Under the Gun (CEP Book 3) Read Free

chuckle humorlessly when this little realization had hit her—lost its appeal.
    If she were to be really honest with herself, which made her grit her teeth and become a bit irritated, she knew exactly what her problem was when it came to Gunner Murphy: she knew that if she let him, Gunner could break her heart in fifty-million different ways, and she wasn’t about to let that happen.
    So round and round they went, performing a careful tango with each other as they flirted like overly-hormonal teenagers.
    “I’ll do whatever you want me to,” he answered suggestively, his hand resting on the back of her barstool, his thumb smoothing over the soft fabric of her shirt barely grazing against her skin and making goose bumps appear in its wake.
    “Oh, but what I want, you couldn’t handle,” she retorted silkily, looking seductively at him from under her eyelashes.
    “Baby, I can handle anything.” His eyes pierced hers hotly.
    Of that, she had no doubt, damn it.
    She took another drink looking at him over the top of the glass. “But would you respect me in the morning?” she asked pulling the glass away and setting it on the bar.
    He leaned down to whisper in her ear. “Not only that. I’d respect you all night long.”
    She sucked in a breath. God, he was enticing.
    “There you are! Our table’s ready!”
    Quinn’s head shot around quickly to see Tilly walking toward them, and she couldn’t decide if she wanted to kiss her bestie for keeping her from making a huge mistake in taking Gunner home right then or if she wanted to punch her bestie for keeping her from making a huge mistake in taking Gunner home right then.
    Huh.
    Quinn’s eyes slid back to Gunner’s as she licked her lips then she sat up straighter trying to compose herself a bit. Gunner’s eyes flashed as he gazed at her mouth and any kind of composing she was attempting halted as she gasped at the look of pure lust on his face. Holy crap. The man was too attractive for his own damned good.
    When he took her hand to help her down from her barstool, her heart skipped a beat. Good lord, he had it all—he was handsome, a gentleman, and fucking sexy.  When he handed her her glass then retrieved her suit jacket from the back of the stool draping it over his forearm before putting his other hand gently at the small of her back to lead her toward the dining area, she knew she had to be careful because any resistance she tried to employ when it came to Gunner Murphy was just a big fat joke.
 

Chapter 2
     
    Gunner shook his head and wore a slight smirk as he walked with the women, his fingertips softly skimming over the satin blouse at the small of the petite redhead’s back in front of him.
    Quinn McDonnell was one fucking sexy-as-hell spitfire all wrapped up in a killer body. Christ, it was all he could do right then to keep himself from snatching her hand, dragging her outside and throwing her ass into a cab—where he’d proceed to do very naughty things to her on the way to her apartment. Once there he’d fuck her six ways to Sunday until he got the smart-mouthed woman out of his goddamned system once and for all.
    She’d been on his mind for over a year now which had somewhat screwed with his head. Enough so that he’d found himself seeking out redheads to take home when he went out with the guys, which was just fucked up. He’d never been particularly into redheads but since meeting her, they’d become his preference which was even more fucked up.
    But he knew to stay away from Quinn because when he’d met her last year when Oz’s wife had been kidnapped, he’d felt in his gut that Quinn had been a threat. It wasn’t anything in particular that she’d done. It was just…her. He’d felt an immediate attraction to her, nothing like he’d ever experienced with any other woman before, which had him running in the other direction. Fast. And he knew he needed to keep running because he didn’t need that shit now or ever.
    In the past