“You really have lost your mind,” she said, amazed at his daring. She had pretty much caught on to the fact that Vince wasn’t too bright, but this was ridiculous. “Vince, Sax will kill you if he catches you here. Don’t you realize that?”

His brown hair was still kept shaggy short, but stood on end, unkempt and dirty. His brown eyes narrowed in hatred, his fists clenched. The faded denim shirt he wore was streaked with dirt, his jeans ripped at the knees.

“The son of a bitch,” Vince snarled. “He’s too busy playing his computer geek games upstairs. And you’re not going to scream, are you, Marey?” he sneered. “Little Miss Too Much Pride. I heard you screaming for him, though, didn’t I, you little whore? Him and that bastard he put up your ass!”

She flinched at the fury rising in his voice.

Drawing in a deep breath, she tensed. Sax would be down soon, he rarely left her long while he worked upstairs, checking on her often. Being naked and at the mercy of a man she knew wouldn’t hesitate to kill her with his bare hands was a frightening prospect.

“How did you evade the sheriff?” she asked him, hoping to buy some time, to distract him just long enough for Sax to make his way downstairs.

His thin lips twisted in disgust as a dark, brick flush rose under his skin, barely noticeable in the dim light of the deck. It wasn’t a good sign.

“I can’t believe you actually had the nerve to file charges.” The low, evil chuckle that came from his lips had her shuddering in terror. “That was very bad of you, Marey, you should have taken your punishment and kept your stupid mouth shut.”

“You nearly killed me, Vince,” she snapped, refusing to let him see her fear. “And you tried to frame Sax for it.”

“He shouldn’t have been sniffing around you,” he snarled. “What makes him think he can take what belongs to another man? He’s a trespasser and you’re a whore, always watching him, eating him with your eyes. Did you think that just because you forced that divorce that it changed anything, Marey? The vows were until death do us part.” His lips curled in a feral sneer. “And only death will part us!”

She was rising from the hot tub, a scream on her lips as he tensed to jump for her, knowing her time had run out. As she turned, Daniel rushed from the house, his hard hands gripping her as he pushed her against the side of the house. Sax rushed past them, leapt the distance of the tub, tackling Vince as he moved to run.

Eyes wide, she watched as Daniel quickly followed. His voice rose as he informed Sax of all the legal ramifications of murder. Not that Sax seemed inclined to listen as his hands tightened around Vince’s throat, a snarl of fury twisting his lips.

It was over quickly, too quickly for her to process the fact that Vince was unconscious on the deck, and she was still standing naked in the cool fall air, staring back at Sax in amazement as he rose from the deck.

“I should paddle your ass,” he yelled, staring at her over the churning water of the tub. Furious. His eyes were blazing, anger contorting his expression as she watched him in amazement. “What in the living hell possessed you, woman, to sit and bait him like that? To just sit there, calmly talking to him in a tub of water knowing fucking good and well he was capable of drowning you?”

Screaming. He was screaming at her, his body so tense, so tight, she wondered if something would break.

“I knew you would save me,” she whispered, blinking back at him in surprise. “I knew you wouldn’t let him hurt me.”

Shock filled his face then. “I wasn’t here!” He wiped his hands furiously over his slick head as he yelled again. “How the hell was I supposed to save you?”

“But you did, Sax,” she pointed out. “I knew you would be here. I knew you would be…”

Tears filled her eyes as she stared back at him.

“You don’t leave me alone, Sax,” she said softly. “You’re always close, touching me, embracing me, needing me. How can anyone have a chance to hurt me when you love me so well?”

A heavy frown darkened his brow. “That is not getting you out of trouble,” he assured her through gritted teeth as he stomped around the hot tub, jerking her in his arms and holding her rapidly chilling body close to his warmth. “But God help me, Marey, the next time you do anything so stupid, I’m going to paddle your ass.”

A tearful smile crossed her lips as she tilted her head, her hand reaching up to touch the dark features of his face, the sensual curve of his lip.

“I love you, Sax,” she whispered. “I was going to tell you that tonight, while you held me, while you loved me. I’ve always loved you.”

A hard breath shuddered through his chest as he buried his head in her hair, his arms tightening around her.

“I’m definitely spanking you,” he groaned. “God baby, I love you. So much you terrified the hell out of me sitting there talking to that bastard so calmly, knowing how easily he could hurt you.”

“Knowing you would be there,” she said against his chest as he lifted her into his arms while Daniel called the sheriff.

“You’re cold,” he growled. “You didn’t even bring a robe out.”

“So warm me.” She burrowed against his chest, her arms wrapping around his neck, her head resting naturally on his shoulder. “Warm me, Sax…”

Chapter Fourteen

“Somehow, Vince managed to hire an ex-employee of the security firm to hack into their computers for the code to Marey’s house,” Daniel reported the next morning after the sheriff and his deputies had arrested Vince, taken their statements and then left them in peace.

Marey was sitting tiredly on the couch, bleary-eyed, certain she had never been so exhausted in her life as she listened to what Daniel had come to the house the night before to tell them.

