A Ruthless kind of love

ns swooped over the buzz of money voices, and air had that wraithlike sheen of hig

agne flute chilled against her skin. She did not mingle. She did not come in order to be groomed like some man's trophy. Sh

it-that pins-and-needles

pun half around. He was the oth

uxedo fitted to a body that pulsed with power. He didn't need to intrude; he didn't need to be. He was adamant in a voice that

hin her growled warning. She ripped her face away,

s ensnared

of her editor's friends. His mouth whiskey-tast

led, trying to

olding her closer. "Don

Her.

noise like a knife. Smoo

a fr

smell of his aftershave cutting and burning, reminiscent of the smell of heated

h under that intense scrutiny. Without a wo

. Her heart was pounding in her ears, her skin t

is voice softened now,

"I could have d

, a sneer of laughter at her expense. "Perhaps. But I

. Their haughtiness made her want to strike him-although the tone, the very

aged, her voice smal

n't back down. As if he could see through every obstac

r people's affairs?" she spat, t

equanimity about his words that sug

was used to commanding. His arrogance of the sort that shatte

shoul

feel the vibration of his breath along the whorl of

athed, "I don't alwa

sed and threatened, the

nly as he'd appeared. "Enjoy t

said her name. She

n it, he melted into the crowd, was go

her ribcage, but it was tangled with something s

He was danger. Men l

ed to remind herself that he was nothing more than another condescending man, one she would

apartment, by which time s

ar

in, the tableau br

blemished, on the table by the wi

shock. She hadn'

en fear and something infinitely worse: the

l, a shuddering thr