Burned

by Melody Anne

  “Look, Elena, it’s been a lot of years since you’ve seen this guy, right?” Piper tried to reason. “Maybe he isn’t the monster he once was. People change,” she finished, peeking back across the bar. “But he does seem to be coming this way, so you’d better make a decision, and fast.”

  “The panic in your voice isn’t helping me right now, Piper. No way. And don’t let his looks or his charm deceive you. Tyler Knight does what he wants when he wants, and he doesn’t give a damn about who gets hurt in the process.”

  “What in the hell happened!”

  “Stop talking about it. He’s almost here. Go to the bar and flirt with the bartender, and most importantly, have faith in your best friend,” Elena whispered frantically.

  “I’ll be watching.” With that Piper walked away.

  Elena only had a moment to compose her features before she felt Tyler behind her. She didn’t even need to turn to know he was there. Damn, the man had been blessed with more charisma than any one person deserved. It just wasn’t right.

  He’d had it even back when they were kids, and later in life, when she’d been gangly and he’d been perfection in the back seat of a limo. She just hadn’t realized how little he thought of women. It hadn’t taken her too many years to figure it out — or to blossom from the long-legged, too skinny, dirt-faced young tomboy she’d been.

  She hadn’t spoken to Tyler in eight years. This reunion was long overdue, and her dislike of him had grown fierce with time. After he had rejected her early on, his meanness hadn’t been good enough. No, he had to then come into her life once more and humiliate her, take her virginity and then treat her like a whore. In theory, she’d been a woman for two years by then, but she’d been shy and awkward, little more than a girl, really, and he’d made it so much worse. Just her luck.

  Well, this time, Tyler would be the one to feel something other than smugness. He could feel what it was like to be humiliated and left with wanting something that he couldn’t have.

  “Good evening.”

  Even the sound of his voice right behind her ear sent shivers traveling through her body. This wasn’t going to be as easy as she’d envisioned just a minute before. But Elena wasn’t a quitter. Never had been, and never would be. This was a battle she would most certainly win.

  “Are you speaking to me?” She turned around slowly, her eyelids lowered just the slightest bit, her lips in a perfect pout.

  A femme fatale was so not like her. But anyone could learn if they tried hard enough.

  “Would you like to dance?” he asked.

  “I don’t know you so isn’t it quite bold of you to ask?” she quickly responded before licking her bottom lip so his eyes were drawn there.

  “We’ll get to know each other while we dance,” he said, holding out his hand.

  “I don’t think so,” she said, leaning back against the high table next to her.

  His eyes narrowed and something almost predatory leapt into them before he next spoke. “I don’t play games.” With that said, he moved forward, invading her personal space. She wanted to take a step back — all she could do now was breathe his scent — but a seductress would never do that, so she thrust her chin out and moved an inch closer to him.

  “Neither do I,” she practically purred, hating herself just the tiniest bit for doing it.

  “Good. Because I would like to dance with you,” he said before grinning. “And then I’d like to take you home.”

  Elena was too stunned for a moment to respond. She’d expected boldness from him after her last encounter, but she hadn’t expected him to be this upfront. What she wanted to do was slap him across his smug face. She barely restrained herself from doing just that.

  “Well, that was forward,” she said with a tinkling laugh. “And what makes you think for even a moment that I’m the type of girl who would take you up on an offer like that?”

  “We made a connection, even in a room full of other people. Don’t tell me that you didn’t feel it.”

  “Oh, believe me, I felt it,” she said, lifting her hand and tracing a perfectly manicured fingernail down his arm. “But I have some standards, sad to say. Here’s one of them — I don’t go home with strangers in the night, particularly ones I meet in a bar.”

  “And I told you that I don’t play games,” he said, moving yet another inch closer. Her breasts were brushing against his impressively hard chest.

  A shudder rushed through her and she knew she was out of her league. She thought for a moment of crying mercy and bailing out on this impromptu mission, but then he lifted his eyebrow just the way he had the last time he’d rejected her, and she knew she wasn’t going anywhere. But she knew something about gamesmanship. In fact, she had a degree in it.

  “Fine. Walk away, then,” she told him with a careless shrug.

  She turned back to the table and lifted her drink. If he called her bluff and left, then good riddance, but everything inside her was saying that he wasn’t going anywhere.

  When he brushed up against her back, his hands closing over her shoulders, she knew she had him, hook, line, and sinker. She’d never felt anything quite like this. The power of knowing she had him.

  “You’re making me break my rules,” he said, his breath whispering across her ear before he turned her around to face him again. “Tell me your name.” At least he’d asked her name this time. That was an improvement.

  “Do you always talk as if you’re commanding people?”

  “I can be laid back. But not quite yet. And when I want something, I go for it. Tell me your name.”

  She smiled, this time a real smile, and his eyes dilated, making the flutters in her stomach take flight. “You tell me your name first,” she said, her voice just a little too breathless, and she didn’t need any acting skills to achieve that effect just now.

  “Tyler.” He didn’t add anything. He just waited.

  “Elena,” she finally said. There was no recognition in his eyes. Of course, he’d always called her Lanie when they were younger. But why would she think for even a moment that he would remember her? She was just one more castoff in his life, one of a long line of castoffs.