Neither she nor Vince had heard the car pull up at the front of the house, but Sax had. Just as he had heard Vince through the opened bedroom window seconds before. Moving carefully, he had let Daniel in, then together they had contained Vince. A few broken bones were the least of her ex-husband’s problems now.

“What will they do with the hacker?” Marey asked, fearing the moment when Daniel would leave and she would have to face Sax alone. She was suddenly terrified. Not of him, but of herself.

When he had jumped across the hot tub, the rage that had filled him had been palpable. He would have killed Vince if Daniel hadn’t stopped him.

Son of a bitch, I’ll fucking kill you for touching her. Vince’s eyes had been bugging from his head, his face turning purple. Do you understand me? My fucking woman, you low-life motherfucker!

His woman. Conviction, determination, commitment had filled every hoarse word, every finger that tightened on Vince’s throat before Daniel managed to pull him away.

“They’ll arrest him.” Daniel watched her closely, but not near as close as Sax was watching her.

She nodded, lowering her head again as she stared at the floor, her arms wrapped around her chest.

“I’m going to head out of here, Sax,” Daniel announced then. “I still have to stop at the sheriff’s office and take care of some more paperwork. I’ll call you later.”

“Thanks again, Daniel.” Sax moved across her line of vision, his powerful legs moving slowly across the floor.

“I can see myself out,” Daniel said. “Take care of your woman. The night has been hard on her.”

Marey shuddered.

Seconds later, the front door closed, leaving her alone with Sax.

Silence filled the house.

Emotions rose within her with a force that had her shaking in their grip.

“Marey.” Sax knelt before her, his broad hand lifting her chin as he stared back at her somberly.

Oh God. He shouldn’t look at her like that, she thought. His expression so tender, loving. She had fought so hard not to believe in happily-every-afters, in warmth and love. How was she supposed to protect her heart?

But she knew, had known for days that such protection was a long time past.

She felt a tear slip down her cheek.

“Everyone I really love leaves me,” she said. “I didn’t love Vince, and I knew it. I barely cared, but I was so damned tired of being alone.” Her breath hitched in her throat as he continued to watch her, his dark face intent, his expression filled with love. “When I met you,” she continued. “I couldn’t believe. If I believed, I would have had to face how I’ve hidden for so long. The coward I’ve been.” She pulled away from him as a sob shook her.

“Marey, don’t do this to yourself,” he whispered. “We can talk about this later. After you’ve rested.”

“I won’t have the courage then,” she cried painfully, moving away from him as she rose to her feet, tightening her arms around her chest as she turned her back on him. “You don’t understand. You were right. All along. Vince was a crutch. An excuse to keep you away.” She turned back to him, staring back at him, refusing to hide any longer. “I had to keep you away, Sax.”

“Why?” He pushed his hands into the pockets of his slacks as he stared back at her, his brown eyes wary.

“Because you could hurt me,” she whispered. “And I knew it. You could rip the heart from my chest, and you terrified me because of it. Because Sax, in a matter of months, as you tried to make me laugh, to talk me into your bed and your life, I fell in love with you. And I didn’t know what to do with that love. Or how to handle it if you ever walked away from me… Or if you were taken from me…”

She thought of her father, his patient resolve, his gentleness and the hole his and her mother’s deaths left in her life. She had spent her own life caring for them, putting it on hold, forgetting her dreams, her needs in the face of theirs.

“I can’t promise I won’t die, Marey,” he whispered, and in the rough tone, what she heard, she heard with her heart, not her ears. Hopes, dreams… “All I can promise you is that while I live, as long as I draw breath, I’ll love you. And I’ll pleasure you with everything I have.”

His arms wrapped around her then, his hands smoothing up her back as she clutched at him, tears flowing freely from her eyes, sobs tearing at her chest.

“I love you,” she cried out, her hands clutching at his shoulders as he lifted her, moving until he was sprawled into the chair Daniel had vacated, drawing her over him, her thighs clasping his while his hands tore at her robe.

“Feel me, Marey,” he groaned, throwing the robe to the floor before he shifted, his hands tearing at his pants as hers ripped at the buttons that held his shirt together.

Naked. She needed him as naked as she was, bodies, hearts and souls bare to one another. Embracing each other.

When he surged into her, her head fell to his shoulder, her arms wrapping around his neck as his circled her back. He moved into her powerfully, thrusting hard and deep as she undulated against him, driving him deeper, gasping, crying out as he whispered his love, his lips moving over her shoulder, her neck, his tongue stroking trails of moist flames as his arms tightened around her, holding her still as he began to drive inside her harder.

Waves of pleasure suffused her, overtook her. Perspiration built along her body as she fought to breathe, to reach the peak of rapture that she knew she could find only in Sax’s arms.

The closer she came, the more she could feel opening inside her soul. She cried into his shoulder, gasping her love, her need, her regret that she had waited so long to accept what she had known was in his heart.

“Hold me, Marey,” he growled at her ear. “Just hold me, baby.”

He was moving stronger now, his cock pushing to the very depths of her, burying to the hilt over and over again, impaling sensitive nerve-ridden tissue as his love had impaled her soul.