Burn for You (24 page)

The door creaked open.

“Hey, man. You gotta take a piss?”

“Uh, no…”

Hearing not Preston’s voice but Victoria’s, he lifted his head from his arm.

Looking over his shoulder and through the blurred glass door of the shower, he watched as a blob of periwinkle blue slid to the floor, followed by a swath of white, leaving nothing but a blurry nude female figure.

Instantly awake and running on all cylinders, Jason’s cock throbbed to life. Possessiveness for the woman he’d just been thinking about rushed through his body, making him ache to pull her into the shower and bury himself inside her.

“Care for some company?” she asked, her voice still husky with sleep.

“Absolutely.” He slid the glass door open, heart hammering in his chest. This was exactly what he wanted, and yet, confusion made him slow to act on his impulses. Was this the same woman who’d avoided eye contact and put a cutting board, a knife, and a kitchen island between them after their last kiss?

Her brown eyes met his and she smiled shyly. Hundreds of words zipped through his brain.
Thanks for what you did for Preston. You’re the most thoughtful person I’ve ever met. God, you’re beautiful.
He said none of them. Instead, he pulled her into the spray with him and locked his lips to hers.

“Mmm,” he murmured. “You taste like coffee.”

“Espresso,” she said breathlessly, their mouths still tangling. “From the tiramisu I had delivered.”

“Delicious.” Delicious. Like the feel of her wet skin against his, or her small tits pressed against his chest. Nothing could be more perfect.

He deepened the kiss, desperate to taste more of her, to feel the heat of her tongue with his. She moaned and tilted her head, giving him easier access.

Don’t mess around with her. She’s already half in love with you
. Preston’s words echoed in his head, making him slow the frantic pace of their kiss. He nibbled at her lower lip and then stopped. “Are you sure this is okay?”

She laughed low in her throat, her arms still twined around his neck. “I’m the one who accosted you in the shower, not the other way around.”

“No, I don’t mean that. I mean, this whole thing.” He squeezed her waist gently. “You’re okay with this…us…what we’re doing?”

The amused smile left her face and her brown eyes regarded him seriously. “You mean, am I okay with a no-strings fling?”

“Exactly.”

She pressed herself more fully against him. “Yes, I am.” She kissed his lips lightly. “I’m okay with your rules.”

“Our rules.” She’d helped come up with half of them after all.

“Right.” She smiled and playfully bit his lower lip, making him groan. “I’m okay with
our
rules.” She darted her tongue out to lick at the corner of his mouth, the light pressure teasing him and making his blood pump faster. “I’m okay with living in the now.” Gently, she sucked his lower lip. “I’m okay with enjoying each other’s bodies.” Rising up on her tiptoes, she put her lips up to his ear and whispered, “Make me feel good, Jason. Please.”

Growling, he turned them around and pinned her to the wall, claiming her mouth with his own. She’d teased him with her kisses, and now he couldn’t hold back. He lifted her off the ground, holding her up by pressing her against the wall, and she wrapped her legs around him.

Nestling himself between her legs, he cursed. “No condom.”

She groaned her disappointment, flexing her hips and skimming her already wet pussy against his cock.

“Fuck.” He clenched his teeth and beat his forehead once against the tile over her shoulder. “That feels good.”

She kissed his neck and, squeezing her thighs, moved herself up and down his body. The dance continued, simulating an act he desperately wanted to indulge in, condom or no condom.

“Stop.” He held her hips still. “Stop. You can’t or I’m going to bury myself inside you.” He leaned away from the wall and she slid down his body, her feet returning to the ground. He kissed her lips then pulled back, wanting to taste more of her skin, her body, but she moaned in protest and pulled him back down to her lips.

“Mmm.” Speaking against her mouth, he reassured her. “I’m not leaving you, Toria. Just let me taste more of you.”

Reluctantly, she loosened her hold on his head enough that he could kiss her neck. He continued south to lavish attention on her nipples, loving the way her breath caught and she arched, pushing her small perfect tits into his mouth.

Continuing his descent down her body, he knelt in front of her and licked his tongue over her sex, desperate to taste her passion on his lips. She let out a deep, carnal moan that ratcheted his desire into a new stratosphere. He lived to make her moan like that, lived to drive her wild.

