Page 101 of Fire Fight

That stupid fucker.

I was going to kill him.

“Were you even going to tell me?”

“Of course I was. I was working my way up to it.”

“Why?”

“Because I knew you’d react like this! And frankly, I don’t see what the big deal is.”

“The big deal?The big deal?” I roared. “Why are you acting like it’snota big deal?”

After everything we’d shared, how was she being so cavalier?

Had I misread the situation that badly?

Completely disregarding the rage obviously coursing through me, Aspen stepped closer. Right into my personal space. Wrapping me in her goddamn intoxicating scent, making it difficult to breathe.

“Why wouldn’t I?” she asked. “I’m not in a relationship. In fact?—”

My hand came up to her face, squeezing her chin between my thumb and forefinger.

“Donotfinish that sentence.”

Her palm pressed to my chest, tiptoeing her fingers upward to the curve of my shoulder, around the back of my neck and into the short hairs at my nape.

Everything within me and between us moved, like a seismic shift of the very foundation we’d built our friendship on. Because that’s what we were—friends. Through the late nights and early mornings, long talks about life, this fucking serial killer, and the weeks spent sharing this space, a friendship had blossomed between us.

Now, I wanted to be so much fucking more than her goddamn friend, I thought I might go insane with the force of it. Genuinely might lose my mind without an outlet for how badly I wanted her.

In a flash, my anger became desire, the heat licking at my veins morphing into the need to own her.

“There’s nothing happening here, Crew,” she pressed, though I noted with no small amount of satisfaction that her chest was heaving, her small, perky tits brushing my upper abdomen with every inhale.

“The fuck there isn’t,” I growled.

Then I crashed my mouth to hers.

There was nothing soft and sweet to be found in that kiss. I was savage and claiming, my tongue shoving carelessly into her mouth, teeth dragging over her lips, opening her wider. I fuckingmoanedwith that first taste of her, coffee and something so purelyAspen, a heady combination I hungrily drank from her lips.

Gripping a handful of her hair, I tugged, angling her where I wanted her. She whimpered into my mouth, her tongue meeting each stroke of my own.

Fuck, I loved that sound. I wanted to see what other ones I could get her to make. Wanted to see if she’d make it again with my tongue buried in her pussy.

My blood damn near boiled, my skin tightening. I needed to have her. Now. Right here in the middle of this fucking living room. I’d fuck her into next week bent over the back of the couch.

We were all hands and savage teeth, sighs of pleasure andmoans of desperation. I’d never had a kiss like this, one so all-consuming it seemed to sink deep into my bones and root there.

A kiss could make a man crazy, and hers had set me on fire.

Aspen was an addiction—and for once, I wasn’t afraid of getting hooked.

I peeled my mouth from hers, and Aspen gasped for breath, but I didn’t let her go. My hands remained at her waist and in her hair, fingers digging into her skin. I was too far gone to give a fuck about hurting her. Iwantedto see my marks on her skin. Remind her exactly who the fuck she belonged to.

“How do you feel now, Aspen?” I asked, resting my forehead against hers. “Still think there’s nothing happening here?”

She tilted her face to nip at my jaw. “Take me to bed, Crew. Make good on everything you just promised me with that kiss.”