Page 90 of Burn

Flopping down on the couch, I shake my head in disbelief I had her going this long. “You actually believed me?”

“Well, yeah. You said he was yours.”

Jacey reaches for the box of cashew chicken and smiles. “Don’t believe anything Caleb says. Ninety percent of what he says is bullshit.”

Mila meets my eyes and then darts her stare back to her noodles. I know what she’s thinking. The things I say to her in the heat of the moment when her body is beneath mine and I say what I’m feeling. She wants to know if any of that is true but I can’t offer her much because I don’t know if it is. It might be.

“We should do this at your place,” I tell Mila. “There’s no privacy here.”

She laughs around the bite of noodles in her mouth. When she’s finished chewing, she replies with, “There’s no privacy at the place I’m staying. I’m sleeping on my friend’s couch.” Mila smiles and then takes an egg roll from another container, dips it in sweet and sour sauce and takes a bite, her lips wrapping around the width of the fried roll.

She’s got my attention and I’m staring. Flatout fucking staring.

“What?” she asks, chewing carefully, looking at me like I’ve lost my mind.

I wink. “You look good with your mouth full.”

Jacey drops her chopsticks. “I’ve lost my appetite.”

I certainly haven’t. I haul Mila up off the floor and up to my room just to show herhowgood her mouth looks when it’s full.

With my dick in it.

Overhauling

Late stage in fire-suppression during which the burned area is carefully examined for remaining sources of heat that may re-kindle the fire. Often coincides with salvage operations to prevent further loss to structure or its contents, as well as fire-cause determination and preservation of evidence.

“Mila, what happened in the penthouse suite?” my father asks, staring at his phone in his hand. “Why is it being remodeled again?”

A heaviness settles in my chest. I knew I couldn’t escape this for long. “There was a water leak in the bathroom.” Not a lie on my part. The toilet had been smashed with a baseball bat. So yeah, leak in the bathroom.

My father lifts his intimidating gray eyes to mine. “And the windows?”

I can’t lie to him any longer. It won’t get me anywhere. “Shade was the last guest to stay in the suite, and he did some damage to the room,” I finally tell him, the pit in my stomach growing with each word. “But he’s paying for the damage and I’ve got it under control.”

His lips press into a thin line. “Mila, if you can’t handle our guests, I need to know so I can. I understand Shade’s a VIP and your friend, but I don’t want the integrity of my hotel at risk because of him and his parties.”

I get where my father is coming from. I do. This is his hotel. The last thing he wants is some motorcycle racer destroying it despite him paying for the damages.

Nodding, I clear my throat. “I understand, Dad. But I assure you, I have it under control.”

In the distance, I notice Heather at the front desk, watching our interaction. Dismissing her, I focus on my father.

“I’m trusting you,” he says, walking away from me.

He’s trusting me? While I know he does, why do I get the feeling the comment’s out of context?

Probably because I’m sneaking around this very hotel fucking a firefighter in the most awkward of places and I’m paranoid as shit. Might have something to do with that. Or not.

Can you believe it’s been four days since I’ve heard from Caleb.Four. He hasn’t shown up at the hotel, and I’m too much of a chickenshit to go over to his apartment. Alone that is. Mostly because I’m afraid if he hasn’t come by the hotel, maybe he doesn’t want to see me.

I even went by the fire station to see if he was there and he wasn’t.

Did he move away?

Maybe it was me pressing for information about him? I shouldn’t have done that.

The dude’s secretive, I know that much, but still. I have what he wants. Don’t I?

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