Page 74 of Dirty Dancer

“I’ll stop.” Because telling her would let that ugliness into her world and when she brushed her lips to mine, I slid my fingers into her hair to keep her there. Long, slow, drugging kisses were just what I needed.

Emersyn Sharpe was in my blood.

My addiction.

My intoxication.

I never wanted to be cured.

RESTRAINT (BONUS POV)

DOC

“Mickey—short for Michael—James.” Almost no one called me Michael. No one. In the military, I’d been James. Or medic. Mickey had been a rebellious teenager all too often getting in to scrapes because I could. Doc—Doc was who I wanted to be. The guy who helped, who fixed, who could take care of others. “Doc works, though.”

“Thank you, Mickey,” Emersyn said, the fact she exhaled my name like it was a physical touch barreled through any professional veneer I’d been trying to maintain where my fragile patient was considered. Images of healed fractures and the damage done to her bones and worse flashed through my mind. But I didn’t see a victim. I saw the survivor. The strong, fierce little bit of courage and determination who stood up for herself and held herself above the hell she’d been immersed in.

As she leaned in to press a kiss to my cheek I turned and her lips touched the corner of my mouth. The attraction I’d bullied down and stuffed into a steel container to be welded shut, burst out from the restraints. Her lips were softer than petals. Instead of pulling back, she nuzzled the kiss to my mouth and my soul ripped squarely in two. The taste of her was something I longed for and I damn well knew better. She was a kid.

Wasn’t that what I told the punks when they brought her to me? A kid with barely any tits and a lifetime’s worth of damage. She needed care, not lust. She needed affection, not passion. The flicker of disappointment in those deep, cinnamon brown eyes jerked free the last bolt as she leaned away. I clasped the nape of her neck.

A hunger I had no business feeling flooded me as she parted her lips and I dipped my tongue in for a taste. One taste. First and last. Then let her go. She deserved to go back to whatever life they’d ripped her from, especially now that the abusive fuck was dead. Need surged through me and the sample did little to ease my desire, if anything, it left me starving and I forced myself to let her go.

“Thank you,” she whispered. “And goodbye.”

The final two syllables slid like a blade right through my ribs. I stared after her as she hurried out of the truck and started across the street. I told myself a dozen times to move, to pull away. I should never have kissed her or let her kiss me, but with the taste of her still tingling on my lips, I put the truck in gear and headed away.

No matter how much my brain said keep moving, my instincts had me looking back. Then I turned the corner and headed back toward her. Just to make sure she got inside. That was what I told myself. Make sure she was safe. The kid needed protecting. Only instead of going into the hotel, she hurried away from it.

Dammit.

She’d chosen the hotel so why leave it? It wasn’t like she had much on her at all and it was too cold for the thin layer of clothing she wore. I jerked the wheel and turned down a side street and put the truck in park. I would probably get a ticket, but I gave less of a fuck about that than leaving Emersyn wandering around Braxton Harbor without a dime to her name.

I’d barely rounded the corner when I found some jackass lifting her off the ground, I could barely see her around him. But she was fighting even if the only sounds escaping her were muffled. Holy shit did she fight. She struck with her legs, her head, and a heated curse exploded from her assailant.

Even as I registered who the voice belonged to, I didn’t slow down. She was fighting so damn hard to get away. A split second before I reached them, she stumbled forward and Liam fucking O’Connell pivoted to face me. He was a big fucker and I’d seen him fight.

Problem for him. I’d also helped train him to fight at one point and I hit him full force going for his midsection. We hit the ground, him first and I made sure to drive an elbow in under his ribs to knock the air out of him. Liam wheezed, but it gave me all the time I needed to roll him onto his side and pin him with my legs as I locked his arm back in a brutal hold. I could break it if I had to, but Liam stopped struggling.

“You okay, Little Bit?” Her pupils were huge and her chest rose and fell rapidly with the shallow breaths she took. She’d gone ashen and if she didn’t answer me soon, I might do more than break Liam’s arm for scaring the hell out of her. She looked from me and then down at Liam. Recognition flickered across her expression and she swayed, then staggered way from both of us.

Since Liam wasn’t fighting anymore, I let him go. She clung to the side of a dumpster before she threw up. Even before I reached her, the shaking trembling her whole body was visible. “Easy Little Bit,” I warned her in a soothing voice that I was near. With care, I gave her a minute to process before I settled a hand on her back. The frantic beat of her heart was a wild tattoo of pure terror. “Easy, I’ve got you.”

“What he fuck, Doc?” Liam demanded. “You tried to break my goddamn arm.”

“Why the hell were you dragging her off the street?” I shot him a look and he had the grace to look a little sheepish. But only a little, his temper was up and he was rotating his shoulder with care. That arm lock hurt like a bitch.

“’Cause she took off on Rome’s watch. You think Jasper’s gonna get over that shit? No. So I came to see what the fuck she was doing, and don’t think I didn’t see her hook up with you.”

“You didn’t see shit,” I snarled back. The last thing I needed was him spreading that shit around. Jasper was enough of a loose cannon without Raptor around to temper him. Fuck knew, Kestrel tried but Jasper’s need to protect overwhelmed his reason and there was a very thin line between defender and monster. I dragged one of the napkins out of my pocket as Emersyn began to straighten and handed it to her. She stared up at me, not totally registering yet and the fact she was letting me hold her up said a lot more. Not that she weighed anything. “You with us, Little Bit?”

“What the fuck is wrong with the little hellspawn?”

Before I could punch his rude ass little mouth, Emersyn laughed and it sounded more like a choked sob.

“Ignore the prick, Emersyn.” I advised, then touched her cheek lightly. There was an imprint from Liam’s hand on her face, reddened skin. I didn’t think it would bruise, but for fuck’s sake. “How fucking hard did you grip her?”

“She was fighting,” Liam answered, all cocky defiance. “Why don’t you ask if she’s had her shots since she bit me.”

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