OPERATION: DATE ESCAPE

by Lindsey Brookes

  “My picture?”

  “You know. The one they ran in the newspaper after Cole rescued you from that tree.”

  Cole rolled his eyes. Just what she needed to be reminded of.

  Maggie nodded. “And you’re a lot more down to earth than those other women─”

  “Will you look at the time,” Cole blurted out, cutting her off. “We’ve really got to get going.” With a quick goodbye to his friends, he hurried Kelsie away toward the open gate.

  “Other women?”

  Maggie was about the sweetest woman he had ever known, but she had a bad habit of blurting out whatever came to mind without thinking it through first.

  He glanced her way with a grin. “Jealous, doll?”

  Oh, was she ever, Kelsie thought. She hated the thought of Cole being with another woman. Not that she had any right to feel that way. They weren’t in a relationship. More her doing than his. But the thought of committing herself to one person, putting her heart out there to possibly be broken again, was terrifying. She couldn’t help but think of the old saying ‘too good to be true’. What if Cole really was just that?

  “You’ve got that look again.”

  Distracted from her thoughts she looked up at him. “What?”

  “That ‘I’m ready to run for the hills’ look. Should I change into my running shoes?”

  She laughed softly. “I promise I have no thoughts of running anywhere. Except to your bed.”

  He gave a low growl. “Good. Come on, I’ll walk you to your car.”

  She pulled her keys from the pocket of her shorts and unlocked her driver’s side door. “I’ll follow you back to your place.”

  He nodded and then opened the door for her. “Just so you know, there weren’t that many.”

  She looked up at him as she settled behind the wheel. “That many?”

  “Women.”

  “Oh.”

  He closed the door and then leaned in through the open window, resting his arms on the door frame. “I promise you there’s nothing for you to be jealous about. None of those women even came close to making me feel the way you do.”

  She smiled. “Are we talking in bed or out?”

  “Both.”

  “Race you home.”

  “You’re on.” He stepped away from her door and with a sexy grin took off in a sprint for his truck.

  Heart racing wildly, she pulled away. Not only had she and Cole slipped away from his company picnic to go back to his place and have ‘hot, incredible’ sex, but he had just worked his way a little deeper into her heart and she wasn’t running.

  Halfway back to his place, he passed her in his truck, grinning as he did so. There was no denying the hunger she saw there. The same hunger that had her counting down the streets to Cole’s house. To Cole’s bed.

  He turned into his driveway and pulled into the garage even as the door was still lifting, giving her room to park in the drive behind him.

  “I hear there’s a party happening here,” she said to him as she stepped from her car.

  He gave a deep, husky chuckle, eyeing her up as he did so. “You’ve come to the right place.”

  “What kind of party is it?” she asked with playful innocence.

  “Pajama.”

  Excitement moved through her, making her body tingle. “Sounds like fun. Only problem is I left my P.J.’s at home.”

  They stepped up onto the porch. “No problem,” he said as he unlocked the door. He motioned her inside. “You wouldn’t have had them on very long anyway.”

  “Promises. Promises,” she tossed back as she stepped past him into the kitchen.

  “I’ll show you promises.” Closing the door behind them, he pulled her into his arms, capturing her mouth beneath his own in a hungry kiss.

  She sank into him, the soft curves of her body molding against his much harder ones. A body toned from years of the physical demand that came along with being a firefighter. Her fingers threaded through his dark hair and then slid down the back of the dark gray t-shirt that clung to his muscular back.

  They moved through the kitchen, peeling away each other’s clothes on their way back to his bedroom. Lips and hands connecting with heated flesh.

  “I never realized this hall was so damn long,” Cole complained as he kicked free of his shorts.

  “Too long,” she replied in a breathy groan as her shorts joined his on the floor.

  He stopped and turned, pinning her against the hallway wall. His dark eyes sought hers as his fingers moved to tangle through her hair. Their labored breaths echoed in the confined space. With a coaxing tug, he tilted her face up to his.

