Burned by Passion by Dez Burke

software department.”
    She clapped a hand to her forehead. “What? How is that possible? Your father never even told me,” she groaned, looking dismayed beyond belief.
    Blake’s smile froze but then he wondered what he’d been expecting; a warm welcome and a leap of joy? He didn’t know what it was about him that got her back up but he wasn’t going to let her give him the brush off this time.
     
    ***
    Kira was about to have a panic attack. Seeing Blake again when she’d least expected it was making the elevator feel like a compressed box she needed to get out of immediately.
    “Excuse me,” she mumbled, reaching out to stop the elevator on whatever floor they’d reached but Blake’s hand closed over hers on the buttons. His other hand came up to take her chin in a gentle grip.
    There was a well-known glint in his smile she didn’t like. Already her knees were quaking finding herself this close to him. She cursed whatever fate had made her choose to take a file to the sixth floor before her lunch break instead of letting one of the other assistants do it.
    “Don’t run away from me. Not this time,” he said softly, his eyes scanning her face and making Kira’s neck feel hot. He had eyes greyer than grey and she couldn’t help but sink in them. The sound of his voice got to her like it always did, making her heart beat triple-time. Handsome did not begin to describe the way he looked in his three-piece suit and his hair hanging loose over his forehead. He was nothing like those strait-laced and stuffy British stereotypes which she’d been expecting Blake Carter to be. Instead he’d turned out to be as red-blooded, sexy and gorgeous as any leading man she’d ever fantasized about. Seeing him face to face was enough to make her wonder how that one time could’ve happened. It seemed so long ago.
    “Blake, this is neither the time nor place for this,” she blurted, slipping her hand from under his, glad that the elevator would soon reach its destination and she could make her escape.
    His face seemed to brighten at her words. “So tell me the right time and place. Because I have to see you again, Kira. I’ve tried to give you time to sort this out.”
    “I don’t need time!” she gritted out. “I just need you to leave me the hell alone.”
    “Why? Because with me you discovered what it meant to be a woman, a real woman? Because of what we shared?” he asked angrily, hands gripping her shoulders. “Don’t you understand how special that was? How special it still is between us?”
    “Well since we’re on the subject why don’t we go over exactly what we shared, Blake? It was sex, just sex,” she said coldly, glaring up at him. “We both have people in our lives who’ll be hurt if they found out how stupid we’ve been.”
    “I don’t,” Blake said promptly. “I broke up with Eve soon after the party. It was the logical thing to do. I wanted nothing standing between us once you were ready to give this thing we have a chance.”
    “We have nothing, Blake which means you shouldn’t have bothered ending things with Eve,” Kira replied. “Don’t you get it? I mean come on. Really, you and me? I guess I should be flattered that I’ve caught your fancy, but trust me, I’m not going to fall for the same trick twice. I’m fine being a one-time conquest so why don’t you take your logic and stuff it.  You’re the last man I’d ever want to be with because you’ll only be a constant reminder of how low I sunk that night!”
    Kira could see her words had chilled him but she didn’t care. She had a whole backlog of issues not just with herself but how she felt she was perceived by other people. She hated for Blake to think she was some easy lay he could now cash in on for more of the same.
    “I mean seriously, what do want from me?” she added heatedly when he didn’t speak. “Oh wait, let me guess; you suddenly have some sort of black girl fetish and I’m supposed to what, oblige