Assumed Identity - By Julie Miller Page 0,50
I asked. Why are you carrying a concealed gun?”
“Because I can in Missouri.”
She drew in a soft gasp that echoed in the hallway. “That’s not an answer.”
The security lights were too dim to tell what emotion darkened her eyes, but he could see them darting back and forth. She was trying to figure him out. Join the crowd, honey. She was trying to resolve the dangerous man he was with the hero she wanted him to be. Allow him to clarify. He leaned in, pressing his chest against her open palm, backing her into the wall without moving a step. He moved into her personal space and watched her pupils dilate with fear. “Don’t mistake me for Prince Charming.”
“I dated Prince Charming. It didn’t work.” Her voice hushed to a throaty whisper. Uh-oh. Backfire. Was she flirting with him? Even worse, was he playing this game with her? Their emotions must be too on edge for him to be thinking straight. “You’ve been watching the shop every night? Most people would think that’s creepy—you, armed and dangerous, spying on me from the shadows.”
“I am creepy.”
“No, you’re not.” She brought up her other hand to rest it against his chest. Only, her hands weren’t resting. They were moving, smoothing out the wrinkles in his shirt, petting him. “Don’t say things like that.”
Jake shrugged. She thought that telling him to stop being such a wiseass would get him to stop? He could snap her in two like a toothpick if he wanted to. Yet she somehow saw past the attitude and the ugliness, and never once backed down from arguing with him. Either she was a fool, or he was. And he was beginning to think it was the latter. “I’ve been coming over on my dinner break. You made me feel guilty that day at the bar.”
“That wasn’t my intention.”
“Wasn’t it? Didn’t you want me to get involved?” Jake flattened his hands on the wall on either side of her head and leaned in another fraction of an inch. He was making one last try at intimidating her out of this hero-worship thing that toyed so recklessly with the emotions he normally kept in check. But he breathed in her flowery, feminine scent and knew he was toast. His whole body buzzed with anticipation and he hadn’t even touched her.
“Yes. If you were involved... I’m used to handling whatever life throws at me on my own, Jake. Business issues. Personal disappointments. Family responsibilities. But I can’t handle this. If you would help...” She swallowed her nerves and Jake watched the movement all the way down her creamy throat. Her eyes were dark like the twilight sky when she tilted them up to his. “I need you. You’re the biggest, baddest S.O.B. I know. I don’t think that creep will keep messing with us if you’re around.”
Jake nodded. He liked that answer. It was honest. Probably true. He was all kinds of wrong for this woman. But he liked the way she talked. He liked the way her pale skin glowed in the hazy light. He liked the fresh, pure female scent of her filling his head. And he liked the way she touched him, putting her hands on him like she wasn’t afraid to.
A better man would have pushed away from the wall and let the night air cool the heat between them. But Jake wasn’t that man. Instead of walking away, instead of doing the polite thing and retreating a step, he closed the distance between their lips and kissed her. He curled his fingers into the burlap weave of the wall behind her, bracing himself for a shove in the chest. The kiss was as gentle as he knew how to make it, and that wasn’t very. He was hungry to taste what kind of woman she was. All lady? All fire? Some combination of both? He pressed his mouth down on hers, tilting her head back. He sucked her bottom lip between his and stroked his tongue along its cool softness until it warmed and quivered and parted from its mate, releasing a tender sigh across his grizzled cheek.
Confused by her lack of resistance, Jake pulled back, his eyes seeking hers in the shadows. He didn’t realize he’d asked a question, but Robin nodded. “Like this.” Then she tugged on his chin to align his mouth more fully with hers, and stretched up to seal their lips in a decadent, openmouthed kiss.
Branded by an unexpected rush of heat,