Private Property: a Contemporary Romance Novella (16 page)

They
tussled
for what seemed like ages, Tabitha raging at him, striking out with her fist, her nails,
her
feet.  She screamed and growled, pissed that he had the upper hand and wasn’t going to relinquish control.

“Just listen to me!”  He bellowed.

She struck out to slap him and withdrew fingertips
spotted with blood
.  Her body went still, limp against the weight of him.  “I’ve hurt you.”  She whispered, spying the long scratch running along the underside of his jaw,
little beads of blood smeared along his neck
.  Her fingernail must have caught his skin, torn a
little
gash in the tender flesh.

His eyes glowed with a feral intensity.  One moment they were staring at each other, the next he’d devoured her mouth with his own.  She fought against it
,
not wanting to succumb to this hypnotizing power he held over her.

She tried to turn her head, but the force of Jared’s kiss locked her in place.  She could hear the harshness of his breath, could feel the heat radiating out of him.  Tabitha tried to gain control, push him away, but it was no use.  His lips were formidable but felt right.  Just the fierceness of his need twisted her insides and she couldn’t
continue to
re
sist.  She slapped at his back
then dug her nails into his shirt, bunching it up in her grasp.

Then s
he sighed into his mouth as she let go and clung to him, feeling him release some of the tension that kept him
wound so tight
.  A bit-
off
sound
of anguish escaped him and he fell into her, pressing her further into the wall behind them.  She wrapped her legs around him.  The long, stretchy skirt she wore constrained her movements, but Jared
seemed to be one step ahead of her, pushing
the material up, allowing her thighs to fully encompass his waist.  He pressed himself
into
her, rocking hard
against her
.  The force of his movements burned and chaffed her and she grappled with him, having no room to back up.  He slowed but did not decrease the vigor in which he pursued his closeness with her.  It was untamed and lawless, ruthless and necessary.

Tabitha flung her head back and he nipped at her collarbone, flooding her body with tingles and urgency.  She
threaded her hand through his hair and
pulled him back with an aggression foreign to her, bearing the long column of his throat.  She slowly licked the length of the wound on the underside of his jaw and sucked hard on the skin beneath his earlobe.  He growled low and pulled her hips further down on him.  She could feel his belt buckle bite into her just above her pelvic bone and wriggled to position herself better, but he wouldn’t allow her to gyrate in such a fashion.

“Don’t move like that.”  He ground out.

“Jared, we – I need to slow this down.  I can’t do this.”

He abruptly released his hold on her and she
dropped
to the floor.  “You can’t do anything, Tabitha.”  He ran a hand through his hair and stepped back from her.

“What?”  She scrambled to her feet.

“My God, where’s your passion?  Why do you keep yourse
lf all bottled up inside?”  He came
at her again
, pinning
her back against the wall, but
allowing her feet to remain on the floor this time
.  “Just let go, Tabby.  Please…
just let go.”  He searched her eyes.  “For me.”

Something in her clicked and
she allowed the door to open, let down her guards.  She heaved at his chest, forcing him backwards.  “You want me to let go?  You want to see me act as a wanton, is that what you want?”  She continued her assault, backing him into the kitchen.

“No.  I just want you to show me the passion that I know exists
in you
for me.”

“You are one cocky bastard.”

“No,
I’m not.  But I know you feel the same way about me as I do you.  I can feel it.”  He reached out to her.

She slapped his hands away.  “Don’t you touch
me.
  Don’t you
dare.
  You want me to release some imaginary hold I have, the restraints over my emotions?”

He didn’t say a word, just allowed her to push at him until he leaned against the island
counter in Kristen’s over-sized kitchen
.  His eyes looked sorrowful, pained.

“Don’t give me that look.  You want some sort of concubine, that’s what you want.  So you can marry your pretty little princess and have your fetish too.”

“No.”

“Yo
u want me to be some, some call
girl for you.”  She poked at his chest, stepping closer to him, standing toe to toe with him.

