Free Freed by Fire by Ashley Christine

“You weren’t?”
    “Your eyes,” he lowered his head down and rasped the words into my ear. I closed my eyes as I felt the hair on his head tickle my ear. His shoulder was merely an inch from my lips, and I wanted to step up on my toes to nuzzle into him, to kiss him, to taste his skin.
    “Em! This is the finale!” Maggie, who I had forgotten all about in my brief fantasy, elbowed me gently and pointed.
    I granted myself one more look before I turned around. Trailing my eyes slowly down his face, his small dimple as he smiled, his jaw, neck, and down to his shoulders. I sucked in a sharp breath when I saw his tattoos. Something on either side of his shoulders, inked on his skin, I was dying to know what they were. Knowing they were underneath his shirt, and how badly I wanted to pull it off to touch them.
    “You’re missing the finale,” Caid leaned into me again as he trailed both hands up my naked arms.
    This was crazy. I didn’t know him from a hole in the ground. But, he was touching me, and I wanted more. So much more.
    “Do you have a boyfriend, Emery?” He asked when I turned around, his mouth close to my ear once more.
    I shook my head. “No.”
    A small growl vibrated through him as he stood flush against me. His hands still on my arms, his thumbs circling on the soft skin of my biceps. “Good,” he whispered.
    Forget erratic. My breathing was non-existent. Never ever, for a single second, had I ever felt this way prior to that moment. I didn’t even write the female characters in my books to feel this worked up—I just didn’t think it were possible. Caid Burke wasn’t Toby. He was no anybody. I was sure of it. This man was created simply to send a woman’s brain skittering around outside of her body, and her heart? Well, her heart didn’t know what the hell was going on.
    The finale of the fireworks presentation was amazing. In every sense of the word. What little breath I was able to regain from Caid simply speaking and touching me, was taken away when the last explosions sent off in a frenzied array like a thousand gunshots.
    I could feel his hot breath on my skin, he was still against me. Touching me. Circling my skin in a slow and excruciating way. Was he trying to get a reaction out of me? Was he seeing how far he could go? In public, no less? We were in a sea of people, all with their eyes directed to the heavens, so no one really would be paying attention if I whirled around and crushed his lips into mine. Would they? Oh, who cares…?
    Just as I gained my nerve, I whirled around to let myself go, but he wasn’t there. In a split second he moved, and I nearly fell right on my face. Feeling completely embarrassed, I grabbed hold of Maggie and told her I wanted to go.
    “Home?”
    I nodded.
    “Em! I thought…hey, where did Caid go?” she asked, searching around us.
    “I don’t know,” I said, in almost a pouting whimper.
    “I thought we were going to Leland’s?”
    I felt someone touch my free hand and there it was. The spark. The tingle. The fire. It crawled up my hand, my forearm and right through my shoulder into my chest. My heart thrummed.
    “Sorry, Emery. I had to take a call.” Caid squeezed my hand. “We’re going to Lee’s now, yeah?”
    “Yeah,” I said, lost in his eyes again. “Everything okay?”
    He nodded. “Perfect.”
    Maggie shot me a smirk and shook her head at me.
    Ellie and Daniel walked up ahead of us, and Maggie gave me a wink before skipping up to meet them. We made it through the crowd at a snail’s pace, but I wasn’t complaining. A few times I had to stop and Caid pressed up against me as I let people cross in front of us, or waited to be able to move forward again.
    His fingers entwined with mine, heating my hand, and I thanked God I was in the lead as I knew my face was flushed red.
     
    ***
    Thursday, July 4 — 11:49 pm
     
    “EM!” Leland’s loud voice barreled through the pub the moment I stepped in the door. “I wondered when ya