Fire Me Up (21 page)

Teagan's mind spun on its axis, and her knowledge of the system caught up with Adrian's story in a gut-sinking rush. “Assaulting a police officer is a B felony.” God, no wonder he'd done time on a first offense.

“All it took was one good, impulsive shove out of line, and I lost everything. Becca's husband's attorney threw the book at me, and the judge let it stick. The only thing that saved me from doing more time was Carly's testimony, both at my trial and when I made parole.”

“She sounds like a good friend. One who believes in you,” Teagan said.

“That's just the point,” he shot back. “The minute I got sprung from Rikers, I swore I'd live up to what she'd said, that I'd do right by her word and what my
nonna
wanted for me. I swore I'd never lose everything on a crazy, impulsive risk again, not for anything.”

Adrian broke off, his voice turning to gravel and his stare to pure steel. “All I've wanted for the last five years was to keep my head down and live my life in the kitchen where I belong. But then I wrecked my bike, and I spent all this time with you, and I didn't mean to, but . . .
damn it,
I just . . . I can't . . .”

Teagan's heart slammed behind her breastbone. “You can't stay.”

“No. Don't you get it? I can't
not
stay.” The words burst from Adrian's mouth, knocking the breath straight out of her lungs. “As insane as it sounds with everything tumbling down around me right now, being with you is the only thing that makes me feel like I'm really living with no regrets. The risk, the food, none of it matters. There's only you. You're the only thing that makes sense.”

“But . . . you just said—”

He halted her words with a slash of his hand. “I know what I said, but I also know what I feel. It would be bullshit for me to tell you that I have all the answers. Hell, I don't have the first clue how to handle the mountain of risks outside that door. But it would be even bigger bullshit for me to tell you I want to do anything other than stay.”

Adrian stood, laying waste to the space between them in a single, breath-stopping rush. His big, capable hand reached up to cup her face, a gentle brush of skin on skin, and his touch vibrated all the way through her.

“Please, Red. I want you with no regrets. Let me stay.”

Teagan arced up toward his body without hesitation, and Christ above, Adrian wanted nothing more than to drown in the absolute heat of her red, ripe mouth. Everything about her—from her sassy,
dare me
attitude to the quiet, understanding nature that had made her listen as he'd aired out every stitch of his dirty laundry—it was all so gorgeous and stubborn and just so fucking perfect, Adrian didn't care what he was up against.

The only risk that mattered was the risk of not being with this woman.

“This is insane,” Teagan murmured, clutching the sleeves of his T-shirt with hot, needy fists, and he wrapped his unhurt arm around her back to lock them together from shoulder to hip.

“I don't care.” Adrian parted her lips with his own in one fluid stroke, stealing the deep-seated sigh coming up from her chest before breaking off to kiss the soft skin of her neck. “I meant everything I said. I want you. Just you.”

“Oh God, I want you, too.” Teagan pulled back, her cheeks flushed with desire, and her liquid copper stare hit him right in the sternum.

“I want you to stay.”

Her mouth found his in a flawless combination of eager and sweet, and he dove in without thought. Tracing the extravagant curve of her lower lip with his tongue, Adrian tasted and teased, and although the dark impulse shooting through his blood screamed at him to rip Teagan's clothes off without lingering pleasantries, the certainty filling his mind kept him steady.

The more he kissed her, the more he wanted, to the point that his only option was to take Teagan so hot and slow, there'd be nothing left of him when they were done.

“Adrian, please.” Her husky, sex-soaked whisper bordered on begging, and the sound shot straight to his cock. “Take me to bed.”

“No.” He cupped the hollow where her neck dipped into her shoulder blades, breathing in the combination of rosemary and total want pouring off her skin. She froze in his grasp, but before she could put the nonverbal protest to words, he slanted his mouth over her ear.

“I belong in the kitchen, remember?”

Teagan's sharp inhale acquiesced as Adrian slid his tongue from her ear to her collarbone, feathering his lips over the delicate yet pounding pulse point at the base of her throat. Lowering his hand to the back of her rib cage, he swung her from the café table to the narrow pantry door, giving in to the hurry-up urge just once as he pressed her up against the wooden surface with an agonizing thrust of his hips.

Teagan's stare glittered with need, pinning him into place while she slid her hand up the length of his thigh, and the suggestive move deleted
once
from his vocabulary.

“God, you are so hot right now.” Adrian rocked against the tight cradle of her hips, his knees nearly giving out at the delicious friction of rough denim under her soft fingers.

“You didn't think I'd let you have all the fun, did you?” She made another up and down pass over his button fly, but his hand shot out to snap up her wrist and pin it directly over her head.

“Yes.”

With one deft scoop of his free fingers, Adrian hooked the hem of Teagan's T-shirt and yanked it upward, exposing creamy skin bound by white lace. The blush that still covered her face trailed over the swell of her breasts, shading the tight buds of her nipples a dark, sexy-as-sin pink beneath the thin layer of material barely covering them.

