One Hot Summer (14 page)

“Yep. The end,” Remedy said, ducking away from Micah's arm.

“I see.” Carina's gaze flitted between Micah and Remedy as though she wasn't buying that explanation for a second.

At that moment, Emily strode out of the restroom. Remedy startled, which Micah must have noticed, because he nodded toward the door. “If you'll excuse us, Carina and Decker, we've got to dash. As you can see, Ms. Lane needs her beauty sleep.”

The nerve.
“Gee, thanks.”

James, or Decker, as Micah called him, chuckled, shaking his head. “Have a good night, you two.”

Micah sped his pace and burst through the front door with a nod to the bouncer. The moment he and Remedy were outside, he took hold of her hand again and hauled her along behind him at a faster clip than she would've preferred in the direction of his truck.

She tried to wriggle out of his grasp, but his grip held strong. “So I need my beauty sleep? That's rude.”

He afforded her the barest of glances. “You didn't want me to give them the impression that there was something illicit happening between us, did you?”

With the same baffling impatience, he dragged her around to the passenger side of his truck. “Well, no, I—”

And then his hands were on her hips, crowding her against the truck door. His eyes were dark with a fierce hunger and the promise of untold pleasures. Something illicit
was
about to happen between them—and she couldn't wait.

He brushed his thumb against her lips, as though waiting for permission to proceed.

“Yes,” she breathed, tipping her head back.

His thumb stroked her cheek. “Yes, what?”

He was so powerfully built, so intensely male, that her mind cleared of everything except pure, raw lust. “Yes, kiss me.”

Their lips came together in a shock of sensation that snapped her body rigid. She rose up onto her tiptoes, every cell of her taut and straining, reaching for more, harder. Wrapping her hand around his neck, the other threading into his hair, she pulled him to her and got her tongue involved, daring him to give up the last shreds of his control and go wild with her.

Instead, he ended the kiss with a grunting exhalation. Breathing hard, he rested his forehead against the truck door above her shoulder. “You are trouble, California.” His voice was little more than a hoarse growl. “And I don't like trouble.”

His breath on her perspiring skin made her shiver.

He was right. Everything about what they were doing had the potential to be a whole lot of trouble. Already they were sneaking around to avoid her coworkers, and that was before they'd kissed. This town was too small for an affair with the fire chief to go unnoticed.

She splayed her hands over his chest. He was so fine, so exactly what she loved about men, the perfect blend of hard angles and muscled curves. So what the two of them together spelled trouble? Yes, she might be sabotaging her career for a second time, but as she pressed herself against Micah, his taste lingering on her lips and her body thrumming with need, the potential self-destruction seemed worth the risk.

“What's a town hero without a little trouble to keep him in business?” she said.

Her question seemed to jolt him out of his thoughts. He pulled his face back and sought her gaze, then took her cheeks in his hands. Could he feel the pounding of her pulse in his fingertips the way she felt his heart thudding fast against her palms?

Then his lips descended over hers again, harder than before. He pinned her body against the truck and took her mouth in a deep, wet, absolutely dirty kiss that went on and on until she was dizzy and lost and loving it. His hand dragged down her body, curving over her breast, her waist, and around to clutch her ass. She melted into him like liquid, offering her complete surrender to his touch and to his mouth—to his masterful command of her body.

This time when he broke the kiss, she was the one panting. He kept his face near hers, breathing into her. She fluttered her eyes open and found him looking at her.

That fierce hunger remained in his eyes. “My bed or yours?”

His gruff voice made her whole body ripple with anticipation. Goddamn, she wanted this tonight. She wanted him
.
Worse than she'd wanted a man in a long time. If he screwed anything like he kissed, then she was in for the time of her life.

“You're the Alpha Bubba. Surprise me.”

 

Chapter Seven

“Buttons open,” Micah bit out.

He kept one eye on the dark road and the other on Remedy's purple skirt, on the way it bunched high on her thighs, showing off those legs that he couldn't wait to get his mouth on. Anticipation pounded beneath his skin, flooding his muscles and flesh and organs with a need that threatened to unravel him.

