Burned (Cunningham Security Book 5)

by A. K. Evans

  “You weren’t,” he informed me. His voice sounded oddly sympathetic, not accusatory.

  I had pulled my glasses off and set them on my nightstand as I slipped under the covers and turned on my side, facing away from him.

  “Zara, please look at me,” he pleaded.

  I didn’t move. No way. I was already entirely too embarrassed; there was no need to add to my mortification.

  “Zara,” Pierce repeated.

  “I’m fine, Pierce. Let’s just let this go.” My words indicated I was over it, but my voice betrayed me. It was good I wasn’t looking at him because my face would have given me away, too.

  For someone who rarely cried, this weekend was proving me to be the exact opposite. Tears leaked from my eyes and dripped down to the pillow underneath me.

  Minutes had passed when I felt the bed dip. I closed my eyes, hoping he’d think I was asleep. Instead, I felt the weight of his hand through the blanket at my hip and his lips at my shoulder, where he kissed me softly.

  “Zara, beautiful, there isn’t anything I don’t like about you. You’re the best kiss I’ve had in my life,” he shared, his voice low.

  My body locked at his words.

  “I said you weren’t thinking before because you weren’t. You aren’t. You’ve just lost someone who was incredibly important to you at one point in your life. I’d be the best kind of asshole there is if I took advantage of you being vulnerable right now.”

  “What?” I whispered.

  “Please look at me.”

  I kept my body where it was, but turned my head so I could look at him. The minute his eyes locked with mine, I saw regret flash in his face. He brought a hand up and wiped away the tears.

  “I’m sorry, Zara. I didn’t mean to upset you like this. What you asked me for, what you wanted…I want to give that to you. I’ve wanted that with you for a long time now. But the first time that it happens between us, beautiful, I don’t want you having any regrets.”

  I didn’t know what to say.

  Pierce’s fingers moved delicately from my cheek back into my hair. He watched his hand as he did it. When his eyes came back to mine, he went on, “I don’t like what you’ve just told me that people have made you feel about yourself. You need to know, though, that I don’t feel that way about you at all.”

  “I’m so embarrassed,” I winced.

  The backs of Pierce’s knuckles ran along my cheek. “Don’t be,” he began. “It was nice, and I enjoyed kissing you. Probably a little too much. But you’re dealing with a lot right now that you need to work out. I get it. We just need to figure out another way for you to work it out.”

  Since I’d already made a fool of myself, I stayed quiet. I didn’t need to be making the same mistake twice.

  “Do you want me to go back over to my bed or would you like me to stay here with you?” he asked.

  I wanted him to stay with me. I didn’t tell him that, though. Instead, I looked away as I shrugged and answered, “Whatever you want.”

  “Zara?”

  My eyes went to his.

  “I like being with you, so if you leave it up to me, I’m going to be right where I was last night.”

  “Okay.”

  “Am I allowed under the covers with you?” he asked with a smile tugging at his lips.

  I nodded.

  At that, Pierce stood, pulled back the blankets, and slid back in under them. He fluffed up a couple of pillows behind his head, grabbed the remote, and started flicking through the channels. When I didn’t go there on my own, Pierce reached out and hauled me toward him.

  The two of us stayed like that a long time watching a sitcom Pierce had settled on. I think he knew I needed something lighthearted, and I appreciated him for doing that for me. When the commercial came on, my thoughts drifted back to something Pierce had said, and curiosity got the best of me.

  “Pierce?” I called, lifting my head from his chest to look at him.

  “Yeah?”

  “Am I really the best kiss you’ve had in your life?”

  He didn’t even take a second to think about it before he replied, “Without a doubt.”

  After giving him a smile in response, I dropped my head back to his chest.

  “Looking forward to doing more of that, too,” he added a minute later.

  My self-doubt flew out the window for the night. I knew it was nowhere near being gone for good, but I’d take what I could get.

  And after being held close to Pierce all night, after he’d said some wonderful things to me, I slept better than I had in days.

