I didn’t want it to beserious. This should all have been a misunderstanding. Things like this weren’tsupposed to happen to me. They were supposed to happen to people who werealready doing the wrong thing, who’d gotten caught up in something they shouldn’thave.
I knew that wasn’t how the realworld worked, but up until now it was howmyworld hadworked. Much as I didn’t like it, I was scared. I’dbeenscared, clutchinga leather dress shoe for dear life and fooling myself that it’d be enough totake out an armed attacker.
And it was my own fault Grayhadn’tbeen here. I’d set the terms.
I just couldn’t stand the ideaofneedinghim. Needinganyone.
I took care of myself.Always had.
“I’m gonna strongly advisecalling the police now,” Gray said. “And if there’s anything in this apartmentyou don’t want them to find, give it to me and I’ll handle it.”
It took me a few seconds tofigure out what the hell he was saying. “Do you mean like… drugs?”
Gray rolled his eyes. “No, I mean likesmuggled exotic animals.”
“Oh, right, I’ll just getthe zebra I keep in the bathroom, then,” I shot back, not sure that peopleactually smuggled zebras. How would you even go about that? Paint the wholething one color and then claim it was a weird-looking horse?
“I’m trying to protect you.”Gray folded his arms across his chest, and I could justtellthe fabric ofhis suit jacket was straining at the back.
Hiring someone who was really,reallyhot suddenly felt like a mistake.
“There’s nothing in theapartment I don’t want the police to see,” I said, not wanting him to think Iactuallywashidingsomething. For whatever reason, his approval meant a lot to me.
“Okay, well… is there anyother reason not to call?”
I don’t want anyonegoing to any trouble?
That sounded stupid even inmy own head, so I didn’t say it.
The sound of the door latchclicking made my stomach drop to my knees. Were they back?
Gray reacted faster than Iever could have, shoving me into the bedroom and pressing me up against thewall, one hand covering my mouth. Which was just as well, because I couldn’t stop myselffrom crying out in protest, and the idea was obviously to avoid whoever wascoming in.
It was probably the wrongmoment to be thinking this, butdamndid Gray smell good. He’d clearly shavedbefore coming here, the warm, masculine, slightly spicy scent of aftershaverising off his jawline.
The image of him kissing hisway along mine came back to me with a lurch, my brain happily checking out ofthe current situation in favor of dealing with it. As coping methods went itwas probably the worst one I could be prone to, especially right now.
But that wasn’t stopping mybrain from taking me on a magical tour of justhowgood Gray feltagainst me, and how curious I’d been about what it’d be like if he’d takencharge. The answer washot, as it turned out, and if I survived thenext ten minutes I’d have enough fantasy material to last me for weeks.
I closed my eyes, trying tofocus on the sound of the door swinging open, the footsteps on the tiledentryway.
“Hello?” a woman’s voicecalled.
Louisa. The buildingmanager.
I almost slid down the wallwith relief.
Gently, I reached out tomove Gray’shand away from my mouth, making what I hoped was eloquent eye contact with him.He moved his hand out of the way and backed off a pace, so I figured I’d gottenthe point across.
Rearranging the robe I waswearing, I took a deep breath and headed into the living room.
Louisa was looking aroundwith her jaw hanging open. I liked her—maintenance always got done, and she’d given me abottle of wine when I first moved in, which was definitely the way to my heart.
Plus, she had fantastictaste in shoes. Today’s pair were leopard-print stilettos.
“Mr. Emerson,” she said,finally looking away from the disaster my living room was. “One of your neighborsreported hearing some unusual noises. I was just coming by to see if you wereokay.”
“I’m fine,” I managed, butit tasted like a lie. I wasn’t fine. People had broken intomy home. I was supposedto be safe here.
