Fan the Flames (7 page)

“Before you try to give me a lecture like I’m a preschooler, listen to me. I’m drawn to you, sweetheart. I was taken back at first, but now I like how my heart beats faster when I see you. You feel it too.” He leaned closer to her and lowered his voice to a more intimate level. “I can tell by the way your voices changes and you unconsciously lick your bottom lip. All those are signs of attraction.”

The sound of children screaming slowly faded into the background as Ja’Nael got lost in his unblinking stare. She was falling into the aura slowly forming around them by Brody’s deep, hypnotic voice.

Dark blue, captivating eyes seemed to devour her, and she was the only meat that could satisfy his growing appetite. The stare set of warning bells in her head, yet she kept looking at him, excited about what might happen next.

Good God. What in the hell was she thinking? She actually wanted Brody Wagner to kiss her. She must have been out in the sun too long. Panic swelled inside of her, and she had to get away. “Look, I’m sorry,” she said in a rush, pushing away from him. “It was nice talking to you, Brody, but I need to—”

Brody caught her lips. His warm mouth nibbled at hers. Hot, sizzling, scorching sensations Ja’Nael never experienced before took over her body, racing through her veins. She placed her hands on his hard, muscular chest to push him away, but he yanked her closer.

Closing her eyes, she gripped Brody’s shirt in her fists, moaning low in the back of her throat. A pulling quiver started low in her stomach; his lips made her weak. Never had she been kissed so thoroughly. It made her desire…crave...
need
more.

The tip of Brody’s tongue traced the corner of her mouth, demanding entrance, and just as Ja’Nael was about to give in to his silent request, she heard, “Uncle Brody, you are kissing my teacher?”

She broke away form the kiss and desperately tried to move, but Brody cupped her face in his large hands. “Don’t run away from me,” he said in a low voice as he stared into her eyes. “We only shared a kiss. Nothing bad happened.”

“I can’t do this. Not with you.” Ja’Nael brushed Brody’s touch off her, jumped up from the bench and hurried toward the parking lot, praying she could get the kiss out of her head.

* * * * *

“What’s wrong with Ms. Haughton?” Reid asked. “Was she mad you kissed her? Is that why she ran a way?”

Brody got up from the bench to go after Ja’Nael but stopped. He couldn’t talk to her now, but he sure as hell would later. Falling back down on the seat, he shot back up when he sat on something hard. He picked up the book Ja’Nael had been reading and flipped through it. A smile slowly spread across his face when he noticed the bookplate with her name and address on the inside. She would be wanting this back, and he would take it to her. After the kiss they just shard, she couldn’t deny how much she was lying about not wanting him. So she better not think about doing that damn dating website anymore.

“Uncle Brody, are you okay?” his nephew asked, touching him on the arm.

Looking down at Reid, he touched him on the head then grinned. “Buddy, I’m doing great. I think my day has gotten better since seeing your teacher.”

“I like seeing her too,” he answered, grinning up at him. “She’s pretty and nice.”

“I like her, too,” he admitted, turning the romance book over in his hand. “Are you ready to head home? I’ll let you watch a DVD while I work in the study.”

Reid’s eyes lit up as his grabbed his hand. “Can I watch The Smurfs?”

Reid had over twenty cartoon DVDs, and he watched that one every week, but if that is what he wanted, he could watch it until he wore it out.

“Sure, you can watch The Smurfs again,” Brody answered, walking with his nephew. “Do you want to stop at the bakery and get a blueberry muffin?”

His nephew looked up at him. “Can I have strawberry instead? Ms. Haughton had one at school, and I want one.”

“One strawberry muffin it is,” Brody agreed, getting a huge grin from the little boy next to him.

Chapter Twelve

Was she trying to make him lose his mind and do something that he shouldn’t do?

A month after sharing that mind-blowing kiss with Ja’Nael at the park, Brody sat in his study, glaring at the screen on his laptop. He had been trying to find a way to get her alone again, but every time he arrived at the preschool there was always a parent there or several kids.

How in the hell could she deny the low-burning flame between them? Now, he was sitting here reading her personal ad on a teacher’s dating website. It had taken so long for her to post a profile her, he thought Ja’Nael had decided not to do it after all. Now, here he was staring at it.

He scrolled down her information, noticing that she had gotten twelve responses since her post three days ago, but he couldn’t tell if she had respond to any of them or not. She was out of her mind if she thought he had given up on getting her.

Did she actually believe that he thought she felt
nothing
when they had kissed? Well, Ja’Nael was in for the surprise of her life. Not one of these stupid assholes was going to get her away from him. When he saw her years ago at Shorty’s he couldn’t ask her out because she was younger than him. Now, he didn’t have that problem.

