Controlled Burn- To Publish

by Lani Lynn Vale

  “What was it?” I asked softly.

  “Humpty.”

  I blinked.

  “Why Humpty?” I wondered.

  “Because, apparently, my leg looked so bad when it broke that everyone thought it’d never be put back together again,” he explained.

  I snorted.

  “Mine’s worse,” I promised him.

  “Try me,” he challenged.

  I gave him a look, then shrugged.

  What was I going to lose by telling him?

  So I told him. Just a taste.

  I didn’t want him to get the full story when we were about to go into a place that was filled with people who tortured me throughout my high school career, just in case I got lucky and no one said anything.

  “That woman right there,” I pointed at the fake-boobed, bottle blonde standing in front of her jacked up Tahoe wearing pants so tight it was a miracle she could even breathe, never mind move, in them.

  “What about her?” Dean asked.

  “Laney Jones was one of the people who told the entire graduating class of 2006 that I was a lousy lay, according to Patrick Bowen, who took a bet from a football player that he couldn’t fuck me,” I explained to him. “And my brother asked me to talk to the same football player who was responsible for that entire thing so he can get some dirt on him.”

  Dean blinked, then he leaned forward and started the engine of his truck again.

  “What are you doing?” I asked him when he put the truck into reverse.

  “We’re leaving,” he said, allowing no room for argument.

  I placed my hand on his forearm, stilling his movements.

  “Don’t,” I whispered. “I just wanted you to know about this place. About me. In case I freak out while talking to these people who tried to make my high school existence a living hell.”

  “Tried?” he prodded me. “Seems to me they didn’t just try. They succeeded.”

  I smiled at him sadly.

  “It’s not like I can do much about it,” I told him. “I’m going to pull my big girl panties up, go in there, and do what I came here to do,” I hesitated. “And then I’ll collect on the five-hundred-dollar informant fee my brother promised me when he told me about this in the first place. Oh, and let’s not forget about the fact that he’s tearing the roof off my project house in return.”

  Dean’s lips twitched. “Is he now?”

  I nodded in excitement. “He came by last night and told me he was going to do it for me, and that he would supervise the crew putting the roof on. Can you believe that?”

  A smile came and went on his face, and my eyes narrowed.

  “Why aren’t you acting surprised about this?” I asked him.

  He shrugged.

  Instead of answering me, he put the truck back into park, got out, and then rounded the tailgate to come to my side.

  My eyes narrowed when Dean’s movements were caught by Laney, and her eyes started to focus on him.

  I opened the door and got out before she could get too bold and slammed it closed behind me.

  Leaning against the truck door, I watched Dean come closer, his eyes on me and my breasts.

  “I told you to stop doing that,” I teased him. “It’s not appropriate.”

  “I’m not really sure what you thought you were going to accomplish by wearing something like this,” he ran his fingers along the hem of my sundress. “But I know what I’m going to do and that’s admire your breasts.”

  I laughed softly under my breath.

  “Is that right?”

  He nodded.

  “You’re incorrigible,” I told him. “Are you ready?”

  He nodded his head, leaning in slightly so he could press the button on the door handle that locked the doors to his truck.

  The honk had me jumping in surprise, and I shot him a glare.

  “Not funny,” I said to him when he started to laugh.

  “You would do the same had the situation been reversed,” he grinned as he pulled me away from the truck.

  His hand was warm and solid in mine, and I wanted much more than his hand wrapped around mine.

  Sadly, I was in a place that I most certainly did not want to be, and charged with a task that would hopefully help my brother accomplish whatever he was trying to accomplish with this job.

  “Don’t leave me tonight, okay?” he rumbled as he pulled me closer into him.

  I nodded.

  “Yes, Sir,” I said, not thinking about the effect it would have on him if I said it.

  His hand squeezed mine, and my eyes turned up to survey his.

  They were smoldering.

  Licking my lips, I turned away just in time to nearly bust my ass on the steps that led to the old gym that I’d graduated in, and would apparently celebrate the tenth anniversary of that graduation.

  Dean caught me before I could face plant into the cracked concrete, and I gave him a relieved smile.

  “Thank you,” I whispered to him.

  “Well, if that isn’t the July Amsel that we all know and love,” Laney, the snotty bitch that I remembered from my hell years, said from behind me.

  I turned to find Laney, and a man, standing directly behind me.

  “Sorry,” I apologized to them, turning back around to mount the steps.

  “No worries,” the man replied, looking at me curiously.

  Thankfully, he didn’t have any animosity towards me, which I could so obviously read on Laney’s face.

  Dean’s grip on my hand tightened the further we climbed, and then abruptly released when I patted his knuckles in commiseration.

  “I’m okay,” I promised him.

  He looked down at me, studied my eyes, and then nodded.

  “Yeah, you are,” he confirmed. “But they better hope I don’t hear them talking shit tonight, or I might not be able to hold my tongue.”

  I laughed softly and bent forward to open the gym door, but Dean beat me to it.

  He also held the door open for Laney and her man, and I scooted forward into the room to get out of their way.

