Fire Me Up

by Kimberly Kincaid

  “Now. Please, now,” she rasped, unable to throw her thoughts into anything more cohesive. But the demand between her thighs refused to loosen, every touch threatening to drive her crazier than the one before it.

  To her absolute surprise, Adrian complied, lowering her from the counter in one swift pull. She was conscious of her legs beneath her, movement down the hallway, the early-evening shadows starting to color his bedroom through the blinds, but her mind could only focus on one true thing.

  Adrian’s eyes glinted, green gray and full of desire, as he stared right into her, and Teagan wanted nothing more than to let him have her, to let him care for her and really love her.

  She knew he would never leave.

  Wordlessly, Teagan covered the small space between them, stopping only when she was less than an arm’s length away. Adrian reached for her, but she pressed a palm to his chest, her hair tumbling freely over her shoulders as she shook her head. Her heart pounded against her breastbone, but it didn’t stay her movements. Teagan reached across her hips, grasping the thin hem of her T-shirt to lift the cotton over her head and toss it to the floor. Her boots and jeans followed, and she didn’t linger for even a second as she removed the swath of white lace from her breasts or her panties from her hips.

  “I’m yours, Adrian. Don’t make me wait.”

  He stepped in toward her, guiding her back toward the bed until her legs hit the soft fall of sheets still in disarray from the night before. Teagan lay back, pulling Adrian with her, and the friction of his clothes on her bare, aching skin shot a spear of heat right to her core. He braced his frame over hers just long enough to kiss her once before descending the plumb line of her body, parting her knees with the width of his shoulders as he pulled her flush with the edge of the bed and knelt down on the floor. Hooking his fingers beneath her hips, Adrian held her against the mattress, sliding his tongue along the length of her inner thigh before hitting home.

  “Oh God.” The words erupted from Teagan’s throat on a ragged cry, and she grabbed at the loose skein of bedsheets at her side. But Adrian didn’t hold back, exploring her center with bold, sure strokes. His pleasured exhale sent a bolt of warmth over her core as he guided the cradle of her hips into a slow and steady tilt that quickly had her on the brink of release.

  Without breaking the rhythm of his movements, Adrian shifted just slightly to let his thumb glide over her folds and linger, and the combination of his mouth and hands—both working where she so desperately needed them—pushed her right over the edge. Teagan’s orgasm crashed all the way over her, and Adrian worked her through every breathless wave. Finally, he slowed his contact with her oversensitive skin, just enough to let her come back to her body before shucking his clothes with decisive intent.

  Teagan moved back over the bed, surrounding herself in the heady cinnamon scent of Adrian’s skin on the dark blue sheets. Her breath hitched and pulled at her lungs, going even tighter in her chest as Adrian angled himself against her. Nudging her thighs apart again, he divided the midline of her body, pausing for the briefest of moments to roll on a condom before covering her chest with his. The muscles in Adrian’s shoulders went taut as he bent to gather her bottom lip between his own, brushing her mouth with the wicked tip of his tongue before pulling back to look at her.

  “I’m yours right back, Red. I want you so much.”

  Teagan’s lips curled into a smile, and nothing in her life had ever felt so vital or so flawless.

  “Then take me,” she said.

  He thrust forward at the same time Teagan lowered her hand to the spot where they were so nearly joined, circling her fingers around the full length of his cock to coax him closer still. Her hand rose and fell in a sinful rhythm as she slanted her hips under his, the lust-blown ache Adrian had just eased already rebuilding between her legs. But he wasted no time answering it, thrusting hard against her palm before sinking into her heat with a groan.

  “Ah, God. So hot.” The waning sunlight filtering through the room outlined the sheer intensity on Adrian’s face as he buried himself deep in her body. Teagan’s knees listed even wider apart, wordlessly begging him to fill her again and again. Pressing forward to clasp them together from shoulder to thighs, Adrian quickened the rhythm of his hips, pinning her to the mattress with each powerful thrust.

