by Zoe York
A sizzle, a spark. She gave him a curious look. “Are you sure you want a drink?”
He wasn’t. Instead, he was thinking he wanted to fuck his former boss and current friend, and he couldn’t think of a single reason why he shouldn’t indulge that desire if she shared it. “Want to get out of here?”
A girl could lose herself in the way Adam was looking at her right now.
Did she want to get out of there?
Isla didn’t know what she wanted. But up to this point in her life, she’d been absolutely sure of some very terrible decisions, so maybe she should try something off-script.
Like kissing Adam Kincaid, a man six years younger than her.
A friend.
A bit of a wreck, or at least he had been in the past, but she was hardly one to talk.
She leaned in and pressed her lips against his. Warm, solid. Smiling. She could feel that, too, and when she lingered, he parted for her, welcoming her to taste his mouth. A lovely feeling rushed through her, an easy, low-key arousal. Like this might be what sex would be. Laid-back Adam, up for whatever she wanted.
She crowded closer and wrapped her arms around his neck. His hands skated up and down her back, playing with the nerve endings there, before settling low on her hips and tugging her pelvis up against his.
Oh, hello there. She gasped at the happy press of his erection against her mound.
“No pressure,” he whispered against her mouth. “But if you want to have some fun…it’s been a while for me, and I’m feeling in a celebratory mood.”
She pulled back, her breasts brushing against his chest before an inch of space appeared between their upper bodies.
Adam grinned at her and rolled his hips. “Or we can stay and dance like this for a while. Whatever you want.”
“I didn’t see this coming.” She leaned in for another kiss. “It’s nice.”
He caught her lower lip gently in his teeth, then released. “Nice?”
She laughed.
He spun her around.
“Is that okay? I could use some nice right now.” She whispered the words against his neck as she squeezed him tight.
He cupped the back of her head with one of his hands, big and warm and comforting. “Your wish is my command.”
“Where do you want to go?”
He pulled out his phone. “Let’s see what hotels around here have vacancies.”
A wild thrill danced up her spine. A one-night stand in a hotel room. Booked last minute. Could they be more obvious? She loved it. “Splurge on a nice room. My treat.”
“You got dinner.” He kissed her again. “This is my treat.”
She opened her mouth to protest, then changed her mind and pressed her lips to the corded muscles of his neck instead.
Adam tasted good. A little bit of salt, a lot of warm man. It had been too long, clearly, because she was suddenly ravenous to devour more of him.
He groaned and yanked her tight against his body. “Give me a second. Okay, got it.” He kissed her temple. “The Four Seasons. We’ll catch a cab.”
When she said nice, she hadn’t meant that nice.
Adam must have heard her gasp beneath the pulse of the music above them.
“My. Treat,” he growled in her ear. “Now let’s find the backseat of a cab so you can bite my neck again.”
Chapter Three
The night before came to Adam in pieces as he woke up the next morning.
He knew exactly where he was—in a hotel room, with Isla, who smelled like sugar and delicate flowers. But once upon a time, she’d been a captain and he’d been a non-commissioned member, and what they ended up doing last night would have been very off-limits.
Even more than that, Isla wasn’t just a random hook-up. She was a friend of sorts, a colleague who had also seen him at his worst. At his most scared.
Last night they blurred those lines in a bunch of creative ways.
A cocky grin pulled at the corner of his mouth. Now she’d seen him at his absolute best, too.
“You’re awake, right?”
He bolted straight up, yanking the sheet over his naked lower half.
Isla smiled at him from the foot of the bed. Her hair was a tousled, messy version of the day before’s waves, and she was half-dressed, already wearing her blouse and underwear. “Hey.”
“Hi.”
“You started grinning to yourself.”
“I was running through the highlight reel.” He cleared his throat. Kissing, laughing, business talk. Isla’s Bake Sale stall idea. More kissing, sex, and then, as they stretched out in the dark, drowsier chatter about starting over, and how it was never too late to tackle hopes and dreams—an understanding he’d found sorely missing among the other people in his life. “That was fun, right?”
“Best night I’ve had in a long time.” She dropped her hand onto his sheet-covered foot. “I have to get going, though. I didn’t want to slide out before you woke.”
“That was thoughtful.” He paused. “Do you want to catch up again before I move home?”
Did we ruin our friendship?
“Yeah, maybe.” But something about how she said it told him this was a onetime event, and he understood.
He shifted gears. “If we don’t connect, I want you to keep me posted on how your next pop-up stand goes.” He leaned over and grabbed his boxer briefs from the floor.
She turned, giving him a bit of privacy.
He quickly pulled on his underwear, then his jeans.
“Your idea,” he said as he pulled his shirt on. “It’s a good one.”
“We’ll see. It’s the scaling up that’s the real problem.” She’d told him all about that the night before as he’d given her a foot rub, while they waited for middle-of-the-night room service. How she would need a business loan to afford commercial baking space, and her divorce had left her with nothing. “But I talked about that enough last night, didn’t I?”
“I’m seriously interested, though.” He rounded the bed and caught her fingers lightly in his.
