Page 53 of Cast in Shadow
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I fought like a wildcat when Emerson lifted me off my feet and spun me around, but the next thing I knew, I was draped over his broad shoulder.
“Never, Senna.” He smacked my aching ass hard. “I will never let you slip away from me again.”
That declaration stole what was left of my fight. When he set me on my feet next to my Jeep, he trapped me against the door, his strong arms bracketing me in. His black shirt clung to the planes of muscle beneath, but the jerk was barely breathing hard.
In contrast, my breath was coming in jagged pants that made me want to fold forward and put my hands on my knees. Or breathe into a paper bag. Or sink to the ground and just lie there for a while. But there was nowhere to go.
The way his big frame radiated warmth into my already overheated body, it was like a furnace was going full blast between us. I put a hand to his chest and pushed.
“Too hot,” I said on a rough exhale.
He took half a step back as a smirk turned up the edge of his mouth. “You always were.”
I rolled my eyes. Sometimes his words dripped with the kind of honey and spice that had me dreaming of the many sinful things he could do with that mouth. Other times, he was so corny it was hard not to cringe.
He brought his hand up, brushing a few rebellious strands of hair from my sweaty face. “Did you enjoy your run?”
Did I?
“It was… exhilarating.” I would give him that. Never mind the way my core still ached from the want and need he’d let bleed through our mental connection.
That smirk turned dangerously sexy. “That good, huh? To be honest, I had much bigger plans for when I caught you.”
My heart couldn’t handle this moment.
I already felt dangerously exposed.
Closing my eyes, I rested the back of my head against the cool glass of the driver’s door. “Don’t. Please.” The whispered plea slipped out and his hand fell away. After another endless moment, his presence receded, and crisp morning air replaced the suffocating heat of his body.
“Did I hurt you?” The need to reach out and touch me pushed through our connection.
I shook my head, but that wasn’t entirely true. He hadn’t harmed me physically, but every moment we shared felt like an omen. Like I was setting myself up for a world of pain, and there was nothing I could do to stop it.
When I opened my eyes, he was standing just out of arm’s reach. My idiot heart longed to close that distance, but I kept my feet firmly planted. “The workout was a bit more intense than I’d been planning,” I admitted.
That got a little chuckle out of him. His eyes had faded from that possessive, glowing red to the deep blue that I loved somuch. Truth be told, I loved them both, but it was the blue that pulled me in and threatened to never let me go.
“I wasn’t sure you’d play along,” he said quietly.
“Neither was I.”
Big. Fat. Lie.
The second he told me to run, I knew what we were doing. It wasn’t a game we’d ever played before, but I knew.
He searched my face. “You didn’t answer my question.”
I reached up and fixed my ponytail as best I could before I answered. “I’m fine. I just needed some breathing room.”
Based on his expression, he didn’t completely believe me. It didn’t help that I didn’t believe myself either.
“I asked you to meet me out here to talk about Megan Navali,” I added. That, at least, was the truth.
Sure, I’d thought we might be able to have that conversation during a nice, early morning jog. I ran alone most mornings, so coming out here wouldn’t make anyone at Lexa overly twitchy. And, foolishly, I’d thought it would help me focus on the many things that needed to happen in the near future, and not on the way it felt having Emerson in my head again.
It hadn’t worked out that way. Even when I shut him out of my mind, echoes of him remained. Now, in person, I had to contend with his heated looks, and his warm body, and his nearly irresistible pull.
