One Hot Summer

by Melissa Cutler

  Then his lips descended over hers again, harder than before. He pinned her body against the truck and took her mouth in a deep, wet, absolutely dirty kiss that went on and on until she was dizzy and lost and loving it. His hand dragged down her body, curving over her breast, her waist, and around to clutch her ass. She melted into him like liquid, offering her complete surrender to his touch and to his mouth—to his masterful command of her body.

  This time when he broke the kiss, she was the one panting. He kept his face near hers, breathing into her. She fluttered her eyes open and found him looking at her.

  That fierce hunger remained in his eyes. “My bed or yours?”

  His gruff voice made her whole body ripple with anticipation. Goddamn, she wanted this tonight. She wanted him. Worse than she’d wanted a man in a long time. If he screwed anything like he kissed, then she was in for the time of her life.

  “You’re the Alpha Bubba. Surprise me.”

  Chapter Seven

  “Buttons open,” Micah bit out.

  He kept one eye on the dark road and the other on Remedy’s purple skirt, on the way it bunched high on her thighs, showing off those legs that he couldn’t wait to get his mouth on. Anticipation pounded beneath his skin, flooding his muscles and flesh and organs with a need that threatened to unravel him.

  The air in the truck cab was thick with intention as she followed his command, making a show of releasing each button on her shirt. She hitched a knee up on the seat, twisting to face him, and spread her shirt open. He hissed through gritted teeth at the sight of her breasts rounding over the tops of two beige, lacy bra cups, her flesh moving with each labored breath through her parted lips.

  Smooth talking wasn’t his forte and would’ve taken far more brainpower than he currently possessed, but if he could’ve found the words he would’ve told her how sexy she was, how beautiful. He would’ve told her how his desire for her had built to a crescendo through the night, with every fractured conversation and touch of their hands or bodies, until he could think of nothing else but kissing her, nothing else but pleasuring her slow and sweet and all night long. He would’ve told her it’d been a long, long time since a woman had made him so crazy with lust that he felt like a teenager again—impatient, invincible, and absolutely reckless.

  At least his conscience had shut up about that whole fraternizing with Briscoe executives rule. Remedy Lane was one regret who’d already proved to be worth it.

  He couldn’t get the correct angle to touch her breasts, but her legs were more than enough to feed his hunger to touch her until they arrived at his place. He wrapped his hand around her knee, his fingers brushing the sensitive skin on the back of her thigh.

  With a hum of pleasure, she widened her knees and slouched, shifting his hand higher, to the hot, silken skin of her inner thigh.

  His heart was beating out of his chest. He blinked straight ahead, forcing his focus back to the road. All this foreplay would be for nothing if he got them in an accident. Lucky for him, the streets were empty.

  She squirmed and fluttered her hand over his wrist. “A little higher.”

  If that’s what the lady needed. He reached, caressing her flesh as he moved, until the sides of his fingers bumped the damp fabric between her thighs. Fuck. Ten minutes. They’d be at his house in ten. Naked and on his bed in ten and a half.

  He rotated the pads of his fingers over the fabric, over the plump and pliant flesh below it. Then she rocked her hips, working in counter-rhythm to his fingers, using him for her pleasure. With a ragged breath, she threw her head back against the seat and lifted her chin, her eyes closed. Moving, feeling. Her arms flew out. One gripped the door handle and the other found his shoulder. It was the hottest damn thing he’d ever seen.

  He stopped his ministrations and hooked a finger inside the crotch of her underwear. With a flick, he snapped the elastic against her skin. “Take ’em off.”

  Even as he growled the command, he was berating himself to slow the hell down and ease off the heavy petting until he could lay Remedy back and do her right. Too late now, though, because Remedy was definitely on board with the road lovin’ plan. Her hair cascaded around her face as she wriggled out of the lacy material and looped a leg hole over his rearview mirror.

  Bold move. Sassy. Like her.

