Free Hot In Here (Ashton Heights Fire # 3) by Sami Lee Page A

to her
chest and her handbag draped over her shoulder. “Huh?”
    Blair’s lips twitched at
the picture she made. She was a half-dressed mess and her dark
curly hair was sticking out in every direction. Somehow, she was
still breathtaking in the dawn light. “You seem in a hurry to
leave.”
    “ Oh. Well, I called a cab.
It should be here any minute.”
    She looked out at the
street as though she expected the taxi to round the corner right
away. Blair’s heart did a weird squeezing thing at the thought of
her leaving. They still didn’t know her last name. If she left, how
would they ever find her again?
    You want her to leave, Blue. Remember?
    “ I had a great time last
night.” His voice sounded raspy. He felt like a clod, clumsily
seeking reassurance from a girl he really liked. He hadn’t felt
like that since his early high school years, since before he grew
tall and filled out and the girls started coming to him.
    Jesus what was wrong with
him?
    Ally turned back to him and
gave a high-wattage grin that made the thing squeezing Blair’s
heart unravel. “Me too. It was excellent. ”
    Blair chuckled. “Excellent, huh?”
    She lifted a brow. “You know it was.”
    “ The way you screamed my
name did give me a clue,” Blair said, on surer footing now. “I
think Leo wants to keep you.”
    Whoa. So much for surer footing.
    Ally’s smile dimmed. “It’s best if I
go.”
    “ Right.
Of course.” Blair was inordinately glad that he hadn’t said I want to keep you too.
    “ It’s not that I wouldn’t
like to stay longer,” Ally said. “But there are complications. I
just can’t.”
    “ Complications like your
last name?”
    She looked rueful. “Something like
that.”
    They both turned at the sound of an engine.
A taxi was coming down the street, slowing down as it approached
the house. Blair’s heart did that weird squeezing thing again. She
was leaving.
    Ally looked at him and they shared some kind
of mutual understanding. That was the only way Blair could describe
it. He stared into her eyes and sensed she’d come to the same
realization he had. That this—her leaving without any intention of
returning—was a missed opportunity. They were losing something they
didn’t know how to quantify yet.
    Eventually, Ally seemed to snap out of it.
“Can you tell Leo…”
    “ Goodbye? Sure. He’ll
probably shoot the messenger, but I’ll cope.”
    An exasperated expression crossed her face.
“Don’t be like that. I thought we all understood this was
casual.”
    He’d thought that too. Blair was about to
agree with her, say something flippant to underpin the point. Then
the taxi driver gave an impatient beep of his horn. It pissed Blair
off, adding to the inexplicable tetchiness that had already been
stirred by Ally’s trying to sneak out. He indicated to the driver
with a terse gesture that they would be a minute. Then he grasped
Ally’s upper arms and planted one on her.
    His kiss lacked gentleness, which didn’t put
Ally off at all. Like she had so many times last night, she
responded to his dominant act with a little mewl of acceptance, her
lips becoming compliant as they melted under his. The shoe she’d
gone to so much trouble to find landed with a thud on the porch
when Blair grabbed her ass and hauled her into him. He sought entry
to her mouth and she opened for him, tangling her tongue with
his.
    The taxi
driver— bastard —beeped again, making Blair draw back with a curse. Ally
froze, her panted breaths falling between them, her hands on his
chest. She must be able to feel the way his heart thudded beneath
her palm. Sure as shit, she had to feel the hard-on that was
pressing into her stomach. Blair wondered—or was it hoped?—if
either thing would change her mind about leaving.
    He got his answer when Ally levered away
from him. Her voice was husky. “Goodbye, Blair.”
    She trotted down the stairs before he could
come up with a single thing to say, disappearing into the taxi,
which