“Still, it looks like you’ve forgotten how to breathe properly,” Will noted, his milk-chocolate-brown eyes seeming to glint with mirth. “I’d say too much fresh air getting into your lungs, but then, you’re standing amongst a charcoal pit, so that can’t be it.”
Both went silent, waiting for her to say something.
She couldn’t think of a word. Not one.
How ‘bout, “kiss me, now”?
“Hello, Damon, William.” She nodded at them, keeping her voice as calm and formal as she could. Not easy, given that her pussy was tingling from all the vivid memories her brain was feeding her body about the two men before her. Damn brain. What the hell did it know?
Damon cocked a straight, dark eyebrow at her, crossing his sublimely muscled arms over a chest she knew for a fact was equally as sublime. “Hello, Phoebe,” he mocked, his voice just as calm and formal as hers.
Beside him, Will rolled his eyes. “Pheebs.” He gave her a steady look and she had to bite the inside of her lip to stop herself from stepping toward him. Toward them both. They’d made themselves pretty clear six months ago. She wasn’t going to be foolish enough to let them play with her heartstrings again.
They could play with your body, though? Surely just one more time? Or twice? Three times? For old times’ sake? Maybe four—
Damon cast a slow inspection around her studio before turning his gaze back on her. “So, someone been playing with matches, I see? Tsk tsk, didn’t you know little girls who play with fire get burned?”
“Bloody hell, Damon.” William rolled his eyes again, stepping away from Damon with a shake of his head. “Do you think you could be any more lame?”
Damon laughed. “Probably. If I tried hard enough.”
Phoebe stood frozen, watching them both. Goddamn it, she’d thought she’d braced herself for this, for their unique brand of disarming charm and humor. But no, it seemed she’d been a complete failure. Listening to them bounce insults off each other was the closest thing to foreplay she could think of without involving any physical activity. It had always been this way—they goofed around, she laughed at their sarcastic wit, and when they parted, she’d go back to her home with a stupid grin on her face and gooey warmth in her soul.
It wasn’t until their weekend together that she realized it was the two men making her so goddamn euphoric, of course. When that realization hit her, it was too late.
She ground her teeth. No. She wasn’t going to be foolish. Not again. It had hurt too much getting over them the first time.
She tilted her chin and straightened her shoulders, swallowing the lump in her throat before licking her lips. “Is there anything I can tell you about the fire?” she asked, shoving her hands in her hip pockets. “Any questions you need me to answer?”
William and Damon passed a quick glance between them. A tension settled over Damon’s body, his jaw bunching a second before William shook his head. “Not at the moment, Pheebs,” Will answered, turning back to her. “We’ll have to go over this place with a fine-tooth comb, however. Is your mobile number still the same? We can call you when we’re finished.”
Prickling disappointment crept through her. They were asking her to go away.
Of course they are, Masters. Isn’t this what you wanted? To not have anything to do with them again? What did you think they were going to do? Ask you to strip naked and become the filling in a manwich?
“Yes,” she blurted out.
Her cheeks filled with heat and she blinked. Jesus, what was she doing?
Both William’s and Damon’s eyebrows pulled into slight frowns. “Phoebe?” Damon took a step toward her, his size-fourteen foot somehow silent on the charred and littered floor. “We—”
“Will call you when we’re done,” William finished, cutting him off.
For a brief moment—the time it took Phoebe’s heart to thump twice in her chest—it looked as if Damon was going to ignore his partner. Damon was the senior investigator after all, and three years older than Will, but then the man nodded, his expression becoming set. “Don’t leave town,” he uttered, the grumbled command nothing like his normal humor-laced voice.
She laughed, a nervous little hiccup of sound. “What would you do? Track me down and drag me back?”
Fresh heat flooded Phoebe’s face. Her eyes widened. Had she really said that?
Damon’s nostrils flared, his dark eyes locking on hers.
“Yes, Pheebs,” William’s steady voice played over her wrought senses, “we would.”
She jerked her stare to his, her pulse pounding.
Then why hadn’t you before?
About the Author
Lexxie Couper started writing when she was six and hasn’t stopped since. She’s not a deviant, but she does have a deviant’s imagination and a desire to entertain readers with her words. Add the two together and you get romances that can make you laugh, cry, shake with fear, or tremble with desire. Sometimes all at once. When she’s not submerged in the worlds she creates, Lexxie’s life revolves around her family, a husband who thinks she’s insane, an indoor cat who likes to stalk shadows, and her daughters, who both utterly captured her heart and changed her life forever.
Contact Lexxie at lexxie@lexxiecouper.com, follow her on Twitter twitter.com/lexxie_couper or visit her at www.lexxiecouper.com where she occasionally makes a fool of herself on her blog.
Other Titles by Lexxie Couper
Now Available:
Contemporary
Standalones
Triple Dare
Dare Me
Suspicious Ways
Copping a Feel
Endless Lust
Timeless Wrath
Shadow Whispers
Down and Dirty Box Set
Jorja: Secret Confessions
Kat and Mouse
A Sprite’s Tale (Christmas)
Powerplay
Party Games Series
Twister
Suck and Blow
Bandicoot Cove Series
A Single Knight
Sunset Heat
Tropical Sin
Heart of Fame Series
Blackthorne
Blame it on the Bass
Lead Me On
Steady Beat
Guarded Desires
Muscle for Hire
Love’s Rhythm
Balls Up (A Heart of Fame story)
Compliance (A Heart of Fame story)
A Single Knight (A Heart of Fame story)
Outback Skies Series
Breathless for You
Burn for You
Bare for You
Better with You-coming soon
Combustible (An Outback Skies story)
Stimulated Series
Blowing it Off
Revving it Up
Mercy Series
Highest Bidder
Deadly Pleasure
Captured Rapture
Paranormal
Principatus Series
Dark Destiny
Dark Embrace
Fire Mate Series
Ty the Sexy Dragon
Savage Australia Series
Savage Retribution
Savage Transformation
Sci-Fi
The Boundaries
The Boundaries -- Assassin
The Boundaries -- Agent
The Boundaries -- Animal
The Boundaries Trilogy
Sci-Fi Standalones
The Sun Sword
Shifting Lust
Other Titles
Foreign Affairs Series (with Mari Carr)
Princess
Cowboy
Master
Hands
Foreign Affairs Boxed Set
Always Series (writing as Cherie M. Hudson)
Unconditional
Unforgettable
Undeniable