Burned

by Nikki Duncan

  Vic had tried to tell him Krista was changing, that she had a hatred growing inside. He’d been so blinded by desire he’d ignored the warning. He’d ignored Vic until he’d been able to see the truth for himself. After he’d apologized for the unkindness he’d shown her back then, he and Vic had settled into a relationship where they had fun as friends. They talked about almost everything, but there were clear lines they never crossed. The most clear one being the line into the intricacies of the other’s personal life.

  Yet somehow, Byron’s mention of Vic going to Sean’s bed had Hauk wanting to cross that line. Trouble was, he had no real reason she shouldn’t be with Sean, other than to say she deserved a man who would have an easier time dealing with her independence.

  Sean wanted his women on the more subservient side. He’d said before that whoever he married could work outside the home, but in a predictable, nine-to-five, low-stress job, because he wanted her attention when work hours were over. Vic worked hard from early in the morning until late in the evening running her own business, and she had an active group of friends who kept her busy after hours. She wasn’t the woman Sean described.

  Then there was the other side of trouble Hauk could get into if he crossed the line with Vic. Maybe she would take his advice and stop seeing Sean. It would open her up for the right man sooner, and Byron’s prediction of Sophie losing another woman in her life could come true faster, because when the time came that she did find her Mr. Right, she would dedicate herself to him. Sophie would likely get set aside more often. And Hauk could lose his best friend, as few men were okay with their women hanging out with other men.

  “Damn it.” The discomfort in his throat shifted and sank until there was a mass of tension gripping his spine. He couldn’t deny his body’s message. Though he couldn’t act on them, he had underestimated his feelings for Vic.

  “Something wrong, boss?” Aimee asked as she unloaded empty glasses from her tray.

  “Yes. No. I don’t know.” Still unsure of what he would say to Vic, if anything, Hauk scrubbed his face. “Listen, I’m heading upstairs. Will you close up?”

  “Sure, but…” Aimee glanced around the bar and back to him with worry. “I don’t… I haven’t…”

  “You’ll be fine. Trust me.” The benefit of the small town was that everyone who frequented his place knew Sophie had seen Dr. Dani earlier, just as they’d know the rest of his staff was in the middle of or coming down with the flu. “No one will give you any trouble if you tell them I’ve gone up to take care of Sophie.”

  Aimee was new in town, and her bouncing ponytail and cute smile were quickly winning her friends. Eager to please everyone, and curiously averse to responsibility, she was easily reduced to a ball of nerves, so Hauk spent several minutes calming her before heading upstairs where his daughter lay sick, and the woman suddenly commanding his attention was likely thinking about her date with Sean.

  On the way, Hauk tried to picture his world without Vic so involved. With her ever-changing hairstyle and color, and her intelligent brown eyes that saw too much, she was an integral part of his world. She wanted her own family one day, and she deserved one. But knowing he’d have less of her time when another man won her heart dimmed Hauk’s image of his life while deepening the discomfort of her love life beyond him.

  No woman should have such power over a man, and Vic had never tried to exert any on him. Still, it seemed she had a hold over him, and it would only increase if he crossed the line into personal grounds.

  He would not, could not, should not cross that line.

  Chapter Two

  Vic moved Sophie’s lap desk to the foot of the bed, settled on the edge and began reading Sophie’s paper.

  Whispering Cove.

  From its rocky shores and up the cobbled streets, past the colorful buildings and vibrant people, it’s all I’ve ever known. It’s home.

  I think it’s as impossible to come to Whispering Cove and not fall in love as it is not to take a piece of it with you when you leave. I guess that’s not right. You can resist falling in love with Whispering Cove, but you still take something with you when you go. At least that’s what I’ve heard Dad say. And that we’ll always have our family.

  I’m lucky. My family is bigger than me, Dad and my grandparents.

  My family is Mr. Mitchell who makes me laugh when I’m sad. My family is Dr. Dani who helps me feel better when I’m sick. My family is Mrs. Wilson who bakes my birthday cakes when Dad burns them. My family is Vic who cuts my hair and tells me I’m pretty and helps me with my homework when Dad works late, and says she loves me.

