Page 5 of Breaking Blaze

The sound of her phone ringing jerked Anna from her much needed sleep. After working the late shift at Happy Jack’s and not getting home until just after three, she was in desperate need of some shut eye.

Apparently, whoever was calling her at five in the morning didn’t agree with her.

Rolling over, she slapped her hand on the bedside table, grabbing her cell in an aggressive swipe. Usually, she was the mellow one, letting things roll off her back like water. Unless you messed with her sleep. Then, she got all sorts of grumpy.

Answering, she slurred sleepily, “Dead, bleeding, arrested, or kidnapped—it had better be one of those if you’re calling me this freaking early.”

A familiar deep chuckle sounded over the line, raising goosebumps along her skin and turning her nipples into hard points in her sleep shirt.

Blaze.

“Hey, baby girl, I know how much you love your sleep, but you know I wouldn’t be calling you if I didn’t need your help,” he drawled, the deep rumble of his voice finishing the job the ringing phone had. Wide awake she sat up and sighed.

“What do you need, Blaze?” she asked, knowing that since it was early—or late—on a Saturday morning/Friday night, he’d probably just rolled out of some woman’s bed and was in need of a ride. He did that. Often. Going to the bar where she worked, getting plastered, hitting up any number of willing women, and then taking a cab to their place where he “showed them a good time.”

“I lost my keys,” came his reply, making Anna blink in surprise. That was a first.

“Where?”

“Uh…”

His non-answer was answer enough. Despite being an unrepentant manwhore, he was still her best friend, which meant that he usually kept all mention of his conquests as far from her as possible. Even though he usually picked up said conquests at her place of work, right in front of her, nearly every night of the week.

“Never mind. Does that mean you’re stuck somewhere?” she asked, pushing herself from the warmth of her bed to get dressed, knowing she wasn’t going to get back to sleep that night if she had to leave her house, get in her car, and drive somewhere. Not that it was the first time, or would be the last time.

But God, she wished it was the last time.

Patting her hair, she realized that most of her hair had come loose from the braid she’d put it in before going to sleep. Her long, pin-straight brown hair came out of braids just as easily as if her whole head had been coated in butter. Past the point of caring, she stabbed her feet into her Land’s End moccasin slippers, tugged on the windbreaker from the chair beside her bedroom door, and lumbered from her bedroom into the hallway leading to the living room, dining room, and attached galley kitchen.

“Well, I’m not stuck, per say. I am here, right outside my door, and I can’t get in because my keys are…lost.”

She stopped in her tracks and grit her teeth.

“Your door is right next to mine, Blaze, why didn’t you just come here and sleep on the couch—you didn’t have to wake me up,” she grumbled as she moved to the door and unlocked it, swinging it open to glare into the bright fluorescent lights of the apartment building corridor. Their apartment building was older, with three units on each floor and a large loft apartment on the top floor where the landlord lived. When Blaze had been discharged from the Navy, he and Anna had decided that they were going to get apartments right next to each other, allowing for them to still have lives but still be close. They were best friends, after all.

But damn, she wanted to be more. And who could blame her.

There, not ten feet away, Blaze with his shaggy blonde hair, bright blue eyes, magnetic dimples, broad shoulders, trim waist complete with six-pack abs, thighs that stretched the confinement of his work worn blue jeans, and a smile that said “I was bad but you still love me”, leaned against his apartment door, thick arms crossed over his wide chest. The man owned a construction company and hit the gym two hours a day, so saying he was built like a beast was an understatement. Anna wasn’t a small woman, being a size 18 and average height, but, beside him, near him, she felt small. And she liked it, a lot.

Tucking his cell into his back pocket, he took in her appearance. She blinked, suddenly realizing she’d stumbled out of bed wearing her pajamas…and not her sexy ones.

Jeez, could her night get any worse?

Yes, you could be naked and he could be sneering at all your rolls and imperfections.

Ugh. That wasn’t Blaze. Blaze didn’t look at her like that; when he looked at her…he only ever saw…Anna. After all these years, and all the times she’d been near him when other women were around, she knew that Blaze only ever saw through her…to the woman behind her. The one who looked like sex in heels. The woman he would then flirt with and take off with for his near nightly one-night stand.

Weary to her bones, she pressed her fingers to her forehead, desperate to rid her mind of the memories of Blaze, and the knowledge of his utter lack of attraction to her.

“Well, good morning. You look exceptional,” he drawled, his dimples deepening in his attempt to, no doubt, dampen some of the anger rolling off her in waves. “I would have come in and bunked down on your couch but no keys, remember?” His gaze dipped down and his smile turned into a smirk. “Were you going to come rescue me in naught but your teeny tiny sleep shorts, Anna-boo?”

She grunted, hating that his nickname from high school still made her cringe.

Throwing her hands in the air, she snapped with a little less heat than usual, “What the hell, Blaze?”

He pushed off the door and shrugged. “I told you, I lost my keys and I couldn’t get into my apartment. I called you because I knew you had a spare.”

“Of course, I do, but what are you supposed to do about your truck keys?”

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