One Fiery Night (3 page)

“Mmm, you have on white panties. You know how much I love to see that white cotton.” In one swift motion, he tugged off her jeans. Her golden legs stretched right up to the tiny white panties. For a moment, he simply devoured her with his gaze. He’d never known hunger like this before. Why, oh why, had he walked away from her?

He positioned himself between her thighs and kissed her mons through her panties. He could tell from the texture that she no longer had the soft tuft of light-brown curls there. He stuck out his tongue and tested it again.

She bucked upward. The scents of her arousal struck him and he uttered a fierce growl. “Please, Luke. Taste me.”

His cock jerked in his jeans. Fuck, she was going to unman him if she continued to talk that way. And when she got really worked up, she could be downright dirty.

He grinned against her flesh. Then, using the point of his tongue, he ran it down the seam of her labia. She moaned and knotted her fists in the sheets. He held her firmly in place and watched her face as he wet the fabric, molding it to her body. When the outline of her pussy was visible, he leaned away and grinned.

“Yeah, that’s what I needed to see. I’ve been dreaming about that for years.” Hell, he still beat off to the image of her pussy lips through her panties. He loved nothing more than to tug the cloth aside and plunge into her slick folds then. But right now he had to see her—he just knew she was bare.

Her eyes glowed, dark with need. “Luke, come to me. I need you.” She rocked her hips again, bringing her pussy against his chin. Her juices were starting to soak through the crotch of her panties. With a groan, he opened his mouth over it and faintly tasted the nectar.

“Luke!” She pulled his hair and a laugh rumbled from him.

“So impatient, baby. You never were impatient before.”

“I’ve waited a decade for this, dammit. Of course I’m impatient,” she panted.

Her words sank into the folds of his brain and hit an expressway to his heart. A decade they’d been apart, but she’d been dreaming of this, as he had?

Unable to hold back another minute, he hooked his fingers in her panties and tore them off her. The ripping noise brought a full-bodied laugh from her. He grinned in response. The sound was water to his parched existence.

Then with fervor, he spread her legs wide and delivered a big, open-mouthed kiss that enveloped her entire pussy. The smooth crest beneath his mouth was fuel to his fire. And the flavor of her cream burst on his tongue.

His control slipped through his fingers as he dipped his tongue into her wet sheath and tasted her. It was like having her for the first time—that same insane lust mixed with the shock that he’d been able to get her attention, let alone into bed.

Her inner thigh muscles jumped as he fucked her with the point of his tongue in exactly the way he knew she adored.

“Fuck, Luke! You’re…sooo…good.” She lashed his head to her, directing him where she wanted him.

Gently he used his fingers to stretch her labia, exposing her swollen pearl. A hiss passed her lips. Staring up at her beautiful face, he lapped her clit, watching spasms play across her features.

She rocked her hips, lifting her body to meet his strokes. He pushed back the hood of her clit with his tongue and located her core. Pressing it tight to her body, he met her gaze.

Her eyes were wide with ecstasy, her tousled hair dripping into one eye. A strand caught on the moisture of her lower lip brought a growl to his lips.

The connection between their gazes was un-fucking-deniable. This was how it always was with her—he could drown in her very existence. He’d fought so hard to get her out of his blood—it had taken
years
—and here he was, between her sumptuous thighs once again.

Into the flames.

Exactly where he wanted to be. He was a firefighter, after all.

He swirled his tongue over her folds until she writhed. Just when she began to quiver, he slipped two fingers into her tight channel. Curling them expertly, he located the spongy knot of nerves on her front wall. He nudged her G-spot once, twice…

With a throaty cry, she shattered beneath his mouth. Juices coated his jaw and tongue. He held her firmly, plunging his fingers faster and extending her orgasm as he wildly sucked her pearl.

Out of his head now with need, he brought her down slowly. His cock felt as though it was in a stranglehold. If he didn’t get release soon, he was going to bellow his need. Hell, he was going to do that anyhow, as soon as he got inside her.

She gripped his biceps, urging him up her body. Hovering over her, he gazed into her passion-blurred eyes.

“Missed you, baby,” he whispered before claiming her mouth.

She moaned as he shared her flavors with her. His cock stiffened even further. Damn, he’d forgotten how much she loved to kiss him after he went down between her legs. She opened her mouth wide for him and he fed her his tongue in gulping strokes.

Twisting her hair in his hands, he dragged her closer. Shit, he was rapidly losing control of the inferno of emotion in his chest. Backing out wasn’t an option—he’d run into the flames and hope to come out on the other side in one piece. He’d done it countless times on the job. But exposing his heart to the fire that was Josie might mean he didn’t make it out of this room without becoming scorched.

He kissed a path down her throat to the swell of her breasts as he removed the rest of his clothing.

“Luke, come to me.” Her hot plea washed past his ear.

Hitching her thighs around him, he poised at the quick of her. Suddenly, realization slammed him. This wasn’t
his Josie
from their college days when they were in a safe, monogamous relationship and she was on the Pill.

“Fuck, a condom. Hold on.” He released her and dove over the side of the bed, swiping his pants from the floor. He hoped carrying a condom in his wallet didn’t make it look as though he was a player because he was far from it.

He ripped the packet open with his teeth and spit out the remnant of paper. Rolling the condom over his straining erection, he shot her a glance. Praying her desire hadn’t cooled.

Within a few seconds, he was stretched atop her again. As his flesh kissed hers, she gasped and fluttered her fingers over his chest. She wore a pink glow—part satisfaction, part need, he knew from previous encounters.

He traced her lower lip with his thumb. God, how had he lived without looking at these lips—kissing these lips—for so many years? A decade lost. At the moment it seemed for naught. A waste.

