Burn With Me Read Free Page A

surround her like a cloak. Had he been here the whole time? On the Ferris wheel with them? Why hadn’t she noticed before now? Why hadn’t some sexual radar gone off during the trip?
    That radar was pinging like crazy now. Better late than never, she supposed. “ Hello , polite, dark and handsome. Tell me, did you enjoy the ride? Or was it too tame for you?”
    Damn, had she just said that out loud? She wouldn’t have cared if he’d smiled or turned his head to study her in return, even if he’d scoffed derisively at her obvious come-on, but he didn’t appear to be reacting to her words at all, other than the tiniest twitch at his temple. Maybe he hadn’t heard her.
    “Aziza? Oh Aziza Ja-ane? Did you want a drink or are you going to spend the whole night spinning around in this contraption?” Greg grabbed her hand, seemingly unaware of the fact that the world had just tilted on its axis. That she had the insane impulse to move closer to the man who smelled exactly like sunshine and sex, with a trace of cedar. The man whose eyes she couldn’t see because—she knew instinctively—he was going out of his way not to look at her.
    “Thanks, man,” Greg spoke offhandedly, and the silent giant nodded, his lips pressed firmly together in a physical cue it was difficult to ignore. Impatient. Forbidding. Not interested.
    “Thank you,” Aziza murmured, her throat tight, allowing her friend to drag her away because she knew she wouldn’t be able to do it on her own.
    She was disappointed. For nearly two years she’d prided herself on being a force of nature. She’d said what she thought, however inappropriate, without worrying about rules or other people’s reactions. If she found a man attractive, she told him so. If she wanted to kiss a woman in the middle of the dance floor just to watch jaws drop, she didn’t hesitate.
    So why hadn’t she pushed past his intimidating demeanor and invited him to have a drink? What could it have hurt? Just one innocent drink or three, hopefully followed by rough and raw and decidedly unrestrained sex that would last until neither one of them could walk or form a coherent thought. She sighed. God, that sounded good.
    She hadn’t seen his eyes, hadn’t even asked his name, and now she probably wouldn’t get another opportunity. She’d found the one man she would now measure every other member of the species against—and she’d never see him again.
    “I’m slipping,” she grumbled, turning to look over her shoulder before he completely disappeared from view.
    He was standing beside the Ferris wheel, still as a statue. And he was staring at her.
    That was it. Her feeling. He was the one she’d felt watching her. Why hadn’t he spoken to her? Why had he seemed the opposite of interested? A man with a body like that, with that sinful scent, couldn’t possibly be shy.
    A cold shiver shot up her spine. If he wasn’t shy and he wasn’t interested, why was he watching her every move? More importantly, why did he look so unhappy about it?
     
     
    “And she‘d been so pissed she hadn’t a clue where she got the thing?” A laughing, beautifully scruffy man in his seventies sat on a stool beside them, looking at her in awe and admiration as she hopped up onto the bar and leaned back to refill her glass of ale.
    “Yep,” Greg confirmed, sipping his own dark brew and savoring the tale. “So drunk she didn’t remember getting it at all until she noticed the bandage on her thigh. It was especially troubling since—as a rule—our Aziza Jane here has always been afraid of snakes. I can’t blame her for that, since I’d bet every sidewinder in the state of Texas went out of its way to slither through her backyard when we were growing up. Her brothers and I loved it, wanting to keep one or two of them as pets, but she was a bit of a girl for a while. Luckily, it wasn’t a terminal condition.”
    Aziza made a face at Greg, and then winked at the bartender, who’d given up