Full, soft lips moved from mine to my chin and down my neck as he licked and nipped, setting my skin ablaze. Bryce’s nimble fingers moved from my head to my hips as he lifted me from the chair I sat on and lowered me onto his lap.
Oh, how desperately I yearned for a repeat of last night, regretting that I’d denied him. Even verbally.
My arms draped around his neck as I straddled him. Desperate for this human touch, this intimacy that was perfect between us.
Our mouths met once more, clashing together, eagerly trying to satiate the hunger that was growing between us. Grinding my hips against him, I stroked the temperature up a few notches, and he moved his hands up my tank top, releasing the clasp on my strapless bra freeing my breasts.
I reached down and tugged at the hem of my tank top, tossing it aside and allowing the bra to fall into my lap. I pushed it onto the floor as Bryce rolled my nipples under his thumb and bit my bottom lip.
A groan escaped his lips as he brought his head down to catch my nipple between his teeth. The searing pain that shot through me brought such intense pleasure that I damn near climaxed at the moment.
My hands clasped the back of his head, pulling him closer to me, sealing the contact of his lips to my breasts.
Thoughts of Anita’s comment when she first met Bryce ran through my mind.
Yes, he could get it! I thought as I rolled my hips, stroking my denim-covered pussy against his hard cock. The conversation I’d held with the other ladies danced along the edges of my brain, but my body’s desire pushed it further back.
“I need you, PJ.”
“Okay,” I whimpered, coming undone at his touch and kisses. My body had never been so on fire. So much so that I could smell the smoke coming from our explosive contact.
Slowly, my eyes opened as I realized what I was doing. How was I losing myself like this again? He would leave soon, and I’d be heartbroken. And then another more jarring realization occurred to me.
“Bryce,” I whispered.
The contact with my breast deepened as he sucked it further into his mouth.
Slowly he moved to my other breast, his fingers finding their way to the button of my jean shorts, popping it open. A slow throbbing built within me as another unfamiliar sense took over. One of alarm.
“Bryce?” I said firmly.
“So sweet,” he muttered, slipping a finger into me.
“Bryce!” I cried out urgently, pulling away as the sound of sirens overtook me.
“PJ? I’m sorry. Too much, too fast?” he asked, concern filling his eyes.
“No!” I said, hopping up off his lap, fixing my shorts, and snatching my bra from the floor. “Don’t you smell that?” I asked as the acrid smell of smoke burnt my nostrils.
“Smells like...something’s on fire,” he said, grabbing my tank top off the floor as I fastened my bra.
He slid it over my head and grabbed my hand. “Come on!” he shouted, pulling at the break room door.
When we stepped out into the hallway, alarm filled me as I took in the sight of flames licking up the shelves, cash register, and children’s area. The pungent smoke slowly reached out to circle a hand around my throat, sending me into a coughing spasm.
“Oh my god!” I screamed, tears filling my eyes as panic and horror filled me once I’d quit coughing.
I took off running toward the front of the store, but before I could get too far, Bryce was on my heels.
“What the hell are you doing?” he asked, ripping his t-shirt from his body and pushing it up to my face.
“Saving my store!” I shouted, coughing around the cotton of his shirt.
“The hell you are!” he said, lifting me and tossing me over his shoulder.
“Bryce, I need to stop it!” I screamed as he ran towards the rear door.
I listened as he pushed and kicked at the door, but it wouldn’t give. Pounding on his back, I shouted, “It’s locked, and the keys are in my office!”
Quickly I placed his t-shirt over my mouth again as the smoke began to take over.
Bryce was fighting through the smoke and struggling to maintain his coughing attack, as well. I knew we had limited time before either one or both of us passed out.
The sirens screaming all around, grew louder in my head.
“Hold tight to me,” he said, moving backward.
Still hanging upside down and trying to manage through my pounding headache, I used one hand to secure the t-shirt over my nose and mouth. I gripped the waistband of his pants as tightly as I could just as he ran forward.
