Ablaze (Dallas Fire & Rescue Book 2)

by Paige Tyler

  Dane moved his arm from the back of the booth, draping it across her shoulders, a smile tipping up the corners of his mouth. “Well, whatever your reasons, count me among those who are glad you did.”

  Lexi was pretty sure Dane had figured out his presence at Station 58 had been one of the factors in transferring there. She appreciated the fact he didn’t call her on it, though.

  “So, is it official?” he asked.

  She flexed her hand, squeezing his thigh. It wasn’t her fault. Thighs as muscular as Dane’s were made to be squeezed. She was certain there was a law written about that somewhere. She was still considering the wording of a law like that when she figured out that she had no idea what he’d asked her. What was official?

  “What’s that?”

  “Are we dating now?” he asked, a teasing glint in his eyes.

  “Possibly,” she said. “I suppose it depends on how well the rest of the evening goes.”

  Dane leaned in a little closer, and Lexi thought for one wild second he was going to kiss her. Instead, he grinned, flashing her those sexy dimples.

  “Then I guess I’ll have to make sure the rest of the date goes well, won’t I?” he said softly.

  With his mouth mere inches from hers, the urge to pull his head down the rest of the way for a kiss was practically impossible to resist, but, somehow, she did. “I don’t think you have to work too hard. It’s going really well so far.”

  His eyes turned molten. “And to think, it’s only getting started.”

  Lexi would have kissed him for sure then, but their server chose that exact moment to show up and ask if they wanted dessert.

  Dane didn’t take his smoldering gaze off Lexi. “I’d absolutely love dessert.”

  Butterflies fluttered in her tummy. Something told her Dane wasn’t talking about the Kahlua cake on the restaurant menu.

  Chapter Four

  DANE SIGHED AS he pulled up in front of Cowboys Red River dance hall. He would much rather have headed back to his apartment, or Lexi’s, or anyplace private enough to let them get horizontal. Hell, who was he kidding? He would have been satisfied with a broom closet big enough for the two of them to stand up in. Anywhere they could make out…and do other things.

  He told himself to behave. Tonight wasn’t about getting Lexi into bed as fast as he could. It was about showing her the best night of her life. Call it delayed gratification, but he figured that if he played his cards right, he’d be getting to spend a lot more than one night with her.

  But, damn, he was having one hell of a hard time keeping that thought locked in his head when all he really wanted to do at that moment was pull Lexi into his arms and kiss her until her dress melted off.

  Dane threw the truck in park and took a deep breath, telling his hard-on to shut up and stop trying to drive.

  He wasn’t sure what was going on with him tonight. He’d never had a problem keeping his cool around a woman. But there was something about Lexi that drove him insane. It could be the way she looked so in that sexy little black dress that showed off her legs, not to mention some seriously dangerous curves. Then again, maybe it was the tantalizing perfume she was wearing that make him want to bury his face in her long, dark hair and stay there the rest of the night.

  Hell, it might have been the casual way she’d rested her hand on his thigh back at the restaurant. At first, he wasn’t sure she’d even realized what she was doing to him. But then he’d caught the gleam in her eye as she sat there squeezing his leg in pulsing rhythm with his heartbeat. That’s when he knew Lexi was perfectly aware of how much she was turning him on. She was teasing the hell out of him, and enjoying herself as she did it.

  “I’ve been here before,” Lexi said when he opened the passenger door for her. “With the crew from my old station. They usually have great bands here.”

  He locked the truck then took her hand. “Do you like to dance?”

  She smiled. “Definitely! What about you?”

  He grinned. “I’ve been known to two-step on occasion.”

  “And is tonight one of those occasions?”

  “It is.”

  Her smile broadened. “Good. Then let’s go dance!”

  Dane chuckled as she gave his hand a tug. He was starting to wonder if she approached everything she did with as much enthusiasm as she did dancing. Of course, that immediately made him think about doing a completely different physical activity with her. His cock hardened again. Damn, he’d finally gotten the thing to behave. How the hell was he going to dance now?

