Rescue Heat (14 page)

“Contrary to your opinion, it doesn’t take twenty-four hours for me to know my mind. So I’ll accept and thank you for your invitation today.”

With that, Brigid wrapped her towel around her body and walked off into the night.

She had only taken three steps before Matt’s voice followed her. “Your car is at work so I’ll come by and pick you up at six-thirty tomorrow.”

Dammit — there really was no getting away.

Matt woke up to his insistent alarm. His sleep had not been peaceful. Every time his eyes had closed, images of Brigid had floated through his mind. The memory of her in a brief, black bikini would have been insistent enough on its own but now he could recall the exact pink of her nipples and the way her smooth hands felt as they pawed at his skin.

Had she really so blithely agreed to a sexual relationship with him? Or, given time, would she pull away like she had before?

Impatient with himself for his musings, Matt made his way to the shower. The water temperature had to be icy; a morning erection wasn’t the way to greet Brigid. Especially if all she wanted to do was to put their relationship back on a professional footing.

Twenty minutes later Matt pulled up outside Brigid’s house. She was dressed for work in a flight suit. Unfortunately the sight of her had its predictable effect; especially now he knew the feel of her bare thigh against his hip.

Brigid got into the car and said cheerfully, “Hope you’ve thought about what you’re cooking for me tonight. Because I warn you frozen pizza isn’t going to cut it.”

So, it looked like Brigid wasn’t going to be backing away from him this time. A glint in her eyes told him she enjoyed the sight of him on the back foot. She hadn’t been happy when he rejected her.

“Seeing as we’re both working today, I was hoping you would be satisfied with Thai takeaway,” said Matt.

An ironic smile from Brigid told him that maybe his word choice of ‘satisfied’ had been a dangerous one. Great, now this woman was going to have him stumbling over his words.

“Thai will be fine,” she said, letting him off the hook.

Deciding conversation could be a minefield, Matt turned on the car radio. Beyoncé blasted through the car’s speakers.

“If you like it, you better put a ring on it. If you like it, you better put a ring on it.” Brigid gave a delighted laugh and began to sing along.

Watching Brigid look so young and happy as she sang, it was hard to reconcile this woman with the grimly determined professional at the crash site yesterday. The multiple facets of her personality intrigued Matt. She was both a woman he admired and a woman he could have fun with. The relief he felt when he realised that she wasn’t going to cancel on him this evening was strong enough to prove to be a nagging worry. Sex was one thing, caring too much was another.

As the song stopped, Brigid turned to him and said, “I called the hospital this morning and Kylie’s labour was halted last night and the kids are stable.”

Matt smiled with her, sharing the genuine happiness of the morning. In the light of the morning, distant from the immediate horror, they could acknowledge that yesterday they had done good work.

Matt forced his eyes back on the road. If he didn’t keep his distance, he was going to find it hard to walk away from these moments of intimacy.

Matt concentrated on his driving while Brigid celebrated the beginning of a new day by continuing to sing along to the radio.

When they arrived at the base, Matt noticed Brigid was also surreptitiously scanning the parking lot before she got out of the car. It wasn’t in either of their interests to be seen together. Matt didn’t need the dirty looks (Brigid was a protected species on this crew) and he imagined Brigid didn’t want the gossip.

The day passed slowly with each crewmember going about their routine tasks and making their individual reports about yesterday’s fatality. As the lead doctor on the scene, Brigid’s reporting duties were the most rigorous. Throughout the day, Matt watched Brigid retreat into her serious professional shell. He recognised that shell because it mirrored his own. It was the exhausted woman under the façade that prompted Matt to wait for her, outside the hospital, the night before. When he had seen the flashes of emotion on her face, as they transferred their patient to the ER, Matt had felt an inexplicable need to cherish her. After last night he felt easier; he could focus on his lust.

Routine equipment checks did not do much to distract Matt from the ache deep in his belly as he contemplated the coming night with Brigid. He looked at his watch. Six o’clock couldn’t come soon enough. Another long day when he needed a distraction, not a single emergency call came through. He didn’t want to wish pain or death on anyone but they’d often had false alarms before. Why were the phones so stubbornly silent today?

