“What don’t you want me to feel?” she asked, flicking open the buttons of his shirt, one by one. “Your skin? Your desire. Your hardness.” She teased his cock with a light grind, which extracted a pent-up moan. “Your heat?”
He was so hard he hurt. He managed to brush his mouth against hers and feel her pouty lips curve into a smile.
“You smell amazing,” she whispered, inhaling, which shouldn’t have turned him on, but it cranked him higher and he started to feel rougher, less civilized.
He tried to hold on to his control even as he felt it slip.
“Your scent makes me hungry.” She breathed and she nipped his ear, which made him groan low in his throat. “And you are wearing way too many clothes.”
Her fingers deftly dealt with his last button and she tugged his shirt out of the waist of his pants and smoothed it down his shoulders but not all the way off. Instead she bunched his shirt around his forearms, trapping his hands behind his back. She nipped at his nipple and then licked it, then the other.
“You like that?” she asked.
Hell yeah!
Her nipples pebbled against his hard chest, and his mouth watered. Her aquamarine colored eyes were hot with desire, and a smile hovered on her beautiful lips.
“I want to touch you,” he said, tugging at his shirt, but she held on with a strength that surprised him. And that turned him on even fucking more.
“Ask nicely.” She looked at him from under her long thing lashes that framed her unusual eyes.
“Now.”
She twisted his shirt more, anchoring his arms more firmly behind his back so he was arched completely into her body so that her heat was against his straining pants. He wished she’d taken those off first and why the hell did she still have her bra on?
“So now what?” She quirked an eyebrow.
She might as well have pulled the pin on a grenade. He ripped out of her hold, kicked her legs apart so one of his slipped between, lodging her heat high on his thigh, and propelled her backwards, one hand cupping her tight ass, the other cupping her head as he toppled them on the bed.
His bent knee caught the bulk of his weight.
“I like that move, big shot.” She breathed, one hand stroking his jaw with a gentleness that unnerved him.
He huffed a laugh. “Big shot,” he repeated.
“Definitely big.” She settled her body more fully into his, and he had to close his eyes, and inhale deeply to try to keep himself in control.
Her hands slid down his arms, tracing his muscles and then lodged at his belt. She unbuckled it and swished it through the loops, and then ran the leather through her hands before she ran it through her teeth and bit down a little. Her eyes gleamed speculatively.
“If you snap it, I’m going to have to take evasive maneuvers.” He let his voice brush along her ear, following with a slow foray of his tongue.
“I’d like to see those,” she whispered.
“Maybe.” He kissed his way down her neck, noting what made her quiver and gasp. He kissed along her collarbone, not sure why that part of her anatomy turned him on so much, but the delicate stretch of bones, sheathed in her hard muscles and covered by her soft, warm skin was making him hard as hell and way too eager to be inside her.
“If you’re lucky.” He kissed along the line of the lace, trying to figure out where the clasp was. “If you’re good.” He circled her beaded nipple through the lace, but he wanted more. He wanted to feel her small breasts in his palms, in his mouth.
“I’m always good.” She breathed. “And plan to be lucky, but I don’t necessarily behave.”
“That makes me very happy,” he said.
Dare undid the clasp at her neck.
“That’s my job.” He caught her hand and brought it to his mouth, kissing the pads of her fingers, sucking one deep in his mouth. She arched and breathed out his name.
He imagined that he could see her eyes darken even in the dim light from the city percolating through the one window. But he needed to see more. He reached out and turned on the light, on the dimmest setting and then after looking around, threw her dress over the lamp shade, casting the room in a soft moody blue.
“Lock.” She reached for his pants. He caught her hands. He wanted to make their first time last. He wanted it to not be their only time.
And why was he thinking like that?
“Look at you, getting all romantic,” she teased, rolling on her side to face him as he sat back down on the bed. “And still half dressed.”