I heard the shattering of glass and knew he kicked out the long window on the side of the back door.
CHAPTER 14 – BRYCE
I HELD HER CLOSE WHILE tears streamed from her eyes, her shoulders shaking as she sobbed. I watched with dozens of others in horror as the firemen brought the flames under control, but there was nothing that I could do to get Peyton’s emotions under control.
“Where were you, Peyton? I called your store and cell phones on multiple occasions,” Pepper Maxwell of Pepp’s Pizzeria said.
Peyton didn’t respond.
“Do we know what started it?” I asked, rubbing the silken strands of Peyton’s hair as she kept her face buried in my shirtless shoulder. Somewhere along the way, I’d lost my t-shirt when she’d handed it back to me after using it to cover her coughs.
Pepper turned silvery inquisitive eyes my way before they filled with sorrow. “The Cookie Shoppe next door is where it started, but we have no idea how it happened.”
“Is Amanda okay?” I asked about the owner of the bakery.
Pointing further down the walk to where Amanda Owens stood, Pepper said, “She will be. The bakery was under reconstruction, and she has insurance to cover the damages. This will set her re-opening back a bit, though.”
“This is crazy!” I said, shaking my head.
“Yeah, hopefully, Peyton’s going to be okay,” Pepper said, glancing at Peyton.
“She will be,” I reassured the lady.
Pepper left us to join another group up the sidewalk a bit.
Peyton glanced up at me after several seconds.
“Hey, it’s going to be alright. Trust me on this. I know it doesn’t seem like it now, but it’ll work out for your good, PJ.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“Faith. Sometimes that’s all you’ve got. What doesn’t break, you will surely build you stronger.”
“Well, I don’t know how much more strengthening I can take. These last couple of years has just been rough, Bryce,” she said, her teary eyes filling me with guilt.
My hand rubbed soothing circles on her back. “I know they have. But you’re made of tougher stuff than this. Speaking of...I need you to perk up now.”
“Why?” she asked, stiffening in my arms.
“Here comes Mrs. Maggie and Mr. Ronnie. Miss June is hot on their tails.”
Peyton swiped at her tears and turned around in my arms to face the trio. I kept my arm around her shoulder, a protective stance that came a bit too naturally for my comfort. But under the circumstances, I didn’t care to probe that closely.
“Oh, my gosh! Honey, are you okay? We’ve been looking all over for you!” Maggie declared, her own eyes stained with tears.
“Yeah, we even walked over to your house to deliver the news after we couldn’t catch you on the phone,” Mr. Ronnie said.
“I thought...I thought something happened to you. That you were caught...”
Maggie couldn’t finish her sentence. Placing a hand over her mouth to stifle the conclusion she’d arrived at when they couldn’t find Peyton, she turned as Mr. Ronnie folded her into his arms.
Unfortunately, that didn’t stop nosy June from launching her inquisition.
“I told everyone you were probably with him. That’s where you were, weren’t you?”
Peyton didn’t bother to answer the woman. Instead, she steeled her jaw and crossed her arms over her chest. She looked be
yond Miss June to the firemen who had begun to reel the hoses back in.
“I saw your car in the back lot, you know. So, I know you were around. Where were you?” she asked, looking at me with a steely glint in her eyes.
I returned the glare, my mouth a firm line.
“You don’t have to answer me. Oh, we’ll find out exactly what happened and who did this. I know you’ve been gone a while, but the town of Summer Cove is still a close-knit one. And we’re pretty intelligent, too.”
“I’d suggest you take your intellect somewhere it’s wanted, Miss June. We don’t much care for it around here.”
Miss June eyed me up and down her face set into a sour scowl. “You’d better not hurt her!” she warned with a shake of her finger, and then she was off.
“What the hell is it that’s got that woman so set against me?” I muttered to no one in particular.
“It’s not you. It’s any man that would dare come into one hundred feet of Peyton. June and Peyton’s mother are cousins, and she feels it’s her duty to watch out for Peyton,” Mr. Ronnie said.
