Free Eternal Brand by Sami Lee

if it’s what you want.”
    Emily couldn’t speak, too confounded by the idea of Brand groveling to answer his question. In response to her silence, he lowered to his knees behind her. His big hands splayed on her hips, sending heat darting to her center. Then he inched her shirt upward, leaned forward and pressed his cool lips to the exposed flesh of her lower back.
    Emily trembled as he repeated the maneuver again and again, his lips growing warm from the contact with her fevered skin. Brand moved upward, placing whispery kisses along the indents of her spine, tracing the shape of her hips and waist with his fingers. All the while rasping the same two words over and over.
    I’m sorry.
    When his fingertips grazed the underside of her breasts, Emily turned to liquid fire. Her muscles seemed to melt, but when she sagged Brand caught her. He stood once more and turned her so she was cradled in his arms. She couldn’t look away from the raw expression of painful regret on his face.
    â€œI’m sorry, sweetheart,” he said again, stroking her face with one hand while anchoring her body to his with the other. “I love you. Can you forgive me?”
    â€œBrand…” Emily’s voice trembled. She loved this man so much that it was impossible not to be moved by his sincere apology. Yet when he touched his lips to hers, it was Jet she saw him kissing in her mind’s eye.
    With Jet he’d been rough, conquering. With her he was gentle, his lips as soft as silk as they covered hers, his tongue politely questing as it sought entry to her mouth. Emily drove her fingers into his short hair, urging him closer as she offered herself up. He deepened the kiss, but denied her what she craved.
    She wanted the same desperate hunger she’d seen him display with Jet. She’d always sensed it in him but he’d never unleashed it on her. Why not? Why Jet and not her?
    Emily moved her hands to his shoulders, started tearing at his shirt. She wanted it off. She wanted him naked and thrusting hard inside her. To telegraph her needs, she rocked her hips, rubbing her denim-covered mound against the bulge behind Brand’s damp jeans.
    Jet had rubbed against him like that, and Brand had groaned with a wild hunger she’d never heard come out of him before.
    Brand tore his mouth away from hers. “Let me take you to bed.”
    â€œNo. Here.” Emily nipped at his lower lip. Her fingernails dug into his shoulders. “Fuck me here.”
    â€œEm…”
    Brand dove back into kissing her, but Emily sensed his reluctance. Impatiently, she grabbed his wrist and brought his hand to her breast. Her aching nipple stabbed at his palm even through her shirt. With a muttered epithet, he massaged her flesh, teasing the tortured peak to even greater hardness.
    Emily arched into the caress, arousal reaching fever pitch. She popped open two of Brand’s shirt buttons, desperate for skin-to-skin contact. His chest was warm and damp, thick with toned muscle. She shifted her hand downward, ripping open two more buttons so she could touch his abdomen.
    When she moved lower and reached for the snap of his jeans, Brand blocked her progress by wrapping his hand around her wrist. He pulled out of the kiss, his breathing ragged. “Wait, Em. Let me make love to you properly.”
    â€œProperly?” Arousal sharpened to annoyance. “You mean slowly, in a bed.”
    Brand stroked her cheek, like she was a horse he could calm. “What’s wrong with slowly in a bed?”
    â€œIt’s not what you wanted with him ,” Emily snapped and swiped Brand’s hand from her face.
    â€œJesus, Em.”
    â€œIt’s true, isn’t it?” Emily shoved at his chest until he let her go. He didn’t hesitate to step back and give her space. Such a God damn gentleman. His gentility ticked Emily off further. “What would have happened if I hadn’t been here the other