  He couldn’t resist the temptation to touch the underwear, to find that wet spot. When he did, he rubbed the material between his fingers, choking back a groan of approval. “So fucking hot.”

  She took hold of his wrist and moved his hand between her thighs. “I was thinking the same about you.”

  “Darlin’, you ain’t seen nothing yet.” He dipped a finger between her folds. At his first touch of the hot, wet flesh between her folds, he accidentally jerked the steering wheel and swerved onto the shoulder. Like he’d thought before, it was a damn good thing the roads were empty tonight.

  His finger found the swollen pearl of her clit and swirled over it until she released a strangled cry. He kept at the movement, working a relentless little circle over the bundle of nerves. Her hand flew back to his shoulder, balling his shirt in her fist as her body sought its pleasure with his hand.

  He slowed his movement because he didn’t want her to come like this, here in his truck. Not really. Because he wouldn’t be able to watch her succumb and she wouldn’t get to move or scream as she needed to, seeing as how he’d just made the turn onto Main Street and there were a few folks out and about. But there was nothing saying he couldn’t get her right to the edge.

  He barely registered the last few blocks home or pulling to a stop in his driveway.

  The second he threw the truck in park, she pressed his seat-belt release, then climbed over to straddle his lap. She had the button and zipper of his jeans undone in seconds flat. His cock surged against his briefs, eliciting a grunt of relief at the release of pressure. She rubbed him over the cotton, and even that dulled touch had him gritting his teeth at the assault to his senses.

  He slipped his hands around to cup her backside beneath her panties as her lips and teeth found his neck. Then her hand breached the elastic band of his briefs. Her fingers found the blunt tip of his cock.

  He threw his head against his seat and rolled his neck, fighting for composure. A light in a window of the firehouse caught his attention. Tonight Dusty was manning the fire station. He would’ve heard Micah’s diesel engine pulling into the drive, and for all Micah knew, he’d come to the window to call out a hello and check in with Micah, as he often did. There were decent odds he’d already gotten an eyeful of Remedy’s partially naked body. No good. Time to move this party inside.

  Micah swabbed a hand over his face, getting a grip. “Let’s go inside. I want you naked, but not in my driveway.”

  She gave him a dreamy blink of her eyes. “That’s probably a better idea.”

  He made a clumsy attempt at rebuttoning Remedy’s shirt before she took over the task. “Why are we parked next door to the firehouse?” she asked.

  “This is where I live. The house is owned by the city.” He dropped his mouth over hers with a kiss that turned sloppy fast.

  Locked together, they poured out of the driver’s side and onto the driveway. Micah didn’t bother refastening his pants as they shuffled, kissing and touching, to his front door. He couldn’t get enough of her, any of her, not her mouth or the way she smelled, the feel of her hair, the taste of her skin, and the sound of her voice. The whole Remedy package made him drunk with lust. In a haze, he pushed the front door open and the tripped inside, right over a paper bag on the doorstep that he hadn’t seen.

  More baked goods? That made twice this week, which was rare.

  “What was that?” Remedy asked.

  He tossed the bag on his entryway table, then kicked the door shut. “I’ll tell you later.”

  He gathered her close, but she pressed a hand to his chest.

  “Are you sure you want to do this?” she asked, her voice breathy and strained.r />
  “What kind of question is that?” Was she having second thoughts, because she sure wasn’t acting like it and he didn’t think he’d read her signals wrong.

  “You were reluctant before, when we were kissing outside the bar,” she said. “I wanted to make sure I wasn’t taking advantage of you. Consent and all that.”

  The ridiculous comment tickled his funny bone, evoking a chuckle. Wasn’t it supposed to be the other way around, with the obligation falling to the guy to check in with a lady’s consent? Then again, they did things pretty backward in California.

  She gave his chest another gentle shove. “I’m serious. Are you sure about this? You and me together, you were right, it’s going to be complicated.”

  Damn. She was serious. And she was correct. He had been reluctant at the bar. Probably he should still be, because the list of reasons why sleeping with Remedy was a terrible idea was a long one. But he didn’t give a damn about one single reason on that list.

