“Everything okay?” he asked, giving me a strange look.
“Everything’s fine,” I said as I reached out and touched his hand.
He took my hand in his and held it gently. He hadn’t mentioned anything about my face since he’d picked me up. I supposed that was a good thing. Anything he could have said would have only made me reach up and touch it, and I would have become more nervous.
“We’re here,” he said as he pulled up in front of a small fish and chip diner. “I found this place last week. They have the best seafood around.”
“I’ve never been here before,” I said as we got out of his car in front of the tiny blue and white building. It looked almost like a bungalow, a house. I couldn’t imagine that it could be a restaurant, but it had a sign out front.
“Friedman, reservations for two,” Chance said when we walked inside.
We were immediately led through the small dining room to a tiny table for two. I glanced around at the wooden floors and exposed beam ceilings. With less than ten tables in the place, it seemed hard to believe that they were able to stay in business.
“Actually, can we have a table on the patio?” Chance asked the hostess before we sat down.
We were then led through the dining room out to the patio. The atmosphere out there was completely different. Nicer tables, sparkling lights, and laughing voices. This was where the majority of their clientele spent their time.
“Normally, I sit in there, but a gem like yourself should be out here sparkling,” he said as he pulled out my chair for me.
I felt like a princess for the first time in my life while we sat out there laughing and talking as the waitress brought our entrees. The stars were twinkling and the lights were shining against the crystals that cascaded from the ceiling. I felt like I was living a fairy tale.
“Did you hear that?” Chance asked when we were finishing our dessert.
“Hear what?” I asked, looking around frightened.
“The fish jumping,” he said quietly as he got up and walked to the edge of the patio.
“Fish jumping?” I asked, following him, sure he’d lost his mind.
“Out there,” he said, pointing over the railing.
“There’s water,” I said, shocked by the discovery.
“Didn’t you realize I brought you down to the docks?” he laughed.
“I guess not,” I laughed.
“I think the fish are done showing off for tonight,” he said. “Would you like some wine?”
Alcohol and I had a love-hate relationship. I had always liked the occasional drink, but I’d also seen what it had done to my father and to Mike. As much as I didn’t mind it personally, in some ways it sickened me just thinking about it.
“I don’t know,” I said, turning to walk back to the table.
“If you want, I can take you home,” he said, taking his wallet out of his back pocket.
“No, no. I think a glass of wine would be lovely,” I said, sitting down at the table.
Chance called the waitress over and ordered a bottle of wine. I was a little bit nervous drinking around him in case I got tipsy or even a little bit silly. But I knew he wouldn’t take me too seriously, so it was all good.
When she came back with our drinks, Chance smelled the cork and nodded before she poured a small amount into his glass. He tasted it and then nodded again before she filled my glass, and then the remainder of his.
“I had no idea you were a wine connoisseur,” I said after she left.
“There are a lot of things about me you don’t know,” he laughed. Then he put his chin in his hand and said, “Don’t get too impressed, it’s just something I saw in a movie once.”
“Aw, so should I worry that you’re going to steal airplanes or wear a coconut bra?” I asked as I took a sip of my wine.
“What?” he asked, cracking up.
“In case you saw it in a movie once,” I laughed.
***
The entire time Chance was driving me home after our date, I worried about what would happen next. Would he want to come in, would he walk me to the door, would he kiss me goodnight? I had myself in a frenzy to the point where I could barely think straight. Or maybe it was the wine.
“I had a really good time tonight,” I said as I opened my door when we got to my house.
“Let me come around and get that for you,” he said as he got out of the driver’s seat.
Okay, so he was going to at least walk me to the door. One down, two to go.
He walked around the car and extended his hand to help me out of the car. I felt like an actress stepping out onto the red carpet as I put my feet down on my driveway. Within seconds, I lost my footing and landed on my ass right at Chance’s feet.
“Falling for me now, are you?” he laughed as he knelt down to help me up.
“It’s these damn shoes,” I said as I struggled to take them off.
“Problem solved,” he said as he wrapped one arm under my knees and the other around my back and lifted me up off the ground.
“Sweeping me off my feet now, are you?” I laughed.
“Otherwise you’d never make it to the door,” he said, giggling along with me.
I felt so tiny and small there in his arms while he carried me. His cologne continued to permeate my soul while I wrapped my arms around his neck and rested my face against his chest.
Once we got to the doorstep, he stood me back up on my feet. I felt myself coming back down to earth from my cloud nine fantasies of devouring him.
I stood there looking up into his gorgeous green eyes. “I had a great time,” I said for the second time.
“So did I,” he said.
“We should do this...”
“Again sometime...” he finished my sentence for me.
We both burst into a sort of nervous laughter. It was as if neither of us knew what to do next while he stood there with his hands in his pockets and I stood there shifting my weight from leg to leg.
