Sudden Response (19 page)

"Yes, we should," she said breathlessly as he slid a finger deep inside of her.

"Yeah, we should," he said tightly the next second as he struggled to undo his belt. When he couldn't get the belt off with one

hand he unzipped his pants. The sound of his zipper being pulled opened was one of the most erotic sounds she'd ever heard.

"We can't let this wreck what we have," he said, sounding desperate as he removed his finger and replaced it with the large

blunt head of his erection.

"It changes nothing," she said, sliding her hands up his back to fist them in his hair and pull his mouth back to hers.

He slammed into her.

She squeezed her eyes shut as she sucked in a sharp breath. Never in her life had she ever felt this full. She'd known that he

was large, but this was incredible. He stretched her almost to the point of pain, but she wanted more.

A s he moved she cupped the back of her knees and pulled her legs up and to the sides, opening herself up more for him. This

time when he slid back inside of her he was buried to the root. He let out a growl of appreciation as he slowly swirled his hips

in a way that had her whimpering and pleading against his mouth.

"Shhhh," he said quietly against her lips, reminding her that they were not alone. They were surrounded by other bunkrooms

and the break room was right down the hall.

He pulled away to kiss his way to her ear. "Do you like that, Joe?" he asked, deepening his movements.

Beyond words now, she nodded as she licked her lips and moved her hips against his, desperate for more. If they got a call

right now she was pretty sure she would die.

"You have no idea how many times I've imagined doing this to you," he whispered against her ear, his warm breath fanning her

sensitive skin and sending a shiver through her body that caused her nipples to tighten impossibly further.

"Have you ever thought about me fucking you, Joe?"

"Yes!" she hissed quietly, not wanting to draw attention to what they were doing. She had thought about him, from her first time

to the last time. It was Eric's face she pictured when she made love to a man. He made her feel safe and loved and she needed

that.

"If there wasn't a very real possibility that we'd be interrupted I'd show you all those things I've imagined doing to you over the

years," he promised hotly before returning to her mouth.

She wrapped her arms around him as he quickened his thrusts, but when the bed made the telltale sounds that would give them

away he slowed his pace once again. The kiss on the other hand was out of control. He didn't hold back and neither did she.

She couldn't get enough of him. She loved the way he teased and dueled with her tongue.

It wasn't long before he was swallowing her screams and biting back his own. She felt him harden impossibly further before

she felt him come inside of her. It was the first time she'd ever felt a man come inside of her and she couldn't believe how good

it felt. She was even more surprised when it set her off into another orgasm.

"Shit," Eric groaned as he continued to thrust inside of her until she stopped squeezing him and her legs dropped back onto the

bed while they both desperately tried to catch their breath.

"What the hell are we going to do now?" Eric muttered against the nape of her neck. She wrapped her arms around his sweat

slicked back, wishing she had the answer.

Chapter 20

He'd never been more relieved to receive a call from dispatch in the middle of the night as he was right then.

They'd fucked up.

Why after all these years did he finally give into his body's demands and taken her? He knew the trouble he was courting by

doing it. She was his best friend, the only woman besides his mother that he ever loved and he'd just fucked up big time.

Every time he toyed with the idea of fucking her he always thought that he'd work her out of his system. It was just leftover

hormones from when he was a kid and first noticed her, he'd always told himself, but he'd been wrong. If anything having her

just made it worse.

He wanted her, now, tomorrow and always. The way his body felt let him know it was going to be a long time before he tired

of her. That was a problem because he didn't know if could give her up. He needed her in his life and as great as the sex was,

and there was no question in his mind that it was the best sex he'd ever had, he'd gladly give up the chance to touch her again if

it meant that she wouldn't leave him.

His chest tightened just thinking about it. He needed her in his life, always. Their friendship came first and he wasn't sure if

they'd survive taking the next step, but thankfully dispatch was giving them a chance to step back and focus on something else

for the moment. It also gave him a chance to cool down and figure out if he could do this.

What if he fucked up and hurt her? He'd never cheat on her, hit her or say an unkind word to her, but he did have the ability to

piss her right the hell off. With sex involved that might complicate things and she would no longer feel that she was able to

come to him for everything. He sure as hell didn't want her confiding in some other guy.

"MVA ," Joe said as she hung the phone back up. She ripped the piece of paper she wrote the details of the call on off her

small notebook and went to stuff it in her pants pocket only to remember that she wasn't wearing pants. He loved that beautiful

blush that crept up her face as she turned to quickly get dressed.

His Joe was shy after sex? He would never have guessed, he thought with a chuckle. He had to wonder what else he didn't

know about her.

The idea that there were still things to discover about her intrigued him. Even after twenty-years she was still a mystery to him.

He finished tucking in his shirt and headed for the door, pausing only long enough to grab the scrap of paper with the details of

the call out of her hand and to give her a quick kiss that seemed to leave her momentarily stunned. She looked so cute standing

there looking all confused, but they had a job to do.

"We'll talk later, okay?"

She looked up at him. "A ll I care about is that this doesn't change anything, Eric. I don't want to lose you."

He gently cupped her cheek, brushing her swollen lips with his thumb. "You'll never lose me, Joe. No matter what we decide

to do about this." He pressed a quick kiss to her lips before he took her hand and gave it a small tug in the direction of the door.

