Raven's Prey

what she had unleashed.
    His legs slid between hers, pushing her thighs apart in a gesture that left her feeling ravished even though she was still dressed. Crushed as she was against the unyielding wooden floor, Honor began to panic. The tremors coursing through her were uncontrollable. Tears seeped into her eyes and she closed them tightly.
    It was the ripple of small, violent shivers in her body that finally got through to Judd. He sensed the fear as if it were a tangible presence emanating from her and her total vulnerability finally registered in his raging mind.
    What was she doing to him? What in God’s name had he allowed her to do to him? And what the hell was the matter with him that he had gone off the deep end like this?
    The fury surging through him didn’t disintegrate, but his normal iron control finally began to reassert itself. He fought back the waves of enraged desire that were still pouring through his body, breathing heavily with the effort. One hand closed into a tight, hard fist of frustration and anger. He wrenched his mouth from her and stared down at the lips he had bruised with his own.
    Such a soft mouth. It had been one of the first things he had noticed about her. That gentle mouth and those huge hazel eyes. Every time he had looked at that damned photo he had wondered how that mouth and those eyes could belong to the self-centered, immature, spoiled brat of a woman he had been sent to find. He hadn’t wanted to think of her as genuinely crazy for some reason, although that explanation was probably the simplest one. So he had studied the intelligent eyes with their hint of mischief and humor and decided that the woman he was after was merely overindulged by a doting family. It had crossed his mind more than once that the right man might be able to straighten her out.
    Not that he was that man, Judd had assured himself as he tramped through the dusty streets of one village after another. He was merely making an observation.
    Now here he was almost raping her. And it was all her fault. She was more than spoiled and overindulged. She was dangerous.
    “Damn it, lady, what kind of game are you playing?” he ground out. “You’re even sicker than your family thinks you are if this is the way you get your kicks!”
    Her eyes slitted open and he saw the trace of tears in their gold-and-green depths as she watched him with the expression of a trapped animal. But even though he could see the remains of genuine fear in her eyes her tongue continued to cut at him like a knife.
    “If I really was trying to get my thrills this way it’s obvious I’m in for a disappointment, isn’t it?”
    He swore softly, violently. “Why are you trying to goad me into rape, you stupid woman? What is it with you?”
    “Maybe I just wanted to see if there was some trace of an identifiable human emotion in you,” she mocked scathingly. “You’re like a robot, Judd Raven. I’ve been trying to talk to you all evening, argue with you, plead with you and all I got was the feeling I’m dealing with a damned robot!”
    “So you decided to see if you could provoke me, is that it? After trying to shoot me, first, that is!”
    “I didn’t shoot you! I never got the chance, remember? You stole the bullets from my gun. When did you do that, Judd? Before you came looking for me in the cantina?” she blazed furiously.
    “I thought it might be wise to search this place before going to look for you. And I was right, wasn’t I? Where did you get that piece of garbage you call a gun? Tijuana? Talk about a cheap ‘Saturday night special’!”
    “It must have been enough to scare you or you wouldn’t have bothered disarming me!”
    “It made me a little nervous, all right. Any kind of weapon in the hands of an unpredictable female like yourself is grounds for making a man nervous.” He released her with a short, disgusted oath, sitting up beside her. “But it turns out you’ve got some bidden weapons, doesn’t it?”
    “I was desperate. I [_am _]desperate.” She edged away from him warily, sitting up and curling her legs under herself as she watched him. “I’d do anything I can to make you listen to me.”
    “That’s obvious. Including getting yourself raped. You think that would really have done any good? Did you think I’d be so weakened afterward that you’d be able to make your escape?” he scoffed, annoyed because it was possible she was right. Taking this hellion would probably exhaust any