  He answered her by pulling his boots off and chucking them aside. He shoved his briefs and jeans down and off. His cock sprung up, steel hard and getting harder under Remedy’s hungry gaze. He didn’t give much thought to his body except to keep it at the peak of fitness for his job, but times like this, standing naked in front of a beautiful woman, his demanding workout schedule didn’t seem such a burden.

  She let her fingers bump from his chest down the ridges of his abdominals. “You should never wear a shirt. Ever.”

  He snorted out a chuckle. Guess she liked his answer. Since she’d checked in with him, it seemed only right to bounce her question back at her, even though the flush on her skin, the fervency of her kisses, and the way her fingers were dipping ever nearer to his goods spoke plainly that she wanted him as desperately as he wanted her.

  “What about you? Do I have your consent to proceed?” What strange words. Formal. As though they were about to enter a legally binding partnership instead of have a one-night stand.

  Only one night? He hoped not, but the question fled his mind when she backed up, struck a seductive pose, and made short work of unbuttoning her top.

  She spread the shirt open and plumped her breasts in her hands, giving him a show. “You have my enthusiastic consent.”

  Her bra was sheerer than it’d appeared in the dim light of his truck. Stiff pink nipples squished against the material and, frankly, looked like they needed rescuing from their tight confines. Micah was just the man for the job. Fingers twitching with eagerness, he stepped toward her, but she matched his movement and skittered a few steps back while crooking her finger, teasing him to come and get her.

  He didn’t notice that she’d bumped against the coat tree near the door until it teetered. Micah lunged past Remedy, reaching for it, but he was too late. Top-heavy with a pile of coats and jackets, the tree toppled sideways and smacked into the coffee table, knocking his fern off the edge of the table. It shattered with an explosion of terra-cotta and potting soil.

  Remedy hovered over the mess, aghast, her hands gripping her hair, but there was no way in hell Micah was going to let a minor mishap interfere with the night he had planned for her.

  “Oh my God. I’m sorry. I didn’t—”

  It was Micah’s chance to do what he’d been dying to all night. He threw her over his shoulder in a fireman carry and hauled her straight to his bedroom.

  * * *

  Micah laid Remedy on his bed with a tenderness wholly opposite from the brute force he’d used to sweep her off her feet. The shaft of gray-blue moonlight from behind the gauzy curtain over the window illuminated his muscled arms and shoulders and cut a spotlight over his torso, shading and highlighting hard pecs and ripples of abdominal muscles that she was desperate to explore with her lips.

  In the shadowy darkness, with the only sounds the subtle whir of the air conditioner and their heavy breathing, Remedy felt transported out of time, out of Dulcet. On his bed, with his powerful body curving over her, the world narrowed to heat and flesh and the irrepressible chemistry that drew them together like magnets.

  The mattress dipped again as he brought his other knee onto the bed. She spread her legs, inviting him forward with a nudge of her feet to his sides. He dipped his head and kissed her. Clutching his back, she dragged him down on top of her. His skin was hot to the touch. Muscle and bone moving and flexing, powerful.

  His body curved over hers. The openmouthed deep, wet kisses he gave her obliterated every coherent thought. All that existed was Micah and kissing and the white-hot ball of need building inside of her with every stroke of his tongue against hers. So much kissing. She was starved for the taste of his mouth, the spicy scent of his skin.

  His hands roved over her body, touching her everywhere, as though mapping her physical form, pausing at her breasts. He broke their kiss and dropped his mouth over her nipple, suckling in a complicated rhythm of movements with his tongue and lips until she had no choice but to cry out with the bliss of it.

  She snaked a hand between them and stroked his erection. Grunting, he moved to her other nipple and continued the same expert care. She stroked him, pulling skin over steel faster and faster until his hips got in on the action, moving in time with her.