He lingered over the keyboard, dying to send her a private message along with a flirt, but would this really get him closer to Ja’Nael or push him into the same category as the losers who had already replied to her post?

After that sample taste of her, she only made him crave more and more of her until he was about to explode from need. He knew the flame burning in him could only be extinguished by one thing, and that was Ja’Nael herself.

They’d be good together, if she would just loosen up and give him an honest chance. This response to her ad might just be the opening he had been waiting for since she came back to town.

Moving his mouse, Brody clicked on the Private Message icon. He didn’t want to tell Ja’Nael who he was in this first message, so he would just introduce himself and see if things moved from there. He spent the next few minutes typing in a response to her funny, yet well-written, personal ad.

Hitting the Send button, Brody leaned back in the swivel chair and crossed his fingers. If Ja’Nael didn’t answer his message, he still had an ace up his sleeve. Reaching over to the left, he picked up the romance book she had left at the park. He stared at the interracial couple on the front, tangled in the sheets on a bed in a sexy pose.

If she wanted this in her life, he would be more than happy to give it to her. All she had to do was ask. He could offer her a lot more excitement than any romance book.

* * * * *

Across town, sitting in her bed, Ja’Nael was looking at all her private messages. She couldn’t believe so many men had answered her ad without seeing a picture of her. She was curious about who they were, but also a little nervous as well.

All of these men might be the nicest guys in the world, but none of them were who she really wanted to be with, and they sure wouldn’t take her mind off Brody. That kiss they had shared at the park still haunted her, and it went way past the kissing stage in her dreams. He took control of her so well, and she liked it. One moment he was talking to her and in the blink of an eye his amazing body was pressed against hers. His mouth demanded a response from her that she couldn’t fight.

From the way his lips nibbled and sucked at hers, he was a master in the kissing department. Sure, men had kissed her in the past, but those weren’t anywhere as earth shattering as Brody’s. Daily, she tried fighting her attraction to him, but nothing she did pushed it away.

Ja’Nael wanted to accept a date with Brody the very first time he asked her out, but fear kept her from doing it. Well, she was fucking tired of being afraid of everything. The only thing she was truly confident about was being a teacher.

What if you break down and give Brody a chance?

He could turn out to be just like his evil brother
, her mind taunted until another more powerful voice cut in kicking it away.
Ja’Nael Shae Haughton, you better stop living in the past. Pull yourself together and call Brody. I raised you better than to hide behind fear. Didn’t
I
?

The forceful sound of her Aunt Beverly’s voice filled her head so clearly she actually looked around her bedroom, thinking she might see her standing there looking at her, waving that familiar finger at her.

“My aunt is right,” she said, reaching for her cell phone.

Kelcie had pushed her to place that ridiculous ad, but she wasn’t interested in meeting a stranger on the internet. Not when she had a guy who looked like Brody asking her out on a date. She would be crazy to not go after him. She searched through her phone until she found Brody’s number.

Ja’Nael felt a growing sense of personal pride as she shook off her nervousness before dialing the number. She prayed that stepping out of her comfort zone wouldn’t come back to bite her in the end.

The sudden noise of the phone ringing next to him made the romance book fall out of Brody’s hands. Shit! He had just gotten to the couple finally about ready to make love! Who in the hell was calling him?

Snatching up the phone he answered in a rough voice. “Yeah,”

“Brody, did I call you at the wrong time?” Ja’Nael’s tempting voice asked in his ear. “If I did, I can call you back at another time.”

“No, I can talk,” he answered quickly, shaking off the surprise at hearing her voice.

“I was calling to see if your offer was still available for us to go out on a date,” she inquired, shocking him.

Brody barely caught his shout of excitement. He couldn’t believe that she actually called him about a date. He knew the positive would outweigh the negative simmering between them, which was why he kept seeing the glass as half full.

“Brody, are you still there?”

“Yes, I’m here, sweetheart. I would love for us to go out on a date,” he answered. “How about we make it for this weekend? I have to make arrangements for Reid.”

Ja’Nael paused for a few minutes. “This weekend sounds good to me. I thought long and hard before agreeing to do this with you. I’m not the same person who got mistreated by your brother. You told me to see you separately from him, so I’m giving you this chance. However, you need to know if you do one thing to make me doubt your sincerity, that’s it. No second chances.”

Leaning his back against the headboard, Brody couldn’t control the grin that spread across his face. For now, he would allow her to think she owned the upper hand. She would learn soon enough that he loved being the man in everything he did.

“Sweetheart, I promise that you won’t have any kind of doubt once we’re together. I’ll prove to you that I’m very, very interested in getting to know you outside of our platonic relationship.

