Burning Up

remembering what it had felt like to lie curled up in Emmett’s lap. She’d never found herself in a man’s lap before. Most of the men who’d dared run the gauntlet of her family’s protectiveness to ask her out were nice boys from the neighborhood. She had nothing against them. But the thing was, she’d grown up with a father who was fierce in his care of his family, and an older brother who hadn’t deviated far from the paternal mold when it came to looking after those who were his own. They ate those nice boys for breakfast.
    Ria dreamed of a man who’d occasionally chew them up instead!
    Hugging her pillow, she smiled at her own thoughts. You’d think she didn’t like her family. That was far from the truth. But well, they were overwhelming. They kind of took over everything. How was she supposed to respect a man who let himself be taken over?
    I’ll be back to check on you tomorrow.
    Emmett had said that right in front of her father.
    Goose bumps broke out over her entire body. She wondered what those big, strong hands of his would feel like smoothing over her skin, all hot and—
    Her phone beeped. She groaned when she saw the caller ID.
    Tom.
    Sighing, she went to answer, but the well-concealed devil in her made her turn off the cell instead. There was nothing wrong with Tom, except that he wanted to marry her. Her father liked Tom. Even Alex liked Tom. Ria had no problem with Tom. She just didn’t want to marry him. No, what she dreamed of was a love story like her grandmother’s—and Miaoling was the only one in the family who supported Ria’s resistance to the “Great Match.”
    From Alex’s and Simon’s point of view, it truly was a great match. Like her, Tom was part Chinese. Like her, he’d grown up in the States, and had a very Western outlook on life, without having forgotten the other side of his heritage. Best of all, the Clarks and the Wembleys had been friends since before either Ria or Tom had been born.
    It was all perfect.
    Except Tom would never laugh with her over a secret joke as her grandfather had done with her grandmother. He’d never hold her with the furious tenderness with which Simon held Alex when he thought no one was looking. And he’d never pick a fight with her just so he’d get to make up, as Jet did with Amber.
    Why couldn’t they see that she wanted the same thing? All her life she’d been content to let Jet and their younger brother, Ken, take the spotlight. Being the middle child was actually kind of nice—she got the best of both worlds, and her relationship with her siblings was airtight. But with her man, with her husband, she wanted to be number one.
    “Go to sleep, Ria,” she muttered to herself, knowing she was obsessing because she was afraid of nightmares.
    But when she did sleep, it wasn’t to fall into a nightmare . . . but into the powerful arms of a man who looked at her with eyes gone cat-green.
     
    E mmett studied his face in the bathroom mirror the next morning and scowled. It was a wonder Ria hadn’t run screaming from him when he’d taken her into his arms. She was all soft and silky, a luscious armful. He, by comparison, looked like he’d had a few run-ins with both fists and walls. The fists were true, but like all changelings, he’d healed the damage fast. No, this was simply the face he’d been born with. It had never really bothered him before, but now he rubbed a hand over his stubbled jaw and decided he’d damn well better shave before he went to check up on Ria.
    The shave and shower cleaned him up, but he was aware he still looked like a thug when he knocked on the door to her family home. He most definitely looked nothing like the pretty boy walking up the drive with a huge bouquet of roses.
    Shit.
    Why the hell hadn’t he thought to bring flowers?
    “Hello,” the other man said in an Ivy League-educated voice. “I’m Tom.”
    Emmett held out a hand. “Emmett.”
    “Simon mentioned you on the phone,” Tom said with a friendly smile that failed to hide the calculation in his eyes. “You helped Ria last night.”
    “You’re a friend of the family?” Emmett asked to see what Tom would say, just as the door opened.
    “No, he’s my daughter’s fiancé,” Alex said, pulling Tom down for a kiss on the cheek.
    Emmett glanced at Tom. “You don’t believe in rings?”
    “It’s not official yet.” The other man was calm, confident, clearly sure of his suit.
    Emmett didn’t smile, but the leopard snapped