Wildfire Hurricane (A Ryder Boys Novel Book 1) (4 page)

CHAPTER 3

Dash watched his crew’s vehicle disappear into the falling dark. Electricity lingered in the air, crackling and popping. The storm that might’ve started the fire rolled out hours ago, but the friction between him and his new boss lit up the place like a Christmas tree on crack.

The sun dropped behind the mountains, and he turned on his truck’s headlights, shining the bright beams on the blackened landscape around him. He spotted a splintered tree, grabbed his axe, and waved for Simone to follow him. “Ray said the fire was most likely started by lightning.” The formerly towering pine had been split in two, and the half that lay on the ground burned up, but the portion still standing showed charring that didn’t match the fire’s path. “I’ll bet this is what it hit.” He rolled his dirty sleeves up to his elbows and raked the axe through the dirt, searching for more evidence.

Simone stood next to him and studied the tree. “The storm woke me up last night. Sounded like it was right on top of me.”

“Yeah, I heard it too. We’ve had a long, hot summer. The mountains are ripe for a blaze.”
This is good. Keep it professional.
He turned, brushing his bare arm against hers. Lightning surged between them, overloading his brain with memories of skin on skin. Making out in his truck after football games. Driving her home after curfew. Urgent need and fumbling hands. “Do you remember our first time?”
What the fuck is that?

Her eyes widened, big, brown, and scrambling to comprehend what he’d said. A smile lifted her cheeks, revealing that yes, she did remember. Fondly. He’d written endless stanzas about her expressive face, but he couldn’t remember any of them at the moment because his damn dick wanted to come out and play.

“Mmm-hmm…hottest thirty seconds of my life.”

Dash sputtered. “Hey, it was thirty-
five
seconds. Goddamn right, hottest by
far
, darlin’.”

“The second time, though.” Her eyes sparkled with the mischief he’d once loved. “Forty seconds later.” She picked up a half-burned stick and used it to knock down piles of ashes.

“Oh yeah. Much better.” His cock swelled as he grinned and finished her thought. “For you too.”

“Mm-hm, that’s right. Practice makes perfect. We did a lot of practicing.” She turned over a smoking stack of leaves with the stick and spread them across the ground.

“A lot of making up.”

“What did we fight about?” Her eyebrows drew together as if the memory failed to load.

“Everything.” Dash shrugged, at the moment unable to recall anything specific. All their fights seemed to start for one reason. “You never listened to me.”

Simone shook her head. “You always had to be in charge. I remember when—”

“See, you never listen.”

“Shut up. Remember when I wanted to go to that new water park in Montebello? Just twenty minutes away instead of three hours.”

He wracked his brain. The local news had overhyped the place when it opened. “We went there all the time. What’s the big deal?”

“I wanted to go on opening weekend when they had concerts and free food. But you said ‘no way.’”

“I never said we wouldn’t go. I said let’s wait until after the crowded craziness was over.”

“Is that what you said?” The impish smile that hardened his dick like stone appeared and taunted him. “I wasn’t listening.” She turned her back and left him scowling at her sweet, swaying ass.

Jesus, I need to fuck her.
And for no other reason than to pound some sense into the woman. Not that it had ever worked before.

She walked over to a smoking pile of debris and kicked it, exposing a red ember. She stomped on it, crushing the glow under her boot heel. “How can you call the fire contained when there are still coals burning?”

“There’s nothing around it that’ll ignite. It’s the spots that still have fuel surrounding them that need to be watched.” A sputtering log popped and sent sparks sailing over their heads.
Sparks fly—literally.
Dash chuckled at the imagery.

Simone poked at the debris with her charred stick, singing under her breath. He couldn’t make out the lyrics, but then her voice carried to his ears, chased by a sly smile. “I was raised by two left-handed clown wranglers…”

Dash cringed as their favorite argument came rushing back to him. “Those aren’t the words! They can’t possibly be the right words. The sounds don’t fit, the rhythm is all off.”

She laughed. “No, you haven’t changed at all, Mr. Poet.”

“Why the hell should I change? I’m right.
You
—”
Whoa, where am I going with this?

The light in her eyes dimmed. “I’m wrong?”

Never.
Even after all the fighting and the way he’d left her, he still wanted her to be right. “Will you let me finish?” He collected his thoughts, something he’d gotten good at due to her constantly scrambling his brain.
You haven’t changed at all.
Had he heard a note of disappointment? “You wanted me to change?”

“Not you in particular. Not wanted…just hoped…things might’ve changed.”

“Why?” Things couldn’t have been more different. They’d both moved on, established careers, entered and ended new relationships.
So how did we end up together again?

“You don’t get it?”

“What am I supposed to get?” Damn it, she had him running in circles.

She shook her head. “I don’t even know. Maybe it’s been too long.”

“Maybe not. We’re fighting like we always did.”

A spark shot up behind him and reflected in her eyes. “Then maybe there’s hope for us.”

Hope. He’d never used that word in his poems. Not once. But now he let it draw him down a dark path, one he’d never dared to follow. “Do you think we would’ve stayed together in college? Past that? If…?”

“If you would’ve believed me?”

Believed her?
Fucking hell! She’s still riding that crazy train?
“If you would’ve showed up that night. If you would’ve been faithful!”

“I was!”

Dash answered his own question. “Hell no, we wouldn’t have stayed together, and I’ll tell you why. Because you…” Would’ve cheated eventually? “Because I…” Would never have left her? “We never should’ve gotten together in the first place.”

She jammed her stick in the ground. “That’s bullshit!”

He watched the branch waver, and he nearly faltered himself. “No, it’s true. I was going to leave you at the track meet.”

