by Jen Talty
“Smart move, since they would have found something anyway.”
He nodded as he uncorked a bottle of wine and poured two generous glasses. Harper eased into the sofa, tucking her feet under her butt.
“What was funny was that at first, they couldn’t find the records, so they were concerned I was covering up something worse,” he said, kicking his feet up on the coffee table, letting his leg roll to the side, so his skin would touch hers.
“So, are you going to tell me what happened, or continue to beat around the bush?”
He chuckled, but quickly cleared his throat. “I’ve always had a fascination with fire.” He held her stare, wanting to be able to read her reaction. Some people might not appreciate how he ended up doing what he did.
“Isn’t that true of most firefighters?” Her lips puckered over the thin rim of the wine glass. The liquid flowed into her mouth like a river of sweet raspberry chocolate.
“That and being an adrenaline junky, but my obsession caused a couple of ‘incidents.’” He used the term his mother had every time she told the story, which wasn’t often.
“Couple?” Harper asked with an arched brow.
“Like all boys, I played with matches. When I was ten, I was lighting them in the bathroom and dumping them in the waste basket and left without thinking to put water on them first.”
“That’s really stupid,” she said.
“I know that now, but I was a small child. Anyway, my parents had to redo the bathroom that year, which made my sisters royally pissed off because it took six months. But I got to meet some pretty cool firemen and from then on, I had only one goal in mind.”
“You said your twin is a firefighter. Does she have the same preoccupation with fire?”
“Oh yeah, the second major fire, she and I were in cahoots.”
“I really don’t like the sound of that.” Harper took a thick gulp.
“The first fire we set was a total accident, but we damn near blew up the science wing during my freshman year of high school.” He laughed, even though it wasn’t really funny, but reminiscing about some stupid shit back in the day often required a good chortle. “Basically, my twin and I were messing with the gas burners and melting different things, only we hadn’t paid attention to some of the chemicals, and let’s just say we’re more than lucky no one was injured except for my sister and me. We suffered some minor burns.”
“And that didn’t teach you to stop playing with fire?”
He set his feet on the floor, twisting his body to face her head on. “I’m not proud of what I did next.” He’d been mortified the second the police slapped the handcuffs on his wrists, and the shame and guilt that squeezed his heart when his twin had been shoved into the back of the police car still curdled his stomach. “A few months later, right around my fifteenth birthday, my sister and I decided to light our old treehouse on fire so we could put it out.”
“At fifteen?” Harper asked. The two words were laced with discontent.
“We really believed we knew enough about firefighting that we could control it, like an experiment, only it didn’t happen that way, and we burned down half the forever wild area behind our house.”
“Holy shit.” She pounded her chest with her fist as she coughed. “That’s a fucking big deal.”
“Handcuffs big deal,” he admitted, rubbing his wrists, remember the feel of cold metal digging into his skin. “My sister and I were given probation and five hundred hours of community service. We also had to go through a psych evaluation and mandatory counseling.”
“I’m assuming they decided you’re not a sociopath with a liking for arson.”
He’d laugh at her comment, only her sarcasm came off as though it were masking a truth. As if she believed he was the same boy who did a stupid thing.
“My sister and I learned a lot about ourselves during counseling and honestly, if we need to make lemonade out of this, it gave us both a passion for using our obsession for good. I love putting out fires, not starting them, except for during training.”
“I’m amazed the D.A. was willing to help you have your record sealed.”
“It wouldn’t have happened if my sister and I hadn’t thrived during our probation and community service. They had us working in the fire department and with EMTs. Mostly we cleaned up after them, but we developed a love and respect for the profession. If being totally honest, knowing what I know today, I think I’d still set that fire. I’m the man sitting here on your sofa because I got to see what life could be like if I continued to make stupid mistakes.”
She set her glass on the table, glancing toward the ceiling, as if it had the answers he had yet to provide.
Although, he had no idea what those questions might be.
“What are you thinking?” He took a risk and laced his fingers through hers, setting their hands on his thigh.
“I need to know if we’re going to find anything else besides what you just told me.”
“As far as my record goes, that’s it.”
She snapped her gaze to his. “There’s more?”
“If you call being suspended from school for fighting, then that’s the more. I wasn’t a perfect adolescent. I had my fair share of black eyes and trips to the principal’s office.” He let out an exasperated breath. He could understand her judging him for setting a fire. Hell, he judged himself. But he’d paid his debt, and he served his country with pride and a clean record since then.
“I’m sorry, I don’t mean to sound like a jerk, but this could potentially move you from the person of interest right to the top of the suspect list.”
“Do you honestly believe I could use a fire to kill someone in cold blood?” He yanked his hand away and abruptly stood, snagging his wine glass before it toppled to the floor.
“Did I say that? Or even imply that’s what I thought?” She glared at him. Her opaque orbs, partially covered with her eyelids, radiated the kind of hurt that fueled anger.
“No. I guess you didn’t.” He turned and stared out the window. His truck was parked across the street, right behind Declan’s sport SUV. The kitchen light glimmered, and Declan sat at the table with what looked like Becca, but Brodie couldn’t be sure from this distance.
