Burned by a Kiss

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by Tina Leonard


  “Maybe I was looking for something and I never realized it,” Emma said slowly.

  “You mean Santana.” Honey nodded. “And secretly you’re wondering if he’s too damaged to go the distance. If you’re wrong to get your hopes up. But you feel magic, anyway, when you’re together. It’s hard to believe, isn’t it?” She sighed. “I can see where your belief systems might be challenged. I would certainly change mine if a hunky fellow like him came into my life. And you’ve always been the steadfast sort, from your childhood.” Honey smiled wistfully. “But it’s okay to believe in love, Emma. When the sheriff proposed to me, I would have gone to the ends of the earth to be with him.”

  Emma was stunned. “You live in the same town, and you’re not with him now, Honey,” she said, as gently as possible.

  “One never knows. People change over time, don’t they?”

  “I don’t think I do,” Emma said, thinking that if Santana was ever hers, she wouldn’t want their love to change. She’d want it to grow brighter, burn hotter.

  “Oh, but you have.” Honey’s face was serene with wise understanding. “You’re changing because you’ve fallen in love.”

  “How do I know it’s real? And that I just didn’t want it so much I made it happen?” Emma asked, feeling stupid for having to ask, and scared that the beautiful thing that she and Santana had might somehow slip away.

  “Because I’m guessing you’ve had a vision.”

  “I did. I thought maybe I was crazy,” Emma said. “But it’s stayed with me and every day, I’m more convinced that my heart belongs to Santana. I don’t know if he feels the same.” She shrugged. “And what woman doesn’t see twinkles and sparkles when she sees a wedding gown?”

  The second she said it, Emma knew she wasn’t going to convince Honey or herself that she wasn’t madly in love with Santana. It had nothing to do with weddings or gowns or if they ever even talked about a serious relationship between them. She was in love with him, and her heart knew it was real.

  No matter what happened, she was going to have to throw caution to the wind and admit that she was mad for a certain Navy SEAL.

  “You’re a practical woman, Emma. A daddy’s girl.” Honey smiled. “You know your father was a fine man. And when he passed away unexpectedly, I watched you suffer. You bore it silently, and stepped into his shoes. You’re not crazy, you’re just beginning to understand the magic that is available to us on earth, if we allow it to come into our lives. It’s hard sometimes to accept that there are supernatural blessings available to us after we’ve suffered a loss.”

  “I guess I just needed to know that I wasn’t believing in something that wasn’t there.” She took a deep breath. “I guess I’m looking for answers. Thank you for helping me find them.”

  “Well,” Honey said, closing her book with the pretty bookmark in it, “the only way to really find out the answer you need is to ask, isn’t it?”

  Ask Santana if he wanted a relationship with her, just the two of them. Long-term.

  Long-term was the problem. Santana didn’t know anything long-term. His whole life had been upended when Sonny hadn’t made it out of the biggest fire Star Canyon had ever seen.

  “What do you think happened the night Sonny died, Honey?”

  “Well, not that the captain talks about such things with me, when we do talk,” Honey said slowly, “but I have an idea that we’re going to learn surprising things about that night. We have so many new folks in town, you know. The artist’s colony has been a good thing for Star Canyon. But it’s brought other folks in as well. It’s been a lot of change for our little town.”

  Which meant there was precious little new information yet that could help the Darks.

  Rapping on the door made both ladies jump. They could see Santana’s large frame through the glass door, and Emma’s heart instantly leaped.

  “There’s your man.” Honey got up. “You know,” she said, “trusting a vision sometimes means walking through a door to a new and unexpected place. But you have to open the door to find the answers you seek.”

  Emma sat still as Honey gave her a kind smile and went to let Santana in. “You gave two ladies quite a start, young man.”

  “I saw Emma’s truck. Though I’d stop by to rescue you, Honey.”

  Emma watched him walk in, big, handsome, beautiful, mouthwatering, oh-my-God sexy, and wondered how she could ever back away from a man she’d loved almost all her life.

  She couldn’t. No matter what he had going on in his life, she was going to have to wait to find out if the vision she’d had meant anything.

  She did believe in magic—and Honey was correct: Once you’d had a vision, you wanted to believe in it, deserve it, wish it into your life. Get closer to it, again and again and again.

  And that was how the vision had changed her: She was going to walk on the wild side, put her heart out there.

  For love. For Santana.

  And hope she didn’t get burned.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Santana awakened in the night, his heart racing, his head thick with blackness. Holy fuck, where was he? He heard yells, maybe rockets, gunfire. Thick smoke surrounded him. He hunkered down, reached for his Sig, couldn’t find it.

  Something warm and soft shifted near him. A small hand moved to his rod, stroking him. Some of the darkness shifted. He was in bed with Emma. The adrenaline changed to a different kind of fire as she warmed him, teasing him into hot hardness.

