Slow Burn (The Elite) by KB Winters

Author:KB Winters [Winters, KB]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: General Fiction
Publisher: BookBoyfriends Publishing LLC
Published: 2016-06-05T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fifteen

Nick

When I stepped into The Siren the following morning an unexpected face was waiting to greet me.

“Good morning, Nick,” Alesha called over to me as I hesitantly approached the counter.

“Morning. Uh, is Carly here?” I rubbed a hand over the back of my neck.

Alesha thumbed her hand over her shoulder, pointing towards the kitchen. “She’s back there. Listen…” she paused to look around the shop. I followed her nervous glance and spotted a few elderly people sitting around a table by the window, all bundled into track suits like they’d just done a power walk. “I need to tell you something.”

My eyes returned to Alesha as she leaned closer. Her cheeks flushed with a tinge of red. “I’m listening.”

“I wanted to tell you I’m sorry. You know…for what I told Carly. About you and me and the other night…”

“Aha.” I pocketed my hands and shifted my weight back into the heels of my work boots.

“Can you forgive me?” She batted her lashes and I wondered if by this point it was an automatic trick, as though she didn’t even actively think about how to look and act to get herself out of trouble, it just came naturally to her. Her lips in a pout, thick lashes fluttering, and a pleading, doe-eyed look.

“Only after you answer a question,” I replied.

Her innocent look faltered, cut through with a splash of surprise. Clearly it was one of the few times someone hadn’t crumbled before her. “Okay?”

“Why did you lie to Carly? Why did you tell her we’d messed around? Or whatever it was that you said,” I kept my voice low, not needing any further attention on the delicate conversation. “I’ve never really said much more than a few words to you and the other night, when you showed up tipsy and giggling, I told you that you needed to get your shit together and I got up and left when you tried to sit in my lap.”

They were the details that I hadn’t shared with Carly and normally wouldn’t have dragged up for Alesha, as I wasn’t one to rub someone’s face in their less than shining moments, but Alesha had pushed enough of my buttons that it was hard to keep a grasp on my anger over the entire situation. Things with Carly might be back on track, but it infuriated me that Alesha had even been able to plant such a foul seed of doubt in her mind.

And for what?

That’s what I wanted to know.

I crossed my arms, waiting for Alesha to patch together whatever story her mind was working to fabricate before my eyes. “Waiting. Just tell me the truth. Why?”

She sighed. “I was jealous. Okay? There.”

“Of what?” My eyebrows knit together. “You’re seventeen. Even if I wasn’t interested in your sister, it wasn’t like you and I would have ever been a thing. I’m a grown man. You get that, don’t you?”

She nodded, then tucked her chin and stared down at the counter. With her long, most likely fake nails, she drew a circle on the black surface.

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