The Hotter You Burn Read Online Free Page A

ingredients for a turkey sandwich.
    â€œHere,” he said.
    â€œNo, no. I couldn’t.” She backed away, though her gaze remained on the food, longing darkening in her eyes.
    â€œYou can steal my pie, but can’t accept my sandwich?”
    â€œAllegedly stole. And maybe I learned a lesson about the perils of taking from others.”
    â€œMaybe I don’t want to eat alone.” Though he’d had dinner with Tawny, he made a second sandwich. “Did you ever think of that?”
    â€œOh! In that case.” Harlow nabbed the offering so fast she probably had whiplash. At first, she tried to eat daintily, a nibble here and there, but she soon gave up the pretense and ripped into the bread with a savagery that broke his damn heart.
    Why had she stuck around Strawberry Valley so long? True, the rolling hills and colorful Main Street could have come straight out of a Thomas Kinkade portrait, and the public barbecues, block parties, swim parties, festivals and celebrations for everything from a kid’s orthodontic work to a teenager’s first date were charming enough to seduce even someone like Beck. But Harlow couldn’t support herself here, so why hadn’t she moved to the city and started fresh?
    Roots? Something he was only just beginning to understand.
    As a young kid he’d lost his mother to cancer and, soon afterward, his father to plain ole selfishness. Daddy Dearest had dropped him off with an aunt and just never come back. After Aunt Millie got tired of him, she’d passed him on to
another
family member. Rinse and repeat five times over until there was no one left, the entire lot refusing to take him in permanently. He’d become a ward of the state, shuffled from one foster home to another. While some had been nice, others had been bona fide hellholes.
    The back door opened, hinges creaking. Jase Hollister stepped into the kitchen with Brook Lynn in tow, the two pink-cheeked and breathless.
    â€œHey, man.” Jase bumped fists with Beck.
    â€œHey.”
    Jase and West had been stuck in the system with him, and they’d understood him in a way he hadn’t understood himself. They’d bonded at meeting one, and they’d become each other’s only family, sticking together through good times and bad. He loved them. Hell, he would die for them.
    Brook Lynn noticed Harlow and frowned. “What’s
she
doing here?”
    Harlow must have endured her limit of insults for the day, because she flipped her hair over her shoulder and said, “Beck saw me and chased me down. He
insisted
I spend private time with him here at the house.”
    He rubbed his fingers over his mouth to hide his grin. “This is true.”
    â€œBeck.” Brook Lynn radiated concern. “You don’t know her or the evil she’s capable of. Don’t sleep with her, please. She’s—”
    Jase spoke over his girl, saying, “This is where we part ways,” as he dragged her away.
    The past few months had softened him, the man many would call “a hardened criminal.” For once, Beck had to admit a change had been for the best.
    After Jase’s nine-year prison stint, he’d needed a fresh start in a new place. He’d picked Strawberry Valley, enamored by the wide-open spaces and community support.
    Moving with him had been a no-brainer for Beck, despite the challenges. Being without his friend for so long had been bad enough, but he and West owed Jase more than they could ever repay. And really, that debt was the reason Beck had never complained when Jase renovated the ramshackle farmhouse. The reason he grinned as his surroundings were altered bit by bit.
    â€œI should be going,” Harlow announced.
    Beck focused on her. “Nice try, honey, but we still have unfinished business. How did you get inside the house?” He hadn’t seen a single sign of forced entry. Not that he’d been paying much attention before