Winter Heat

by Kennedy Fox

“I can reimburse you,” she said.

  “No.”

  She let out a huff of a laugh. “No?”

  “That’s right. No.”

  She pursed her lips. “I’ll reimburse Thea then.”

  “My sister’s not going to take money from you.”

  Sasha cuffed me lightly on the shoulder as she turned away and propped the shovel against the railing on the stairs. Of course, my eyes went right to her bottom. She was not short on curves. If I thought her jeans did her sweet body justice, her fleece leggings were even worse, outlining every inch of her generous hips.

  Turning back, she asked, “What can I carry?”

  We got everything unloaded, and then I found myself in the kitchen after we let Matilda outside to run around. I looked down into Sasha’s eyes.

  The need to kiss her felt like a whip lashing at my back. She was standing right there, her hand resting on the kitchen counter as she drew her tongue along the spoon she’d just dipped in honey to stir into a cup of tea.

  She set the spoon down, and I took one step, closing the distance between us. “You shouldn’t do that,” I murmured, my voice coming out low and gravelly.

  “Do what?”

  “Lick the spoon.”

  Her puzzled eyes met mine. “What’s the problem with that?”

  “I want to kiss you,” I practically growled.

  Chapter 5

  Sasha

  I stared up at Noah, my mouth falling open. “Huh?”

  His eyes narrowed as he took a step closer. “I. Want. To. Kiss. You.”

  Each word out of his mouth came out slowly and deliberately. I heard the words, and technically knew the meaning, but my mind just couldn’t comprehend. I’d been a single mom busy raising my daughter for fourteen years, those years encompassing the entirety of my adulthood and the past few years of adolescence. Feeling sexy and the object of anyone’s desire was practically a foreign concept to me at this point.

  “You do?” I finally squeaked.

  “Didn’t I just say it twice?” He was starting to look almost annoyed.

  “Oh.”

  “Oh?” he countered. “All you have to do is tell me to back the fuck off. No need to be coy about it.”

  I rested a hand on my hip. “I’m not being coy. I’m just a little rusty. I can’t believe you want to kiss me.”

  “It’s not smart,” he said, almost as if to himself.

  “What’s not smart about it?” I pressed, now almost offended about something only seconds ago I’d thought wasn’t possible.

  “You’re Thea’s friend.”

  “And I’m an adult,” I sputtered. “For God’s sake, I have a fourteen-year-old daughter. Speaking of being coy, just be honest. I know, the whole single mom thing is a huge turn-off.”

  In a hot second, Noah erased the distance between us, and I found myself with my hips pressing against the counter and his arms caging me in on either side. “I’m not being coy. I’m never coy. This has nothing to do with you being a single mom. I’m just trying to be sensible, and you’re not making it easy,” he muttered, his eyes flashing and his voice taut.

  A thrill chased through me at his words. Well, that, and the fact that I could feel his muscled thighs pressing against mine. He carried a subtle, masculine scent, woodsy with a hint of the ocean and snow.

  “I’ve spent my entire adult life being sensible,” I heard myself saying, almost startled at my boldness. “What if I don’t want to be sensible?”

  Noah’s nostrils flared, and he took in a sharp breath. “Sasha,” he warned.

  Determined not to get dismissed, I leaned up, sliding my hand around the back of his neck, and brought my lips to his. The moment we made contact, it felt as if an actual sizzle of electricity linked us. My lips almost burned from it for a moment.

  Noah stilled for two electrifying beats of my heart. Then he groaned and angled his head to the side. One of his hands pressed between my shoulder blades, sliding up as his fingers tangled in my hair. He took control of our kiss in a searing second. His tongue slid across the seam of my lips, and I opened, letting out a moan at the feel of his tongue sweeping in and gliding against mine.

  I didn’t know how long it lasted because I lost track of everything, including time, but our kiss went absolutely wild. I arched against him, savoring the feel of his swollen arousal pressing at the apex of my thighs. Our kiss almost felt like a fight. I was fighting to unleash a part of me that had lain dormant for years. Meanwhile, Noah’s tongue dueled with mine, his lips sensual and commanding.