  “It’s okay,” she whispered. “You’re in Star Canyon. You’re at my house.”

  Caught in the nightmare, he must have tensed, maybe yelled.

  His heart still raced uncontrollably. The blackness hadn’t subsided. He tried to concentrate on Emma’s magic touch, letting it chase off the nightmare. Heal him.

  “Make love to me, Santana,” she said urgently, and he did the only thing he could at such a sweet request.

  He rolled over, buried himself deep inside her. She clung to his back, her legs locked around his thighs, drawing him in, urging him faster, more.

  His throat locked up. She kissed him, drawing his mouth down to hers. Her kisses hungrily claimed him, and he drove inside her relentlessly, her gasps against his lips a salve for the tornado threatening to overwhelm him and destroy his life. The tornado was determined to steal everything he had, curse everything he wanted—but he wasn’t going to let the darkness win.

  No. Every damn thing—starting with this hot, beautiful woman who seemed to want to be with him, no matter how ugly his scars—had to be his.

  He couldn’t survive without her.

  • • •

  Santana thought about taking his brothers with him to the monstrous shell of a burned-out building that stood far from town, a scar against the vast land surrounding it, but he decided against it. This was his journey. They’d come out here when they were ready.

  He was ready, as much as he ever could be. He’d visited the grave, of course, but this was where Sonny’s spirit had departed its earthly existence. Parking his truck, Santana got out, surprised that he could still smell an acrid tang on the air. This had once been the lifeblood of Star Canyon, a giant warehouse where local cotton, corn, and other goods were stored for market. Cattle were also brought to market here. The hub of Star Canyon had been used by Lightning Canyon and several other small towns, an adjunct vein for farm and ranch commerce.

  Sonny would have considered it his duty, no matter what structure or situation was in need, to serve.

  Santana felt deep in his soul that so much of what he and his siblings had learned about Sonny after his death was somehow a lie, or at least a harsh variation of the truth. The Sonny Dark he knew as a father and later as a friend, had not been a gambler, a loser hooked on life’s temptations. It just didn’t square.

  And once he realized that, he was free. He still grieved, but his father wouldn’t want them to live in the past. He’d been well aware what the path of a firefighter meant.

  He wa
lked into what had been the warehouse’s four walls, now simply a shell sprawling under a cold dark sky. It was just a few days until Christmas, and without Sierra around, there wasn’t a decoration at their rental house. They hadn’t decorated the Dark family home, either, and Nick probably didn’t care if there even was so much as a Christmas tree at his ranch.

  It was time for Nick to pull his head out of his ass. He rang him up.

  “Nick Marshall.”

  “How long are you planning to cower?” Santana demanded.

  “What makes you think I am?” Nick shot back.

  “You’re not here, are you? I knew you were a lightweight, but I never imagined you could get done in a week.”

  “Ten days. I was there ten days.”

  Santana looked at the earth beneath his feet. There was still a burnt tinge to the dirt, but stray shoots of green poked through the earth. “You hide out in Dallas for as long as you need.”

  “Thanks.”

  Santana snorted at the curtness in his tone. “So, if my brothers are working out here with me, you should be, too.”

  “I’m not a farmer.”

  Santana decided not to explain that they weren’t farmers, either. The important thing was making Nick understand that he was copping out, and find out why. “Decided that, did you? My sister too much for you?”

  Nick cleared his throat. “Did you just call to harass me?”

  “That, and to offer you a business proposition you might be interested in.” He looked at the burned-out structure yawing to the sky, somehow undefeated by the fire. “You’re a hot shit investor, aren’t you?”

  Nick was silent.

  “Or was it your father who was the hot shit investor? The one who bilked my father out of his home and possessions?” He eyed the empty land that stretched as far as the eye could see. “You’re not intending to solely live off the inheritance of your father’s misdeeds, are you?”

  “What do you want, Santana?” Nick growled.

  “Come spend Christmas dinner with us,” Santana said.

  Nick didn’t reply.

  “That’s what you wanted, wasn’t it? Holiday dinner with family? So I’m asking.”

  “None of you are my family. I tried to make you that, but then I realized it was a bad proposition, a business deal that wouldn’t work.”

  “So what? You’re going to sell the ranch?”

  “Not yet,” Nick said with a sigh.

  “So you still have a place to park your privileged ass. Come out. We’ll break into the family home before you get here and set everything up.”

  “No need to go smashing windows. I left the key with Emma.”

  Santana was stunned. “She didn’t tell me.”

  “Because she’s a good woman, Santana. She knows you better than you know yourself. She said you’d ask when you were ready. And it sounds like you’re coming to terms with the past.”

  “And you? When do you do that?”

  “Oh, that won’t be for a long goddamn time,” Nick said. “I’ll see you on Christmas Eve. I’ll bring the booze and cigars. We’ll probably need them.”

  “Nothing too fancy. We can’t afford to get soft around here.”

