Sweet Sizzle: A Red Hot Valentine Story Read Free Page A

too.
    “Oh hell no. You did not just go there.” Steam practically billowed from her nostrils. Her grip tightened on the vase of cookies. For one tense moment, he swore she was about to throw it at him. Well, it could be worse.
    “I’ll, uh, just leave you two alone,” Nev offered. No sooner did he scurry off, and his partner in crime, Dallas, pussied out by extending a similar farewell and hustling to safety.
    Good ole Michael was the last man standing between Ben and Ben’s slow, sure to be painful death. Which kinda made Ben feel like a major prick for considering putting the hurt on Michael earlier.
    His wary gaze panning between Ben and Rory, Michael fidgeted with his goatee before shoving his hands in his pockets. “Everything okay here?”
    “It will be.” A tic visibly twitched near the corner of Rory’s eye. “Once I kill him.”
    “Call me crazy, but that sounds like the opposite of okay,” Michael pointed out.
    Ben grunted. “Easy to see why you’d be confused. But when it comes to me, death and dismemberment are preferred outcomes in Rory’s estimation of things.”
    Michael’s eyes widened. “ Rory ?” He jerked his gaze to the woman in question. “ You’re Rory?”
    The angry hiss streaming between her teeth was a precursor of eminent doom and destruction. She whipped her focus to Ben. “You asshole. So help me, if you’ve talked smack about me behind my back after everything that happened—”
    “Whoa, totally not the case,” Michael interjected quickly. “In fact, if you had any idea how crazy this guy is about you—”
    The laugh that burst from Rory had to be the most forced in existence. She held onto her side with her free hand, really getting into her performance. Straightening, she wiped her eyes. “Good one.” A second later she clamped her mouth shut, fixing it into a hard line.
    “No, he is.” Michael’s hands abandoned his pockets as he shrugged. “You’re pretty much all he talks about. Especially if he’s had too much to drink.”
    Ben groaned. Thanks for painting me in such a flattering light, bud.
    Apparently intuiting that he wasn’t helping Ben’s plight, Michael held up his hand. “What I meant to say is I can never get him to shut up about you when he’s half in the bag.”
    Ben sent a quick mental plea to the universe. Just let her fucking kill me now. Less painful and infinitely faster.
    Rory leveled him with her pissy gaze. “Did you put him up to this?”
    He tossed up his hands. “Yeah. ‘Cause obviously I’m psychic and knew you’d be coming in here today, and I thought I’d really win you over by looking like a sentimental drunk.”
    Michael assumed a hangdog expression. “Sorry, bro.”
    A weary exhalation fizzled from Ben. “Don’t worry about it. Nothing you say can compete with the shithole I’ve already dug myself into.”
    “You can both cut the crap. I don’t have time or the patience for it.” Rory jabbed her index finger in Michael’s direction. “You said something about helping me find George. So let’s do this.”
    Ben settled his hand on Rory’s shoulder. “I can take you to George.”
    Her glare threatened to sear straight through him. “I know there’s no way you’re touching me right now.”
    He heaved an exasperated sigh. “Damn it, Ro. Would you stop being so stubborn? I just want to help you.” Truthfully, he wanted to do a hell of a lot more than that. She’d been his every waking thought for the last ten years. And also the majority of his sleeping ones too, if the countless occasions he’d woken during the middle of the night dripping with sweat and sporting the mother of all hardons was any indication. Then there were the not so pleasant dreams, where he constantly relived the agonizing moment he’d blown everything to hell.
    She’d wanted a forever with him, and he’d ruined their future, their happiness, because the thought of failing as a husband had terrified the living shit out of him. So