Page 11 of When He Defends

“Fuck it,” Emerson snapped. She grabbed his white shirtfront, and she hauled him toward her.

Their mouths collided.

Chapter Three

“I don’t have delusions. I won’t ever be like him.”

– Emerson Marlowe

Worst mistake ever.Gray knew it. Accepted the fact deep in his soul. Kissing Emerson was a mistake.

So why did it feel so good? Why didshefeel so good? Emerson had grabbed his shirtfront. She’d yanked him toward her. Gray could have stopped the forward momentum. A simple enough task to do.

Only he hadn’t stopped it. He hadn’t pulled away. He’d leaned toward her.

Because he’d been dying to know how she would taste. Because his control was weak. Because he’d watched a savage bastard hold her in a brutal grip and shove a screwdriver beneath her chin, and Gray had thought about squeezing the trigger of his gun and taking another monster out of this world.

He kissed her because he was riding a wave of adrenaline. A wave of lust and dark need. He should have walked away fromher. Should never have given her the option to be his partner or his lover…He should have kept the words to himself.

What the hell was I thinking?

But, the instant his lips touched hers, the instant he touched that soft, satiny mouth…

All rational thought fled. As if he’d ever been particularly rational where Emerson was concerned. Her lips parted for him. His tongue snaked inside her mouth, and he was just utterlydone.

Lust exploded, even more powerfully than he’d anticipated. Primal and basic. A consuming need that swallowed him up because her taste was even better than he’d imagined. His hands locked around her hips, and he hauled her ever closer toward him. Her breasts pressed against his chest. Her tight nipples were pebbled, and he wanted to rip away every barrier between them. Strip her. Taste her. Fuck her.

Her body was flush against his, but that wasn’t good enough. He lifted her up with his grip on her waist, and her legs wrapped around him. Her mouth opened even wider. Their tongues met. She kissed him with a raw, wild abandon.

Warned her. Told her that I’d want to fuck her right here, right now.

And he did. She had to feel the hard, swollen cock shoving against her.

A moan rose in her throat, and he greedily swallowed the sound. His heart raced in his chest, and he turned with her, took two steps…

A bed is close by. Don’t have to fuck her against the wall. Can take her in the bed.

The lust he felt was too strong. Part of him knew that. Adrenaline and danger were a dangerous brew that could rip apart anyone’s self-control. He needed to let her go. To step back.

Instead, they hit the bed. He tumbled down on top of her, making sure that he didn’t crush her much smaller body with his. He kept kissing her. Her hands curled around his shoulders as she held him in a fierce grip. She was as greedy as he was. As desperate. Her hips arched toward him even as her legs remained locked around his hips. His mouth tore from hers so that he could kiss a path down her neck. Did he press too hard? Was he marking her? Was he?—

“Open the fucking door!”

Gray froze. His breath sawed in and out.

The shouted command was followed by a fierce pounding.At Emerson’s motel room door.Oh, the hell, no. He shoved up on his hands and stared down at her.

Lust still blazed in her eyes. So did confusion, though. She blinked those intense, unforgettable eyes of hers up at him even as a furrow crept between her brows.

“Guessing you’re not expecting company,” he said.

“Open the door, bitch!”Another shout.

She shook her head.

Jaw locking, he reached for her legs. Slowly pulled them off his hips. Whoever the hell that was at the door—the jerk would pay. Both for interrupting at the wrongtime and for calling Emerson a bitch. Gray eased from the bed.

She scrambled to her knees.