Harper’s tender fingers curled around his biceps. Her sweet lips brushed the back of his neck. “I can’t treat you any differently than I would if I wasn’t sleeping with you.”
He took her hands and wrapped them around his middle. “I hope you don’t hug other people on any kind of list like this.”
She laughed. Finally, the tension had been cut. Not broke, but it was better than ten minutes ago. “You mentioned you might be able to get all the pertinent information for me about your arrest?”
“I can,” he said, twisting his body so his chest was against hers and his lips so close, he could taste her vanilla lip gloss.
“Any chance you could make that call now? I want to get a jump on it before Edwin goes and says shit he shouldn’t.”
“Sure.” Before he made that phone call, he wanted to make sure she still felt the same and the only way to do that, was to kiss her.
A soft moan vibrated from her mouth to his as his tongue parted her sweet lips. Her fingers dug into his back, giving his muscles a taste of what was to come.
He took her by the shoulders, stepped back, and pulled his cell from his back pocket. “Hey, Siri, call General Van Trotten, mobile.”
He tried not to smile at the wide eyes staring back, but it proved impossible. Not everyone had a General’s personal cell phone, much less the Director of the Department of Fire Protection.
He tapped the speaker so she could hear everything. He didn’t want there to be any doubt in her mind what kind of man she was sharing a bed with.
“Well, if it isn’t Brodie Welch. How the hell are you, son?”
“I’m doing okay, sir,” he said, swallowing the thick lump.
“I’d say you’re up a creek with a broken paddle,” the
General said. “I’m sitting here staring at paperwork requested from some assistant to the new Investigative Officer on your base.”
“I know,” he admitted.
“Can you tell me why an assistant is demanding I give him your sealed information and requesting it go directly to him, and not his supervisor?”
“What the hell?” Harper muttered, then quickly covered her mouth.
“General, meet the supervisor, Major Harper Dawson.”
“It’s a pleasure. I take it you don’t know of the request?” the General’s voice bellowed over the speaker.
“I was just informed, sir. My assistant said the information was on my desk, but I didn’t know he went directly to you.”
“Well, now you know,” the General said. “What would you like me to do?”
Brodie trusted his brothers, his fellow firemen like he trusted no others. But the General had his back from day one and helped make it possible for him to attend the Air Force Academy in the first place.
“Can I have a digital copy sent directly to my email?” she asked.
“Sure can. It will come with top-clearance protocol, password and encryption protection. A letter will be attached outlining under what circumstances you are allowed to divulge this information. You will have it in a couple of hours. We can’t have one of our best men’s reputation destroyed. That said, I’ve seen the evidence in the case thus far, and I understand, as I’m sure Brodie does, that you have a job to do, and you’ll do it to the best of your ability. And I’m confident that you will find the real culprit.”
“Thank you, sir,” Harper said.
“Anything else?”
“No, sir,” Brodie said. “I appreciate the time.”
“Anything for you, son. You saved my life. I owe you.”
The phone went dead.
“Holy shit. You’re the snot-nosed kid that pulled him from a burning ski lodge when he and his family were on vacation.”
Everyone knew the story, but no one knew who the seventeen-year-old boy had been that risked his own life to save that of a decorated General. Brodie never wanted to take credit, or get a medal, all he wanted to do was continue to save lives.
The General helped him do that.
Chapter 10
“You’re really one of the good guys, aren’t you?” Harper posed the sentiment as a question, but she meant it as statement of fact. Everyone had those few not so stellar moments in life. Lord knew she had her fair share of mistakes. She had no right to judge, and Brodie had paid his debt.
More importantly, he made it right by paying it forward.
“I’m not a bad one,” he said with a wink. His hands massaged her lower back as they swayed to a romantic country song that whispered through the speaker in her bedroom.
His lips brushed the side of her neck, just under her ear. She shivered.
“Are you cold?” he asked.
“Just the opposite,” she mused.
“Shall we take off all your clothes, then?”
“You don’t have to ask me twice.” She raised her shirt over her head, tossing it to the floor.
With swift hands, he unclasped her bra, letting it fall to her feet.
“One might think you’ve had some practice with that piece of fabric.” She couldn’t remember a time in her life where she felt a sense of contentment since her sister’s murder. Not even when Mozart had given her the closure the doctors told her she needed.
There was no closure when one horrific act changed the course of her life. The emptiness she felt from her sister’s murder and her father’s suicide left a burning hole in her heart, body, and soul. Nothing could ever fill it. Nothing made her feel like a whole person.
Brodie changed that. Not that he took all the loneliness away, but right now, in his arms, he helped ease the pain that haunted her entire existence.
“Not really,” he said as he traced a line with his forefinger from her chin to the center of her nonexistence cleavage, his smoldering gaze keeping her hostage. “Most of my life they scared the shit out of me. I mean, my bathroom was filled with bras, and panties, and other girly things. I swear, I went to school smelling like cucumber or coconut.”