  “Are you here already?”

  I glanced over at the microwave and saw it was a quarter to seven. Considering it was forty-five minutes before Pierce and Blaze normally picked me up for our morning hike, I was confused as to why he was calling so early.

  “No. Unfortunately, I need to cancel this morning. There was another fire set last night and I’ve got to get to work earlier than usual.”

  “Another one?”

  “Yeah. And this one was bad.”

  That didn’t sound good. “Oh no,” I whispered. “Was anyone hurt?”

  “Thankfully, nobody was hurt, but it was at a paint store. I haven’t gotten all of the details yet, but with all of the highly flammable paint in there, the fire started slow, but ended in explosions.”

  “That’s awful.”

  “Yeah, I’m sure you’ll be able to read about it or see it on the news soon enough. At any rate, it means I don’t have much time before I have to leave to get to work.”

  “What about Blaze?” I asked.

  “What about him?” Pierce countered.

  I let out a small laugh and guessed, “Well, this is purely speculation, but it would be my thought that he doesn’t necessarily care that you have to go to work because an arsonist is on the loose. Blaze is probably still going to want his exercise.”

  “You’d be right about that, but he’s going to have to deal with it today because dropping him at my parents’ place isn’t even an option since they’re in the opposite direction.”

  I hesitated a moment before I offered, “I’d be happy to take him with me on my hike. In fact, I’d prefer to have him with me.”

  “Really? You don’t mind?”

  Was he serious?

  “Pierce, you dropped everything to fly home to Pennsylvania with me. I think I can hack a day with your dog,” I reasoned.

  Silence stretched between us. I was just about to call out to him when he said, “I’ll be over shortly with Blaze.”

  “Okay, I’ll see you then.”

  After disconnecting the call, I made sure Callie’s breakfast was ready and made my own. Not quite thirty minutes later, I met Pierce and Blaze down in my shop.

  “Thank you for saving me from a disaster at my place and offering to take him with you on the hike this morning,” Pierce started as he brought Blaze’s bowls over to the counter. “Are you sure it’s not a problem to keep him with you?”

  “I’m sure, Pierce. He’ll be fine.”

  At that, Pierce reached out and wrapped his hand around the back of my neck. He leaned toward me as he tugged me in his direction. Once I was close enough, he pressed a kiss to my forehead and promised, “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

  That was the first time he’d kissed me since my meltdown on Saturday. I was so caught off guard I only managed to get out a husky, “Okay.”

  Pierce turned his attention to Blaze, rubbed his head one last time, and took off.

  After we were alone, I looked to the eager dog and shared, “Your dad has thrown me off kilter now, so I need to get out and clear my head. Are you ready for a walk?”

  Blaze barked his reply.

  Shortly afterward, I was hiking with Blaze along one of our usual trails while doing my best to clear my head. Following our encounter Saturday night, the extent of physical contact between Pierce and me was his hand at the small of my back if he was ever guiding me somewhere or
hand holding. Hand holding had been limited, though, as I only experienced it on the plane ride back to Windsor and at times during our hikes on Monday and Tuesday morning.

  We’d arrived back in Windsor early in the evening on Sunday, and he took me right to Trent’s place so that we could pick up Callie. He ended up taking me home but didn’t hang around because he still had to stop over at his parents’ place to pick up Blaze. Since then, we’d gotten back into the routine we were in prior to Nicola’s death. That meant that for the last two days, Pierce and Blaze picked me up and we took our hike together.

  And everything was as it was before. Our conversations were back to normal. It was nice, and I enjoyed having it back.

  But we hadn’t discussed us. Pierce hadn’t brought up what happened between us in that hotel. I’m not sure what I wanted him to say, but I also didn’t like not knowing what he was thinking in terms of us.

  Just over an hour after I’d arrived at Bison Ridge Trail, feeling good physically, but no better off mentally, I had made it back to the parking lot with Blaze. Once he’d had a drink, the two of us got in my car, and I drove us back to my shop.