“Especially after the divorce,” Peyton added with a shake of her head. “It’s ridiculous. Like I’m some delicate fine China.”
Maggie lifted her head, still sniffling as she turned towards us. “Where were you, Peyton? We did look everywhere for you.”
Peyton looked up at me, guilt filling her eyes. I wanted her to have no remorse about what happened between us, but it seemed as if there was no way around that.
“Yeah, we did,” Mr. Ronnie agreed.
“Everywhere except...the store. Were you in the store, Peyton?” Maggie asked as her eyes filled with worry again.
“Yes, I was um...” she bit down on her lip.
Squeezing her shoulder tighter, I replied, “I dropped in to help Peyton with some ideas for extending the reach of the shop and appealing to new audiences.”
“But how did you two not hear the alarms, or smell the smoke, or any of that? You could’ve been hurt in there,” Maggie insisted, sounding very much like a worried mother.
A light dawned in Mr. Ronnie’s eyes. “Honey, I think they’ve had enough pressure for tonight. Let’s just be thankful that these two kids are safe and sound. We’ll deal with everything that needs to happen in the morning to get the store going again.”
“Yeah, we will,” I said as I spotted the fire chief coming in our direction.
“Wait...were you two together, together?” Maggie asked, looking between Peyton and me, a light beaming in her eyes.
“Uh, no!” “Uh-uh!”
Peyton and I denied our “togetherness” simultaneously, sealing the confirmation in Maggie’s mind that we were indeed together in that way.
But her query would have to hold off until we were finished with the fire chief. He explained that the fire started next door in The Cookie Shoppe. It was an electrical issue because the wiring was done incorrectly during the reconstruction. It spread quickly to the front of Peyton’s store and was working its way backward by the time the fire crew arrived.
When we finished talking with the chief, and after he’d allowed us back inside the store to look around, I moved Peyton through the crowds, forcing her to ignore the questions that were asked of her. People would get their answers in the coming days.
Most folks wanted to know if she had sustained much damage, how long it would be before she would re-open, or did she have insurance. But the number one pressing question was where she was when everyone was looking for her.
I wanted to ease the guilt that pressed in on her.
“I can walk home, Bryce.”
“No. I’m taking you.”
“But it’s just a short walk from here. I don’t need the ride. Besides, walking will help me cleanse my mind,” she insisted as she started down the sidewalk.
Shrugging and catching up to her, I said, “Cool, I’ll walk with you.”
“Why, Bryce?”
“Why not?”
“Because I’m capable of walking myself home. Nothing’s going to happen to me on the way home. Anyway, I need some space to think through a few things and figure out how to bounce back from this.”
“Peyton,” I said, resting my hand on her shoulder and turning her towards me. “What’s this about?”
“Nothing, Bryce. Nothing at all except that I just had a freaking fire in my store! The place that pays my bills and provides income for a few other folks. Excuse me if I can’t handle anything more than that right now,” she said, pulling away from me.
“Wait a sec, PJ.”
“And quit calling me that stupid name!” she said, fresh tears falling again.
“What the hell?”
Placing her hands up to her head, she framed her face and breathed deeply. “The name is reminiscent of a bunch of childish memories and pipe dreams! It’s all in the past, and none of this matters anymore. Don’t you see, Bryce? I’m not that same girl anymore. I’m a different woman, and whatever you think you’ve returned here to find, it isn’t there!” she cried.
I breathed evenly, trying to regulate my mind and thoughts. If I was going to deal with her, it had to be with a calm and clear mind.
“Peyton, I’m not thinking that I’m finding anything from our past. We both were different people in the past, and we’re not those same people. Back then we were good friends, that’s all.”
“And now?”
“And now...now I don’t know. That’s what I’m asking you,” I said, shrugging my shoulders.
“Exactly! You’ll go back to L.A. and live your life, and I’ll be another memory again just as I was before. We both went on with our lives and forgot about our friendship. Well, I don’t want to be another forgotten memory. Pulled off the shelf, dusted off, and treasured when there’s time!” she screamed.