“Adam…”
“As a friend. Nothing more. I swear up and down, cross my heart. I think this was kismet.” He turned his wrist so their hands were aligned like a formal handshake. “We were meant to hang out again, and now I’m meant to be your cheerleader as you figure this out. Don’t overthink it.”
She pursed her lips, then shook his hand firmly. “Thanks. I’ll keep you posted.”
“That’s all I ask.” He twirled her around, then sent her spinning away from him. “Now put the rest of your clothes on, friend.”
They didn’t meet for dinner again. They didn’t stumble into a hotel room, laughing and a little bit drunk, and strip each other’s clothes off again, although Adam woke up with an erection more than once imagining that they had.
But they did keep in touch, and as quickly as he’d gotten her naked, Adam slid right back into the friend zone.
He added her as a contact on social media and they texted a few times. The boundary was clear, and he wasn’t the type of guy to ignore those cues.
The night before his graduation, when his brothers arrived and he met them at the hotel for dinner, Will asked about her out of the blue. “Hey, did you ever meet up for drinks with Captain Petersen?”
“Yeah. And then we had dinner the following week.” He didn’t elaborate, and Will didn’t ask for further details.
But that put her back on his mind. It didn’t take a lot for his thoughts to turn to her. Something about her starting over at the same time as him had triggered a kind of kismet between them, and her pop-up bakery stall idea would spring into his thoughts at the strangest times.
He pulled out his phone and fired off a quick hello.
Adam: Will asked about you tonight.
Isla: Have your brothers all arrived?
Adam: Yep. We’re having dinner at their hotel. What are you up to?
Isla: Baking the World’s Best Ever Chocolate Chip Cookies.
Adam: Photos
or it never happened.
She sent him a picture of chewy, pillow-y looking morsels of goodness, and he replied with a drooling emoji. Then on a whim he added the address of the college. Just in case she wanted to come and say hi to Owen and Will, he said. She knew his oldest brothers from the army. It was a low-stakes invitation.
Isla: I wouldn’t be intruding on a family thing?
Adam: Not at all.
Isla: Then I’ll see you tomorrow.
Adam: Can’t wait!
He regretted the exclamation mark as soon as he hit send. It wasn’t his usual texting style, and it made him seem over-eager. Hitting the tone of his fledgling friendship with Isla just right was important to him.
“Who are you texting?” Owen grinned at him, a little loose from a few beers.
“Isla Petersen. She said she might come tomorrow. I told her I was hanging out with my brothers, and she sent me back a photo of a tray of cookies.” When he said it out loud, it sounded weird. “She’s a recent grad, too. We’re new career buddies.”
He was making this worse, he realized, but he couldn’t stop talking.
And Owen just shrugged and looked happy.
Fuck, maybe that was part of the problem. He'd been on edge all night, but his brothers were all on their best behaviour. It took an odd combination of brotherly restraint and genuine enthusiasm to buy the Kincaids a night without sparring. Maybe Adam had come into the evening expecting the usual love-laced criticism, especially from Owen, who had essentially raised him after their parents passed away—even while he was raising a toddler, too.
But Owen seemed to just be enjoying his weekend in the city with his new wife, and something inside Adam shifted loose. He changed the subject. “I'm glad you guys are here.”
“We wouldn’t miss it. This is a big deal for you.” Owen’s attention slid to the side as his wife Kerry approached. “Right, babe? We’re proud of Adam.”
Adam just hoped that pride held tight when he moved home and started working in the same building as Owen.
Isla was stuck in traffic on the DVP. It more closely resembled a parking lot than a major freeway artery cutting through a city, and she swore under her breath.
She was going to be late for Adam’s graduation, and that sucked, because she wasn’t planning to linger after the ceremony.
No dinner, no late night drinks.
She glanced sideways at the two dozen cookies sitting in a travel container on the passenger seat. “We shouldn’t do that again.”
The cookies didn’t respond. They were neutral on the concept of friends with benefits.
But Isla wasn’t, not for herself. A one-night stand was one thing. She had the bandwidth for that, because it had clear limits. Anything beyond that, and she could see herself falling for the idea of Adam, of an easy relationship, and she knew that would be bad for her tender heart, especially because he would be living hours away.
It would be even worse if he stayed near the city. There was no way any entanglement would end well, basically. Not because of Adam, but because of her past.
And a little bit because of Adam, not through any fault of his own. The sex had been good, but the friendship was better, and that was her singular goal today. Show up, be a good buddy.
And she was already failing on the showing up part. Ahead of her, brake lights blinked off and traffic started rolling again.
Slowly the line of cars crawled north, and when she finally took the exit ramp to the 401 East, she let out the breath she’d been holding. The traffic and parking gods were kind to her, and she slid into a seat at the back of the college auditorium just in time to see Adam’s class receive their certificates. When her friend paced across the stage, four large men closer to the front of the audience jumped to their feet and hollered in support.
Isla smothered a laugh. Those would be his brothers, no doubt.
And sure enough, when the ceremony was over, she made her way closer and recognized Owen, Adam’s oldest brother. He had his arm wrapped around a pretty woman with dark curly hair, and his other hand was gesturing animatedly at the other Kincaids.
