Renegade

He glanced at her as he made the turn. “You may have the best intentions in the world, but it’s not going to be that easy for you to be with a man—even a man you think you want. One of the roughest rape cases I ever testified in was a similar circumstance. A young girl who’d been raped tried to make it with her new boy friend. But she couldn’t go through with it and he couldn’t stop.”

“What happened?”

“She started screaming about the time her parents came home. They had the boy arrested. She tried to recall the charges, but it was too late. He did get probation—it was a first offense—but he never spoke to her again. She really loved him. She just couldn’t have sex with him.”

She folded her arms together over her coat and shivered.

“You get the picture?” he asked tersely.

She nodded. Her eyes went back to the passing storefronts.

His lips flattened together. “I couldn’t live with it if I lost control and forced you, okay?” he admitted finally.

Her caught breath was audible. “But I offered,” she said huskily.

He glared at her. “What would that mean if I left you with more scars than you’ve already got?”

Her anger evaporated and she studied him quietly. “I’ve never felt like this with anyone since it happened,” she confessed. “I was very attracted to Cullen, but he found women repulsive. Even so, it wasn’t like this. I’m on fire,” she said with a nervous little laugh. “I ache all over. It’s almost like pain. All I can think of is how it would feel to be with you in a bed all night.”

His hands tightened on the steering wheel until they turned white, while he tried to convince himself that this was a disaster waiting to happen.

“But if you’re not interested, you’re not interested. I guess you’re worried about that marriage thing. I don’t have any plans to propose to you, no matter how good you are in bed, if that would change your mind,” she promised.

He laughed in spite of himself. “You don’t understand.”

“You’re impotent?” she murmured dryly.

He glared at her. “I am not impotent.”