by Isabel North
He leaned down to watch her face. Her eyes were closed, cheeks flushed. Unbelievably, Burke felt himself growing hard. He set his own response aside and focused his attention on Lila, following every cue she gave him, every shudder and twitch and sigh, chasing her pleasure with ruthless determination.
Lila’s breathless pants came hard and short. Her eyes flew open. Their gazes locked, and Burke was rocked to the core at seeing the bewildered wonder and the unshielded vulnerability in her depths. She said his name. Burke held her gaze and her body as she shuddered through her release, and he didn’t let go of either until she’d quieted.
Lila rested her forehead on the covers, tucking her arms in tight to her sides, hiding from him.
Burke stroked down the length of her back. He circled slowly over her butt, a touch to comfort rather than arouse. She permitted it for a moment, then reached behind her and smacked him away.
She flung herself onto her back as he straightened. She lay there before him, spread out, limp and flushed and about as furious as he’d been.
Her gaze cut to the enormous bulge in his jeans. “You’re on your own with that one,” she said, and scrambled to her feet.
She stepped into his space. Burke didn’t give ground. Her shirt still hung open and her torso brushed against his, bare skin to bare skin. Lila slapped a hand between his pecs and dug her nails in before she yanked his chest hair. Hard. He was already bending down to meet her even as she rose up on her toes.
Her mouth opened under his and she drew his tongue in as she kissed him with overwhelming passion. Burke cupped the back of her head, held her there to rub his tongue over hers, hot and explicit. He couldn’t help it. His lips curved into a smile as she kept trying, and failing, to take over.
Lila wrenched away. “That went great,” she snarled. “Best sex ever. Thanks a bunch.” She stalked past him.
* * * *
Burke took a sip of whiskey and relished the burn as it seared a path to his knotted-up stomach.
He’d been holding the glass for the last hour, since Lila had left. This was his first sip. Until the memory of her lips, her taste, had faded, he hadn’t been willing to give it up.
Resting his head against the back of the couch, he stared at the shadowed ceiling.
He was in the living room, in the dark. He’d watched Lila stomp down Kurt’s driveway to her car, then he’d poured a drink, sat down, and he’d done nothing but think.
Burke still couldn’t believe he’d messed up as badly as he had. He’d blown his chance with Lila. And yes, he knew he’d been fooling himself, thinking he’d be able to dazzle her into changing her mind.
She’d been upfront from the start.
One night.
He heaved a deep breath and shook his head. Lila was a determined woman who knew what she wanted and wasn’t afraid to ask for it. To demand it. Burke had to respect her when she’d said one night, even if he wanted more.
Even if he wanted everything.
And he did. Everything that she had, everything that she was. Burke wanted it.
He took another sip.
He couldn’t have it.
He was used to not getting what he wanted, but he wasn’t used to it feeling like this. Burning. Twisting. Pushing him to get up and do something.
Keys sounded in the front door as Kurt returned from work. Burke clenched his fingers hard around the glass, hearing an echo of Lila’s voice.
First Kurt, now you.
Kurt came into the living room. He switched on the light and flinched when he saw Burke. “Fuck.”
Burke set the glass on the coffee table with a loud clink. He crossed his arms over his chest.
Kurt eyed him. “You okay?”
No. Not okay. “Lila?” Burke said. “You and Lila?”
“Uh…” Kurt didn’t deny it. He looked shifty.
Burke’s heart squeezed. Burke had no rights over Lila, no matter how much he wanted them. He also had no right to tell Kurt who he could and couldn’t be with. But, damn.
It took great effort to force the next question out. “When did you sleep with Lila?”
“Nope. No.” Kurt held his hands up, shaking his head. “Hell, no. I never slept with her.”
Technically, neither had Burke. “When did you do anything with Lila?”
“I never did anything to or with Lila. Other than flirting. We flirt. You know that. And…” He broke off and scratched the side of his jaw before adding, “She asked me out to dinner once. I said no, though. Pissed the little honey badger way off.”
