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Burn Me Once
Clare Connelly
'You. Me. Sex. It’s easy.'All she has to do is not get hooked…Ally Douglas has made a deal with Ethan Ash: just sex, no strings, no for ever. All she knows about him is that he’s a world-famous rock star and absolutely gorgeous. Their sexual chemistry is instant, magnetic, and it satisfies their needs. Only now Ethan has started to break the rules—will Ally be able to stop herself from getting burned?
“You. Me. Sex. It’s easy.”
All she has to do is not get hooked...
Ally Douglas has made a deal with Ethan Ash: just sex, no strings, no forever. All she knows about him is that he’s a world-famous rock star and he’s absolutely gorgeous. Their sexual chemistry is instant and magnetic, and this arrangement satisfies their needs. Only now that Ethan has started to break the rules, will Ally be able to stop herself from getting burned?
“DARE is Harlequin’s hottest line yet. Every book should come with a free fan. I dare you to try them!”
—Tiffany Reisz, international bestselling author
CLARE CONNELLY was raised in small-town Australia amongst a family of avid readers. She spent much of her childhood up a tree, Mills & Boon book in hand. Clare is married to her own real-life hero and they live in a bungalow near the sea with their two children. She is frequently found staring into space—a sure-fire sign that she’s in the world of her characters. She has a penchant for French food and ice-cold champagne, and Mills & Boons continue to be her favourite ever books. Writing for Mills & Boon is a long-held dream. Clare can be contacted via clareconnelly.com (http://www.clareconnelly.com) or her Facebook page.
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Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
Burn Me Once
Clare Connelly
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
ISBN: 978-1-474-07120-8
BURN ME ONCE
© 2018 Clare Connelly
Published in Great Britain 2018
by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF
All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.
By payment of the required fees, you are granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right and licence to download and install this e-book on your personal computer, tablet computer, smart phone or other electronic reading device only (each a “Licensed Device”) and to access, display and read the text of this e-book on-screen on your Licensed Device. Except to the extent any of these acts shall be permitted pursuant to any mandatory provision of applicable law but no further, no part of this e-book or its text or images may be reproduced, transmitted, distributed, translated, converted or adapted for use on another file format, communicated to the public, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher.
® and ™ are trademarks owned and used by the trademark owner and/or its licensee. Trademarks marked with ® are registered with the United Kingdom Patent Office and/or the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market and in other countries.
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
For anyone who’s ever fallen hard for a muso.
And for Isaac Hanson, who was my first rockstar crush.
We’ll always have MMMBop.
Contents
Cover (#u9d2a1c15-56a6-5051-80af-2fd73813d4f7)
Back Cover Text (#u264afb06-2757-5d21-b7ce-d4a41955e64b)
About the Author (#uc5173516-d220-5896-88ba-9e19fa8af9a4)
Booklist (#u03c92df8-ec9e-579a-b5a2-0f355350670e)
Title Page (#ubea73449-fd19-59e2-966c-d43a9dbdb68d)
Copyright (#u19a07eeb-2340-5722-bda0-2217d741f747)
Dedication (#u0e8cada3-efad-52ff-a64c-056c32267a65)
PROLOGUE (#u05bf256c-d38a-5d7e-abae-fcd6080e3130)
CHAPTER ONE (#ua71b5d7a-2e95-55e4-8df5-5da0326d6787)
CHAPTER TWO (#u589d48e3-fcd5-5387-915f-515141e69122)
CHAPTER THREE (#u6cc8dcc1-bf05-5245-b6ef-4186031b5ac9)
CHAPTER FOUR (#u5c6def77-142a-5fc6-bf29-2ec9d01a118b)
CHAPTER FIVE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER SIX (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER SEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER EIGHT (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER NINE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER ELEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TWELVE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER THIRTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER FOURTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER FIFTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
Extract (#litres_trial_promo)
About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)
PROLOGUE (#ue713a764-20c5-501c-a0ed-19d3d1854161)
In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand, dare seize the fire?
—William Blake
SHE HAS GOT to be kidding me.
I stare at the screen one last time, checking that the Tweet actually exists. And there it is. One hundred and forty characters reaching through time and space to slam me hard over the head.