  Without notice, he rolled off her body and lay on his side against her. His hand found her pussy again. She arched, urging him onward. As in the truck, his touch was exploratory at first. She showed him with moans and whimpers where she wanted him to go. When the blunt tip of his finger hit the sweet spot on the side of her clit, her body was wracked with a shudder of ecstasy.

  “Found it,” he crooned, rotating his finger over the spot, over and over, absolutely relentless. Then his lips dropped over her tight left nipple and sucked.

  Yes. “Harder,” she whimpered.

  “My mouth or finger?”

  “Both,” she bit out. The impossible ache of need turned molten. She felt the build of release with every scratch of his finger and relinquished her grip on his cock to roll her head back and submit to the all-consuming sensation.

  She gave a strangled moan of protest when his lips left her nipple and traveled over her belly, even though she knew where he was headed. Even though she knew how fantastic it was going to feel.

  Then he was between her thighs again. His chin and lips grazed the strip of hair on her mound. She gripped the sheet in both hands, hanging on to the buildup, the desperate anticipation.

  He breathed a slow, hot stream of air onto her body’s center.

  “Micah.” The word trembled out of her on an unsteady breath.

  His fingers opened her and even that slight touch sent ripples of pleasure through her body. This was going to be good. It was going to be everything.

  The flat of his tongue licked up the length of her tender flesh. She groaned at the torture of it. Normally, she liked it slow down there. She liked every fold and wrinkle of skin tended to by her partner’s tongue, but tonight she was all about her clit and surrendering to the raw, wild pleasure of their explosive lust. Thank goodness Micah felt the same way. It took a little searching, but his tongue found the same hot spot as his finger had. She rewarded him with a cry and raked her fingers through his hair.

  It wasn’t long before she felt the building pressure again. “I’m close. Oh damn, so close.”

  His tongue stopped. She peeled her eyes open to find him looking up the length of her body. His chin and lips glistened with her wetness and his nostrils flared. Untamed, powerful. All hers.

  “Come now or come while I fuck you? Or both? Tell me what you want.” His voice was rough and thick, his breathing labored.

  She loved that he asked. Loved the lack of assumptions about her body and her needs. She’d experienced a lot of first times with lovers and so understood how rare his approach was.

  The pressure of her need for release verged on painful, but the prospect of having him inside her, of finding her pleasure while they moved together, was too alluring to resist. Straightening her leg, she skim
med the length of his body with her toes. “While you fuck me.”

  There was that wolfish smile again.

  He pushed up and sat back on his heels, then stretched his legs off the bed. She squeezed her legs together as she watched him walk, drinking her fill of his flexed muscles and hard planes, of the jut of his thick, long cock.

  Condom on, lube from a bottle in his nightstand. Such a classy move, like his asking was. He knew women’s bodies. He cared about the details in a way few of her other lovers had, and the easy, confident way he commanded every aspect of her pleasure left her with nothing to worry over. No need for her to educate him or stroke his ego. She was free to relax into the way he made her feel and the way she wanted to make him feel—the way they felt together.

  Then he was back on the bed, near her knees. He took hold of her ankles and propped her feet on his collarbone, which pushed her knees higher and tipped her hips up. He shoved a pillow under her butt.

  “Ready?”

  “Like you wouldn’t believe.”

  He pressed his torso toward her, arching her back and pinning her lower body in place as he lined his cock up with her entrance. “Bet ya I do.”

  His lubed-up fingers found her clit again. He stroked in a tight circle, sending shocks of sensation coursing through her. “Is this position working for you?”

  Despite her hazy grip on reality, the corners of her lips kicked up in a smile. Such a gentleman. “Yes.”

  He dipped two fingers inside and winced, groaning. “Damn, that’s so fucking good.”

  “Take me, Micah.”

  With their eyes locked on each other, he did just that, sinking into her with a maddening slowness. The languid, easy coupling didn’t last long before the raw, desperate desire that had been building between them all night gave way to a hard, fast fuck. She could see it in his face, the moment he let go of his control and gave in to his basest feelings, in his scowl, his bared teeth, in the way his eyes went distant and dark.