Free ASingleKnightNook by Lexxie Couper

you get rid of the but…butterfly, please?”
    A slow smile curled the Brit’s lips, and a distant part of Kennedy’s mind, the part not unhinged by the damn thing in her suite, noticed how sexy he was. “Your wish is my command, my lady.”
    He bowed at the waist, a grin playing with his lips, and then disappeared back into her suite.
    She stared at the open doorway. Partly because she was petrified the butterfly was going to swoop out at her on silent wings and flutter near her head if she didn’t. Partly to avoid looking at Luke Beasley. What did she say to him? I’m sorry I screwed your brains out and took off while you were having a shower?
    “Are you going to look at me, Kennedy?”
    Kennedy’s throat squeezed tight at his low question. Her breath grew shallow.
    “I mean, you do owe me an explanation, after all.”
    She gnawed at her bottom lip and tugged the towel higher up her chest.
    “One second we were talking about ordering room service, the next you were gone.”
    Dragging her stare from the cavernous interior of her temporary residence, she turned her attention to the hulking Australian firefighter beside her.
    His gaze was fixed on her face, his jaw bunched. He crossed arms the size of tree trunks over his equally muscular chest. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but I thought we had a connection.” He paused, a moment of discomfort flickering on his face. “Apart from incredible sex, that is.”
    Kennedy’s pussy constricted at his words, uttered with that sexy Australian accent that had drawn her to him in the New York bar all those month ago. Incredible was an understatement. The man had taken her to places she believed existed only in porn films. In fact, she was ninety-nine percent certain the people in the hotel room next to Luke’s had thought they were making a porn film, what with the noises Kennedy was making. But the night she’d met Luke was the night she’d been dumped by her boyfriend of two years for being too “kinky”, and Luke was Rebound Guy. Rebound Guy wasn’t meant to be Incredible-Sex-and-Unexpected-Connection Guy. He was meant to be See?-I- Am -Desirable-So-Stick-It-In-Your-Ear Guy. That’s what Rebound Guy was all about. And then Luke had gone and asked her if she wanted to visit the Statue of Liberty with him the next day and the word “yes” had been so damn close to forming on her lips she’d freaked out.
    Freaked out and run away.
    And now here she was, with him again. Thanks to freaking out and running away.
    There was a perverse irony in that fact, but she was too freaked out to analyze it.
    “Are you going to say anything?”
    The rough edge of anger in Luke’s voice scraped against her fraying control. She lifted her chin, meeting his stare.
    Damn, she wished she hadn’t. His gaze was as intense and focused and…and…as sexy as it had been four months ago.
    Her throat grew thick. Her pussy grew tight.
    “You were Rebound Guy.”
    The confession slipped from her before she could stop it. Luke’s eyes widened. His shoulders straightened. So did his spine. He studied her, a muscle twitching in his jaw, his stare unreadable as he opened his mouth to say…
    His cousin chose that exact moment to exit Kennedy’s suite.
    “Got the little bugger.” He stopped at the door, his hands cupped together, his grin wide. “A red-bodied swallowtail, to be pre…” A frown pulled at his forehead. “What did I miss?”
    A dry snort tore from Luke, and he shook his head, stepping back from Kennedy. “Nothing.”
    His cousin obviously didn’t believe him, based on his own snort—this one so close to a laugh Kennedy almost smiled herself.
    Almost.
    But she couldn’t. And not just because of Luke. Because of the creature in his cousin’s hand.
    Oh God, Kennedy. He’s got it. It’s there. Just there in his…
    She flicked her stare to the Brit’s long-fingered hands, still cupped in front of his chest. Inside that prison of palm and fingers was a butterfly. The