  It was several hours later, just before closing time, when Pierce arrived. Blaze bounded toward him, his tail wagging, looking for love and attention. After Pierce had successfully showered his pup with affection, he walked toward me.

  “How’d it go today?” I asked.

  “Considering we’ve got another business down and are no closer to a suspect, I’d say it wasn’t a good day. I’m going to spend the rest of the week working on this, and I’m starting from the beginning. There’s something being overlooked.”

  My head dropped to the side as a wave of disappointment moved through me. “I’m sorry. I wish you’d had better luck with this one.”

  “Yeah, me too. How was Blaze today? Did he give you any trouble?”

  I grinned. “He was a model dog. We had a great hike, and I think I even sold a few extra bouquets today because of him.”

  “Happy to hear it,” he returned. “How are you doing?”

  There was a softness in his tone. I knew he was referring to more than just how my day had been.

  “Good,” I answered. “I don’t know that I’ll ever feel completely at peace with Nicola’s death, but being back in my routine hiking and doing yoga is helping, for sure. I think it’s just going to take time.”

  “If you ever need to talk about it or need a shoulder to cry on, you’ve got me,” he offered.

  I smiled at him and assured him, “I know. Thank you for that.”

  He gave me a nod in return.

  Moving closer to me, his voice was quieter when he asked, “What’s on your schedule for Saturday night?”

  I felt heat spread through my body. Pierce being that close and speaking in that voice, one that held a promise of something much greater, had me struggling to stay upright.

  “Nothing yet,” I rasped.

  He took another step toward me, our bodies now nearly touching, and shared, “I’d like to take you out to dinner on a real date. Afterward, I was thinking maybe you could share more of your kisses with me.”

  I stared at him, wanting to agree to that while at the same time, wishing I could kiss him now. I didn’t actually believe Pierce had the power to read minds but then began doubting myself when he lifted his hand and curled it around the back of my head. He bent his neck as his free hand slipped around my waist, pulling me tight to his solid body. His mouth opened over mine, and when mine opened just the same, his tongue was inside.

  Our tongues tangled as we tasted one another. He tasted sublime.

  My arms went around him, one hand moving up the back of his neck and into his hair. I felt the fingertips on both of his hands pressing in harder. My body melted deeper into his as my desire to have more with this man burned hotter.

  I was dizzy from Pierce’s kiss when he pulled away and whispered, “Definitely want more of that on Saturday, beautiful.”

  “Yeah,” I agreed.

  “I’m going to take you out to a nice place, so you’ll want to dress up,” he added.

  A shiver ran through me. I wanted to dress up nice for him. “I can do that.”

  Pierce smiled at me, leaned in to touch his lips to mine, and said, “I’ve got to get home and feed Blaze. We’ll see you tomorrow morning.”

  “Okay, Pierce.”

  With that, he gave me one final squeeze before he rallied Blaze. Once they left, I closed the store for the night, went up to my place, fed Callie, fed myself, decided what dress I was going to wear for my date with Pierce, called Gwen, and spent the rest of my night cuddling with my kitty.

  It was finally Saturday evening.

  I’d shut down the shop a couple hours ago, and I’d spent the last few hours taking my time to get ready for my date with Pierce. To start, I took a nice, long bath to relax myself. After, I gave myself a manicure and a pedicure. I wasn’t typically someone who spent a ton of time on my fingers and toes, nor did I have any intention of having Pierce actually see my toes, but this was a special occasion, and I wanted to do it up right. Once my nails were completely dried, I’d moved to my makeup.

  There wasn’t a lot of makeup because I didn’t really like wearing it. I’d always thought I had nice skin, so I tried not to do anything too crazy to it. For tonight, I’d stuck with some mascara and a tinted lip balm.

  I left my hair down, but put some effort into styling it. It was already naturally wavy. I decided to put some hot rollers in it tonight to give it a lot more volume. Whenever I’d worn it that way, I would always receive compliments on it. I also thought it made me, someone who wasn’t very sexy, look like a bit of a sex kitten. I only hoped that Pierce would like what he saw.

