Burned

by Melody Anne

  “Fine. You have exactly five minutes,” Piper warned her as she plopped down on one of the benches in front of the full-length mirrors.

  “Thanks. Love you tons.”

  With that, Elena walked steadily ahead, took another deep breath, and swung the door open. When she turned the corner of the short hallway, she found Tyler leaning against the wall, His expression was unreadable, but that was fine by her. She could wear a pretty damn good mask of her own, if she had to say so.

  “Are you okay, Elena?”

  That was all he said.

  “I’m sorry. My drink hit me wrong and I got overheated — hot all over. I had to cool down,” she said as she slinked up to him. His eyes widened when she put out a hand and caressed his chest. “I believe you told me to prove it.”

  And then she leaned against him, circling her hand behind his head and pulling him down to her. She captured his lips and opened herself up, her hands splaying across his chest, her tongue tasting his excitement.

  Tyler’s shock at her boldness lasted only a second, maybe less, and then he was pinning her against the wall as his mouth devoured hers.

  Elena had been prepared for the kiss, or at least she’d thought she’d been prepared, but as his tongue traced the contours of her mouth, her stomach tightened and her core grew dangerously wet. And she knew that no amount of preparation in the world could have clued her in to how good it would feel to be in his arms again, even if she hated the man.

  His body was hard and unyielding, and he was running his hands up and down her sides, drawing closer and closer to her breasts with each pass. What he was doing with his mouth — she’d never experienced anything like it before.

  His touch was searing her, and when a low groan erupted from his throat, the sound traveled straight through her veins and pulsed deep inside. No, she hadn’t thought this revenge plot through. Not at all.

  “Oh, Elena, are you as turned on as I am right now?” He leaned back only far enough to trail his lips across her jaw and trace the skin at her neck.

  “I…uh…we… Too pubic…public!” she stuttered, her embarrassment quickly forgotten with her hunger so exposed. Her desperate fingers were clasping his shoulders, holding him to her. She was trying to stop, but her body was rebelling.

  “No one is back here,” he said. He slipped his hand beneath her shirt and stroked her now quivering stomach.

  When he reached the underside of her breasts, she held her breath. She should tell him to stop. This wasn’t part of her plan, but she waited, instead, for what was coming next. She was aching for this.

  He didn’t disappoint her. His hand traced over the lacy fabric of her bra, and his palm cupped her jutting nipples, making her moan in pleasure.

  “You like my touch, don’t you, Elena?” he said. He sucked her bottom lip into his mouth and bit down gently. “Yes, I can feel how much you do,” he answered for her. “Let’s go back to my place.”

  She was trying to remember why she couldn’t do that, why she had to say no.

  “Um, Elena… Hello!”

  Elena heard her name, knew it wasn’t Tyler speaking, but for the life of her she couldn’t drag herself out of the sexual fog that was surrounding her.

  “Go away. Elena’s busy,” she heard Tyler growl.

  “I don’t think so,” Piper replied.

  “Piper!” Her friend’s irritated voice brought Elena back to reality, and she managed to push, rather than pull, against Tyler’s chest.

  That was all it took for him to take a step back.

  “I’m ready to leave now,” Piper said, sending a meaningful look Elena’s way, reminding her that this was what she’d asked her to do five minutes ago.

  Five minutes ago seemed liked eons.

  “I’m sorry. Yes, it’s time to go,” Elena said. She hoped no one noticed that she was panting.

  “Don’t,” Tyler said, almost a panic in his eyes. “I’ll take you home later.”

  Elena was oh so tempted, but she needed to pull herself together. If she went home with this guy tonight, she would be the one losing. Yet again.

  “Sorry, Tyler,” she said, the purr back in her voice. “I have to leave now.”

  After walking a couple of steps away, she turned back around and pulled a piece of paper and pen from her purse, jotted down her number and moved back over to him. She slipped it right there into the front pocket of his trousers, and she let her hand linger there, so close to where she knew he was the hardest. Damn, how she wanted to touch him. Touch wasn’t the word she was really thinking, of course.

  “You may call me,” she said with just enough sass that she watched a spark light his eyes.

  She didn’t look back at him again. She took her friend’s arm and walked away, and she didn’t breathe again until they were outside in the fresh air.

  “You are so spilling,” Piper growled as she hailed a cab and they slipped inside.

  “I will. I promise,” Elena said, leaning her head back against the vinyl headrest. “Just not yet. For now, I’m going to close my eyes and try to get my body under control.”

  “You’re in trouble, Elena, big trouble. If you carry through with this, I don’t think Tyler Knight is going to be the one who gets punished.”

  “Yeah, I know that too,” Elena said.

  And then she was done talking. Her friend was right. She was in trouble — big, huge, monstrous trouble.

  Chapter Seven

  The day was warm, exceptionally warm for May in Seattle. Elena had changed her mind several times in the hour before finally going to meet Tyler. How was she supposed to make him want her so badly that it would kill him to lose her if she kept refusing to see him?

  He’d called her before she’d even made it home the night at the club, and then had continued calling her all week. She’d put him off long enough.

  Now she found herself next to his car as he tugged on the tie he was wearing.