Burke scowled. “What is wrong with you? Why would anyone say no to Lila?” How could anyone say no to Lila?
Kurt relaxed his tense stance. “Burke. Be serious, man. How could I say yes?” He paused for a beat. “You love her.”
Burke blinked.
“I’m not going to sleep with the woman my best friend is in love with,” Kurt said.
“I—”
“Unless I’m wrong and you don’t love her, in which case, I will be over there in a shot.” He spun his keys. “You don’t? Awesome. If you don’t hear from me in forty-eight hours, send help.”
“I love her!” Damn it. Fucker tricked him.
Kurt stuffed his keys into his pocket and rocked back on his heels. “I know you do, buddy. I’ve never seen you like this over a woman before. And I’m talking about back before you’d even spoken to her. You know. Back when you were avoiding her.”
Kurt had noticed? “Was it obvious?”
“That you fell in love with her at first sight, or that you spent eight months avoiding her?”
“Both.”
Kurt grinned. “Both.”
Embarrassing. “Do you think anyone else noticed?”
“Everyone noticed, Burke. Except Lila. Who didn’t have a chance to notice, because you’d see her and—” he cut his hand through the air, “—vanish. For whatever weird reason you had. Totally not my business.”
His reason wasn’t weird. It was valid. He was trying to not get his heart broken. “I was removing myself from temptation.”
“Uh-huh.” Kurt considered him. “How’s that working out for you?”
“Not great.”
“If it’s any consolation, most people probably thought you were in lust. Or shy. They don’t know you like I do. They wouldn’t have been able to tell it was looooove. ‘Course, you’re slipping. If you don’t rein it in, the little hearts circling around over your head are going to be a real giveaway.”
“There are no hearts circling around my head.”
“Little cartoon ones. Bright red. Wings and everything.”
Burke struggled for a response. He settled for, “I didn’t fall in love with her at first sight. I don’t believe in that. It’s ridiculous.”
“It’s irrelevant. You love her. Even when I thought you liked her, I wasn’t going to get in the way. One, because I live by a simple code: don’t be a dick. And two, because I don’t know how long it has been since you had sex with anyone other than yourself. I have a bad feeling we might be talking a year or more.”
Or more.
A lot more.
Possibly that had something to do with his exceptional impression of a teenage boy earlier.
Kurt picked up Burke’s whiskey and threw it back in a single swallow. He sat on the coffee table in front of Burke. “Lila is an amazing woman.”
I know.
“She’s smart, cute, wicked bossy. I like that. Big heart. Like that, too. I won’t lie, I wanted to say yes when she asked, but I couldn’t do it to you.”
“You rejected Lila Baxter because you were taking pity on my lack of a sex life?” Burke said in disbelief.
“Fuck, I was trying not to get in the way of something special, but the way the pair of you have misinterpreted my self-sacrificing gesture, I should have bent her over my desk and—”
Burke snapped upright.
Kurt leaped up and put the coffee table between them.
“Don’t bend Lila over anything,” Burke growled.
“I won’t.”
“I’m not messing with you, Kurt. Don’t do it.”
“I won’t.”
“Unless she asks you to. Don’t hurt her feelings again on my account. Fuck it. Still don’t. If she needs someone to bend her over anything, I’ll do it.”
Kurt cocked his head. “Something happened, didn’t it? he said. “Yes!”
“No.” Burke scowled. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Shocker.” Kurt headed for the kitchen. “I’m gonna get some food. You hungry?”
Not for food. Burke picked up his whiskey glass, saw that it was empty, and put it down.
He gave it another half hour before he gave up and went after Kurt. He hovered in the kitchen doorway. “Do you know Lila’s address? You know where she lives?”
Kurt sent him a curious glance. “You don’t?” He was sitting at the kitchen table.
So was Lila’s laptop.
It was fate. Burke now had the perfect reason to go over there. Perfect fake reason, anyway. He already had the perfect real reason. More orgasms.