Finally, the day drew to an end and Matt and Brigid said public ‘goodbyes’ to each other. There was no point in creating intrigue by hinting at an outside relationship between them.

A short time later a knock on his door alerted Matt to Brigid’s arrival. A provocative sight met his eyes. She was wearing a short, silky, aquamarine dress and her hair fell on her shoulders, straight and loose.

“You look great,” Matt said, by way of greeting.

“Thanks,” Brigid replied, as she walked straight towards him, going on her toes, in order to touch her lips to his cheek.

Matt put his hands out to steady her elbows and enjoyed being enveloped in her female scent. Gardenia, maybe?

He followed Brigid into the kitchen as she remarked on the aromatic appeal of his recently picked-up takeaway. Suddenly she turned and leant against his marble kitchen bench. “This dating stuff is something I am really rusty at,” she said, with surprising candour. “I think I missed the seamless social chat class in school.”

Matt didn’t bother to hide his amusement. “Yeah and I always find that adding to the awkwardness makes conversation so much easier.”

“Well last night you offered both food and sex, so now we’re going to spend the whole night wanting to get through one and onto the other.” Brigid laughed even as she said the words.

“Hey, I’m happy to leave the evening’s choices up to you. Food first or sex?”

He enjoyed the blunt to-and-fro of their conversation but was really hoping she’d choose the sex. Standing there in his kitchen, she was temptation personified.

“I think the answer depends on your talent for persuasion,” said Brigid.

Her smile was lazy but a slight quiver in her hands signalled a certain level of nerves. She stood still but kept her gaze level with his. Matt knew she was inviting him to make the first move.

He didn’t need his military training to do what came naturally; men like him had a need to conquer. With just a few steps, he had propelled himself to stand against her, wrapping her in his arms. When their mouths met, he let passion rule. There were no barriers between them. There were no restrictions he had to be aware of.

His kitchen bench stretched invitingly, shining behind them. All he would have to do was raise her hips to the cold surface and plunder but he wanted Brigid’s active participation, so the bedroom was his chosen venue.

“The bedroom,” he said; surprised to hear the rasp in his voice.

He picked Brigid up. Luckily, he knew his own house and could find his way in the dark, because it seemed Brigid wasn’t ready to relinquish his mouth.

They had wanted each other for too long to walk hand-in-hand like civilized people. It was with relief that he got to the bedroom; he wanted to make better use of his hands.

He laid her down on the king bed and stood before her as she looked at him; lust in her eyes. Matt knew his eyes were the same as he watched the way her silky hemline rode up her thighs.

He undid the buttons on his shirt and exposed his chest. He kept his jeans on. He wanted to savour the next stage and with Brigid looking so delicious, he needed to keep his trousers on if he was going to keep the pace slow. As he was about to climb onto the bed, Brigid said, “I’ve got a condom in my bag.”

Matt reached for the protection he had placed on his bedside table earlier, “Mine’s closer.”

A hum of satisfaction came from deep within Brigid’s throat as he settled between her thighs. He started where he had stopped last night; applying his wet mouth to her sensitive neck. He kept to the task until he had her squirming impatiently under his body her hands snaking from his head further down his body. He obviously wasn’t distracting her enough.

“I think you’re overdressed for the occasion,” he said, as he stripped off her dress.

The sight of her in just her panties was its own reward; long, slim limbs unobscured by water, as they had been the night before. Only a thin strip of lace provided any modesty. Light tan lines made the view she afforded him feel even more precious.

He moved his mouth to her breasts and explored the flesh he had been longing to taste. Brigid moved her hips closer in response.

“Speaking of overdressed,” she said, seemingly frustrated by his jeans.

She wasn’t the only one; the denim felt far too restrictive around his erection but he wanted her crazy with need before he entered her body for the first time.

Wanting to test how close he was to his goal and simply because he couldn’t resist, he moved his hand inside her panties. The feel of hot, damp arousal was so intoxicating; he bit down on the nipple currently in his mouth. Brigid must have enjoyed that edge of roughness, because her dampness intensified.

