Taking the Heat

by Victoria Dahl

  Her laughter dissolved into giggles, and tears wet her eyes. She pressed a hand over her mouth to try to stifle her hilarity, but it took a few moments.

  Gabe kissed her shoulder and got out of bed. Right. They were done now. She wiped the tears from her eyes and looked around, regretting that they hadn’t gotten under the covers before they did it. Now she was just sprawled naked and wet on the bed with no defenses, and that was not the position she wanted to be in when he left.

  When she heard the water in the bathroom come on, Veronica scrambled up to climb to the head of the bed and pull the covers back. Unfortunately, the bedding was caught under her knees. She shifted several times from one knee to the other, trying to tug the blanket down, and she’d just barely gotten it free when Gabe walked back in, looking lean and hot and very, very naked.

  She froze, kneeling and half-bent on the bed and feeling very, very naked herself.

  “Good idea,” he said. “I’m freezing.”

  He took the blanket from her hand and held it a little higher so she could scoot in. She did, if only to get her naked body underneath something. Gabe followed her and even though she scooted over as far as she could, he was still pressed against her side when she stopped. She clutched the blanket tight under her chin and stared at the dark space of the ceiling.

  “Are you okay?” he asked.

  She could feel him watching her and she felt acutely embarrassed about the whole thing. He knew too much about her, and right now she just wanted to play it off as nothing. Just sex. Just an orgasm. Because now she felt convinced he was treating her as if she were fragile. If she hadn’t revealed her secrets, would he still be here? Would he be cuddled so close? Would he be reaching up to gently tip her face toward his?

  “Veronica?” he whispered.

  She hoped that her expression was as hard to read as his was, but she was facing the light leaking in from the other room. He could probably see every anxious thought written on her skin.

  “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “This is weird.”

  He frowned. “What’s weird?”

  “Pillow talk?” she guessed.

  His frown vanished and he kissed her. She could feel his chuckle against her mouth. “I guess it is weird. Do you want me to go?”

  “No! I mean, only if you want to. It’s just such a weird shift. To be so utterly intimate, to be at your most...animalistic...”

  “Grr,” he growled.

  “And then it’s over and you have to be...just...normal again.”

  “You don’t have to be normal,” he said. “You know I like it when you’re weird.”

  She laughed and smacked him on the arm. “Did you just call me weird?”

  “Yes. But you called me weird first. You’re supposed to tell me I’m amazing and I did a good job.”

  “You need reassurance? I’m the beginner here!”

  “You’re right.” He propped himself up on his elbow and watched her, his hair flopping forward in a way that was already precious. “I don’t need reassurance, but I’m just a man, and we like to be told what good boys we are.”

  She shook her head in exasperation, then reached up to stroke his beard. “You were a very, very, very good boy tonight.”

  He grinned, looking like a kid swelling up with praise. “Thank you.”

  “And me?”

  “You,” he murmured, the grin falling away as he leaned down to press another soft kiss to her mouth. “You were exquisite. And I lied a little. When I said I wouldn’t stop, I was so close to coming that it hurt. You felt so good, Veronica. And you looked like sin.”

  This time her laughter wasn’t amusement. It was shock. The loveliest slap of shock she’d ever felt. Exquisite sin. She’d never been either of those things, and tonight she was both. The idea settled in to her skin and felt surprisingly comfortable. She didn’t even blush. She didn’t deny it. Maybe she should let her boss know that she was a sexual savant, after all. Maybe the world needed to know.

  She was just reaching up to pull him in for a longer kiss when her phone rang. She raised her head and looked around, spotting her purse on the floor near the doorway. Exquisite or not, she wasn’t climbing naked over Gabe to stroll over and retrieve it.

  She waved a dismissive hand and relaxed back into Gabe’s body. A few seconds later, the message chime dinged and she winced.

