by Anne Conley
Zane reached around and grabbed her tit, squeezing it painfully. “See what we can be together? It’s not right for you to decide just because you’re scared or whatever.” He was grunting out the words, and she was helpless to deny them.
“You’re right.” She clenched around his cock, and he groaned, his grip tightening.
“Say it again.”
“You’re right!” she yelled breathlessly as a climax ripped through her. His hand at her hips clenched and the one at her breast went down. She would have bruises. It would be lovely. She thought she heard someone calling her name but couldn’t be sure. Her limbs were jelly, and Zane’s cock was still pounding into her.
He leaned over and bit her shoulder again, soothing it with a lick. “You ignored me last night. You pretended to be asleep.” His whispered grunt was hot in her ear, sending heat flowing through her veins as her insides began to build the warmth of another climax.
“I couldn’t sleep with you there.” Lettie’s voice hitched around the words as she tried to focus on what he was saying.
“Yeah, me neither. Holding you just made me fucking horny for you, and I about died of blue balls.”
He was still pounding into her as if punishing her for ignoring him. Each stroke into her depths brought a fresh wave of sensations. He snaked a hand around to her clit and started rubbing furiously. The knocking noise became a pounding, and she knew she was hearing her name now. Zane’s too. But she didn’t care as sensations zinged around her body.
“I’m about to come. I want you right there with me.” He was louder this time, losing control as he slid in and out of her at an alarming rate.
Lettie fell apart with a loud, low moan, and three thrusts later, Zane was there too.
The pounding noise continued, followed by the scratch of a key at the lock. The key was in the drawer of the desk up front, and Lettie couldn’t figure out why in the world someone would need her so badly to search out the key when it was clear they were having sex. It wasn’t like they were being quiet about it.
“Miss Rose?” The door swung open to an irritated-looking man whose flushed face quickly turned to anger as he took in the scene. Behind him stood Zane’s friends, looking various shades of pissed off.
“Joey, what the hell?” Zane was standing in front of Lettie, blocking the strange man’s view of her while he buttoned up his pants. But Lettie’s stomach dropped as she registered who the man was, and what he’d just seen.
“Mr. Hodge,” the regional ASPCA community coordinator said as his eyes settled on Lettie with nothing short of disdain and a hint of smarmy heat. She’d met with him about the calendar, and before that, he’d been on the panel that had approved her transfer and promotion.
Her boss.
She was standing naked in front of him, and he’d undoubtedly just heard her have an orgasm.
Twice.
Fuck.
“Where are all the animals?” he asked, as if Lettie weren’t standing pantless.
She bent to pick them up and put them on, Zane still standing in front of her, still blocking her from Mr. Hodge’s view. Not like he didn’t know what they’d been doing. Everyone within a half-mile radius had probably heard them.
She was such a dumbass.
“They’re at my house. There was a wildfire, and we were all trying to get the smoke smell out before we brought them back,” Zane explained through gritted teeth, clearly uncomfortable with the situation. “We can discuss it in the front office while Lettie gets situated.”
God bless him. He was trying to help, but Mr. Hodge was oblivious—or acting like it anyway.
“No need.” Looking straight at Lettie over Zane’s shoulder, his tone turned stone cold. “You’ll get them back here and clear out. You’re fired.”
Zane stayed with Lettie and helped her clean in guilty silence. Everybody else stayed too—her friends as well as his. They were also silent, knowing the time for laughter had passed.
Then they all went to Zane’s house in a caravan and filled up their cars with dogs and cats to take them back. And that wasn’t easy.
“That one’s mine.” Zane pointed at Otis. Logan had loaded him into a cage with his brothers and sisters to take back to the shelter. Lifting an eyebrow, he opened the door to let him out.
“She’s gotten to you too, huh? You just managed to get one out of the deal?” Logan chuckled under his breath.