“Where’s the fire? I’m in no rush.” He let his fingers play in her silky shorn hair. He liked the way it was longer on top, falling onto her forehead, yet shorter on the sides and back like she hadn’t quite decided if she was ready to grow it out or not.
“Oh, there’s definitely a fire. And I won’t make any puns about burning or hoses if you don’t.”
“Deal.”
Her eyes closed and she hummed as his fingers stroked through her hair and then down her back even as he leaned in to tease her lips with small kisses that included nips and a sensual exploration with his tongue.
“Your hair is like silk just like your skin. I don’t know where to touch first,” he confessed against her mouth.
“Your choice.” She hissed as his lips and tongue traced along the flame tattoo that licked up toward one breast.
“You are so beautiful,” he said. “And your art work...” His fingers traced along the flames with reverence, avoiding the new motto with the protective clear tape on it. “I can’t stop touching. I’m addicted.” He grinned at her, embarrassed by his fascination, and trying to tamp down his desire.
“You can touch,” she said softly taking his hand. “All of me, but you have to share.”
She pulled off his pants and then looked at his boxers. “I figured you for a commando type.”
He laughed, a little shocked, wondering how that would go over at the fire station, but for her he’d do it, and he hoped like hell he had another shot with her. “I was going to a memorial service.”
“That would have made it even sexier.”
She brought his hand to her core and he could feel all her hot silky wet heat. His fingers played in her slick folds, stroking around her bundle of nerves while his mouth explored her breasts until she was arching off the bed and begging.
He barely knew himself like this, but he wanted to.
Lock replaced his fingers with his mouth and Dare screamed, her fingers spearing through his hair, and he loved how she whispered his name, told him what she wanted, came apart calling out his name. Instead of catching her breath, sprawled out on the bed, Dare rolled onto her side, and stroked a finger up his thigh.
“You have some mad skills, Lock,” she said softly. “I think you’re more of a fire starter than a firefighter.”
“Just getting warmed up.” He reached for her, desperate to taste her again, to be inside her body.
She shook her finger, her soft smile wider. “Your turn.”
She leaned forward, licking across the velvety mushroom head of his straining cock, and Lock nearly came off the bed. Her tongue caught the bead of moisture and then began to explore. He stared down at her intent, sensuous face as she licked and sucking him into her mouth deeply and then more shallowly. She blew warm air on his cock, teased her lips over him, licked, sucked and kissed as if testing what made him mindless.
She looked up at him. “Tell me what rocks your world,” she said. “Show me. Don’t be shy.”
“It’s perfect,” he said honestly. “Everything about you is perfect.”
She laughed and brought him to the brink several times, backing off so he could settle. They explored each other with hands and lips and drugging kisses. Then she rolled over straddling him.
He stilled her hips, barely able to breathe. His heart was galloping faster than it had in any regatta race or firefighting situation.
“I didn’t plan on this.” He confessed, his voice thick w
ith disappointment.
“The spontaneity and surprise make the sex even better.”
“I mean I didn’t bring a condom.”
Dare leaned forward catching his lip with her teeth.
“I hope you are a better lover than a boy scout,” she said. “I’m on the pill and I always rock and roll with condoms.”
She licked his lip where she bit it, and then got off the bed, retrieved a strip of condoms from her over-night bag and returned to him. Back on top she dangled the strip of condoms above him.
“Six.” He stared at them.
“Too ambitious?” She taunted.
“Think I’m going to have to make a trip to the hotel store in a couple of hours.” He deadpanned even as he fought to keep himself in control when every nerve in his body was urging fierce and immediate action.
“No need,” she said, running her hands down his body, and angling her glistening lips so she could slide up and down him, teasing her clit with his cock.
Lock swore. “Get that fucking thing on. I have to be inside you.” He flipped her over and Dare ripped open the condom wrapper and sheathed him just before he drove inside her.
