“Hey. Happy New Year.” He collapsed into an armchair and scrubbed a hand over his scruffy face. It didn’t look anywhere as good on him as it did on Burn. “You should’ve come to the bar last night. It was a blast. They had a live band and everything.”
She grinned. After witnessing FlameSmith live in concert from backstage, she couldn’t stir any regret for missing the performance of a local band. She reset her email password on her new phone then huffed when it gave her another error message. Her smile melted. “There’s something wrong with my email.”
“How’s your new phone working out?”
“It’s practically useless.” She set it on the end table.” The tech at the phone store yesterday said my old phone had gotten wet. He couldn’t transfer any of my contacts or settings.”
John studied her hard.
“What?” she asked.
“Have you made any decisions?”
She sighed. “Am I allowed no pride?”
“Nope.” A slow smile curved his lips.
“Fine. You’re right. Are you happy?”
“Maybe. What are you going to do?”
Biting her lip, she pressed a hand to her sore heart. “I don’t know. I tried to send him an email on my laptop last night. It didn’t confirm delivery, and when I tried to check my sent box, it kicked me out. I need to call email support. I kinda hope it didn’t go through. I said way too much. He hasn’t replied, so I’m hopeful.”
“Who is—”
A knock sounded on the front door. John heaved out of the chair on a comical groan and disappeared around the wall that separated the living room from the entryway. She picked up her phone to call the email helpline, but her brother came around the wall in a daze.
Alarmed, she stood. Was it bad news? Had Brice crashed a jet? Was Mom in the hospital?
“Burn Shatterly? Really, Kendel? Your heartbreaker is Burn Shatterly?”
“Oh, God.” She sent a frantic glance at the wall break and smoothed a hand over her hair. “He’s here?”
John tilted his head with a sarcastic smirk and waggled his fingers toward the entryway.
Burn came slowly around the corner, and her heart leapt free of her chest and slammed into his. His height had his hair nearly brushing the ceiling. He removed sunglasses and hooked them in an unzipped breast pocket of his black leather jacket. His faded blue jeans had fraying at places along the inseam and bunched atop heavy-looking black biker boots. He was heaven to her eyes, and her insides went soft.
He glanced at her brother. “She didn’t tell you, I presume.”
“Kendel doesn’t tell me jack.” John narrowed his eyes at her. “Do you see this guy? You said you didn’t want me to hurt him? He’d have murdered me.”
Burn sent her a questioning gaze, his eyebrows quirking once.
“John,” she said. “Do you think…?”
Her brother offered a dismissive wave. “Yeah, yeah. I’m going to take a shower. I mean, geez,” he muttered on his way to the bathroom. “My little sister’s hanging out with Flame-Smith, and I’m the last to know. Thanks. Thanks a lot.”
The bathroom door shut hard.
She stared at Burn a long, awkward moment with words tripping each other in her head and none of them landing on her tongue. Then they spoke at exactly the same moment, and she clamped her mouth closed.
“Sorry.” He stepped forward and handed her a shipping tube. “I brought this. It arrived a few days ago.”
Glancing at the label, she said, “Thanks. I didn’t think about this. I figured it would come later, and I…well… I didn’t know where I’d be so I haven’t called the school.”
“Right. Of course. You left this,” he said, pulling her pink lion from his jacket pocket.
She smiled, accepting it. “Thanks. I didn’t mean to.”
“Do you know why I collect lions?” He scraped the toe of his boot across the carpet.
She shook her head.
“Because they represent courage. It’s something I always wanted but never had.”
Her heart went out to him. “You’re one of the bravest people I know, Burn. Alexandria hurt you, but you had the courage to try again with Wendy and then with me. You travel the world without a second thought, and you get up in front of thousands of people and perform.”
He didn’t say anything for a long time then reached back under his jacket and withdrew a thick book. “I got you this while we visited Korea. It doesn’t mean anything, really. I’d like you to have it.”
She tossed the tube onto the couch and accepted the book with both hands. Reverently, she ran fingertips across the title and swallowed. “It means a lot, actually. It means you were thinking of me. I love it.”
“I’m glad. I wasn’t sure how you’d take me coming here. You didn’t answer any of my calls or texts.”
“I didn’t get them. My phone died. But I sent you an email last night. I’m not sure if it was delivered. My email’s been glitchy.” Her heart pounded.
“You did? I know there’s been a problem. I sent you a few emails that bounced back to me.” He took out his phone and began working his fingertip across the screen. “I didn’t check since yesterday. I was a bit busy trying to figure out which John Price was your brother, and booking a flight, and arguing with our security manager who, by the way, wouldn’t let me come alone and is sitting outside in our rental as we speak.”