  “Here,” Gabe said, sliding out of bed to get her purse. He seemed entirely un-self-conscious, and frankly, she was happy for it. His body was a work of art. Strong thighs and a tight ass, and that lean stomach leading up to strong shoulders. She wanted to lick him everywhere. She wanted to bite him, which seemed like an odd impulse, but her jaw tensed with the desire.

  She was so distracted by the idea that she forgot to pretend she wasn’t staring at him as he delivered her purse. “Thank you,” she said, eyeing his naked hip as she pulled her phone out. She felt a little sad when he was beneath the covers. Then again, she could touch him now. She could even bite him if she wanted to.

  She probably wouldn’t, though. Probably. She was so distracted by the thought that she barely registered that the call had come from an unknown number. The voice on the message was unfamiliar for a moment, and then her eyes widened.

  “Oh, my God,” she breathed as she listened.

  “What’s wrong?” Gabe asked.

  She shook her head and listened to the rest of the message, then sighed in shock. “My dad gave Dillon my phone number,” she groaned as she shoved her phone back into her purse.

  “Why?”

  “Something about a development deal, I’m sure. Dillon wants to get together for a drink sometime. Jesus.”

  “Are you going to go?” he asked. “Just to make me jealous?” He kissed her shoulder and trailed his fingertips along the skin of her chest. The blanket had been tugged down by her movements and his fingers helped it along until one of her nipples was exposed.

  “No,” she breathed, fighting the stupid urge to tug the blanket up again. Instead of grabbing it and hiding herself, she watched as he circled her nipple and it tightened at his touch. “No,” she tried again, “I’m not having a drink with him.”

  “Not even for old times’ sake?”

  She smiled at his teasing tone. “Definitely not. We made out at a party once, and once was enough.”

  “Uh-oh. Not a good kisser?”

  She shrugged as his fingers continued to tease her. “No, he was fine. I thought he liked me because he’d been a little nicer to me than Jason’s other friends. But Jason teased Dillon after he made out with me, so Dillon played it off. He said he’d never do it again, because my flat chest made it feel like he was making out with a boy. Jason started calling me Ronald or Ron instead of Roni after that. And then a lot of people started calling me Ronald.”

  Gabe shook his head. “Jesus, Veronica. I’m sorry. What a fucking asshole.”

  “Exactly.”

  “And an idiot,” Gabe added. “Look at you. You’re perfect.”

  She wasn’t anything close to perfect. If she could have magically wished her breasts bigger, she would have. But Gabe made her feel beautiful. He leaned in to kiss the nipple he’d teased to a tight point. “Boys are dumb,” he murmured.

  “They are.”

  “And cruel.” He kissed her again, his eyes closing as he feathered his mouth over her. His beard looked so stark against her pale breast. “And you’re beautiful.”

  Tears burned suddenly in her eyes, but she blinked them away and slipped her fingers into the soft waves of his hair. He was so sweet. She felt like a new person with him. The person she’d always hoped she might be.

  “If you take me climbing,” she said slowly, “I’ll trust you.” But that wasn’t really what she was saying. Those weren’t the heights that suddenly scared h
er. The heights that loomed before her were far more dangerous than any cliff, and she was pretty sure she was already falling hard.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  GABE HAD NO right to feel so energetic after only six hours of sleep, but his eyes had popped open at 7:00 a.m. and there’d been no closing them again. Even the briefest memory of the night before made him smile, and some of the memories went on and on.

  He knew it was partly ridiculous male ego puffing him up. After all, he hadn’t just made Veronica come, he’d felt her orgasm gripping him as she’d gasped his name.

  Goddamn, that had been...heartwarming.

  He grinned again as he headed out an hour early for work in the hopes of getting in on a pickup game at the fire station. He needed to work off some of this energy.

  The surfeit of energy wasn’t ego, at least. It was something dumber than that. He was crushing. Hard. Veronica was cute and sweet and smart. And the sex was fucking fantastic.

