She had no desire to attend another of the political functions her father had arranged and she especially had no desire to attend the party with Kell.
Not now. Not while her body was flushed and burning with need and he was talking to her father with a steady cool voice as he turned his back on her.
She shot him a glare as he moved across the room, picked his shirt up from the floor, and pulled it back on without a single interruption in his conversation.
He was too tall. Too broad. And his touch was too knowing. As though instinctively he had known her weakness, her need to explore and to touch. To be touched.
Her hands still tingled from that need. Her body burned for it. And she had no idea how to fight it.
She had known sexual desire in the past. Moments when she had considered throwing caution to the winds for a particular touch, but she had always managed to maintain her control and walk away. She hadn’t maintained control this time. She hadn’t been walking away, she had been gasping, begging for more. If it hadn’t been for her father’s ill-timed call, then she would be moaning beneath Kell’s possession now.
She bit her lip, glancing over at him beneath her lashes as he leaned against the counter and talked, his tone a low, rough rumble as his gaze tracked her every move.
Suddenly, she felt more restrained than ever. The walls were closing in on her, the air became too close, suffocating, filled with the scent of sex and her own regret.
Shaking her head fiercely at the thought, she turned and stalked back to her bedroom, slamming the door b
ehind her in frustration before heading for the shower.
A cold shower.
She had to find her control. Somehow, it had been stripped away from her one slow touch at a time, one erotic discovery after another. And she had no idea how to recapture it. Or how to save her heart.
Because she knew Kell Krieger was stealing it. Stealing her heart and endangering her soul with each kiss, each touch. Letting him go would break her. And keeping him wasn’t an option.
Her father dreamed of such a match. And it was her greatest nightmare. A man who could imprison her with his love, with his fears for her. Who would sap all the dreams that filled her and leave her with nothing but regret.
Was that how it had happened with her mother? she wondered as she stepped into the shower. Had her father hemmed her in so tightly that nothing mattered but escape? Had she regretted it when she lay in the hospital dying from the injuries of her crash? Had she known? Had she regretted? Had she thought of the husband and child she was leaving behind and the horror her choice would bring to them?
Emily had sworn years ago that she wouldn’t let that happen to her. She wouldn’t be weak. She wouldn’t marry a man determined to control her. She wouldn’t give in to loving a strong man until she could learn how to stand firm against her father’s demands.
If a woman couldn’t stand up to her father, then how could she have any hope of standing up to a lover or a husband?
And would a woman ever have a chance of standing up against Lieutenant Kell Krieger? She had a feeling he would be the ultimate mountain to climb, as well as the most dangerous. The most challenging. And certainly the most tempting.
She was going to have to be very careful. He was becoming a weakness, and right now, Emily knew she couldn’t afford this particular weakness.
Nine
KELL DISCONNECTED THE CALL WITH the senator and stared broodingly at the cell phone in his hand for long seconds. He had to give the man credit. His timing sucked. One more minute and the call would have been ignored for the sheer pleasure he would have found giving Emily her first passionate ride.
Or the sheer insanity of blowing his own head off. It was only after hearing the phone sing out its distinctive song that he had realized he hadn’t sheathed his raging hard-on in a condom.
Dumb. Stupid. And here he had assured her that he knew how to protect himself, if not her.
But it was also the most pleasure he swore he had ever known.
He should have been shaking in his boots at the thought of taking a virgin. Especially a virgin whose father was actively seeking a particular brand of husband for her. A virgin who eroded his common sense and self-preservation. The one who had been tempting his dreams for too many years. He should have felt the noose tightening around his neck the minute those hot lips of hers touched his flesh.
But there was something right about her touch. Something that called to him despite his misgivings. And he had a lot of misgivings, her father being one of his chief concerns.
Shaking his head, he flipped the phone open again, hit Reno’s speed dial and waited.
“I have five minutes,” Reno said quietly. “The senator has a meeting on the Hill and we’re escorting him.”
“Keeping you busy, is he?” Kell smirked.
“Watch it, Lieutenant, I could have Macey trade places with you and let you play the senator’s aide.”