  Finally, I slipped into my dress. It was a lace lavender-colored dress with a plunging neckline and a full skirt that stopped just above my knees. I added a pair of closed-toe nude-colored pumps that had a strap around my ankle.

  As soon as I had gotten my dress and shoes on, I stood in front of my full-length mirror. I never overdid it with jewelry, but considering I was only getting one shot at this official first date with Pierce, I slid a pair of teardrop diamond dangle earrings in my ears.

  No sooner had I done that when there was a knock at my door. Pierce had arrived. Instead of coming through the flower shop, which he wouldn’t have been able to do without calling me to come down since it was closed, he went up the stairs on the side of the building and to the door that led directly into the loft.

  I opened the door and was nearly knocked on my ass.

  Pierce always looked handsome, but tonight was different. It seemed that he was taking it up a notch right along with me. There was something about the way he looked right now. Taking him in, I realized that what I felt had little to do with what he was wearing and everything to do with the way he was looking at me.

  Once I’d taken in his appearance, I recognized there was something in his eyes I’d never seen before. They had been running over the length of my body from the moment I opened the door, and he’d already done a sweep of it several times.

  “Would you like to come in for a minute?” I asked.

  Pierce shook his head.

  Confusion washed over me and my brows pulled together.

  “You look so fucking beautiful, Zara,” he muttered. “If I come in there now, we won’t make our reservation.”

  “Oh,” I murmured as my eyes rounded. He’d never been so forward with me before, and I had to admit how much I liked hearing it. I jerked my thumb up and pointed it backward over my shoulder. “I’m just going to grab my purse and we can go then.”

  Pierce gave me a nod.

  I turned and walked toward the island to get my clutch. If I was being honest, I didn’t exactly walk, though. It was more of a strut because I had a feeling that Pierce was watching. Sure enough, after I snatched my bag up off the counter, I turned to strut back to Pierce. He didn’t even try to hide the fact that he
liked it.

  Once outside, Pierce put an arm around my waist and held me firmly so I wouldn’t fall down the stairs in my heels. Fifteen minutes later, I was seated at a table in a semi-private room at a very elegant, high-class restaurant.

  “This place looks fantastic,” I said, leaning toward him. Pierce decided against sitting directly across from me. Instead, he chose the seat kitty-corner to mine, which meant he was seated close enough to hold my hand not only on top of the table but under it as well.

  While we waited for our food, Pierce and I chatted. He told me what he could about the arson case, but there wasn’t a whole lot of new information to report. I ended up sharing a bit with him, too.

  “So, in between hiking, work, and yoga classes, I did some thinking this week,” I shared.

  “About what?”

  “Nicola’s death and subsequent funeral,” I shot back rather bluntly.

  Pierce winced.

  “I’m sorry. That came out poorly. I’m doing better every day coping with the loss of her, but her death has really made me think.”

  “Oh yeah?” he wondered, seeming genuinely curious to hear more.

  I nodded and explained, “When I offered my condolences to her mom, she told me that life was too short. She’s right, obviously, but I’m struggling with trying to live my life according to that motto.”

  “How so?”

  I shrugged, unsure of where to start. “I don’t know,” I began. “I just think about the fact that I’ve got a very strained relationship with my family right now. It never used to be like this. In fact, we all used to be really close. Now, I rarely talk to my mother, and I haven’t spoken to my younger brother in more than a year. My older brother has only heard one side of the story, so he’ll say things thinking it’s that simple, but he doesn’t know the truth.” I squirmed in my seat uncomfortably before continuing. “I know for certain he was told a lie about what actually happened because I never told him all the details about it. If he had the full truth, he wouldn’t have tried to convince me that I wasn’t handling this properly. My dad…he pretty much tries to just stay out of it. He just wants everyone to get along, but he doesn’t typically butt into the drama.”