Embrace the Heat (11 page)

Norah snorted.

“I want to point out that this is just
another freakish vampire thing,” Danny said with a grin. “Doesn’t
affect me or any of the other humans.”

“We haven’t tested it with all humans,” Simon
said. “I’m assuming you’re right, and we’re affected because of our
heightened sense of smell.”

“You do know Layla can’t be kept locked up
for long, right?” Danny asked. He looked completely relaxed, leaned
back in his chair with his legs crossed at the ankles. Simon knew
him well enough to pick up the tension. Danny was worried about
Layla. “I’m loving the extra baked goods, but eventually even
baking won’t keep her from going stir crazy. She didn’t do anything
wrong.”

“I’m not doing this as a punishment,” Simon
insisted. “This is for her own safety. Besides, I can’t have
vampires following her around all day. It distracts from what needs
to be done. Connor agrees that until we figure this out, we need to
keep her isolated from the male vampires. I also agree that she’s
going to get in trouble if she’s left alone in her house too long.
I’d appreciate having those not affected stop by for visits.”

“As much as I hate to admit it,” Norah said,
“I think you’re right about keeping her isolated for now. I’ll stop
by to visit her after my patrol today.”

“I need you to stay behind for a few
minutes,” Simon told Norah, even though she was going to be pissed
at him. “Everyone else, Jack will divide up the teams and
territories.”

Once everyone left the room, Simon spoke.
“Are you okay?”

“No,” Norah admitted. “I already know why you
had me stay behind, and you’re right to do it. I’m not in any
condition to lead a team today. Sorry about bringing my drama in
here, Si.”

Simon waved off her apology. “You’ve never
had to be pulled from rotation. I’m going to have you trade and
take over training today. Shelby won’t mind doing your spot on
patrol. Before you say anything, I know you’ve never done the
training. For today, just do a good workout. Take them for a run
and get them in the weight room.”

Norah nodded.

“Do you want to talk about it before you
go?”

Norah thought for a little while, and Simon
didn’t blame her for her hesitation. He wasn’t one to sit around
talking about feelings. He never had been. This would be the type
of thing Connor did for Norah. Finally, Norah shook her head.
“Thanks, but I’m not even sure where to begin. At first, things
were great when Rand came back. After a year of believing he was
dead, all I could think about was how glad I was to have him
back.”

Simon smiled, careful to keep it hidden. For
a woman who didn’t want to talk, she was doing a lot of
talking.

“I think he felt the same about being back
with me. Then things started getting rough. He wants me to be the
woman he married and I’m not. Other than giving up what I have, I
don’t know how to fix this. The idea of losing Rand is killing me,
but I can’t go back to being that frightened woman who sat on the
sidelines of life. That woman nearly died when she lost her
husband. She was weak and pitiful.”

Simon reached out and pulled Norah into his
arms. “First, you were never weak or pitiful. Second, Rand loves
you. He’s just scared something will happen to you. The two of you
need to talk this through and try to come up with a
compromise.”

Norah pulled away and nodded. “I’ll go over
and trade off with Shelby.”

She started to walk away, but she stopped,
hurried back and then threw her arms around him. He hugged her
close. Despite the fact that he loved her like a sister, he’d never
hugged her much. He’d been hesitant to be touched for years. Then
it had just seemed awkward. Now he rubbed her back and smiled.

“Sometimes you aren’t a complete douche bag,”
she said against his chest.

Simon laughed and kissed the top of her head.
“Go start the training class; I have work to do.”

With that she left the room, and Simon found
himself really hoping he was right about her working things out
with Rand.

Layla practically raced to the door when she
heard the knock. When she opened the door to Danny she found
herself smiling brightly. If anyone could help figure this mess
out, he could. She’d been stuck in her house for more than
twenty four hours. Simon had promised to check on her, but he
hadn’t stopped by or even messaged her.

“I’m so glad to see you,” she said and threw
her arms around him.

“Must be pretty bad if I rate this kind of
greeting,” Danny said as he gave her an awkward one armed hug.
He sniffed and pulled way.