  My family is everyone who works together every year to breathe life into the Fall Festival, and my family is even the tourists who visit and stay to play games during the festival.

  The Fall Festival.

  It’s important to the town, I know, but it’s always fun. And it always has me making the same wish. A wish for a bigger family.

  In a way I think the Fall Festival is a member of the family. It brings us together for fun, games, dancing and food. We stay out late and eat too many sweets and our parents let us ignore our chores. I think my favorite part of the Fall Festival though is the dancing. When the music is playing, we get to forget for a little while about what we wish we had. We get to live in the joy of the moment. We kids get to watch the parents take their turn on the dance floor.

  Of course, most kids tell their parents they think they’re gross and embarrassing. Personally, I would like to see my dad dance. I think if he did it would mean he heard my wishes, but more, it would mean his heart has healed.

  The festival is coming soon, and I am already wishing the same wish. I wish Dad would grow our family. I wish Dad would find a mom to dance with.

  “Sophie.” Vic read the last lines of Sophie’s school paper with welling tears burning her eyes. She’d expected something strong, given Sophie’s early-for-her-age maturity and meticulous approach to homework, but the emotion she’d tapped into for this… It was more than Vic had expected. “This is… It’s lovely.”

  “So you really like it?” Anxiety shook the sweetness in Sophie’s ten-year-old voice as she lay in her bed, nearly comatose from the cold medication Dr. Dani had prescribed that afternoon.

  “I do.” Vic tried to quell the tears, to assure Sophie, to ease the doubt she was feeling. Suddenly, though she always knew how to relate to Sophie, she found herself unsure of the right approach. That she meant enough to be included as one of Sophie’s family members, with the reasons she’d listed, confirmed all that Vic had suspected about the little girl she’d loved forever.

  The need for a mom didn’t vanish just because she’d never known hers, and it wouldn’t go away with age. Hauk’s strength and commitment to always being there wasn’t a cure either. A girl needed to know she was loved unconditionally. Hauk gave her that, but she needed to know she was loved enough to make a woman want to stay. She needed the guidance and assurances that could only come from a mother.

  “Do you think it will win the contest?”

  Distraction drove back the tears lingering in the wings and fortunately allowed Vic to think more clearly.

  She considered the question and her answer for a moment. In her heart she wanted to offer the instant assurance, but Sophie wouldn’t believe her if she did. Instead, she took just enough time for Sophie to think she had thought about all the other kids and the stories they would tell. None would matter though. Everyone in town knew Hauk’s story and they all felt a little sorry for the daughter who looked just like him. It was impossible that her emotional take on the festival and family wouldn’t win her the grand prize.

  “I do.” Vic leaned forward and kissed Sophie’s forehead, checking to see if her fever had reduced any. It hadn’t. “And I think your dad is going to be just as proud as I already am when it does.”

  “You don’t think it’s going to upset him, do you?”

  The worry was a tricky one. Most people thought Hau
k was invincible, cut off from the past so much that it had no power over him. He was Vic’s best friend, and because she knew him so well, she knew everyone who thought that was wrong. He put on a brave front that had to weary him. His past held plenty of power over him. Enough that he never dated or looked at a woman more than once.

  He wasn’t invincible. Especially not when it came to the things Sophie said. His little girl had grown up too fast, facing harsh realities no child ever should. When he got the chance to read her paper, it would shred his heart into thinly frayed hairs. It would rip him up again if she won the school contest and got to read it at the festival’s opening. But the one thing everyone did know about Hauk was that he adored his daughter and would endure anything for her.

  “I think he will love it as much as he loves you.” Vic smoothed Sophie’s Wizards of Waverly Place sheet and comforter around her legs. “And I will make sure to deliver this to Ms. Taylor in the morning.”

  “I wish Dad would let me take it in.” Sophie sighed with a maturity a ten-year-old shouldn’t have. “But I understand the potential ramifications since I’m contagious.”