  Lexi didn’t give him a chance to worry too much about it as she dragged him through the door so fast he barely had time to slow down and pay the cover charge. Once inside, Lexi made a beeline for the huge dance floor. The band on stage was playing a popular country song, and he and Lexi easily slipped into the flow of people and started two-stepping around the floor.

  He quickly figured out Lexi was one hell of a good dancer. Before long, they were scooting, spinning, and shuffling around the floor like they’d been dancing together for years. The music was too loud to even consider talking, so Dane made do with gazing into her beautiful blue eyes.

  The band played one great song after another, so he and Lexi stayed on the floor along with everyone else. Dane had no idea how long they danced, but at some point he looked up and realized the place was a lot more crowded, making it harder to get around the doughnut-shaped floor. Then the band switched gears, playing a much slower tune and calling all the couples out for a little slow dancing.

  Lexi slipped into his arms as if she belonged there, which he was beginning to think she most certainly did. He slid his right hand behind her back, pulling her close, then casually rested his palm on the upper curve of her ass, letting his fingers trace little circles on the sensitive spot right at the base of her spine. She shivered the slightest bit before resting her cheek against his chest.

  He groaned at how good Lexi felt nestled up against him, but he doubted she could hear over the music. There was no way she could miss the hard-on he sported in his jeans, though. Hell, the thing was pressing right up against her belly begging for attention. Lexi snuggled even closer, one of her hands digging into the muscles of his shoulder like she wasn’t ever going to let him move away. She didn’t have to worry about that. He wasn’t going anywhere.

  When the song came to an end—way too fast, in his opinion—Lexi tipped her head back to look up at him. Seeing the hunger in her eyes, and knowing it almost certainly matched the look in his own, Dane did the only thing he could. He dipped his head and kissed her.

  He swore he felt a spark jump between them when their lips touched. He was also pretty sure he heard Lexi moan against his mouth. Then again, that might have been him groaning. It was hard to tell.

  He buried his free hand in her hair, cradling her head as he traced his tongue around her lips. She parted them, inviting him in, and he slipped his tongue into her mouth to two-step with hers. Damn, she tasted good! It was all he could do to control himself.

  From the way Lexi was clutching the front of his shirt and kissing him back, he wasn’t the only one having problems keeping things PG-rated.

  Dane didn’t realize the band had started playing again, or that the other people on the dance floor were moving around him and Lexi like a tide until someone bumped into him. Grabbing Lexi’s hand, he led her through the crowd and off the floor. After a kiss like that, dancing was the last thing he wanted to do.

  He headed for one of the bars so they could grab a couple of drinks. Besides the fact that they had been dancing for a while and she was probably as thirsty as he was, he needed something else to focus on. If he didn’t calm down before they left, he was probably going to rush into something, and he didn’t want to do that. Not with someone this amazing.

  When he ordered two bottles of water, the bartender looked at him like he had horns growing out of his head. He guessed water wasn’t a big seller around here.

  Dane handed one to Le
xi to see her regarding him with an expression half amused, half hungry…and altogether sexy. This woman was dangerous all right.

  He drained half the bottle of water in one gulp. When he looked at Lexi again, she’d turned her attention to the mechanical bull pit set up along one of the walls near the pool tables.

  “Have you ridden the bull here before?” he asked.

  Now she was looking at him like he had horns growing out of his head. “Are you crazy? I’m a paramedic. I’ve seen people screw themselves up royally falling off a curb. There’s no way in hell you’ll get me on that thing.”

  He chuckled. “Oh, come on, it’s not that bad. They’re not nearly as hard to ride as the real thing. The operator will put the thing on slow if you tell him you’re a newbie.”

  Lexi’s eyes widened. “You’ve ridden real bulls?”

  He nodded. “I’ve ridden in quite a few rodeos, including some charity DF&R events. Trust me when I say mechanical bulls are easier.”

  She eyed the mechanical contraption doubtfully, but Dane could see curiosity warring with her better judgement.