“I adopted him right before the fire. I’m not sure he’s taking to all his new roommates well.” Zane managed a laugh, cutting his eyes to see Lettie, who was struggling with a cage full of cats. He couldn’t even go in the cat room. He’d looked in earlier and noticed the destruction to his sheetrock. He hated redoing sheetrock.
As it was, he would be redoing a lot of the door moldings. Apparently, a dog took offense at them and wanted them all gone, as every door molding in his house had a set of teeth marks decorating the bases.
Logan continued chuckling at him, and Zane wondered at his change of mood.
“This just reminds me of a time when I was a kid and my dad bought out a nursery and filled our house and backyard with hundreds of thousands of plants. My mom did her best to kill them all, and they got into a huge fight. Not that these are plants, but it still reminds me of the same thing. Too much of something in a place where you usually only have a few is just funny to me.” Logan’s smile turned vague. “I haven’t thought of that in years,” he mused.
Zane was having a standoff with a mama Chihuahua who was guarding a litter of puppies. She must have been part Cujo. “How old were you?”
Logan shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe six or seven?” He crouched down and scooped up the mama dog effortlessly and stuck her in a smallish cage. “Grab those?” He nodded to the pile of puppies. The sound of high-pitched snarling, growling, and barking lightened everyone’s mood. Even as serious as the mama was about protecting her babies, she was cute as fuck, whether she liked it or not.
They continued until all the dogs and cats were loaded, including the massive lizard Zane hadn’t noticed in his kitchen until now, Lettie’s volunteers helping along the way. Jude and Annette were suddenly being ridiculously loving. He wouldn’t allow Annette to carry anything larger than a puppy or a cat, certainly not a kennel or a cage. After a while, she was relegated to just moving accessories out to the various waiting trucks.
Jude had just met her last fall. They hadn’t been together a year and she was already pregnant, but he was apparently happy about it. They would start a family, probably move into a house together, the works. They might even get married.
A warm flush stole over Zane, and he tamped it down. Not that he hadn’t entertained the idea of kids someday, but the idea of this house being full of children suddenly took on new meaning. He was afraid if he entertained the idea of Lettie with him and a bunch of kids, it would be more appealing than she would like. At this point anyway.
He stifled the weird feelings about Lettie and this house full of their kids that panged around in his heart along with a slight jealousy that Jude had something he didn’t. Something he hadn’t realized he wanted until now. Instead, he focused on loading up the dog food and the file boxes Lettie had thought would be damaged and got into his truck. It looked like just about everything else had been loaded. One of her volunteers had already taken a carload back, and the other two were about to leave. Lettie was right behind him with her friends.
She was silent, her face a bit ashen, and he couldn’t wait to get her alone and talk. But now wasn’t the time. He knew other stuff would happen once they were alone, and having people around for that clearly wasn’t a good thing.
Someone had loaded the crate full of cats in his truck, and the sounds of hissing, growling, meowing, and some other strange noises he didn’t realize cats were capable of filled his ears the entire dr
ive. He grumbled at them under his breath about manners and rude houseguests. Thankfully, they’d been homed in his most empty room because Lettie clearly knew what she was doing with cats. But they’d still managed to wet the floors around the baseboards, making the sheetrock easier to chew into, and one entire panel of it was ripped to shreds about four feet up, exposing wiring, insulation, and some of the plumbing for the guest bathroom. He didn’t even want to think about what exactly had wet the material—be it slobber, piss, vomit, or just a dumped-over water bowl. Either way, it was destroyed.
At the shelter, Logan was just hanging up his phone when Zane arrived. “The investigator wants to meet with us in the morning. He’s got a profile for us to look out for. It seems the wildfire this week was another arson, and he’s now convinced it’s not one of us, so he’s letting us in.” Logan rolled his eyes at that last part, but Zane knew as well as any of them that firemen were some of the biggest fire bugs out there. As much as they hated it, it was a safe bet they’d all be considered suspects in an arson investigation. That was why the investigators were part of the District Attorney’s office and not the fire department.
“Gotcha.”
“Beers afterward?”
