“Are you trying to blackmail me?” FBI agent David Marshall asked, stripping off his shirt and tossing it onto the bed.
“No more than you’re trying to intimidate me,” Maddie Cooper replied.
“Am I?”
“Aren’t you?”
“Question is, do you like it,” he asked.
The air in the room seemed miserable hot even though he’d twisted up the controls on the air conditioner when he’d walked in. Or maybe it was the heat of his blood rushing through his veins.
“Nobody likes being intimidated.”
“Don’t be so sure of that. Ever heard of a submissive?”
“I’m not a submissive,” she denied. “Far from it.”
“You sure? You entered a man’s room while he was getting undressed.”
“That doesn’t make me submissive. If anything, I’d say I was the dominant.”
“You dominating me?” The notion was so foreign, so utterly ridiculous that David burst out laughing.
His derision incensed her. She stabbed an index finger in his direction. “Maybe you’re the one who’s longing to be submissive.”
“Oh yeah?” Swiftly he covered the remaining distance between them.
She backpedaled until she ran smack dab into the wall. David grabbed both her wrists, pinned her hands above her head and swiftly shoved one knee between her legs, completely hemming her in with no way out.
“This look like a submissive to you, darlin’?” he growled.
They were both breathing hard, their lips almost touching.
“For your information I’m a third degree black belt in karate,” she said.
“Bring it on. I’m fifth degree.”
“You don’t threaten me.” She gulped, belying her own bravado.
He saw the column of her throat muscles pump hard and he knew he’d succeeded in intimidating her, but still she held her ground. She might be scared, but she was too damned proud to run away.
Dammit. Why did her bravery in the face of her fear turn him on so frickin’ much? He was one sick puppy.
His gaze locked onto hers.
Maddie raised her chin.
She was so close her body heat set him on fire.
They stood there a long moment, neither of them blinking, neither wanting to be the first to back down. He forced himself not to think about how nice she smelled or how her chest rose and fell in cadence with his own raspy breathing or how much he wanted to kiss her at that very moment.
If he kept thinking like this, he’d be rock hard in a matter of seconds.
He was halfway there already.
