Burned: Black Cipher Files #3 (Black Cipher Files series) by Lisa Hughey Read Free Book Online Page B

business.”
    “Why’d you go to the beach in the middle of the night?” he rephrased the question.
    I should be protesting, asking him why he wouldn’t let my behavior go. But instead I was drawn to the mysterious depths of his ocean blue eyes. I’d left the store with him to get him away from Mama and Blue. With that accomplished, I should walk away.
    Instead I was dizzy with temptation. If I let myself go I could fall into the warmth and compassion of his gaze and he would save me like I’d saved him last night.
    But that wasn’t going to happen. It was a false sense of hope, a false sense of connection, so I brought up last night to push him away. “Why’d you go surfing in the middle of the night?”
    “Stupidity.”
    If he was embarrassed, he hid it well.
    And his honesty made me want to smile. No sugarcoating it.
    “Well, you’re welcome.” I cracked my lips up in a parody of a smile. “Nice meeting you.” And I forced myself to turn around to head back to Scents of the Sea even though I wanted to stay so badly.
    I didn’t even take one step before his fingers curled around my forearm, his hand hot through my cotton sweater. “Hey. Please don’t go.”
    I tugged discreetly at my arm. I didn’t want to cause a scene. Didn’t want to do anything that would draw attention to him, us.
    “Please,” he said again softly. The sincerity in that please had me turning around. Wishing that we’d met under different circumstances, and wishing for just a few moments that I was a ‘normal’ woman.
    “I’d really like to have tea with you.” He was just the slightest bit earnest, and he seemed to be almost as ill at ease as I was.
    “Okay.” And really, I still wasn’t convinced that he hadn’t somehow selected Mama and I. Maybe he wasn’t stalking me, but something else?
    We waited in line at the English Tea Shop. I smiled at Ernie. He and his partner, Joe, owned the little shop and were the happiest couple I knew. Mama frequently went to tradeshows with Ernie looking for little tchotchkes to stock the retail section of our store and Joe would be my backup while she was gone. “Thanks, Ernie.”
    “No problem, doll.” Ernie eyed Zeke speculatively but didn’t say anything that would embarrass me in front of him. But I could tell he was dying to quiz me. I predicted a nosy phone call in my future. And when Zeke turned around to head outside, Ernie rounded his mouth and bugged his eyes, then gave me a thumbs up.
    I flushed. This was going nowhere. It couldn’t go anywhere.
    We took our ceramic mugs to a small bistro table outside on the brick patio. A wooden pergola, with wisteria twining around the thick posts and over the slats, blocked afternoon heat on sunny days, but this morning’s fog still lingered in the cool Fall air.
    Once we sat down, I couldn’t let it rest as I analyzed his insistence and my own out of character reaction to what was in essence a mini-date. Because I didn’t date. Ever. “Why are you really here?”
    “That could be answered so many different ways.” He prevaricated. “Why am I here, as in, on the planet? Existential theory. Or why am I in California? Or why am I having tea with you?”
    “Two and three.”
    “Two. Vacation.” But I watched him and knew he was lying again. This wasn’t a guy who took vacations. He worked constantly and when he wasn’t working, if his lean fit body was any indication, he exercised. If he was on vacation, Cambria wouldn’t be his first pick, and so it probably wasn’t his choice.
    “And three?”
    “I have no damn idea why.” The truth rang in his words. I supposed I should be hurt by the fact that he wasn’t overcome with lust or dying to go out with me. But I was more relieved that he didn’t seem to have a subversive agenda. He stared down at his hands, shook his head, his blond curls bouncing with the movement. He whispered, “It’s a really bad idea, and I seem to be full of them these days.”
    “What do you