“Probably.” Zane nodded, looking for Lettie.
He tossed his keys to Becca and went inside to find her.
“I don’t know what you’ve got going on with these muscle-bound meatheads, but it’s over now. Not you, nor them, will be allowed back on these premises after that display this morning. What the hell is this?”
Mr. Hodge stood in the middle of the front office where there was a small waiting room. Everyone helping was bringing in animal after animal, listening to Lettie’s soft, shell-shocked instructions about where to put everything, when Jude muscled in the giant cage with the iguana. The lizard clearly didn’t like being moved around so much. He was molting—huge sheets of skin coming off his body—and his tail was whipping around, slapping the sides of the cage while a low hissing sound came from the reptile.
“This is sort of a mascot for the shelter. He’s been here for years. Samson.” Lettie’s voice was low, controlled, and if Mr. Hodge knew what was good for him, he’d shut the hell up and run like the wind. But he didn’t and continued to bluster, red-faced. “And these muscle-bound meatheads are the local fire department, volunteering their time for us. If you want them to leave so badly, they may pull their involvement with the calendar, the one we’ve all been working so hard to finish, including your office. You know, the big project that was supposed to show support and community involvement. I’m not sure you really want to ditch all the progress we’ve made just because of my stupidity. I get it, I fucked up. Now I’m fired. You’ve made your point. There is absolutely no need to punish the animals for it.”
Her voice was thick, and Zane was afraid she was about to cry. Her face was bright-red and blotchy, but her strength awed him. He stood behind her in a show of support and put his hands on her shoulders. Squeezing gently to let her know he was there, he wanted to kick this guy’s ass for talking to her like this, but at the same time, he knew she had this.
Lettie didn’t wait to hear Mr. Hodge’s response. She spun away from both of them and stalked out the door to her truck, swiping her hands across her face. Zane turned back to the man and took a deep breath to regain control.
Mr. Hodge was muttering something under his breath that Zane couldn’t hear.
“Look, I know you came in on something that I’m very sorry for. But the wildfire was scary and really stressful for the animals, as well as Lettie. The smoke scared the dogs and cats, and she was trying to be a good manager, getting them out while she could.”
“Save it.” He looked Zane up and down. “I can’t say I blame you for getting a piece while you could, but she should have known better.”
Zane couldn’t help himself. He didn’t even realize he’d punched the man until the pain registered in his hand. But it felt amazing to see the blood pouring out of his nose and hear the man shrieking.
“Get the hell out of here! I’m going to sue!”
“I’ll just press charges against you for sexual harassment of my girlfriend. Those words were uncalled for, and you’re a jackass.”
Okay. He couldn’t do that, and he knew he sounded lame, but he was pissed. When Zane got pissed, he didn’t think straight. He simply reacted.
Impotently, he spun on his heels and ran straight into Jude and Annette. “Sorry, guys, I’ve got to jet before I kill this motherfucker.”
Jude nodded and clapped him on the back, promising to take care of things. Zane drove straight home, hoping that’s where he’d find Lettie.
He grabbed some burgers and went home, where he found her sweeping a pile of chewed-up debris into a trash bag.
She looked up, her hair coming undone from the ponytail she kept it in. He held up the bag, hoping to see her smile, even if it was weak.
“I brought burgers.”
Instead of smiling, she burst into tears and ran into his arms. He hated the crying part but loved how she fit in his arms, loved how she came to him for comfort, loved her.
Yup. He thought it. He did. He L-worded the hell out of this woman. Someday, he was gonna wife her too. But he would tell her all that later. Right now, she needed him.
He stroked her back and let her cry. “I’m s-sorry about your house.”
“I’m not worried about the house. My family’s in construction. They would like nothing better than a weekend all up in my business fixing it up.” He led her into his bedroom, the only room with little damage done to it. “In fact, if I have a girlfriend when they come, they’re liable to add on all sorts of shit just for you.” He chuckled as he mumbled the last line into her hair. “You need a scrapbooking room or some shit? They’ll build it on for you.”