*******

ambulances and a Fire department SUV to fill the gas tank up. He threw the ambulance in park as they waited for their turn at

the gas pumps.

It had been a long, weird night and she was more than ready for it to be over. The only thing she wasn't ready for was the "talk"

they would have to have. She knew they had to talk about what happened between them, but she just wasn't sure what to say.

The sex had been great, fantastic, and surprisingly she didn't regret it, which was kind of stupid since it could very well be the

beginning of the end of their friendship. What were they supposed to do now?

They had sex one time and she didn't exactly equate that with a declaration of love. She knew he loved her and would never

hurt, at least not on purpose. This was Eric she was talking about here. There was no arguing that he was the best friend she'd

ever had and she would never hurt him or say anything unkind about him, but she couldn't lie.

Eric was a lousy boyfriend.

He treated all the women he dated as annoyances, barely gave them any consideration and had a short attention span. On more

than one occasion she had to remind him what his date's name was and jump the hell out of the way when one of them grabbed

whatever was nearby and chucked it at him. It never took much for him to get bored and move on.

She'd rather have Eric as a best friend than a boyfriend any day of the week. The best friend she could have for the rest of her

life, that is if they got over this little bump in their relationship, but Eric as a boyfriend? He'd be hauling ass in less than a

week.

Part of her thought that he'd treat her differently, but that would only make her an idiot. The two of them had been stepping

around falling into bed for years and it happened. Dwelling on it would only cause her heartache that she didn't need or want.

She loved him, couldn't live without him, but knew that if she had any hopes in keeping him she had to bite back her feelings

and laugh this whole thing off when they had their little "talk" later.

"Why don't you head out? I've got this," Eric said, surprising the hell out of her.

Not once in twelve years had he ever offered to put the truck away on his own. Of course she'd never asked, but that's because

they enjoyed working together. It didn't hurt that working together to put the truck away meant they could both leave quicker.

She opened her mouth to say no, but then thought better of it. He obviously didn't want to have this talk and neither did she.

Common sense said that they should have it soon before it became awkward, but if he was willing to be a coward about it then

so was she.

"A re you sure?" she asked, her hand hesitating over the door handle.

"Yeah, go ahead," he said, not bothering to look up from his clipboard.

She climbed out, feeling unsure for the first time since they met. When he still didn't look at her or say anything about what

they'd done she shrugged it off and shut the door.

The next thirty minutes were a blur as she hauled ass to grab her bedding, punch out, and drive off. The entire time she was

afraid that he was going to change his mind and want to have the talk that she was so not ready to have. By the time she pulled

into her driveway she was a mass of nerves. It didn't get any better once she walked into her house.

Every few minutes she'd look up from what she was doing, half expecting Eric to come sauntering in. When he didn't show up

an hour later she was both relieved and disappointed. She was glad that they weren't going to have the talk just yet, but she was

disappointed because she wanted to see him, be with him.

She was such an idiot, she decided as she headed to her room. She quickly undressed and forced herself to take a long hot

shower when all she wanted to do was wait by the phone like some love sick teenage girl. This was bad, this was very bad. If

she was going to convince Eric that she could get over what happened between them then she couldn't go around acting like

this.

He was her best friend and that's all. That much was clear when she was done with her shower, dressed and hitting her fridge

for a drink before she went to bed. She knew that if he wanted to be here that he would already be here, but clearly he'd

realized they'd made a mistake.

Fine, she thought, grabbing a bottle of water from the fridge before heading to her room. If that's what he wanted then that was

more than fine with her. She could pretend that he hadn't given her the best sex of her life or that she was dying to touch him

again. She was a big girl.

She could handle a little rejection. She closed the blinds, darkening the room and flopped down on the bed more than ready to

put this day behind her.

She was going to kick his ass, she decided three hours later when she couldn't fall asleep or get him out of her mind. If he didn't

want anything to do with her then he could have damn well said so instead of giving her the cold shoulder and treating her like

every other woman in his life. She'd been his best friend for over twenty years and deserved a hell of a lot more consideration

than he was giving her at the moment.

Furious, she grabbed her keys and headed for the front door as she thought up all the ways she was going to make him pay for

this bullshit.

A fter she was done with him he was going to wish-

"Where the hell are you going?" Eric demanded when she practically ripped open the front door, startling her, but not enough to

distract her from her purpose.

"To kick your ass," she snapped.

That slow sexy grin of his did not affect her. It didn't. She also didn't care that he looked as exhausted as she felt or that she

was happy to see him. Nothing mattered except that he'd discarded her and spent the entire remainder of their shift acting like

nothing happened. That pissed her off. Then he added insult to injury by brushing her off so that he wouldn't have to deal with

her.

Well, now he was going to do deal with her because she was so ready to kick his-

Her thoughts sort of drifted off when he grabbed the back of her neck and leaned down and kissed every last coherent thought

out of her head. She was barely aware of him guiding her back into the house or when he shut her door and locked it. A ll of

her attention at the moment was on his mouth and the way he was kissing her breathless.

When he finally stopped kissing her, and she wanted to kick his ass for that alone, her mind began to clear and she remembered

that she was angry with him. Who the hell did he think he was treating her like that? she wondered as she pushed him away.

"I take it you're mad at me," he noted with a sigh.

"You could say that," she snapped, crossing her arms beneath her breasts as she glared at him and waited for the typical Eric