  Something about her made his mouth water and his cock throb. He wasn’t sure what it was, but he knew one thing: this relationship couldn’t work. Hell, maybe that was part of the attraction, that she was permanently out of his reach. He could touch her as much as she’d allow right now, but there was an end date to that. They could never belong to each other. He couldn’t risk falling in love with her.

  So maybe that was part of the urgency to see her again as soon as possible. All he knew for sure was that he couldn’t wait for work to be over so he could meet her for dinner. More than that, he couldn’t wait for it to be an hour after that, walking her home or maybe watching her sip a martini and waiting to touch her. Waiting to make her come again. Waiting to watch her face melt as he eased into her body.

  Damn. He couldn’t think about that as he was walking up to the municipal building. He shook off his thoughts of her and headed toward the back door of the fire station instead of the library. If William was around, Gabe would love a game. If not, he’d go for a quick run. A couple of the guys had already let Gabe know he was free to shower up at the station before work.

  The door opened into a hallway and the first room he encountered was the locker area. The second was a large exercise room. One guy was lifting free weights, but it wasn’t William. Gabe followed the sound of voices down the hallway and ended up in what looked to be a huge living area. He spotted William right away, planted in front of a big-screen TV that was bright with the vivid green of a soccer field.

  “William,” he called. “You like to play sports or just watch them?”

  “Hey, Gabe!” the firefighter shouted. His eyes flicked down to Gabe’s shorts and the gym bag slung against his hip. “Did you come to get your ass kicked?”

  “Something like that,” Gabe responded, “but not quite.”

  William jumped up from his chair and headed toward Gabe when another firefighter called out from the couch. “Hey, Librarian, who was the hot blonde we saw you with last night?”

  Gabe laughed and shook his head. “Just a date.”

  “Nah,” William said, “she looked familiar. One of Lauren’s friends.”

  “Maybe,” Gabe said, then cleared his throat, torn between protecting her privacy and not trying to sweep her under the rug. “Veronica,” he finally offered.

  “Yeah?” William pressed. “I’d ask for an introduction, but you two looked pretty damn friendly.”

  He shrugged, but his stupid face gave him away. The cavernous room was suddenly filled with echoing hoots. He waved them off and turned to head back toward the court but found his way blocked by an imposing man with a very stern look on his face. Gabe backed up a step, then recognized the man as the fire captain, Jake Davis.

  “Morning, Jake,” he offered. Lauren had already introduced Jake as her boyfriend, and the guy had seemed polite and friendly then. He didn’t look polite and friendly now.

  “Veronica?” Jake asked. “Veronica Chandler?”

  “Yes?” Gabe started uncertainly.

  “You’re dating?”

  “We’ve gone out a couple of times.”

  “So it’s...casual?”

  Gabe wasn’t quite sure how to respond to that. First, Veronica might be willing to be seen in public with Gabe, but that didn’t mean she wanted him discussing their relationship with other people. Second, the captain hadn’t exactly asked it in a friendly way.

  Gabe glanced toward the roomful of men for help, but all their eyes were now locked studiously on the television, even William’s.

  “It’s...um...” He wasn’t sure why he was nervous, but it seemed as if he was about to answer a very important question. He finally settled on a nonanswer. “I’ve only been in town a couple of weeks. Lauren introduced us.”

  Jake Davis grunted and narrowed his eyes at Gabe, seeming unimpressed with the explanation. Gabe felt like squirming, though he didn’t know why. Probably something to do with the fact that Jake was old enough to be Veronica’s father and Gabe had done filthy, filthy things to her only hours before.

  He felt heat creep up the back of his neck, but he held the captain’s gaze.

  “She’s very young,” Jake finally said. “I’d better not hear that you’ve pulled any crap with her.”

  “Of course not,” Gabe answered.

  “She’s a nice girl.”

  Gabe offered a crisp nod. “Yes, sir.”

  Jake stared at him for a moment longer, then grunted again and disappeared into an office. The door slammed behind him.

