by Zoe York
She tangled her fingers in his hair, pulling him hard against her mouth. She tasted like fire, like nothing he’d ever dreamt of before. Pure passion, absolute need. He couldn’t deny either of them a second longer.
He broke away long enough to hold her gaze. “Yes?”
“I love you,” she whispered. “I’m not running scared again.”
He made a wounded sound and kissed her again, ragged and desperate now. Fuck, the door. “Hold that thought. Do not move.”
It took him three seconds to cross the room, lock the door, and get back to her.
In that time, she managed to move a lot, despite his order. She met him in the middle of the room, another clash of tongues and teeth and hands, their bodies moving against each other.
He caught her around the waist and turned her against him, her back to his front. He stroked his fingertips over her belly, along the waistband of her jeans. “Can I make you feel good? Everyone’s gone. The door is locked. The drapes are pulled…it’s just you and me. Let me show you how much I want you.”
Catie knew this was dangerous. Foolish on many levels. But she needed to prove to this man that she was all his, however he wanted her. She arched her back and he unzipped her pants, then dipped his fingers into her panties, and groaned as he made contact with the curls at the top of her mound.
She rocked her hips, urging him to stroke lower, but he wouldn’t be rushed. He cupped her whole sex next, whispering teasing thoughts about what he might do next. “Want to feel you all over my fingers. Make you all slippery and needy for me. I want you to come undone for me. Writhe on my hand, beg for my fingers.”
“I want them now,” she panted. “Inside me.”
“Eager?”
“Yes.”
“Me, too.”
He bent her forward, pressing her torso flat against the surface of his desk, and legs had to stretch, her toes barely reaching the floor as he shoved her jeans down her hips, baring her ass.
His fingers returned between her legs, this time from behind, sliding effortlessly through the wet evidence that she was very much enjoying being manhandled like this. He leaned over her, his breath hot on the back of her neck.
“I’m going to fuck you with my fingers, Catie. As many as you want. But you don’t get my cock until I get you in my bed. When we fuck for real, it’s going to be for fucking real on every level. My bed, taking all the time in the world, where I can hear you scream my name.”
“Will,” she gasped, because yes, that, all of that.
She was his.
But then his fingers were inside her, at least two of them, and the next sound out of her mouth was a groan, a desperate deep whine.
White heat raced through her, coiling low in her belly, as he worked her ruthlessly towards an orgasm. She swallowed as many sounds as she could, desperately aware he could get in so much trouble for this moment.
It didn’t take long for her to get there, for her legs to start trembling as her pulse raced just as fast, out of control and then she was lost, free-floating and wild in the night sky. A shooting star.
And then darkness. Shaking.
Kisses on the back of her neck and the warmest, sweetest words.
As soon as he tugged her jeans back up over her hips, she twisted around, reaching for his belt. He let her hook her fingers into his waistband, but then he shuddered and wrapped his fingers around her wrists.
“No.” He licked his lips, his eyes hooded and heavy. Full of lust. “I want your fingers on me, God damn I do, but I can’t. Not here.”
Her heart bounced, a little giddy-up, at the realization that he’d risk a lot to get her off, but not for himself. As far as ethical bounds went, it probably wouldn’t pass anyone else’s squint test, but she thought the world of him for it. She shimmied off the desk and pulled him right against her. “Then we should probably make our way to your bed—or mine—so we can talk more about what you mean by for fucking real?”
He cupped her face in his hands. “Ab-so—”
The pager on his desk cut him off. A loud, piercing alert.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Catie’s heart stopped as the pager vibrated behind her. Will closed his eyes, swore long and hard under his breath, then nodded. “Excellent timing, universe.”
She reached for the interrupting device and passed it to him, then dug out her phone. In a few months, she’d have a pager of her own, but for now, as a trainee, she might get invited along for the search or she might not.
As Will read the message on the pager screen, a text came in for her.
Tom: SAR team call out. All volunteers needed. Missing hikers. Meet at the Emergency Services Building.
The address followed.
Will gave her a tight look. “Do you want to drive together?”
She shook her head. “Let’s take two cars. You might need to go in a different direction than me.”
He caught her gently and tugged her in, his hand cupping the back of her neck. “We’ll continue this later.”
She nodded. Then she headed out to her car to grab her bag. She needed to change into her Day-Glo-iest outfit for a night search.
This was a big one. One of the hikers had a medical condition, details not known yet, but it had been flagged by the bed-and-breakfast owner who reported that her guests didn’t return from a planned outing. Time was of the essence to find them. In addition to the SAR turnout, the volunteer fire brigade, off-duty full-time firefighters like Adam, and OPP officers like Rafe Minelli were also arriving.
They were divided into groups that had someone from each type of first responder. They would be travelling from this central spot to a designated search quadrant.
Will was the team leader for her group. They all hovered and watched as he did a quick map review. He talked under his breath, practicing what he would tell them. Making his time assessment for each phase of the search, and setting an initial plan.
