Hot In Here (Ashton Heights Fire # 3) (11 page)

“
You have no idea.” She
had to move out of her parents’ house ASAP. At first, she’d loved
having her mother fuss over her, but two weeks back in the country
and she was ready to regain her independence. “I’m saving for
bond.”

“
We’re fully staffed
tonight.” Michelle gave one guy change and took the next customer’s
order at the same time, then started pouring the beers he’d asked
for while never losing the thread of conversation with Ally. “But
I’ll mention it to Barry. You might get a few more hours behind the
bar another night.”

“
Brilliant, ta. I’d better
get back out and clear a few tables.”

There were only a few
people still eating in her section, and nobody else ordering at
almost nine o’clock at night. The kitchen officially closed at
nine-thirty though, so Ally kept her eye out for new diners while
clearing the plates of those that had finished. She didn’t exactly
love waitressing, but there were worse jobs in the world. This was
good for some quick cash until she figured out what she really
wanted to do.

It was too bad the job was
at the Sovereign of all places. She’d kept a surreptitious eye on
the front doors all night, half-expecting Blair and Leo to come
striding through them at some point. This was the regular watering
hole for the firefighters of Ashton Heights, so she knew she was
probably going to see them again if she continued working here. But
that was also the reason she’d been able to so easily get the job.
Corey’s boyfriend, Griff, knew the owner well and had put in a good
word for her. She’d been hired on the spot, whereas the other
places she’d applied had wanted her to do psychometric testing or
work for free for the first week.

So there she was clearing
tables and praying she could get through one more night without
seeing the two guys she most wanted to avoid when the two guys she
most wanted to avoid waltzed in.

Oh shit.

Ally stumbled on her feet,
sending cutlery flying off the plate she was carrying. The
stainless steel clanged loudly as it collided with the hardwood
flooring. Several people turned her way, and she hastily ducked
down, ostensibly to retrieve the knife and fork. The act had the
dual purpose of keeping her out of sight.

What if they’d seen
her?
Oh shit, shit, shit.
She’d told herself she could handle seeing the
stars of her hottest sexual memory again, but as it turned out she
wasn’t holding herself together well. Her heart was hammering and
her fingers shook so much she dropped the cutlery all over
again.

“
You all right,
love?”

The man at the table she was hiding behind
peered over the top of it at her. Ally flashed him a smile. “Oh,
sure. Just making sure I got everything.”

“
Need some
help?”

“
No.”
Not unless you have a cloak of
invisibility on you.
“I’m fine,
thanks.”

Ally slowly got to her feet, keeping her
back to the doors just in case. She braved a glance up and saw that
Blair had made his way to the bar and Leo was headed to the back of
the pub where the pool tables were.

Looked like they weren’t
going to order any food at least. Ally let out a sigh of relief and
headed back to the kitchen with her head tilted away from the bar
so Blair wouldn’t see her face. She called herself a pathetic idiot
as she set the plates on the counter for the dishwasher. Why was
she having so much trouble with this? It wasn’t like she’d never
run into a one-night stand again after the deed was done. She
should simply walk right up to the guys and give them the
I-vaguely-remember-you-did-we-do-it-once? look.

The thing was, she doubted
she could pull that off with them. No way was she going to manage
an air of vague recollection about what she’d done. She’d barely
stopped thinking about it since. Whenever she closed her eyes, she
could feel Leo’s hands on her again, feel Blair’s hot breath on the
back of her neck. She remembered vividly the sensation of having
two mouths moving over her body, two tongues teasing her nipples
and her clit in tandem. She remembered the sharp sense of
completion she’d experienced when the both men had fucked her in
turns, shooting her to the brink and over it, again and again and
again…

The dinging of the service bell jolted Ally
out of her memories. “Mud cake and a raspberry mousse for table
eight!”

Table eight was hers, so Ally forced the
mental images aside and headed to the counter. She somehow managed
to look like any other busy waitress on the job, which was quite a
feat since her pulse was pounding, her knees were weak and her
panties were suddenly wet.

