Page 24 of Burn for You (Flirting with Forever 3)

With a shiver, she nods, allowing me to help her slide her arms into the coat. Before she can argue, I wrap my arm behind her, stoop and swing her into my arms, her fluffy dress poofing everywhere. She gasps and holds on, her arm across my shoulders. The feeling of her body cradled against my chest may be my new favorite thing, and with those wide eyes focused on me, all I can think about is leaning in and covering her lips with mine.

“Damon, what are you doing?” Her warm breath puffs out between us, and I find myself fully fixated on her soft berry lips.

“I’m taking us around the building so you don’t freeze to death out here.”

“Put me down.” She squirms a bit, so to stop her, I take my first steps off the sidewalk.

“Nope.” I stride as fast as I can through the foot of snow.

“I’m too heavy. I can walk.”

I grunt and then laugh a bit. “Come on, Piper. You’re not walking through the snow in your heels.” I pause. “And you’re not too heavy. You’re just right.”

She tightens her arm behind my neck. “Promise?”

“It’s like an extra workout. I’m good. Are you trying to imply I’m not strong enough to carry you?”

“Yes. I mean, no. Clearly not.” She huffs. “This has never happened to me before.”

“What? Getting locked outside a gym and having a whole student body ignore our pounding on the door? Being carried around a huge building so you don’t freeze to death in those pretty heels and this dress?” I snicker. “Yeah, me neither.” As I exert myself further, my breath can be seen in the frigid air.

She squirms, making it more difficult to hold her. “No. I meant no one has ever had to carry me like this. I can walk the rest. I’m fine.”

The hand that I have wrapped around her legs is caught up in the flounces of her dress and my fingers grasp her rounded thigh through it. I swear, a blast of lust strong enough to knock me out slams into me, coursing through my veins and straight down to my cock. “Would you please just let me get you to the sidewalk without arguing with me?” I grunt a little more. “I swear, woman, you argue more than anyone I know.”

She doesn’t say anything for a full thirty seconds. But then, out of nowhere, she whispers, “I think you like it.” She coyly looks up at me from under her impossibly long eyelashes.

I groan and laugh. She has no idea what she’s doing to me—here I am, walking through snow drifts, yet I’m burning from the inside out. “That, I do. Let me set you down over here and you’ll be free to flay me with your quick-witted tongue.” Finally, I step onto a shoveled area of the sidewalk near the door we’d entered through earlier. I release her legs, hoping to be able to set her down without further ado, but with her arm still hooked around my neck, her soft curves slide part way down my chest as her feet dangle above the sidewalk.

She makes a little whimpering sound in the back of her throat. Holy shit. I glance down to see her full breasts firmly pressed against me before her feet finally reach the ground. Steadying her, I let go, take a step back, and give my feet a good stomping to distract myself. I grimace at the cold, wet mess as I shake snow and chunks of ice off of me. My feet are frozen, my dress shoes ruined, my suit pants soggy. Sure hope my dry cleaner can at least take care of the pants.

Piper glances down, her lips part, and she stutters. “Oh-Oh, Damon, shit, you must be freezing. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t apologize. It’s not your fault.”

“Sure, it is. I was the one who went outside in the first place.”

“I’d ask you why you did that, but right now I’m going to go blast the heater in my Pathfinder on my feet.” I hesitate to ask, but—fuck it. “Want to come with me?”

Her gaze shoots to mine, and as I watch, her slim throat works to swallow before she nods. “Um. Yeah, okay.” She takes one step toward me, and her foot slides.

I catch her around the waist and pick her right back up. “Making a habit of this, are we?” I jostle her playfully in my arms and … she laughs. It’s a beautiful, happy sound that I’m not sure I’ve ever heard before from the prim, proper, and practically perfect Piper Mathison.

“It would seem so.”

With a smile to myself, I tighten my hold on her and stride quickly to my faithful old Pathfinder.

Once there, I open the passenger door for her and help her in, tucking her ruffly skirt in around her. “I’m just going to get some dry socks and shoes out of the back.” I hand her the keys. “You can turn the car on and get the heat going, if you want.” She nods, fingers wrapping around the keys, and I close the door.

Moving to the rear of the vehicle, I can’t help but wonder if this is a mistake or not. I guess we’ll find out. I open the tailgate, looking for the towels I keep in the back and my gym bag, where I know I have clean socks and athletic shoes. My phone vibrates in my pocket just as I turn to sit down and take off my wet socks and shoes. I reach for it in my pocket and spot the notification from Tryst. I glance over my shoulder. Fuck, this is getting ridiculous. There’s the woman I seem to be having changing feelings for, but who also comes with all sorts of reasons why this may not work. And there’s the woman I’ve never seen but get along well with, and whom I’d really like to meet so we can determine whether we are better off as friends … or more. I haven’t dated anyone in forever, and now I’m having thoughts about dating two women at the same time. And fuck, I can’t do that to either of them. I’m not like that. But how the hell do I choose? How do I let one of them go?

A low grumble leaves my throat as I tap the screen to open Tryst.

Sherlock4Love to Prof.M.: How do we know meeting in person won’t ruin everything?

I blow out a frustrated breath.

From over my shoulder, Piper calls out, “Everything okay back there?”

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