Page 8 of Burning for Alexander
I’d like him to be into me.
I gritted my teeth against my inner rogue slut. A part of myself that had no business expressing opinions since I, myself, had absolutely zero experience in the sex department.
Not that I didn’twantto have any.
I did.
I wanted very much to have quite a bit of it.
But, contrary to my rogue slut’s desires, my rogueheartwas still stupidly and hopelessly devoted to an old flame. And had decided, somewhere along the way, to hold out for romance before giving the cow away. Or whatever.
I was in my Amish virgin era. Against my will and against my better judgment. Unfortunately, I was hung up on a someone frommy past, and I worried no one would be able to live up to the comparison.
As steam began clouding over the pot on the stove, I moved to pour in the pasta. “I wish you and the chief well. May your flame of desire ever be doused by his overly generous extinguisher.”
“Ew,” she said, making a face. “Never mind. You made it weird.”
I busied myself with stirring the pot. “He’s good-looking. I mean, that’s just an objective fact. The… the hair with the barest silver at the temples. The laugh lines around his eyes. And that eye color. Are they silver or blue? IDK, but they’re piercing. And of course, he’s built. What firefighter isn’t? They work out all the time in their fancy gym at the station house, so of course he has muscles for days. Not that I noticed because… ew.”
“Ew,” she repeated with a smile in her voice I didn’t need to turn to see. “Right. Ewwwww.”
I nodded. “Exactly. Gross.”
“Disgusting.”
“It’s a good thing his job requires masks sometimes,” I added. “So no one needs to look at all that…”
“Perfection,” Ella added.
“Exactly.”
“Mmhm.” She moved around me to pull a bottle of water out of the fridge. “You wanna fuck him, though, right?”
I let out a whimper. “So, so much.”
“Same.” She sighed.
I turned to face her, putting my hands on my hips. “We can’t, though. No sleeping with the enemy. Agreed?”
She placed a hand on her chest and feigned innocence. “He’s notmyenemy!”
“Whatever happened to family loyalty? Marian or die. Huh? What about that?”
She laughed. “Fine. We’ll compromise. I’ll wait until this feud between you ends before putting the flirt on. Fair?”
The timer for the pasta dinged, so I turned back to reach for it, grabbing the pot holders out of the drawer first. “You already flirted with him earlier today.”
“That was before I knew we were at war with the man.”
I nodded. “War. Exactly. We’re at war, Ella. And Chief Kincaid is the enemy.”
Six weeks later,the war escalated without warning. And it was all my fault.
In my defense, it was the Fourth of July. Who doesn’t love lighting sparklers on the Fourth?
Okay, fine. It was the second of July. But I was practicing.
“Do you have any idea how forest fires start?” Chief Kincaid roared out of his open window as his vehicle came to a loud stop, tires crunching over gravel on the side of the road as the headlights swept across me in the dark. “Because of reckless assholes like you!”