  Eventually, he drew back, and I felt myself following him, but he held my head still where his palm lightly gripped the nape of my neck. His forehead fell on mine as he pressed a kiss to one corner of my mouth and then the other. “Sasha,” he whispered gruffly, “slow down.”

  “I don’t want to,” I said, almost pleadingly.

  He held me close. The sound of our ragged breathing filled my ears, as my heartbeat kicked hard and fast inside my chest. Eventually, a shuffling sound by the kitchen door nudged into my awareness. My thoughts were muddled until I heard Matilda’s distinct bark.

  “I need to let Matilda in,” I murmured into Noah’s chest. And what a chest it was, all muscled and strong. I wanted to slide my hands under his T-shirt and map the planes of his body.

  Noah stepped back, his eyes searching mine. I suddenly felt uncertain and abashed. Turning, I crossed quickly to the kitchen door, letting Matilda in. She greeted me with thumps of her tail against my calves before hurrying over to do the same with Noah. Her presence snapped some cold reality through that crazy moment, and I busied myself tidying the kitchen and putting away the things Noah had gotten at the store. He helped for a few minutes, but then his phone rang, and he stepped out of the kitchen.

  I crossed over to fill the new tea kettle with water. After I set it on the stove and turned on the burner, I leaned my hips against the counter and curled my hands over the edge. I needed the cold surface of the counter to anchor me. Lifting my head, I stared out through the windows. The snow-covered lawn glittered under the late afternoon sun, and I wondered just how ridiculous Noah thought I was.

  But then, I recalled the feel of his lips on mine and the heat of his arousal. No matter how many doubts crowded my thoughts, his body told me the truth. Maybe, just maybe, I should take this accidental week with him and have a fling. I trusted Noah, and I knew he wouldn’t hurt me. I was far too sensible to let my heart get involved. Maybe, just maybe, this was perfect.

  Chapter 6

  Noah

  “Got it,” I said into the phone. “I’ll take care of it when I’m back in the office next week.”

  “You’re not gonna cave and come back early?” my older brother, Dallas, teased.

  “No,” I said, fighting not to sigh.

  “Good,” Dallas replied firmly. “You need a break. I only called because you asked me to.”

  “I did. And thanks to you, I think I might actually be able to take this break.”

  Dallas chuckled. “Sounds like a plan. Now, I’m not calling you again. I’ll see you at Christmas.”

  The line went dead in my ear, and I lowered my phone, sliding it back in my pocket. I’d followed my older brother into the FBI. Last year, we started working together on a case. I loved working with Dallas because I trusted him implicitly. He’d called to let me know they’d finally made an arrest on a complicated financial fraud case. That was my expertise, which was kind of weird because my father was in jail for pulling off a massive fraud. Well, only temporarily pulling it off.

  With a mental shake, I crossed the living room to look out the windows. The evergreen trees flanking the backyard were dusted with snow. Whitecaps ruffled the surface of the ocean in the distance. A gust of wind blew a little swirl of snow off a tree, and the feathers of a blue jay were bright as the bird flew past the windows.

  I thought about Sasha and that crazy, hot kiss. Fuck me. I knew it wasn’t smart to want her. It de
finitely wasn’t smart to kiss her. Kissing her only made me want her even more. She kissed with abandon, and she felt so perfect—soft and warm with her curves pressing against me.

  I decided, for the moment, to just see what happened. Maybe it was insane, but I wasn’t so sure I could keep my hands off the delectable Sasha all week.

  “You’re going where?” I asked, glancing up from where I was sitting on the couch in the living room. Although I’d managed to avoid further phone calls from work, I’d been unable to resist pulling out my laptop and checking my email.

  “Out to dinner,” Sasha replied.

  When my eyes met hers, my body instantly tightened. She was wearing a fitted pair of jeans with leather boots that hugged her calves. She wore a silky plum-colored blouse over a fitted camisole, and my eyes landed on the stretch of cotton across her breasts. She had lip gloss on, and I wanted to throw my laptop on the floor, stand, cross to her, and kiss it all off. I swallowed.

