AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Lucy shifted, not moving her fingers from the sleeve of his jacket. “Can we not talk about any of this? At least until tomorrow?”
“Fuck. Of course,” Sam said, shaking his head. “It’s late, and you’re probably beyond wrecked. Do you have a land line? I’ll write down my cell number, just in case you need something, and I can pick you up whenever you want to go to the Thirty-Third.”
“No.”
His brows rose. “No, you don’t have a land line, or no, you don’t want me to pick you up?”
Her pulse sped through her veins, but she didn’t hesitate. “No, I don’t want you to go.”
He watched her for a beat, trying to decipher her meaning. Lucy closed the space between them to barely an inch, her mouth so close to his ear that she felt his breath kick out of him and coast hotly over her neck, and yes.Yes.Even if it was just for tonight, just for this moment, this was what she needed.
“Lucy.” Sam’s voice was husky, spilling over her shoulder on little more than a whisper. “It’s been a crazy night.”
“It has been a crazy night,” she agreed, “and the only time I felt even the slightest bit sane during any of it was when you held on to me in that parking lot.”
“You said”—he stopped, the muscles in his jaw tightening beneath his red-gold stubble as Lucy tilted her head, her lips hovering over the soft, sweet spot where his pulse hammered in his throat—“you said that you don’t do this with other firefighters.”
Here, Lucy pulled back to look at him, even though increasing the distance between their bodies made the need that had been pulsing between her legs that much more insistent. “I don’t. But you wanted me to trust my instincts, right?”
He nodded, and the intensity in his warm whiskey stare made her breath catch.
But she’d never been so sure of anything in her life.
“Then stay, Sam. Even if it’s just for tonight. Stay with me.”
18
Sam’s mouth was on Lucy’s in less than a breath. Which was fine, really, because he felt so fucking good, parting her lips to kiss her as if it was the last thing he’d ever do, that breathing was the last thing on her mind.
“Rules,” he said, tearing his mouth from hers after a beat.
“What?” Lucy asked, her brain too lust-fogged to follow.
Sam raked a gaze over her that did nothing to help. “Before we start. Before I can’t fucking stop. We need rules.”
“You don’t strike me as a rules kind of guy,” she said. She’d meant for it to be a flirty retort—them having sex seemed pretty straightforward, and as big a fan as she was of the rules, the only one they seemed to need was the two of them getting naked and making each other come.
But then he brushed a kiss over her mouth, surprisingly tender. “No, but you’re a rules kind of woman, and I intend for you to enjoy every single second of this. That means I need to know what you want. And, more specifically, what you don’t. So, rules.”
“Oh,” Lucy breathed. She went for the obvious. “Condoms.”
“Given,” he agreed. “What else?”
“What do you mean, what else?”
Sam’s stare went dark, sending a shot of pure, hot need all the way through her. “What do you want, Lucy?”
She gave him the only answer she knew. “You. I wantyou.”
Lucy kissed him then, as if it could seal the words. He kissed her back with the same sort of intensity that he put into everything else, andGod,it lit her up. Her heart pounded with every movement, every sweep of his tongue and press of his lips. Sam took his time kissing her, exploring with bold strokes, then retreating so she could explore right back. The give and surrender were perfectly balanced, and the way he gave her as much control as he claimed for himself turned the want in her blood to a screaming need.
“Sam,” she whisper-moaned. He responded by knotting one hand in her hair, tugging just enough to guide her chin up so he could string a path of kisses over her neck. His fingers followed the path of his mouth, soothing the sandy scrape of stubble, and whatever else she’d meant to say—what the hell had she meant to say?—was lost in the riot of sensation.
“Fuck, Lucy.” Sam slid his tongue over the spot where her neck met her shoulder. “Do you have any idea how long I’ve wanted this? Wantedyou?”
Shock made her pull back, just enough to meet his stare. “What?”
She’d been attracted tohimabout ten seconds after clapping eyes on him three years ago, even though she’d never been prepared to act on it, given their work situation. Lucy had known the attraction was mutual—he’d propositioned her for a no-strings-attached fling not long after they’d met, that night in the Crooked Angel when she’d been a rookie. She’d been tempted to give in to her crush on him and break her no-firefighters-in-my-pants rule. But they worked together—in the samehouse,for God’s sake—and her wounds had been too fresh back then to take the risk. Sam had never mentioned it since, and in the three years that had passed, he’d never so much as hinted that he thought of her more than platonically. She’d figured he’d forgotten all about it after she’d turned him down.
