Page 72 of When He Defends
She stared into his eyes.
He tried not to kiss her again. But her mouth was right there. Tempting. Perfect.
“Something you do…” Emerson prompted, her voice a careful whisper, “when you are with all of your fake wives?”
He smiled.
“That’s lethal. You should be careful when you use that grin.”
He carried her across the suite and sat her down right in the middle of the big, four-poster bed. “You’re lethal.” He meant that. She was extremely dangerous to him. “Stay there a second, would you, sweetheart?”
Then he very thoroughly and methodically searched the room for any hidden surveillance material. Cameras. Bugs. Whatever. He was a suspicious sonofabitch. When he was certain the suite was clear, he returned to stand near the bed. And Emerson. “I’ve ordered champagne every time I’ve forced friends to go undercover. Always worked for them, so I figure, why the hell not?”
“Sure. Why not?”
“If you’re honeymooning and you don’t order champagne, it might look suspicious.” The champagne chilled in a bucket near the bed. Two tall flutes waited beside the bucket. “But at least there are no rose petals in here. Heard those can be a pain when they stick to your ass.”
“What?” Her brow scrunched.
He ran a finger down the bridge of his nose and remembered a particular conversation with his buddy Ronan. Ah, Ronan. A hitman turned devoted husband. That happened. A guy started playing pretend, and lines blurred. The next thing you knew…
Your wife is pregnant, and she and your kid are the only things that matter in the world. Mostly because they are your world.
Ronan had recently told Gray his good news about the baby. And maybe…hell, maybe…
Am I envious?
“Why are you looking at me that way?” Emerson asked. She scooted and sat on the edge of the bed. She crossed one leg over the other. Lazily kicked one high heel. Emerson and her heels. She truly had the sexiest shoes ever.
The next time he fucked her, the shoes were stayingon.“Just what way am I looking at you?”
Her lips pursed. “You’re not doing it anymore. I shouldn’t have said anything.”
He shouldn’t have been looking at her like she was his dream. This situation was about business. About victims. Not about him and his fantasies with Emerson. “Our second couple—Zac and River Turner—gave us an agenda to follow.”
She nodded. “You mentioned in the briefing today that River posted her activities to her social media profiles.”
“Right. So we’re going to do exactly what River did. The sunrise yoga. The stand-up paddleboarding. You, not me. River’s husband never got near the water. He just watched from the beach. I’ll do the same.”
Emerson winced. “Paddleboarding. I’m sure I won’t wind up even a little soaked.”
“Then there’s the spa. River specifically mentioned a masseuse named Angel in one of her social media posts. Butwe can’t start all this work until tomorrow. It’s our honeymoon night. If we’re suddenly hot and heavy on the activities, it might raise suspicions. After all, we are supposed to be deeply, deeply in love.” He put his hands on the edge of the bed, on either side of her hips. He leaned in close to her. “I’m not supposed to be able to keep my hands off you.”
She glanced down. “They are not touching me.”
No, they were not. But he very much wanted them to be touching her.
“Rylan is on the grounds,” Gray said because he hadn’t given her this update yet. “He checked in an hour ago.”
Her gaze was still on his hands.
“Agnes and Trinity will be arriving a bit later. Their cover is that they are on a ladies’ getaway. Rylan is here under the guise of participating in a golf tournament.” Gray paused. “And Malik is holed up close by. Keeping out of sight, but he’ll come forward if we need him. He’ll be our primary tech support while we are at the resort.” Made sense because Malik was a freaking tech genius. The guy wanted more field time, but his skills with computers were pretty damn priceless.
“You said none of the attacks actually happenedhere.The couples were all killed shortly after leaving the resort and returning home.” She tucked a lock of hair behind one ear. “So we should be safe here. I mean, that’s even provided that we attract the killer’s attention.”
“Sweetheart, you attract attention wherever you go.” To be clear.
“Is that a compliment? Or a criticism?”