  Vic smiled as she always did at Sophie’s vocabulary. A life spent primarily around adults had matured her quickly. “We can’t be making everyone else at school sick, right?”

  “Right.” Sophie yawned with the effort to sit up and wrap her arms around Vic’s waist. Squeezing, tight and serious, she cuddled close for several silent minutes. When she spoke it was quietly. “I’m glad I have you.”

  “Me too.” The tears that had subsided welled back up, prodding like pinpricks against her eyes. Maybe it was the fever pulling the sentimental side of Sophie out. Vic wasn’t sure what was doing it to her. Her lack of sentimentality, or what people saw as a lack of sentimentality, was something that had ended more than one relationship. She was plenty sentimental about the things and people she loved.

  “I love you, Vic.”

  “Ah, Sophie—” she squeezed the young girl back, “—I love you.” With a last hug, she eased Sophie back to the bed. “Now go to sleep so you can feel better quickly.”

  “Okay.” The agreement slurred as Sophie gave in to the exhaustion she’d fought for the sake of finishing her paper. In two blinks she was asleep.

  Vic picked up the lap desk and notepad Sophie had used and set them on the desk on her way to the door. Before turning the light off, she studied the girl for a last moment. The pale coloring she’d gotten from her Norwegian heritage stood in stark contrast to the inky shadows beneath her eyes and the rosy cheeks the fever caused. So like her father, regardless of how bad she felt, her academic drive and generous heart propelled her on.

  Rubbing her chest, wondering at the odd feeling, as if she’d been somehow bruised, Vic turned off the light and headed down the small hall to the living room. Hauk entered as she turned the corner. Tiredness tinted his gaze, but there was a power radiating from him she hadn’t noticed before. A sense of determination.

  They both froze. Vic trembled from the nape of her neck to the tips of her fingers. Sophie’s paper drifted to the floor.

  His piercing blue eyes snapped to hers. Held.

  It was a moment they’d had a few times over the years. The kind of moment that made her wonder if they could be more than friends. The kind that tempted her to step forward and see what it would be like to kiss him. To taste him. It was the kind of moment that haunted her dreams and kept her distancing herself from other men.

  Despite the scattered moments, she’d never acted on one. At first because he’d been with Krista. Then he’d been with Jean Marie. He’d needed to heal from the first and deal with the second. By the time he’d gotten past those hurts, he’d just given up on possibilities of more.

  He started to speak. Stopped. When he finally did speak, he settled on, “How’s Sophie?”

  “Asleep.”

  “Is she feeling any better?” Like so many men, he only said what he needed and in few words. Tiredness slowed his tone from its normal steadiness until he sounded brusque.

  “Not yet, but with any luck she’ll sleep all night.”

  “Unfortunately she’s never been good at staying asleep when she’s sick.”

  On top of single-dad duties, he’d been splitting his time between running the bar with a skeleton crew and designing and building a new stage for the festival. She had no doubt he’d pull it all off, but knowing he was in for a long night bugged Vic.

  “Would you like me to stay?” Even as she asked, she knew he wouldn’t accept. She stepped forward, feeling suddenly awkward and not liking it. “You don’t have time to join the ranks of the flu-fallen.”

  He smiled as she’d hoped, but in spite of his Norwegian ancestry that gifted him with godlike looks, it didn’t brighten his wiped-out gaze. The man was exhausted.

  “You should go.” He moved forward but his feet didn’t get a clear signal. He stumbled, whether on the carpet or his own feet she wasn’t sure. It didn’t matter. The momentum carried him toward her in three rushed shuffles.

  Fearing he would keep going and knock himself out when he fell, Vic hustled to close the distance between them and stopped his plunge with her arms wrapped around his waist. His weight bearing down on her, his hands against her lower back, fully awakened the awareness she’d sensed when he stepped in moments ago.

  Sparks ignited beneath her skin, snapping her body into an instant arousal that paled to that in her dreams. Swallowing, she backed a step away and struggled for something safe to say. Something that wouldn’t send Hauk running.

