Free Mia Found (Starting Fires Book 3) by Makenzie Smith

kitchen and watched his back as he climbed the steps. I propped against the counter next to Nicole, my cheeks burning with an enthusiastic grin.
    “ So,” Nicole said, getting my attention. “You two are dating?”
    She and I weren’t what I’d call close, but through Marlowe we’d at least become acquainted. “I guess. I mean, I think so.” My brow furrowed and my lip pursed in thought. “Yes. We definitely are.”
    She chuckled. “You sound so confident.”
    I smiled over at her. “It’s new. Very new. As in, it just happened today new.”
    She sighed, eyeing Kristen with a scowl. “Everyone is either dating or married now. And Wally and what’s her face seem to be getting along great. Isn’t that just awesome?”
    “ Do you...have you and Wally…?” I didn’t want to pry, but now I was curious. Wally and I had a tiny fling a few years ago. No one even knew about it, and I planned to keep it that way. Lucas would kill him. In the end, it was pretty obvious we had absolutely no chemistry. The only time we’d kissed had been awkward and weird. I might as well have been kissing my brother. We agreed it was better to pretend it had never happened, but we still talked and he had never mentioned Nicole.
    “ No,” she scoffed, as if she was offended. “Please. We just fuck.”
    I grimaced, not expecting the vulgar admission. “Oh.”
    “ Now the only man even remotely interested in me is Fontenot. You know Fontenot, don’t you?”
    I nodded. Boy, did I know Fontenot.
    “ Well,” she continued, “he’s the only single guy hanging around and trust me, he ain’t coming anywhere near this.”
    “ That’s probably a good idea,” I said quietly.
    Nicole’s phone vibrated and she casually looked at the screen. “The devil himself,” she said, and despite being adamant that she wanted nothing to do with him, I saw her soft smile as she read his words. Quickly, it was replaced by a put off sigh. “He wants to hang out tonight.”
    She looked around the room. Marlowe and Lucas were cuddled up on the couch. Kristen sat close to Wally. Charles and Priscilla shared a recliner. When Paul came back down, I was sure we would leave. No matter which way she looked at it, she would be the odd man out.
    “ I don’t have anything better to do,” she said and grabbed her purse. Without telling anyone goodbye, she left.
    Paul found me leaning against the kitchen sink, staring out the window. He put his hands along my waist and gave me a squeeze.
    “ Do you want to leave?” he asked, a deep whisper at my neck.
    “ Yes,” I said and my body heated, desperate to be alone with him again.
    I turned around and kissed him softly on the lips. Immediately, he responded, stepping closer. Our bodies pressed in, eager and willing to know each other.
    What did Paul Macione look like naked? I was so accustomed to his dress shirts and slack, it was hard to picture him in anything else. But I had a feeling he was strong. My knees grew weak thinking of him moving above me. We’d agreed to wait but there were other things that we could do.
    When my tongue touched his lips, he stifled a moan, and clinched his hands at my waist. “We should go,” he said.
    “ Yes,” I replied, barely a whisper.
    Our goodbyes were quick—not even bothering to give more than a wave from their foyer. Lucas eyed us with malice, but Marlowe elbowed him in the side.
    During the entire drive, I was off in a daydream—imagining the warmth of his skin and the scent of his comforter as we tangled our limbs underneath it. So caught up in my dreamy trance, I didn’t realize we’d pulled into my apartment complex.
    When the familiar landscape broke my daze, I looked over at him. Fiona was probably home. I didn’t want to share any time with him, and if she was there, we’d have to escape to my tiny room. Our walls were thin. The idea of being intimate while Fiona lingered around made me uncomfortable.
    “ We can’t go to your house?” I