Chapter Four
Dare stood on the corner and looked up at the South Yarra Metropolitan Station Number Ten. What were the odds of that? She blew at the hair that had fallen in her eyes and turned around and looked presumably at the Yarra River. She caught her lower lip between her teeth and her heart sped up, in what could be construed as nervousness, but she wouldn’t admit to that.
She’d been in Australia for two weeks, two weeks of seeing family and then bouncing between three different metropolitan fire stations in Brisbane, all coming up with different reasons as to why a different station would be a better placement for her exchange program. Two weeks spent trying not to think about Lachlan Ryker. And not give in to regrets that she’d snuck out of the hotel room before he’d awakened.
She’d ducked out on one-night stands before far more often than she stayed, but sneaking out on Lock was the only time it had been hard, the only time she’d wanted to stay, the only time she’d regretted leaving. He’d wanted to show her a beautiful running track the next morning and then take her to brunch. And she’d wanted that time with him.
Lock had done something to her, not just in bed, but at Rosie’s and then later the way he watched her in the tattoo parlor, and with his ease eating pad Thai from her chopsticks. He’d broken something open in her chest that she had to reseal. Ryan had been her one and only. If she abandoned him, his spirit would be alone and forgotten. So she’d left.
Coward.
Only now, here she was full circle in front of South Yarra River Metropolitan Number Ten, Senior Station Officer Lachlan Ryker.
“Karma’s a bitch.”
And the butterflies in her stomach were stupid.
Dare swallowed hard. Squeezed her eyes shut, whispered her mantra that her grandfather had designed for her so long ago, “Ride the wave of dark, let it carry you up, not under. Stand up. At the crest reach up and grab your star. It’s your light.
Silly to think it still. She wasn’t that lost seventeen-year-old girl anymore. She was a woman, a smokejumper. She’d saved soldier’s lives in combat. She was strong. But it made her feel closer to her grandfather. He would have made a stand, and she would too. Lachlan Ryker was not going to say no and send her to a different station.
She squared her shoulders. Sure it would be more likely to go her way if she hadn’t bounced in bed with him and fucked her way through four condoms, but still, she couldn’t begin to regret it. Lock had been a generous and intense lover and, even now, on this hot and sunny street corner, she could feel goose bumps rise on her bare arms and her nipples pebble at the memories.
“Get a grip.” She mocked herself.
She couldn’t go in there all girly. She had to be tough. Let him know that, yeah, the sex had been fun, but that was all it had been—one night of great sex. They both knew the game. Her life was in America. Hell, she didn’t even think she’d told him she was doing an exchange program. Hopefully in Melbourne where there weren’t quite so many Knights, the senior stations officers wouldn’t be as sensitive about her family name and the investigation shrouding the legacy of Leonard Knight.
Time to roll.
Dare shouldered her overnight bag and rolled her large duffle bag across the street to the fire station. She was looking for an entrance that wasn’t one of the five large rolling doors, when the alarm went off. She jumped back well clear of the doors just as the one closest to her started to roll up. She could hear the controlled flurry of activity, an engine start, the siren, a few voices calling out. Her heart jumped. She wanted to be on that truck. Rushing into a situation that could be dangerous, deadly if she didn’t have the right skills.
She had the skills and wanted to exercise them. Prove that she belonged and didn’t deserve to be shuffled to different stations. Unwanted. Untrusted.
Dare watched the organized departure and couldn’t help but look at her watch. Less than two minutes from the first alarm to the truck’s engine firing up and begin pulling out. The driver looked at her, winked before pulling on his Oakley sunglasses. He leaned out the window and said something she didn’t quite catch.
The door started to roll down, and Dare ducked under it. Not the standard way to enter, but what the hell? She was not leaving before getting her assignment. The harder it was to get placed made her want it more. Typical.
She didn’t even get a chance to look around before she heard her name.
“Dare? What are you doing here?” Lachlan strolled over, his blue eyes alight with pleasure, surprise, and a hint of caution.
