Page 27 of Burning Daylight

“What do you like to draw?” she asks, softer now.

“All kinds of things.” I pause, then add, “Right now? I’d like to draw you.”

I’m not sure if I mean it. Mainly, I want to see what she’ll say. If she’ll react in that fiery, defensive way she does. The way that makes my cock hard and my heart flip.

She stares at me. “Excuse me?”

“You heard me,” I say, moving across the alley again until my knuckles brush her cheek.

She shivers, and my jaw flexes from the feel of her skin. It’s soft. Buttery.Fucking perfect.

“I don’t…I don’t know what to say to that.”

“You could say yes.”

She laughs, but it comes across a little too breathless and a little too loud. “I don’t, um…no. That’s… That feels personal. I don’t even know your name.AndI don’t like you.”

“Do you want to know my name?” I ask.

Right now, I think I would tell her anything.

“Sure, after you tell me what you were doing in Rosebrook Falls all those years ago.”

And there it is.

The energy shifts, flashes of my deadbeat father surging to the forefront of my brain until theheavysinks back in. No matter how much I try to outrun it, I am who I am. Even when I don’t want to be.

If I let myself think too hard about it, I could probably guess exactly whosheis, too.

I pull back, running a hand through my hair. “Pass.”

“Why not?” she pushes. “You’re the one who wants us to be friends, right?”

“I never said that.”

Her smile goes flat. “Well, this has been just as frustrating as the first time I met you, so I’m gonna go.”

Panic crashes over me. I don’t want her to go yet. “Wait.”

She ignores me, hurrying to the door.

“Hold up a minute,” I beg, chasing after her.

I step in behind her, lowering my voice. “Don’t go.”

She turns, her spine pressed to the door, and my stomach catapults into my throat and then down to my feet. Every time I look at this girl, it feels like I’m on a rollercoaster. I wonder if she feels it, too. This pull.

She has to.

“I think you do like me,” I say.

She lifts her chin. “Well, that just proves what a terrible judge of character you are.”

My lips brush her ear. “I have excellent taste.”

She swallows hard. “Tell me your name,Ry.”

I hesitate. Then rock back on my heels. I want to tell her, I do, but her calling meRyreminds me of all the reasons why I can’t.