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“Where are you coming from?”
“Same damn place,” he said tightly. “But do you understand what that means? It means there’s a part of me that doesn’t mind being dirty. That scares me. It should scare you.”
She could tell by the implacability of his eyes that her arguments hadn’t made a dent. “You’re going to disappear again, aren’t you?”
“Why do you sound surprised? I told you I would.”
“You also told me that nothing has changed. You’re wrong, Hayes. Everything has changed. Damned if I’m going to let you deny it.”
She reached up, cupped the back of his neck, and pulled his head down so she could reach his lips. He resisted and tried to angle away until she traced the seam of his lips with her tongue, then he not only weakened to allow the kiss, he took command of it.
Suddenly the aggressor, his mouth slanted over hers and feasted on it. He put his hands under her ass and lifted her onto his thighs, then carried her as far as the nearest wall and pinned her there with his body. Her legs went around him, securing him in the cove of her thighs.
With no space between them to allow for thrusts, he applied a firm and insistent pressure that she met with yearning undulations. Their craving for each other was matched only by their frustration, hampered as they were by clothing, by time and place, and by circumstances.
Tearing his mouth free of hers, he buried his face in the ell of her shoulder and neck, his breath fast and hot against her skin. “Yeah, okay, something has changed. When I’m by myself in the night, I’ll want you.”
He dipped his head and found her nipple through her clothing, moving his mouth across it as he hoarsely whispered broken phrases. “Sleeping between your thighs, finding your breasts in the dark, listening to your breathing, and smelling your hair on my pillow. I’ll want all that, damn you. Damn you, Doc. You won’t be easy to let go.”
“Then stay with me.”
“I can’t.”
“You can.”
“I—”
His cell phone chirped. Once, twice, three times. Then it stopped.
They froze, panting, waiting, and when it began chirping again, she lowered her feet to the floor. He released her and stepped back, his hand going straight to his crotch and massaging it, cursing lavishly as he fished the phone from his jeans pocket.
He answered with, “Good timing, Jack.”
As he listened, his expression changed from supreme annoyance to alarm. “Lisa? Can you speak up?” He mouthed an obscenity. “Where? Is your mother there?” A moment later, he hissed another curse, then said, “Do what you can to stay away from them. I’m on my way.” He clicked off.
“What?”
“Her brothers picked her up and took her home. She’s locked herself in the bedroom, but they’re threatening to make good on the lies she’s been telling about them.”
Emory groaned. “Pauline?”
“You don’t want to know.”
“I’ll call the sheriff’s office.”
“Don’t,” he said. “They’d go, Lisa would accuse, the brothers would deny, they’d leave. She’d still be stuck there with them. No, this is one of those dirty jobs. I gotta finish it.”
“This is a matter for the authorities.”
He gave it a few second’s consideration. “All right. Give me ten minutes’ head start.”
“Hayes—”
“Ten minutes.” He moved toward the door.
“I’m going with you.”
“Hell you are. I can’t fight them and protect you at the same time.”
