The Dare Collection September 2019. Stefanie London

her warm palm pressing against my chest.

      It was disturbing how easily she could read me, though I should have expected that by now.

      ‘You shouldn’t be letting me touch you,’ I said gruffly, not in a position to be able to deny her anything, not when she was naked and locked in my arms, with tears on her cheeks. ‘You need someone patient and gentle. Someone kind. Christ, someone less angry at least.’

      Her brow wrinkled. ‘I don’t want someone patient and kind. Sure, you have a few issues with your anger and you’ve snapped at me a few times, but you’ve never been violent. You’ve never made me feel afraid. Mark was supposed to be a nice guy and look what he did.’ She began to trace circles on my skin with her cool fingers. ‘You’re take-charge, Ash. A bit arrogant, but I kind of like that. I like that you’re passionate, too, and how you don’t care who knows it. How you don’t care what anyone thinks of you. I really admire that about you.’

      I ached, a longing I didn’t know it was possible to feel tugging at my heart. She admired me... God help her.

      ‘Ellie,’ I began roughly.

      ‘Patient and kind, I’d eat for breakfast,’ she went on, totally ignoring me. ‘I like arrogant and bossy and grumpy. And I really like sexy and hot and tattooed.’ She shot a coy glance from beneath her lashes. ‘But you know what I’d like most of all? If you told me what pissed you off so much before.’

       CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

       Ellie

      I COULD FEEL the tension gathering in Ash’s hard, muscled body. His scarred face was full of his usual ferocity, but there was something else burning in his eyes, something other than anger for a change.

      If I hadn’t known any better I would have said it was longing, though why he’d be looking at me that way I had no idea.

      Though it all vanished the instant I asked the question.

      I shouldn’t have asked it, not when the post-sex warmth between us had been so wonderful, but I couldn’t let it go.

      I had felt the force of his anger when he’d pinned me to the floor and taken me hard. My poor bear with his sore paw...

      He didn’t want to tell me and he’d been trying to distract me ever since, but something had hurt him, and I had a feeling it wasn’t simply the fight he’d been denied. It was something more and I wanted to know what it was.

      I was betting it had something to do with the strange thing he’d said to me, about how I needed someone patient and kind, which was such obvious bullshit, I didn’t even know what to say.

      ‘Come on,’ I said crisply, digging my nails into the hard muscle of his chest and meeting his glowering look without flinching. ‘Tell me.’

      ‘I don’t know,’ he said after a moment and with great reluctance. ‘I was expecting a fight. I wanted it. And then Seb just took it away.’

      ‘I think it’s more than that, though,’ I said, stroking him carefully.

      For the first time, his gaze avoided mine, the tension in his body palpable now. ‘I’ve done nothing but burn bridges with him ever since I lost that money. And yet, he just gave up those islands. After twelve years of me making his life difficult. It doesn’t make any sense.’

      ‘Why is that such a bad thing?’ I asked carefully. ‘So you didn’t get your big fight. So what?’

      His gaze came back to mine, fierce and hot. ‘Don’t you see? Mum didn’t want to give the money to me, but I convinced her. I told her it would make our lives easier. And it didn’t. I broke her trust, Ellie.’ A muscle flickered in his jaw. ‘Like Dad did.’

      I saw it then, why he was so angry and so bloody driven. I reached up and touched his face gently. ‘You’re not like him, Ash.’ Because that was what he was afraid of, wasn’t it?

      ‘You don’t know him so you can’t tell me that.’

      ‘That’s true. But honestly? Your father sounds awful. He got a woman pregnant and then threw her out, not caring one bit what happened to her. And then turning away his own son? By telling you that you weren’t his problem?’ I stared right into his eyes. ‘You’re protective and possessive, Ash Evans. Are you seriously telling me that’s what you’d do to anyone you care about?’

      That muscle jumped in his jaw again, the fierce blue glow in his eyes getting fiercer. ‘I did to Mum. And I did to Seb. He kept trying to pay that money back to me and I refused to take it. Hell, I refused to see him at all. And as for Mum...’ He paused. ‘We never spoke of it again.’

      It didn’t surprise me in the slightest. And I thought I knew why.

      ‘You pushed them away, didn’t you?’ I brushed my fingertips over his cheekbone. ‘So they wouldn’t reject you like your dad did.’

      He shifted beneath me, clearly uncomfortable. ‘I appreciate the psychology, Miss Little. But I assure you, it’s not necessary.’

      So, he was back to being a grumpy bear again, was he?

      I stilled my fingers on his face, pressing lightly. ‘The islands sound to me like an olive branch, Ash. And as for your mother, you should talk to her.’ I held his gaze. ‘It’s not too late. None of it is. If I still had my mother, that’s what I’d be doing.’

      He blinked then turned his head so his mouth brushed over my fingertips instead. ‘That’s a low blow, pretty thing.’

      It was, but too bad.

      ‘If you can’t handle it, don’t deal.’ I traced the line of his lower lip, revelling in the softness of it, then grazed over the stark line of his scar.

      He stilled as I did so, watching me. ‘I was hard on you,’ he murmured after a moment. ‘Are you sure you’re okay?’ He lifted a hand and cupped my cheek gently, his big palm warm against my skin. ‘I shouldn’t have been so rough.’

      I couldn’t help myself, leaning into that hand, loving the warmth of it. ‘No, I’m glad you were. I’m not made of glass, Ash.’ I gave him a level look. ‘I don’t want to be treated like a victim just because some dumb bastard thought he could put his hands on me. I mean, I might be a woman who cries after sex, but I’m tough.’

      His thumb stroked the side of my cheek, his gaze unreadable. ‘Why do you trust me? I don’t understand it. Not when I haven’t done one fucking thing to deserve it.’

      The question took me by surprise and for a second I didn’t quite know how to answer. ‘I trust you because...well, I just do. Maybe it’s an instinctive thing.’ I flushed, remembering. ‘That first night in the limo, well, I kind of thought you were like a car and as long as I was driving nothing bad would happen. And then I wasn’t driving any more and you were in charge and I just felt...’ I struggled to find the right word. ‘I suppose I felt free. There’s something quite liberating about giving yourself up to the speed, you know?’

      An intense expression flickered across his face. ‘Ellie, you should know right now that I would never do anything to make you regret that trust, understand me? Not a single thing.’ He was absolutely serious, I could see it in his eyes. He meant this.

      I put my hand over his where it rested against my cheek and gave him back a smile. ‘I know you won’t.’

      He didn’t smile back. If anything, the look in his eyes intensified. ‘I don’t know what you want after tonight is over, but I think we should stay on in Dubai for a couple of days.’

      Something bloomed inside me like a flower. ‘You mean, you want me to stay with you? And not to drive you around, I take it?’

      His hard mouth relaxed, curving into one