Fire & Desire (Hero Series) Read Online Free PDF Page A

dining
room indicated she was within a few feet of the door.
    As quick as a heartbeat, he gave her one last kiss on her neck and
left with a flick of his cape. Gone in an instant the way he’d come.
    “Hey, Tiff. Why are you still in here? The entertainment should
be beginning soon.”
    Josephine burst into the kitchen.
    Tiffany clamped her thighs tightly together, feeling insecure
because she was standing there with crotchless underwear.
    “Water.” Tiffany turned toward the counter and looked over at
Josephine. She could still remember the strange look that had crossed her face.
    As the fog lifted slowly from her mind, she realized how
illiterate she sounded. She covered her error by tilting the glass up to her
mouth for effect, giving herself a moment to put together at least an
elementary sentence, she finally said, “I came to get some water.”
    “Well, come on, you don’t want to miss the remainder of the show.
No telling what he’ll do next.”
    It was a good thing she hadn’t been drinking any of the water for
real; otherwise, she might have choked. She needed to get her friend out of the
kitchen before she embarrassed herself anymore than she already had. “Jo, could
you please take the ice out for me? It’s in the freezer, and I’ll be along in a
moment.”
    “Sure thing.”
    It took forever for Josephine to remove the ice from the freezer
and leave. As soon as the door swung shut behind her friend, Tiffany set the
glass on the table and ran up the backstairs to her room. She prayed all the
way that she wouldn’t see the “Black Knight.”
    Tiffany remembered making a conscious decision to get drunk with
her friends when they went out to the casinos. She was normally the one counted
on to watch out for everyone else and be the designated driver. She was
faithful, trustworthy and responsible. Tiffany Selina was guaranteed to do the
right thing.
    In one weekend, she’d put aside everything she believed in.
Suddenly, she wanted to throw-up for the second time that morning.
    The incident in the kitchen was something she had never done
before, but she could blame that on the heat of the moment. She reassured
herself, borrowing the excuse she’d heard her friends use on occasion. Even
with the marriage she could at least say she’d made a drunken mistake in the
wee hours.
    The one thing she could not forgive herself for was the fact she
had lost her virginity recklessly to a man she didn’t even know—let alone love.

Three
    Six weeks later, Tiffany found herself, once again, in the middle
of planning a wedding for a friend. Charmagne, the bride-to-be this time, was
about to marry her college sweetheart, Charles, within a month.
    “Now about the bachelorette party, what do you want to do,
Charmagne? Go on a relaxing get away at a spa resort, the country club, a
girl’s night out…” Tiffany rattled off a few ideas.
    “I want that fire fighting Black Knight,” Charmagne said from the
other end of the table.
    Josephine, at her left, said, “You’ve got to be kidding.”
    “Nope,” Charmagne responded.
    “But you passed out at Diane’s,” added Sonya from her seat to the
right. “I could just imagine what’d happened if you’re center stage.”
    “I think it’s a good idea. I’m with you, Charmagne, girl,” said
Karen, who sat between Josephine and Charmagne.
    “Any reason to party and you jump right in, don’t you, Karen?”
Veronica commented from Charmagne’s left.
    “That’s right, I sure do, Veronica. If you’d been at Diane’s and
seen that chocolate dream, you would, too.” Karen reached for a napkin on the
table and used it to fan herself.
    “As long as there’s something hanging between their legs, that’s
all you care about,” Veronica said, her disgust clear.
    “Well, what else is there, Miss Thing ?” Karen looked across
the table at Veronica.
    Josephine stood up. “Ladies, please! We aren’t getting anything
accomplished. The wedding is in a few weeks, and