Page 74 of Burn With Me

I rolled my eyes at her. “Girl, I’m serious…I like him and….”

“Violet Clarke.” Beck held up her finger, stopping me mid-sentence. “Let’s get one thing straight. Good-looking or not, if that man out there can’t take a joke or like your friends for who they are, then they are not worth keeping. You hear me?” she cocked her hip, daring me to disagree with her.

She had a point. I wasn’t about to get rid of my friendship with Beck for him. If he was going to be in my life, he needed to be okay with my best friend because she was human and my only family.

“Fine, but can you tone down the flirting? I know you don’t mean any harm, but….” I crossed my arms over my chest.

“You’re jealous,” she said, smiling wide. “Admit it. You don’t like someone flirting with him?”

“That’s ridiculous,” I scoffed and looked away from her eyes.

“Okay, then it shouldn’t be a problem. I wonder what he’d say if I offered to—”

I held up my hand and glared at my friend. “Okay, fine, you’re right. I don’t like it. You happy now?”

Beck grabbed me and hugged me like she was trying to give me the Heimlich. “I’m so happy for you,” she whispered. “Now, come on, I’ll be pissed if my sauce is burning.”

We walked out into the kitchen, and it looked like Asher had lived here his whole life. The table was set. He had turned on the music and was sipping a beer as he stirred the sauce.

Beck looked over her shoulder at me and mouthed. “He’s a keeper,” which was code for ‘don’t fuck this up.’

“I hope you don’t mind, but I thought I’d make myself useful,” Asher said, backing away from the pot.

He sat on one of the tall stools, and as soon as I was close enough, he wrapped his arm around my waist and guided me to his knee. The moment I sat down, it was like we’d just met all over again. The adrenaline spike made my heart pound like a drum while his arm, which had snared my waist and held me close, made me want to melt into his body. God, he smelled good, and he was so incredibly warm. It felt strange in this oddly perfect way to sit with him like this.

“No, this is great. I was worried about it burning. Thank you. I hope you like Italian ‘cause I’ve made potato focaccia rolls, grilled antipasto with a garlic bean dip, and a tasty arugula salad. Oh, and of course, a three-meat fettuccine.” Beck smiled.

I’d never realized how much she loved cooking until this moment. How many other things had I missed while I was running on the same treadmill in my mind?

“Wow, that sounds incredible,” Asher said and offered me his beer to sip. “So what do you do for a living, Becky?”

“Call me Beck, all my friends do, and I’m a nurse. I’d thought about being a social worker, but seeing all those sad kids all the time in horrible situations would break me.”

“It was Beck’s family that I went to live with when my family was killed,” I said. “We were practically sisters before that, but she’s been looking out for me since then.”

“Oh please, girl, we look out for each other. Now Asher, do you have any single hot friends?”

I shook my head as Asher laughed.

“I have one, but honestly, if I had a dog, I wouldn’t set it up with him,” he said, making us all laugh.

Luckily, he didn’t take offense to anything Beck said or did. By the time we finished dinner, I’d laid my hands on my stomach because it hurt from laughing so hard.

We’d ventured over to the couch and were currently in the middle of a movie. Beck was fast asleep at the other end of the couch, and I was nothing but a ball of nerves sitting in the dark, curled up beside Asher.

Even though Asher was sitting with his hand on my leg, I almost jumped out of my seat when he gave it a little pull. I glanced at him, and he gave my leg another small tug. Guessing what he wanted, I shifted it, so it was lying across his lap and, I turned to lean against the arm rest.

Asher grabbed the throw on the back of the couch and laid it out over my leg. Even though he kept his eyes on the television, I knew the slight lift of his lip told me he was up to something.

I sucked in a ragged breath as his fingers softly trailed along my leg and set my skin on fire. He stopped as his fingers brushed the bottom edge of my shorts and then traveled down my leg again. Biting my lip, I turned my head away from the television, and Asher’s eyes flicked to mine.

I knew I was in trouble.

There was that commanding glean in his eye that paralyzed me and made it hard to breathe. How could one man inflict such ragged emotion with nothing more than a glance? There was no doubt that the look was an order.

He didn’t need to say it. He wanted me to remain quiet and hand myself over to whatever he chose to do. I may not have understood this side of him when we first met, but there was no denying that I liked it. The jitters that had never quite settled took over again. This time, they paused in my chest and made my heart race. Everything about him had a profound effect on me. Even the way he casually ran his hand through his hair had me wiggling in my seat.

The touch started out innocent as he massaged my ankle and then my calf, but the look he was giving was another story. That heated stare warned me of what was to come, and I didn’t care. I wanted whatever he chose to do.