  “I think I overdressed,” he told her, the knot slipping loose and the satin material sliding through his fingers.

  Elena found her focus drifting to his chest, then chastised herself for her ridiculous hormones. She didn’t desire him – okay, she didn’t want to desire him.

  “I should have checked the weather before leaving the apartment,” she said, wishing that she’d worn a T-shirt instead of a sweater. She didn’t have anything beneath it, so she was most likely going to suffer.

  “Climb inside. We’re running late,” he told her.

  “Where are we going?”

  “One of my favorite places. It’s outside of the city and quiet.”

  That didn’t answer her question, but she found herself sitting down and buckling up and soon they were on their way.

  Elena wasn’t sure if it was the heat or the man sitting next to her, but she couldn’t get comfortable. After they rode in silence for about half an hour, he was approaching one of the ports.

  “Are we taking a ferry?”

  “Yes.”

  They didn’t have to wait long until they were given the go-ahead to drive onto the ferry, and then Tyler turned toward her as other passengers exited their cars and moved toward the stairs. Everyone else was eager to sit out on the deck as the boat made its way to one of the islands near Seattle.

  As he looked in her eyes¸ Elena knew right then and there that she was making a very foolish mistake. After she made love to Tyler eight years ago — well, to be realistic he’d used her like a cheap hooker — she’d been devastated. The man still didn’t remember her, yet her body was in a constant state of arousal around him.

  She should stop with these plans of hers, get out of his car, take the ferry back to the shore and find her way home. What she shouldn’t be doing was sitting in a hot car with the even hotter man, breathing in his scent, gazing at what could only be described as perfection.

  “I really have a lot of work to do this weekend, so I don’t want to be out late,” she told him.

  “Really? Wh
at kind of work?”

  She froze. He didn’t know she was an attorney, didn’t know what she did. That’s how she wanted to keep it. The less he knew about her, the better.

  “I don’t want to get into all the boring details,” she said with a false laugh. “Besides, if I start telling you about my work, we won’t have any mystery left between us.”

  “I like mystery, but not lies, sweetheart,” he said, and she shifted in her seat. “I spoke to Piper last night when I wasn’t able to get ahold of you, and she said you ‘girls’ didn’t have any plans this weekend, that you were planning on watching a bunch of movies and eating gallons of ice cream.”

  “Piper told you this?” Elena was horrified.

  “It took some prying, but I’m good at obtaining information.”

  “And this is something that gives you a sense of satisfaction?”

  “Very,” he told her. “I can see that you disagree, but in the business world, you obtain information on your opponents. It’s how you stay on top.”

  Elena felt her heart slowing as her irritation grew. Her infatuation with the man diminished markedly when he was ticking her off.

  “So you think it’s okay to invade a person’s privacy?”

  If she hadn’t been so annoyed, she might have thought her words through. This wasn’t the way to seduce any man, and especially a playboy like Tyler. But it was hard to keep her eye on the end of the game when the guy sitting next to her caused so many conflicting emotions to roll through her in such a short amount of time.

  “If necessary.”

  “Am I your opponent, Tyler?”

  “No, Elena. You are a challenge. I never give up on a challenge.”

  “You’re so smooth, Tyler. You seem always to know exactly what to say, don’t you?”

  He was so much more sophisticated than she was. The chances of her winning even this round were slim to none in reality. Wouldn’t she be far wiser just to exit his car and go back home?

  “I would say that’s an accurate description of me.”

  “And it doesn’t bother you if people might not find any merit to your words? After all, you apparently spew them out without any serious thought?”

  That made him pause for a moment.

  “You don’t mince words, do you, Elena?”

  “No,” she told him. “In general, I find honesty to be best way to go.” Okay, so she was being a bit ironic, but what could she say?

  “I do as well. So, in all fairness, I should warn you that I plan on sharing a bed with you very soon.”

  Elena’s heart rate hit into overdrive again, just like that. He reached across and placed his hand on her leg. She wanted to push him away, to tell him there was no way in hell that was going to happen, but she stopped herself at the last minute.

  “If — and that’s a big if — I decide that you might be someone worthy of ‘sharing a bed’ with,” she said, her voice husky. She wasn’t even acting when the breathlessness crept in. Dammit, once again.

  “Believe me, you’ll find me worthy. And more than ‘a big if.’ You’ll never want to leave once I’ve sunk inside you.”

  Clenching her jaw to keep from groaning, she felt her body tense. But it was absurd. Why was she feeling the heat? And why was she fighting an image of the two of them sweaty and entwined? It was flashing through her mind, and she hated herself for that.

  “Does that come from long experience, Tyler? Or have your multiple partners left a thank-you note beside the bed telling you how incredible you?”

  Tyler didn’t even blink. He grabbed her hand and brought it to his lips, kissed her knuckles, and brushed his tongue across her palm in a slow caress.

  “I know myself, Elena. I know what I want and I know when a woman wants me. And, darling, you want me as much as I want you. I’m willing to jump through some hoops to make it to your bed. I have faith that you will be worth the wait.”

