Page 72 of Burn With Me

I blow out a breath and hang my head over the back of his couch. “What am I going to do with you, Little Ember?”

Her words are like a slap in my face. I thought our relationship had been progressing to the point of us actually being together. But the way she’s talking about me right now makes me feel like a fool.

She stretches her legs over my lap, and I pull my head up to look at her as she says, “I know, I know.Ask for what you want.I just didn’t know how to askhim.”

“Was there no part that was enjoyable for you?” My hands rest on her legs, thumbs stroking the dips in her inner ankles.

“Itwasenjoyable! He’s like a fuckingsex god,” she mumbles.

Regardless of wanting to preen under her affectionate nickname, the fact that she seems so upset is making me feeluneasy. “So why the regretful expression? Go back and tell him what you want.”

“There won’t be a next time,” she says sullenly.

The fuck there won’t be.“And why not?”

“I’m no one special, just the girl that told him no. Now that he’s had me…I’m sure he’ll toss me away just like all the other women he fucks. We haven’t even seen each other since that night.”

She grows angrier as she speaks, and a little feeling in my chest pricks the spot where my heart lies encased in steel.

“Perhaps you should give him more credit.”

We haven’t seen each other because work has gone late for me the last two nights. I’ve done nothing to make you think I’m going to just toss you aside now that I’ve gotten you into bed.

She sets her glass down and slides a foot across my lap, bending her knee and letting it fall to the side to reveal the small strip of fabric that covers her pussy beneath her simple slip dress. “Perhapsyoucan just give me what I want?”

It stings—only for a second—that she was just in my bed Wednesday night, and here she is, asking for another man to give her what I didn’t—what Icouldn’t. What I so desperately wanted to give her, but cared more about her fragility than unleashing my monstrous desires.

Only, she’s no longer fragile.

Sure, she has her moments. But through our meetings at the club and my undivided attention outside of it, she’s grown from an ember to a fiery little goddess.

And I’m a fucking arsonist—ready to set everything in our path ablaze.

But I’m also the idiot who treats her like she’s glass.

The next time I see you as myself, you better be prepared to get exactly what you wish for, Ginny.

Uncle Scott

We lost the WhirlTech deal. I expect to see you in my office ASAP. I don’t give a damn that it’s the weekend.

Tripp

WhirlTech went with the other guys. You dropped the ball, dude. This was such a big fucking deal. I get you’re obsessed with this new girl, but it’s affecting your job, man. Thought money came before everything? Something we need to talk about?

Stacey

Scott is…less than thrilled. He’s already called me twice, and I’m not even his secretary. Good luck today. If you need anything, let me know.

Well, this Saturday already sucks, and it’s barely ten in the morning.

Slumping down on the couch, I wipe the sweat of my morning workout from my face with the towel around my neck.

Losing the deal with WhirlTech is not a complication I foresaw. I thought we had them in the bag. But if they want to go with a company that offered them less money, if it means they can keep their casual Fridays, then fuck them.

Is it really that big of a deal?

Sighing, I rub at my face.

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