“Yeah,” he answered gruffly. “Yeah, I am okay.” How could he not be absolutely fantastic when he was holding the most gorgeous woman in the room, a woman so warm and sweet that he wanted nothing more than to devour her? “Thanks,” he added quietly.
She tilted her head back to look at him with a naughty smile. “No need to thank me. I wanted to dance with the most handsome guy in the room.”
Grady grinned. “And you think that’s me, huh?”
“I know it is.” She winked at him and smiled.
His cock was already hard enough to split diamonds just from holding her. Unable to grow any more engorged, it twitched eagerly, making him swallow a groan. There was nothing he wanted more than to bury himself to the hilt inside Emily and never leave her heat. Dropping his hands to her lower back, he nudged her against him. “I want you so badly I can hardly breathe,” he admitted, not caring who heard him.
Her expression turned beautifully aroused, her eyes heated as she glanced back at him longingly. “Kiss me,” she demanded breathlessly.
“I’m afraid,” Grady answered, falling further under her spell.
“Why?”
“I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to stop.”
He felt her body trembling, and he couldn’t deny her or himself any longer. He swooped down and captured her tempting lips, wanting to brand her as his, make sure she never escaped.
Mine!
The kiss was a declaration for him, a fierce possession to let her know he had no intention of ever letting her go. All pretense of dancing stopped as he threaded his fingers through her hair with one hand, holding her head hostage for his marauding mouth. Then he pressed her hips hard against his groin with his other hand, doing a primal dance that had nothing to do with the holidays.
He demanded, and she gave, submitting herself to his possessive embrace, making him completely lose it.
She’s mine.
Grady’s need was primitive, and all-consuming, his desire fueled by her submission and passionate response. She clung to him like he was her life raft in the middle of the ocean, and he relished it. All he wanted to do was shelter her, protect her from anything and everything that might harm her, make her smile every single day for the rest of his life.
They broke apart, panting and gasping for breath, staring at each other like they wanted nothing more than to tear each other’s clothes off to get closer. Grady nearly groaned at the thought of being skin to skin with her, losing himself in her softness.
I need her so damn much.
He and Emily were in the shadows, but he could see some people looking on with smiles and he heard some wolf whistles, approvals of the show he and Emily had just put on. But he didn’t care. Something feral inside him wanted her drenched in his scent, warning every man in the room that she was his.
“I guess not everyone thinks I’m the Amesport Beast anymore,” he said gutturally, still trying to get his ragged breathing under control.
Emily looked at him, stunned. “You knew people called you that?”
“Of course I knew,” he answered hoarsely. “I cultivated the image with my charming personality. As long as people left me alone, I didn’t care what they called me.”
Emily smacked him on the arm. “I’ve done everything I can to repair your reputation for the last few weeks. The whole town knows you donated the money to improve the programs here and that you’re responsible for us having this party. I thought you were being very unfairly maligned. You were my hero.”
Grady liked that thought, and he grimaced at the fact that she had used the past tense in her statement. He wanted to always be her hero, but he shrugged. “I’m not exactly . . . social. I’m an asshole, and all I really had to do was be myself.”
Emily sighed and took a breath to respond, but the words never left her lips. Her face suddenly filled with terror as screams began to fill the room and people scrambled. “P-Paul?” Emily stammered, trying to move out of Grady’s arms. “What are you doing?”
Grady’s gaze shot to a man standing about ten feet to the side of them, a handgun aimed directly at Emily’s head. The guy was wavering, his hands shaking as he held his arms straight in front of him, the lethal weapon slightly tilted. A lunatic, cold, and lifeless gaze trained on Emily told Grady several things at a quick glance: the man was drunk or high, desperate, and determined to die.
Oh, fuck no! He’d just found Emily, and he wasn’t losing her. The bastard could go screw himself. Shifting their positions, he shielded Emily with his body. He could feel her resistance, but she was no match for his brute strength and the adrenaline pumping through his body. The asshole would have to go through him to get to her.
“This your new boyfriend, Emily?” the gunman asked, taking a few steps closer and waving the gun toward Grady. “Grady Sinclair, the billionaire genius. Did you know he’s had agents on my ass for two weeks? Everywhere I go, at every one of my usual hiding places, my friends tell me that Grady Sinclair has had his private security force there looking for me. I’ve had to hide like a rabbit, in some of the dirtiest holes imaginable, because I can’t stay in my usual hideouts. The police never would have found me without you and your boyfriend’s help. He put private investigators everywhere, and they report everything to the police. There’s nowhere left for me to hide anymore. This place is going to be surrounded in a few minutes and I’m not going to prison because his employees are breathing down my neck now along with the police. I’d rather die. But I’m taking you and your asshole boyfriend with me,” Paul said, his voice high, desperate, and slurred. “The police never would have found me without his money and power to put so many people on my ass that I couldn’t escape.”
“Paul, don’t do this. You don’t need to shoot anyone,” Emily cried, panicked. “We can walk out of here right now. I’ll go with you as a hostage so you can get away—as long as you don’t use the gun.”
Grady gritted his teeth, his jaw tight, turning her farther toward safety while his eyes never left the dull, dead eyes of the criminal beside him. His arm gripped like a steel band around Emily’s waist. “Over my dead body,” he growled loud enough for her to hear him.
The bastard might take her, but he’d kill her. Grady could tell by the look on the man’s face that he was determined to die and would be more than happy to take him, Emily, and anyone else who got in his way, along with him. In fact, that was exactly what he wanted. The guy had obviously snapped, his sanity gone. The gun that was swaying in Paul’s hand was a Beretta semiautomatic, and Grady shuddered at the number of kids in the building. Luckily, people were pouring out the front door, taking their children out of danger. “Get ready to run like hell and don’t look back,” Grady ordered Emily in a harsh whisper, mentally wishing everyone would hurry the fuck up and get outside. But not everyone was leaving. There were men in the building who had taken cover, but it was mostly the women and children who were exiting. The men were staying as backup, but sending their women and kids out of harm’s way.