  “I’m staying. You’re going to bed.” Shit. Nothing safe about that.

  “Okay.” Hauk’s agreement was more an effect of their closeness than real agreement.

  It had to be, because he never would have agreed to her staying overnight. He would worry too much that someone in town would catch on, or Sophie would get ideas, or worse, Vic would get ideas. Too late.

  Her mind and body, especially her body, went into erotic overdrive when he didn’t back away either. Arousal filled her, lapping through her in curling waves that ebbed and flowed with warmth and wanting. “Hauk?”

  “Hmm?” He set his hands on her hips, tugging her back to him.

  He’d never touched her as anything other than a friend, and even those casual brushes of skin had been shielded behind propriety. Unsure if it was from a drop in his guard or hers, Vic was acutely aware of Hauk’s body.

  Tall. Lean. Warm. Hard… Everywhere.

  She was equally aware of her body’s response to him.

  Trembly. Wet. Hot.

  Oh sweet damn.

  “Sean is waiting.”

  “What?” she whispered as she raised her head to find Hauk staring down with…was that hunger? Sean was nice, but really not her type. Why bring him up? “Who cares?”

  They stood at a boundary they’d never acknowledged, discussed or crossed. A boundary she wanted only to obliterate.

  Rising up to her toes, with her body rubbing against his deliciously, she eased closer to his lips. Answering her desire, he held her closer, his head lowering slowly toward her lips.

  The kiss was nothing more than a light caress.

  They both pulled back. Vic traced a finger along the outline of her lips and hummed. “Do you think…? Would you…”

  Hauk leaned in and kissed her. Again it was only a gentle touch. Tentative. Barely there. Lingering a moment longer.

  They both pulled back. Again Vic touched her lips and hummed.

  “Awful?” he asked.

  She shook her head once with her eyes mostly closed. “A little weird.”

  “Yeah.” Again he brushed his lips across hers. “But worth repeating.”

  “Yeah.” She leaned in and pressed her lips to his.

  The next brush was tentative, but long enough. A spark ignited a chain reaction that lit a fuse. With an almost unheard “hmm”, Hauk lifted Vic until she was flush against him and her feet dangled in the air. Lips le
vel without the need to bend or stretch, they explored each other.

  Slow sweeps of lips rapidly became rough rushes of tongues. The burning fuse fried Vic’s nerves, leaving only raw sensation and growing heat in its wake. Burying her hands in his blond hair, thrilling at the extra length since he’d missed his last two appointments, she wrapped her legs around his waist.

  He was her best friend. She’d always loved him but had never imagined he would show any interest in her. Whatever had changed his mind, she wasn’t arguing.

  The move settled her pussy directly against his dick. He was thick and hard. She was wet and swollen. Neither of them could hide their reaction to the other. She loved that he didn’t try. Yet.

  “Damn, Vic.” He panted when he eased back.

  “Ditto, Hauk.” She only gave him a moment to breathe before reclaiming his mouth.

  She tensed the muscles in her thighs for concentrated control and slid her body against his. The line they’d never crossed blurred with each pounding pulse of their hearts, and she didn’t give a damn because nothing would make her regret Hauk’s touch.

  Her belly jumped with nervous energy. It was a sensation she’d only felt once, the night she’d decided to give up her virginity—an experience she’d never regretted. Spurred by the memory, by the hope for another amazing memory, Vic tightened her hold on Hauk and kissed a little deeper.

  Their tongues shifted from sliding caresses to tangling thrusts. Fluid relaxation whispered through Vic’s muscles, taking them from knots of tension to tendrils of flame. Her arousal was as tangible as Hauk’s lean body as she curled into him. Committed the feel of him against her to memory.

  Encouraged by her responses and apparently eager to continue, Hauk carried her to the sofa. He sank. She straddled. He gripped her hips. She stripped off his shirt.

  Vic took in Hauk’s work-toned torso and, like a clichéd teen with a crush, licked her lips. She’d seen him without shirts, and loved each treat, but somehow with her palms flattened on his pecs, he seemed bigger than she’d thought. Firmer.