Then he looked up, glanced around to find a decent briefing area away from the noise, and motioned for their group to follow him. “All right. Here’s our task. We’re driving over to this concession road. The hiking paths diverge here. This is where we’ll enter the woods. We’ll do this together, as one group. I’ll give you a more detailed briefing when we arrive there. Who has first aid knowledge?”
The EMT raised her hand. “And I have a complete advanced first aid kit on me.”
“Excellent. Thank you. We’re looking for two hikers, a man and a woman in their late twenties. We’re going to be covering a densely forested area with multiple trails. The plan is that our search could take six hours, but make sure you have enough food on you for twenty-four just in case. Understood?”
They all said yes out loud at the same time.
“Check your gear, grab extra batteries, and be ready to roll in five minutes. Here are your copies of the map.”
To her horror, Catie recognized the area where they would be searching. It was the same area she’d gotten lost at the start of the summer.
The way Will gave her a grim look, he was thinking the same thing.
“Catie, can you sign out two radios and a GPS unit?”
“Yes.”
“I can do that,” the young OPP officer said.
Will frowned at the cop. “I asked her. Check your gear.”
Catie hustled over to the truck that Yolanda had driven over from the SAR training centre. She carefully put in her supply order.
Yolanda handed it over, and gave her an extra head lamp, too. “You never know when someone thinks they’ve tested theirs but they haven’t.”
“Thanks.”
As she returned to the group, the EMT and the cop were arguing over how to read the map.
Will returned at the same time. “Is there a problem?”
The cop held up his phone. “The map looks different from what I have.”
Catie put on her helpful face. “If you turn on—”
“Look, lady—”
“That lady knows how to read the damn map,” Will bit out. “Either you listen to her or you get the hell away from this search.”
Catie spun on her heel and gave him big eyes. What?
It wasn’t like him to overreact like that.
He grimaced. “Someone else will be taking over as your team leader. Sorry, everyone, tensions are running a bit high. Catie, can I talk to you for a minute?”
She followed him around the side of the communication truck. “What’s wrong?”
He tugged off his gloves, his breath puffing between them. “I want you to have this.” He carefully peeled up her sleeve. “It’s a compass for your watch,” he murmured. “So you don’t need to rely on your phone app or the one on your pack.”
Her breath caught in her throat as his fingers brushed the inside of her wrist.
“It may rain or snow. Keep your wet weather gear close to the top of your packs.” He was just firing tips at her for her first search, but she didn’t understand what was going on.
“Will, where are you going?”
He pointed to the sky as she became aware of the heavy whirring of an approaching helicopter. “I have to catch a ride.”
“Will—”
He caught her hand. “Stay safe. Don’t let those dickheads think they know more about searching than you do. They don’t have anyone else who can rappel out of a help, so I’m up.”
She kissed him hard on the mouth, then watched as he sprinted to where his pack sat next to his truck. He grabbed it and made his way to the road, where the helicopter set down.
The helicopter found the hikers before the ground searchers did. They had found a clearing, and spread out light coloured and reflective things.
They circled the area twice, looking for vehicle access, and when they couldn’t see any in the dark, Will hooked his harness to the winch and stepped out into the night.
On the ground, he took a quick assessment of both hikers, who were conscious and unharmed. But the woman reported that she did have diabetes. “It’s just diet controlled. I mentioned it to our host when we checked in. She remembered?”
Will nodded. “She did. Let’s get you up there first, then.”
He put her in a harness, told her friend he would be right back, and hooked them up to be lifted to the bird above.
Her pulse was higher than he liked for someone who was just standing on the ground, even someone stressed by being lost. The EMT on board agreed, and after doing a blood sugar test, made the judgement call they should leave as soon as possible, so Will was lowered back down to stay with the other hiker. As soon as he hit the ground and was unclipped, he radioed above that he was free, and the helicopter took off, heading south to the hospital.
“Hey man,” Will said, sitting down heavily next to the remaining hiker. “How’s your night going?”
That got him a weak laugh. “I’ll be better when I know she’s okay. This has never happened to us before.”
“My girlfriend got lost on these trails earlier in the summer. And she’s trained SAR, too. It happens to the best of us.”
“What are we going to do? Wait for the helicopter to come back?”
Will shook his head. “They’ll get a hasty team close to our position, and then we’ll hike out once they find us.”
“Okay.” The man shook his head. “This is wild.”
Will dug out his pack of snacks and a spare water bottle. “Hungry?”
“Starved.”
It wasn’t long before his radio squawked, but the news wasn’t great. They were almost an hour on foot away from the nearest access road. Will dug out his survival blankets and gave the guy one and wrapped the other around himself. “We’re here for a bit, bud.”
He pictured where Catie was right now. They’d have just gotten the heads up that the hikers had been found, so their team could return to search command base. She’d been trekking back through the woods with that cocky cop on one side and the EMT on the other. Probably being upbeat and cheerful.