Damn, he looked good. Better than good. No wonder women crushed on firemen. Navy was definitely his color. She looked at the way his dark T-shirt stretched over the chest she had spent hours touching and kissing and, to her astonishment, sleeping draped over.
He was clearly just out of the shower, his dark hair wet and slicked back from the strong bones of his face. He buttoned his uniform shirt up and shoved it in his pants. Dare had an impulse to stop him, but quelled it. She’d snuck out of the hotel room before dawn for a reason.
“Surprise.” She strove to sound wry, or maybe it was playful, but after the runaround and rejection over the past week, she worried she sounded nervous.
God, he walked toward her like an advertisement for masculinity and sex on a stick, and that was so not what she should be thinking.
“A great one.” He grinned, and the lightness of his expression was in direct contrast to her ratcheting doubt. “I figured you’d be putting up tent pegs in Brisbane to be close to your family. I was thinking to see you again, but Logan was not going to give out your mobile, so.” He shrugged and looked at her, question in every line of his expression.
“Yeah, about that...” She wondered if she should salute and say her name and the “reporting for duty, sir” just to get this awkward moment over with. She’d seen him naked. Kissed and licked every bit of him. Why was she standing all dumb and nervous like it was the first day of high school all over again but with no Ryan to facilitate her passage?
Just then the land line rang.
He held up a hand, “Hold on a sec I have to get this. You want coffee? Water? Something to drink? We got a full kitchen upstairs.” He grabbed the phone.
“Ryker.”
Dare watched him. Turned on even as she tried to squelch it. He was a man. Handsome. Sexy. Ridiculously physically fit. But she’d been with men like him before. Only something about Lock got to her on a different level. She cared what he thought. She wanted to make him smile. She wanted to make him burn.
Dare was here. In his station. He could barely concentrate on what Avis Love, the chief administrator of Melbourne Metropolitan Fire Stations was saying. He’d been disappointed, hell, he’d had to admit it, he’d been hurt when he’d woken up and Dare had been gone. He’d also been concerned. They’d talked abou
t spending the day together. He’d known she’d have family obligations, but he couldn’t stop the ask, and she hadn’t said no, but she hadn’t said yes. Still, he’d been worried. He wanted to make sure she was okay with what they had done together. And he’d just plain wanted to see her again. He’d even checked his schedule to see if he could adjust his days off so he could cobble together enough time to stay in Brisbane a few days.
“Look, no one wants to touch this one,” Avis said, his rough voice that always sounded like he was spitting gravel, was terser than usual. “But you are the most diplomatic senior station officer I got, and you’re good with women.”
“What?” Lachlan had been watching Dare watch him, but he caught the last utterance, but could think of no reason why Avis would be calling to discuss any relationship with women he worked with. That was a total no go for him. Absolute rule.
“Your station has the largest female population. Got yourself a regular stable there.”
Lock cringed, hoping Dare hadn’t heard that reference coming from the dark ages. Since he’d taken over as senior station officer two years ago, he’d hired five women, which didn’t seem like he was going to win any awards for equality, but it was a definitely improvement from zero women on the roster. He held the phone closer to his ear, not sure where this conversation was going, and trying hard to care, but Dare was completely distracting him.
She looked beautiful and sexy. Her worn jeans clung lovingly to her long legs and the knees were worn through, as was a hole up on her thigh. Her singlet was cherry red, and she had a thin gauzy top in red, orange, cream, and brown that slid off one golden shoulder and tucked in at her narrow waist and flared at her hips allowing a glimpse of lace. He wondered if her knickers and bra were the same lacy style as the other night. If they matched. And he so should not be mentally undressing her while she stood in his station looking edible and a bit on edge.
“Damn Knights. Worst possible time.”
Lock straightened up from his lounge against the operations desk in the truck bay.
“Damn investigation,” Avis continued to gripe. “Trying to bring a good man down. Drag his legacy through all the muck caused by the damn parliament if you ask me, which they goddamn didn’t.”
Burning Both Ends Page 4
