Page 15 of Up in Flames

“How about we get the obvious things out of the way,” he says, confusing me.

“What obvious things?”

“Well, we know I’m good-looking, have a great body under these clothes. So… isthatthe reason for you fumbling around me?”

Closing my eyes and opening them wide, I almost spit out the mouthful of coffee, but instead, I gulp it down a little more dramatically. “Excuse me?”

Egomaniac much?This guyisa piece of work!

“So that’s a yes. You’re affected by my looks. That’s normal… most women are,” he states categorically with a smirk.

“You arenot“good-looking,”” I jab and use air quotes for good measure in an attempt to deflate his ego, but he simply laughs.

“Yes, I am. Now, let’s get to the other burning question…”

What an arrogant son of a bitch.

He thinks he’s God’s gift to women.

Well, maybe he is, but you can be a little more subtle about how much one loves oneself!

“What other question?” I ask, not even beginning to imagine what he could possibly come up with next.

“Why amIso taken withyou?”

My eyes bug out of my head, and I gasp in shock.Okay! Not expecting that.

“Huh?” is all I can manage.

“Why, out of all the ladies in Baton Rouge, haveyoubeen stuck in my head since I met you last night?”

He may as well have sucker punched me because the wind is completely knocked from my lungs.

I had no ideathatwas going to come from his mouth.

“You’re… you are… taken with m-me?” I ask, almost in a whisper. “What does that even mean?”

He chuckles with a sincere smile. “It means, Makaylie, that I like you. I think you’re amazingly feisty. You do the cutest little thing with your nose when you fumble over what you say, and you’re beyond beautif—”

“Huh?” I interrupt, not believing one word of what he’s saying.

He chuckles again as he moves his hand across the table to enclose over mine.

Is this man seriously trying this on with me?

“Really? If you think the old I’ll-compliment-her-till-she-caves-and-gives-herself-to-me trick will work on me, mister, then you have another thing coming.”

He laughs, actually laughs at me.

“What?” I ask abruptly.

“You’re adorable when you’re angry.”

“Fuck off. I am not.” I wrinkle my nose up in disagreement.

Cain grins and rubs his thumb across the back of my hand. Blazing heat ignites inside me as I look down and notice how easily my hand fits into his. A gasp gets caught in my throat while the urge to jump over the table and take him here, on the floor in the diner, overwhelms me. A small whimper escapes my mouth at that thought, and he chuckles as I look up and realize he’s staring at me with the same intensity.What the hell is wrong with me?

“Do you feel it?” he asks, and I know precisely what he’s talking about. He feels exactly what I’m feeling. I know right now, in this moment, something is happening between us. Cain has a strong pull over me—a magnetism—and even if I don’t want to admit it, he has drawn me in.

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