Page 30 of Fire for Effect

There it was. Another reminder that I had been in her bed. Her pupils dilated, and her lips parted. She took in a deep breath and I swear, she leaned towards me just a little bit. Just a hair, as if wanting me to touch her.

But then it was gone. Wiped away in a second, giving me nothing but a small memory.

“Are you going to let me join you for dinner?” I asked, daring her to tell me no. “Or is the pretty boy fireman gonna get pissed?”

“His name is Riley,” she gave me a light punch on the shoulder. “And nothing pisses him off.”

Well, la-dee-fucking-da!

Chapter 8

Boring as Fuck

Taz

Kai was here! His eyes were molten as he stared into my soul. I wanted to shrink into myself a little more. I don’t know what I felt worse about. That I didn’t notice him when I came out, or that I was going to meet Riley later.

If it was about Riley… Jesus, it was none of his business!

He slowly put the cigarette to his lips, never breaking eye contact as he exhaled. I breathed it in. I had always enjoyed the smell of smoke and fire. Cigar smoke, cigarette smoke, barbeques, bonfires, even the smell of ammonium after it goes boom. Maybe those weren’t typically “good” smells, but… I liked fire.

And I loved sharing a cigarette with Kai Griffith.

The smoke billowed around his face like he was the devil himself. Something had changed in him. He was always angry. That undercurrent of darkness existed in his soul ever since his wife’s betrayal. But that darkness had changed into something else over the last few months - ever since the bullet to his leg.

I knew it was my fault, and it hurt my soul to think of it. To remember him falling to the ground as blood gushed from his thigh. The panic when I placed the tourniquet around his leg was like a phantom pain that kept coming back in small, angry bursts.

He had left here in a rage after his leg wound healed. The way he looked at me was… disturbing. Dark, and agitated. Like he had something to say but swallowed it down like poison.

While he had to stay in bed, he’d insisted I lay with him. He said he didn’t want to scream for me on the couch if he needed me - after all, I was the reason he got shot. I had groused and moaned about it, but I didn’t seriously protest the arrangement. When he was ready to go back to work, with a profile - essentially modified duties to accommodate his injury - he was wound so tight, like a wire ready to snap. He’d barely said goodbye.

He ignored me the entire day and before he got into his car, he hugged me to his chest, and squeezed the life out of me.

Don’t miss my call, was all he said. My birthday call. No goodbye, thanks, or fuck off. Just a warning to not miss his annual phone call, and that was it.

“Nothing pisses him off, huh?” he said, blowing smoke over my skin.

“Not really,” I gasped, unable to take my eyes off his.

“He sounds boring as fuck.”

I almost laughed, but didn’t, because his eyes hadn’t released me from their spell. He put the cigarette to my lips, and I obediently inhaled, his index finger unintentionally grazing my bottom lip. Damn him and damn the butterflies that threatened to flutter in my stomach.

I turned my face away to blow the smoke out, but he stopped me with his other hand, pinching my chin and holding me in place. My smoke traveled up his skin as well, crawling over his smirk.

“Just because he’s nice doesn’t mean he’s boring,” I whispered, feeling the need to stick up for my choices, even if I hadn’t chosen Riley. Not yet. “And maybe I could use a little boring in my life.”

“Have you fucked him?” Griff asked, that dark rage he seemed to hold fluttering to the surface.

What did he care for? Friends only. Friends.

It felt like he was leaning in further into my space. But that couldn’t be. We were already so close, that any closer his lips would be on my skin.

“That’s none of your business.” I didn’t want to give him the answer he wanted.

His smirk turned into a full grin. “You haven’t, have you, little Psycho?”

I hated his smug superiority.

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