“You sound very sure of yourself,” she teased. “I would hate for you to be all confident and then not be able to hold up your end. I finally made a step by offering an olive branch, so don’t make me take it back from you, Mr. Wagner,” she warned softly before hanging up, not giving him a chance to answer.

She had given him a foot in the door, and he was going to push through it.

Ja’Nael finally stepped from behind her wall, but he wanted the barrier completely gone between them. Baby steps...patience and baby steps. All he needed to do was move slow while proving to Ja’Nael that her trust wouldn’t be misplaced with him.

He hoped he would be able to make it to the weekend now that he knew it was only a matter of days before she would finally be in his arms.

Chapter Thirteen

The chatter of conversation flowed around the restaurant while utensils clicked against plates, but all of that was background noise as Brody continued staring at Ja’Nael sitting across the table from him.

Earlier, when she had opened the front door to her house, he almost suggested they stay in. She wore a stunning, dark-purple dress that molded her body with leather detail on the sleeves. The bottom stopped right above her knees, showing off toned thighs. It was the kind of dress made for a man to wonder how Ja’Nael got it on. He was also thinking about the quickest way to get it off her body.

“Did I tell you how amazing you look tonight?” he asked. Reaching across the table, he touched the back of her hand with his fingers.

He was amazed at how silky smooth her skin was. He could get lost in just touching her and listening to her talk for the rest of the night. The low, sexy sound was something unexpected coming for her.

“Yes, you did,” she answered, giving him a genuine smile. “I bought this dress when I lived in New York. I had taken my best friend Kelcie out shopping. She threatened to end our friendship if I didn’t buy it for myself.”

“Well, I’m glad you listened because you truly do look stunning. So, what made you leave New York and move back home? I heard that you had gotten a job at a very prestigious private school there.”

A haunted look passed over Ja’Nael’s face before she could mask it from him. She lowered her eyes, and when she raised them back up, it was gone.

“If you don’t want to tell me you don’t have to,” he insisted. “This is only our first time. I mean, if you don’t want me all in you private business, I understand.”

“No, I can tell you. There isn’t any reason for me to protect them,” Ja’Nael answered, moving her hand away from his. “I did nothing wrong.”

“What happened?” He hoped if Ja’Nael opened up to him about something obviously important to her, he might have a chance to win her over.

“I was giving a test, and a couple of my students decided to cheat off each other so they would make a good grade and pass the course. I caught them and turned them into the dean. Cheating was against the rules, and anyone caught doing it would get permanently expelled.”

“I’m guessing that didn’t happen.”

She shook her head. “No. One boy along with four other students banned together and went to the dean before I could get to his office. Sadly, Josh believed them over me because their parents donated a lot of money over the years and…”

“What aren’t you telling me? Come on, you can trust me.”

“See, Josh was more than the dean at the school. He was also my boyfriend, but Harper was his son. He wasn’t about to toss his own child out of school, so he told me I must have misunderstood the situation and told me to test the class again with a different test.

“I refused to do it, so I got put on probation while another teacher taught my class. Josh told me I could come back to school after the two weeks was over. I was so shocked that all I could do was leave, but after I was gone, I knew I couldn’t go back into that building. Not after the looks I got in town from other teachers and the accused kids’ parents. It reminded me of my experience in high school.

“So, I looked on the internet for another job, and when I saw the one for a preschool teacher back here, I jumped at it.”

“Did Josh even try to keep you from leaving? I can’t believe he let you leave like that without fighting for you.”

Ja’Nael gave him a sad smile. “I thought he would fight for me too, but he did absolutely nothing but take my resignation and lay it on his desk. I knew then that he wasn’t the man for me. I was lucky enough to find out the truth before things went beyond a few dates.”

“I thought you—”

“Enough with me answering all of the questions,” she said. “I told you way more than I wanted to. There is something about you, Brody Wagner, that I find very hard to resist. You might end up getting me in a world of trouble. Now, it’s your turn to tell me a deep, dark secret. I want to know something about you. What made you decide to become a firefighter? I remember overhearing girls talk about how hot you looked in your outfit once. Did you do it to get all of the female attention the uniform attracts?”

“No, actually my father was a firefighter.”

Ja’Nael frowned at him. “I thought Timothy’s dad was a contractor.”

“He was. Timothy and I are half-brothers. Same mother; different fathers. I was around ten years old when my mother re-married and had him. We are two totally different people,” Brody said sternly, hoping Ja’Nael got his meaning.

“I loved my dad so much. On the weekends he would take me to the fire station and let me sit in the fire truck. I adored the days he took me to work with him.”

“Did he die?” she asked softly, placing her hand over his.

