Page 83 of Firecracker

In a very soft voice, so quiet he almost couldn’t hear her, she said, “Of course you don’t.” She let out a short sigh. “But…what would you tell him, Tyler?”

I’m crazy about your sister. I always have been. I want more of her. I want all of her.

He didn’t say those things out loud. Fuck no. No way in hell was she ready for that. “Uh…”

“I mean…it’s not like we’re dating.”

“We could date. Let’s do that. Let’s go out on a date.”

She turned confused eyes on him. “Really?”

“Why not?”

Her pretty mouth twisted up as she contemplated that. “Because neither of us wants a relationship.”

Oh yeah. He’d said that. “Oh, come on. We have fun together. We can go out and just have fun. When’s your next day off?”

“Tomorrow.”

“Shit. I work at eight.” He thought. “But then I’m off Monday morning for four days.”

“My next day off is Thursday again.”

“Okay! That’ll work. Thursday night.”

They walked up to their building. Tyler used his key to open the front door and let her go in ahead of him, making sure the door was locked behind them. He followed her up the stairs, both of them treading lightly so as not to disturb Jamie or Mila. In the hall between their apartments, he paused. The air around them crackled with anticipation. Arousal. He longed to pull her into his arms. Feel her soft curves against him. Carry her into his apartment and do dirty things to her all goddamn night. He willed his dick to calm the fuck down and took a deep breath. “Okay. Thursday night. I’ll see you then.”

A faint crease appeared briefly between her eyebrows and her eyes flickered. “Okay.” She hesitated. “I’m still not sure it’s a good idea, but…okay.”

He leaned down and brushed his mouth over hers in a quick kiss. Any more and he wouldn’t be able to stop himself, and the magnetism shimmering around them told him she felt the same and was puzzled by his restraint. “Good night, princess.”

Her lips quirked. “Night, Tyler.”

Letting her go home without him was so fucking hard. But he wanted this to be about more than sex. And he wantedherto want more than that too. Watching her walk into her apartment and softly close the door, he squeezed his eyes shut, hands in fists against the urge to touch her, then turned and entered his own apartment.

Chapter Seventeen

“So I have to do this thing.”

Arden smiled at Jamie where he sat at her kitchen counter on one of the stools she’d purchased from a yard sale, eating the dinner she’d cooked for them Sunday evening. “Thing?”

“Yeah. A breakfast thing.” He grimaced. “With some clients. We don’t want to go to a restaurant, so I was going to get it catered, but I have no clue who to call.”

“You might find Google helpful. Also, don’t you have an assistant who can organize things like that for you?”

“Yeah. But I had this idea…that maybe you would do it.”

“Organize it for you?”

“Well, yeah, sort of. I thought you could do the food.”

Arden frowned. “What?”

“You love cooking. It would be a way for you to make some extra cash.”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “Are you just doing this because you feel sorry for me?”

“Hell no.” He gaped at her. “I really need to do this. And you love stuff like that.”

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