Lettie looked up at him, alarm written all over her face. “Are we there? Did you just ask me to move in with you?” She broke out of his arms and started pacing the room, yanking out her ponytail and running her hands through her hair. Her legs were long, and her strides were huge, eating up the room like lunch. “I don’t have a job. I’d be a kept woman.” Looking at him, the alarm was not lessening. “You’d be my sugar daddy?” She dropped her gaze to the floor. “Jesus H. Christ. What the fuck would I have to do for that? I can’t do that. I’ve got to find a job. I have no qualifications if people are involved. That’s why this was so fucking perfect, and I fucked it up because of dick. Plain and simple. He dickmatized me. There’s no other explanation. And if I agree to this craziness, it’s just proof of the dickmatization.”
She was talking to herself, and Zane was fascinated by how her train of thought was working. “Um, Lettie?” She froze and looked up at him, wide-eyed, as if she’d just remembered he was there. “What’s dickmatized?”
She rolled her eyes. “Like pussy whipped … only,” she gestured to his crotch, “you know.”
“Ah …” He sat on his bed and patted the side next to him. “Come sit and eat. Explain how my dick has caused you to go stupid. ‘Cause your pussy certainly has done a number on me.” He unwrapped her burger and handed it to her. “I didn’t mean to freak you out about my family, although my mom does believe every woman needs a scrapbooking room. Why the fuck you need a whole room for that shit is beyond me, but she’s got all my sisters-in-law into it.” He unwrapped his burger to find her staring at him. “I don’t want you to move in with me unless you would like to. I’m not gonna lie, the idea has a certain appeal, but I also know you’re skittish as shit. I don’t want to run you off because I talk out of my ass. Just relax and eat. We can keep cleaning up, then we can shower, I can fuck your brains out with my dickmatization skills, and you can go home. Or stay over. Either works for me.”
God, he wanted her to stay but didn’t know how to tell her that without her freaking out even more. Zane told
himself he would wait until things calmed down. She’d just lost her job today, and this wasn’t the best time for declarations of love. The way Lettie was, she’d think it was pity speaking or some shit. He needed her to believe him.
He’d gotten her to give him a shot at something between them. Now, he would have to just prove to her he was worth a chance at something serious.
He just had no clue how to do that.
Chapter Fifteen
The fire station was old. It had been in Pamona Gulch almost since the beginning of time but had been updated and redone constantly. An old structure made of brick and stone, it was multilevel, housing the standard firepoles to get from level to level, as well as stairs for those not in a hurry. The shifts took turns cleaning and maintaining it because, for most of the firemen, it was a home away from home due to the nature of the beast. Zane had always loved his firehouse, spending as much time there as possible. But now, with Lettie at home, he had reasons to go to his house and make it a home. He could only hope, with time, she would see it that way too.
The arson investigator was there the next morning, and to Zane’s chagrin, everyone was waiting on him in the kitchen. The table was massive, and usually where they had their meetings, but with all hands on deck to hear the news the arson investigator had to impart, it was a crowded space. He squeezed in next to Jude in the corner with a muttered apology, even though he wasn’t late. The opposite end of the kitchen held a dropdown movie projector screen and the island of the space had a projector on it. Zane nodded at the inspector, who sat next to his laptop, ready and waiting.
“Let’s get started. We don’t have a lot to go on, but I do have some things to work with. Now that I’ve figured out it probably isn’t one of you guys, I’ll share.” A retired firefighter with a beer gut and a gray handlebar mustache, Steve Wells was a nice guy who played everything strictly by the book. “We’ve determined the following incidents are all the work of one person, most likely a kid between the ages of fourteen and twenty. The randomness and different methods of operation tells us these are spur-of-the-moment things, most likely when he finds himself suddenly unsupervised.” A list of addresses and pictures, most of which Zane had worked, flashed up on the screen. “All of this has been put into notebooks for you guys to look over in your downtime. I want you all familiar with what we are working with.”
