Page 49 of Burn With Me

“Are you trying to get me drunk?” I took the glass he offered me, and he smiled as he poured the wine into the glass.

“I don’t know. Would it help my cause?”

I took a sip of the wine and liked that he remembered how I preferred it with a touch of sweetness. “And what cause would that be?”

“The cause to get you into my bed.”

I almost spit out the next sip of wine but ended up choking on it. He laughed. No mirror was needed to know my face was as red as any fire truck, and my body was suddenly as hot as any fire.

“Was that too forward?” He grinned over his glass at me. “I thought I made it pretty obvious that I’m…interested in you sexually.” I gulped down the glass he’d given me.

“I think I need more wine,” I looked away from his intense stare.

“Was I wrong,” he asked.

I’d never had conversations about sex unless it was with Beck, and that was usually her complaining about my lack of it. This was new and made me feel like jumping out of my skin.

“No, you’ve been clear.” I swallowed the lump in my throat. “I just didn’t expect you to spit it out there like that.”

Asher poured me another glass of wine and then sat down beside me, making my body tremble a little more. Reaching out, Asher moved the strand of hair hanging in front of my face out of the way, and I bit my lip as I felt the urge to spit out something bubbled to the surface, but it didn’t help.

“What do you think of all these new electric cars and their lithium-ion batteries? With one of those, it must make any car fire extra sketchy, not being able to put water on it. I wonder if the states will have to make it mandatory to have a truck of chemicals for each station. Bet they didn’t think of that and all those chemicals ending up in our water,” I rambled as his thumb softly rubbed my cheek.

“I’m not a fan of them personally.” I nodded and kept my eyes firmly on that folder in front of me even though the words made no sense to my muddled brain.

“Vi, look at me.” I breathed out and slowly turned my head. “I’ve never had a woman in my home or meet my family. You are the first woman to walk into my home. If you’re going to be with me, then you need to know that I talk about everything because I don’t like misunderstandings. I want to be clear about where we stand and what I’m looking for in a relationship.” He leaned forward, and every muscle in my body froze into place as his lips softly brushed my own.

My heart was hammering inside my chest.

“Yeah, but we’re here to work,” I said, my voice shaking.

“Are we?”

I opened my mouth to answer, but Asher leaned away and turned his focus to the pile in front of him.

The thing was, my mind kept drifting to the same thing. Hadn’t I laid in bed last night thinking about what today would be like? Hadn’t I wanted him to kiss me like he had up against the truck? Hadn’t I wanted him to take it further?

I managed to get through two more files before I found myself daydreaming about Asher’s hands on my body as he was buried deep inside me. My body was overheating, and it felt like he’d ignited a fire in my pussy even as he sat there looking as calm and cool as a tall drink of water. It wasn’t fair.

Needing to take a moment to clear my head, I stood. “Where’s your bathroom?”

“Down the hall, last door on the left.”

As I wandered down the hall, the cool wood floor felt nice on my bare feet. I stopped to admire a small, framed photo of two boys with a woman. It was easy to pick out Asher in the photo. He had the same devilish grin even at such a young age. He held a football in his hands, a wide smile on his face, but the flat expression on the woman’s and the other boy’s faces told a different story.

My eyes scanned the image with the house and small barn in the background. It was a bright sunny day. The woman I assumed was Asher’s mother or maybe stepmother. Either way, she should’ve looked happy, but instead, her eyes seemed tired, sad, or lost. I’d seen that look before on those whose entire lives had been destroyed by fire, simply gone up in smoke.

The other boy didn’t look anything like Asher. He had dark hair like the woman in the photo, he stood taller, and it was easy to tell he was going to be a big man. He stood in a typical teenage pose of defiance. His face was shadowed in anger as he crossed his arms over his chest and glared at the camera. He looked like he was wearing the weight of the world and hated the rest of it. In contrast, Asher’s innocence shone like a beacon.

Taking another second to look around I peered across the hall into the large bedroom that had to be Asher’s room.

“You find it okay?” Asher called down the hallway to me.

“Yeah, thanks. Sorry. Got caught up looking at a photo.” I finished my journey to the bathroom and stood staring at my reflection in the mirror.

Beck was right, my focus was great for work, but everything else in my life suffered. Asher had made it obvious he was more than interested. The question now became, did I want to take that leap? No, the more accurate question was if I was brave enough to take the leap. Something inside of me warned that this one could hurt. I could fall for him, and if I did, and he decided all he wanted was another lifestyle partner…I’d be crushed.

Shit. Do I open the door to that possibility or not? It was an answer my brain and my heart couldn’t answer, but by body sure knew what it wanted.