CHAPTER ELEVEN
Burke made a startled noise as Lila kissed him. Her eyes fell shut at the feel of his mouth against hers, warm and soft in comparison to the delicious solidity of his chest under her palms.
She curled a hand around his neck and nipped at his lower lip until he made another noise, and opened. If the noise wasn’t so goddamn manly and rumbling, she’d have said he gasped. She kissed him seriously then, teasing his tongue with hers, her pulse going crazy at the overload of sensation.
She’d known kissing Burke would be fantastic, but this?
Hot and wet and glorious.
Every nerve in Lila’s body pulsed to life, and it was taking all her willpower not to climb him. Instead she focused her efforts on trying to get him to kiss her back, and…
Oh, shit.
Burke wasn’t kissing her back.
Lila pulled away and stared up at him.
His face was granite hard, eyes narrowed. His arms hadn’t moved to wrap around her or hold her. In fact, his hands were in fists, tucked in to his thighs, and his broad shoulders were tense.
Lila had three choices.
She could run away sobbing over the excruciating misread of his signals, but that move hadn’t been any help after she’d kissed Josh Hollander when she was fifteen and tired of waiting for her fellow band geek to make a pass, and she wasn’t the run-and-sob kind anymore.
She could apologize for popping Burke’s personal bubble without a clear invitation to proceed which, considering his shy and reserved nature, she should have done.
Or she could do what she did best.
Brazen it out.
Lila clapped him on the arm with a bright smile. “All right, then,” she said. “See you around.” She hit him in the arm again, managed not to fall down the steps in her haste to get the fuck out, then ruined it by goddammit pulling those stupid finger guns.
* * * *
Burke slammed the door shut behind her and stepped back, staring at it.
Holy. Shit.
He controlled his breathing, even while it felt as if his lungs couldn’t pull in enough oxygen, since Lila had apparently taken it with her when she ran off.
Because that was a run, despite the fact she was trying to make it look like a sexy not-a care-in-the-world strut.
She’d kissed him.
Lila Baxter had kissed him.
Lila Baxter had been about a heartbeat away from being stripped naked and tossed up against the wall of his RV.
The feel of her lips on his, that teasing bite which had turned him hard so fast he almost lost his balance, her firm curves on his body… Burke panted. He drove a hand through his hair and gripped it.
If he’d allowed himself to respond, right now he could be gripping Lila’s hair.
She’d be on her knees, or on her back, or, mmm, Burke would be on his back. Lila would be straddling him as he begged her to come down and kiss him again because he couldn’t get enough of the taste of her, and…
Burke strode to the kitchen and ran the cold water. He fumbled for a glass, filled it, and chugged it. He was so fucking turned on he wouldn’t be surprised if steam hissed from his skin as the cold water did nothing to cool him down.
Lila kissed him.
And Burke didn’t respond.
He couldn’t respond. He’d had to fist his hands at his sides to stop from grabbing her. He’d had to lock his muscles in stillness rather than scare her by using his body and his size to dominate her the way he wanted to.
Her kiss had been light, experimental. Playful. Almost innocent.
Burke slumped against the counter. He didn’t want light, innocent, or playful.
He wanted fast, dirty, hard.
He wanted her screaming his name, again and again, demanding everything he had to give as he took everything from her.
Light, innocent and playful? He’d get to that when he’d burned through his terrible need for her.
In a few years.
Maybe.
And so instead of kissing her back and saying “Hey, dinner some time?” like a normal person, he went rigid and now she was thinking that he wasn’t interested.
Good one, jackass.
Burke ran himself another glass of water. He got it halfway to his lips, but instead of drinking, he slammed it down on the counter. The sound of it was harsh and jarring in the silence. He crossed the RV in two strides and snatched the door handle, wrenching the door open.
He had no clear idea of what he was going to do. He had a single clear thought in his head: Lila.
He’d had the vague expectation that he’d have to chase her through the workshop, but she hadn’t gone inside yet. She was between the building and the RV.
She was coming back.
Across the distance their eyes met, and whatever she read in Burke’s face made Lila’s eyes widen. She tucked her hair behind an ear.
Neither of them spoke.
Neither of them moved.
The air between them charged. Keeping his gaze steady on hers, Burke took a step down. Lila took a step forward.
And then the phone in his jeans pocket rang.
Burke flinched. The thing was set to ring and vibrate, and it buzzed him right where he did not need any more stimulation right now. He sucked in air and shoved his hand in his pocket to cancel the call.
Except it was David’s ringtone.
Shit.
Burke looked from the phone to Lila, torn. A tiny smile danced over her lips. She shrugged at him, shot him a wink, and sashayed off.
Burke gripped the phone and watched her ass go in that classy elegant pencil skirt. He heaved out a frustrated breath, then ducked back into the RV, slammed the door hard enough the whole vehicle rocked, and answered the phone.
“David.”
“Hey, Dad. What’s up?”
He glanced at the screen to check the display, and held the phone back to his ear. “School. At this time of day, school is up. Why are you calling me when you should be in lessons?”
“I need a reason to call my pops?”
“During school hours? Yes. Unless it’s an emergency. Oh, no, what—”
“Not an emergency. Jeez. You go straight for the tragedy, don’t you? Chill out.”
Chill out? Last time David contacted him outside their routine weekend calls or visits, he’d stolen the doorman’s car for a joyride on a driving license less than a month old.
David carried on blithely, “Mom says I can come to Emerson this weekend.”
“That’s great.” That was also two weeks sooner than Burke had expected. Was he ready?
Ready to have his son in his life the way he’d never been able to before now? Yeah. He was ready. Whether or not David was going to be thrilled about staying in Kurt’s guest room until Burke found them a house was a whole other question.
“Has she sorted out the school transfer?” Burke said.
“Please. Mom handles millions of dollars a day. She handled the transfer in, like, a coffee break, between booking her flight to London and hiring people to come and pack up the apartment. She wanted to bring me to you herself, but I was thinking, d’you want to come pick me up instead?”
“Of course.”
“Cool. And I could, you know, drive part of the way this time? I need practice.”
Burke smiled. “You’re not driving my truck.”
“I need practice.”
“We’ll look in to getting you a car to practice in that isn’t my truck. Sometime in the future. Let’s get you moved in and settled at your new school first.”
“Don’t worry. I’m sure I can guilt Mom into buying me a car.”
“David. Remember who you’re talking to. You will not guilt your mother into anything. And I’m sure as hell not letting her buy you a car. She’d get you a Mercedes or a Lexus.”
“I know.”
“You’re living with me, son. I’m the one buying your car, not your mother, and whatever you get is going to be in my budget.” And will also fit in better with the kids at his new school.
“Uh-oh.”
“Yeah. Don’t worry. I’ve got one picked out for you already.”
“Dad, wow. You’re the best.”
“Yep. Won’t take but a couple of months working on it at the weekends and after school. It’ll be running by midsummer. Pretty sure.”
Silence.
“You want to rethink things? Go live in London? Drive on the wrong side of the road, but hey, you’ll be doing it in a Jaguar?”
“Hell no, are you kidding? I can’t wait to live with you.” He sounded sincere. “Saturday, then, right? You’ll be here?”
“I’ll be there. Where should you be now?”
“Um. Double Physics?”
“You think you should join the rest of the students?”
“Is there any point? What are they gonna do if I skip it, suspend me?”
“Go to class.”
“Ugh. Going.”
Burke hung up, shaking his head.