Was it so wrong not to be strong all the time? To need someone now and then?
In his sleep, Cash turned on his side, opening a few inches of space on the couch. Rather than stand here and debate herself like a lunatic, Emmy shuffled over and inched her way onto the cushion. Half her butt was hanging off the edge, but if she turned to spoon against him, she was afraid she’d wake him.
So she tried to gently burrow under the sheet and against his chest.
“Mmm,” he rumbled against her. “Em?”
She froze. It was one thing to seek comfort and another thing completely to be caught doing it.
Go back to sleep, Cash.
His arm came around her, and he pulled her close, rolling to his back at the same time. Her comforter swooshed to the floor, and she ended up sprawled on top of him like a human throw just a little too short to cover him completely.
Eyes still closed, Cash spread his legs to cradle her lower body. He’d stripped down to underwear, and the hair on his legs tickled her outer thighs. She wiggled a little to settle in and rested her head on his right pectoral.
Cash made a satisfied sound and held her tighter. He smelled warm and safe.
Emmy’s body was so tired, but in a wired way that indicated she probably wouldn’t get back to sleep quickly, no matter how delicious it was to lie here with Cash.
On top of Cash.
She wiggled again and blew out a resigned breath.
“Are you hinting at something?” he asked sleepily. “Or are you just burrowing?”
“I’m sorry...” Her lips grazed his nipple and it hardened. His lower body followed suit, his cock lengthening against her. “I couldn’t sleep. I didn’t come out here to bother you.” She tried to push up and off him, but his arms were like titanium bands, keeping her bound to him.
“There’s bothering, and then there’s bothering.” Cash’s words vibrated through his chest and tickled the side of her face. “If you just want to sleep, I’m down with that. If you want something else, I will be more than accommodating.”
This time, she skimmed his nipple on purpose.
“Em…”
Then she bit him. Lightly, but her teeth were definitely involved.
The sound he made wasn’t an actual word and his hips lifted against her. His breath was choppy when he said, “But I won’t accommodate you on this couch. With all the things I want to do to you, the sheet is sure to come loose and that would definitely mean bare skin against the upholstery.”
She chuckled against his chest. “Which might require a penicillin shot.”
“Let me take you back to bed, Emmy.”
In this minute, there was nothing she wanted more. Again, she tried to lever herself off his body, but he wasn’t having any of it.
“Uh-uh. If I let go of you, I might not get you back.” In a fluid movement, he flipped her onto her back and sat up so that she was lying on his lap. He slipped his arms under her and stood.
He… What was he doing?
“Why are you carrying me like I’m someone you’re rescuing?” The feeling of being wholly supported by his strength was disconcerting. Disturbing.
Emmy paddled her legs. “Let me down.”
Her demand only encouraged him to tighten his grip and haul her closer to his chest. His very bare, very ripped chest. “Letting someone carry your load sometimes isn’t a sign of weakness.”
Ignoring the underlying meaning of his words, she nipped him on the shoulder. “Did you just insinuate that I’m a load?”
As if he was a professional on Dancing with the Stars, he transitioned her from a cradle hold to a fireman’s carry over his shoulder. “I’m about to put your smart mouth to work.” He had one arm banded around her thighs and he used his other hand to anchor her by the ass. Inside her pajama shorts.
Inside her panties.
The feel of his rough palm against her butt cheek did more to relocate the blood from Emmy’s head than her upside down position did. It all arrowed its way to settle between her thighs.
Slick and hot.
She grabbed onto Cash’s hips as he strode toward the bedroom. This close to her mouth, his perfect ass was too much to resist. So she bit him. Put a little edge into it.
“Fuck,” he grunted, his hips bucking. “Remember, I warned you.”
In the bedroom, he dipped his shoulder and rolled her onto the bed. Her breath came fast and hard even though she hadn’t been the one carrying another person.
Cash, however, stood beside the bed and gazed down at her without a hitch in his breathing. “Take off your clothes. I’m so damn tired of all the things between us.”
Emmy’s hands were unsteady as she crossed her arms over her chest and lifted the hem of her shirt to bare her breasts. And if the memory of her unsteady hands on Jesse earlier tried to invade, she drove it away. She concentrated on hooking her thumbs into her sleep shorts and panties and shimmying them down her legs.
The bedroom was mostly dark, but the glow from the Main Street streetlights seeped in around the shades. Just enough to see the color in Cash’s cheeks as he surveyed her body.
It was toned and strong, and she was proud of the tool she’d made of it. Rather than cover herself like some women might in such a vulnerable state, Emmy arched her back and opened her legs.
Cash’s hand came to the front of his boxer briefs, and he absently stroked what appeared to be a blue ribbon erection. Emmy wanted it in her mouth. Wanted to suck and lick him until he lost his mind.
He yanked down his boxers and stepped out of them.
Blue ribbon might’ve been a miscalculation. “Is there a level above first place?” she asked him.
“What? Why?”
“Because I want to pin a better-than-first-place ribbon on your penis.”