  “I’d never be able to stay on that thing, no matter how slowly it was moving,” she said.

  He swigged some water. “If you want to give it a go, you could always ride with me.”

  Lexi blinked. “We can do that? I mean, they’d let us?”

  “Sure. They don’t care.”

  She still seemed doubtful, but finally nodded. “I’ll be mad at myself tomorrow if I don’t, so let’s do this.” She gave him a stern look. “But if we fall off and get hurt, you’re going to be the one to explain to Captain Stewart how it happened.”

  Dane chuckled. “Deal. But don’t worry. If we fall off, I’ll make sure you come down on top of me so you don’t get hurt.”

  There were three women waiting in line to ride ahead of them, but they all chickened out. For a second, Dane thought Lexi was going to bail, too, but she took a deep breath, kicked off her shoes, and stomped across the squishy mats.

  Dane handed the operator a twenty. “There’s another twenty in it if you don’t kill us.”

  The man nodded his head and tipped his beat-up cowboy hat. Dane figured that was about as good as he was going to get.

  The thing didn’t look much like a bull but more like something you’d see on a carousel—if it was a demented carousel for really disturbed kids. The body was a basic barrel shape with no legs and a barely recognizable head with floppy ears instead of horns. But there was a simple saddle to sit on, with a wide strap at the top to hold onto.

  “How the heck do I even get on this thing?” she asked, staring at the high back in alarm.

  Dane could have suggested several different ways, but finally decided to reach out and pick her up by the waist, sitting her on the forward part of the saddle.

  She smiled at him. “Thanks.”

  Lexi adjusted her dress, pulling it up a bit here and there to get comfortable, flashing a lot of thigh in the process. Damn, she had nice legs.

  Dane hopped up behind her before he could think too much about her legs—and what it would feel like if they were wrapped around him instead of a stupid fake bull. Riding a mechanical bull with a hard-on might or might not be legal in Texas—it was a weird state like that—but it wouldn’t be very comfortable.

  He reached past her hip and grabbed the strap positioned between her legs. He really had to think hard about what he was doing so the fact that his hand was inches from her pussy didn’t distract him too much.

  Wrapping his free hand around her, he pulled her even more tightly against him, which made the junction of her thighs press enticingly against the hand he was using to hold onto the strap and his hard-on nestle temptingly against her ass. The hard-on he wasn’t supposed to have at the moment—yeah, that one.

  “I think I understand why you wanted to ride this thing,” she murmured over her shoulder. “It definitely has the potential to be interesting.”

  That was an understatement if he’d ever heard one.

  “Ready?” the operator called.

  Dane nodded at the man, and the bull began to move.

  Riding a bull, whether a real one or a mechanical beast, wasn’t about guessing what the creature would do. It wasn’t even about holding on tight. It was about relaxing and feeling the flow of the movement.

  At first, Lexi was stiff as a board, trying clench her legs tight to the bull’s sides like she thought that would keep her on the thing. It wouldn’t, but she didn’t know that. Dane kept his body loose and balanced, holding on for the both of them and hoping she relaxed enough to enjoy this.

  She did, shocking him at how quickly she got into the bull’s rhythm and began moving as one with him.

  The bull operator earned his money, setting up a routine of mostly simple turns and rolling waves with enough change of direction to keep it interesting. It was the slow, ocean-like wave motion that got to Dane first, as Lexi’s ass began to move against his hard-on in the most erotic motion. There was no way Lexi wasn’t feeling the hard shaft of his cock moving against her ass, because he sure as hell was.

  Beneath the arm he had wrapped around her, Dane felt her muscles tense and relax as she began to gyrate, riding him as much as she was riding the bull. But it was when she started grinding against the hand holding the bull’s harness strap that he really lost it.

  Fortunately, the operator chose that moment for a sudden change of direction, combined with a sharp flip of the bull’s back end. The move tossed Dane right off, and he took Lexi with him.