“I bet it smelled all sorts of manly on you,” she whispered, pressing her lips against his neck, enjoying the vibration of his throaty moan. Sliding her hands under his shirt, she splayed her fingers across his tight stomach. It twitched and tensed under the slight pressure. The contrast of his soft skin and hard muscles sent her body reeling.
“If you say so.” He cupped her chin with his thumb and forefinger. “You’re a special woman, Harper Dawson.”
She opened her mouth to protest, but his kiss rendered her speechless. His tongue swirled around hers, spreading a blanket of warmth across her body like a hot shower. Her nipples puckered under his gentle touch. The room spun around them as if they were the center of the universe. Digging her fingers into his shoulder blades, she deepened the kiss, turning it to desperation, as if she’d been starved, and he were the only thing that could satisfy her hunger.
He cupped her face, and the second their lips parted, a flicker of doubt kicked into her mind.
She blinked open her eyes. “I want you to know I’m not the kind of girl that jumps into—”
He shut her up with a short kiss that ended way too soon. “I know the kind of woman you are, and I like everything about you.”
The corners of her lips curled into a half-smile. Her heart swelled as if it were pumping life into the darkness of her childhood. “Anyone ever tell you you’re the sweetest man ever?”
“You might not think that in a few minutes, because I’m done teasing you.”
She gasped and before she could catch her breath, he had her stepping out of her pants. Dropping her head back, she closed her eyes as he kissed the tops of her feet, licked her ankles, and molded her thigh muscles with his strong hands. His hot lips heated her skin. Every cell in her body exploded like a mini volcano.
He glided his fingers up the curves of her legs, gently grazing her swollen nub, making their way over her stomach. He pinched her nipples while his teeth nibbled on her earlobe.
She’d never been shy in the bedroom, or shy about her body, but she often didn’t boldly reach into a man’s pants, grabbing the length of him and holding on as if it were her lifeline. She sat on the edge of the bed, fumbling with his pants, her mouth eagerly waiting to taste him.
“Jesus,” he muttered, his fingers tangled gently in her hair.
She tasted and teased and shamelessly took what she wanted. Brodie was like no man she’d ever met before. His sculptured body was finer than any work of art, but it was the man behind the body that took Harper on a sharp turn that she’d never experienced before.
Every other road she’d been on with a man was a dead end, leading them nowhere, with nothing to look forward to except a goodbye.
The path with Brodie was lined with endless possibilities, and if she were to ever fall in love, it would be with someone like him.
“Harper,” he whispered, lifting her into his arms. “You’re making me crazy.”
“I love doing that.”
He let out a deep growl as he took one of the condoms. “This is the part where you might not think me so sweet anymore.”
“Oh, really?” God, she loved his playfulness.
A wicked smile appeared on his face. “Turn around and bend over the bed, please.”
Christ, the man said please. Could anything be sweeter?
With anyone else, she might have been slightly embarrassed as she did what he asked. Fisting the sheets, she braced herself, only she hadn’t expected to feel his soft tongue between her legs.
“Oh my God,” she said with a long moan. He kissed her body intimately, holding her stomach in one hand, caressing her ass with the other.
She’d never wanted a man more and wasn’t above begging.
“Brodie, please,” she said, her voice an octave higher than n
ormal.
“Your wish is my desire,” he whispered, bending over her and pressing his hardness against her, entering slowly, inch by inch.
Everything in the room blurred as he tortured her with unhurried strokes as if they were out for a leisurely walk.
She glanced over her shoulder. “I thought you were done teasing me?”
“You don’t like this?” he said with a wicked grin, moving his hips slightly.
In response, she rolled her hips.
His eyes rolled as his fingers dug into her hips.
She did it again.
This time he groaned as he glided his hand down her belly, his fingers barely grazing her hot nub. His thrusts, while still controlled, came at a faster pace, as did his breathing.
Clenching herself around him, she tried to hold onto her climax, savoring the build-up as he became anything but measured.
His finger rolled over her in an endless circle of pleasure.
“Harper,” he whispered in her ear.
She bit down on her lip as her climax spilled out. A wave of intense heat tinged her body from her head to her toes.
It went on and on like the ocean crashing into the beach. Every time she thought she might be able to catch her breath, another surge took her body.
It wasn’t until Brodie released his own climax with a guttural groan and collapsed on top of her did she have any reprieve. Even then, with every breath Brodie took, or even the slightest of movements, her body reacted with an aftershock.
“A man could get used to this,” he said, rolling to the side, taking her into his arms and kissing her. It was a tender kiss, filled with the promise of love.
Love.
She let out a long sigh.
She needed to dial this back a notch. Anything that moved this fast couldn’t end well, and God, she needed this to last forever.
The first night Brodie spent the night, he’d snuck out for breakfast, which he knew Harper appreciated, but he’d be damned if he didn’t get to watch her wake up.
He tucked his hands under his cheek and stared at her. Her sable hair pooled around her head. Carefully, trying not to disturb her, he brushed it back so he could see her gorgeous face.