I’m getting married! @_TheRealTomBanks asked and obv I said yes!!! Couldn’t be happier! #soinlove #dreamsdocometrue #happyeverafter
I curl my fingers around my phone, tempted to pitch the damned thing into the street. Only the thought of the personal information I keep stored in it stops me from being so reckless. The press would have a field-day if they found my phone lying in the gutter.
How can she still screw with me even now, three months after we ‘took a break’?
Then again, isn’t this so like Sienna? Sienna who’s had six years of my life. Sienna whom I thought I loved. Sienna who is now engaged to another man.
Fractured memories of our last months together assault me from all angles; they are blades of mirrored glass, shards through my mind, tormenting me every which way, pricking me with exquisite ecstasy.
It was a nightmare.
And yet it was my life.
The nightmare has ended and I don’t know if I remember how to live.
I need a drink. And I need to get Sienna the hell out of my head once and for all. And I can think of a really good way to kill two birds with one stone.
The bar is hardly my usual scene. It’s retro, but in an authentic way, which I guess means the décor hasn’t been updated since the early nineties. There’s peeling linoleum in the corner of the bar, where I prop my arms and hunch down, not wanting to attract attention to myself.
#happyeverafter, my ass.
I order a beer, barely noticing the recognition that flickers across the guy’s face. I’m used to being recognised. So is Sienna. Which makes it even harder to believe she’s been able to keep this relationship secret. Not just from me, but the world.
A frown gravels across my jaw. No, she didn’t keep the whole thing secret. They’re friends. Just friends. She’s told me that a dozen times. And I bought it.
Was she fucking him at the same time she was me? Jesus. Was that why she ended it? She told me she needed space to figure herself out and I bought it. Space? Space?
After six years together she doesn’t even have the fucking decency to give me a heads-up that she’s with someone else?
Nausea rolls in my gut.
I don’t particularly ascribe to the rock and roll lifestyle, but tonight I want to write myself off. I want to get hammered. I want to get drunk. I want to get fall-down pissed.
I need to forget about Sienna somehow.
CHAPTER ONE (#ue713a764-20c5-501c-a0ed-19d3d1854161)
‘COME ON! IT’S the perfect opportunity to put Jeremy behind you.’
I send Eliza a look of impatience but can’t fight the ever-present swoop of shame that accompanies any mention of his name. ‘He is behind me.’
‘If that were true you wouldn’t have spent the past eight months wallowing!’
‘I am not wallowing,’ I deny, turning to Cassie pleadingly.
‘I can see why you think I’d back you up, but seriously, Ally, you have to get back out there.’
My stomach flops and my gaze wanders towards the man at the bar.
Ethan ‘rock star’ Ash. And so much hotter in real life than I could ever have imagined.
I shake my head. ‘No way. I’m not going to talk to him.’
‘Why not?’ Cassie throws a look over her shoulder, and when she looks back at us she has a pretty flush in her cheeks.
‘Because.’ I shoot them both a look they know better than to argue with. ‘Now, can we please talk about something else?’
I sip my drink, crossing my legs in the other direction, and most definitely not looking towards the bar again.
‘What’s new?’
I listen to their responses, relieved as all hell that they’ve let the matter of the smoking hot rock god drop. At least for now...
‘Drinks are empty. It’s your turn, Ally.’
I blink, drawn back into the conversation by Eliza, who is handing her glass to me. I frown. ‘Isn’t it table service?’
‘Nah. Not on a Friday.’
I grimace. ‘Remind me why we chose this place again?’
Cassie points to the sign overhead and I know what it says without even reading it: Happy Hour—9-9!
As the only one of our little trio who can afford full-price drinks in decent bars with professional wait staff, I resist the urge to complain. Besides, the place is obviously good enough for Ethan Ash. Which begs the question: what’s he doing here? He’s alone, and has been since I got here an hour earlier. Is he waiting for someone? Has he been stood up? That doesn’t make sense. Who’d stand him up?
I’m two cocktails in, so I know I have a bit of an alcohol-confident swagger as I make my way to the bar. But I’m immune to tall, dark and handsome men now—Jeremy cured me of that habit for life—so I determinedly move past him—way past, like other-planet past—choosing to prop my elbows on a spot that’s practically in the kitchen it’s so far away from him.