Matt’s hips pistoled forward at the discovery. He wanted an escalation of her need, so he put his skilled fingers to the task. Brigid’s body moved towards his hand and quickly they developed a rhythm.

Matt looked down at Brigid’s blue eyes, which were glazed over with need. She was arching off the bed, murmuring wordless pleas. He decided this qualified as ready; waiting any longer would be torture beyond reason.

He shed his jeans, grasped his erection and sheathed it in latex. Brigid gave him a smile that was ancient in its womanliness, as he placed his cock at her entrance and pushed home. Tight, hot and blissful. The sensation was so painfully pleasurable that Matt struggled to find an even tempo. All he wanted to do was thrust and come.

It was a good thing he’d brought her so close to the edge before entering her. Normally, his staying power was impressive but tonight the pleasure of Brigid’s body was fast bringing him to the edge. Her legs wrapped around his hips pushing him deeper and he could feel the heaviness of his erection telling him that orgasm wasn’t too far away.

At that moment, her body began to shake and she came around him, wrenching her mouth from his, to bite his shoulder. The feel of her teeth on his skin and her warm flesh contracting, finished him. Matt came in long pulses that left him momentarily blind.

Panting, he twisted his body to lay beside Brigid. For a long moment, his mind was blank to everything but the ecstasy they had just shared. Sex was almost always good, but the moments he had just shared with Brigid had a passion and a heat that was unexpected.

Brigid was still gasping for breath. Recalling her uninhibited bite gave Matt a smug glow.

Twisting his head to inspect the damage, Matt said, “I guess it’ll be a while before I can change in front of the boys.”

Brigid sat upright, making no move to cover her breasts. “Let me take a look at that.”

She leaned across his chest, an unexpected side benefit. “I hardly broke the skin.”

“No complaints, it will make a nice memento,” said Matt.

“I’ve had all my shots,” she said, before lapping the wound with her tongue. “It will heal in no time.”

That unexpectedly erotic attention, from a usually practical girl, gave Matt a kick of sexual interest deep in his gut but he wanted to keep the atmosphere light. He simply said, “Aren’t I lucky to get such a professional appraisal and treatment, Doctor Adair?”

“And the only charge I’ll make for the consultation will be a microwaved bowl of Thai noodles.”

“Is that a hint?” teased Matt; even as he clambered out of bed, ready to prepare their meal.

Twenty minutes later, they were seated at Matt’s polished cedar dining table, eating Thai food with chopsticks and drinking white wine. The main change from Matt’s earlier plan was the dress code; he was now wearing loose cotton pants and Brigid was wrapped in his black bathrobe. Both wore the glow of the recently pleasured.

“Mmm, good food,” said Brigid, as she consumed the meal with obvious enjoyment.

In his overly large robe, she looked quite delectable. Usually neat, her hair was messy and her pale neck showed the distinctive reddening of stubble rash. While he hated the idea of causing her even the smallest discomfort, some primitive part of him rejoiced in the physical sign of their recent coupling.

When he mentioned the marks to her, she responded with a shrug and a smile.

“I think we can put that down to a combat injury. I guess I’ll have to forgive you, seeing as you’ve already been repaid in kind,” she said, as she pointed to his shoulder.

Matt had the stereo playing a young hip-hop band he loved. The good thing about owning a big block was that he didn’t have to worry about near neighbours complaining about the noise. Actually, that was somewhat helpful an hour ago as well. Otherwise, he would have got some knowing looks over the fence, given they had both made their physical satisfaction audibly known.

Seeing Brigid in his house made him glad he had purchased such beautiful surrounds. Her presence automatically gave the house more life, as she sang along and loaded the dishwasher alongside him, as he put the leftovers in the fridge.

Normally by now, he would be itching to regain his own space. Now he thought of how he might entice her to linger. He could see she was about to speak, so he captured her mouth with his own, kissing her until he was sure he had her compliance.

“So how about I show you my master bathroom,” he said.

An invitation to see Matt’s master bathroom had Brigid nod in agreement, as she looked up at him. He had looked so magnificent during dinner, sitting with his chest bare, that she had begun wanting him all over again. She hadn’t thought it possible, so physically satiated she had been in his bed. Now, she was hungry for more.