“Seriously?” He laughed. “How about hanging a medal instead? Because a pin in my dick wouldn’t exactly feel like I’d won a prize. But this…” He knelt and hooked her behind the thighs to pull her to the edge of the bed and push apart her legs. “…this is an excellent reward.”
The first touch of his tongue against her was like the shock from a lightning strike—body-shredding, breath-stealing, brain-stunning. “Oh. Ooooh…”
Cash’s skill as he destroyed her with his mouth was anything but casual and laidback. He teased and tormented her with an intensity that loosened Emmy’s knees and fogged her brain.
More, more, more.
This was what she needed. Oblivion.
With each lick, he brought her closer to the edge until she was clutching at his hair and tilting closer to his mouth. “Please,” she panted.
He gently scraped his teeth over her clit, and Emmy bowed off the bed with the extraordinary sensation. Just a little more and she would—
He backed off, taking his mouth away, and she whimpered. Actually let out a forlorn sound of loss and need. But it was quickly superseded by a gasp of surprise when he thrust two fingers inside her.
She tried to move against them, ride them to completion, but Cash clamped a hand on her hip and did some kind of Kama Sutra finger twist that sent her Flying. Falling. Screaming.
* * *
God, she was everything he remembered. More. This was what maturing from a girl to a woman did. It had made Emmy sexier, less inhibited, more demanding.
His dick was big fan. In fact, it wanted to reacquaint itself with the hot soft spot between her legs.
Instead, with her taste and scent swamping him, Cash rested his cheek against her thigh and tried not to have a heart attack. He laughed softly.
“Wh…what?”
“Just thinking you may’ve given me an MI. And if they transported me right now, they’d attribute the cardiac event to the fact that the only place on my body with blood flow is my dick.”
“You obviously have enough going to your head to form words.” She unwound her semi-painful grip on his hair and petted him clumsily. “Don’t worry. My medical opinion is that you’ll live.”
That was good, because he’d found he had a whole hell of a lot to live for.
“Come up here,” she said.
“Gotta run an errand,” he told her as he got to his feet and wobbled a little. Damn, his knees weren’t totally on board yet.
Her unbound hair flying and eyes wild with worry, Emmy reared up on the bed. “To where?”
Good. She was just as destroyed as he was. It was good not to be alone in this defenseless place. “To my wallet.”
“Oh. Thank God.”
If he tottered on his way back to her living room, no one was there to bust him on it.
You’re a goner, dude.
Yeah, like that’s a surprise.
Condom in hand, he returned to the bedroom to find Emmy sprawled where he’d left her. Her left hand was cupping a breast and her right was between her thighs, slowly stroking. Mesmerized, he stood there and simply watched.
Her fingers played a slow dance. Slide up. Dip down. Paint a tight circle around her clit.
Self-soothing and stimulating at the same time.
“Has this turned into a singles game or can we go back to doubles?” he teased.
She smiled a sleepy smile. “Depends on how good your forehand is.”
“I think I proved that when you screamed.”
“Point to you.”
Cash rolled on the condom and climbed onto the bed, straddling Emmy on his hands and knees. “You, Emmy McKay, are the sexiest woman in the world.”
He took the hand from between her legs and brought it to his mouth, sucking the taste of her from her fingers. He started to lower himself, but she braced a hand against his shoulder. “Missionary isn’t my favorite.”
He didn’t have to make a note to file that away. It immediately imprinted in his brain. “Tell me what you want.”
“How about you sit up against the headboard?”
No argument from him. He settled his back against the head of the bed and Emmy rolled over to insinuate herself between his legs. She swept her tongue up him—balls to crown—like she was catching a sweet droplet from a melting snow cone.
“Blue coconut,” he said as his dick twitched as if trying to entice its way into her mouth. Blue coconut had been her favorite.
She paused, mid tongue flick. “Oh, I like the taste of you even better. And I appreciate that you don’t melt.”
If she didn’t stop playing with him, he’d come like a fucking rocket. And he didn’t want to fade away before he made her come again. And this time, he wanted to be inside her. Wanted to feel the clench of her around his cock.
He threaded his fingers into her hair and tilted her face up. “As happy as I am to be your personal snow cone, it needs to wait. I want inside you.” That was a lie. He needed inside her. His stomach was tight with the instinct to sink inside her wet heat. To do it again and again, until neither of them could move.
Emmy seemed to instinctively understand that he wasn’t kidding. She climbed into his lap and he held his cock away from his body so she could slide down and surround him.
When he was fully seated, he clamped down on her hips to keep her in place, and Emmy’s head fell back. Her hair was a teasing curtain of softness against his thighs.
He skimmed his lips from the hollow of her throat up her neck, such a vulnerable and beautiful part of the human body. But Emmy, soft with his own scent on her skin, did him in.
“Cash.” Gently, lovingly, Emmy took his face in her hands. “This is real. This is us.”
Us. One of the most powerful two-letter words known to man. They were in this together, he and Emmy.
Her kiss was soft and erotic, with the slow play of her tongue against his. What he felt in this moment, for her, grew until it consumed him. He loved her.
Had never stopped.
But it was too soon in this fragile new relationship they were forming to admit his feelings. Doing that could scare Emmy away, and that was the absolute last thing he wanted.
