Only Janie didn’t see herself as a damsel in distress. It was true Emmett had pretty much become her bodyguard for hire. But after the week she’d had, yesterday’s news about Amy’s death, and the clandestine meeting with Dr. O’Neill last night, doing something that made her feel alive sounded pretty damn good.
Even if it was just a little harmless flirting.
“A risk, huh?” Emmett set the spoon he’d licked clean on the counter on his way to the freezer. “I mean, itisright there, in my employer’s name.”
It took her a beat to understood what he meant.
Risky because he works for R.I.S.C.
“Funny.” She leaned a hip against the counter to her left.
“I have my moments.”
Emmett closed the freezer door and looked back up at her. Their eyes locked, and the room fell into an awkward silence. One filled with uncertainty and an unprecedented desire that kept pulling her in.
When he didn’t say anything or make a single move letting her know he felt the same way, Janie immediately began to question whether he’d actually been flirting, or if she’d imagined the whole thing. Rather than going down a road leading to utter embarrassment, she chose to put herself out of her misery instead.
She was stronger than this, and she definitely wasn’t a woman who let her emotions—or overactivehormones, for that matter—dictate the choices she made.
“I guess we should probably call it a night,” she whispered to him softly.
“You’re probably right,” Emmett agreed, though neither one of them moved so much as an inch.
They didn’t blink. She wasn’t even sure her lungs had pulled in so much as an ounce of air. Instead they stood feet from each other, his blackened gaze burning into hers. And when she couldn’t take it any longer, Janie finally spoke up. Or, at least . . . she tried to.
“Emmett, I?—”
“Janie, we?—”
They began to talk at the very same time.
A nervous chuckle shook her shoulders. Emmett began walking in her direction.
“Look at me.”
The rumbled order left her heart racing and her body aching with need as he stopped a few inches away. She did as he’d asked and brought her focus back to him.
He reached up, his strong, masculine hand slowly making its way to her face, and Janie sucked in a breath when she felt the spark of his touch. Emmett’s fingers gently tucked some hair behind her ear in a heartwarming gesture.
Janie felt herself lifting up onto her toes. His gaze fell to her lips which had just parted with a stuttering breath.
Her heart was pounding, her head beginning to spin. The sensation almost became too much. In an attemptto keep herself from losing her balance, she put a palm to the counter beside her.
Emmett’s mouth drew nearer. Janie tilted her chin to bring her lips closer to his. Her fingertips came into contact with the previously discarded spoon. It clambered loudly as it fell from the counter and hit the hardwood floor.
Crap!
They both blinked, the beautiful moment effectively ruined by her clumsy move. They both moved simultaneously, each of them bending over to retrieve the fallen utensil.
And that’s when all hell broke loose.
A shot rang out. Glass from the window on the wall several feet behind Emmett shattered. Janie let out a small cry of surprise as her protector threw himself over her body.
“Stay down!” he shouted, pulling a gun from the back of his waistband.
He’s had a gun with him this whole time?
She’d been so busy checking out his ass in those sweats, she hadn’t even noticed it tucked beneath the hem of his shirt.