Lila had said a one-night-friends-with-benefits-stand. It wasn’t even midnight. He owed it to them both, surely, to go and remind her that they had at least six hours left.
“Burke. Stop smiling at me like that, man. You’re creeping me out. If you want a bite of my sandwich, ask. Don’t eye fuck it.”
Burke’s focus swung in on Kurt. “I don’t want your sandwich.”
Kurt raised a brow.
“Do you know where Lila lives or not?”
Burke didn’t want to have to call Derek and ask him. He was pretty sure Derek would see right through any lame realtor-emergency-based excuse he could scrape up.
“Sure. I’m surprised you don’t.”
Burke hadn’t allowed himself to find out. First he took one look at her and fell in love—in lust—which was still ridiculous. Then he expended maximum effort to avoid her. Oh-so-casually finding out where she lived when she didn’t even know he existed felt a step too far in a relationship that one person didn’t know they were in.
“I don’t. Tell me.”
“She lives over on Cleveland,” Kurt said through a mouthful of sandwich.
Burke waited, but no more was forthcoming. “You got a house number? Or am I supposed to go door to door?”
“You could stand on the street and howl her name.”
“If you don’t give me the number, I might.”
He could call Lila and ask her direct, but he wasn’t confident she’d answer the phone to him in the first place.
She might be busy.
Burke remembered with a sudden jolt what she’d told him she’d be doing once she got home. He’d taken care of her but, if she was even half as fired-up as Burke was, then…yeah, she might be in bed, and…
“Jesus, Burke.” Kurt yanked him back to reality. “I asked politely. Stop smiling at me like that. Are you eye-fucking me or my sandwich? I can’t tell, and you’re starting to turn me on.”
“House number.”
“160.”
Burke turned on his heel.
“Go get her, buddy,” Kurt called after him.
Laptop. Burke marched over to the table and swept it up, tucking it under his arm. He glared at Kurt. “I’m not going to get her. I’m returning her laptop.”
“Bullshit.”
Yeah. He was going over there to get Lila in every sense of the word. “Shut up, Kurt.”
He took Kurt’s sandwich, and left.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Griffin Burke was a controlling asshole in bed. Who’d have thought?
Lila loved it.
He was also really, really sensitive about going off early.
She didn’t love that so much.
She’d enjoyed it when it had prompted him into flipping her over and working her into an orgasm in three minutes flat. She’d enjoyed the angry kiss after.
She didn’t enjoy the fact he’d seemed genuinely upset about it.
Lila drove home, her emotions jangled, her hormones whipped into a seething mess, and her heart aching with the idea that their fun night had gone sideways.
She hated the idea that being with her had been anything less than good for Burke. Yes, she’d wanted him. She’d wanted him happy.
And it hadn’t panned out.
She’d pulled over twice, thinking about going back and…and she had no clear plan as to what she’d do once she got there. Which was why both times, she started her car up and continued home.
After a soothing shower, she made herself a cup of hot chocolate and took it to her bedroom. She dressed in a pair of plaid sleep shorts and a loose navy tank top, and twisted her hair into a clip. She pulled on a pair of fluffy socks, then curled up on her grandmother’s old armchair that she had alongside the window, for reading and daydreaming purposes.
She stared glumly out into the night.
Her small house was in an older area of Emerson undergoing a generational shift as younger families moved in and the original owners moved out to retirement homes. Or something more permanent.
She watched headlights turn at the top of the street, the dark bulk of the vehicle resolving into a large truck as it grew closer. She waited for it to pass. It didn’t. The truck slowed.
Lila sat up.
The truck stopped in front of her neighbor’s driveway.
She slumped.
Then she sat up again as the headlights blinked back on and the truck rolled another few feet. This time, it stopped in front of her driveway.
Lila’s pulse accelerated. Instead of tensing, every muscle in her body seemed to soften as her breath came faster.
A tall figure stepped out.
Burke.
