Smoldering Desire (Hellfire Series Book 3)

by Elle James

  Selena laughed as she expected Lola would want her to. When the older woman turned and walked down the hall, Selena entered the bedroom and closed the door. Though the bed looked like something only a woman would sleep in, Selena couldn’t help thinking about what Rider would look like lying amongst the frilly comforter and pillow shams. The pink and green ruffles would do nothing to detract from Rider’s masculinity. Her lips still tingled from the kiss he’d given her before he’d left. Selena wondered whether his lips were tingling as well. She doubted it, but it didn’t hurt to dream.

  After she turned back the blankets, she fluffed the pillows and stared down at the bed. Maybe it would be a good idea to get a cool shower before she laid down. She gathered her PJs and her toothbrush and exited the room to find the bathroom down the hallway. Lola’s house was quaint, probably built in the early 1900s, but had been updated with the right amenities, although, she hadn’t done anything towards updating the furnishings. In fact, she’d stuck with the early 1900s styles with its solid wood furniture, wall paper, and wainscoting along the hallway. Even in the bathroom, Selena found a claw foot bathtub with a shower curtain strung all the way around it. On the shelf beside the tub were some fragrant bath bombs.

  So, instead of a shower, Selena opted for a bath, filling the tub with warm water and one of the bath bombs. The fragrant scent of honeysuckle filled the air in the bathroom. Selena stripped out of her clothes and sank into the tub. It was big enough for two people.

  Now, she imagined leaning back against Rider’s body—Rider’s naked body. She piled her hair on her head and secured it with a rubber band, and then sank down beneath the water until her shoulders were covered, letting the scented bath bomb oils cover her skin. She lay for a while, relaxing in the warmth. Letting the stress of the day slide off her. She leaned her head against the porcelain and closed her eyes, trying not to think of anything but the warmth of the water and the scent surrounding her. But that was not to be. Every time she closed her eyes, images of Rider came to mind. And again, she thought of him in the tub, and how she’d lean against him as he smoothed water over her shoulders, arms and breasts, and even lower…to the junction of her thighs.

  Selena let her fingers follow the path his took in her imagination until she touched the curls atop her mound. A low moan rose up her throat and escaped into the hollows of the bathroom, echoing off the walls. She clapped a hand over her mouth, her eyes shooting wide open. She prayed her landlady didn’t hear her moaning as she sank into the bathtub. Pleasuring one’s self was something one did in one’s own home, not in her landlady’s spare bathroom. What would Lola think if she knew of the thoughts running through her head?

  Pushing her naughty thoughts to the back of her mind, Selena enjoyed the bath for a few minutes longer before finally standing, rinsing and drying off. She slipped into the old T-shirt and yoga pants she wore as her PJs. After hanging her towel on a rail, she exited the bathroom, carrying her clothes.

  Voices downstairs made her pause in the hallway with her hand on the doorknob to the bedroom she’d been assigned. Lola’s laughter floated up the stairway. An answering deep-toned male laugh followed. Selena stood stock-still, waiting for the next sound, wondering to whom the male voice belonged. A moment later, she heard a low rumble she could have sworn was Rider’s voice. A ripple of awareness skittered across her skin and sent warmth down to her core.

  She tiptoed to the railing overlooking the living room area, but she couldn’t see who was there.

  Lola appeared at the base of the stairs, her back to Selena as she talked to someone in the living room. “You have a pillow,” Lola said, “and if you need another blanket, there are more in the chest in the corner. I hope you sleep well. If you don’t need anything else, I’ll see you in the morning. Oh, and how do you like your eggs? Over easy or scrambled?”

  “Over easy. Thanks, but I can cook for myself when I get back to my apartment.”

  Selena sucked in a sharp breath. It was Rider’s voice she had heard. She backed away as Lola turned to walk up the stairs. She reached her door when Lola topped the landing. Selena pretended like she didn’t know that Lola had come up the stairs.

