Instinctive Male by Cait London Read Free Book Online Page B

they found us and we had to move again.”
    “You’re angry with me. Why?”
    Because he looked too rugged, as if he could withstand any fight, and because—“Do you think I actually like asking you for help? You’re determined to make me squirm, before you turn me down. Oh, I know the routine. Paul likes to play that game.”
    She was shaking with anger, the scenes with her father too familiar. He would ask all the questions, make her answer, and then, when he was tired, he refused her needs. The whole process had served to humiliate her, even as a child. Emotional baggage? Yes, but she couldn’t allow that treatment again.
    Ellie placed the coffee cup down on the tray with a click,careless of the spillage. “Look. It was a mistake to ask you for anything. Now leave. I’m getting dressed and we’re getting out of here.”
    Mikhail placed his coffee cup aside slowly, thoughtfully. “You haven’t answered all my questions.”
    “No, and I’m not going to. If you’re not leaving, then I am.” With that, she walked to where she had shed her clothing. She frowned as she picked it up, remembering that Mikhail had seen her undress. She’d been so vulnerable with one man, and she wasn’t—
    She had one hand on the doorknob when Mikhail picked her up. Surprised, she didn’t have time to fight before he tossed her on the bed. “Stay put.”
    No one, not even her father, had ever manhandled her. Ellie pushed upward, only to find Mikhail’s hand on her forehead, pushing her back down. Frustrated and worried and tired, she’d come too far—Ellie struck out blindly, but Mikhail was too quick for her.
    In a flurry of movement and cloth, he had cocooned her in the comforter, making movement impossible. She thrashed within the tight clasp of the cloth and finally, winded, spoke furiously, quietly. “If I could just get my hands on you…”
    “If looks could kill,” he murmured as she tossed her head and blew a strand of hair from her face.
    He sat beside her on the bed, controlling her too easily—physically controlling her where Paul had once used other methods with a young Ellie. “Let me go, Mikhail.”
    But those dark green eyes, as brooding as the ocean on a stormy day, were searching her face, touching her too intimately. His gaze darkened, locking on her lips, tracing them. She couldn’t breathe, feeling exposed with Mikhail too close and too powerful, and she resented the blush creeping up her cheeks. In her adult lifetime, she’d learned to protect herself, never letting anyone truly see into her. And now, she could feel Mikhail probing, taking her apart, appraising the pieces too thoroughly….
    “Stop watching me.”
    “Stop ordering me.”
    He was breathing too quietly, intent upon her as he looked slowly down, then up her body. There was just that tensing of his jaw, the slight flare of his nostrils and the sense that he was too intimately dangerous to her.
    “Is your ex-husband going to be a problem in this?” he asked quietly, searching her face, and again that tracing of her mouth, a sensual touch that shivered and warmed in the air between them.
    “Mark thinks Tanya should go back to Hillary. No, he won’t be a problem. He’s remarried and has a child. He has the wife he wants.” She didn’t know why she whispered, only that the spacious showroom now seemed as intimate as a bedroom.
    “Did that hurt you? That he would have a child with another woman?”
    She blinked, trying to making the connection. “No…. Why?”
    “If you loved him, it might hurt. Did you love him?”
    She didn’t want Mikhail prowling too close to her emotions. Love wasn’t discussed in her family. “That’s got nothing to do with it.”
    “I want to know how the players stand in this game. You practically raised Hillary, from what I understand. And now you have her child.”
    “ My child, Mikhail. Tanya is my child,” Ellie stated fiercely. “Are you going to call Paul?”
    She sensed he was satisfied,