Her cheeks flamed. “Please don’t read it. I’m so embarrassed.”
He went still and quiet, staring at his screen. Then he shot her a questioning stare that conveyed his hope and hesitation as his mouth wavered between a hinting smile and not. “Is this true?”
Her stomach somersaulted. “I was so wrong. I didn’t know— I thought— Damn it. I really need to be eloquent right now, and I’m royally botching this.”
In two strides, he closed the distance. He pulled her up against him and cupped her face. “I only need to hear one word from you. Tell me yes, Kendel. Tell me I have a chance to win you back.”
Overwhelmed by relieved joy, she skimmed her fingers along his dark scruff. “Burn, I’m such an idiot. I may have walked away, but I didn’t stop loving you for a second. I missed you so much it was like I’d had a piece of me amputated. You don’t need to win me back. You never lost me. Yes.”
Growling, he bent until his lips met hers. She wanted to taste him. To have him inside her at least in some way. Touching her tongue to his lips, she urged him to open. Their tongues came together in a impassioned frenzy that had her breathing hard and her heart racing.
He tasted good. Felt so good. She couldn’t get enough.
Sending her hand under his black T-shirt, she caressed upward over the ridges of his abdomen until her fingers found the beat of his heart. She pressed her palm there, where her heart crawled inside and nestled next to his.
* * *
Burn had never needed anyone’s touch, but he needed Kendel’s. Her hand upon his chest reassured him more, somehow, than even her kiss.
Already he hardened, readying to claim her. Nobody had ever excited him or shown him such pleasure as Kendel. But as much as he wanted to strip her bare and bend her over the sofa, he had to respect that they stood in her brother’s house.
Breaking the kiss, he drew a ragged breath into his raging body. “God, woman. You drive me crazy.”
Her large eyes went kind, and a small smile graced her kiss-swollen lips as she skimmed her fingertips across his chest. “I think we owe John a big thank you. He helped me remember why I’d thought I wanted an ideal that wasn’t right for me. He’s right. I’m so stubborn. I couldn’t admit that everything I want or need I have in you.”
Holding his breath, he grasped her hand through his shirt and pressed it to his elated heart. “There’s something you need to know.”
She gazed at him, her features open and sweet.
Resting his forehead to hers, he said, “I love you, Kendel. I’ve loved you since Korea. Maybe before. I’m n
ot sure exactly when it happened. I was a fool not to say so.”
Tears gathered at her lids as her teeth flashed in a brilliant smile. “Really? I was never going to ask you to say those words. Not after what you’d been through. I figured I could love enough for both of us.”
“No need, gorgeous. I’m in this with you. All the way. You see, you’re my soul mate. You’re the one who makes me glad Alexandria and Wendy had freed me. I can’t live without you. If your email is correct, and you do want me and my life, then I refuse to go another day without you by my side.”
She released a single sob through her smile, and he kissed away a tear that rolled down her cheek. He pecked a line of kisses to her ear and whispered, “Come home, Kendel. You complete me.”
She snuggled against him. “Under two conditions.”
“Anything.”
“I’m allowed to say trust me.”
“Absolutely. You and my mum. Only two women allowed to say that to me.”
“And I stay in your room with you and your lions. No secrets. No hiding.”
His heart soared. Straightening, he searched her earnest gaze and fell more in love with her than ever. “No secrets. No hiding. And I promise you’ll always feel like you have a home.”
“Burn, as long as I’m with you, no matter where we are or for how long, I’ll be home. I’m home right now in your arms.”
He was so in love with her he felt like he went to pieces for the intensity. “I think we should get a room. I can’t wait to be inside you and show you I mean every word I’ve said.”
“As wonderful as that sounds, I think I’d rather return to L.A. right away. I’ve wasted so much time chasing a dream that would’ve made my unhappy. I’d like to get started living the life I was meant for. The life that actually thrills me every day. The life I’ll make with you.”
He chuckled. He couldn’t fault her, though she would make him wait. Taking a deep breath, he smiled. “Then we’ll go to L.A. and start this first day of this New Year together. This first day of the rest of our lives.”
Burn kissed her, and in his embrace, promised Kendel a forever of adventure in the security of his unyielding love.
THE END
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Laura Kitchell lives in Virginia. She became a member of the Quality Novelists Coalition in 2013 and is a member of Romance Writers of America and Chesapeake Romance Writers. Contact her at [email protected], visit her website at www.laurakitchell.vpweb.com, and follow her at [email protected].
LOOK FOR ANOTHER FLAMSMITH BOOK IN EARLY 2015!
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Rock My Christmas (FlameSmith in Love Book 1) Page 16