Glancing at her face, he found her eyes closed and the color on her cheeks high. She was embarrassed about what he was doing. He knew it, and yet…she offered herself to him, letting him hook one of her legs over his shoulder to open her for his intimate kisses. That she gave of herself so willingly, despite her embarrassment, that she trusted him so completely with her pleasure—it was humbling. Gently, reverently, he worked his tongue over her in the rhythm she’d taught him the night before, loving the taste of her sweet musk mixing with the water that sluiced down her body from the shower.

Needing to relieve the ache building inside, he stroked his rock hard cock, his lips and tongue never ceasing in their devotion to her.

Panting, she whispered his name over and over, her pleasure filling him with a deep and profound pride. And when her frantic breathing stopped completely, he knew she was headed over the edge. He entered a finger inside and felt her inner muscles quake as he lapped at the sweet nectar of her release. He rode out her climax, still working his cock and hoping to find release. But it wasn’t enough.

He needed to possess. Needed to be inside her. Desperately.

He stood and her arms came around his waist. She rested her cheek on his chest, drawing in deep recovery breaths. He pulled her closer, aligning their bodies perfectly. With a finger under her chin, he tilted her face up and kissed her again, letting her taste her own pleasure, but he couldn’t stay in that position long because the temptation to hitch one of her legs up over his hip and slide inside her was too strong. Instead, he guided her down to her knees and held his cock to her lips.

She took him willingly, and caving in to that need to possess, he gripped her short hair and pulled her into the rhythm he needed. She moaned, taking him in even further, her brown-eyed gaze meeting his, daring him to lose himself in the moment. And in the midst of the most incredible climax of his life, it was impossible to tell just who owned who.

Chapter 18

Meadows: Want to not have dinner with me tonight?

Can’t. Working.

Meadows: Thought you were off tonight.

On call, actually. Got called in.

Sitting at the station’s kitchen table, Victoria smiled down at her phone, waiting for Jason’s reply. Three little dots danced on the screen, but his message was slow in coming.

In the living area, the TV blared—gunshots and explosions and all kinds of chaos she didn’t care to watch. She was about to ask Graham and the others to turn it down when Flaherty returned from the call he’d been out on and walked through the common room on his way to the kitchen.

“Flaherty, check this shit out.” Graham craned his neck over the back of the large sectional sofa. He never learned. He was always trying to make nice with Mike when anyone could see he just wanted to be left alone. “You’d like this movie. You ever seen
American Sniper
?”

“No,” Flaherty answered, his voice as cold as his steel gray gaze.

Victoria tried not to watch the exchange from her perch on a kitchen stool, but it was hard to look away from Flaherty. He was all silence and simmering tension.

But Graham obviously hadn’t tuned in to Flaherty’s mood because he kept talking. “Seriously? You haven’t seen it? For some reason, I thought you were a sniper in the army.”

“I was.” Two words. Always two words.

At least Victoria didn’t need to take it personally anymore. He did the two-word thing with everyone now. Even Graham McAndrew, everyone’s best friend.

“Oh, then dude, you gotta come see this. Bradley Cooper is so badass.”

A muscle twitched in Flaherty’s jaw, and Victoria’s hold tightened on her phone. Flaherty was pissed, and Graham was just not getting it.

This could get ugly.

“So badass?” Flaherty repeated, his voice low and ominous.

“Yeah, you shoulda seen the part—oh, wait.” Graham sprang up from the sofa and grabbed the TV remote off the coffee table, his back to Flaherty who stood frozen behind the sofa. “It’s DVD—I’ll rewind it and show you.”

Shut up, Graham. Shut. Up.

Victoria held herself so still she could hardly draw a breath. Could no one else see that Flaherty was five seconds from losing his shit? Why the hell didn’t Graham just stop talking?

“No. Don’t show me.” Flaherty started to walk away but paused two steps from the kitchen when his eyes met Victoria’s. If he’d been angry before, something about seeing her, sitting in the kitchen, doing absolutely nothing, took him to a new level of fury. He reeled on Graham. “You know what? You all think it’s so fucking great, don’t you? That sniper’s
so
badass. He’s such a fucking hero, right? If you think it’s so awesome, then why don’t you go? Why aren’t you signing up right now?”

