Maria Alvarez is her own woman and always has been. She�s more than capable of taking care of herself, so when Garrett Rule storms into her life with inflexible demands and an agenda of his own, she has no choice but to fight back.
Garrett Rule has no room in his life for conniving women. When he finds himself inconveniently obsessed with Maria Alvarez, the most conspiring woman of them all, he doesn�t know which is stronger, his need to punish her or the need he feels to have her under his complete sexual control. Luckily for him, he doesn�t plan on choosing; he�ll take both.
EXCERPT: About to round the corner of the landing leading to the fourth floor, Maria�s nerves jolted when she heard the sound of the door above her opening and then closing with the loud, echoing slam of steel against steel.
She came to an abrupt halt and listened, knowing for a fact that someone was in the stairwell above her, just out of her sight.
Silence.
The only sound she heard was her heart beating loudly in her ears, but she knew she wasn�t alone.
If she took two steps forward she�d be able to look up and see whoever was there. Two steps back might give her time to escape.
Unable to slow the raging pulse that was telling her that Garrett had found her, she took two steps backwards toward the wall, preparing to turn and run down, her stiletto heels clicking loudly against the bare concrete.
She never had a chance.
He sprinted down the half flight of stairs before she could even grab the railing that would balance her on the way down.
Freaking stilettos. Why had her vanity made her wear them?
His hands reached out and he caught her, dragging her backwards, and she found her back against the wall in the corner of the landing before she could even blink.
Breathing unsteadily, she looked up into the eyes of a madman as she fought for oxygen.
�What do you think you�re doing?� he raged, indomitable fury in every line of his body.
Breathe, Maria. Just take one breath and then let it out. For some reason, she had no idea why, it never occurred to her to lie to him. �Avoiding you.�
The look on his face seemed to say that he wanted nothing more than to shake her, but he didn�t. His fingers bit into the flesh of her upper arms, and his brows came down in a thunderous scowl of rage that was not scaring her. If she could just remember to breathe, then maybe she could convince herself of that truth.
He looked down at her, his height and breadth dominating her where she stood, as a small buzzing in the back of her brain told her that it probably wasn�t wise to take on a guy who was at least a foot taller and probably outweighed her by a hundred pounds of pure muscle. And that was without considering the aggressive river of testosterone that seemed to be flowing through his bloodstream at the moment.
Her eyes stayed glued to his, and as he moved several inches closer, her chin lifted and her neck arched at an uncomfortable angle to keep him in her sights as he loomed closer. All the while her heart was beating so rapidly that her head was spinning, and she was sucking in oxygen so quickly that she was beginning to hyperventilate.
�The stairwell, Maria?� he questioned in a yell, biting the words out.
�What . . . what?� she asked, confusion setting in.
Lines of ice-cold fury bracketed his mouth. �Do you not have a clue? Do you not have a single working brain cell in that head of yours?�
She jerked her head back, not caring for that question one freaking bit. She felt her blood pressure rise as her eyes narrowed, a returning anger filling her bloodstream. �Watch it, Mr. Rule. You�re beginning to make me mad.�
He leaned into her another intimidating inch. �I don't really care.�
�I promise, making me angry wouldn't be a good thing,� she challenged, ignoring the warning bells in her head.
A yellow spiral of heat began blending with the brown of his irises, surrounding the growing black circle of his pupils, telling of his own anger. �Yeah? We�ll get back to that in a minute,� he stated, as if her own anger was no more irritating than a fly buzzing around. �Why would you take the stairway?�
�Why . . . why shouldn�t I?�
He rolled his eyes heavenward and then looked back down. �Do you not give a crap about your own safety?�
�You think I�m going to trip and fall?� she asked sarcastically, beginning to get a glimmer as to where he was really going with this.
He hissed through gritted teeth, �You�re going to get assaulted, that�s what I think.�
�You think it�s dangerous in here?� she snapped, seeing no threat except the one standing in front of her.
One brawny hand released her arm and moved unerringly, forcibly, to the hem of her dress. �I don�t know, what do you think?� Without so much as a pause, he pushed the skirt of her dress up, out of his way, and seized her with his hand.
