Page 69 of The Fate of Black Hearts

With a start, she stepped back and blinked up at him. She drank in the sight of his wild blue eyes, olive-skinned features, and the hard, tall body hidden from view by a dark kimono. He only wore the cover when practicing an ancient martial art she couldn’t pronounce, doing the silent, fluid motions that kept his body honed for battle.

Thisis why she was here. To see him…feel him.

He pulled at strands of his thick, dark hair that the wind thrust into his face. “Do you plan to stand out here like a drunken siren or ring the bell?”

“I can’t get drunk.”

If she weren’t desperate to see him, she’d punch him for the judgmental thinning of his lips.

“I can smell the alcohol.” He crossed his arms.

She glared. “Five fucking weeks of no communication. No replies to my phone calls or texts. I thought you were dead.”

“I was ignoring you.”

“On purpose. What the hell?”

He blinked back, unintimidated. That alone turned her on. Everyone else in her sphere wouldn’tdare challenge her. “I have things in my life that don’t concern you.”

She craned back as if he slapped her. “There’s someone else?”

“I have complications in my life. That doesn’t mean I’m off fucking my way across the world.” His arms dropped. “You’re not going to say ‘I missed you’?Not even a ‘you’re so sexy I couldn’t stay away’?”

As if his ego needed stroking. “You’re the one who missed me, it seems.” She leaned forward to touch the pulsating vein in his throat beneath the tattooed sigils. She dragged a finger through several days of stubble growth to bracket his chin and force him to meet her gaze.

He sucked in a startled breath but didn’t back away.

His black hair had grown, as if he hadn’t taken time to get it trimmed, and it now curled above his shoulders like a pirate’s. Everything about him, unyielding and powerful, called to her need to demonstrate that while he may profess he was powerful enough to terrify most other creatures in the world, he would yield to her. She held that power over him.

His jaw clenched. As always, he maintained a tight leash on his emotions, which annoyed her.

Through clenched teeth, she said, “Your ‘my way or nothing’ doesn’t work for us. If you can’t learn to compromise, or at least communicate with me, you lose.”

“You being here in those red heels means you’re going to accept my way.”

She squinted a silentfuck youand turned around.She marched down the stone walkway toward the car. Her high heels clicked on the stones, and her skirt blew wildly in the wind.

As she reached for the doorhandle of the black sedan, he caught her arm. “Evie…” He pressed her body into the side of the car. Every touch of his hardness against her backside sent chills through her. She bit back a moan.

His voice lowered to a hoarse whisper. “I missed you too bloody much.” He buried his nose in the side of her neck. “Is that what you want to hear?”

“Didn’t seem to hurt enough for you to visit me, did it?”

He dropped to rest his head against hers. This was the closest to anI’m sorryas she’d get.

She turned and bunched her hands at her sides. “We’re too old for bullshit. The last thing I wanted was the complication of needingyou, but sometimes… Damn it, Dom, sometimes I need words. Fucking words. I refuse to be alone in feeling obsessed and in love with you.”

His jaw tightened.

“Evie…” He pulled her into him. His lips captured hers. It wasn’t a gentle or easy kiss. It was rough and demanding as he enfolded her tight to his body. “I’m going to make you beg for it.”

“Are you? It’ll be you doing the begging.”

“You’re a witchy wolf, you know.” He carried her into the house and slammed the door behind him.

“Don’t call me a wolf.”

“It’s sexy when you go feral.” He nuzzled her neck.