  She had her hand on the doorknob, turning it, when Lola said, “Hey.” Lola closed the distance between them, and then leaned close to her ear. “I knew he couldn’t stay away from you for long.” She winked. “I’d say the attraction is pretty mutual. So much for unrequited love.” She winked again and walked away. Lola threw a parting comment over her shoulder, “And just so you know, I take a rather large sleeping pill, and I don’t hear much of anything in the middle of the night. Just in case you want to make a little noise, I won’t hear a thing.”

  Heat rushed into Selena’s cheeks. She pushed through her bedroom door and closed it behind her. Leaning against it, her breathing came in ragged gasps. Rider was downstairs. Rider, the man who’d kissed her just a few moments ago. Rider, the man she’d been dreaming about when she was in the bathtub. Holy smokes, he was downstairs. And she was just feet away from him. She pressed a hand to her chest. Dare she go downstairs and strike up a conversation?

  Selena shook her head. No. She shouldn’t. Despite Lola’s inference, Selena knew Rider was just concerned over their welfare. It didn’t mean he was attracted to her. For all she knew he might be attracted to Lola. The older woman was quite a good-looking woman for her age. Any man would find her appealing. A little voice in the back of Selena’s head said, But he didn’t kiss Lola. He kissed you.

  Warmth filled her body and warmed her core. If she did go down the stairs, what would she say? She stared at her image in the mirror, her hair piled on top of her head and wearing her old T-shirt and yoga pants. It wasn’t like she was a sex kitten on her way down to seduce a Grayson brother. She looked like a kid sister who would hang out with him and talk about old times.

  Perhaps that was what she could do. They did have their past in common. All the times they’d ridden together, pretty much as a family. They could talk about that, and she could ask about the cars he was working on and the people he was doing the work for. Heck, they knew everybody in town, so it wouldn’t be a stretch to talk about the different people they had grown up with.

  Selena loosened the rubber band in her hair and let the tresses fall around her shoulders. She ran her fingers through the strands, straightening them from the mass of tangles. She considered her hair one of her greatest attributes. It was thick, glossy, black and healthy. No, she wasn’t a blonde-haired, blue-eyed debutante from Dallas.

  But maybe that wasn’t what Rider wanted. Having just divorced a blonde-haired, blue-eyed debutante, he might be in more of a mood for a dark-haired, dark-eyed Hispanic girl with more fire in her blood than one of those ice princesses from Dallas.

  Nope.

  She couldn’t just waltz down the stairs and strike up a conversation when all she wanted to do was throw herself into his arms and continue that kiss where it had left off earlier.

  Nope.

  She couldn’t do it.

  However, she was thirsty. A drink of water was a very good excuse to go downstairs to the kitchen and rummage around for a glass of water, maybe put some ice in it. Make a little noise. And if it happened to make Rider come check it out, well then, she would have an excuse to say a few words to him. And maybe sneak another kiss.

  Before she could talk herself out of it, she reached for the doorknob, pulled it open, and hurried out of the bedroom and down the stairs. She didn’t glance to the side when she passed the living area, but she could see in her peripheral vision where Rider stood by the front living room window. She tiptoed past him to the kitchen, opened the door softly and closed it behind her. Unfamiliar with the kitchen’s layout, she switched on the light and rummaged in the cabinets until she found a glass and filled it with ice from the freezer. The squeak of the hinge alerted her to the fact that the kitchen door was opening. She turned the faucet and filled her glass with water. She knew he was there, but he wou
ld have to be the first one to acknowledge that he was in the room with her.

  “Where’d you get the glass?” Rider asked.

  Selena girded her loins and turned with a bright, “Oh, I didn’t know you were here.”

  Rider’s lips twisted. “Really? We made enough noise to wake the dead.”

  Selena shrugged and started to walk past him. “I was in the bath. I didn’t realize Lola had company.”

  He took two steps forward, closing the distance between them. “You mean you didn’t come downstairs to see me?”

  He stood so close she could smell his aftershave. Selena found herself leaning toward him, inhaling deeply. “Na, nah, nooo, of course not,” she said. “Why did you come back?”

