Page 6 of Wild Embers
Nope. Not her and not here.
“I was trying to put it out!” Blake lashes back, throwing her hands up in the air, then the fury in her deep cedar eyes dims. “I was trying to save him.”
Him?
I finally look past the curvy distraction in front of me and peer into the fire. A man with his arms draped over the T of a cross is burned to a crisp.
Did she do this?
My eyes narrow on Blake. “You just so happen to show up in Evergreen Falls at the exact moment that this happens?” I gesture toward the flames.
“You’re blaming me? I was trying to help.” She takes a step forward, closing the distance between us, and pokes me in the chest. “You should be thanking me.”
The top of her head is perfectly level with my chin. She’s at just the right height that if I wanted to, I could…
Not. Her.
What is this woman doing to me? First, I completely ignore the crime scene, and now I can’t stop thinking with my dick.
I don’t need this right now.
She has to go.
Retrieving my handcuffs from my belt, I grab her arm and turn her around. “Blake Jennings, you’re being detained for suspicious activity.”
“You’re arresting me?” She shouts.
I secure the cuffs around her wrists and guide her to my truck. “Detaining. There’s a difference.”
Blake’s sass doesn’t stop, not that I expected it to. She’s never known how to bite her tongue. “Is this your way of welcoming me back? Twelve years, and you slap on the cuffs? If I had waited fifteen, what does that get me? A night in lockup?”
I hesitate briefly when we reach the cab doors. Do I place her in the back like I would any other suspect, or do I let her ride shotgun?
The real question is, do I actually think she could’ve done this?
That answer is easy.
No.
Changing direction, we round the hood, and I open the passenger-side door. “Watch your head.”
She slides into the seat smoothly. “I haven’t been in the citythatlong. I know how to get into a goddamn truck, Walk.”
Her use of my nickname is doing things to me that I can’t admit to right now.
I reach over her, turning up the heat to warm her and catch a whiff of her amber and vanilla scent.
Another spark of light. Another feeling I don’t need or want.
I back out of the truck, putting some much-needed distance between us.
“Don’t move.”
Blake’s expression of outrage is almost comical. “Where the hell am I going to go?”
I don’t answer her and slam the door shut, kidding myself into thinking I’ve severed this new connection.
Fuck. This woman is not what I need right now.