  Gabe felt William’s hand land hard on his back. “Close one, my man.”

  “What the hell was that? Is he a relative?”

  “To the blonde? I don’t think so, but the captain is old-fashioned. No shit-talking about women around here. I mentioned once what I wanted to do to a certain little librarian, and he put me on toilet duty for a month.”

  “He caught you talking about Lauren?” Gabe asked in horror.

  “No, not Lauren! I’m not an idiot. It was her friend. The one you replaced. I asked that girl out a dozen times. Anyway, just try to avoid him for a few days. He’ll cool down.”

  “But I didn’t say anything!”

  William shrugged and tipped his chin toward the door. “Come on. A little one-on-one.”

  Gabe shook off the encounter and followed William outside to the court. It was only 9:00 a.m., but the sun had already started to warm up the day and it melted the new tension from his muscles.

  Forty-five intense minutes later, Gabe had forgotten all about the interaction with Jake, and he was ready to get to work. Hair still damp from the shower, he slung his bag over his shoulder and crossed the ten feet between the fire station door and the library.

  He was supposed to get the last of the bid numbers on the digital lending system today, and once that was resolved with Jean-Marie, he could start getting down to the nitty-gritty of it. They could strike an agreement with a lending company, get the software loaded onto a test server and then start integrating it into the existing library system. Once the bare bones were in place, Gabe would work on the collection with the other librarians.

  Granted, actual lending was probably months away, but engineering it all would be fun as hell.

  A half hour later, he was deep into a comparison spreadsheet he planned to present to Jean-Marie at the end of the day when Lauren burst into the tiny office that was tucked behind the circulation desk.

  “Oh, my God, you sneaky little bastard.”

  “What?” he snapped, whipping around.

  “You totally pretended not to like Veronica when I introduced you!”

  Gabe winced. Damn. Of course Jake had passed that information on to Lauren. Or maybe Veronica had told her? “Ah. Veronica.”

  For a moment, he couldn’t read her narrowed eyes, but then she smiled and kept smiling unt
il he cleared his throat.

  “How many times have you gone out?” she asked.

  “A couple. But you’ll have to ask her anything else.”

  “Oh, you don’t kiss and tell?” she crowed.

  “No, I do not.”

  She shoved his shoulder, sending the chair spinning back toward the computer. “I can’t believe she didn’t say anything to me! You were the one texting on her birthday! Why didn’t she tell me?”

  He shook his head. “Maybe because you and I work together?”

  She nodded. Then her face fell. “Wait a minute. Does that mean I don’t get details? That’s not fair.”

  Gabe hoped it was true. Lauren already felt like yet another big sister, as if Gabe didn’t have enough of those.

  “So...you like her, Gabe?” Lauren pressed.

  “Yes,” he answered, starting work on his spreadsheet again in an effort to stave off more questions.

  “She’s great, isn’t she?”

  Shit. A smile tugged at his mouth and Lauren was standing right next to him. No question she could see it. He tried to cover himself by changing the subject. “Jake didn’t seem happy to find out.”

  “Oh, please,” she scoffed. “He’s so overprotective. His daughter is about that age, so he likes to imagine that Veronica couldn’t possibly be doing anything dirty. Even though his own daughter is married now! So...is she?”

  “Married?” he asked in shock.

  “No. Is Veronica doing anything dirty?”

  Gabe could practically hear Veronica in his ear, begging him not to stop fucking her. Somehow, he kept his eyes on the screen and breathed slowly and his face didn’t betray him with a blush. “Workplace,” he muttered.

  “Shit,” Lauren bit out. “Don’t report me.”

  “Only because I’m scared of your boyfriend.”

  She walked out but almost immediately stuck her head back into the room. “So you’ll be at the show Thursday?”

  “I will.”

  “Great! You can sit at our table and convince Jake that you’re good enough for Veronica.” She dropped that bombshell and disappeared.