Page 67 of Burning for You

Levi

I know Carolyn is still trembling from her climax. I am too, but I need her to save the Holt family land before I get arrested, or her fiancé hunts me down and tortures me. I haven’t forgotten his gun, army knife, and brass knuckles.

I was prepared to commit a crime, but there’s a real possibility that Carolyn, the supposed snake head of the Random Valley takeover, will give us what we want peacefully. I have to do it before anything changes.

My conscience is clear, and I’m more determined than ever to defend Random Valley, knowing she’s on my side. After I check on Jesse, who’s still completely out, and cut his ties, I come back to Carolyn.

“You know, had I not found you caring for your brother, I would’ve shot you,” she says.

“Why didn’t you, then?”

“How could I hurt someone who’s tending to his sibling so lovingly?”

I take a deep breath at her soothing voice. “Now, since you didn’t shoot me, we’ve gotta look at these.”

I gather the contents of the folder, half of which she had looked at earlier, and then pull up a chair while Carolyn is sitting comfortably on my bed.

But I pause. “No, actually, I have to tell you something,” I say, sitting next to her. She almost grabs my hand, but I squeeze hers first. “I’m sorry. When I treated you disgustingly, when I hurt you, it wasn’t me. And I’m sorry for what my brother did to you.”

Her smiles draw me in, and I kiss her lips—still looking evidently engorged from being aroused in the last hour or two.

“I’d always wanted to do that,” I whisper to her.

“Why didn’t you earlier?” she asks as if she had missed out.

“Because I was afraid you wouldn’t remember.” She was so lost in the sex, how could she have remembered a kiss?

“That’s the silliest thing I’ve heard since I arrived in Random Valley,” she whispers, putting her palm on the back of my neck, driving me to her. She returns the favor, as gently as our first kiss earlier.

I breathe calmly, absorbing the sensation.

Nodding at the folder I left on the chair, she says, “Now, please let me see those again.”

Carolyn studies the content closely.

“My dad killed himself because HPI’s and Brilliance’s puppets kept harassing and coercing him to sell more. Whoever your fiancé or Rupert Teller hired, they succeeded in rattling him. Eventually, Teller himself came, the day Dad took his own life.”

“His initial plans only showed four thousand acres, but these… these are the whole valley. Rupert must have a reason for partnering up with Josh,” she says.

“Capital, wouldn’t it be?” I say. “And if your suspicion is right, he might’ve framed you for revenge.”

“Funding is one thing, but taking risks is another. Perhaps Rupert isn’t ready for the latter, so he happily sits in the background as a minor partner. He keeps his position open—he can bail out or he can pounce, depending on how successful the project is.”

“Tell me, Carolyn, why did you authorize it, then?” I show her the last evidence she hadn’t had a chance to see yet—the documents with her signature on them.

The corner of her lips creases, and then she erupts. “Those men! They’ve really framed me. Never! I’ve never seen these.”

I let her deal with her anger.

“Fuck you, Josh!” She thumps the mattress with her fist and rises to her feet. Her composure crumbles right in front of me.

Pacing the room, she barks, “You know, Levi, it crossed my mind that Teller was actually going to hurt Josh, using you two, after you hurt me. I’m such a fool! They’re together in all of this, right from the start.”

Carolyn casts flaming eyes at me. I’ve seen her anger, like in that Brilliance meeting room where she scowled at Bright, but this is different. This is more than personal.

After pausing for a moment, she drops her gaze to her palms. She sighs, “I can’t believe this is happening right under my nose.”

I hold her. “Hey, come on. You’re only human.”

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