Fast Burn (Burned Duet 1)

The door swung open as we stepped toward it, but I wasn’t looking at who it was because I was so focused on making sure Leo was steady on his feet, but the moment I heard, “You okay, Le

o?” I halted, my entire body freezing on the spot. I knew that voice. I fuckin’ knew that voice.

“Dizzy,” Leo groaned.

But I couldn’t work out why the voice would be here, and then I slowly looked up, sure I was hearing things. It couldn’t be her. She wouldn’t be in a school unless she was a teacher and—

It was her. Lotus was standing in front of us, a backpack slung over her shoulder and a makeup-free face. Lotus was here. Why was Lotus here? I’d only ever seen her at the club, and as soon as our gazes collided, all I could feel were her lips pressed against mine.

“Asher?” Lotus asked, her navy-blue eyes wide with shock. Her hand moved to her throat, her fingers starting to shake. “What…what are you doing here?”

“What are you doing here?” I retorted, wanting an answer to my question first. It had only been last night when my lips had been fused to hers. One night since she drove me crazy with a simple touch. One night since I’d seen her. And now she was standing in front of me, looking like Lotus but also not like her too. What the fuck was going on?

“Uncle Asher?” Leo asked, gripping on to me. “You know my friend?”

“Your friend?” I asked, not looking away from Lotus.

“Yeah. She’s the one who helped Mom with the cupcakes.” Leo leaned more of his weight on me, but I didn’t move a muscle.

“I’m so goddamn confused,” I gritted out, fully aware there was another person in the room who was watching with interest. “What are you doing here?” I asked Lotus for what felt like the thousandth time.

“I go to school here,” she whispered, her shoulders drooping. And if I was a man who didn’t act on emotions, I would have been able to see how hurt she was, but I wasn’t that man. I felt what I felt, and I wasn’t afraid to show it. So as the words sunk in, my stomach knotted, and my pulse thrummed.

“What?” I ground out. “I…” I had no idea what to say. What to do. How to act. Lotus was a stripper. A stripper who I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about. A stripper who didn’t act like the other strippers she was surrounded by. A stripper who was also a fuckin’ high school student.

“Jax know about this?” I asked, immediately thinking about what he would think. She was under-fuckin-age.

“Yeah,” she murmured. “He was the one who offered me the job. We erm…he and Al used to stay in a trailer two down from mine.”

“Trailer?” I asked, but I wasn’t expecting an answer. I couldn’t put all the pieces together, and all I could think about was the kiss last night. Fuck. I’d kissed a high school student. Fuck.

Leo groaned, and the sound brought us out of our stare-off. I didn’t have time to try to work out what the fuck was going on. I didn’t have time to overanalyze it all because I needed to get Leo checked out.

“We gotta go,” I said, but I wasn’t sure if I was saying it to the nurse, Lotus, or myself.

“Call me when you get home, Leo?” Lotus asked as we walked past her. And for a second—a split second—I hated that she was underage, because fuck, I really enjoyed that kiss last night.

“I will.” Leo patted her shoulder, and I gritted my teeth at him touching her. “It’s not your fault, Elodie.”

Elodie?

“It is,” she ground out, her nostrils flaring, and it was then I understood there was more to the incident than I’d realized, but I couldn’t get over her being here. I couldn’t see past it. So instead of mulling it over and driving myself crazy, I pushed it to the side, choosing to deal with it when I wanted to rather than when it needed to be.

It wasn’t like we’d done anything else. We’d only kissed. And if Jax knew she was underage and that was how he wanted to run the club, then it was his choice. At least, that was what I kept telling myself as I helped Leo to the car. I repeated over and over again not to get involved. Not to think about her. It was a blip. The kiss was nothing. She was a mistake I could easily move past.

But as I reversed out of the spot and looked back at the school, seeing her standing in the doorway, I knew I couldn’t. She’d had a pull on me from the moment I’d seen her at the club, and seeing her outside of that environment only made it worse. The jeans stuck to her legs like a second skin were even sexier than the skimpy underwear she’d worn last night.

And—fuck. Fuck. I couldn’t think about that, not right then.

I shook my head, took one final look at her, and drove away, determined not to think about the girl with the navy-blue eyes again.

I was a fool. If only I’d known.

Chapter Seven

ELODIE

I couldn’t remember a time when I hadn’t had to keep a secret.