Turned Read Online Free Page B

his slick clothes, he had nice eyes. So dark they almost seemed black. Like dark chocolate. Or a richly decadent espresso. Two of her favorite things. Automatically, her gaze dropped to the bulge in his pants. It was lovingly framed by his thighs, the fabric of his jeans pulled tight against them so it molded itself to the hard muscle.
    She’d touched him when she’d patted him down, so she knew he was well endowed. Big and intimidating even when he wasn’t aroused. He’d stirred when she’d touched him in the alley and the memory of her fingers on such an intimate part of him made her flush. Given her history, the reminder of his masculinity and vitality should scare her.
    Why wasn’t it scaring her?
    Why had she suddenly grown warm, throughout her entire body but particularly between her legs? Why did she have the sudden urge to kneel in front of him and unzip him, so she could see what she’d already felt—
    For God’s sake. Stop! Men had never caused her anything but pain time and again. This man wouldn’t be any different.
    Forcing her gaze away from his body, she focused on his positioning instead. Despite his relaxed pose, she noted how he, too, had placed himself where he could see the entrance, but still remain out of view and out of range of anyone on the street.
    “How about I call the cops?” she asked, hoping he wouldn’t call her bluff.
    “How about we make a deal instead?”
    “What kind of deal?”
    “I want my gun back. And something tells me you’re not just going to hand it over to me.”
    “So?”
    “Let’s focus on what happened outside. Do you really believe you would have gotten my gun if I hadn’t wantedyou to? You’re good, sweetheart, but as I said earlier, you were holding back. I did the same.”
    She’d held a gun to his head. Slammed his face into a wall. And he thought she’d been holding back? “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she clipped out, even though part of her did.
    “You were willing to fight dirty, but only to a degree. You’re ashamed of who you were. The way you used to talk. The way you used to fight. That shame hinders you.”
    His perceptiveness grated at her. He was right. She hated the person she’d been. Resented any necessity to be that person again. But she was never going to admit it to him or anyone else. “And according to this absurd theory of yours, you decided to take it easy on me to keep things fair?”
    He grinned. “Don’t believe me? Let me prove it to you. Fight me. Fight me with everything you are. Everything you’ve got. I get the gun back, you listen to what I have to say. All of it. You consider what I’m offering you before you make your decision.”
    “And if you don’t get it back?”
    “I leave, but first I’ll give you some of the information I have on your sister.”
    Suspicion flickered through her … and temptation. “Why don’t you just give me the information anyway?”
    He smirked. “Sorry, but it doesn’t work that way. Come on, Ana. Give it your best shot. Show me what you’ve got. Show me what you learned on the streets,” he taunted.
    “Shut up,” she hissed.
    He sobered instantly and she could tell he knew. He knew . He knew what she’d done in the past to survive—maybe he even knew what had been done to her despite the fact that she’d have rather died—and she couldn’thold back the intense shame that washed over her, making her feel nauseous.
    “I was referring to your fighting skills,” he said softly.
    “I know what you were talking about.”
    “So then?”
    “How do I know you won’t just retrieve your gun—assuming you are able to retrieve it—and shoot me instead of giving me the information I want?”
    “You’re a smart girl. I guess you’ll just have to trust me.”
    “I don’t trust anyone.”
    “Like I said, smart girl.”
    Without another word, Ty lunged out of his chair, not for her, but for the counter behind her.
    Ana didn’t bother protesting his