Hearts Aflame Collection: 4-Book Bundle (6 page)

“Don’t be mistaken, I am after much more than
a flirtation. But I find it impossible to turn down your offer. If
you lead the way, I’ll be right behind you.”

She felt her face heat up as he called her
bluff. There was no doubt that he was serious. If she stood up now
and headed outside Abel’s, he would indeed be right behind her. She
made the mistake of catching his gaze and he held it. She was
completely mesmerized and couldn’t look away even if her life
depended on it. Her breath became short as she felt desire course
through her. She couldn’t believe she was getting so turned on just
from looking into his eyes; they were not even touching. But she
could feel the heat pooling between her legs. It didn’t help that
he was every bit as turned on as she was and as she gazed into the
deep pools of desire, she knew that if she made even the slightest
move, they would be in bed that night and they wouldn’t be
sleeping. She’d never been this attracted to anyone since
Jeremy.

At the thought of her rat of an ex-husband,
she blinked and came to her senses. What on earth was going on
here? She was not interested in a short, meaningless affair no
matter how good it was looking at the moment, and she certainly
wasn’t interested in a man that was too good looking for his good.
She stood up abruptly and arranged her face into a withering
stare.

“Go try your lines elsewhere, I’m not
interested.”

Slight regret filled his eyes, “What a pity.
It would be memorable between us.”

She gaped at him in amazement and apparent
confusion. He sounded like he really believed what he was saying.
Either way, she was not interested. She would not be
interested.

“Goodnight.” She said sharply and walked
toward where Trina and Cassel were pretending not to watch
them.

***

Standing outside with her coat wrapped around
her shoulders, Melissa wished she’d taken Trina up on her offer of
her car. Worse still, she wished she’d brought hers. She’d been
standing outside Abel’s for the past forty-five minutes and
strangely, she hadn’t been able to get a taxi. It was a chilly
night even though it was Miami; still that was nothing strange for
the month of February. She could have gone back inside and asked
for Trina’s keys but she was not willing to face Adrian again. He
had an unsettling effect on her. Just thinking about him, she could
feel her body grow warm.

“That’s what you get when you go without for
an entire year.” She murmured to herself.

“Go without what?”

Melissa shrieked and turned round in alarm to
find Adrian standing behind her. She felt relieved but she couldn’t
deny the shiver of nervousness that went through her. She took
refuge in anger.

“What sort of jerk creeps up on a woman at
this time of the night?”

“I’m sorry; I didn’t mean to scare you. I saw
you standing here and thought you could do with the company,
especially since it’s so late.”

His heartfelt apology took the wind off her
sails. She huffed in exasperation. “Yeah well, you should have let
me know you were behind me.”

“I only just got here.” He said with a
shrug.

They were quiet for some minutes. Melissa
didn’t admit it, but she felt somehow safer with him there. He
still made her uncomfortable, but not in a threatening way. If she
were being honest with herself, she knew it was her reaction to him
which made her uncomfortable.

“I could take you home.”

She turned to look at him but he was looking
straight ahead, into the night. She turned away and worried her
bottom lip. She knew with bone-deep certainty that she was safe
with this man. She didn’t know how she knew, she just did. So that
wasn’t the problem. She was cold and he could get her home in no
time at all. On the other hand, just standing next to him, even
without touching, she could feel the electricity between them. She
stole another glance at him but he was studiously staring
ahead.

What was she afraid of, anyway? Nothing was
going to happen unless she wanted it to and she was stronger than
that wasn’t she? With a deep breath she turned to look at him.

“I would appreciate a lift home, thank
you.”

He turned to her then with a slow smile which
had her pulse racing. This man was sex on two legs and it was
criminal.

“My car is this way.”

Chapter
Four

As Adrian steered the Ford Explorer toward
Melissa’s apartment, he couldn’t help sneaking a glance at her. Her
head was resting on the head rest and she’d closed her eyes, but he
knew she wasn’t asleep. It was her attempt to block him out. He
looked back at the road and tried to examine his feelings. He’d
never experienced lust before, but he was pretty sure that was what
he was feeling at the moment. He knew passion, because he was
passionate about his work, but this was something beyond what he’d
felt as a messenger.

He took a deep breath and the scent from her
filled his lungs. He felt himself grow hard instantly and wondered
briefly how mortals lived with this sort of thing on a constant
basis. He didn’t envy them the least.

“Where exactly do you live?”

He felt her train her eyes on him as she gave
him directions to her place. Her voice was husky and he knew she
was as turned on as he was. The tension in the car was so thick, he
thought they would both combust if they didn’t do something about
it, and soon.

“What do you do?”

“I’m an accountant.” She replied.

That explained a lot of things, but not her
general hostility. “You deal in numbers then, everything has to
make sense.”

“Don’t bother trying to psychoanalyze me.”
She stated without heat.

“I’m not doing that. But you’ve directed
inexplicable hostility toward me and I guess I just want to
understand.”

She moved restlessly and he felt himself grow
even harder. This was insane.

“It’s not you, okay? I’m just not in a place
where I can get involved right now.”

“Right, I get that. But you were the one who
offered a quick lay.” He reminded her.

“I was bluffing.” She admitted.

He’d guessed as much, but he wasn’t willing
to let her off the hook. “I still think it came from a deep-rooted
desire.”

They were parked in front of her apartment
building now and he turned to face her fully.

“You’re imagining things.” She said, but she
didn’t meet his eyes.

“When last did you have sex then?” He
challenged.

She turned to face him then with a frown. “I
fail to see how that’s any business of yours.”

“Just answer the question, Mel.”

“Look, just because you gave me a lift home
doesn’t give you the right to go poking your nose where it doesn’t
belong!”

He leaned toward her and her eyes darted to
his mouth and stayed there. Her lips parted slightly and her breath
came in short burst.

