Page 31 of Surge of Fire

“But isn’t it… too dangerous?” Dr. Duncan sounds sincerely confused.

Dr. Williams freezes, and we’re both just staring at them, hoping that whatever they’re talking about, they do it a hell of a lot further from us. “Our benefactors are extremely generous, Henry, knowing that our work is dangerous and skirts lines that the government hasn't even created. They are not generous because they want us to go running the second our research gets a tad bit dangerous. Do we understand each other?”

The other man hesitates.

“Henry?” Dr. Williams sounds pissed. “I wouldn’t want you to do anything that might make you uncomfortable. I’m sure I can find someone to replace you.” His words might be right, but they sound more like a threat.

“No, sir, I’ve got this. I just wanted to make sure we’re on the right page.”

The two keep walking, and we hold as still as possible until their voices are no more than a whisper on the wind and they are out of sight. Then we’re staring at each other, my hand wrapped around his cock, his hand in my pants.

“We should…” I drop his cock.Go to a cabin. Find a private place to finish this.

He pulls his hand out of my pants and starts to fix his own. “Right. You're right. This was… liquor. A mistake. We need to get to our cabins and sleep this off.”

I feel like I’ve been slapped in the face. Numbly, I fix my top and my pants, and then walk as quickly as I can back to my cabin. His long strides easily keep up with mine with each step, but he stops when he reaches my porch.

“Goodnight,” he says, and his face is impossible to read.

“Goodnight.” I hurry into my cabin, then take a long shower, where I cry harder than I’ve cried in a long time.

ELEVEN

Aydan

It’smorning and this time I got up early to avoid Sam. I ate the second they put out the food, then hid in the gym where I worked out so hard that, for the first time in forever, I’m actually painfully sore after a workout. But it’s good for me. The pain. The workout. It distracted me, if only for a minute, from Sam.

I’m going to lose my fucking mind over this woman, and I don’t know how to stop it. Last night, I kissed Sam, something I’ve thought about a thousand times before. I tasted her lips, stroked her tongue, and lost all my self-control. She was pressed against me. Every damn inch of her. And when she reached into my pants? I almost snapped. I almost fucked her right there and then.

But I controlled myself. I touched her back. Felt her nipples harden under my hands. Reached into that silky little fabric, touched her wet, soft body. I made her moan, made her say my name.

Damn it. I’m hard again.I got myself off in the shower last night, and again in the shower after my workout, but it’s just not enough. I want Sam, and there’s nothing I can do to stop it.

Maybe if we hadn’t been interrupted, everything would have been different. Maybe if I’d slid into her tight body and filled her with my cum, there would be no doubt that she belonged to me. Instead, we were interrupted, and I knew at that moment that she was going to tell me this was all a mistake.

And it was going to break my heart.

I ran, like a fucking coward, but I can’t keep running. I’m going to have to address this, since it’s pretty damn obvious that I have feelings for her. Three solid paths have unfolded in front of me, and no matter what I do or don’t do, I’ll be stepping foot on one of them.

Path one is the easiest on paper. I tell her it was a drunken mistake and erase what I did. Except, then I’ll be spending the rest of life beating to death any man who looks at her. Path two is that I tell her that I love her, and that I want to be with her. We date, marry, get a house in the mountains, and spit out as many babies as she wants. All the while, I fight my inner-demons not to become my father and break her the way he broke one bone after another of my mother’s. Or, path three, I tell her I love her, and she doesn’t feel the same way. Unable to be around her, I lose her forever.

Actually, all three paths could end in me losing her forever.

I’d rather lose my fucking arm than lose Sam. My gut says to go with the safest option, but I think the second she had her hand around my cock, the safe option went out the window. I know what I have to do. I need to tell her. I’m just terrified out of my mind.

Thewhat-ifsare a real bitch.

I want to talk to Granger about it, but he was asleep when I got home, and then I knew he’d be having breakfast with hertoday, so I avoided them both. But, I’m sure as hell not going to talk to her before class this morning, so I guess I can catch him at lunch and go over what to say before tonight.

Adrenaline pumps through me, and I have to try to calm my racing heart. There are hours before I can talk to her. I have to try my best to behave normally until then. This isn’t the time for adrenaline.

I reach the gate that leads out to where we’re meeting Dr. Duncan and go through it, surprised when I find all the other students waiting, including Granger, Sam, and that fucking dirt bag Will. I focus away from the asshole after we exchange a dirty look and focus on my friends. They’re talking. She’s smiling, but her gaze meets mine and her smile freezes.

Damn it. She’s uncomfortable around me.This is the last thing I want.

The temptation to stay away from them comes and goes in an instant. I want Sam closer to me, not to push her away, and if I go down this road, depending on what happens tonight, I might not be able to get back to the one I want. Basically, I don’t want to show her, even for a minute, that there’s something that can separate us. So, I jog up to them, my backpack and toolbelt bouncing as I do.

“Hey,” I greet them, and Sam avoids my gaze.

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