  He smiled. “For one, I was worried about you and Lola, here, by yourselves. And two, I couldn’t stop thinking about that kiss.”

  Selena’s eyes widened. “The kiss?” She’d been thinking about that nonstop since he’d left.

  Rider nodded. “The kiss.” He took the glass from her hand and set it on the counter. Then he took her arms and pulled her close until their chests touched. His hands slipped up behind her back and threaded into her hair, tipping her head backward. “All I could think about was kissing you again.”

  Selena’s knees wobbled. She settled her hands on his chest. Her fingers curled into his T-shirt. When she should have pushed him away, she found herself whispering, “What are you waiting for?”

  His arms closed around her. His lips crushed hers. And he kissed her. Pushing his tongue past her teeth to slide along the length of hers in a long smooth caress.

  Selena’s arms rose, her hands linking behind his neck pulling him closer. He slid his fingers down her back and cupped her thighs, lifting her and setting her on the counter behind her.

  She crossed her ankles behind his back and pulled him close, pressing her sex against the ridge behind the denim of his jeans. As the kiss deepened, he pressed closer to her as if he couldn’t get close enough. After a long moment, he raised his head, cupped her cheeks in his hands and stared down at her. “I want to do sooo much more,” he said softly, “but this is neither my place nor yours.”

  Selena brushed a strand of hair off his forehead and leaned close to his ear. “Lola takes a sleeping pill before she goes to bed,” she whispered. Then she reached for the hem of his T-shirt and tugged it free of his waistband.

  “Would it be wrong to make love to you in another woman’s kitchen?” Rider said against her ear.

  Selena melted against him, her breathing shallow, her heart pounding. “Lola told me herself, ‘Go for what you want. Life’s short.’”

  Selena pulled the shirt over Rider’s head and tossed it to the side. He grabbed the hem of her shirt and lifted it up. She raised her arms over her head and let the shirt slide free of her arms and head. He tossed it across a chair and stared down at her full perky breasts. He cupped each rounded globe in his palms as if weighing them. “You’re not the little girl I grew up with.”

  Selena leaned forward into his cupped hands. “No, I’m quite grown up.” And she reached for the button on his jeans, flipped it open, and then guided the zipper down.

  His shaft sprang free, and she wrapped her fingers around it. “Quite grown up,” she repeated.

  Rider slipped his hands into the waistband of her yoga pants and dragged them downward, lifting her off the counter to slip them over her thighs and past her calves and ankles.

  Selena pushed his jeans down past his buttocks. Just far enough to where she could cup the rounded globes of his ass. As he pressed the tip of his cock to her entrance, she paused and looked up at him. “Protection?”

  He drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly, nodding. “Back pocket.”

  Selena stretched to reach for the wallet in his back pocket, opened it and found a foil package inside. She dropped his wallet on the counter and tore open the packet. Eagerly, she leaned back far enough to roll the condom down his erection. Then she positioned him at the entrance to her channel, wrapped her ankles around his back and pulled him close.

  He paused before entering her. “Are you sure about this?”

  She nodded. “More certain about this than anything else in my life.”

  She tightened her thighs around him, and he eased into her slick channel, filling her, stretching her, making her feel so complete, she could barely breathe.

  He drove deeper until he could go no more. And then he paused and waited for her channel to adjust to his girth.

  Selena breathed in and out, trying to remember how, when all she wanted to do was rock back and forth. “More, please.”

  He pulled out, drove back inside, and then settled into a smooth rhythm, in and out, in and out.

  The faster he moved, the harder it was for her to catch her breath. Tingling began deep in her core and spread outward, all the way to her fingertips. Her body shook with the force of her release. And then Rider stiffened, his body coming to a screeching halt. He thrust one last time, burying himself deep inside of her. His body shuddered, and he shook, holding her close, his fingers tight around her hips.

  When she could finally breathe again, she leaned her forehead against his chest and chuckled.

  Rider tipped up her chin. “What’s so funny?”