Great! One more person was going to complain
about the way she smelled. Soon she wouldn’t be able to see
anyone.

“You’re still baking,” Danny said. “Things
must be really bad.”

She gave him a sidelong glance and headed
into the kitchen to check on her cookies. “I bake all the
time.”

Of course, Danny was right about one thing,
she did bake more when she was upset. Yes, she’d come home and
baked the previous day, and that should have helped her work
through the stress of the day. This wasn’t your run of the mill
stress, and she was even more stressed out than she had been the
day before. Baking was one of her favorite things. She’d learned to
bake as a child, but it was nothing compared to what she’d picked
up from watching cooking shows. While she couldn’t get into
watching most shows, she liked learning how to cook new things, and
her friends liked trying them.

Danny looked around her kitchen, which had
about four dozen cookies cooling and shook his head. He was smart
enough to keep his mouth shut. If she hadn’t put away the muffins
already, he might not have been able to exercise that much
self control.

Layla pulled the last sheet of cookies out of
the oven and sighed. “I don’t know what’s going on with me, Danny.
I really wish Raven was here to talk to. As soon as I got back here
yesterday I tried calling her, but she messaged me right back
saying things were crazy. If I told her it was urgent she’d make
time, but I don’t want to add to her stress.”

Danny sat at her table and snagged a cookie.
“You can always talk to me. If you get really desperate, you could
talk to Muriel, but she might make you feed Cole while you told her
about your problems.”

Layla smiled. “You’ve always been my best
friend.”

He let out a humorless bark of laughter.
“Don’t I know it.”

“Did you know that Raven used to think we’d
end up as a couple someday?”

Danny didn’t return her amused grin. In fact,
he looked almost sad. “I used to think that too,” he said
softly.

Layla recoiled in shock. “Since when?”

“Since you got boobs at around age twelve.
That was when I started to notice girls were different and suddenly
you were a girl. I kept thinking someday I’d get up the nerve to
make a move. For years I held onto the belief that someday we’d be
together. Eventually, things changed, and I accepted it was never
going to happen. Hell, I must have known it before because that
realization didn’t bother me as much as I thought it would.”

“What things changed?” she asked.

“We moved here,” he said. “That’s when I saw
how you look at Simon and realized you were never going to look at
me that way.”

Layla sat next to him and put a hand on his
shoulder. “I’m sorry, Danny. I really had no idea you felt that
way.”

He gave her a reassuring smile. “There’s
nothing for you to be sorry about. I wish Simon would pull his head
out of his vampire ass and see how great you are. Actually, I’m
pretty sure he sees how great you are. I wish he’d do something
about it.”

Layla snorted. “Simon is never going to let
that happen. Not when he’s got that wood nymph, Narissa. Even if he
wasn’t with Narissa, I’m just a human. Simon would never be with a
human.”

“Then he’s an idiot,” Danny said.

The knock on the front door interrupted them,
and Layla was surprised to see Simon there. She’d convinced herself
that he’d send others to check on her after their last
encounter.

“Can I come in?” he asked.

She shrugged and walked back into the
kitchen.

Simon’s eyes narrowed when he saw Danny
sitting at the table. “What are you doing here?”

Layla’s gaze snapped to Simon’s at his curt
tone. “I’m not in the mood to put up with your nasty attitude
today. If you can’t be nice to my friends, you can leave.”

Simon looked at her, and his lips curled into
a predatory smile.

Danny watched the whole exchange with a grin.
“As much as I’d like to stay and irritate Simon, I think I’ll go.”
Danny snatched up several cookies and stopped to kiss Layla on the
mouth on the way out of the room. “I’ll let myself out. Don’t
worry; I’ll be by to see you again tomorrow, beautiful.”

Layla shook her head at Danny’s antics and
grabbed a cookie before sitting. She didn’t ask Simon what he
wanted. She was pissed at him for confining her to her home even if
she understood his reasons.

“You and Danny?” Simon asked.

Some women would play a stupid game to try to
get under Simon’s skin. For whatever reason, Simon was jealous. It
probably had to do with her scent. Layla had never been one to play
games, and she wasn’t going to start now. “Danny is my best friend.
He loves being a pain in the ass and figured the kiss would upset
you. Sit down and eat a cookie. It’ll help you calm down.”