“What if I want my nose there?” He
murmured.

“Huh?”

Her eyes were still firmly fixed on his mouth
and figuring he had nothing to lose, he bent down and took her
parted lips in his. She held herself stiff then sighed and closed
her eyes in surrender.

The kiss was nothing like he’d ever
experienced. It was as though a conflagration had gone up between
them and as the passion blazed, it threatened to consume them both.
She sunk her fingers into his hair and pressed him closer. Adrian
wrapped his hands around her waist and lifted her up until she was
sitting astride him. He deepened the kiss, kissing her like he
couldn’t get enough of her and she kissed him the same way.

He broke the kiss and trailed hot kisses down
her throat to the hollow between her breasts. She moaned then and
he couldn’t hold back the groan that came out. It was like they
were being consumed by an inferno. She moved restlessly, running
her hands over his body and the feel of her bottom on his erection
was nearly his undoing.

He went back to kissing her and she began to
grind against his erection. His hands went to her waist and the car
steamed, the only sounds coming from them were their heavy
breathing and moans. Adrian knew he was close to losing control, so
he broke their kiss and pulled back.

“Sweetheart, let me come up with you.” He
murmured his voice husky with desire.

She trailed kisses from his neck up to his
ear and he groaned in response. “This is just a one-time thing.”
She murmured in his ears.

Adrian hesitated, “I’m not going to promise
not to try again after tonight.” He said honestly.

She dipped her tongue into his ears and he
bucked and groaned again. “You can try, but it’s only going to be
tonight.” She said into his ears.

He figured he’d done his civic duty by being
honest with her. He pulled her to him and kissed her deeply with
his tongue. “Fine, let’s go to your place.”

***

Their coming together that night was
passionate and complete. As they shed their clothes, they’d also
shed all their inhibitions and had made love with total abandon.
Adrian had found that he’d learned a lot from years of watching
mortals and when he’d gone down and used his mouth on Melissa,
she’d gone wild and screamed several times.

Sinking his taut erection into her heat, he’d
felt like he was on another plane entirely. There had been no
finesse to their lovemaking, as they’d each crazily devoured the
other. He’d pounded into her as she screamed his name and raked her
nails into him. When they’d climaxed together, he’d felt like they
were one soul and for the first time in his existence, that empty
place was no longer empty.

They made love several times that night until
they were both too exhausted to move and had fallen asleep. Then
they’d reached for each other several times during the night and
gone at it again. Adrian felt like he couldn’t get enough of
Melissa, and the fire burning within them only seemed to burn
hotter and fiercer after each climax.

They finally fell into a dead sleep as the
sun was coming up and the last thought on his mind was that they’d
already done it more than one time.

Chapter Five

Melissa was in a perpetual state of confusion
all through that week. No matter how she tried to look at it, she
could not bring herself to regret that night with Adrian. It was
the most remarkable night of her life and she’d been married. In
fact, it made her realize she’d been having lackluster sex all the
while. Still, she was scared of committing to anything permanent
and even though he’d called repeatedly and texted regularly, she’d
refused to see Adrian again. She’d meant it when she’d said it
would be just the one time, even though a tiny voice in her head
reminded her that they’d made love more than once that night.

She felt her body grow warm as she thought of
that night and if she hadn’t been at the office, she would have
pulled out her bright red vibrator to give herself some relief. Not
that it was working much. She was able to bring herself to orgasm
but that was it. She was even hornier afterward. After being with
Adrian, satisfying herself left her anything but satisfied.

“You can’t get him out of your mind, can
you?”

She sighed and gave up all pretense of
working as she turned to her friend. “It’s just crazy. I hardly
know the guy, yet just thinking about him and I get all hot and
bothered.” She admitted.

“The sex was that great, huh?”

Melissa shook her head, the sex had been
better than great, but it was beyond that. Adrian had cared about
her and taken care of her satisfaction before he’d sought his. The
next morning he’d brought her breakfast in bed, but it was much
more than all those things. Even before they’d had sex, she’d felt
a deep attraction to him somewhere deep down inside, like she’d
known him all her life. But after they’d made love, it was like
they had joined souls, and she missed him terribly.

“I can’t explain it, it’s like there’s this
huge ache here when I don’t hear his voice.” She touched her chest
as she spoke.

Trina looked at her with concern, “It seems
to me that you’ve fallen in love with the man.”

“What?” Melissa felt shock run through her
system. Love? She was so done with love! “No, it can’t be that. I
don’t even know him!”

“You have this lost look on your face and the
only consolation I have is that I’ve seen the same look on his
whenever he speaks about you.”

“He talks about me?”

“Why won’t you give him a chance?”

She shook her head again. How could she
explain it? Trina had been her best friend since kindergarten so
she knew what her life had been like growing up; the way her father
had betrayed them time and time again. Then there was Jeremy, her
ex-husband who had been keeping a mistress all the while they were
married. She just couldn’t expose herself to that kind of hurt
anymore.

“I can’t do this, Trina. I just can’t. It
hurts too much.”

Trina walked over to where she was seated and
wrapped her arms around her. “Yet you’re so miserable without
him.”

“It will pass. It has to pass.” There was an
edge of desperation in Melissa’s voice.

“Don’t worry darling, you’ll figure this out
and I know you’ll do the right thing.” Trina said soothingly.

Melissa hugged her friend tighter and tried
to draw some faith from her.

***

Melissa had just finished her chores on
Saturday morning when the doorbell rang. Sure that it was Adrian
even though they’d just gotten off the phone, she hurried to the
door. He had respected her wishes and kept away for a week, but
she’d missed him too much to take issue with that.

She pulled the door open and her ready smile
died on her lips.

“Jeremy.” She injected as much disgust as she
could into her voice.