want to come out and play after we go over everything that’s happened.”

She knew he was going to ask about that. From the second she’d seen him standing in the doorway to Kye’s room, she’d known he was going to make her go over everything.

“I’d rather just forget it.” She’d lived through it, wasn’t that enough?

“Are you always this difficult, sweetheart?” The expression on his face became more wicked, hungry, as his voice lowered, his gaze darkening. “I have a cure for all that energy.”

“Stop.” She couldn’t handle it. She didn’t want to handle it.

Leaning her weight on her arms, she let her gaze meet his fully. “I’m not one of your damned flavors of the month, Graham. I refuse to be. And I sure as hell refuse to lose Kye’s friendship so I can share your bed for a few weeks. And I really don’t appreciate your insistence on making sure your sister and I are never friends again.”

His gaze narrowed once again. “Kye has nothing to do with this, Lyrica. And trust me, you two are far too close for her to drop you as she has others.”

“But you’re just fine with taking that risk, aren’t you?” Lyrica pushed back from the table and flashed him a disgusted look.

“Do you think I’m going to force you into having sex with me?” he asked her carefully.

“You don’t have to force me and we both know it.” Keeping her back to him, Lyrica walked to the entrance of the sunroom, taking in the closed shades and the cool, dim shadows that washed over the heavily padded furniture.

“Just as we both know Kyleene won’t drop your friendship and Natches won’t really put a bullet in me for it.” He was closer.

That quietly, that smoothly, he’d left the table and she hadn’t even known it. She hadn’t heard so much as a creak of the chair or his shoes on the wood.

Turning quickly, she found herself staring at the white material covering his broad chest as his hands lifted to cup her upper arms.

“All you have to do is say no,” he whispered, his head lowering until his lips were at her ear, brushing against the far too sensitive lobe erotically.

She was losing her breath.

Lips parting, Lyrica fought to take in oxygen as her hands pressed against the tight plane of his abdomen. She tried to swallow against the tightness in her throat.

Suddenly her whole body was too sensitive. Her breasts swollen, nipples aching. The skin over her stomach remembered the brush of his fingers, the dampness between her thighs reminding her far too much of his lips and tongue tasting her there, throwing her into such a rush of pleasure that the need for it was almost addictive now.

“Do you want to say no, Lyrica?” Those diabolical, far too experienced lips moved to her neck as her head tilted helplessly for him.

Fiery, electric fingers of pleasure tore across the nerve endings just beneath his lips to the swollen, aching bud of her clit as it pulsed between her legs.

She couldn’t say no. Did she want to? It was for the best and she knew it. Saying no was the smartest thing she could possibly do at this point.

But she couldn’t.

When his lips moved to hers, she was waiting for them. Hers parted, a moan slipping past her throat as his lips covered hers in a kiss that rocked her to her soul.

One hand gripped the back of her head; the other lifted her closer to him, wrapped around her lower back as he bent to her, then lifted her as her knees gripped his hips instinctively.

There.

A trembling cry escaped the kiss as her fingers speared into his hair to hold him to her, to immerse herself in the pleasure rushing through her senses like a tidal wave. How had she ever kept herself from begging for this? How would she keep herself from begging for it when her time was up? When the few fragile weeks he allowed his lovers came to an end?

Tightening her thighs around his hips, Graham cupped the curves of her ass and clenched erotically, sending another swift strike of sensation to her clit. The heavy length of his erection rubbed her jeans against the sensitive folds of her sex and sent damp warmth spilling out sensually. His lips plundered hers, his tongue stroked, rubbed, and tasted hers, and each caress, each flash of heat, made her weaker, pushed her deeper into the pleasure overtaking her.

She knew now what was awaiting her. She knew the lashing flames and spearing bolts of ecstasy that would consume her, and she ached for it. She hungered for it.