Protector

by Nancy Northcott

  “You’re killing me.” Josh made it through the door of his room, laid her on the bed, and stretched out beside her with his arm under her head. “Beautiful Edie.”

  The words and the heated look that came with them had her cheeks warming and her inner muscles clenching. She caressed his jawline with her fingertips. “I’m glad you think so. I could look at you all day and night.” Tracing the line of hair down his washboard abs with her other hand, she added, “I could touch you all day and—”

  Josh’s hard, deep kiss stopped the words. His palm found her inner thigh and moved upward.

  Need rocked through her. Edie’s hips lifted toward his hand. He brushed his fingers through the curls over her sex, and the touch jolted through her body. She whimpered, arching against him.

  Edie tugged her mouth free and trailed kisses to his ear. “I’m on the pill,” she murmured.

  “Thank God.” He released the tie at her shoulder and peeled the shift down to her waist. Staring at her breasts, Josh trailed his finger around the edge of one nipple.

  He was so close but not quite where she wanted him. “Touch me, Josh.” She caught his wrist.

  He let her tug his hand over her left breast. “Perfect,” he murmured. “Just like I remembered.”

  He’d remembered. She’d thought she was the only—

  Josh closed his mouth over the taut, aching nipple. Warm and wet and velvety, his tongue stroked her sensitive flesh. Edie gasped and clutched him to her.

  Each flicking stroke shot hot echoes through her body. Writhing with pleasure and need, she choked, “Josh. Let me…”

  He raised his head, eyes gleaming with possessiveness and satisfaction that stole the little breath she’d managed to draw. “Let you what, angel?” He kissed a path into the valley between her breasts and lingered there, nibbling, while she fought to think.

  “…touch you. Please you.” She fumbled for the tie on his kilt.

  “Oh, you do.” His knee urged her thighs apart. Gently, teasingly, he ran his fingertips along her cleft. Then he did it again, harder. Deeper. Moaning, she pushed back against his hand.

  “You’re wet for me, Edie. Do you know what that does to me?”

  The tie gave at last, and it was her turn to smile. She wrapped her fingers around the hard, warm length of him.

  “Yes.” Watching his face, she squeezed.

  Josh’s body jerked. When he groaned her name, Edie’s heart soared. A tiny drop of moisture formed on the head of his cock. She rubbed it off with her thumb, then licked the droplet.

  He shuddered but slid a finger into her, stroking. “You’re so hot. So tight.”

  So his, a vague corner of her brain supplied. Before panic could set in, he added another finger and wiped all thought away.

  Her hips rocked to meet his next stroke. Taking her breast in his mouth, Josh stroked her nipple with his tongue.

  “Josh!”

  He made a wordless sound and drew more of her breast into his mouth. His thumb probed between the folds of her sex and found that most sensitive bundle of nerve endings. He rubbed it gently, all the while thrusting his fingers in and out.

  Panting, Edie clutched him to her and moved to the rhythm he set. He’d created a current, tension spiraling like a fire devil between her clit and her breasts. The spiral tightened. The need deepened.

  Then everything released in a rush.

  Edie shuddered, blind and deaf, and let the rush take her.

  Sometime later, the world came back. She opened her eyes. She was lying in Josh’s arms, and their rumpled garments were gone. Lazily, she let her hand drift down his chest, savoring the contrasts of smooth skin, sculpted muscles, and soft hair. As her hand slid down, the hair grew coarser.

  Josh’s body quivered. He pressed his lips to her forehead. Sounding slightly breathless, he asked, “Do you know how gorgeous you are when you come?”

  “Uh-uh,” she murmured against his throat. Between nips, she suggested, “Why don’t you tell me?”

  He might’ve, but she’d gripped his erection. Edie stroked it with a finger and let her hand slip lower to the soft mounds of flesh between his legs. She cupped them, and Josh let out a strangled groan.

  She kissed his chest and ran her tongue over one flat nipple. Again, his body jerked.

  “Mmmm.” Edie scraped her teeth lightly over the tiny bud. “I love touching you, Josh.”

  I love you.

  What? Edie froze. She couldn’t love him. That would be disastrous.