  “I’ll come with you.”

  Sasha’s eyes narrowed, her gaze considering as she looked at me from across the room. I felt as if I were being measured and sized up in her mind. “You’ve been avoiding me for the past twenty-four hours. Maybe we should stick with that. Apparently, kissing me totally freaked you out.”

  I closed my laptop and set it on the coffee table before standing. “Kissing you did not freak me out,” I said flatly. The rapid thud of my heartbeat in my chest echoed with each word. “I’d like to go to dinner with you.” I crossed the room, stopping where she stood in the archway that led into the hallway.

  “I wasn’t aware I invited you to go with me.” Her tone was sharp, but there was a rasp to it, and I didn’t miss the way her cheeks pinkened.

  “Fine, let me correct that. Would you mind if I went to dinner with you?” I tried to keep my tone crisp, but it came out slightly rough, like the serrated edge of my desire.

  Sasha lifted her shoulder in a light shrug with a saucy lift of her chin. “Fine. I hadn’t decided where to go yet. Do you have a preference?”

  “How about Emile’s? We haven’t been there yet.”

  “Fine. We’ve only been here two days.”

  “I wasn’t saying that as a complaint,” I returned. “Just that I haven’t been there in years, and since you haven’t been to Haven’s Bay in a while, I figured you hadn’t either.”

  “I haven’t. Shall we go then?”

  “Sure. Let me just grab my jacket.”

  The heels of Sasha’s boots echoed briskly on the floor ahead of me. My eyes tracked the swing of her hips. I’d been lying when I told her kissing her hadn’t freaked me out. It had most definitely unsettled me. Just not the way she thought.

  Sasha snagged her fluffy down jacket hanging on the coatrack in the corner of the foyer. My jacket was hanging on the end of the banister, and I grabbed it.

  “Oh wait, I need to let Matilda out before we go,” she said as soon as Matilda came trotting down the stairs. She’d taken to napping upstairs in the sunshine that came through the window and landed on a circular rug at the end of the hall up there.

  It was early evening, and the sun was setting, but it was still probably warm there.

  “I’ll start my car while you take her out.”

  Sasha nodded, following me with Matilda right behind us. A few minutes later, my car was warm, and Sasha was quiet as I drove into Haven’s Bay. Under the evening twilight, the holiday lights glittered, casting the small downtown area in a charming twinkling glow.

  “Wow,” Sasha said in a low voice. “I forgot how beautiful the town is over the holidays.”

  I glanced sideways when I came to a stop at the stoplight. She was looking out the window, and I wanted to reach over and turn her chin toward mine for a kiss. She was still annoyed with me, and now wasn’t the moment for that.

  I turned onto Main Street, passing by Haven’s Bay Grocery. Holiday lights were strung on the rooftops of the stores and homes in downtown proper. The decorative lampposts had wreaths mounted on them, lining the street with holiday cheer. Another moment later, the sign for Emile’s came in to view. I slowed and turned into the parking lot, not surprised to see it filled with cars.

  As we walked across the parking lot with the sound of our footsteps crunching on the gravel, I commented, “We might have to wait at the bar for a table.”

  Sasha’s eyes slid sideways, her lips kicking up at one corner. Lust bolted through me. “I’ve never even gotten to sit at the bar here. That’s big stuff.”

  Her reply caught me off guard, and I barked out a laugh as I held the door open for her. “I guess not, seeing as you moved away from town when you were sixteen.”

  I turned out to be right. When we stepped inside, every table was full. Even the bar was full, although I spied one barstool and quickly guided Sasha over to it. Without thinking, I rested my hand on her lower back, coaxing her forward as we threaded our way through the tables.

  I saw people turning as we passed by with some waving or calling out quick greetings. I hadn’t been back home too often, but I did know some locals. I honestly didn’t know who might recognize Sasha.

  “Right here,” I murmured, leaning down to speak into her ear.

  She slipped her hips onto the barstool, and I leaned my elbows on the bar beside her. She spun around, her eyes arcing about the room. “Wow, it looks pretty much the same.”