  “Got a last name, Elena?” he said after a few moments of silence.

  “My last name has to be earned,” she told him.

  It took a moment, but then his face was transformed. His lips turned up first in a wide smile, and then he laughed. A deep-in-the-gut happy laughter that had her own lips turning up.

  “I think I could like you, Elena. Let me buy you a drink,” he said. Without waiting for a yes or a no, he held up a hand, and a waitress came over.

  “I guarantee that you’ll like me, Tyler.”

  “I guess I’m going to have to break another one of my rules, then,” he said as he boxed her in even further.

  She waited, but he didn’t elaborate. “And what rule is that, Tyler?”

  The smoldering look he sent her had her entire body responding to the man, fully against her will. Then he leaned forward as if he were about to impart a great secret.

  “Let the games begin.”

  He said no more, and Elena could almost hear the dinging of a bell as round one got underway.

  “I thought you said that you didn’t play games.”

  “As I said, I’m breaking one of my rules. And all in your honor.”

  Ah. So he was telling her he was more than ready to play with her.

  “Yes, Tyler, let the games begin.”

  Chapter Five

  There was something so familiar about this woman. But Tyler had been sitting there in the bar with her for over an hour, and he just couldn’t place her, so it all had to be an illusion. Elena wasn’t the type of woman a man could forget. She was certainly the type of woman a man broke the rules for, though.

  Tyler could easily walk away from most of the women who crossed his path. Yes, he sometimes spoke of marriage and babies and growing up, but the reality of doing just that terrified him to
the very depths of his soul. He still had that diamond ring, as a reminder of his near escape. And he was a lot more guarded now.

  He always came on strong. Why not? He was great-looking, rich as sin, and had what one ex had referred to as the ultimate swagger. Tyler knew he was a catch. Most of the time, he didn’t have to break a sweat to get a hot babe into bed.

  So why had it seemed crucial to his very existence that he stay and talk to this woman, a woman who clearly had some sort of agenda? He had no clue what that agenda was, but he could see someone who was playing a game a mile away. Elena had secrets, but they were ones that Tyler wanted to figure out. Most certainly. Was she after money? Fame in the tabloids, maybe to help her jump-start a modeling career? Or was there something deeper? Darker? More sinister?

  The idea — the uncertainty — ought to terrify him. Instead, he was more turned on than ever before.

  He should have just blown her off, but something about her made him willing to play along, willing to almost get down on his knees and beg her to let him just stay in her presence. He was taking a dangerous road, and yet he couldn’t seem to look for an exit.

  “Are you seeing anyone, Elena?”

  He watched her reaction. And his question didn’t make her jumpy in the least.

  “Not at the moment. I like my freedom,” she told him. “What about you? Any girlfriends about to come out of the restroom and fight me for the privilege of seeing you?”

  She had such quick comebacks, and he loved them. “I can’t guarantee that won’t happen,” Tyler replied.

  “Then maybe I should change seats,” she said.

  “Are you afraid of a challenge, Elena? You don’t strike me as the type of girl to run from a fight.”

  “Oh, I’m not afraid of any woman you most likely take out on dates. Let me guess. They’re the stick-thin Barbie doll types with bigger bust sizes than brains.” Elena said this all so casually that it took him a moment to realize she was insulting him.

  “Then what am I doing sitting here talking to you? Your bust size is respectable, of course. But are you a ditzy sort of girl?”

  She laughed openly at that. “Ditzy! Nice word, and it pegs you as a retrograde. I have a college degree — maybe more than one. I don’t think I could be called stupid.”

  “It depends what level and what area the degree is in,” he countered.

  “You haven’t earned that information yet.”

  “That’s the second time you’ve made that comment. You’re incredibly good at dodging any kind of question about yourself. Is that on purpose, or are you running on automatic?”

  She looked down for a moment, and Tyler instantly reached across the small table and lifted her chin. He couldn’t read her if he couldn’t see into her eyes. That wouldn’t work for him.

  “I don’t know you enough to let you inside my head, Tyler. Has anyone ever told you that you’re too damn pushy?” She shook off his hand.

  “I’ve been told that a lot. But the thing is,” he said before leaning back, that appealing crooked grin on his lips, “I always get what I want — one way or another.”

  “Maybe not this time,” she said, and he saw a flash in her eyes that he couldn’t quite interpret. Fascinating.

  This witch, this foxy lady, had him even more intrigued than before. Tyler had to know her story. And he would.

  His body was humming with lust, but even more than that, he was actually interested in this mystery woman. She somehow compelled him, and she made him want to trust her. That was insane. She was playing him — he knew that beyond a reasonable doubt. But what could he do but go along? She had him by the short hairs.

  He had to say something, so he came out with this. “Tell me something real about yourself.”

  “I’ve been telling you things about me for the past hour,” she replied.

  “No. You’ve been holding me on a fishing line just enough to keep me hooked, but not enough to reel me in,” he countered. “Tell me something real.”

  She froze and her eyes flew open with something like shock, but she managed to mask her expression in an instant. She was good at that.