  “Bite me, cousin,” Nick said politely. “Thank you for the phone call.” He hung up.

  “Always a pleasure,” Santana said cheerfully, not offended at all.

  He shoved his phone in his pocket and walked to his truck. It wasn’t over, the past wasn’t put to rest. But he was looking forward to the future, and he hadn’t for so long.

  Most of all, he looked forward to a future with Emma.

  He had a stop to make before he found his way home.

  • • •

  “Oh, she’s beautiful!” Emma gazed into the cage at the very delicate, sweet-throated lovebird inside. “Where did you find her?”

  “In Lightning Canyon.” He grinned, pleased with himself. “That house where Sierra bought the wedding dress had a woman who was in charge of the estate sale, remember?”

  “Yes.”

  He nodded. “I told her I was looking for a lovebird. I knew you’d said your father had bought yours there. Apparently, somebody in Lightning Canyon breeds them, and they had this one for sale. Her name is Beauty.”

  “She is a beauty!” Emma was delighted. She took the cage from him. “Thank you so much. My other bird has been mourning.”

  She gently put the cage on a table, reaching in to take Beauty carefully out. “There you go,” she said, placing the bird next to the lonely lovebird. The two birds studied each other for a moment, their heads tilting, their eyes bright.

  Suddenly, Emma’s original lovebird hopped close to its new friend. Santana stood behind her, watching, casually moving his hand onto her shoulder. Emma’s heart expanded at his touch, and the unexpected gift. Her eyes misted. “That was easy. I wasn’t sure how they would take to each other.” She looked up at Santana, closing the cage door. “I’m truly touched. Thank you.”

  He drew her into his arms. “Anything to see you smile.” Her smile—damn, the bad days were easier just knowing he had Emma’s smile to look forward to. It was the one thing in life he knew he never wanted to live without: Her and that damn sexy smile of hers.

  He held her tight, and she tucked her chin underneath his. Santana closed his eyes as Emma’s arms slid up his back, drawing them together.

  “Emma.”

  She looked up at him. “Yes?”

  He cleared his throat, suddenly nervous. “The night you were at Sierra’s shop, and you were holding that dress—”

  “You thought I was picking out the dress for my big day,” she said, her eyes crinkling with laughter. “I was pretty embarrassed that you caught me holding it up to me.”

  “I don’t know about that. But I knew it would look good on you.” Right then, he’d known what he hadn’t dared to hope before.

  She smiled. “Don’t worry. You’re safe.”

  Safe? He didn’t want to be safe anymore. He wanted to experience life, all the heat, all the cold, the light, the dark. With her.

  “I don’t suppose you’d care to put up with me for the long term.”

  “The long term?”

  “Yeah.” Santana ran a thumb along her lower lip. “Like maybe forever. I don’t have much to offer, but—”

  She stopped his words with a kiss. “You’re offering what I want, and that’s you. The answer’s yes.”

  “Yes?” For some reason he was astonished, gratitude swamping him.

  “Yeah. I’ll move you and Joe in here.”

  “I don’t know when Joe’s coming back. Sierra hijacked my damn dog.”

  “She’ll be back, and he’ll be back. In the meantime, I have something to give you, for the long term.”

  “Yeah?” He allowed her to draw him down the hall. “I hope it’s a naked beauty named Emma.”

  She laughed. Sat him on her bed. Turned to her dresser, and took something from a box. Handed him a key.

  “Nick told me to give this to you when you were ready to go home.”

  “Home?”

  “To your family home.”

  “It’s his place now.”

  “Yes.” She nodded. “But he said there was only one person who would stick around through thick and thin to help him. And that you deserved to be able to use your family house when you wanted to.”

  His throat choked up. He pocketed the key. “He’s not altogether an asshole.”

  She smiled. “He’s right, you know. You’re the one that sticks around through thick or thin.” She kissed him. “I love that about you, Santana Dark. I’ve loved you all my life, from the first time you sneaked a kiss from me. Notice it was the last kiss you ever had to sneak. All the other kisses we’ve shared were meant to be. You and I are two parts of the same. Honey convinced me it’s a little bit of magic, and maybe that’s true.” She took a deep breath. “But I know in my heart that I’m in love with you, no matter what happens next.”

&n
bsp; “God, I love you,” he said, his voice rough with emotion. “Thank you for healing a broken man.” It was true. He’d come home a shell, but he was whole now.

  He kissed her, pulling her down to the bed with him, hungrier for her than ever. Gus and Bean had followed them in and were lying beside the bed. The Persian cat stared down from a bookshelf, and the lovebirds made sweet musical sounds in the other room. Santana smiled as he held Emma close, filled with heat and love when she touched her lips to his, joining them.

  Nothing had ever been so right than at this moment.

  And this moment was forever.

  It was so good to be home.

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  Table of Contents

  Burned by a Kiss

  Copyright

  Epigraph

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

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