Up In Flames (Club Chrome 3)

She shrugged.”I don’t know. He didn’t give me details. Benton doesn’t like to be questioned. I just wanted to get away from him so I agreed to his terms. At first I thought maybe I could just bail but once I had a chance to think it through, I knew I would have to show up as agreed.”

Frustration laces tone as he said, “What could he possibly have on you that would make you dance to his tune like this?”

“Pyro, I’d rather not say. Just leave it.”

She was practically begging him to drop it. Moisture sparkled in her eyes and he didn’t want to admit it but he was swayed by the show of tears. But he still needed more answers. “I’m not going to let you meet him alone. That’s not going to happen so lose that idea right now. If you’re determined to meet him— I’m going with you. Let’s see how tough he is when he’s faced against a man.”

She shook her head as if that would only make things worse but then she relented, saying, “I don’t know, maybe you’re right. Maybe he’ll back off if he sees that I’m with you.”

He should’ve been satisfied except his intuition was clanging like a bell. She’d been so adamant that he back off and stay out of her business and now suddenly she’s rolling over? Seemed too easy. “Is there anything else you’re not telling me?” he asked, giving her the opportunity to come clean. “I’m on your side, Angel. Remember that.”

She blinked rapidly fighting tears and nodded. “I know,” she whispered. “I’m sorry to drag you into this. I really am.”

The tears were genuine. But he wished he could crack open skull of hers and see what was really going through her head. She was still lying about something. Sensing he was going to ask more questions, Angel jumped from the bed and disappeared into the bathroom.

He bit back an expletive and decided to follow Angel into the shower. He wasn’t going to give up the opportunity to run soapy hands all over body. Hell, at the end of the day he was just a man and there was a naked Angel in his shower.

-8-

Angel barely made it into the shower and managed to put her face under the spray to wash away the tears when Pyro joined her. The shower, barely big enough for one, was intimate, possibly more so than what they’d done with each other physically.

“You do that a lot,” he said to her back, causing her to turn in question.

“Yeah? What’s that?”

“Run.”

Oh, that. She skewed her gaze away, lifting her hands to the spray. “Well, that’s how I’ve discovered you stay alive.”

She felt his hands span her waist and move to her belly. She caught her breath and held it. Would he notice the faint stretch marks from carrying Mila? She’d been lucky in that she hadn’t stretched too much, only because she hadn’t gained enough weight. Mila had been a tiny thing, barely six pounds when she’d been born. The delivery doctor had chastised her for not getting prenatal care, saying she’d been fortunate Mila hadn’t suffered any lasting effects from Angel’s lifestyle. Angel had told the doctor to butt out of her business but privately, Angel had cringed with shame because she hadn’t been able to take care of herself properly. Food was always scarce and working a minimum wage job barely covered the rent on her shitty apartment. Forget about prenatal vitamins, those had cost a fortune. So she’d had to make do with what she could get. The consequence? A baby who’d been underweight and fragile. Angel had barely escaped the hospital before CPS had come charging in to take Mila away from her. But Pyro didn’t seem to notice the faint lines. His gaze, hazed with desire, caught her breath and held it. Of all the men in the world, why Pyro? Why him? His lips traveled the back of her neck and she leaned into his kiss with a troubled frown. Ashley jumped to mind and she winced, wondering if she were going to go to hell for sleeping with her dead sister’s baby daddy. She turned to face Pyro. “Do you ever think of Ashley?” she asked.

Hearing Ashley’s name doused water on his desire and he let his hands fall away from her body. “I try not to.”

It was an honest answer but it hurt just the same. “Why not? Didn’t you love her?”

“Yes. As much as I was able.”

“What does that mean?” she asked. “She loved you. She was having your baby. Didn’t that mean anything to you?”

“Of course it meant something,” he said coldly. “But the fact was, Ashley was far more invested in our relationship than I was. I told her from the start that I wasn’t looking for a forever thing. I wasn’t cut out for the picket fence and the minivan. And then she got pregnant. At the time, I thought it was a ploy to hold onto me.”