The air in the truck cab was thick with intention as she followed his command, making a show of releasing each button on her shirt. She hitched a knee up on the seat, twisting to face him, and spread her shirt open. He hissed through gritted teeth at the sight of her breasts rounding over the tops of two beige, lacy bra cups, her flesh moving with each labored breath through her parted lips.

Smooth talking wasn't his forte and would've taken far more brainpower than he currently possessed, but if he could've found the words he would've told her how sexy she was, how beautiful. He would've told her how his desire for her had built to a crescendo through the night, with every fractured conversation and touch of their hands or bodies, until he could think of nothing else but kissing her, nothing else but pleasuring her slow and sweet and all night long. He would've told her it'd been a long, long time since a woman had made him so crazy with lust that he felt like a teenager again—impatient, invincible, and absolutely reckless.

At least his conscience had shut up about that whole fraternizing with Briscoe executives rule. Remedy Lane was one regret who'd already proved to be worth it.

He couldn't get the correct angle to touch her breasts, but her legs were more than enough to feed his hunger to touch her until they arrived at his place. He wrapped his hand around her knee, his fingers brushing the sensitive skin on the back of her thigh.

With a hum of pleasure, she widened her knees and slouched, shifting his hand higher, to the hot, silken skin of her inner thigh.

His heart was beating out of his chest. He blinked straight ahead, forcing his focus back to the road. All this foreplay would be for nothing if he got them in an accident. Lucky for him, the streets were empty.

She squirmed and fluttered her hand over his wrist. “A little higher.”

If that's what the lady needed. He reached, caressing her flesh as he moved, until the sides of his fingers bumped the damp fabric between her thighs.
Fuck.
Ten minutes. They'd be at his house in ten. Naked and on his bed in ten and a half.

He rotated the pads of his fingers over the fabric, over the plump and pliant flesh below it. Then she rocked her hips, working in counter-rhythm to his fingers, using him for her pleasure. With a ragged breath, she threw her head back against the seat and lifted her chin, her eyes closed. Moving, feeling. Her arms flew out. One gripped the door handle and the other found his shoulder. It was the hottest damn thing he'd ever seen.

He stopped his ministrations and hooked a finger inside the crotch of her underwear. With a flick, he snapped the elastic against her skin. “Take 'em off.”

Even as he growled the command, he was berating himself to slow the hell down and ease off the heavy petting until he could lay Remedy back and do her right. Too late now, though, because Remedy was definitely on board with the road lovin' plan. Her hair cascaded around her face as she wriggled out of the lacy material and looped a leg hole over his rearview mirror.

Bold move. Sassy. Like her.

He couldn't resist the temptation to touch the underwear, to find that wet spot. When he did, he rubbed the material between his fingers, choking back a groan of approval. “So fucking hot.”

She took hold of his wrist and moved his hand between her thighs. “I was thinking the same about you.”

“Darlin', you ain't seen nothing yet.” He dipped a finger between her folds. At his first touch of the hot, wet flesh between her folds, he accidentally jerked the steering wheel and swerved onto the shoulder. Like he'd thought before, it was a damn good thing the roads were empty tonight.

His finger found the swollen pearl of her clit and swirled over it until she released a strangled cry. He kept at the movement, working a relentless little circle over the bundle of nerves. Her hand flew back to his shoulder, balling his shirt in her fist as her body sought its pleasure with his hand.

He slowed his movement because he didn't want her to come like this, here in his truck. Not really. Because he wouldn't be able to watch her succumb and she wouldn't get to move or scream as she needed to, seeing as how he'd just made the turn onto Main Street and there were a few folks out and about. But there was nothing saying he couldn't get her right to the edge.

He barely registered the last few blocks home or pulling to a stop in his driveway.

The second he threw the truck in park, she pressed his seat-belt release, then climbed over to straddle his lap. She had the button and zipper of his jeans undone in seconds flat. His cock surged against his briefs, eliciting a grunt of relief at the release of pressure. She rubbed him over the cotton, and even that dulled touch had him gritting his teeth at the assault to his senses.

