Chapter 181

Zavian held her captive for an endless moment in which the only sound was their harsh, ragged breaths intermingling.

“But I won’t!” He finally spoke again in a voice gone extremely hoarse.

With that, he released Emmeline and took a step back, putting some much-needed distance between their dangerously heated bodies before he lost what tattered shreds of control still remained.

Frustrated by his infuriatingly mixed signals, hurt by the sting of his seeming rejection, and utterly confused by the warring impulses battering her from all sides, Emmeline felt a surge of anger rise up within her.

Her hazel eyes sparked with indignant fire. She pushed him away angrily, her small palms connecting with the solid, unforgiving wall of his chest in a forceful shove that did little to budge his larger frame.

“Then leave me alone! I don’t want you either!” she cried out, the words tasting like bitter lies on her tongue as she took an unsteady step backward, putting so