Finally, he put his hand on my waist and started pulling me closer. I’d been waiting so long to feel his lips on mine. I leaned in towards his face. Those seconds felt like hours until our lips finally touched, sending shivers up and down my spine.
When he pulled away from me, I smiled, thinking two down, one to go. He leaned in for another kiss, and I eagerly leaned in towards his juicy lips once again. This time as his soft tongue parted my lips, sparks flew and the earth moved. My hands were tracing his back, and his moved up to my hair. The more the kiss lingered on, the more I wanted him.
“Would you like to come inside?” I asked him when we came up for air. “I have coffee.”
“I know you do,” he said. “But I really have to go. Morning comes early. Goodnight, Alex.”
He gave me one more peck on the lips and then started walking back towards his car. I stood there on the doorstep as he drove away before I walked into the house. Oh well, I thought to myself, two out of three ain’t bad.
“Well, how did it go?” Allison asked as soon as I opened the door.
“Like you weren’t watching out the window,” I said.
“How’d you know?” she asked as her cheeks turned red.
“I know you,” I laughed. “Just so you know, my date went amazing with a capital A. I had a great time.”
“Are you going to go out with him again?” she asked as she started putting on her shoes.
“I hope so,” I answered.
After Allison left, I sat down on the couch and thought about Chance. Everything about him was perfect, and everything about our date was perfect. I’d never had such a fantastic time in my life, not even with Mike.
Even in the good days, Mike had never treated me like that, like a princess. All those years, I’d been missing out. I’d been holding myself back from being treated like a princess, the way Chance treated me. Now that I had him, I was never going to let him go.
I got up and grabbed a glass of wine from the kitchen. The more I t
hought about Mike the more infuriated I became. Mike who tortured me, Mike who spent my money, Mike who always stank like alcohol, Mike who ruined our lives.
He was finally in jail, but I wanted him completely out of my life, gone. I had to erase him somehow. Emily didn’t want him to come back, and neither did I. If neither of us wanted him back, then the memories had to disappear.
I saw the shiny object on the coffee table and knew it was time to take action. I grabbed the photo albums out of the closet and took the pictures out of each one before I started cutting him out of them. That’s a start, I thought before I started rummaging around some more.
I took all of his photos off the wall, and found every picture of him I could. As they all lay in front of me on the coffee table, I stared at them with hatred. “You miserable bastard,” I yelled. “How could you do this to us?”
I grabbed the old wooden bowl that belonged to my grandmother off the shelf in the corner and put it on the coffee table. The ornate rose carving on it was beautiful, and I’d cherished it for years. She’d always hated Mike while she was alive, and tonight she’d help me get rid of him.
One by one, I looked at each of his pictures for the last time and tossed them into the bowl. I hadn’t realized until then how pitiful he looked with the permanent smile that drunkenness gave him. When the last photo finally dropped in, I sighed a breath of relief, knowing that I wouldn’t have to look at that drunkard’s face again.
Now for the kill shot, I thought to myself as I looked around the room. “This morning’s newspaper sounds perfect, doesn’t it, Mike?” I said as I removed the front-page story about his arrest and carefully folded it before grabbing my lighter.
“Burn in hell, Mike,” I said as I put the newspaper into the bowl and watched it burn.
The pictures weren’t burning fast enough for me. Still seeing traces of his face, albeit distorted, made me head off into the kitchen in search of lighter fluid.
“This ought to finish you off,” I said when I came back, and doused the bowl with the lighter fluid before adding more newspaper and igniting it.
The flames danced around in the bowl, devouring all traces of Mike. Finally, I thought as I sat back on the couch feeling at peace with everything. He was finally out of our lives, once and for all. I took a few more sips of my wine, thinking ahead to the future, a future without Mike.
***
What the hell? I thought as a loud screeching sound lifted me up off the couch. It felt like someone was driving a nail through the center of my forehead and I couldn’t orient myself.
My eyes and throat stung as a thick fog circled around me. I couldn’t see. Oh my God, I thought, smoke. Then I heard the crackles, the sound of flames. It couldn’t be. I turned in their direction to see the curtains and the ceiling on fire. The entire room was on fire.
I scrambled toward the kitchen to find a fire extinguisher.
Don’t be so stupid, my brain kept shouting. Call 911. You can put this out yourself, my inner voice kept telling me, you’re a seasoned firefighter.
I pushed forward toward the kitchen despite the heat. Charred blocks of wood were falling everywhere as I dodged them.
I can make it, I thought. It’s just a few more steps. The harder I choked the dizzier I got, until everything finally turned black.
The End of Big City Heat Book 1 – Light My Fire
To find out what happens next:
Read Book 2 – I’m On Fire
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About The Author
I love to write stories about powerful men and women and the romances fiascos they find themselves in. Whether it’s billionaires, shifters, bad boys, or just ordinary people, they’ll make their way into one of my books.