He slipped his hands around to cup her backside beneath her panties as her lips and teeth found his neck. Then her hand breached the elastic band of his briefs. Her fingers found the blunt tip of his cock.

He threw his head against his seat and rolled his neck, fighting for composure. A light in a window of the firehouse caught his attention. Tonight Dusty was manning the fire station. He would've heard Micah's diesel engine pulling into the drive, and for all Micah knew, he'd come to the window to call out a hello and check in with Micah, as he often did. There were decent odds he'd already gotten an eyeful of Remedy's partially naked body. No good. Time to move this party inside.

Micah swabbed a hand over his face, getting a grip. “Let's go inside. I want you naked, but not in my driveway.”

She gave him a dreamy blink of her eyes. “That's probably a better idea.”

He made a clumsy attempt at rebuttoning Remedy's shirt before she took over the task. “Why are we parked next door to the firehouse?” she asked.

“This is where I live. The house is owned by the city.” He dropped his mouth over hers with a kiss that turned sloppy fast.

Locked together, they poured out of the driver's side and onto the driveway. Micah didn't bother refastening his pants as they shuffled, kissing and touching, to his front door. He couldn't get enough of her, any of her, not her mouth or the way she smelled, the feel of her hair, the taste of her skin, and the sound of her voice. The whole Remedy package made him drunk with lust. In a haze, he pushed the front door open and the tripped inside, right over a paper bag on the doorstep that he hadn't seen.

More baked goods? That made twice this week, which was rare.

“What was that?” Remedy asked.

He tossed the bag on his entryway table, then kicked the door shut. “I'll tell you later.”

He gathered her close, but she pressed a hand to his chest.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” she asked, her voice breathy and strained.

“What kind of question is that?” Was she having second thoughts, because she sure wasn't acting like it and he didn't think he'd read her signals wrong.

“You were reluctant before, when we were kissing outside the bar,” she said. “I wanted to make sure I wasn't taking advantage of you. Consent and all that.”

The ridiculous comment tickled his funny bone, evoking a chuckle. Wasn't it supposed to be the other way around, with the obligation falling to the guy to check in with a lady's consent? Then again, they did things pretty backward in California.

She gave his chest another gentle shove. “I'm serious. Are you sure about this? You and me together, you were right, it's going to be complicated.”

Damn.
She was serious. And she was correct. He had been reluctant at the bar. Probably he should still be, because the list of reasons why sleeping with Remedy was a terrible idea was a long one. But he didn't give a damn about one single reason on that list.

He answered her by pulling his boots off and chucking them aside. He shoved his briefs and jeans down and off. His cock sprung up, steel hard and getting harder under Remedy's hungry gaze. He didn't give much thought to his body except to keep it at the peak of fitness for his job, but times like this, standing naked in front of a beautiful woman, his demanding workout schedule didn't seem such a burden.

She let her fingers bump from his chest down the ridges of his abdominals. “You should never wear a shirt. Ever.”

He snorted out a chuckle. Guess she liked his answer. Since she'd checked in with him, it seemed only right to bounce her question back at her, even though the flush on her skin, the fervency of her kisses, and the way her fingers were dipping ever nearer to his goods spoke plainly that she wanted him as desperately as he wanted her.

“What about you? Do I have your consent to proceed?” What strange words. Formal. As though they were about to enter a legally binding partnership instead of have a one-night stand.

Only one night?
He hoped not, but the question fled his mind when she backed up, struck a seductive pose, and made short work of unbuttoning her top.

She spread the shirt open and plumped her breasts in her hands, giving him a show. “You have my enthusiastic consent.”

Her bra was sheerer than it'd appeared in the dim light of his truck. Stiff pink nipples squished against the material and, frankly, looked like they needed rescuing from their tight confines. Micah was just the man for the job. Fingers twitching with eagerness, he stepped toward her, but she matched his movement and skittered a few steps back while crooking her finger, teasing him to come and get her.