Page 117 of Fiery Little Thing
I smile to myself. My family wanted to be in the limelight and keep me in the shadows, and they succeeded.
My cock hardens as I watch the fire roar.
“Holy shit!” Blaze giggles, clapping her hands as the light from the fire makes the golden threads of her hair gleam.
Her sterling-blue eyes find mine, burning just as brightly as the day I decided I wanted her. She may not have started my fascination with flames, but she was the first fire I fell for, and she’ll be the last one I ever want to see.
“Nowthat’show you make a motherfucking bomb.” She laughs—God, I’m addicted to the sound of it.
I smirk down at her, relishing in the heat that fans our way. “Are you impressed?”
She purses her lips, twisting them to the side with a shrug. “I’ve seen better.”
“Liar.”
Her tongue flicks out, and I zero in on the glistening trail she leaves behind on her plump lips. She shrugs noncommittally. “I guess it’s a little hot.” A grin spreads across her face. My cock strains againstthe zipper of my jeans every time I glance up at the fire, and it’s near impossible to think when she rubs her bare legs against my own.
I clear my throat, reminding myself that ruining my parents’ lives isn’t where the line ends. “Did you send it?”
She checks the burner phone and shows me the screen. Right there in black-and-white is an email titledKiervan Osman: Plagiarism Scandal.
My brother’s college and every university he has any hope of getting into for his graduate degree will find evidence of all the copying and pasting I’ve done for him over the last five years I was playing his bitch. A lot of the references in his assignments were wrong or made-up. Past students’ assignments which I stole paragraphs from. Everything is in that email. I changed the words just enough so his school’s software wouldn’t pick it up. Maybe he should have put some work into his assignments rather than submitting them without batting an eye.
Now, his own college will see the fraud that he is. So will every news agency chomping at the bit for another Osman scandal.
A semester before graduation too.
How rough.
Maybe he should have given me all the money like I asked, and at least he’d have a bachelor’s degree to his name before losing his future by our father’s side.
A year from now, Osman Pharmaceuticals will have no choice but to be liquidated. My parents will become social pariahs, and they’ll scramble to salvage the pieces of their life. But nothing will be able to save them. Their company barely survived getting hit by the information release. There’s no way they’ll survive this blow.
Kiervan, on the other hand? He’ll be unemployed, known forbeing the slimy piece of shit he is, and he won’t have the money to buy his freedom. He’ll become a broke outcast, just like our parents. Forced to live in the shadows, just like I was.
Me? I’ll have my degree and the girl of my dreams by my side. Admittedly, we had to balance my revenge out, of course. Even though I legally changed my last name to Aydin, my granddad’s first name, I can’t be the only one in the family who wasn’t targeted. So the shitty house we were renting and mybelovedcar that I couldn’t give a shit about both fell victim to an arson attack.
Tragic.
Fire trucks screech to a halt in front of the burning building. Men and women come spilling out, grabbing ladders and pulling hoses, screaming orders at each other left, right, and center.
“To the fall of House Osman.” Blaze cheers by tapping the corner of our burner phones together.
Tonight, we’re finally free. There’s no family to torture us. No past that threatens to drag us back beneath the depths. From here on out, it’ll always just be us. Everyone who’s ever wronged us will have paid the price.
I grab a fistful of her hair, forcing her head into an upward angle and kiss her with every inch of my soul. She moans against my lips, and the combination of the crackle of flames with her saccharine voice makes me sink my greedy fingers into her flesh.
“I couldn’t have done it without you,” I break apart long enough to say. It’s tempting to close my eyes, so there’s nothing but the feel of her against me. Not only is seeing the way Blaze looks against the flames priceless beyond measure, but she's also otherworldly.
My grip tightens in her hair as I covertly reach for the box hidden within the pockets of my jeans. Her lips don’t stop moving againstmine, hungry with need as if I’m the only source of oxygen she can get. Taking her left hand that’s clutching my shirt, I slide a ring onto her finger.
She’s always been mine, but now she has a ring she’ll never need to steal from me.
Blaze breaks the kiss, snapping her attention to the silver band around her finger and the black sapphire stone sitting in the center. Her lips part as she stares at the ring for three agonizing seconds. Then a ghost of a smile plays on her lips.
“You know you’re meant to ask, right?”
“It wasn’t a question.” A smug grin pulls at my mouth.