Simon stared at the cookie as she slid it
between her lips. “In case you’ve forgotten, I’m on a liquid
diet.”

“Uh huh,” she said. “I heard you can eat
solids. Eloise stopped by for cookies earlier today.”

If she wasn’t mistaken, Simon looked a little
embarrassed. “They didn’t give us solid food when I was growing up.
I’ve never tried eating any.”

He looked vulnerable, and it was endearing.
These were the rare moments when she wanted to take care of Simon.
Normally, he was full of confidence. She loved both sides of him,
but these moments were special because she got a glimpse of a part
of Simon that he hid from most of the world. Layla shook off that
thought. No way was she going there while her hormones were crazy
or she’d end up rubbing against him like a cat in heat.

“Sit,” she said. When he did, she broke off a
piece of the cookie she was eating and slid it between his lips.
She was surprised he allowed her to do it.

The poor man looked perplexed. The way his
eyes drifted half closed indicated that he liked her triple
chocolate chip cookies, but he wasn’t chewing. Then she remembered
that he’d never eaten solids. He didn’t hang around with humans, so
he probably didn’t watch people eat either.

“Just move it to the back of your mouth and
chew it some before swallowing.”

His sensual lips curled up into a smile, and
his blue eyes sparkled with mirth. “I’ve seen it done before. The
taste surprised me.”

“If you’ve seen it done, you know not to talk
while you still have food in your mouth,” she said.

He shook his head and chewed. A look of near
ecstasy came over his face as he chewed on the cookie. It was
strange watching him swallow. This was the kind of thing babies
learned with mashed up food. Swallowing a cookie would be much
different from swallowing blood. Simon seemed to struggle to get it
all down his throat. When he finally managed to swallow the cookie,
he gave her an almost shy smile. Obviously, he knew how ridiculous
he looked.

“That was strange,” he admitted.

She laughed. “No one has ever called my
cookies strange.”

“I can see why they’re so popular,” he said
and added, “I’ve been tempted to try them before.”

“Really?” she asked in disbelief.

“The food you cook always smells good,” he
said.

“Unlike me,” she grumbled.

“Did you shower with different soap today?”
he asked.

She nodded and started packing up the cookies
that had cooled down. “So, am I still disturbing?”

Simon came up behind her and put his hands on
her hips. He was quite a bit taller than her. Without thinking, she
leaned back until her head rested against his chest. Then she
inhaled and shuddered.

A groan escaped Simon’s lips and his muscles
tensed. “I’ve been hard since you let me in the front door. Every
instinct I have is telling me to bend you over the table and take
you right now.”

Layla moaned. This was what she’d wanted for
so long. Now, she wanted it even more. “I wouldn’t stop you,” she
said quietly.

Simon’s hands tightened on her hips
momentarily before he released her and walked to the opposite side
of the room. “We’re friends, Layla. You’re also one of Raven’s
humans. She’d have my balls if I hurt you. Besides, we can’t have a
future together.”

Layla was pissed and made no effort to hide
that fact when she spun around to face Simon. “Future? What do I
look like? Do I strike you as some wide eyed little girl
looking for a man to sweep her off her feet? Sex doesn’t mean a
future. Just because I let a guy screw me does not mean I’m in love
with him.” Except her feelings for Simon were stronger, and she
knew that. She turned away from him. “Go home, Simon. I get why you
don’t want to have sex with me. Why would you when you can have
Narissa?”

“This has nothing to do with Narissa,” Simon
said. “Hell, I’ve been trying to break things off with Narissa for
over a month, and she keeps showing up again. I think she may have
finally gotten the hint this last time.”

Layla took several deep breaths. She was not
going to talk to Simon about this. She was not going to make a fool
of herself again. “None of this matters,” she said with a tight
smile. “I’m not sure what’s up with me. Sorry if I made you
uncomfortable.”

“It’s my fault. I shouldn’t have said that
knowing how you feel about me.”