  “Yes. Yes.” Teagan slid both palms to the tight space between her own hips and the bed, pushing herself upward to meet Adrian’s unrelenting movements. The added contact turned her ripples of pleasure into a shock wave, and oh God, how had she ever thought she’d be able to hold anything back from him?

  “Adrian, please. I—”

  All other thought scattered apart as she climaxed, hard enough to force the breath from her lungs in a keening cry. Adrian’s muscles tensed and flexed against her skin and inside her body, and she squeezed her legs around his thick waist, tipping up to eliminate any space between them even as he continued to thrust. Sound left his throat on a pleasure-soaked groan, and with one last near-punishing push, the tension in his body unraveled as he came with a shout.

  Adrian’s weight pressed against her, heated skin on skin, until both of their breathing steadied. He shifted to the center of the bed, but only enough to reclaim his own weight and tuck her back in at his side. The shadows slanting through the blinds stretched farther over the carpet, marking the minutes as they fell from the clock, and even though time was clearly passing, Teagan didn’t move.

  She wanted this moment, with Adrian’s body all warm and strong and hers, to last forever.

  Finally, when they couldn’t deny that the rest of the planet was indeed still spinning away outside Adrian’s bedroom door, Teagan slipped from the bed to gather her clothes. She felt Adrian’s eyes on her from the bed, watchful and reverent, and she pulled her T-shirt over her head before giving in to his gaze.

  “Are you hungry?” she asked with a grin, padding over to the bed on bare feet, and Adrian lifted a brow over a high-octane, sexy-as-sin smile.

  “Never thought you’d be happy to get into the kitchen,” he said, levering up to kiss her before snagging his own discarded clothing from the carpet, and oh no. She might be all boneless and borderline goofy from the pair of religious-experience orgasms he’d just given her—not to mention the I love yous behind them—but no way was Teagan going to acquiesce.

  “And I never thought you’d be happy to stay out of the kitchen.”

  She dodged the pillow Adrian winged in her direction just before impact, letting out a peal of laughter before scooping it up to throw it right back. The pillow glanced off his shoulder before falling to the bedsheets with a whump, and Adrian’s expression lit into oh really? territory.

  “You want to eat, right?” His arms threaded into a thick knot over his freshly replaced T-shirt. Menacing as he was, Teagan matched the gesture, although the ear-to-ear smile pulling at her lips probably canceled out the serious factor.

  “Sure do, Superman.”

  His rough-hewn laugh was tipped in mischief. “Then you’d better hightail it to the kitchen, before I decide not to let you.”

  Teagan weighed the odds for exactly point-four seconds before heading down the hallway, her shoulders feeling as light as they had . . . well, as far back as she could remember. Humming under her breath, she popped the refrigerator door with a soft whoosh, collecting the steaks before nudging it closed with one hip. She went through the motions of getting things prepped, and everything from washing her hands to seasoning the meat sent even more relaxation through her body and her mind.

  “So what’s this?” Adrian asked, jerking his chin at the sole grocery bag still on the counter as he moved into the kitchen to stand next to her.

  Even more warm and fuzzy bubbled up in Teagan’s chest, and God, she had it so bad. “Oh, I almost forgot! I got you a present.”

  “You did?” He stilled at the counter, his surprise evident.

  But Teagan reached into the bag with a smooth—albeit careful—swee
p of her hand. “Yup. Your place is kind of bare, so I thought you might like it. Plus, it made me think of you.”

  For a distortedly long minute, Adrian simply stared at the item cradled between her palms, finally lifting his gaze to hers.

  “You got me a cactus?”

  She blinked. “Well, yeah. You know, tough and prickly. Plus, you’re not a throw pillow kind of guy, remember?”

  Teagan took a step backward on the cool linoleum. She’d meant it as an endearment, but maybe the cactus had been a bad idea. Clearly, Adrian liked his rootless environment, with his few sparse belongings all in order and ready to go. She’d seen the little potted cactus at Joe’s Grocery and thought of him instantly, so she’d just bought it, but maybe . . .

  “You’re right, I’m not.”

  Adrian was on her then, taking the brown ceramic dish from her hands. But rather than balk or clam up his emotions, he wrapped his arms around her to pull her close.