Thirty minutes passed before he got another update. “Hey man. Your partner is at the hospital getting checked out. All looks good.”
The sound the other man let out was unholy. Pure relief. And for the first time in his life, Will could truly identify. If something was wrong with Catie, he’d be beside himself with worry.
And then it was a countdown of sharing girlfriend stories until Tom and Tobin’s hasty team search found them. They retraced the mens’ steps to get to Tom’s truck, and then it was a quiet, grateful drive back to Pine Harbour.
By the time he returned, the original search teams had been debriefed and sent home. His own debrief was quick. Tom had heard about Will snapping at the OPP officer, and that was the piece they talked about the most.
“I didn’t like him thinking he could be rude to Catie,” Will confessed.
Tom gave him a steady look. “And who is the best person to deal with that directly?”
“Catie.” Will groaned. “I know. I know.”
“Maybe going forward, we should be more mindful to put you on separate teams.”
He shrugged. “It can’t hurt.”
Tom laughed.
“I thought we could keep it separate.”
“And what is it, exactly?”
Will shook his head. “Too early to say, man. But you’ll be the first to know once we have a name for it.”
As soon as he humanly could get away, he was in his truck, calling her.
“Hello?” She sounded tired, but not sleepy. Like she was in bed but wide awake.
“Are you wired?”
“Yeah.” She sounded relieved to hear from him. “Are you done?”
“Yep.”
A silence stretched before either of them said anything. He listened to her shift, then exhale. On either side of the road, dark trees and shadowy fields flashed by.
“I was thinking—”
“Do you want to come over?” She asked it at the same time as he started to speak.
Silently, he pumped his fist in the air. “I’ll be there in five minutes.”
She was waiting for him, swinging the door open as he walked up her step. She was wearing sweatpants and a long-sleeve t-shirt, and she had a half-drunk bottle of beer in her hand.
He followed her inside, and as soon as the door was closed, he had her pressed against the wall. She tasted like hops, like victory. Like utter fatigue and pure bliss.
“Want one?” she asked as she led him through a living room that looked magazine perfect. The next room was an equally gorgeous kitchen.
He shrugged out of his coat and hung it on the back of one of two chairs at the kitchen island. “Sure. A beer would be great.”
She grabbed him one from the fridge, then leaned against the island.
He couldn’t read her expression. So he set aside all their personal stuff and went to the big thing she’d just experienced. “How do you feel?”
“Antsy.”
“You did well.”
“It got dark pretty fast.” Her gazed darted away from his face, then back again. Down to his hands, then back up. “That took me by surprise.”
“Yeah. You were focused on your grid search. And we trained in the summer. Longer days.”
“I’m glad we were in a line.” She started to peel the label off her bottle, then stopped. Gripped it tighter, until her knuckles turned white. “I started to…worry.”
When she hesitated before the final word, he wondered if she was going to say she panicked. It would be normal if she did. Starting to panic, recognizing those feelings, then working through them and getting the job done was commendable. He told her as much.
She shook her head. “It’s not that. But yeah, I could see that. No, I started to go negative in my head. Think we weren’t going to find them. Went straight to the worst outcomes. It was like flashes in my mind.”
Shit. He moved closer, and she swayed into him. He set his bottle down and hugged her tight.
“Why did you want to come over?” Her question was muffled by his shirt, but he understood it all the same.
He exhaled roughly into her hair. “Because I didn’t want to be alone tonight. Not just because of earlier. We have unfinished business, sure, but it’s also just a search thing. I’m antsy, too. I’m anxious, too. Even when it goes well, I think about the what-ifs.”
She kissed his neck, then his jaw. “Can we burn off this energy for an hour or two?”
He was already hard for her. He slid his hand into her hair and tugged so he could see her face. “Do you have to work tomorrow?”
“Not until noon.”
He hovered his mouth above hers. “Then we could stay up until dawn if you want.”
She pressed up, bringing them together. Her lips were feather light, soft and sensual, as she moved against him.
“Let’s start in the shower,” he rumbled against her mouth.
She nodded and led him down the hall. They kept their bottles of beer, but discarded their clothes as they went. In the steam, she kept kissing him as he soaped up her back. Then he turned her around so he could carefully wash every inch of her front.
When she was done, she pushed him back against the tiled wall and knelt in front of him. She washed up one leg, then the other. And when she got to his cock, she wrapped her soapy hand around him, and serviced him in a whole different way, until he was throbbing with the need to be inside her.
He wrapped her in the largest towel he’d ever seen, then carried her to her bed as she gave him directions.
It was only when he was on top of her that he realized he was utterly unprepared for actually being inside her. “I didn’t bring anything,” he muttered into her neck as he rearranged his horny thoughts into alternate ways to get off.
“I bought a pack of condoms with your name on it two weeks ago,” she said, sounding very proud of herself. “Economy sized. Because I don’t want this to be a one-off.”
