Her Tender Tyrant by Elizabeth Lennox Page A

man was the first step to her survival. Clutching the phone to her chest, she walked fully into the kitchen again. “Darn it, where did he go?” she muttered under her breath.
    “I’m right here,” the deep voice said.
    Juliette jumped at least a foot into the air when she heard his voice and felt him so close to her. Her scream of surprise probably broke his ear drums. When she caught her breath again, she spun around, furious with him. “Why do you need to sneak up on me like that!” she almost yelled in his direction.
    Marcus watched in fascination as her nipples puckered through the thin cotton of her long sleeved shirt. Damn, he wanted to taste those breasts. And the rest of her. He bet she tasted absolutely delicious. He’d only had a small sample. But now he wanted more.
    “I didn’t sneak up on you,” he countered, leaning against the fridge as he took another bite of his sandwich.
    She glared right back at him, furious at how casual he seemed to be when every cell in her body was dancing a little jig at the sight of his bare chest. “You did! You were outside splitting logs one moment and the next you’re in here. Why do you do that?”
    He laughed and leaned into her. “Keeping track of me?” he asked softly, that husky voice coming out and causing her heart rate to speed up to heart attack levels. “You were watching me, weren’t you?” he taunted with a sexy half smile.
    “No! I just…” she wasn’t sure what to say since her comments made it perfectly obvious that she had been watching him. Caught! She backtracked even more. “I was going to get some lunch and saw you. But my phone rang and I went somewhere else.”
    “Somewhere that didn’t have a view of the back yard?”
    Darn, why did he have to be so on target? “Get over yourself!” she snapped and walked out of the kitchen. She grabbed her notebook and walked out into the fresh air and sunshine. Taking a deep breath, she knew that this was what she needed. Just to get out of the house, away from that horrible man and all of his…hormones! Or should she say pheromones? She had no clue, which was really bad for someone in her occupation. She was supposed to be studying people. Why was her relationship with Marcus so contentious?
    Her whole thesis was based on observing people and knowing how to help them get along better. So why was she standing here shaking like a leaf?
    With a disgusted sound, she turned her attention to the horses. They made sense, she told herself. She could study them and watch them all day long. Horses were beautiful and instinctive with none of these complex emotions tying them in knots.
    She thought about that for a moment, watching some of the female horses prance along the fence line. Were people really more complex than horses or animals? Or were all mammals basically the same? That’s what she was here to discover, but she’d been doing too much fighting with one large mammal to focus properly on her task.
    From now on, she’d just come out here early in the morning and stay out until late enough that he was most likely in the study working on something. The man was supposed to be relaxing, Juliette knew from what his mother had told her. But he wasn’t very good at it. He was working hard, probably just as hard as if he were in his office.
    Of course, when a man controlled an empire that large, was there really any way for him to completely relax? Probably not. A small note of compassion sparked to life inside of her with that realization. Maybe he was just tense because he had too much work to do.
    Definitely, staying out of his way would help, she thought.

Chapter 7

    Juliette pulled her boots on, zipping them up the sides then looked at her reflection in the mirror. Yep, she looked ready to go dancing! The red sweater was fluffy but showed off her figure perfectly. Her favorite jeans hugged her butt just right and the boots added a more exotic look than she normally was able to pull