  Laney stopped and placed her delicate hand on Dean’s forearm that was holding the door open, and smiled at him.

  Dean shook her off, then left the door to Laney’s man before hurrying over to me.

  “I need some antibacterial soap,” he grunted as he got to me.

  I smiled and let my eyes drift beyond the front door, my heart hammering in my chest as I saw all the balloons and people.

  It was so packed inside that my nerves started to tighten even further.

  I’d had half a hope that nobody would show. Sadly, it looked like a lot of them did.

  Unlucky for me.

  “Name,” a dark haired woman that looked somewhat familiar but I couldn’t place, said shortly.

  “July Amsel,” Dean rumbled. “Top of the page.”

  The woman’s head snapped up, and the heart shaped birthmark on her cheek came into view.

  My lips twisted into a smile, but not because I was happy to see her.

  In fact, I was about as far away from happy as a person could be at seeing this woman. What made me want to laugh, however, was the fact that the most popular bitch in school, the queen of the mean girls, Jasmine Martine, didn’t look anything at all like her previously perfectly put together high school self.

  It appeared that little miss better than everyone else had gotten a little fat in the ten years since graduation.

  Well, fat according to her standards. She didn’t look that fat to me, but I’d guess that she had gained about seventy-five pounds, though.

  “July,” Jasmine cooed as she looked down once again at her nametags she was writing names down on, wrote my name, and then peeled it off the paper. “It’s nice that you could make it.”

  I smiled tightly and took the name tag she handed me, placing it on my sundress at my waist line.

  I di
dn’t want anyone to know it was me.

  I tried hard as hell to blend in over the years whenever I visited, scared as hell someone would recognize me and try to chat.

  This time was no different.

  “Thanks,” I muttered, searching for Dean’s hand blindly.

  “You’re welcome!” Jasmine replied cheerfully.

  Bitch.

  I’d just made my way into the gym when the last person in the world I thought I’d see stepped out of a side room in front of me.

  I froze. Literally and figuratively.

  Jensen Gordon, the boy I’d dated my senior year of high school.

  The boy who’d promised me the world only to get into my pants. The boy who almost got my virginity before he went off to college and cheated on me within the first week of being there.

  The boy who played huge part in my decision to stay away from all things with a penis attached to them.

  “What’s wrong?” Dean murmured against my ear, hooking me around the waist and bending his head down to my neck.

  I shivered when his day old beard rasped across my sensitive skin, and turned my head up to him.

  He dropped a kiss onto my upturned lips, and I smiled.

  “Ex-boyfriend,” I whispered to him.

  Dean’s eyes moved to the man, and I followed his gaze, flinching when I caught Jensen’s gaze on me.

  Jensen’s mouth had dropped open at some point, and I turned my face into Dean’s upraised arm that was now wrapped around my chest above my breasts.

  “Your brother told me a little about him,” Dean said, surprising the shit out of me. “Do you want me to kick his ass?”

  I burst out laughing and pulled out of his arms, grabbing a hold of his bulging bicep and urging him in the direction of the refreshment table and the open bar.

  “That would be a big ol’ negative,” I told him sternly. “I’d like to have you for backup later with you know who. What I would not like to do is go to the sheriff’s office and bail you out.”

  Dean brought my hand up to his mouth and kissed the back of it, and my spine started to tingle.

  “You’re good with that mouth of yours,” I whispered faintly so only he could hear.

  The bar was hopping with people. One of those people being the very man that I needed to talk to.

  He also looked terrible.

  “I know,” Dean teased. “I’m just warming you up so later you…”

  “Wow, July! Is that you?” a male voice exclaimed from behind me.

  I turned to find a man who didn’t look familiar at all behind me, and a woman on his arm that looked anything but happy to see her man conversing with me.

  “Uh, yeah,” I said. “But, I’m sorry, I can’t place who you are.”

  Dean snorted a laugh beside me, and I turned a frown his way before turning back to the man.

  He was tall, and, actually, still in pretty good shape compared to the rest of the men from this class.

  “Joseph Perry,” he said, a smile on his face. “You used to sit next to me in band.”

  My brows furrowed, and then understanding dawned.

  “The tuba player!” I replied. “You look nothing like what you used to look like.”

  Joseph smiled and reached for a drink, offering the man behind the bar a twenty to pay for the beers he’d just handed him.

  Joseph handed the woman at his side a beer and then turned back to me.

  “I lost seventy pounds, got rid of the braces and shaved off the long hair,” he explained. “This is my wife, Margie. Margie, this is the girl I was telling you about that I used to play tuba with.”

  My brows went up, and Margie’s demeanor changed to one of understanding.

  “The only one that used to include him at lunch,” Margie said softly. “It’s nice to finally meet you.”

  My face flushed.

  Yes. Joseph and I used to be the only two people in the entire graduating class that weren’t part of the ‘in’ crowd.

  He was also the only person, besides me, who’d skipped every single school function we could manage to get our way out of.

  “You used to play tuba?” Dean asked happily. “How?”

  I burst out laughing, drawing the attention of half the bar.

