Page 9 of Burning Desire

“Morning.” Draven smiles as he caresses my cheek, and I get lost in his dark gaze.

Maybe I’m still asleep? This entire interaction is at around a ten on my weirdness meter. Why is Draven staring at me like he wants to take a bite? And he keeps touching me like it’s the most normal, innocent thing in the world. Can smoke inhalation cause hallucinations?

“So, you are really fucking her?” Aurora demands, bringing me back to the present with a thud.

“Jesus Christ,” Derick whispers, running his hands through his hair. “How is that any of your business, Aurora?”

“Harmony is my business,” she hisses at her husbandbefore returning her glare to us.

Draven’s grip on my shoulder tightens at her words, clearly already irritated by my sister. Shaking my head, I look around the kitchen taking everything in, trying to orient myself and figure out if I am actually awake. The kitchen is on the smaller side with dark wooden cabinets, white countertops, yellow curtains, and a little table with two chairs in front of the bay window. I can’t hallucinate something I’ve never seen before, can I? So, I must be awake, and this must be real.

“Not that it’s any of your business,” I say calmly, facing my sister once more. “But Draven has been the perfect gentleman.”

“I can’t believe you would do this to me,” she says in a melodramatic whisper. “You’re my sister,” she hisses as she leans forward across the countertop.

“I haven’t done anything.”

I lean forward too, resting my elbows on the white surface. The shirt I am wearing rides up the back of my thighs. I feel Draven’s finger graze the exposed skin and I nearly swallow my tongue. What thefuck?

“You need to come with me,” Aurora demands.

“Why?” My voice is hoarse and I pray to God that everyone assumes it’s because of the smoke and not because of what the man behind me is doing.

“Because I said so!” She stomps her foot like a two-year-old in mid-tantrum.

“I don’t think so,” I say taking another sip of Draven’s coffee before handing it back.

“Babe,” Derick says taking my sister’s hand. “Harmony is fine. Draven would never let anything happen to her and you know that. Let’s head out.”

She rips her hand from his. “Are you insane? Can’t you see he is trying to seduce her to get back at me?”

“Don’t be silly,” Derick replies. “Draven has moved on with his life, as have you. No one is out to get you. Besides, Aurora isn’t a toy, and he would never treat her that way.”

“You don’t know him like I do.”

“But I do,” he says. “He was my best friend for most of my life.”

I can hear the sadness in his tone. And my heart breaks just a little. Then it hits me. The divorce, why Draven and Derick aren’t friends anymore. It takes everything in me not to reach over the counter and smack my sister. Fuck. She really did a number on both of them.

“Will you just all shut up!” she shouts. “Harmony, you need to come with us. Draven is using you.”

“I think I’ll stay. If Draven will let me.”

She doesn’t even turn to look at her husband as she continues to spew her insane theories. Aurora glares at myself and Draven. She looks at both of us in turn and I see the moment she thinks she has the situation figured out.

“Aren’t you just the perfect scene of domesticated bliss?” Her voice lowers, and I know she is about to say something that will either hurt me or piss me off. “I remember when I used to sleep in his t-shirts and share his coffee. It wasn’t that long ago actually.”

Draven bursts out laughing behind me and I feel the vibrations all the way to my toes. He wraps an arm around my waist before resting his chin on my shoulder.

“You hate the way I drink my coffee, and you have never slept in one of my t-shirts. If I remember correctly, you said they weren’t sexy.”

I burst out laughing at his words while Aurora turns a molten shade of red as her temper spikes.

“I think you should take your wife home now, Derick, before she has an aneurysm. Harmony is perfectly safe,” Dravenaddresses his former best friend.

The way he said Derick, the disdain in his voice, has something becoming clearer to me. I never knew whom exactly my sister cheated with, but now it makes sense that Draven would suddenly hate his best friend. I didn’t see it at the time, now I do.

“Buh-bye.” I give a little wave as my brother-in-law escorts my sister out of Draven’s house while she continues to scream hateful things at us.

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