So it made sense to keep his mouth busy loving her in a different way.
He bent to her breasts and sucked a nipple into his mouth. As plump as ripe blackberries and twice as sweet, her nipples became the current center of his universe. The harder he drew on her skin, the more she tried to move her hips.
She rippled around him and her hands came up to push against his shoulders for leverage. “I need…”
“I know what you need.” He pushed apart her knees and urged her to brace her feet against the headboard. The position opened her up and changed the angle to allow for deeper penetration.
Her eyes popped open at the sensation. “Holy…”
“Take me, Emmy.” What he really wanted to say was Take me again, this time as I am. But for now, her body taking his would have to do.
It didn’t take her long to establish a rhythm. The beauty of this position from Cash’s vantage point was that he could look down and see her body accepting his cock.
The most erotic game of hide-and-seek in the world.
He could watch it forever if his body wasn’t clamoring for release. With every back-and-forth motion, the friction of her slickness against him made his heart boom and his body tense.
He wrapped an arm around her back. “Lean back a little. I’ve got you.”
She did, putting the weight of her body in his control. Putting herself in his hands.
Cash licked his thumb and positioned it between their bodies and against her clitoris. Every time she rocked against him, his thumb brushed her clit until she was moaning and shaking around him.
Her rhythm lost its smoothness so he said, “Touch yourself.” He grabbed her hips and sucked the two fingers she put against his lips.
Then he watched the way she used them to form a tight vee around her clit as he lifted her up and down on his cock.
“Cash, I… oh, oh, oh fuck.”
The sexy obscenity and the haze in her eyes punched through his body, ripping through his control. When her muscles clenched around him, he let the haze take him, too.
Let the rush of what he felt for Emmy surge from him to her.
17
A part of Cash—the part of him that was still an egotistical arrogant eighteen-year-old—wanted to swagger out of Emmy’s bedroom as if what they’d just done hadn’t stripped him right down to the bone. Because if it mattered, that meant he was wide open.
Defenseless against the pain only Emmy could inflict.
But when she melted against him and rested her head on his shoulder, any thoughts of self-protection evaporated. Instead, he wrapped her up in a gentle embrace.
They were cuddling. He was a fucking goner.
“Are you the kind of guy who leaves before morning?” she asked against his neck.
With other women, he had been that guy. Something about actually sleeping with a woman gave her delusions of intimacy that even sex didn’t arouse.
“The last thing I want to do is leave you.” Hell, he didn’t know about honesty always being the best policy, but he’d didn’t have enough brain cells left to formulate a decent fib.
“I needed you to stay tonight.”
“Even though you didn’t want to need me.”
“It wasn’t about you. I handle my life. Me. But today… That’s never happened to me before.”
Whether she meant the shooting or her temporary paralysis, he wasn’t sure. Didn’t really matter. What mattered was the misery of failure woven into Emmy’s words. “None of us do this job perfectly. It’s impossible.”
“People count on us to save their lives.”
He kissed her shoulder and nuzzled her skin, warm and sweet. “You were trying to save the lives of your team.”
“Over a package of TicTacs.”
“Could’ve just as easily been a .380.” Something about her self-torment seemed over the top. Of course, they were all concerned about the kid. His shooting had been a regrettable mistake. But it had been just that.
A completely human mistake.
“Emmy, you never told me why you wanted to become a doctor,” Cash said. “Some docs I know have a skewed sense of being able to play God. Hell, I’ve had it a few times myself. There’s not much in the world that can give you the adrenaline high of stepping in between life and death and telling death to fuck off.”
Against him, she was so still and quiet, she could’ve been asleep. But a single hitch in her breath gave her away. Finally, she said, “To help people.”
His laugh held no humor. Surely she knew he wouldn’t take that for an answer. “I have a feeling that bullshit cliché wouldn’t have flown in your med school entrance interview. And it won’t fly with me now.”
“What about you?”
He sighed. If they had to play tit for tat, so be it. “Like I told you, signing on as a firefighter and an EMT was my best option without a degree. But once I went through the fire academy, I was hooked. The camaraderie at the station. The rush of trauma situations. And yeah, the opportunity to make a difference in a town that I love.”
“I loved biology.”
Yeah, he knew that. After all, she was the one who’d kept him from failing his science classes during high school. Who would’ve ever guessed that he could make his way through the rigors of fire science and one of the best paramedic programs in the country? “Dissecting a frog is a long way from resuscitating a cardiac patient.”
“I always wondered if I would’ve been able to save those frogs if I’d been around when they died. It’s all about the Golden Hour.”
Cash sincerely doubted those frogs had suffered heart attacks, and a feeling of certainty came over him. He and Emmy weren’t actually talking about formaldehyde-filled amphibians. “Who’s the frog, Em?”
“It’s not really a secret.”
“Yet you never shared it with me.”
“Some things are—were—too much for me to talk about back when we were teenagers.”
Maybe. But he had a feeling the frog was the reason Emmy had walked away from him without looking back. Instead of tensing up and letting the old resentment wash through him, Cash stayed quiet and stroked Emmy’s hair.
Tasting Fire Page 16