“And you won’t be, Peyton. But I can’t deny that I’m attracted to you, and I don’t regret a moment of what happened back there or last night, or the last several days since I’ve returned.”
“Well, I do! Because of what happened back there, I wasn’t as focused as I should have been. If I’d been focused, perhaps I’d have known about the fire when it started. Maybe I could have stopped it from doing too much damage.”
“And maybe you couldn’t have!” I countered.
“We could’ve been hurt back there, Bryce. We could have died in that fire!” she cried.
“But we didn’t! We’re here, alive and well with an opportunity to make tomorrow better,” I reasoned.
Shaking her head. “I’m sorry. I just can’t do that. Not at this point in my life. I’m just rebuilding and starting over, and I can’t be someone’s drop in.”
“Drop-in? You mean jump off?”
Shaking her head, she turned and walked away from me.
“Wait, Peyton, come on! I wasn’t trying to make light of the situation!” I said, running behind her.
“You may not be. And Bryce, you’re a great man as a friend. But you’re not what I need, and I’m not what you’re looking for,” she said.
“How do you know if you can’t give it a try?”
“When are you leaving?”
“Sunday.”
“And today’s Thursday. When will I see you again?”
“I don’t know,” I replied honestly, as my hectic schedule rolled through my mind.
“My point precisely. You’ve got a life, and so have I, and they look very different from one another. Now I’ve got my hands full with the repairs to the store after the fire. I just don’t have time for anything else. Especially not to be your test dummy.”
My hand lifted to her face and gently caressed it. “I swear that isn’t what this is. I’m not trying to hurt you, Peyton.”
“But you will, Bryce. I don’t doubt that you will.”
“This is about what happened back there. Maybe we’ve been moving too fast, but I—”
“Stop,” she whispered. “I am so grateful for all the ideas you offered and all the
work you’ve put in and the people you’ve helped rally around this project. I could never repay you for that, but it’s time for you to move on now. You were returning to L.A. anyway. We both knew it. Live your life, Bryce. No regrets.”
Peyton rested her hand against mine, where it still cupped her face. Turning her head, she pressed her lips against the palm of my hand and planted a kiss there.
Then I watched as Peyton turned and walked down the sidewalk and out of my life. Locking me out of her life for a second time.
CHAPTER 15 – PEYTON
THE NIGHT OF THE FIRE, my hopes and dreams went up in flames with this store. I looked around at the charred remains of the front end of the store. Hundreds of books were lost. Autographed posters of authors who’d been through here now just charred remains, and energy and money put into this place gone up in smoke.
“Well, on the bright side, we’ve still got the middle and back half of the store intact,” Maggie said in a hopeful tone.
I knew she was only trying to cheer me up, but I could see the despair in her brown eyes.
“Yeah, well, then there’s that,” I muttered, looking around.
“Honey, that’s no good either,” Anita said, walking up to us. “Whatever ain’t smoke damaged back there smells like smoke, and that’s just as bad, if not worse.”
I threw my hands up in frustration.
“Anita, I was trying to cheer her uuuppp,” Maggie said in a sing-song cajoling voice.
“There’s no need, Mags. I need a good dose of reality to keep things in perspective,” I replied, giving Anita a weak smile
“Well, while we go through and inventory the loss, I’m turning on the TV to keep me company. I’ll take that section of the store,” Anita said, pointing in that direction.
The three of us set to work trying to determine what all was lost from our inventory list, which thankfully we’d been able to access on our iPads. I’d been working for almost half an hour when the newscaster drew my attention.
“...and in entertainment news, best-selling author, Ryan Warren’s identity has finally been disclosed. In last night’s news, we told you that an undisclosed source leaked his photo. Channel four has been waiting to get our hands on a copy of that photo.”
Undeniable: A Friends To Lovers Romance (Love Desired Book 4) Page 10