  He twisted in the air as he fell, making sure he came down on his back with her on top of him. It wasn’t exactly the most comfortable landing in the world, especially when Lexi’s hip slammed into his stomach. But considering he ended up flat on his back with a beautiful woman sprawled across his chest, he could put up with the minor pain.

  “That was more fun that I thought it’d be,” she said in a deep, husky voice.

  He ran his hand down her back, making her arch against him like a kitty. “I don’t think I was expecting that either.”

  She leaned closer, her mouth about to come down on his when Dane noticed a pair of booted feet on the mat next to his head.

  “Y’all okay?” the mechanical bull operator asked, his voice full of concern. “Y’all need a paramedic or something?”

  Lexi smiled, her perfect, full lips only inches from his own.

  Dane chuckled. “That’s okay. I already found the only paramedic I need.”

  Chapter Five

  LEXI DIDN’T REALIZE she was still sitting in her car in the parking lot of the hospital staring off into the distance—probably with a very goofy grin on her face—until Melinda texted asking where she was. Crap, she was supposed to meet her friend for lunch fifteen minutes ago.

  It wasn’t her fault. She couldn’t be blamed for wanting to relive last night’s date with Dane. It had been pretty awesome. In fact, she was certain it was going to go down as one of the very best dates of her life. She couldn’t even say which part of the evening had been her favorite.

  Dane had picked a great place for dinner, but while the food had been amazing, the conversation had been even better. She couldn’t remember when she’d had so much fun getting to know a guy. He’d been so easy to talk to, and considering the kind of personal stuff he’d gotten into, it seemed obvious he was comfortable with her as well. If they hadn’t done anything else last night but talk, she would have been fine with that.

  But to say they had done something else last night was an understatement. The entire evening at the club had been amazing. The kiss they’d shared on the dance floor had about lit her on fire. She’d already been a little aroused from the flirting during dinner, and dancing with Dance had only gotten her hotter. If he hadn’t dragged her off the dance floor when he did, she might not have been responsible for what happened next.

  But, truthfully, as turned on as she’d gotten from that, it paled in comparison to what they�
��d done on the bull. She only prayed it didn’t show up on YouTube because they’d come damn close to have sex right there on that mechanical testament to humanity’s lack of intelligence.

  At first, she’d been too nervous at the prospect of getting tossed off the thing to consider how sexual their position on the bull really was. But then Dane had wrapped his strong arms around her, positioning one hand between her legs while his hard cock had pressed up against her bottom. That’s when she figured out things were about to get a little naughty

  Okay, maybe a lot naughty. Without a doubt, what they’d done on that bull had been the sexiest thing ever. She hadn’t merely gotten excited, aroused, and wet as hell. If they hadn’t fallen off when they had, she was thoroughly convinced she would have climaxed at some point.

  Orgasm by mechanical bull—that would definitely have been a first for her. Okay, she was born and bred in Texas, and that still sounded wrong.

  She’d been a little dazed during the drive back to her place, but Dane hadn’t seemed to mind. He’d tugged her across the bench seat of his pickup truck and snuggled her close. That was when Lexi knew they had something really good going on. If you could sit in comfortable silence with a guy for that long and not feel the urge to fill it with meaningless chitchat, then he was definitely a keeper.

  Dane had been the perfect gentleman when they’d gotten back to her place, walking Lexi all the way to her apartment and making sure she got in okay. While he’d been telling her he had a great time and was looking forward to going out with her again, she’d pulled him inside for a good night kiss. No way in hell was she letting him get away without one—not after he’d gotten her so fired up.

  That good night kiss had turned into a twenty minute make out session against the wall by the front door, and it had taken all her control to keep from dragging him off to her bedroom. The man could kiss like nobody’s business!

  Before he’d left, they’d set up another date for Sunday, their next day off. Lexi had to work hard to convince herself she could hold out that long. Yeah, she’d see him at work on Saturday, but that was different. At work, she’d have to be on her best behavior. That mean no kissing on top of the fire truck—or anywhere else for that matter.