He gave a bitter laugh but laced his fingers through hers. “Can you believe it wasn’t from a fire? He was helping a neighbor fix his roof. He got too close to the edge and fell off. I remember my mother coming to get me out of school. I was so excited to be leaving early, like any eight year old would be. My entire life changed after we got in the car.” He sighed and shook his head. So many years ago, yet he remembered those horrible moments as vividly as if they’d just happened. “She met Timothy’s father a year later and we ended up here. I hated leaving home, but I was a kid with no say in the matter.

“Back to your question, though, I became a firefighter to honor my father’s memory, but also because I love helping people and being a part of a team.”

“I have always thought being a firefighter seemed like a very demanding job. One that you didn’t get much free time or when you did it wasn’t really yours.”

Brody leaned forward, surprise by Ja’Nael’s insight. Most women he dated weren’t really interested in hearing why he got to this point in his life. All they cared about was bragging that they had dated him or slept with him, whichever one came first.

“Some of what you said is right, and some of it isn’t. We do get some free time, depending on the hours we’re schedule to work. I never really think about it when I’m around the rest of the men. I have always been able to stay calm and handle stressful situations.”

Ja’Nael eased her hand away from his and tilted her head to the side as she continued to watch him. She stared at him so long that it started to make him a little uncomfortable.

“What is it?” Brody asked.

“You come off more as an alpha than a team player. I see you as a take-charge kind of guy with others following behind you. Am I wrong?”

He chuckled. For a woman who supposedly wasn’t paying much attention to him all the times he flirted with her, Ja’Nael sure had him pretty easily. She acted like she hadn’t been interested, but the secret was out of the bag. She did like him and wanted to know more.

“You’re right. I do like being the one in control, and sometimes the results can be very pleasurable if the right woman’s let me past her well-placed walls.”

He stood and held out his hand. “Dance with me.” He had been dying to get Ja’Nael in his arms all night, but was she ready to admit she wanted it as well?

Ja’Nael glanced down at his hand for a spilt second before she placed her smaller one inside of his. He gently pulled her up from the seat and weaved her through the dining room tables until they were on the dance floor.

Gently he pulled her against his body until her breasts touched his chest. He growled low in his throat while easing his hand down her back until it came to rest right above the curve of her ass. Swaying to the music, Brody pushed any other thought out of his mind except how amazingly good Ja’Nael’s soft body felt as it brushed against his.

Ja’Nael slid her hand up Brody’s chest as his cock grew harder against her stomach. She tried to move back, but he pressed her closer so she could feel the thick outline of his erection through his slacks.

“Hmmm...Brody, you need to—”

“Don’t get scared. I just want to hold you to ease some of the ache,” he whispered, his hot breath caressing her ear. “I can’t help if he likes the feel of your body as much as I do, sweetheart. Besides, I can’t go too far with us out here on the dance floor.”

Spinning her around, Brody brushed his mouth along the side of her neck, making her knees buckle. She would have stumbled if he hadn’t tightened his grip.

The sultry sound of Toni Braxton’s
voice continued to play around them as she relaxed against Brody, allowing herself to get into the moment. The feel of his hard body gliding against her was doing things to her as well.

Her hard nipples were pressed against the front of her bra. She knew he felt them as well. She had never been much of a dancer, but Brody commanded her body, and she followed his lead. The experience was exhilarating. Sighing, she pressed her cheek against the front of his shirt and allowed her worries to leave her. They stayed out on the dance floor through two more songs.

“Baby, I’m having such a good time with you,” Brody whispered in her ear as Maxwell’s
voice came on for the next song. “I don’t want the night to need. I could stay with you like this forever.”

Ja’Nael couldn’t get caught up in the moment. He already had her thinking about things she shouldn’t, not tonight. It wouldn’t be a good thing if she acted on them. It was late, and she should be getting home.

Moving away from him, she looked up into his surprised eyes. “I hate to tell you this, but I really need to be getting home.”

“Are you sure? Reid is having a sleepover at Mason’s house. We have the night to ourselves. Don’t you want to stay a little longer?”

She wanted to change her mind, but she wouldn’t do it. She had to keep control over her emotions when it came to Brody. She had never been this drawn to a man before. Things were moving way too fast on this first date, and it would be for the best if she went home and thought things through.

She shook her head and stepped away back from him. “No, we really should leave.”

He nodded at her, but she didn’t miss the disappointment in his beautiful eyes. “I understand. Let’s go.” Taking her by the hand, he lead her off the dance floor and back toward the table.

Nibbling at her bottom lip, she thought about what Kelcie had told her about living her life and not getting caught back up in the past. Was she being too hard on Brody? Tonight, they both had opened up to each other and she never believed he would be so…fantastic to be around.

If she found such comfort in his arms on the dance floor, where else could he give her comfort if she let him?