Free Wrapped in Flame by Caitlyn Willows Page A

Mike. This is my life. My choice. I asked you for space and distance to get my head on straight, and you respond by backing me into the corner.”
    The woman was hell on wheels, controlled fury, passion fired. His dick started to fill again. Clearly it had no idea how precarious a predicament it was in right now. Or rather, it didn’t care. The thing always had a mind of its own. And apparently a death wish.
    “Technically, it’s the wall. And you aren’t really backed into it. You can slip away any time you want.” His mouth wasn’t much smarter than the rest of him. “Now this”—he dragged her against him and pressed her to the wall—“this is backed.”
    “And this”—her knee shifted to his groin—“is a precarious predicament for you.”
    “Really? You’d do that?” He cocked his head and frowned.
    “It’s for your own good. Why can’t you see that?”
    She wiggled a bit, adjusting her stance. It gave Mike the opportunity to slip his knee between hers. Her heat wrapped around his thigh and put his erection on full notice. Apparently she wasn’t as disinterested as she pretended.
    “So what are the rules and boundaries? I don’t want to presume or make any missteps.”
    She huffed out a beleaguered sigh.
    “Ah, I recognize the Sigh of Doom when I hear it. We kids heard it a lot from our mom.”
    “Mike—”
    “I’ve waited a long time to have you. I sure as hell don’t want to screw things up now. What lines should I not cross? For instance…” He drew her hair away from her neck. “Can I do this?” He nipped a line down the curve of her neck, loving that small gasp she made.
    “Or this?” He palmed her breast, rolling the nipple to a peak hard enough to wear through her bra.
    On another gasp, she pressed into his hand. “This isn’t getting us anywhere.”
    “Maybe this will help clarify.” He slid his hand to her crotch.
    She moaned softly. Her thighs locked his hand in place. When that failed to stop his plundering fingers, she clamped her hand around his wrist. “Stop trying to distract me with sex.”
    “Oops. Sorry. Didn’t mean to break the rules.” He jerked his hands away and took a giant step back.
    “Stop being an ass.” She smacked his chest. “You’re making a joke out of something that’s really important to me.”
    “You hurt my feelings.”
    “Your feelings or your pride?” she shot back. “So rather than talk about it, you decide to hurt mine back by not listening?”
    Mike’s turn to sigh. He slipped his arms around her and hugged her close but loose. “You’re right. I’m sorry. You say ‘rules and boundaries.’ I hear ‘you’re not good enough for me.’”
    She wedged her palms between them. “It’s not about you. It’s about me.”
    “I can’t give you what you want, Erica. I can’t set you apart from me. Not now. Not ever. I made the mistake of letting you go once before. I won’t do it again.” He watched her throat as she took a hard swallow.
    “I wasn’t yours to begin with. You said it already. There is no us .”
    Another fuckup. He was racking them up today.
    “Hurts, doesn’t it?” she said.
    Mike stared down his nose at her smug expression. “As much as you shutting me out.”
    “Point made.” She pushed gently against his chest.
    Mike reluctantly let her go.
    “So where do we stand, Mike?” She raised her palm. “United, I get it.”
    “You tell me. Friends or lovers?”
    Erica opened her mouth, then closed it and shook her head. “It’s all too much to process right now.”
    “I guess that leaves us right back where we started. With you needing space and distance,” he said. “All right.” He braced his hands on her hips and stepped away. “How ’bout we start over and forget the last few minutes happened?”
    Erica glanced up at him. “Even that hard nibble you took down my neck?”
    “Now who’s trying to distract whom with sex?”
    She tilted her head and nodded. “Guilty as charged. But in my