Atlanta Heat Read Online Free Page B

night that you want to bring on, sweetheart.”
    That voice: dark, husky, male. It did something to her. It soothed the anger and the fear and it made the hunger hotter, brighter, the need for his touch almost desperate.
    His head lowered as Emerson felt the familiar slow burn, the rising mind-numbing need that began to fill her. It was more than arousal, more than hunger, and it went deeper than lust. She knew lust. She had felt it often enough before Macey. No, whatever it was her body decided it wanted from this man, it was unlike anything she had ever wanted from a man before.
    “Maybe it would backfire?” She stared at his lips, mesmerized, feeling her lungs struggle for oxygen as adrenaline began to pump hard and heavy throughher body. She had to curl her fingers against her side to keep from touching him, had to fight to keep from tasting his lips.
    “Do you want to find out?” His lips curled into a smirk.
    That smirk capped it.
    “No, Macey, I want you to tease me over it,” she informed him flippantly before turning away.
    She would have walked away if he hadn’t grabbed her. Again. If his fingers hadn’t curled around her wrist and the next thing she knew her breasts were cushioned against his chest and his eyes were glittering down at her.
    That look haunted her dreams. That gleam of lust and awareness that there was something between them that he couldn’t fight any more than she could.
    The instant his lips touched hers, it was over. She was trying to climb into his body, crawl under his skin as his lips moved to take hers.
    God, this was one of the things she had loved about his first kiss. Forget an initiation or discovery. He knew what he wanted, sensed what she wanted, and gave it immediately. His lips settled over hers, his teeth nipping her lips until they parted, and his tongue rushed inside to claim territory that already belonged to him.
    One large hand cupped the back of her head, and his arm tightened around her back, arching her to him. The height and breadth of his body, the powerful lean muscles, the confidence in his hold washedover her, filling her with an awareness of feminine weakness.
    But fear struck her, hard and fast.
    She jerked out of his hold, catching the look of surprise on his face as she stumbled away. She couldn’t think. Instinct and reaction surged inside her. Her veins were pounding with the rush of blood that fueled the arousal.
    What she just experienced was even more intense than the first kiss. More fiery, harder to control.
    As she stared back at him, fighting to make her tongue work, to forget the feel of his against it. He smiled down at her with something akin to tenderness. Surprising, wicked tenderness.
    “Gets hot, doesn’t it, Em?” he crooned, moving toward her, his head lowered, his eyes dark.
    Before she could consider evading him, his hands curved around her upper arms, his hold light, her response to his touch almost violent. His head lowered to her neck, his lips pressing against the throbbing vein pulsing just beneath the skin. The heated caress had her breath catching, her eyelids fluttering with sensual weakness.
    “This isn’t a very good idea.” She licked her dry lips nervously, wondering why it was stronger, why it was hotter than that first kiss a month before, why it made her weaker, made her burn brighter.
    He snorted as he raised his head. “No kidding. The last time the admiral caught me groping you I lost rank. Maybe you owe me for that, Emerson.From lieutenant to junior lieutenant isn’t fun and games. I should at least get a taste of what I paid for, don’t you think?”
    Hurt flashed inside her. “I had nothing to do with that.”
    He shrugged as she jerked away from him. “The admiral might have ignored that last little infraction if he hadn’t caught me devouring your tits. I think that tipped the balance.”
    Emerson felt the flush burning in her face and the anger blooming in her mind.
    “He didn’t see anything.” She