Her eyes narrowed as if trying to recall which of the many events he meant. “When?”

“Back in high school, sophomore year.” He’d never told her that story. “I’d gotten tired of your ‘ta-das’ and your constant attention grabbing stunts.”

“So why didn’t you leave?”

He’d needed her—back then. He’d thought he stayed for her, to give her the love she couldn’t get at home, but she understood him like no one else ever did. “Because I kissed you instead. And after that, we couldn’t get enough of each other. We were always together: you, me, my brothers.”
Why are they in the picture?
Especially…“Mal.” An idea he’d never thought of before plagued him, spreading like a virus that mutated, resisting every effort to kill it. “But maybe you just used me to get to him.”

***

“Bastard!” Simone whirled and threw the stick like the javelins she’d won medals for in high school, with no less accuracy and force. The sharp stick snagged Dash’s sleeve as it flew by him and struck a blackened tree.

“You’re losing your touch.”

“I didn’t have to miss.”

He snarled and swung the axe, burying the head deep in the charred ground. “You could’ve killed me.”

The thought of losing him forever ripped at her soul, but it faded quickly as she realized why. “A burnt branch through the heart wouldn’t hurt you as much as your running off hurt me.” Without saying goodbye. Without listening. She’d told him her side, but he believed Mal. And why? Because Mal had the necklace Dash had given her on her sixteenth birthday?

“Are we keeping score? If that’s the case, then I win by a touchdown and a field goal.” His face flushed red again and he marched at her. “You screwed my brother!”

“I did not!”
Oh my God! When is he ever going to believe me?

“I have the necklace.”

“He must’ve stolen it from me.”

“How? While you were taking your clothes off or putting them back on?”

Her ears roared as blood pounded in her heated face. She willed all her strength into her fist, then she threw her hip into it and punched him in the gut.

Dash groaned and doubled over, dropping to the ground. “I never should’ve taught you how to hit.”

“I learned a lot of things from you, sweetheart.” She stood over him, glaring down from a position of strength.
Ahh…it feels good to be up here.
“How to bring a man to his knees was just one valuable lesson.”

He launched at Simone, wrapping one arm around her legs and knocking her flat on her back. A cloud of ash floated around them as they wrestled. She grabbed at his shirt, ripping buttons loose. He jammed his knee between her thighs, grinding against her throbbing mound. Tingles shot through her limbs and her heart raced.
An adrenaline rush, nothing more.
But he caught a handful of her hair and held her still, pinned under his hot body. They stared at each other, breathing hard, hearts pounding erratically as if fighting each other.

“I want you.” Dash groaned as if in enormous pain and mashed his face against her heaving breasts. “It doesn’t make a goddamn bit of sense, but I want to fuck the pussy my brother ruined.” He lifted his head and flashed a vicious grin. “Now—right here in the dirt and ashes.”

Smoke filled the air and soot littered the landscape, smearing them both with the remains of something that had once been beautiful. “Poetic justice?”

A harsh laugh escaped him. “Raw punishment.”

“For me or for you?” A rebellious and not-too-brilliant impulse compelled Simone to kick her boots off, one at a time. Her feet had always been her thermostat. Maybe if she cooled off, they might get out of this with their clothes on.
Yeah, that’s it.

“Does it matter?”

“Not right now.” She shifted under him, groaning as his rigid cock pressed between her thighs.
God, I want to ride him!
She tried to sit up, to regain the upper hand, but he refused to give up his ground. “We can’t do this.”

“But we will.” His mouth claimed hers with a biting kiss, sweeping away any sense of reason or sanity.

She fell back, pulling at his shirt and clawing bare skin. His belt buckle opened in her hand, and her pants slid down to her knees. “Get off me!” She slammed her body into his chest and hissed when his naked cock stabbed her bare thigh.

Dash laughed on her neck as his lips dragged over her ear. “I know that trick, darlin’. You put up a good fight, but we end up fucking every time.” He bit her nipple through her shirt, and she gasped out loud. “This is no exception.” He grunted and slammed his hot erection into her slippery flesh.

Oh sweet heaven, yes!
She jerked her knee up, pulling free of her pants while he pounded her, every thrust driving home the message that he’d never forgotten her. Her spread legs welcomed him as if he’d never left.

Dash shoved her shirt up to her chin, pushing her bra with it and exposing her breasts. She jammed her hands down his pants and clutched his ass while he tugged her nipples with his teeth. Heat licked her thighs, and she wrapped her legs around him, jerking him in deeper while her mind mounted a feeble protest. “Don’t.” But the long-neglected lust fought back, leaving her caught in the crossfire. “Don’t make me come.”

“Ha.” He slipped his hand between their sweaty bodies and stroked her throbbing clit. “I can and I will.”

Rather easily too. His touch sparked a yearning flame that raged out of control in a blinding flash. “Fuck no!” Simone gasped and panted as he leaned back and grinned, obviously quite pleased that she’d responded so quickly.

“You’re still trembling.” He brushed his fingertips over a quivering nipple. “You must’ve really needed that.”

How long had it been since she’d gotten laid? Didn’t matter. No one else had ever made her drip like Dash could. “We’re not done.” She took advantage of his gloating and shoved him on his back.

Dash coughed in the resulting ash cloud, lying helpless in the dirt while she mounted him. “Darlin’,” he slid his hands over her thighs and held her firmly on his cock. “You can fuck me as long as you want.”

She toyed with the urge to run off and leave him unfinished, but the hard flesh between her legs and his possessive grip kept her in place. She slid forward, angling her thrusts so his cock dragged along her swollen flesh. “As long as I get what I want.”