  I abruptly stopped and smiled sheepishly at Dean, who was full out grinning.

  “The band director chose what we played,” I explained to him. “We didn’t get a choice with what we played when we first got into band, and since the tuba could be rented from the school, I stuck with it.”

  Understanding came over him, and he nodded, throwing his arm around my shoulder and pulling me into his protective embrace.

  “This is Dean,” I introduced him to the two people standing in front of him. “He’s my…”

  “Boyfriend,” Dean finished for me, a small smile gracing his lips.

  My heart kicked a few beats at those words and lightened as the two men started to talk about their jobs.

  In fact, the next hour or so went much better than I expected…that was until Jensen and Barrett took a seat at our table, rendering me unable to talk.

  Barrett Riley hadn’t fared well over the last ten years, either.

  Gone were the abs and charming boyish face. Now he looked ugly, mean, and like a…well…rapist.

  Which, in my opinion, was sickening.

  I couldn’t stand looking at him.

  Lucky for me, I had a man at my table who didn’t mind talking. Which he proved as he engaged both Jensen and Barrett in a conversation without me having to do a damn thing.

  The more Jensen looked at me, his eyes calculating, the more I seemed to get closer and closer to Dean.

  By the time the awards for ‘best of 2006’ came around, I was practically on top of Dean.

  “Do you want to sit in my lap?” he teased, his hands running down the length of my hair.

  I shook my head.

  “No,” I whispered. “I want to leave.”

  He hummed, and the vibration of his chest had my eyes closing in pleasure.

  Ignoring the way the lady speaking droned on and on, I turned my face up to Dean.

  “How’d you learn to cook so well?” I asked him, trying to distract myself from the hellhole I’d walked into.

  He must’ve sensed my evasion technique because he ran with it, explaining in detail about his parents. His mother, and his absent military father.

  “You were an army brat?” I asked.

  “Yep,” he confirmed. “Still am, technically. Pop’s still in.”

  How this had never come up in our six months of dating was beyond me.

  “Wow,” I said. “How old is he?”

  “Nearly sixty. The second weekend of next month will be his party,” he informed me. “It’s a blue tie affair, and I’ll be expected to attend. Which means so will you.”

  I blinked in confusion.

  “So will I what?”

  “You’ll be expected to attend,” he explained.

  “Why in the world would I be expected to attend?” I asked in alarm.

  He gave me a wide smile.

  “When I tell my mom about us tomorrow, on our usual Sunday morning chat, she’ll demand that I bring you,” he informed me.

  My mouth dropped open.

  “Why would you tell her about me?” I murmured frantically, trying to keep my voice low.

  “Because I want to,” he educated me.

  I stuck my tongue out at him.

  “That sounds like a bad omen waiting to happen,” I muttered. “Look where telling her got us last time.”

  Dean’s hand tightened on mine, and suddenly he stood.

  “Come here,” he ordered, pulling me up to my feet.

  I went with him, very aware of the eyes that followed us out of the gym.

  “Where are we going?” I whisper yelled.

  My heels clicked loudly on the wooden floor, a
nd my eyes went up to study Dean’s wide shoulders and strong back as he pulled me along in his wake instead of making eye contact with any of the gazes I could feel on me.

  “Bathroom,” he answered. “Closet. I don’t know.”

  Confusion swept over me as we made it out into the quiet hallway, the further away we moved, the less I could hear that annoying voice of Laney speaking about how great the graduating class of 2006 was and how proud she was to graduate from Karnack High School.

  “Where’s the bathroom?” he asked me.

  I pointed in the direction of the end of the hallway, and he squeezed my hand tighter and hastened his pace.

  “Jesus, Dean,” I said breathily. “You’re fast as lightning with those long ass legs of yours. Chill pill.”

  He didn’t slow.

  However, I also didn’t have a problem keeping up with him anymore seeing as he swept me off my feet and tossed me over his shoulder like one would a sack of grain.

  “Eeek,” I squeaked. “My ass is showing!”

  Dean’s hand came down over my ass, covering my panties with his large, warm palm.

  Then his fingers dipped inside the band of my panties covering my bottom, and went straight into the warm depths of my pussy.

  “Dean!” I gasped in outrage. “Stop!”

  Of course he didn’t stop. And in my position over his shoulder, I couldn’t really do anything but lay my head against his back and let him.

  He’d do it whether I wanted it or not—and I certainly wanted it. I just didn’t want him know that I did.

  I didn’t want to give him a big head, after all.

  The last thing my man needed was a bigger head than he already had.

  My man.

  Oh, shit.

  I need to be careful with those kinds of thoughts. He was my boyfriend who was also my ex-boyfriend who broke up with me because I couldn’t deal with him being a member of the SWAT team.

  I couldn’t forget that, otherwise I might be setting myself up for failure again.

  I was going to try to make a go of this, but I was also going to be realistic.

  It might not work.

  It might be…I moaned when Dean worked not just one finger into my pussy, but three.

  The stretch and burn had me gasping in surprise, and all other thoughts left my mind except for one.