By some miracle, Ally made
it to the end of her shift without coming face-to-face with either
Leo or Blair. As the diners cleared out, the drinkers filed in, so
it was relatively easy to get lost in the crowd. She knew the
moment of truth would arrive eventually, but seeing them again had
sent her into a more ferocious tailspin than she’d expected. She
needed another day or two to regroup before she could talk to
either one of them without giving herself away.

Grabbing her stuff from her
locker in the staff room, Ally slipped out the back door of the
Sovereign and started traversing the car park. She took the keys to
her parents’ house of out of her bag and threaded them through her
fingers so she could use them as a makeshift weapon should the need
arise. The car park was well lit, and Ashton Heights wasn’t a dodgy
suburb, but she was a woman walking alone at night. The train
station was only two blocks away, but you could never be too
careful.

She was a few meters from the street when
she felt a hand come to rest on her arm, and a male voice say,
“Hey.”

Ally reacted on instinct.
Her father was a cop and he’d taught her self-defense. He’d also
taught her the power of acting immediately. Women were often too
trusting to assume that anyone approaching them was up to no good.
Her father had drilled into her the edict that it was better to
bruise an innocent guy than to get killed by a guilty
one.

All those thoughts flashed
in her head in less than an instant, and before she’d even allowed
herself to think her actions through, Ally had swung her right foot
back and rammed it into her pursuer’s toe. She followed that up
with an elbow to the midsection, which knocked the wind out of the
guy enough that he released her arm.

Ally bolted, making sure
she was several paces away before she chanced a look behind her.
The man was doubled over, holding his stomach. Coming up behind him
was another man. His face was in shadows, but she recognized his
loose-limbed stride. His voice when he spoke to the man she’d hit
was also familiar.

“
Jesus, Blue. Never thought
I’d see a girl of five foot three get the best of you.”

“
She surprised me is all,”
Blair muttered.

Funny, considering she’d
spent the past half hour trying to avoid them, but Ally was so
relieved it was Leo and Blair behind her that her shoulders
unknotted. She walked back the few paces she’d run. “You surprised
me. And I’m five four, by the way.”

“
Still a hell of a lot
smaller than Blue.” Leo flashed her a grin. “I’m
impressed.”

Blair grumbled. “I’m injured.”

“
You’ll live,” Ally said,
fighting with the urge to apologize. “You really shouldn’t grab a
woman before you’ve announced yourself.”

“
I didn’t know you knew
jujitsu.”

“
That was basic
self-defense, you big baby.” Despite knowing she’d do the same
thing again if faced with the same situation, the guilt got the
best of her when Blair started rubbing his midsection. Ally
approached him and winced. “I wouldn’t have done it if I’d known it
was you. Does it really hurt that much?”

Blair’s lips curved in the
sexy smile that had haunted her dreams. “It does. You might need to
kiss it better.”

Ally rolled her eyes. “If
this is your way of picking me up, it needs work.”

“
This was our way of trying
to catch you before you disappeared again,” Leo explained. “We were
about to leave when we saw you walking across the car
park.”

“
Leave? You just got
here.”

Leo’s eyebrow kicked up. “How do you know
that?”

Her face heated at her slip. “I
guessed.”

“
Liar,” Blair accused. “You
saw us and tried to run again.”

“
So we don’t even warrant a
polite hello?”

This came from Leo, who
stood now with his arms crossed over his chest in classic defensive
posture. While she’d felt a little guilty about inadvertently
injuring Blair, the thought that she’d hurt Leo’s feelings was so
much worse. “It’s not like that, Leo.”

“
Why are you avoiding us
then?” he asked.

“
I wasn’t.” She flushed at
the lie. “Okay, I totally was. I guess I didn’t know what to say to
you guys. I didn’t want to give you the impression I was going to
cling or anything.”