  “I’m the kind of guy who’s in love with you. And nothing’s going to stand in the way of that. Ever.”

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Adrian sat back in the extra chair in La Dolce Vita’s small but tidy office, his chest full of yes, yes, and more yes but his gut brimming with dread. He’d gone over the impending street fair no less than a trillion times in his head, and while the plan itself was damn near flawless, there was one giant roadblock Adrian simply couldn’t avoid.

  Their success hinged on Lonnie keeping his word, and there was a zero percent chance the sleaze basket was anything other than violently untrustworthy.

  “Hey, sorry to keep you waiting. I got caught up planning specials with Bellamy. I swear that woman is a culinary tour de force,” Carly said, handing over a plate full of biscotti and a steaming mug of coffee. She plopped down into the chair behind the desk, running the flat of her palm over her belly before gesturing to the cookies in a gimmelike wave.

  “No sweat,” Adrian returned, sliding the dish to the no-man’s-land on the desk between them. “She’s come a long way in a couple of years, huh?” When he’d first laid eyes on Bellamy, she’d had damn little practice to go with her promise. But hell, if she was responsible for the perfectly golden, chocolate-studded biscotti at his elbow, she’d come even further than he’d thought.

  “I know, right? Even I have no clue how she gets her pie crust so frickin’ flawless.” Carly crunched into a cookie, making a blissed-out face before brushing the crumbs from the corners of her mouth. “So is everything okay? You sounded kind of serious on the phone.”

  “That’s because I am.” Shit. There was no way to slice this other than right down the middle, and Carly probably didn’t expect any less from him, anyway. “There’s more than just a little fund-raising going on behind this street fair at the Double Shot.”

  “There is.” Carly’s words held no hint of a question, and Adrian scraped in a deep breath. Fuck, this was going to be difficult, and more than a little dangerous. But the bottom line was that he trusted Carly, and no matter what, he had to protect Teagan if things went south.

  Even if he didn’t have a clue how to do that.

  “Yeah.” Without pause, Adrian dove into the story, giving Carly enough details to fill her in but not so many as to scare the hell out of her entirely. But from her wide-eyed, holy-shit expression as he finished twenty minutes later, he’d been only partially successful in not freaking her out.

  “Jesus, Ade,” she breathed, the words shaky. “Do you have any clue how totally dangerous this is?”

  “I wouldn’t be sitting here if I didn’t. It’s possible, maybe even probable, that once Lonnie gets his money, he’ll do like he promised and become a ghost.” After all, the best way to run a successful business—even a nefarious one—was to take your profits where you got ’em. “But I trust the guy about as far as I can throw a baby grand. I know the street fair will do its job, but . . .”

  “You don’t think Lonnie will do his,” Carly finished, and Adrian gave a shrug so tight, his shoulders might as well have been vacuum-packed.

  “I think he’s a bully. But he’s a well-armed, cagey-as-all-get-out bully, and unfortunately, he’s also not stupid. A bar like the Double Shot could launder his dirty cash from here to kingdom come. The easier he makes this, the more I’m not sure it makes sense that he’d let an opportunity like the Double Shot slip away with a simple payback.”

  Carly’s dark brows jacked downward, outlining her confusion. “I don’t get it. If Teagan’s father does pay him back, what does Lonnie have as leverage?”

  The needling disquiet that had built in his belly every time Adrian thought of Lonnie’s radio silence made a comeback tour, and he swallowed hard to keep it in check. “Not what,” Adrian said, the words grim as they stuck in his throat. “Who.”

  “You think he’d threaten Teagan to get her father to launder his gun money?” Carly gasped, her back going stick-straight and rigid against the cushions of her desk chair.

  “I don’t know,” Adrian admitted, hating the words. “Like I said, he might just take the money and go back under the filthy rock he slunk out from. But something about how hands off he’s been lately doesn’t pass the smell test, and I can’t sit back and take the risk.” His gut doubled down, the adrenaline perking in his veins just begging for an outlet. “Not with Teagan.”

