Page 46 of Hard Rock Heat

"You really need to stop doing and saying asshole things like that," Ireplied.

"If I do, you have my permission to call me out on it," hesaid.

"Since when do I need your permission to call you out onanything?"

Damon chuckled. The way his green eyes lit up made my throat close up. "True," he said, sidling up to me. "You've probably be shutting down guys since you turnedsixteen."

"Only when they deserve it." My back was to the corner. I couldn't move away. His body was so close tomine.

"And who was the first guy to be on the receiving end of your barbed words?" Damon leaned casually against the wall next to me, hip bumping against mine. My heart sped up. "No doubt some poor clueless boy who had no idea what was gettinginto?"

"However did you guess?" I asked, trying to ignore the heat radiating from him, warning me from the outsidein.

"I feel kind of envious." With an easy motion, he wrapped his arm around my waist and tugged me closer. "Those tongue lashings of yours are prettyhot."

My belly tightened. I fought to gather my wits. "It's not supposed to be hot," I said. "It's supposed to make men's balls shrivel up infear."

Damon smirked and brought his lips close to my ear. "Some men just can't handle fiery girls," hemurmured.

"And I suppose you can?" I asked, fighting to keep my voice from betrayingme.

He ducked his head. His lips wandered from my ear to the underside of my jaw. "Despite all your verbal abuse, I'm still here, aren'tI?"

I felt the movement of his mouth against my skin, a not-quite kiss. My inner muscles clenched. His delicious scent filled the air around me. With every breath, I took in that heady leather smell. My head went dizzy for a brief moment. Damon's arm tightened around mywaist.

I pulled away a fraction of an inch. Just enough to give myself room to think. I straightened my back and smoothed down my hair, taking a moment to steady myself. I didn't want to go swooning over this man in the middle of a party. I didn't want to go swooning over this man at all, but my body didn't seem to want to listen to mymind.

"I guess something about you just brings out my inner rage monster," I said withoutthinking.

He lifted an eyebrow in amusement. "Ragemonster?"

I flushed and looking away. "That's what I call it. Usually I can handle anything with calm and poise. But you…" I briefly flicked my gaze up to meethis.

His eyes narrowed with a wicked pleasure. "I get under your skin, don'tI?"

Despite that being the exact phrase my inner voice scolded me with a dozen times, I hated hearing him say it out loud. Nothing was supposed to get to me. I always had everything undercontrol.

"You don't have to scowl," he said. "You get under my skin,too."

I was taken aback at his confession. "Howso?"

"You think I apologize to just anyone?" His lips tilted in into a small smile. "You think I let any other girl dictate the terms of ourrelationship?"

My heart thumped a heavy beat. Relationship. Did sniping at each other followed by a few moments of heavy flirting count as a relationship? Maybe in Damon's world it did. Maybe that was the closest thing to a relationship he was capableof.

Still. That word sent my headspinning.

"You're good at apologizing," I said, hoping to move on quickly before he realized what he'd said and backtrack. "You should do it moreoften."

"The same way you should smile more often?" heteased.

"If you tell me to smile one more time, I'm going to beat you over the head with myshoe."

He smirked. "As fiery as you are, you wouldn't dare risk your precious Diana Sixheels."

"I think you're the first person to ever call me fiery," I admittedquietly.

"And what do they usually call you?" Damon askedcuriously.