  “Edie?” Josh peered at her. “You okay?”

  Tonight was theirs. The morning would be whatever it was, but she wouldn’t let anything spoil this time. Edie smiled and squeezed his cock. “I’m great. But I want you, Josh. I want to taste you.”

  A teasing light gleamed in his eyes. “I submit.”

  “Damned right, flyboy.” Holding his gaze, she licked his hard shaft.

  Josh groaned. When she did it again, his body arched. His fists clenched on the sheets.

  * * *

  Edie was driving him crazy. The tiny corner of Josh’s mind still functioning realized she knew it. More, she was enjoying it.

  Worse, he was about to come in her hand.

  He drew her up and pressed her onto her back. “Tasting,” he said. “Great idea.” He swooped down to lick between her parted thighs.

  That gasp might’ve been his name, and it gave him a rush of satisfaction.

  Josh slipped his tongue between the plump folds of flesh. Edie’s body arched. Her hands caught his head, and she whimpered.

  Taking his time, he explored while Edie shivered. When he slipped his tongue into her sheath, his cock throbbed at the taste. He couldn’t wait any longer.

  He rose above her. She smiled, reaching up for him, and his heart clenched. Her hips lifted in invitation, but Josh watched her face as he settled into the cradle of her thighs.

  Slowly, he sheathed himself. Her body drew him deeper, and her smile faded, giving way to urgency.

  She was so hot and wet and tight.

  So perfect. If only—

  Don’t go there. Tonight, at least, she was his.

  He was fully sheathed. Edie trembled beneath him, her eyes hot. She wrapped her legs around his waist.

  Josh eased partway out, then slowly slid in again.

  “Yes,” Edie gasped. “Oh, yes, Josh.” She arched up against him, and her taut nipples rubbed his chest. He cupped her breast, and Edie moaned.

  Josh kissed her, fast, deep, and hard, and then rode her the same way. As they moved together, the pleasure knifed through him, and the need for it became more intense with each withdrawal.

  Her restless hands roamed his back, his ass, urging him on. She was fever in his blood. He fought to focus, to hold back so she would tip first. They were both so close to the edge. Edie was breathing fast, making sexy little whimpers. Pressure built in his groin, in his balls.

  The magic he and Edie shared vibrated with their mutual pleasure. His control fragmenting, Josh thrust hard. Edie gave a wordless cry, her body arching, and then her flesh tightened around his as she shuddered.

  “Edie!” Josh plunged into her, shaking, and spent himself.

  The next thing he knew, he was lying on top of her, still joined. Their hearts hammered in tandem, their ragged breaths mingled, and nothing in his life had ever felt so entirely right.

  He was in serious trouble.

  9

  The next night, Edie sat behind Josh on the quartz pentagon and watched the moon sink toward the horizon. When it set, she and Josh would most likely be free of each other.

  “Not long now,” he said.

  She couldn’t read his tone. They’d made love all day, but at times, she’d caught him watching her with an odd, wistful look on his face. Now he’d been very quiet for the last hour or two. “How do you feel, Josh?”

  “Good. You?”

  “Fine.”

  If he didn’t want to talk, she wouldn’t push him. Instead
, she watched the dying flames in the braziers and listened to the breeze rustling the trees and the grass.

  The moon disappeared behind the trees. An energy shift tingled over her skin as the grove’s magic faded.

  Harper strolled out of the trees. “How’s everybody feeling?”

  “Great.” Josh sounded a little too hearty. Could he also be less than entirely overjoyed at the parting to come?

  “I feel good,” Edie said.

  “Let’s do a quick exam and see what we can find.” Harper repeated his examination of their Third Eyes and pronounced them normal. “I want you to stay on the grounds until the orb is destroyed, just in case it has some kind of tie to you I’m not seeing. That’ll be around noon. In the meantime, I suggest a hearty breakfast and some sleep, especially considering you’re going back to fight the fire.”

  “Last night’s news said a hurricane might fix that for us,” Edie said. “It’s coming up the Florida coast.”