  Selena’s chuckled turned into giggles, and she pointed toward the window. “We were so worried about Lola seeing us, we didn’t even think about the curtains being open on the kitchen windows.” She pressed herself against him.

  He lifted her by the backs of her thighs and carried her out of the kitchen and into the living room, where the blinds had been closed and the curtains drawn. There, he laid her on the couch. “Is that better?” he asked.

  She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him down to kiss her. “Much,” she said. Selena scooted to the edge of the couch. Leaving enough room for Rider to slide in behind her and spoon her body with his.

  Rider wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close. Sliding a blanket over both their naked bodies, he nuzzled the back of her neck and whispered in her ear, “You know, this changes everything, don’t you?”

  Selena sighed. “Does it have to?”

  He pressed his lips to the back of her neck. “Yes, it does.”

  She yawned and leaned her head against him. “Do you mind if I don’t think about it until tomorrow?”

  He chuckled. “Not at all. As long as we do talk about it tomorrow.”

  Selena nodded, letting her eyes drift closed. Tomorrow was another day, but tonight was hers, and she’d gone for what she’d wanted. She would have no regrets over what they’d done. But she also knew that it hadn’t changed her plans. She was still on track to go to school in January. There was no changing that. As much as she wanted to be with Rider, she had a plan, and she was sticking to it.

  CHAPTER 7

  RIDER LAY for a long time with Selena nestled in his arms. Sometime in the early morning hours, he rose from the couch and dressed. He lifted Selena and carried her to the room Lola had assigned her. Gently, he laid her down, kissed her lips and pulled a blanket up around her neck. Then he left the house and returned to his apartment.

  The sun was just beginning to rise when he arrived in front of the garage. A different car stood in the parking lot from the night before. He recognized it, and his blood ran cold. What the hell was his ex-wife doing there?

  He walked past her car and noted that she was sound asleep with her head resting against the back of her seat. He walked past her and up the stairs to his apartment, ignoring the fact she was there. He didn’t want to confront her. Not yet. He had a lot to think about after sleeping with Selena.

  Rider strode through the door, then turned and locked it securely. He stripped out of his clothes and walked into the shower. Once he finished his shower, he dressed in jeans and a T-shirt and pulled on his boots. He ate a quick breakfast and went down to his garage to start work on the vehicles he had contracted to fix.

  H
e was tempted to call the sheriff’s department and have his ex-wife’s vehicle towed away, with her in it. He could just imagine how mad she would be, but he was even madder over the fact she’d shown up in Hellfire, when she’d never wanted to come to this town the entire time they’d been married. He bet his lack of response to her request for more money was her reason for coming to find him.

  As far as he was concerned, their marriage was over; his obligation to fund her lifestyle was complete. He’d given her practically everything that she’d asked for in the divorce. He’d even agreed to pay alimony, even though he knew she had trust funds from her deceased grandparents.

  He worked inside the garage with the garage door closed, changing air filters, changing oil and tinkering with the different cars he had up on the lifts. Around nine o’clock in the morning, it started to get warm inside the garage, so he figured it was time to open the big garage door and risk waking his ex. He hit the button for the automatic garage door opener and watched as the door lifted and rolled overhead. And sure enough, his ex was standing there.

  She wrinkled her nose and stared around the garage. “Good lord, Rider. You work in this filth?”

  He crossed his arms over his chest. “Some people like to work with their hands.”

  Rider hadn’t seen his ex-wife since they’d sat across the table in the lawyer’s office and signed the divorce papers. “Hello, Lydia. What are you doing in Hellfire?”

  She picked her way around the grease on the floor, careful not to touch anything and get her white pantsuit dirty. “Daddy said he misses you at the firm.”

  “Your father has plenty of other financial planners at the firm.” Rider raised his brows. “Try again.”

  Lydia stared around the garage with the two cars jacked up on platforms, her nose wrinkling. “I may have made a mistake.”

  Rider’s jaw clenched. “A mistake in coming to Hellfire? Or a mistake in stepping into my garage?”