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Choice
    36
    She could only shake her head. Trying to speak only caused her teeth to chatter harder.
    “You’re still freezing.” He moved up beside her, wrapping her in his arms, pulling her close to him.
    The warmth of his big body seeped through the blankets and into her skin.
    “Jesus, Marly, that was a bad one.” His fingers were moving through her hair, combing through the tangled curls as he tried to calm her. Terror still strummed through her body, making her blood rush and her body shake. She couldn’t seem to get totally warm, no matter how hard she tried. She kept shaking, shivering harshly.
    “I’m scared,” she finally whispered tearfully, shaking in his arms. “Oh God, Cade. It’s like he was right there this time. Like I couldn’t escape.” Tears ran from her eyes as his arms tightened around her.
    “It’s okay, Marly.” He rocked her gently, like he used to when she was young and screaming, unable to separate reality from nightmare. “Look what you’re doing to yourself, baby. You have to stop this.”
    “I didn’t do this,” she cried out, trying to burrow closer to him, to steal as much of his warmth as she could.
    “Didn’t you, Marly?” he asked her gently, tipping her head back as he looked down at her. “Think about it, baby. You’re pushing yourself into believing you want me, but you don’t. Are you scared I’m going to throw you out if you don’t sleep with me?
    What’s gotten into your head?”
    Shock of another kind held her immobile now. She shook her head slowly, her body now shuddering with misery. He thought she was having nightmares because she wanted him? It made no sense. Why would he use this against her?
    “How can you use that?” she whispered painfully, a harsh sob tearing from her chest. “Are you so desperate to deny what you want yourself, that you would use my nightmares against me, Cade? That wasn’t about you.”
    “But it was the worse. You’re shaking like a leaf, and damned near froze to death. You aren’t thinking straight,” he accused her harshly, though his grip was still gentle.
    “Evidently I’m not thinking at all.” Dammit, why couldn’t she stop crying? “I’m throwing myself at a man who doesn’t even want me. I think its time to find someone who does. Would that suit you better, Cade? Would you feel better if another man were in my bed?”
    “I’d kill him.” The words sounded torn from his chest.
    “Listen to you,” she accused him harshly. “You don’t want to touch me, but no one else can either. Dammit it, Cade, I’m twenty years old and I’ve never had sex. Not even oral sex. I can’t save myself for you forever.”
    He was suddenly breathing harshly. His hands were on her arms, his fingers firm on her flesh.
    Lora Leigh
    Marly’s Choice
    37
    “Never?” he growled, as though it seemed inconceivable to him. “Nothing?”
    “Nothing,” she bit out, more angry than frightened now. “And I’m sick as hell of waking up to nothing but empty dreams. I won’t be a nun for you, so you can hide from this.”
    “I’m not hiding from it.” He shook his head harshly. “Dammit, Marly. I’m not one of your teenaged boys. The things I want to do would send you into hysterics. The things I want you to do would destroy you and any love you have for me.”
    He didn’t want that. He couldn’t have that. He needed Marly. Needed her love and her laughter more than she would ever know.
    “Try me,” she challenged him harshly. “Don’t keep turning me away Cade. I need you. Please, I need you.”
    His lips swallowed the last of her words as they covered hers. Swift and sure, making no concessions for innocence or nightmare as he jerked her to him, one hand holding her head securely, the other thrusting the comforter away harshly as his arm went around her waist.
    He kissed her like a man possessed. His lips eating at her, his tongue staking his claim on the moist interior of her mouth. She moaned against the