  “Cole,” she whimpered, wetting her lips in anticipation of what was yet to come if the heated look in his eyes was any indication.

  His gaze settled on her lips as if he wanted to devour them. Then, he did. He captured her mouth beneath his in a frenzied kiss that nearly took her breath away.

  “I can’t get enough of you,” he muttered against her parted lips and then kissed his way along her jaw and down the curve of her neck to the sensitive flesh at the top of a bare shoulder.

  She knew the feeling. Tipping her head back with a soft moan, she urged his mouth to continue its sensual assault.

  He did, moving lower to tease the tip of an aching breast.

  She clutched at his head, gasping with pleasure as he took more of her breast into the heat of his mouth.

  “Mmm…” he murmured, urging her legs apart with an impatient knee until she was imprisoned there between the wall and his hard, naked body. Then his large hand slid down her bare leg to the back of her knee, lifting it.

  She looked down, watching as Cole’s long fingers eased beneath the slender strap of her leather sandal, pushing it down over her heel. The shoe clattered onto the hardwood floor below.

  Closing her eyes, she enjoyed the sensation created by the friction of flesh against flesh as her freshly shaven leg slid down his muscular thigh. Thank God she had shaved.

  Her bare foot had barely touched the floor before he was reaching for her other leg, his knee still planted firmly between her parted thighs. Liquid heat pooled, dampening the crotch of her silken panties.

  “Cole,” she pleaded, needing him inside her.

  “Sorry, doll,” came his husky reply. “This is my party and I get to pick the games.”

  She nodded in total compliance, more than willing to let him lead the way. “So what are we playing?”

  “A little game of Red Rover, Red Rover, Hand All Your Clothes Over.” He removed her other sandal and then ran his hand slowly up her bare thigh until he reached the lacy edge of her silken panties.

  Kelsie squirmed in need. Need for those teasing fingers to move a little to the right. To touch her and put her out of her misery. But this was Cole’s game and he wasn’t playing fair. Not in the least.

  He let his finger trail along the lace to where it cut up her thigh and then back down again, but not far enough. She moved her hips, trying to coax his hand to touch her where she needed to be touched. But that only served to up the fever that raged through her as the movement had her riding the leg planted firmly between her quivering thighs.

  “That’s it, doll,” he whispered against her ear. “You want it. Take it.” He raised his thigh a little higher until it pressed against her damp panties, giving her no choice but to finish the ride.

  She clung to his broad shoulders as the rocking rhythm of her hips increased. The cool air blowing down from an air conditioner vent above did little to ease the fire between her legs, and she was definitely on fire.

  “So much heat,” he said with a groan and then clamped onto her hips, urging her on. “Heat I’m going to bury myself in over and over.”

  Already clinging to the edge of sexual sanity, his words swept her away. Thighs clenching, she cried out, clinging to him as her body shuddered and then shuddered some more.

  He scooped her up in his strong, muscular arms. “Hang on, doll, th
is night’s only just begun.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  Cole carried her the rest of the way into his bedroom where he lowered her onto the bed. Then he stepped away.

  “Cole?”

  With a sexy smile, he shoved his black cotton fitted boxers down his legs and stepped out of them. Then he reached out to grab a condom from the nightstand. “Something I can get for you, doll?”

  “You. Now.”

  “Mmm… I like a woman who knows what she wants,” he muttered, his voice husky with desire.

  And she thought she was hot before. His words excited her. And the sight of him… Kelsie groaned softly. She couldn’t take her eyes off that hard, lean body.

  “Be right with you,” he said, tearing the foil packet open.

  She watched in eager anticipation as he worked the condom down his very impressive erection. His dark eyes reflected a hunger that had her shifting restlessly when he turned and started towards her.

  Leaning over her, he said, “These have to go.” Hooking his fingers around the sides of her panties, he slowly eased the silken material downward, intentionally taking his time.

