Free The Last White Knight by Tami Hoag

claim her as his. He stroked his left hand through her thick, soft hair to cup the back of her head and hold her at the angle he liked best. His right hand migrated from the counter to the gentle curve of her hip, fingers kneading, pulling her closer. Her hands came up against his chest, as ifshe meant to push him away, but the action never came.
    He kissed her as if they had all the time in the world, taking full advantage of the fact that she wasn’t fighting him. He could sense her hesitancy, but it was being overridden for the moment by something stronger. The spark that had ignited between them the night before was struggling to come to life, and Erik was determined to do all he could to fan it into a flame.
    Still, when Lynn finally tried to end the kiss, he let her. Some scrap of common sense that hadn’t been completely blown away by touching her told him not to push too many boundaries too soon. She was wary of him. If he let her keep too much distance between them, they would never get the chance to explore this passion blooming between them. But if he allowed himself to be too aggressive, he would ruin his chances altogether.
    “See?” he whispered, his head still bent near hers, his gaze searching her eyes for her reaction. “Argument’s over.”
    Lynn swallowed a breath. A belated tremor shivered down her from the crown of her head to the tips of her toes. “You make a very convincing closing statement, Senator,” she said breathlessly.
    “Erik,” he commanded gently.
    “E-Erik.”
    He smiled at that. His name stumbled out of her mouth like a word from a foreign language. He stroked his hand over her hair and started to draw her close again, just wanting to hold her for a minute longer.
    “Care to make a rebuttal, Counselor Shaw?”
    Lynn started to shake her head. “I don’t think—”
    “No. Your trouble is, you think
too
much.”
    That was hardly the case, Lynn wanted to tell him. All her life she had gotten into trouble for acting, not thinking. She ran on emotion and instinct, action and reaction. Her emotionalism was what had set her apart in her family. Her father had been a man of logic. Her sister, Rebecca, had been the same way—pragmatic, analytical, reserved. And their staid, controlled personalities had only provoked Lynn to behave in an even more outrageously emotional way. Even now, with her rebellion behind her, she tended to act first. Her altercation with Elliot Graham the night before had been a perfect example.
    Martha’s voice came bellowing down the hall and snapped Lynn from her trance. Her hands were still pressed flat against Erik’s chest and she gave him a shove, intending to bolt away from him. He gave her that infuriating little smile of his, holding her asecond longer, then releasing her. The kitchen door swung open and Martha barged in, arms laden with grocery bags. She was followed by three teenage girls, each with a bulging bag in their arms. The bags went on the table. The eyes went to Erik Gunther. Tracy, Michelle, and Barbara stared at him, bug-eyed and slack-jawed, as if they’d never seen a live man before.
    “Hunk-o-rama!” Michelle breathed, nudging Barbara with a bony elbow.
    Tracy Brogan leaned toward the others, dark eyes stuck on Erik. “Do you think he comes with the house?” she whispered.
    Erik blushed and tried to muster a stern look that had no effect whatsoever on the girls. They studied him with open curiosity as they stood there in a tight little knot. Teenage girls. Even as a teenager himself, he hadn’t been able to figure them out. They were like an alien life-form to him. And they looked it, too, he thought as he took in the over-permed hairdo with bangs spritzed into frozen fountains of hair springing high up from their foreheads. He was a man who regularly argued important issues with the most powerful men in the state, but he was suddenly way out of his element and he knew it.
    Lynn cleared her throat loudly in an effort togain