“No.”

“You want to be able to come and go as you please without any concern towards my feelings and my life and what I want.”

“No!”

Tabitha stopped her attack, stunned at his bark.

Jared’s face fell, his manner weakened.  “I just want you to love me.”  He whispered.

“What
?!”
  Tabitha voice rose in octave and volume
.

“That’s all I want, Tabitha.  All I’ve wanted since the day I met you.”  His gaze was steady, unwavering.

“You can’t be serious.”  She backed away from him.  “You don’t want me, what have I got to offer you?  No, no, no.”  She stormed off in to the living room with Jared on her heels.  “This is just some sick ploy to get me in bed.”

“Think what you will, but it’s the truth, Tabitha.  Just ask Kristen.”

“Oh, I won’t be talking to her ever again, so her insight doesn’t do me a lot of good.”  She flopped down on the couch,
knowing her statement had been an empty threat and
completely aware that her body still raged with an unfulfilled need.  “What could she possibly tell me anyway?”

Jared came down on his knees in front of her, beseeching her attention.  “Can’t you love me?  Can’t you even try?”

Tabit
ha leaned over and kissed him.  K
issed him with all the emotion she had to impart.  She wrapped her arms around his neck bringing him closer to her.  She leaned back on the couch, dragging him down on top of her and relished the feel when his warm hands slid up her thighs.

His hands found her every trigger, every soft spot, as though he had been mapping out her bod
y for years.  He dragged
his mouth up over her waist, along her ribs, in between her breasts
to cover
her mouth
again
.  Her anger was defeated, her mind temporarily eased, her body alive.  And just when she couldn’t handle any more build up, Jared abruptly stopped, leveraging off her body and sliding down to a seated position on the floor.

She stared at the ceiling,
see-sawing
between frustration and confusion.  What did this man want from her?

“I can’t do this.  Not like this, Tabitha.”

“
Now
you can’t do this?  Will you make up your mind?”

“I have.  But I have to know if you love me.”

Her eyes bored holes in the ceiling.  Funny how she had never realized
ceilings had such
strange shapes in the paint up there.  Of course she loved him.  Of course she did – she had never loved anyone, nor would she ever, like she loved this man.  She sighed.

A rustle of clothes, a soft click, a sparkle and prism of light in front of her eyes.
  Tabitha adjusted her focus and stared at the little clear shape sending winks of light at her.

A diamond.

A diamond ring.

Tabitha fumbled in to a sitting pos
ition, her back against the arm
rest.  She looked wide-eyed from the little box in Jared’s hand
to
the man himself.

“Please don’t tell me no.  I don’t want to live without you anymore.  I don’t want to love or even like anyone else.  I can’t.”  He swallowed
, his eyes filled with so much emotion
, Tabitha’s heart felt like it would pound out of her chest.

“What?  Are you serious?  We just fought; I just bit and scratched you like some rabid cat.”

He rubbed the small even
indentions
in his bicep.  “I know.  But I don’t care.”

“
What about Amanda?
”

“
She a
dmitted she didn’t love me either
, hadn’t for quite some time,
and that she’d formed a slight crush on a co-worker.
  We weren’t good for each other.  We had begun to clash every time we talked.
”

“But she was all over you at the hotel.”

“Habit.  We were out in public; I was talking to a pretty girl.  She may not have wanted me, but no one else could
have me
either.”

“What about your family?
”

“They w
ill
find they
love you as much as I do.”

“And my family?
”

“Will be impressed with my degrees.”

She laughed then.  And felt the cracks
appear
in her walls.  Tinges of apprehension
began to creep up in to her belly, but she smiled at him.  What would happen if she just let go?  What if maybe, she didn’t get hurt or let anyone down?  What
if…?

“Marry me, Tabitha.”

She flung her arms around him, knocking the ring from his grasp and ravaging his face with small, fevered kisses.  “I love you, Jared.  I love you so much!  Yes!  Yes, I will marry you.”