Claiming His Fire by Ellis Leigh

beasts within. My hands shook as I worked the filler into the holes, my body battling my mind. I wanted to look at Scarlett, wanted to talk to her, see her, touch her. To scale those fucking walls and get close to her. Wanted to make her see me not just as Phoenix’s friend, but as a potential suitor or mate.
    Instead, I focused on the nail and the hammer, smacking them down, banging louder and harder than was needed. She didn’t want me. If she hadn’t made that clear before, her going on a date with someone else was enough to set that burn deep. She’d chosen someone else over me, probably the Ken doll from the bar. Someone who appeared to be the exact opposite of me, with his pressed pants and collared shirts, his perfectly-in-place blond hair and his all-American look. I was a jeans and T-shirt guy, a helmet-head or windblown kind of man, one with inky black hair like my mother’s people and a slight tilt to my eyes that gave away the ancestors who came to America on a boat too many generations before me. If what she wanted was the guy from the bar, I had absolutely no shot. My chance was over before it had ever begun.
    I just wished my animal sides would get that through their heads.
    “Anytime. You know I’ll help you however I can,” Scarlett said, making my heart clench at the sound of her voice. Sweet… The kind of woman who took care of those she loved. I liked that about her, saw it as a positive trait. One I wouldn’t see directed my way…ever.
    The girls went silent as we worked, but I could feel Scarlett’s interest. She flooded me with a sense of being watched, a little heat where there should be none.
    “Shit, it’s getting late,” she said suddenly, as if she’d only just realized the time. “I should probably get back. Don’t want Doug waiting on the porch.”
    Her words slowed as she ended her sentence, her voice growing almost uncertain. Not that I was paying her all of my attention. Filling nail holes was far more vital to my sanity than figuring out why the girl may not be thrilled about going on her date. With another man. A man named Doug who wore pleated khakis to a bar and probably used more hair spray than Scarlett and her sisters combined.
    Distracted from the job at hand, I slipped, spreading wood filler across the paint above the trim. Damn it.
    “Be careful, Scar,” Phoenix said, his eyes trained on the piece of wood in front of him. “Make sure Amber knows where you are and when to expect you home.”
    I caught myself just before I nodded in agreement. She may not have wanted to be mine, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t care about her safety. I appreciated Phoenix looking out for my… For her.
    “Yeah, yeah, I know, brother dear. Constant vigilance and all that.”
    I kept my eyes on the tinted filler, totally ignoring the feel of her gaze on my back. Because I did feel it. A burning tickle, a pressure of sorts, searing me as I fought not to return it. She needed to leave. She needed to turn away and just go. She’d made her choice, and I could live with it if I didn’t have to be around her. But instead she stared at me, waiting me out it seemed, watching me for some kind of reaction. One that I refused to give her.
    “Are you leaving or did you suddenly take an interest in woodworking?” Zuri asked with a laugh. I closed my eyes as the pressure from Scarlett’s gaze slipped away, loving and hating the sense of release.
    “Sorry. Yeah, just…stuck in my head.”
    The softness of Scarlett’s tone spoke to me, forced me to turn. To seek out her eyes. To surrender. She was looking back at me, staring, her expression not at all what I’d expected. She actually looked to be in some kind of emotional pain. Sad, almost. Perhaps feeling the same pull to me as I did to her.
    “I should—” she paused, shook her head a little “—I need to go.” Her eyes flicked away and back, meeting mine for a moment that seemed to last a lifetime. God, the tug to bond with her