  She lifted her hips, silently urging him to speed up the process. She needed him to make love to her and she needed him to do it now, before she had a chance to think about what it was she was doing. She just wanted to let herself go. To let herself feel again.

  But his ‘party game’ continued as he tossed her panties aside and ran his hands in an even slower caress up the inside of her bare thighs. His touch came to a stop just short of what she’d hoped was their intended destination.

  “Cole,” she whimpered. “This game of yours isn’t fair at all.”

  “But the prize is worth playing the game for.” That said, he eased her trembling thighs apart and lowered his head.

  Her soft moans filled the room as he loved her with his mouth.

  The moment release came he kissed his way up to her mouth, taking it in a frenzied kiss as he settled himself between her parted thighs.

  She dug her nails into the taut flesh of his back. “I need you. Please, Cole.”

  “I’m all yours, doll.” With that, he plunged into her welcoming warmth, his groan merging with her cry of pleasure.

  Wrapping her legs around his hips, she took all he had to give.

  Cole loved her with a passion she had never known. The kind some women searched all of their lives for and never found. His lean hips and muscular thighs work in rhythm as he sank into her and then pulled nearly all the way out. Over and over.

  Kelsie felt the pressure building inside her. Curling her fingers into the comforter beneath her, she fought to hold back her release, determined to remain caught up in the sensual fire that licked relentlessly at her flesh.

  Cole wrapped her legs around his waist and thrust deeper. Harder. Faster. His impassioned groans filling her ears. “You’re so close,” he growled. “I can feel it.”

  “Yes,” she admitted breathlessly as she clung to him, her nails digging deeper in to taut flesh of his back.

  He took her mouth in a demanding kiss, his tongue seeking hers and finding it. His breath became hers and hers his. “Come with me,” he murmured against her lips.

  She couldn’t have denied him even if she had wanted to. Passion had taken control of her body, demanding release. Crying out, she wrapped her legs tighter around his waist and lost herself to the need.

  Cole threw back his head, crying out her name as he leapt into the fire with her.

  *

  “You awake?” Cole asked softly.

  “Mmm hmm…” Kelsie murmured. “Just lying here enjoying this feeling of contentment.”

  He slipped from beneath the sheet to stand beside the bed. “Come with me.”

  “Funny, but I could have sworn I already did. Twice.”

  “It won’t be the last time,” he assured her with a chuckle as he tugged the sheet away.

  “Cole!” she shrieked, trying to drag it back up over her. Being naked in the heat of passion was one thing. Having him see her in this weak, languid state…

  Reaching for her hand, he gave it a gentle tug.

  “Where are we going?” she asked as he pulled her from the tangle of sheets.

  “You know how much we firefighters like to play with water.”

  “You’re going to take me outside and hose me down?” she asked, attempting to cover her nakedness as he led her out of the bedroom. “Because I was only fantasizing about us making love in the yard. I’m not anywhere near that sexually daring.”

  “I’m saving that for another time. Right now you and I are going to try out my shower.”

  “Together?” She knew how ridiculous the question sounded the second it left her lips, but there was no taking it back.

  He stopped in the hallway and turned to her. “Not if you don’t want to.”

  She closed her eyes with a soft sigh. “It’s not that.”

  He drew her to him and cupped her face, gently tipping it upward. “Look at me, Kelsie.”

  Slowly, she opened her eyes, meeting his gaze.

  He brushed his lips over hers in a tender kiss. “I’d never make you do anything you didn’t want to do.”

  “I know that.”

  A frown furrowed his brows as his gaze moved down the hand she had shielding her breasts. “Then talk to me, Kelsie. What’s going on in that pretty little head of yours?”

  “You know how you told me that I was the first woman you’ve ever brought to your bed?”

  He nodded. “I meant that.”

