“Kind of.” She smiled. “I wouldn’t have minded staying a few more days, to be honest. Not only because I slept so amazingly well or had fun snowmobiling, but because it was nice reconnecting with them. I know that’s important to you.”
“They’re your biggest fans again,” he said, chuckling. “Except for me, of course. I was already your biggest fan, but not hating snowmobiling really elevated you to a whole new level.”
She laughed. “You have interesting standards.”
“I didn’t like kissing you goodnight and then having to go sleep alone, though. That’s not fun.”
“I’m sure we can make up for the lost time.”
He looked over and arched an eyebrow. “Can we start tonight?”
“I’m afraid if I say yes, you’re going to rack up the speeding tickets on the way home.”
“Between being a firefighter and my natural charm, I can probably talk my way out of a ticket.” When she snorted, he chuckled. “Just being honest.”
“Just get us back to Boston in one piece and then we’ll see where that natural charm gets you.”
Grant shifted in his seat and then decided it might be a good day to use the cruise control.
* * *
“I told you I wouldn’t get a speeding ticket.”
Wren rolled her eyes as Grant dropped their bags on the floor and locked the apartment door behind them. “Seriously, what are the chances you get stopped by a cop whose sister’s dog was rescued from a tree by Engine 59 and Ladder 37?”
“I’d say the chances are pretty good since it just happened.”
“Why was a dog even stuck in a tree? How does that happen?”
“He jumped off the roof of the porch and landed on the branch.”
“What was he doing on the—” She stopped and held up her hand. “Never mind. I don’t even want to know.”
He took her coat and hung it in the closet with his and then lined their boots up on the mat, which made her smile. Grant wasn’t really into being neat. He just subscribed to the theory of touching everything once. Mail didn’t get tossed on the counter to sort later. He sorted it standing over the trash can. Junk got tossed and bills went into the bill stand. Coats and boots scattered around to be put away later didn’t make any sense to him.
She had a tendency to touch things a lot more than once before they were finally put away, but one of the benefits of not owning much was that her room at Patty’s didn’t look cluttered. The things she had scattered around Grant’s apartment probably drove him crazy because touching them once didn’t do any good if they didn’t have a place they belonged.
“I’m beat,” he said, dropping onto the couch.
“It was a long day. Snowmobiling and then driving.” She gave him a sideways look as she sat next to him. “I’m not sure which you drove faster. The snowmobile or the Jeep.”
“The Jeep. Usually I’d say the sled, but I didn’t want to scare you the first time out.” He turned his head to grin at her. “Next time I’ll take you on the lake and open it up a little.”
“That sounds...” She wasn’t sure. “Exciting and dangerous and scary and fun?”
“Exactly.”
He leaned his head back and closed his eyes. Wren looked at his profile, loving his face when he was totally relaxed. She loved his face all the time, of course, but she especially loved seeing him in moments other people rarely got to see.
She put her hand on his thigh, idly stroking the length of it through his jeans. He didn’t open his eyes, but she saw the way the corner of his mouth quirked upward for a second. He wasn’t that tired.
When she strayed a little farther north, brushing her hand over his zipper, he breathed in sharply. And when she popped the button on his jeans, he opened his eyes.
She gave him a saucy smile, or what she thought was saucy, anyway. It must have been close enough because he unzipped his jeans and lifted his ass off the couch enough to shove them and his boxer briefs down. She had to help get them over his knees before he could kick them away, and then she turned all of her attention to the really impressive erection he’d gotten going in the last minute.
Running the flat of her palm up the length of him, she felt it twitch against her hand before she ran her thumb over the tip. Then she got into a comfortable position and ran her tongue over the spot her thumb had grazed. Grant moaned and slid his fingers into her hair.
“No,” she told him. “No touching me or I stop.”