Leo took a step closer, until they were
standing toe to toe. “Why would we think that?”

Because I wanted to have
more mind-blowing sex with you and I was afraid it would show in my
eyes.
Ally opened her mouth to say
something else, something that wasn’t quite so embarrassingly
truthful. Any words that might have formed died on her tongue when
Leo lifted a hand and cupped her jaw.

“
Because you still want
us,” Leo concluded, and swiped his thumb over her lower
lip.

The gesture made Ally’s
mouth water in anticipation of a kiss, and she knew that even in
the night shadows, Leo was bound to see her desperation. She tried
to turn her face away, but he held her fast, pinning her gaze with
his.

“
I want you so bad, Ally. I
haven’t stopped thinking about you since last week.”

Oh, be still her throbbing
libido, he knew how to make a girl feel special.

“
Me either,” Blair added,
coming to stand at her side. “Although I didn’t want to admit
it.”

“
You guys…” Ally shook her
head and took a step back from both of them. Their magnetism was
too strong. She was going to fall into their arms and beg them to
do her if she didn’t get away from them. She was going to cling
like she’d said she didn’t want to. “I should really
go.”

“
So you can disappear
again?” Leo asked. “What are you so afraid of, Ally?”

“
You’re the one who ought
to be afraid,” Ally said wryly. “If you knew who I really was,
you’d probably run screaming for the hills.”

A look passed between the
two men. A telepathic understanding seemed to be reached. “Let’s
put that to the test,” said Blair, his tone challenging.

“
What do you mean— Hey!”
Ally exclaimed when Blair suddenly picked her up. He tossed her
over his shoulder as though she weighed nothing and started carting
her through the car park. “Again with the fireman’s carry? You guys
need to get a new routine.”

“
We won’t need a routine if
you agree to keep seeing us.”

Blair’s statement shocked her almost as much
as his picking her up had. “What?”

He said no more until they reached a dark
blue sedan parked in the corner of the lot. The two men had a
disagreement over who was going to drive, until eventually Leo
agreed to do it and slipped into the driver’s seat. Blair deposited
Ally in the back and followed her in. The engine had started and
they were out of the car park before Ally could protest.

They were in Friday-night
traffic before Ally could get a word out. “Where are you taking
me?”

“
I’d say wherever you want
to go, but that would be a lie,” Leo said. “We’re taking you back
to our place.”

Ally glared at the back of Leo’s head. “You
realize this is kidnapping?”

“
Based on your self-defense
skills, I reckon you could get away easy enough.” Blair studied her
from his side of the back seat. “If you want to.”

Ally avoided answering in
the affirmative, because they might take that seriously and stop
the car. Already her nipples had gathered into sharp points at the
thought of going back to their house, which she remembered so well
from last week. Well, she remembered the bedroom at least, and the
shower, and the kitchen table… Oh jeez, and the couch too, where
Leo had fingered her to a powerful orgasm while Blair had shot his
come into her mouth.

Fuckety fuck.

“
Is that what you want,
Ally Cat?” Blair asked in a voice that told her he knew the answer
already. “Or do you want us to seduce your secrets out of
you?”

He wasn’t even touching her now. He hadn’t
even moved closer to her as he’d asked the question. Yet Ally
responded with raw physicality to Blair’s suggestion. She wasn’t
sure what he meant by the threat to seduce her secrets out of her,
but she did know her body liked the sound of it.

As though sensing her physical response,
Blair did lean forward then. He did touch her. Ally gasped when he
cupped her breast with a peremptory hand and took her nipple
between his thumb and forefinger. He pinched lightly, and Ally
couldn’t prevent a moan from tearing from her throat. “Jesus,
Blair.”

“
That didn’t sound like a
complaint,” Blair noted blithely. When she didn’t respond, he
turned his attention to her other breast and performed the same
action, this time adding a sensual tug that stretched Ally’s nipple
out. She collapsed back against the seat as pleasure swamped
her.