  “I know.” She knew a lot of men might lie about something like that, but not him. Kelsie bit at her lower lip, suddenly feeling awkwardly inexperienced. “I guess it’s my turn for a confession.”

  “I’m sorry?” he said, looking confused.

  “I’ve never showered with a man before.”

  “Just women?” he asked with a teasing grin.

  She pulled her hand from his and shoved lightly at his broad chest. Was this man ever serious? “You know what I mean, Cole. We’ll be naked in there together.”

  “Most people are when they shower.”

  “Is there a lot of light in your bathroom?” she asked anxiously.

  His dimple deepened as his smile widened. “I’ve got two battery operated spotlights and a utility drawer full of candles if light is what you want.”

  “No,” she gasped. “The darker the better.”

  “You want it dark?” He studied her for a long moment before asking, “Why?”

  “I…well,” she stammered nervously. “Because of my breasts.”

  “Your breasts prefer to shower in the dark?”

  She groaned. “What I’m trying to say is—”

  He pressed a finger to her lips, silencing her. “I’ve seen every inch of you. Kissed every inch of you.” He pulled her hand away, replacing it with his own as he cupped her breasts. “There isn’t a damn thing wrong with these. They’re perfectly rounded and fill my hands like they were made just for me.” His thumbs circled the taut peaks. “And the way your nipples respond to my touch…”

  “No more,” she pleaded in embarrassment. No one had ever said things like that to her.

  “I’m not sure I want to stop,” he told her. “You’re so damn adorable when you blush.”

  Moisture filled her eyes as she looked up at him. “You always know the right thing to say.” Always knew how to make her feel comfortable about her inadequacies, whether it be her small breasts or her lack of sexual experience.

  “I only speak the truth. I know I’ve said this before, but I’m going to say it again. Your ex was an ass. He had the problem, not you. How he could have had a wife as sexy as you and not have dragged you into the shower with him every night is beyond me.”

  Maybe because he was off having sex with other women.

  Oddly enough, that thought didn’t hurt her anymore. Kyle had made his bed – or in his case several – and he’d have to lie in them
. She’d moved on to a much bigger and better bed. Cole’s.

  She stepped forward until their bodies touched. “Will I get to help wash your back?” she asked as she rubbed against his growing erection.

  Cole let out a hiss. “You can wash anything your heart desires.”

  “We might be a while then.” She reached out to run her fingers down his incredibly defined abdomen, and then allowed her fingertips to travel a little lower.

  He gave a husky growl. “We aren’t even going to make it to the shower if you keep on touching me that way.” Taking her by the hand again, he led her down the hall to the bathroom.

  A moment later, they were standing beneath the pulsing spray of the shower. Wisps of steam rose up around them, adding warmth to their already heated flesh.

  Cole held out the soap. “You want to go first?”

  She took it without hesitation. “You’ll be lucky if you get it back.”

  “I’m that dirty, huh?”

  She smiled as she reached up to soap his broad shoulders. “Very, very dirty.” Her sudsy hands worked their way down his broad chest.

  He closed his eyes. “Mmm…”

  She let her hands explore, gliding over him, taking in every ridge, every contour. His body was hot and hard, his skin so surprisingly smooth beneath her questing fingertips as they moved down his lean hips to his soap up muscular thighs. She made slow, sudsy circles around the base of his straining erection.

  Cole’s head dropped back against the shower wall, his eyes squeezing shut as if in pain. But she knew better. He wanted her. Wanted this.

  “Turn around,” she demanded.

  He opened his eyes, peering at her through the water’s spray as it fell between them. “What?”

  “I need to wash your back.”

  He flashed her that sexy grin that never failed to make her pulse race and turned to face the wall. “I like this side of you.”

  “I like this side of you,” she said, running her soap-slicked hands over his muscular backside. “But I think I like this side even better. She slid her hands up and around his waist to close around his wet shaft, stroking it slowly.

  “Kelsie…” he muttered through clenched teeth. “You have to stop.”