  “Not for a few days, angel.” Josh set his hand lightly at her waist. “Let’s go eat. You coming, Doc?”

  “In a minute.” Harper smiled. “I like the sunrise.”

  They left him to it and walked, hand in hand, back to the infirmary. Josh still had nothing to say.

  Edie squeezed his hand. “You know, you can go to your own quarters if you like. We have a clean bill of health.”

  “I know.” But he laced his fingers through hers.

  Whatever was bothering him, Edie didn’t figure she could pry it out. Their time together was down to hours now, maybe minutes if he chose to go home.

  They walked into the infirmary and up to the quarantine suite. Josh closed the door of the lounge softly.

  If he didn’t want to talk, so be it. Edie said, “I’m going to get a shower and—”

  The blazing passion in Josh’s eyes stole her breath. His mouth slammed down on hers, and a tidal wave of pleasure blanked Edie’s mind. When she surfaced, her back was to the door, and Josh was kissing, licking, nipping her neck with such unpredictability and intensity that she couldn’t breathe. She could only moan and sag against him.

  Josh groaned and took her mouth again. His tongue stabbed in, stroking and plundering, and need blazed through Edie’s body. She reached down and found him hard under the thin linen.

  He thrust against her hand. Covering her ear with his mouth, he breathed, “Yes. Oh, yes, angel.”

  Edie shivered with pleasure. His hands seemed to be everywhere, squeezing her buttocks, kneading her breasts, massaging between her legs.

  When she gasped his name, Josh swung her into his arms, his face still hard with passion. He carried her into her room while Edie kissed his neck and stroked his bare chest, delighting in the way his breath stuttered.

  Laying her on the bed, he untied the shoulder of her sarong. Edie caught the tie on his kilt and jerked it free.

  Then Josh’s mouth covered her nipple. She couldn’t think, could only hold him to her and writhe as he settled between her thighs. He raised his head. Looking down at her with that heated possessiveness, he drove into her with a single hard, deep stroke that shot pleasure to the top of her head.

  Edie cried out. Josh withdrew, thrust deeply again, and instinct took over. She moved with him in perfect rhythm that pushed the tension inside her ever higher, made her want more, feel more, until his final thrust exploded all that tension in a wild rush.

  * * *

  Edie awoke to the solid warmth of Josh’s body against hers. Drifting in the haze between sleep and awakening, she wished she could stay there. In a few hours, they would go back to their very separate lives. Knowing it was for the best didn’t make it easier.

  Josh sighed in her ear. His soft, tender mouth brushed her lips. She flicked her tongue against his, welcoming him, and slid her arm around his neck.

  He deepened the kiss as he rolled above her. The hard weight of his body on hers stirred awareness, pulling her closer to fully waking. Josh pressed warm, languid kisses over her face and down her neck, heating her blood.

  Edie let her hands roam his smooth, muscular back. When she parted her legs, he settled between them as though they’d shared such slow, sweet awakenings for years instead of one prior day. But they’d spent most of that day right here.

  The trail of leisurely kisses she pressed along his jaw had Josh sighing.

  He cupped her breast, and heat flashed through her. Edie gasped. Her arms tightened around him. Chuckling, Josh whispered, “Good morning, angel,” into her ear.

  “Mmm. It sure is, flyboy.”

  Edie palmed his taut ass and squeezed. Josh’s hips jerked, and his cock prodded her. Smiling, she said, “It’s a very good morning.”

  “We can make it better.” He nipped her lower lip.

  Edie flicked her tongue over his mouth. Desire flared in Josh’s eyes. His body ground at the tender spot between her legs, and he took her mouth in a deep, plundering, possessive kiss that stole her breath.

  “Edie,” he murmured, “sweet Edie.”

  Her heart twisted, so she hid her face against his shoulder and breathed in his spicy scent. Caressing the length of his back, she tried to imprint the moment on her memory. Maybe she could hold on to it until she found her forever guy.

  Josh looked down at her. Behind the tenderness in his eyes lay shadows, as though he also remembered they would return to their real lives today.

  Edie tugged his head down to kiss him. “I want you, Josh.”

  “You have me, angel.”

  For now.

