The Hotter You Burn (The Original Heartbreakers 2)

To be with him, she might have to sacrifice her dreams and definitely put her pride on the line. She’d have to fight for him, and fight dirty. She’d also have to watch him date other women while she pretended to go along with his silly plan to date other men. She shuddered with distaste.

I want him. Only him. I maybe even...

Her mind shied away from the L word. Love was all-consuming, all-encompassing, an action just as much as an emotion. Love gave rather than took, placing another’s needs above her own.

A strange buzzing noise drew her attention, and she frowned as she looked around. A red light flashed in the corner of her cell phone. Since Beck had gifted her with it, she’d only used it for research, but she’d had one before her mother died. She knew a text had just come in.

As she climbed down the stepladder and backed away from the wall, she surveyed what she’d created so far. A midnight sky with a full blood moon. Thick purple-tinted clouds rippled, and she could almost feel the vibration of thunder. Several bolts of lightning glowed ominously.

Not bad. Even with the chaotic black holes she’d unintentionally crafted.

She cleaned her hands with a rag and grabbed her phone, her jaw clenching as she read the screen.

Baby: What did 1 ocean say 2 another ocean?

Beck must have programmed in the nickname, the jerk. Seeing it caused tears to return to her eyes. This man amused her, challenged her on a level she hadn’t known she needed, and whether he would admit it or not, he utterly adored her. She couldn’t give him up. She just couldn’t.

Decision made. She would fight for him, whatever the cost.

As a heavy weight lifted from her shoulders, she typed, What?

Baby: Nothing, they just waved

Her lips twitched.

Her: Ugh! The cheese!

Baby: Don’t B such a beach

She laughed out loud.

Baby: U just LOL’d. Don’t deny it.

She spun around, making sure he hadn’t sneaked into the room.

Her: I laughed at U, not w/U

Baby: Harsh. Hey, would U rather get UR foot stuck in a bear trap or invite me over 4 din 2night?

“That depends,” she told the phone. “Are you going to try to set me up with another man while we’re together?”

But she typed: Sure, come over. I’ve decided 2 get on board w/UR plan.

Just not the way you hope, she silently added.

She waited one minute, two, but he never replied. Don’t like my ready agreement, Mr. Ockley?

A girl could hope. And Harlow did. It was the only life raft in the middle of a great and terrible storm.

She added:

Here R my requirements 4 my new man. 1) SV resident 2) Employed 3) Honest 4) Kind 5) Hates beige

Again, there was no response.

So she continued:

Oh, & 1 more thing. Any date U set up, U have 2 attend. Alone. I don’t like strangers. U’ll B my bodyguard.

Smiling, she set the phone aside and approached the only wall she hadn’t yet covered with paint. Perhaps it was time to create a sunny summer day.

* * *

“BECK.”

Jase’s voice wrenched Beck out of the dark mire of his thoughts, and he glanced up. “What?”

Jase and West occupied the seats in front of his desk. They’d seen him this morning, soon after he’d left Harlow’s RV to call a private investigator he’d used in the past. His determination to find out who’d hurt her hadn’t lessened. He’d been stomping around the house, cursing under his breath, and they had followed him to work to do some sort of intervention.

“At least he looks human again,” West said. “Or he did, for a few minutes. Now he’s back to beast mode.”

Beck set his phone aside and tried not to think of Harlow’s last round of texts. Tried...and failed miserably.

She’d already forgotten the pleasure Beck had given her.

She expected him to watch another man seduce her—and not end up in jail? The pencil snapped in his hand, and he tossed the pieces across the room.

“And we’ve lost him again,” Jase muttered.

Beck ran a hand through his hair, gritting out, “Thanks to Brook Lynn, I’ve got to find Harlow a date.”

“That’s what this is about?” West exclaimed. “Dude. Just tell Brook Lynn no.”

Jase gave him a pitying smile. “You want to tell her no, fine. But she’ll just take matters into her own hands.”

Beck leaned back in his chair and stared up at the ceiling. “I won’t tell her no. Harlow wants a husband, and I want her happy.”

“The way I hear it, she wants a commitment from you,” Jase said, “but that doesn’t necessarily mean marriage.”

“What’s your beef with marriage, anyway?” West asked, clearly forgetting his own beef with it. “We all know marriage for the sake of marriage never works, but two people who care for each other can succeed at anything.”

“Uh, that’s not actually true,” Beck said. West had cared about Tessa, and Tessa had cared about West, but he’d still lost her.

Beck had never believed the accident report. Loss of control due to rain? No. He’d seen the hopeless despair in Tessa’s eyes when she’d left the apartment he and West shared. His friend had gotten high and forgotten to throw her a GED party, and she’d finally snapped, driving her car into a street lamp. Hadn’t helped that she’d never recovered from her assault. She’d often talked about needing a break from the misery. A cry for help neither of them had heeded.