Page 41 of When He Defends

“Gray…” She pulled her mouth from his. “Gray, I?—”

Her doorbell rang.

Emerson blinked.

His gaze swirled. Gold and brown. Darkness swallowing the light. The ringing doorbell seemed to echo around them. Neither of them moved.

The doorbell rang again.

Gray slowly pulled away. “You expecting someone?”

No, not at all, she was not. Hadn’t they already established that she didn’t have visitors? Gray had been dead-on target with that analysis. She never invited friends over. Mostly because she didn’t have a great deal of friends.

“This late?” Gray asked. An edge entered his voice. “Got a…friend you need to tell me about?”

She turned away from him. Grabbed her phone from the bag she’d tossed aside after entering her condo. “If that’s your way of asking if I’m dating someone, the answer is no. You’re theonly man I’m interested in fucking.” Her fingers swiped over the phone’s screen. “For the record.”

“Good.” He peered over her shoulder as she used her app to see who was ringing her doorbell. And when they saw?—

“Bastard,” Gray snapped.

Yes, indeed. Her visitor was a bastard.

Before she could even put her phone down, Gray was stomping for the door.

“Uh, Gray!” Emerson called after him.

“It’s almost eleven o’clock at night,” he tossed over his shoulder. “He doesn’t get to be atyourplace, at this hour. Dipshit.”

Dipshit?

The doorbell rang again. Gray hauled open the door.

The man who’d been ringing the bell—three times—blinked owlishly. Emerson caught a quick glimpse of him and his stunned face because, apparently, he had not been expecting Gray to answer her door.

“Uh, ah, Agent Stone,” Nathaniel Hadaway began. “What are you?—”

“What in the hell are you doing at my partner’s door at eleven o’clock at night?” Gray barreled over Nathaniel’s words.

“I-I?—”

Nathaniel wasn’t usually the type to stutter or flounder at all. Normally, he was overly pompous and in full know-it-all mode. But Gray’s voice had a lethal edge, and she could practically see the fury pouring off him. That fury seemed to have terrified Nathaniel.

“Emerson isnotfor you,” Gray blasted. “Your dumbass lost that chance long ago. I told you before, stay the hell away from her and get out of my town.”

“But—” Nathaniel rose onto his toes. Even on his toes, he was still inches shorter than Gray. Nathaniel strained to see her.“Emerson, I just want to talk! For old times’ sake, just give me a moment. Tell your—your partner here to let me in!”

Um, how about no? Emerson tapped on Gray’s very broad shoulder. He turned his head to look at her.

“Please,” Gray said, voice softening just a fraction as he stared at down her, “let me kick his ass out of the building. It would bring me such joy, and don’t you want me to be happy?”

“Emerson!” Nathaniel’s near shout. A nasally shout.

She peered over at him. Then back at Gray. The two men could not have been more different. Nathaniel with his polo and khakis, his slightly rounded chin and slicked back hair. Slender, at least four inches shorter than Gray even when Nathaniel was on his toes.

Weak.

And Gray…practically vibrating with energy. Rage? Handsome face tense, body strong. Muscles ready to attack. Dressed in his expensive pants and shirt but poised to strike at any moment. Because while he might dress the part of the gentleman, the truth was that Gray held a savagery barely in check, and it was a savagery that had called to her from the first moment they’d met.