  Faith? That was an odd word to use at this juncture. But molten heat settled between her thighs as he continued kissing her hand and wrist. She tugged, but he wasn’t letting her go. If she fought him too hard, this was over. But if she continued letting him kiss her the way he was, she was going to melt into a puddle. She was more than wet as it was.

  When the horn sounded, alerting them that they were pulling up to the port, she breathed a sigh of relief. If she’d had to deal with more of his tongue and lips on her skin, she’d have been begging him to climb into the backseat of his SUV.

  Yes, a backseat. That brought back old memories of Tyler Knight. Though this backseat was smaller than the one she’d lost her virginity in.

  “Saved by the bell,” he told her as the traffic began moving forward. “For now.”

  “Are you going to tell me yet where we’re going?”

  The island he had chosen was a favorite place of hers, small, quiet, intimate, though he didn’t know that. Now she would remember being there with him and her memories would be tainted.

  “I have a cabin here. I thought we’d do a late lunch,” he said with a smile. “And if we choose, we can stay the night.”

  “That won’t happen,” Elena told him, panic tightening her throat.

  “We will just have to see how it goes. I’m optimistic, and I have good reason for that.”

  The seductive smile he sent her had her body trembling. This date was a very, very bad idea.

  Chapter Eight

  Tyler felt as if he were walking in a field of land mines. But if he didn’t show his fear to Elena, he might be able to avoid an explosion. Never let them see you sweat, and pray for the best, and all those old, hackneyed lines. But the tactic had worked for him so far, and maybe it would again.

  For a week he’d been playing phone tag with this woman. Under normal circumstances, he would have bailed out after the first day. He knew when someone wasn’t telling the whole truth, and it was more than obvious to him that Elena had her secrets.

  What were they? He didn’t have a clue. She probably knew exactly who he was and she was hoping to entrap him. Broken condom? Faked pregnancy? Who knew? But he’d already had a couple of disastrous relationships and there was no chance of that happening.

  Still, there was something about this woman — something so familiar. It was almost as if he knew her, but that wasn’t possible. Still, that was the reason he used to justify his pursuit. He had to have her, had to see this thing through to its inevitable conclusion.

  He would have her in his bed. And then he’d be done with her. No problem. No pain. And who wanted any gain?

  As he pulled up to his cabin, he wondered why he was bringing her to this place. It was his retreat, a place he and his brothers all came to when they wanted to get away from the city, away from the chaos of their lives. They didn’t bring women there.

  “I wasn’t expecting this,” Elena said, breaking him from his reverie.

  The water gently lapping at the shore and the birds singing in the trees were the only sounds that could be heard, and the nearest neighbor was a mile down the road. This was one of his favorite places in the whole wide world. Jeez. Why was he always reverting to clichés nowadays? Get a grip, man.

  And he did. “I enjoy the quiet when I come up here. There aren’t a lot of people around, and we count everyone in the area as friends. We also respect one another’s privacy.”

  He opened the car door on his side before she could respond, and he felt a smidgen of frustration when she didn’t wait for him to come around to assist her before she started to get out of her side. He still waited as she climbed out, and he made a point of shutting her door, though he hadn’t been able to do the chivalrous thing and open it.

  This certainly wasn’t something his parents had taught him. No. It had been taught to him by Bill, the man who’d raised him, the man who had given him values. Tyler had turned his nose up at those values for a few selfish years, but he’d gotten past that, hadn’t he?

  He wasn’t proud of that time in his life, that time wh
en he’d been drinking too much, made no real friendships, and had turned his nose up at the people in his life who mattered most. Bill had been greatly relieved when Tyler had pulled his head out of his ass.

  Tyler had served his time. He’d done penance, or so he hoped.

  “I’ve always enjoyed these islands,” Elena said. “They’ve grown more crowded over the years, but you can still find quiet places. Thanks for bringing me here.”

  Tyler was surprised by her genuine enthusiasm for a place he loved. He was so on guard with the woman that he could almost discern her game-playing versus her moments of genuineness.

  Once they were inside the living room, he watched Elena as she looked at the pictures hung on the walls and the simple pieces of oak and leather furniture. The home was comfortable with a fireplace, nice stereo system and plush furnishings. It certainly wasn’t lavish.

  “No TV?” she asked.

  “Nope. All of us come here to get away from that sort of noise,” he told her. “We do, however, enjoy having music. We also have Internet. None of us can get away from that for even a single day.”

  She stepped outside the back door with him behind her, and the weathered wooden boards creaked beneath their feet. The air was cooler over here than it had been in the city, which made it a perfect time to start a fire.

  He left her alone while he gathered the wood and put it together in the rock fire pit he’d had specially built.

  “I hope you enjoy barbecue,” he told her after the blaze was going strong, and he dragged out a couple of chairs.

  “I’m pretty versatile in what I like.”

  The hungry look she sent his way had his groin tightening. She confused him. One moment she was sending him all the right signals, and the next she was putting on a chastity belt.

  Without a second thought, he grabbed her, tugging her tightly into his arms. “Dessert always should come first,” he murmured.

  His lips fastened to hers and he didn’t waste time gaining access to her mouth. With a hungry groan, he feasted on her, enjoying their first kiss since that night at the bar.