So many stories flood my imagination every day. I love to write them down so other people can enjoy them too. For me writing isn’t a job. When I write, I see the stories playing out in my head. It’s almost like going to the movies for free. I hope you have the same experience when you read them.
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Also By Misha Carver
Shifter/Paranormal Romances
Purrfect Mates Series
Purrfect Chaos (Book 1)
Purrfect Storm (Book 2)
Purrfect Harmony (Book 3)
Purrfect Mates Box Set
Contemporary/New Adult Romance Serials
Billionaire Seeks An Heir Series
Unplanned Fairy Tale (Book 1)
Unraveled Lives (Book 2)
Unforgettable Melody (Book 3)
Billionaire Seeks An Heir Boxed Set Collection
Big City Heat Firefighter Series
Light My Fire (Book 1)
I’m On Fire (Book 2)
Ring of Fire (Book 3)
Standalone Romance Novellas
Sasha’s Storm – (steamy menage romance)
Holiday Romances
Second Chance Christmas Romances
The Christmas Homecoming (Book 1)
The Christmas Reunion (Book 2)
The Christmas Spirit (Book 3)
Jingle Bell Shifters
Jingle Bell Growl (Book 1)
Jingle Bell Howl (Book 2)
Jingle Bell Prowl (Book 3)
On Top
The Playgirls
Sage House
First Edition
ISBN-13: 978-1523999293
ISBN-10: 1523999292
A woman without a man
is like a fish without a bicycle.
Gloria Steinem
On Top
May Sage
Chapter 1
She needed sex and she needed it now. Seriously. It had been thirteen months. Thirteen.
Alice set her music a peg higher, although it was well past midnight, and reached out for one of her dicks, almost shaking.
The curved pink dildo hit the top of her wall right away, poking at the bundle of nerves that needed to be eased. Her movements weren't very gentle. Savagely, without a care, she rammed it inside her, again, and again and again, ten times quicker than the rhythm of the blues blasting around her.
Eventually, she'd eased the ache – momentarily. No halleluiah for her, though – she'd never orgasmed in twenty-five years, and didn't think she ever would. But her body was sated. For now.
It didn't last long. She went back to her book – a boring romance; there was nothing remotely erotic, but the first kiss the protagonists exchanged had her reaching for Bob, this time. She needed the vibrations.
It had grown worse over the last couple of months, and it was completely their fault.
Her job at On Top, the newspaper Linda Donovan – an old school friend – had started up, was the stuff of dreams: she was needed at the office about three hours a week. The rest of the time, she was expected to write, attend cool events, fly around interviewing interesting people; Linda hadn't meant her columns to be about the A-List – not even the B or C-List – but genuinely fascinating individuals; there had been the occasional author, a few dancers, self-made businessmen, cut-throat lawyers who never lost their cases.
And at the beginning of the fall, there had been the Colburns.
Yes, those Colburns.
They had been a bit of a leap, because they were quite high up in the A-List, but Linda had asked Alice to reach out nonetheless; her article hadn't been about Xander's latest movie, Kellan's match, Colt or Kane's business ventures, but about them, as a family unit. A little bit of a "yeah, we're normal people, actually."
The thing was, unexpectedly, Alice had clicked wit
h Tamsin, Xander's wife. Tamsin was new in town, which meant that her contact list wasn't long; obviously, Alice's name was at the very top, because she somehow ended up meeting her two or three times a week.
She wasn’t complaining: Tamsin, a writer herself, was a bundle of fun.
But half of the time, Xander – or one of his three yummy brothers – had been around, hence Alice's desperate need for quality time with her fake cocks. Thank god she had a few.
She was giving it a third go when Skylar Grey's voice was replaced by the generic iPhone ringtone. Dammit. She'd been enjoying that round.
Without bothering to unsheathe Bob, she grabbed the phone, saw Tamsin's name and answered with a: “Bad timing, sweetie. Really fucking bad timing.”
She didn't try to hide her breathlessness, relishing in the idea of making the prim and proper British woman blush.
It was hilarious that Tamsin – a sex symbol in the flesh, exotic with massive tits and an ass like that – blushed to every suggestive comment, while Alice – who was pegged as the good girl – was the one whose mind resided in the gutter.
The response didn't come from the voice she'd expected, though.
“Do I want to ask?”
It was a guy; definitely a guy.
Shit.
There was no point guessing which of the Colburns she was now addressing; either way, the fact was, she was on the phone with a sex god, while a yellow dildo was lodged inside her.
Alice was mortified for about three long seconds, before laughter took over. Damn, she was so going to write something about that.
“Believe me, you don't.”
“I sincerely doubt that,” the man teased.
That immediately ruled out Xander; the tone had been on the flirty side and Alexander Colburn didn't flirt with anyone, save for his wife.
So, quite unabashedly, she reached out between her legs with her left hand and pumped Yellow Man inside her, a bit more discreetly, as though he might somehow hear it through the phone.
Pretty Young Thing: a new adult romance box set Page 16