  The restaurant was in a renovated cape-style home with the walls knocked down and supporting beams refinished to create open space. Tables were scattered in the center with a coffee bar on one side, a liquor bar on the other, and a deli counter and kitchen in the back. The place functioned as a coffee shop and deli in the morning into afternoon. In the evenings, the coffee bar shut down, and alcohol flowed with the food. They served standard pub fare with the seafood twist of mid-coast Maine. In addition to burgers and sandwiches, they had fresh lobster rolls, fish and chips, crab cakes, and the like.

  The restaurant was pretty basic as far as décor went. Over in one corner, there was a pool table. The bar had a glossy wooden surface, and the bartender, Rick, caught my eye, grinning when he recognized me.

  “Well, hey there, Noah. Long time.” His eyes landed curiously on Sasha. “Do I know you?” he asked as he set two napkins on the bar in front of us.

  “Maybe,” Sasha replied with a saucy grin. “I’m Sasha Hilts. I grew up here, but I moved away in high school.”

  Rick nodded slowly, his brows hitching up. “Ah, I remember you. How’re things?”

  “Pretty good.”

  “What can I get you two?”

  “I’m driving, so I’ll just take a water. You?” I glanced at Sasha, not missing Rick’s lingering gaze on her. A bolt of possessiveness jolted me.

  “What kind of margaritas do you have?” she asked.

  “Strawberry and regular.”

  “I’ll take a strawberry one.”

  “You two waiting for a table?” Rick asked as he quickly filled a glass with ice and water and handed it to me before making Sasha’s margarita.

  I nodded. “We’d like to sit down to eat.”

  “Got it.” He glanced over just as a waitress slipped through the swinging doors into the kitchen in the back. He handed Sasha her drink. “I’ll put that on your check for after you eat,” he said as he turned away to serve another customer. “Great to see you both.”

  Minutes later, I decided coming out with Sasha was a bad idea. The guy on the other side of her was flirting with her, and she was flirting back. I was grinding my teeth and feeling fucking insane. Jealousy wasn’t something I had any experience with. Sasha seemed uniquely able to bring a sense of possessiveness out in me. Hell, I wanted to punch the fucking guy and Rick too. Because he kept casting her appreciative looks.

  When the waitress let us know a table was open, Sasha slid her empty margarita glass over toward Rick. “That was delicious. Thank you.” Turning to me, she added, “Be right there. I’m going to stop in the ladies’ room.�
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  As she walked away, Rick asked me, “You two a couple?”

  Because I wasn’t thinking rationally, I lied, “Yes.”

  He chuckled. “Better hold on tight.”

  Sasha met me at the table minutes later, sitting down with a smile. “You know, I wouldn’t trade being a single mom, but it’s kind of nice to have a break. Nobody here knows how unglamorous my life is. It’s like being actually single instead of being a single mom.”

  I stared at her across the table and almost growled. “Really?” I managed tightly.

  “Why so grumpy?” she asked. She pulled the laminated menu tucked between the salt and pepper from the center of the table and began scanning it.

  “I’m not grumpy,” I muttered in return.

  Her gorgeous green eyes lifted to mine, searching my face. “If you say so.”

  A minute later, she tucked the menu back between the salt and pepper. “I’m getting a lobster roll. I haven’t had one in a while.”

  “When we’re back in Boston, I’ll take you to my favorite place for lobster rolls at the docks.”

  “We?”

  “Yes. We both live in Boston. No reason we can’t get together there.”

  She stared back at me, and I didn’t know how to read what I saw flickering in her eyes. We had dinner, and it was delicious. My manners kicked in, and I learned more about her life at work. By the time we left, my body was twisted tight for her. Sitting across the table and watching her eat was its own form of torture, made worse by my irrational possessiveness. Every man who looked her way annoyed me. I supposed the worst part was I felt like I’d put myself in the situation.

  As we were crossing the parking lot toward my car after dinner, Sasha smiled in my direction. “Thanks for going with me. It’s nice just to get out.”

  “Great to see you, Sasha,” a voice called. She turned back, waving at the guy who spoke.

  “Nice to see you too, Aaron!” she called in return.