He ripped the remote from Graham’s hand and killed the power to the TV with an angry jab of his thumb. “You want to know why I don’t want to watch your stupid movie? Because I fucking
lived
it. And it wasn’t fucking awesome.” He threw the remote at the wall and it cracked into pieces, the batteries flying out and falling to the floor.

“Mike.” Graham held his hands up, palms out. “Man, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean—”

“Fuck you, McAndrew.” Without looking at Victoria again, Flaherty turned on his heel and headed in the opposite direction, toward their sleeping quarters.

“Jesus,” Graham said, looking contrite. “I didn’t mean anything by it.”

The other guys muttered their assurances to him from their places on the L-shaped couch. “Don’t sweat it, man,” and “He’ll get over it.” Comments intended to make their eternally optimistic friend feel better.

Victoria knew Graham hadn’t meant anything by it, but part of her was glad Flaherty had chewed him out. He’d said all the things Victoria was too socially appropriate to say herself.

She slid her thumb across the screen to see if Jason had replied to her text yet. The three dots waved back at her.

“Hey, Vic.” Graham pulled up a stool across from her at the kitchen island. “Can I talk to you a sec?”

“Sure, what’s up?” she asked, more interested in what the hell could be taking Jason so long to type.

Waiting for Graham to speak, she continued watching the dots. When Graham didn’t say anything, she finally looked up.

“There you are,” he said, a teasing grin on his face.

“Sorry. I was distracted. What did you want to tell me?”

He cleared his throat. “I wanted to apologize actually.”

“For what?”
For always expecting me to be there for you? For dangling your affection in my face whenever it suited your purposes? For cock blocking Jason at my brother’s wedding?

“Were you sitting out here by yourself because of the movie we had on?”

Victoria sighed. It was nearly impossible for her to work up any kind of grudge toward Graham. She’d been on a roll there for a second, and then he asked her his question, looking all apologetic and concerned, reminding her that as hurtful as he’d been in the past, he’d been equally as clueless about the fact that he’d been hurtful.

“I wasn’t thinking about you and Mike when I put that movie on.” He shook his head. “No, that’s not true. I
was
thinking about you two, but I thought it would be right up your alley, you know? I forget sometimes how shitty things probably were for you there. In my mind, I’d rather believe you went on patrols where nothing eventful ever happened, and if something did, everyone walked away without a scratch.”

“I wish it’d happened that way too.”

“But it didn’t.”

“No, it didn’t.”

“I’m sorry.”

Unable to resist the urge to reassure him that he wasn’t a completely thoughtless jerk, she put down her phone and gave him her full attention. “I’m not sitting in the kitchen just because of the movie. Other than it being too loud for any normal human being’s ears, it doesn’t bother me to have that stuff on in the background. I just wanted to be alone. That’s all.”

Shoulders relaxing, Graham smiled and leaned over the table. “Good. Okay. That’s good.”

She smiled, amused that she’d said she’d come to the kitchen to be alone, and here he sat, looking ready to keep chatting.

He really was clueless.

Her phone buzzed on the table and she snatched it up again. The three dots had finally formed a sentence.

Meadows: This sucks.

She laughed softly to herself.

“What’s so funny?” Graham asked.

“Hang on,” she said, typing her reply.

Five minutes of typing and that’s all you could come up with? This sucks?

She glanced up at Graham. “It’s nothing. Just a text from Jason.”

“You guys have been seeing a lot of each other lately, huh?”

Victoria shrugged. They had, but she tried not to overthink it. She was head over heels for Jason, addicted to the undivided attention he paid her. But after what Preston had shared with her, she knew it would be difficult for him to ever fully put himself out there.

The optimist in her had agreed to his rules for their affair, because she wanted to believe that someday he’d trust her enough to let her in. Someday, he’d trust her enough to break all their rules.

But until that day, Jason was keeping a tight rein on their arrangement. They did spend a lot of time together, but mostly with their clothes off. And the no sleepover rule? He’d stuck to that like glue, giving her the guest bedroom and sleeping on the couch downstairs when they’d stayed that night at Preston’s, and always suggesting they meet at her apartment. All the easier for him to slip away after they’d exhausted themselves with insanely hot and sometimes wildly creative sex.