Righteous anger swept through Angel on behalf of her sister and she choked down her rage before she ruined all the groundwork she’d put in place thus far. She schooled her expression before saying stiffly, “I guess I shouldn’t ask questions if I’m not prepared for the answer,” reaching for the soap. She wanted to get away from him, away from the hurt that arose when she realized if her sister were alive everything would be so different. But Pyro gently pulled the soap from her hand and began to lather up, surprising her as he shared something else. “You want the bald truth, baby? Well, here it is…I always knew your sister was too good for me. I tried all sorts of ways to get her to move on but she didn’t want to let go. She needed someone who could give her the life she deserved and I was too chicken shit to just cut things off and let the chips fall.” He replaced the soap and then slowly began to rub the soapy lather across her shoulders and breasts. “I did love her, Angel. I just didn’t know how to love her the way she needed.”

Her breath caught and she fought the well of tears at his admission. He wasn’t supposed to be humbled or vulnerable. Pyro was the unfeeling bastard who’d gotten her sister killed. His hand slipped down between her legs and gently washed the area that he’d punished earlier with each hard thrust and she closed her eyes against the sweet torture of his touch. “You’re not supposed to be kind,” she whispered, mostly to herself. “I can’t take it.”

“I’m not kind,” he corrected her with a look of open sorrow. “I’m just tired of carrying this burden of guilt. I fucked up, Angel. Not a day goes by that I don’t think of Ashley and the baby. That’s my hell. I did what I could to make amends but it was a hollow victory.”

Her eyes popped open and she was thankful for the water to wash away the evidence of her tears. If only Pyro had shared this information earlier in her life, maybe if he’d made an effort to find her, her life would’ve been so different. But then she wouldn’t have Mila. And her daughter was the saving grace in her life. The shining light in a room filled with darkness. She smiled and rinsed off the soap before lathering up her own hands and going straight to his cock. “I guess we’d both change things if we could, right?” she said, focusing on the way his pupils blew out the minute her soapy hand circled his cock. She stroked him, using the soap as lubricant, content to briefly forget everything while she watched pleasure steal Pyro’s breath with each stroke. He braced himself against the wall, his knees jerking as she stroked him harder and faster. Pyro’s breath quickened and within a few more strokes, he groaned sharply as his cock pulsed and jetted ropes of seed from the head. She gave him a few more squeezes, milking his cock of come, and then smiled and rinsed her hands.

He shocked her when he pulled her to him and sealed his mouth to hers for a fierce kiss that threatened to send them both sliding to the floor. He pulled away, his dark, wet hair dusting his shoulders and his eyes gleaming with something that made her wish everything was different. “You’re unlike any woman I’ve ever known,” he said. “And I don’t know if that’s a good thing or bad.”

She knew how he felt. “Ditto,” she said simply. The fact was, everything had just gotten a helluva lot more complicated and they both knew it — but that wasn’t going to stop either of them from getting what they wanted.

Too bad what they wanted…were on separate pages of different books.

***

Washed and dressed, Pyro finally noticed that his apartme

nt wasn’t the same pig pen he’d left behind. He looked to Angel with surprise, asking, “Did you clean up?”

She shrugged. “It’s no big deal. I was bored. But as a side note, you’re a slob.”

He grinned, not the least bit offended because there was no denying he’d stopped caring about pretty much anything a long time ago and that included housekeeping of any sort. “Yeah, I guess so. Not used to having sleepovers.”

Her laughter tickled his insides as she said, “I guess not. But seeing as I can’t really cook and I needed something to occupy my brain, I figured your place could use a little scrubbing — either that or a nuclear bomb. Have you ever scrubbed your toilet?”

“I think you know the answer to that.”

“Yes,” she grimaced. “And you really should start. Gross.”

It was his turn to laugh and it struck him that he couldn’t remember the last time he’d enjoyed spending time with someone like this. It wasn’t as if idle chit-chat was something he excelled in under the best of circumstances. Her pretty face snagged his attention and quickly turned his thoughts dirty. The things he wanted to do to her…they hadn’t even scratched the surface. Her body was quickly becoming his newest obsession. Just thinking of what she’d done to him in the shower had his motor revving.

“Care to share what’s running through that brain of yours?” she asked.

“I think you already know,” he answered, his gaze hot and hungry.

She ducked her head and smiled shyly. “We can’t spend every hour naked. Your neighbors are going to start thinking I’m a sex slave or something.”

“Fuck them. Who cares what they think?” He started to reach for her but she danced out of his grasp with a laugh. He groaned. “Come on, baby, I need you.”

“No, you need a cold shower. Let’s get out of this apartment and go somewhere. I need a change in scenery.”

The idea had merit. “The rain’s stopped. We could take a drive out of the city. Get some fresh air.”