Page 141 of Burning For You

UNDER HER NOSE

Maybe he’d been a little aggressive in that email.

But waiting days to send it had only sharpened the urge behind it, turning patience into something poisonous. The constant presence of family always hovering, always interrupting him had stripped him of peace and fed the pressure to finish this today.

Because Skye had crossed the line with what she wrote.

Questioned his originality. Doubted his intelligence. Accused him of copying. Of being small and unimaginative.

The audacity of it still burned. What he’d done wasn’t imitation; it was strategy. Misdirection. Genius, if they knew how to recognize it. But of course they didn’t. They never did.

Fine.

If she couldn’t see it on her own, he’d make sure she understood.

Some lessons couldn’t be explained. They had to be shown.

She was going to vomit. That last email. That was it.

She couldn’t do this anymore. They were going to have to give her something.

Anything.

It was like this person was taunting her with her childhood all over again.

And walking into the Lancaster’s home now, it made her feel small.

Like the first time she hobbled in on the crutches and was told this was her new home.

She’d had new shorts and a T-shirt on, sneakers, and even undergarments. All the things that Carrie had gone out and bought her once they said she was going to live with them.

Her smoked scented shorts and T-shirt she’d been sleeping in when she climbed out the window had been thrown out. They were the last possessions she’d owned and they were gone.

She didn’t want to lose any of this again. But staring her family down wasn’t going to be easy.

Not with the sympathy in their eyes.

She expected anger again. Expected frustration.

Instead she was getting pity... and more than a touch of possessiveness.

“You can’t stay alone,” Jim said immediately. “I mean it. No arguing.”

Her shoulders dropped. It was on the tip of her tongue to say she didn’t want to be alone, but she couldn’t put anyone else in danger either.

“I’ll stay with Ash or him with me.”

“You can go out and stay in the cabin on my parents’ property,” Ash said. “I just got off the phone with Clay. There isn’t a single person who can touch you there. Not without him knowing they are close by.”

She shook her head. She hadn’t even known that was an option, but the last thing she wanted to be was an obligation.

A burden to the family of the man she was in love with.

“No,” she said. “Ash, you can stay or I’ll stay with you at night. During the day, I’ve got a job to do and so do you.”

“But you’ll be alone,” Carrie said. “Come to the office and work there. We’ll give you space and you’ll have privacy.”

So they could watch over her.