  “You tell me something real about yourself first, and then I’ll do the same,” she said.

  Tyler laughed again. He’d found himself doing that a lot in the last hour. Another interesting thing in Elena’s favor.

  “Fine,” he said. “I have nothing to hide.” He thought for a moment and then grinned. “I’ve never slept with a woman.”

  Her mouth dropped open, but after a few moments, she sent him a withering look.

  “If you honestly think I’ll believe that, then you are about the stupidest man I’ve ever met.”

  “It’s a fact.”

  “Really?” Her words dripped with scorn. “You come over to me and tell me you want to take me over to your — what? bachelor pad? — but you’ve never done that before?”

  Man, was he enjoying himself, and he couldn’t help but smile. His buddy Matt was definitely going to have to get another ride, because one way or the other Tyler was taking Elena home with him.

  “I’ve certainly done that before. I’ve just never slept with a woman.”

  Her glare turned to confusion as she was trying to figure out what he’d just said. And he wasn’t going to help her out. He wanted to see how smart she really was.

  “Ah, so you’re the dine-and-dash sort of guy?” she finally said.

  “No. I always treat my women with the utmost respect. We do what we do together for the same reason — to feel good.”

  “That’s so admirable. But you screw them and then leave immediately. I bet you have all sorts of hotel rooms on standby just for these special occasions.”

  “I wouldn’t characterize myself quite that way, but I do like a good night’s sleep. Alone,” he said before leaning closer. “And yet I have a feeling you might change my mind about that.” There was no need to talk about his last long-term relationship. No, he’d never slept over at her place, and she had never slept over at his, but that was mostly due to work schedules, and he must have know then that something just wasn’t quite right.

  Elena was silent for several heartbeats before she threw him a smile, and she leaned toward him, their faces now only a couple of inches apart.

  “I guarantee you that if we were in bed together, even if you managed to stick around for a whole night, you’d have a good night, but not much sleep,” she said in a throaty purr that went straight to his groin and left him aching in a way he hadn’t ached since high school.

  “Prove it.”

  Chapter Six

  Elena took long, deep breaths in front of the restroom mirror. She was in a major battle to get her heart to quit racing. Those words, those exact words he’d spoken to her twenty years before, had been too much for her to handle.

  She’d been unable to speak. She’d just lurched up from the table and run.

  “What’s wrong? What happened? Are you okay? Let me get you a washcloth.”

  Her friend Piper had rushed through the door and was talking a mile a minute and not giving Elena a chance to answer. But Elena couldn’t answer yet anyway. She was too frazzled.

  Piper handed her a cool cloth, and Elena pressed it to her forehead.

  “Okay, I’m giving you exactly sixty seconds to pull yourself together and to tell me what in the hell is going on. If I need to go and kick that guy’s ass, then I’m your girl. I’m officially a brown belt in karate now.”

  The fact that Piper was deadly serious yanked Elena’s mood around. For a moment she just starred at Piper in surprise. Then she broke out into a smile and began laughing uncontrollably.

  “I’m starting to get really worried now, Elena. Seriously. If you don’t stop laughing and talk to me, I’m going to have to call in the paramedics,” Piper said, folding her arms across her chest and tapping her foot impatiently.

  “I’m so…so sorry Piper. It’s just that you are the best friend that any girl could ever h
ave, and I love you so much. Thank you,” Elena said between fits of laughter.

  “Yeah, yeah, you’re my bestie too,” Piper snapped. “Now, tell me what is going on! I mean it, Elena. I’m serious!”

  “Okay, okay. It’s just that things are going just fine. I know he wants me, wants me desperately, which is pretty great, actually — all things considered — but then the bastard tells me to prove it and I just lost it and headed for the hills.”

  Piper looked at her in confusion. Elena really needed to tell Piper the story. But as a true best friend would do, she didn’t care what Tyler had done. She was ready to kill him anyway just because Elena wanted to.

  “It’s settled. I’m going to kick his ass just because he’s upset you¸” Piper said as she made one hand into a fist and hit the other one with it.

  “No. Don’t do that,” Elena said, overcome with a fit of giggles again. “You’ve done exactly what I needed you to do. I needed a minute to calm down. I need to end the evening on the proper note. With the proper touch. Or maybe not so proper.”

  Her friend looked at her dubiously. “Then we’re leaving?”

  “In a few minutes,” Elena told her, and Piper threw up her hands. “I’m going to go back out there, sweetie, so I can get him hot and bothered and then leave him wanting more. I need you to come out of the bathroom in exactly five minutes and tell me it’s time to go, and then we’ll talk more. I promise.”

  “I don’t like this, Elena. I don’t like it at all. And you’re going to tell me exactly what this asshat has done.”

  “I know you don’t like it, but because we will do anything for each other, you’ll carry through with my crazy plans,” Elena said before checking herself out in the mirror. “And I promise to tell you all. You’re going to kill me though for not telling you sooner.

  She looked slightly crazy, but then she was feeling a little bit crazy at the moment. She was insane, actually, to think she could carry this off. But she was doing it, and she was doing it well — so far, at least. She was no longer a stupid twenty year old who could be used.