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NATE COULD TELL BY the expression in those Tyler blue eyes that she was royally pissed at him. And mortified. He hadn’t meant to do that, but she’d hurt herself, it was late, and she would be all alone, miles from civilization.
Not an idea he was comfortable with.
Tyler women had a habit of attracting trouble. It just wasn’t going to happen. She’d been hurt on his watch; that mattered to him. And not just because it was her. “Sorry if I embarrassed you. That wasn’t my intention.”
“And just what was? Shoving down my throat that you’re bigger and in charge of every little thing? Well, you’ve accomplished that. So here I am, captive in your guest room. Now what?”
He ignored the bite in her tone. He had to admit it—she deserved to be irritated at him this time. He had stepped over the line with her. Again. “I’m going to take one more look at that ankle, then I’ll get out of your hair. You can put hemlock in my oatmeal in the morning, or something. Then we’ll be even.”
“Hemlock? Seriously?” Her eyes narrowed, and the spark that was Perci returned in an instant. He hadn’t even realized it had been mostly missing lately...until that moment.
“Don’t witches carry that with them everywhere? To trap unsuspecting men? The way the rest of your little coven nabbed my idiot brothers?”
Her body tensed against his. He covered his grin by turning away. At least angry, she wasn’t embarrassed any longer.
He shouldn’t needle her, but he somehow always ended up doing exactly that.
“Funny, Masterson. I think it was the other way around. My sisters used to be reasonable, rational, intelligent women until your brothers seduced the lot of them.”
“If there was any seducing done, you Tylers are responsible. With those eyes, those lips. The hair...” The hair of hellfire. He brushed his fingers over her braid. It always surprised him that her hair was so cool and soft to the touch.
It should burn. That made the most sense.
Persephone Tyler made him burn hotter than hell.
And she always had. Since the moment his mother had hired her to work as a nurse with the small hospital his mother had run for most of his life. Now that hospital was his responsibility. As was she.
Hell, he wished he was as stupid as his brothers sometimes. As reckless. Wished he could just lower her to the bed—in the room next door—and show her exactly what she did to him. Keep her in his bed until he’d extinguished every flame she lit in him.
Not because he was a Masterson and she was a Tyler and everyone just expected they’d be together eventually, but because he had burned for this woman from the very moment he’d looked up at the new nurse his mother had hired. Every nerve in his body had jumped to full alert.
She hadn’t stopped burning him since.
He’d wanted Perci Tyler since long before his three brothers had fallen hard for her sisters. Temptations, the lot of them.
Sirens luring unsuspecting men to their doom.
“Take off the cast. Let me have a look.”
“Maybe I don’t want you looking at my leg? Maybe my feet stink? Maybe I haven’t shaved in a month?”
“I’ve seen worse—I think I’ll survive.” He reached for the brace himself and removed it gently.
There wasn’t a damned thing he could do for her ankle that the staff at the hospital hadn’t already done, and they both knew it.
Nate just wanted to touch her for a minute.
It was time he admitted it to himself—he was never not going to be burning for her.
She’d captured him, same as her three sisters had captured his brothers. That probably wasn’t going to change anytime soon.
He’d been thinking lately that maybe it was time he finally did something about how he felt.
Nate brushed his fingers over the smooth skin of her calf—despite her claim, the skin was silky smooth—checking for excess swelling. “Does this hurt?”
She shivered.
Not the response he’d expected.
Nate jerked his head up, just in time to see a look of heat in the blue eyes he dreamed about almost nightly.
An almost hunger.
His fingers tightened on her skin. His other hand came up, and he cupped her cheek. Stupid move, no doubt, but he wasn’t the kind to back down when he’d made a choice. “Baby? Did I hurt you?”
She didn’t speak, just shook her head. Watched every move he made.
Hell, he wanted to touch her. Every soft, perfect inch of her.
Nate knew he shouldn’t, but there was no damned reason why he couldn’t at least taste her in that moment, was there?
Nate leaned forward and pressed his lips to that smart little mouth that had tempted him daily for months.
Perci met him halfway.
***
OH, HEAVEN HELP HER. Nate Masterson was actually kissing her. Worse, why in the hell was she kissing the man back? Perci knew she should push the man away before something stupid and life altering happened. Mastersons were devils capable of turning Tyler women into wishy-washy idiots. She had three cases of living proof that she could draw on for that conclusion. Perci understood it. How could she not?
Kind, intelligent, strong, handsome, loving, beautiful men who loved her sisters like they’d hung the moon—it was no wonder her sisters were ridiculously, deliriously happy.
Her hands had a will of their own. They crept up around those broad shoulders and clung. She wanted to blame the pain killer she’d been given, but that was stupid. She was choosing to do exactly what she was doing right now. Nate was the biggest of his brothers. His shoulders were the widest, the strongest.
Perci fought the urge to purr as she felt just how perfectly the man was built.
Nate was the most beautiful man she had ever seen—and she’d freely admit that to anyone who asked—but when he opened his mouth to speak, he totally ruined everything.
She’d better get herself figured out before what they were about to do got her damned to this devil and back.
Once she gave in to him, there would be no escaping him.
No pomegranates, no temptations, needed.
She needed to remember that. Nate Masterson was the devil where she was concerned. He’d do anything to trap her into a stupid mistake.
He pulled away slightly. “Kiss me back.”
Then his lips were on hers again, and he was practically devouring her.
Perci’s hands went around his neck and—heaven help her—she kissed him right back.