  The words hovered between them, but Edie would smile even if it broke her face. This last time was not going to be marred by if only.

  Josh’s intent gaze locked with hers as his erection pressed against her cleft. Staring into his eyes, Edie lifted her hips. His flesh slid into hers with sweet, heart-wrenching ease. The darkening of his eyes and the tension in his body revealed the same pleasure she felt from having his hard, warm cock sheathed within her.

  Edie arched her back, drawing him fully inside of her. Josh let out a soft groan. He kissed her again, an intense mating of mouths that matched the mating of their bodies.

  “My angel,” he said.

  Tenderness, passion, and regret laced the words and vibrated in the magic between him and Edie. The mix of emotions threatened to crack her heart.

  She laid her palm against his cheek and stroked her thumb over his lower lip. Josh nipped her thumb.

  Watching her face, he slid partway out of her. Need spiked in Edie. Her hips rose spontaneously to meet his return thrust. Josh groaned and lowered his head beside hers.

  Back and forth they went, caught up in alternating spiral of pleasure and hot craving. Needing more, needing all of him, Edie wrapped her legs around Josh’s lean, pistoning hips and matched his rhythm. Everything in her tightened with each stroke, then tightened more with the next, until she quivered with it.

  “Josh,” she gasped, clutching him. “I need…”

  “Me, too.” The words sounded strangled. His dear, handsome face had gone taut with the passion and the need they shared.

  He gritted his teeth, and she sensed he was holding himself back by sheer willpower. Edie tightened her inner muscles, lifting so he ground against that sensitive spot.

  “Edie!” With his back arching and his head flung back, Josh plunged hard and shuddered.

  The next instant, the rush overwhelmed her, leaving Edie blind and deaf.

  Gradually, she became aware of Josh’s weight on top of her, then of his ragged breathing in her ear. His heart pounded as hard and fast as hers.

  He kissed her shoulder. “You’re amazing.”

  “No.” Edie smoothed the soft, short hair at his nape. “That would be us. Together.”

  She’d never felt so completely satisfied with anyone else. She and Josh had something special.

  Her heart clenched, but she pushed back the grief. Time for that later.

  Shifting to his side, he drew her against him. Edie l
aid her head on his shoulder and her arm across his chest. Josh kissed her temple.

  They lay quietly while their breathing settled. As soon as they left the bed, they would dress and go back to their jobs. Their idyllic time together would end.

  “Edie?”

  “Hm?”

  He waited until she pushed up to look him. His grave eyes made her stomach knot.

  Josh pushed her hair out of her face. “Are you set on staying a firefighter or becoming a smokejumper?”

  What he meant was, Would you give that up for me?

  She would, she realized, but only for a true need, not because of irrational fear. Her chest ached as she replied, “I can’t live with a double standard, Josh. You have a dangerous job, too. If I gave up firefighting, would you stop flying helicopters and stay out of combat zones?”

  He hesitated. Refusal flickered in his eyes, but he said, “Yes. I would.”

  He was trying to mean it, but that hesitation betrayed him. “Flying is part of you, Josh. You love it, just as I love firefighting. How long do you think we can be happy if we force each other into molds that don’t fit?”

  “Relationships involve compromise.”

  “Of course they do, but only when both people agree the compromise will work. I think this one would doom us.”

  His expression turned stony except for the pain in his eyes. “Okay.” Josh rolled to his feet. “Guess we should dress and go back to work.”

  “Josh, can I say something?”

  When he looked at her, his closed expression stabbed into her soul. “What is it?”

  “I don’t mean to minimize what you and your sisters went through, but you’re looking in the wrong place for the problem. The issue wasn’t your mom. It was your dad.”

  “Well, sure, but if Mom had lived—”

  “No. Plenty of single fathers raise their children alone without disintegrating. Your dad, for whatever reason, lacked the spine to manage. That’s not your mom’s fault. It’s his.”

  Josh’s body stiffened. Coldly, he said, “I don’t blame Mom for his drinking, Edie. You’re missing the point.”

  Never, ever had she wanted so badly to shake somebody. Edie clenched her fists on the sheets.