Catching his eye, she waved, and he cut himself off. “Hey there. Adam mentioned you might come. This is my wife, Kerry. Kerry, this is Isla Petersen. She served overseas with Adam.”
Isla shook Kerry’s hand, then did the same with the others as Owen introduced Will—“We’ve met, right? Meaford training base? Nice to see you again”—and Seth, a pilot based out of the Sault, and finally Josh.
“I’m a mechanic,” he said. “One of these things is not like the other.”
“Story of my life,” she said with a wink. “I never fit in. And my dad was a mechanic. What do you like to work on the most?”
They talked about the older muscle cars he liked to work on until Adam joined them.
“I promised you chocolate chip cookies.” She held up the tin. “Congratulations.”
He took the tin with one hand, and looped the other arm around her shoulders, pulling her in for a half-hug. “Thank you for letting my guilt trip work.”
She poked him in the side. “This is a big deal. I’m glad I got to see you convocate. It’s always good to have cheerleaders, right?”
He gave her a surprised look, and she gave him a this works both ways funny face right back. It was a silent exchange that shifted something inside her.
No, she wasn’t going to sleep with Adam again. Their accidental meeting had led to something better than a friends-with-benefits arrangement. It had found her an unexpected ally and a lighthearted friendship.
Seeing him again, being welcomed by him into this celebratory space with his family, it all felt right. She was going to do everything she could to hold on to his friendship with both hands.
Without letting go of her, Adam gestured to his family. “There are some picnic tables out back, let’s go sit and have a celebratory cookie.”
At the edge of the graduation space, there was a table set up with coffee and tea. They stopped there to grab paper cups of hot liquid—quality to be determined—then followed the newly certified firefighter to a quiet circle of trees.
The coffee was mediocre, as Isla expected, but the group response to her cookies promised they were up to her usual high standards.
“These are the best cookies I’ve ever had,” Adam said after inhaling his second.
She beamed. “I know.”
All of his brothers laughed at that, but her confidence wasn’t misplaced. It was a killer recipe, and it would be the cornerstone of her business model—once she found an investor willing to lend a divorced woman with negative assets the seed money to start a professional bake sale business.
“Will you share your recipe?” Adam waggled his eyebrows at her. “If I bake these at the firehouse, I’ll impress the whole team.”
“If you try to bake at the station, you better clean up after yourself,” Owen growled. “And there are unspoken rules about who gets to cook on what team. You—”
“I’m aware,” Adam said evenly. “Took a class on baby firefighter etiquette and everything. Got a C+ on the test, but I think I’ll manage.”
He wasn’t serious, was he?
Seth shoved Will into Owen, who took it like an oak tree so he wouldn’t barrel into his much smaller wife, and Josh snickered.
Adam grabbed another cookie and rolled his eyes at Isla.
No, not serious. Adam held her gaze while his brothers moved on from ribbing him to ribbing each other and gave her a smile that said, what are you going to do? She didn’t know the answer to that. She had one brother who was eight years older than her, but they had never been close, not like this. And even with her own age gap between siblings, she had never been “the baby”.
Nobody had ever worried about her the way these men, these big, grown, hulking men, clearly worried about their baby brother. Except he was almost thirty and both big and hulking himself.
He wasn’t the young kid she’d once known, either. No
t that she was that much older than him, and not that he hadn’t always been capable. He had. But when they went to Afghanistan, he had been openly scared at times.
Had his brothers known that? Could they see that he didn’t carry that same worry now about being a firefighter?
She returned the private smile and mouthed, I’ll send you the recipe.
His eyes crinkled and he nodded in acknowledgement.
After he walked Isla out to her car, Adam headed to the hotel where his brothers were staying. He felt wrung out in the best way possible.
Tomorrow, he’d move home.
Tonight…
There was a wild part of him that had wanted to talk Isla into hanging out, but she’d made the boundaries clear. And where would he convince her to stay? His side of a bedroom he shared with another trainee? Would he get a room at the Holiday Inn where his brothers were staying?
It was quite the downgrade from the Four Fucking Seasons.
And it would be more than pushing his luck. It would be blowing up their friendship. He didn’t need her to spell that out. He’d seen it all over her face the morning after they’d slept together. He hadn’t fully processed it at the time, because he’d been naked and still—frankly—a little horny.
Horny Adam was not the most clever. Sometimes the most creative, but…
He dragged his thoughts to the immediate present. Dinner with his brothers, then back to his apartment to finish packing.
Of course, as soon as he parked and hopped out of his truck, Josh was waiting for him. “Dude. Where’s your girl?”
“She’s…” Adam huffed a laughing breath. “Definitely not that.”
“She made you cookies. She put up with all of us for two whole hours.”
“And I am eternally grateful that you didn’t refer to her as my girl that entire time. Kudos on that self-restraint, I know that was really hard.”
“Agony.” Josh didn’t miss a beat as they headed inside. The rest of the family was sprawled out in a collection of chairs in the bar in front of the restaurant.