She didn’t recognize the truck, couldn’t see his face, but she recognized the shape of him in the semi-darkness. He closed the door quietly, beeped the locks, and turned to her house.
Lila held her breath as he scanned it, his attention raking over the windows. She didn’t have the light on. She was almost sure he couldn’t see her. It must be her imagination that he paused at the window she sat in.
He strode for the door.
Lila sprang out of the armchair and flew down the stairs. She slid over the hardwood floor in her fluffy socks, caught herself against the front door, already opening it when the soft knock fell.
“Hey.” She stuck a hand on her hip and tried not to look too thrilled. “This is a surprise.”
“Is it?” he asked.
She gave her head a single shake and opened her mouth to say something cool or sassy, or, no, seductive, before she registered that he was carrying her laptop.
Shit.
Ah, hell. For a moment, she’d thought he was here for her. He wasn’t, was he? He was being helpful.
Burke nodded at the laptop tucked under his arm. “Thought you might need this tomorrow.”
“How very kind of you to bring it over.”
Lila made no move to take it. Burke made no move to give it.
Lila huffed. “Are we having a stand-off?”
Burke shifted. He didn’t come any closer, he just seemed more there somehow. His shoulders blocked out the night behind him, and he angled his head down, staring at her intently.
Any minute.
Any minute now, he’d push her back and come in.
Lila hoped.
Aaaaany minute.
“Lila?” A voice behind them broke in.
Burke stiffened, but didn’t move.
Lila leaned around him and waved. “Hi, Mrs. Kowalsky.”
Her neighbor was walking her two enormous German Shepherd dogs for their last bathroom break before bedtime. She lingered by Burke’s truck as her sharp eyes went from Lila to Burke and back. “You’ll catch a cold standing out here in your jammies, dear,” she said. Her tone of voice clearly indicated that she wasn’t worried about Lila’s lack of proper attire, but
had some concerns about the big stranger looming over her.
Burke sighed and turned to face Mrs. Kowalsky. “Evening, ma’am,” he said.
Mrs. Kowalsky lifted her phone and snapped a photo.
Burke blinked.
“It’s all right, Mrs. K,” Lila called. She glanced up at Burke, reading his expression. Resigned. A little embarrassed. Probably because a sixty-year-old woman took a photo of him ready to give to the police when they came asking questions about her disappearance and possible murder. Lila put a possessive hand on Burke’s chest. “Secret lover,” she told Mrs. Kowalsky in the loudest stage whisper known to man.
“You’re sure, dear?”
“Oh, yeah.” Lila’s hand slipped down Burke’s chest and hooked into the waistband of his jeans. He gave a surprised grunt.
“Okay, then. You have fun, now. Be safe.” Mrs. Kowalsky and her dogs ambled off.
“Secret lover?” Burke said to Lila.
“Or Secret Laptop Delivery Man?” Lila withdrew her hand.
Burke held the laptop out.
“Oh.” Hopefully that didn’t come out as disappointed as she thought. Lila took it.
Burke turned her by the shoulders and pushed her over the threshold, shutting the door behind him with a decisive click.
Hugging the laptop to her chest, Lila walked into the living room. Burke followed. His steps were quiet, but every cell in her body hummed with awareness of him.
She put the computer on the small desk by the window and snapped on the desk lamp. When she turned to Burke, he was sitting on the couch.
Before she could say anything, he crooked a finger.
He didn’t have to tell her twice. Lila scampered over and jumped on.
Burke winced and rearranged her.
“Sorry,” Lila said. “Forgot about your hair trigger for a moment.” His face blanked. She stroked his cheek with an apologetic half-smile. “We’re not ready to joke about it yet? That’s fine.”
Burke took in a deep, slow breath. “Lila.”
“Yes.” She pecked a firm kiss on his lips. It wasn’t enough. She changed the angle and did it again, following up with a flick of her tongue at the corner of his mouth that had him turning his head to chase it. Better. She sat back, getting comfortable on his hard thighs.
“Earlier this evening,” he began.