He ground the tip of his cock against her wet pussy. “You want this, darlin’?”

“Please.” She gripped his cock at the root, drawing it to her neediest spot.

He nudged her entrance again, holding her body and her gaze prisoner. Dammit, in the ten seconds he’d found her silhouetted by flames, she’d bound his heart to her again.

Something akin to panic welled inside him. Before he could jerk away from her and tell her this was all a mistake, she pressed her warm, wet pussy against him. His mushroomed head disappeared inside her.

“Oh, fuck!” With one swift thrust, he rooted himself balls-deep. He fell completely still, grinding his molars against his release and glaring down at her.

But she only issued that soft noise of pleasure he loved and bathed her lower lip with her tongue.

“I need to feel you moving inside me, Luke. I’ve needed it for a decade.” Her quiet admission upended his heart. It flipped and throbbed in a brand-new rhythm. He began to piston his hips in time to it.

His balls tensed, the pressure mounting. Her taste clung to his lips and her aroused scents hung around him. With each plunge, he pushed her another fraction closer to the headboard. Her breasts wobbled in their natural perfection, full and round, the tips dark pink.

Leaning over her, he caught one between his lips and rolled it. She clamped her legs around him, locking her heels, which seemed to be a little more difficult since their college days. His job had added some muscle bulk.

A shuddering sigh teased his hair. “Luke…”

Even the lilting way she said his name was adorable. Why had he dumped her again?

It wasn’t because the sex wasn’t fucking fantastic.

Her body began to quake—a sign she was close to release. He lifted his mouth from her delicious bud and, sliding his hands beneath her, brought her up to meet his movements. She rode him, rising and falling on his cock, eyes glowing, skin scalding, hair twitching around him, her soaking folds hugging him—

She stiffened and cried out. He pumped her harder, driving his cock into her sensitive tissues as she convulsed around him.

Hot come shot upward and erupted from his cock. His groan was the tenor harmony to her soprano. Shocks ripped through him. Stars burst behind his eyes.

Suddenly she went limp in his hold. Her head fell back, her silky locks dangling. He threaded his fingers through them and supported her as the last spurts of come emptied into her body.

No, into the condom.

A pang went straight to his soul. Once she had been his, but that rubber barrier reminded him that she was no more.

Could she be again?
The tiny voice in the recesses of his mind was that of the hurt young man who’d let her go because she’d taken interest in his brother. Would Luke ever truly be able to trust her? Though Ryan was gone, the memory of her betrayal was not. Ryan had assured him that Josie had never made a move on him, but Luke had read the looks she gave his brother.

He laid her on the bed and eased off her.

She caught him back by wrapping her fingers around his arm. He stared at the delicate white digits. She’d never seemed so small or vulnerable.

“Give me a second.” He lifted her fingers to his mouth and kissed each tip before heading to the bathroom.

Josie’s limbs tingled and her sex throbbed with pleasure. But she could hardly breathe as she listened for Luke to come out of the bathroom. What was taking him so long?

He regrets it. I know it.
She curled onto her side and pulled the sheet over her head. Damn, she’d done it again. Positioned herself in a relationship that was sure to fail. And after her ex replaced her with the redheaded bombshell from work, Josie didn’t think her deflated ego could handle another rejection. A rejection that was sure to come. Luke had dumped her once. He’d do it again.

But hadn’t she seen tenderness in his gaze? Hadn’t he told her he still loved her?

She released a ragged sigh. The last thing she needed right now was a rocky love affair. Her divorce had been final for a little more than a year but she couldn’t just drag men into Maggie’s life without upsetting her.

Why had she allowed Luke to barge in and kiss her like that?

The answer was simple. She still carried that small flame of love for him. Their past was all mixed up with the fact that he’d saved her and Maggie’s lives. And she was feeling more than despondent right now. She’d thought his touch might ease that, and it had for a short time. Now the weight of the world bore down on her, pressing on her chest so she couldn’t do more than breathe heavily around the gathering sobs.

The soft click of the door opening sounded like a shot. She jerked and whipped the sheet down, fighting to still the panic in her chest. This was much worse than a one-night stand. Their history made everything seem magnified. She’d truly loved this man, had even entertained notions of marrying him after college and living happily ever after. But following a trip to his family’s house for a school break, Luke had gotten antsy and clammed up. When they returned to the university, he’d dumped her.

She remained curled on her side but when his footsteps sounded near the bed, she shot him a glance. Lines of strain formed around his eyes and mouth but the instant their gazes connected, his expression softened.

He sank to the edge of the bed and her weight rolled toward him. The scents of their lovemaking clung to him and suddenly she wanted him again very badly. But not at the cost of her heart. She had to gain some distance.

Scooting into a sitting position, she folded her knees to her chest. She covered her nudity with the sheet but not before he got a good look at her. The hunger was back in his eyes.

“Why did you really come here?” Her question hung between them, weighting them to reality. They’d fucked—not made love—because their bodies still called to each other. But he didn’t want her. No one did, right?

He opened his mouth and then shut it.

Oh no. That couldn’t be good.

He found her fingers through the sheet and enfolded them in his fist. “Let’s just say I couldn’t stay away from you.”

Her heart jumped at his words. Did he mean them though? As long as she’d known Luke, he hadn’t been just a Romeo, delivering lines that would woo a woman into his arms. He was a great guy. Genuine.

But she should still send him out of her life. She couldn’t afford to compromise her heart again.

He inched nearer. She wanted to close her eyes against the sight of his broad chest, which rippled with muscle.

“Josie, talk to me. What’s going on in that pretty little head of yours?” He stroked a stray lock of hair off her cheek with enough tenderness to bring her to her knees if she hadn’t already been sitting.