“She still wants a fling, huh?” Will said, slowly sipping his beer.
“Yep.” Carson groaned. “Don’t get me wrong—the sex is unbelievable. But every time I even bring up the subject of going out to dinner, or catching a movie, she tries to distract me with sex.”
Will laughed. “Does it work?”
“Every fucking time, man.” He was almost a little ashamed of how badly he craved Holly’s lithe little body. Every time she was naked, he couldn’t think. Or breathe. Or do anything that didn’t involve running his tongue over every inch of her nakedness.
It was like an addiction, and one he could spend the rest of his life enslaved to. But that was the problem—he wasn’t going to have Holly for the rest of his life. Hell, if she had her way, he wouldn’t have her for much longer.
“She’s got midterm exams coming up, and she keeps hinting that we need to take a breather,” he said with a sigh.
Heat of Passion
“Culinary school has exams?”
“Kind of. She’s got to prepare all these fancy dishes for her teacher, and then work in a restaurant for a couple of nights to show she’s capable of working under pressure and all that crap.”
“Bring her on our next assignment.” Will snorted. “She’ll definitely learn how to work under pressure then.”
Carson lifted his beer to his lips, suddenly sidetracked. “Speaking of assignments, what’s this I’ve been hearing about us going to the jungle?” The idea of hopping in a chopper and going somewhere—even the freaking jungle—wasn’t all that unappealing.
The team hadn’t been out of the country since that stint in Colombia, and Carson was itching for an adventure. He hated sitting around and waiting to be paged.
“Not for sure yet,” Will replied. “But I’ve been hearing rumors about some trouble happening at a plant in Brazil. A few workers were killed by some rebels, I think, and there’s a chance we might need to go in and extract the CEO. He refuses to leave, but there have been a few threats to his life, so we’ll see.” Will put down his beer bottle.
“You’re feeling stir crazy too, eh? Thought you were too busy wooing the waitress to remember what you do for a living.”
“Well, maybe the best way to change her mind is to leave,” he said with a shrug.
“You know, absence makes the heart grow fonder, and all that? I swear, she’s got so much shit on her plate, I’m starting to think she’s Superwoman.”
Will looked curious. “Yeah? Like what?”
“Work, this culinary class, and don’t get me started on her incompetent family. I can’t count how many times she’s left me in her bed this week so she could rush off and save someone from themselves.” Carson shook his head, baffled. “Her father calls her to come over and help him check his email! And her sister Caroline is a total space cadet.
She locked her keys in the car every day this week.”
And when they said jump, Holly jumped. That’s what Carson didn’t get. His sister Jenny was constantly getting into jams, but she only called Carson when something bad was going down. Holly’s family, however, called for everything. Every goddamn www.samhainpublishing.com 51
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miniscule problem that they could probably handle all on their own, if Holly would just let them.
He knew her mother had died, and that sucked, but he didn’t think it was reason enough for Holly to drop everything and play mother hen to everyone. Especially when all the responsibilities—which she could easily rid herself of—constantly got in the way of their relationship.
Sorry, their fling. Because no matter how much fun they had together, how many times they laughed over pizza or cuddled in front of the television or had wild sex on every surface of Holly’s apartment, she still refused to call it anything other than a fling.
“So tell her how ridiculous her family is being,” Will suggested.
“I’ve tried. But she thinks they need her. The whole family was pretty upset after her mother died, and Holly ended up filling her mom’s role. Now they all expect it of her.”
Will leaned back in his chair. “Do you like this girl?”
Did he like her? Uh, yeah. In fact, he couldn’t remember ever liking another female more than he liked Holly. She was quirky and funny and unbelievably good in bed. And way too caring and generous for her own good.
“Of course I like her,” he answered.
“Then tell her. And keep telling her. Sooner or later she’ll have to see that the two of you could have more than a silly fling.”
But would she? Carson had the most unsettling feeling that it wouldn’t matter how many times he told her how great she was, or how many ways he tried to show her he was serious about her. With Holly, responsibility always came first. To her job, her family, her school.
So that meant he had to find a way around it. Because he was sick of being Holly Lawson’s boy toy. He wanted to be her boyfriend.
Now he just had to convince her to let him.
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