  “You’re in love with her,” Carly said, her tone as unreadable as her expression. Adrian had always gone big-brother-bulldog with regard to Carly’s love life, and she returned the favor in spades. Hell, after the Becca disaster, Adrian’s current fast track to the head-over-heels routine probably had her protective hackles up.

  Nope. All the best-friend doubt on the planet wouldn’t keep him from defending the way he felt. “I know things between me and Teagan happened fast, but she’s not like Becca. She’s . . .” Gorgeous. Everything. Mine. “Different. And I can’t let anything happen to her.”

  “I know.”

  Whoa. “You do?”

  But Carly just shook her head and gave a knowing smile. “Please. We’ve had each other’s backs for a decade, gnoccone. It’s all over your face that you’re in love with her. And it’s all over hers that she’s nothing like Becca. Plus, I hate to break it to you, but I actually know a thing or two about being in love. I can call it when I see it.”

  Relief spun through Adrian’s gut, but it was short-lived. “So you know where I’m coming from, here.” He’d sworn to Teagan he’d do whatever it took to keep her safe.

  Trouble was, he had no plan for how to make that an unequivocal reality, and with the street fair happening in just five days, time was running out.

  “I do. And I agree that you need some kind of assurance if you want to keep this jackass from coming back for seconds,” Carly said. “But I have to be honest. You don’t have a lot of options, especially if you want to keep this on the down-low to avoid attracting attention from Big Ed.”

  Though the guy had backed off of Carly as promised, he’d made no bones at all about the fact that he’d still haul Adrian back upstate at the slightest whiff of impropriety.

  And damn it, Lonnie reeked like a landfill on the hottest day of July.

  “There has to be something,” Adrian grated, lowering his empty coffee mug to the desk with a hard thunk. “This dirtbag is running guns and exploiting people when they’re vulnerable, right here in Pine Mountain. He needs to go down.”

  Carly sat bolt upright, opening her mouth to speak but then clamping her lower lip between her teeth at the very last minute.

  Too late. Damage done. “What?” he asked, leaning in to search her expression for any bread crumb, however small. “Carly, if you have any ideas, I need to know. Please.”

  “Well . . .” She paused, but then muttered a curse in Italian. “Screw it, you’re not going to let up until I tell you anyway. There might be a way you can get the insurance you need to keep Teagan safe. But . . .” This time, her pause was accompanied by tears gathering in her dark eye
s. “It’s iffy, and you’d be risking everything in order to do it. And I do mean everything, Adrian.”

  But his answer had started springboarding from his mouth before Carly even finished her last sentence.

  “Done. Now tell me what you’re thinking.”

  Teagan didn’t even bother to trap her idiot grin between her lips as she double-, then triple-checked the pantry inventory on the computer in the Double Shot’s office. For the last four days, everything had been all systems go with street fair preparations, right down to the commercial-grade smokers Jesse had gone to pick up from his buddy in Riverside just this morning. With the food delivery Teagan had supervised and signed off on a few hours ago, nothing was holding them back from launching into the final countdown for the street fair, with the key to breaking Lonnie’s smarmy stranglehold so close, she could practically smell sweet freedom.

  Things couldn’t be coming together more perfectly if Teagan had scripted them line by happy-ending line.

  “Hey, boss.” Brennan stuck his head in the office doorway, shifting his weight to lean against the wooden frame. The poor guy had bent over backward for the last few weeks, running the front of the Double Shot while coordinating all the volunteers and safety specs for the street fair. No wonder he looked like he could take a load off.

  “Give me good news and I’ll give you some back,” Teagan said, her idiot grin going for maximum wattage as she waved him past the threshold.

  Brennan sank into the chair across from her, nearly black brows raised in a who-are-you-and-what-have-you-done-with-my-coworker expression. “I just got off the phone with Hunter Cortland, down at the Cold Creek Brewery. Everything he finalized with us in this morning’s meeting is a definite go, and we’re all set for that early A.M. drop-off. I take it you were able to sweet-talk the rental guy into giving us the tents early?”