He wanted to taste her until she screamed.

Angling himself against her for better access, Adrian lowered his face to the deep V between Teagan's breasts, edging the lacy border of her bra with a sweep of his tongue. He nudged the fabric aside, tasting every inch of the smooth curve of her breast before closing his lips over her bare nipple with a groan.

“Don't stop.”

Teagan's voice broke from her throat on a tremble, her unencumbered hand knotting in his hair with just enough pressure to sting sweetly as she strained against his mouth. Powerless to do anything but oblige, Adrian dropped the hand over her head, removing both her T-shirt and the lacy fabric under it with brisk motions. He returned his attention to her now completely bare breasts, slipping his arm around Teagan's back to splay his palm and fingers over the center line of her rib cage, guiding her right back to his hungry mouth. So slowly he thought it might kill him outright, Adrian drew her back to his greedy lips, swirling, sucking and tasting until he'd coaxed her into everything from a whisper to a scream.

“Oh God,” Teagan said, the oath breaking over a cresting moan. “Don't you dare . . .
stop
.”

“That's it,” he breathed, sending a heavy exhale over the damp peak of her nipple. “Let me take care of you. Come for me, Red.”

He lowered his mouth back to her body, anchoring her to the door with his frame as he laved her harder and faster with his tongue. On a final, keening sigh, Teagan's spine went bowstring taut, arching beneath his mouth as she shuddered out his name. Adrian scaled back his touch in slow sweeps, pressing soft kisses to the curve of her shoulder and dropping his arm around her waist to hold her close.

“You are so beautiful. Christ, I can't take my eyes off you.”

But in an instant, she'd curled her fingertips over his biceps, gaining just enough momentum to switch their positions by swinging him against the pantry door.

“Good. Then you can watch while I return the favor.”

In the space of time it took Adrian to relearn how to breathe, Teagan had dropped to her knees, springing the top two buttons on his jeans with nimble fingers. A few flame-colored strands fell loose from her ponytail, framing her wicked smile as she peered up to meet his stare. Without breaking eye contact, she skimmed both hands up his legs, working the rest of the buttons on his jeans to free him from the constraints of the denim.

“Wait,” Adrian warned, but his traitorous cock jerked at the enticing stroke of Teagan's hands diving beneath the waistband of his boxer briefs, and oh, hell, he was going to die from raw, hard want, right here in her kitchen.

“Not this time.” Teagan lowered the black cotton and denim just enough to expose him from his hips to the tops of his thighs, and Adrian ground out one last-ditch effort at control.

“You can't . . . ah, God.”

Every last one of his thoughts short-circuited and spun out as the movement of her hands was replaced by the mind-altering glide of her mouth.

Caught in an erotic trance at the sight of Teagan kneeling between his thighs, Adrian sucked in a lungful of air that got exactly nowhere. With one hand pressed against his hip for leverage and the other wrapped firmly around his rock-hard erection, she turned the tables on him with one long slide of her tongue. The pure, wet heat of her mouth followed over and over again, and the flawless sensation coupled with the pressure from her hand had him fighting for control. Her fingers uncurled against the bare skin on his hip, guiding him into a rhythmic tilt against her mouth. On a groan, Adrian's hand fluttered to the silky crown of her head, and the touch had her lifting her gaze to lock eyes with him without slowing her movements.

She had to stop. Right. Now.

Dropping to hook his arms beneath hers, Adrian pulled Teagan to her feet, righting his clothes with a well-placed yank before drawing her close.

“You make me lose my mind,” he said, slanting his mouth over hers in a punishing kiss she returned with matching need.

“Do you trust me?” Teagan murmured, trailing a line of barely there kisses over his jaw.

“Yes.” His answer flew from his mouth on a breath of surprise, but it was the truth. “I trust you.”

“Then go ahead and lose your mind. I promise I'll take care of you.”

She threaded her fingers through his to lead the way down the darkened stretch of hallway on the opposite side of the kitchen from the foyer, not stopping until they'd crossed the shadow-lined threshold of her bedroom. Just enough moonlight spilled past the curtains to reveal the curve of Teagan's form as she pressed a kiss to his mouth. Adrian's T-shirt rasped over her naked shoulders, and even though his need to feel her skin to skin bordered on desperate, he didn't rush. Instead, he ran his fingers over Teagan's body in slow strokes, tracing the length of her neck, memorizing the slope of her belly, drinking in the flare of her hips.

If he had a million years to discover her, he'd want a million and one.

Wordlessly, Teagan slipped out of the rest of her clothes before liberating him from the rest of his. The combination of silvery light from the windows and the adjustment of his eyes to the dark let him watch as she moved toward her bed, propping herself on her knees in the bedsheets. He stepped in to kiss her, and God, how could anyone be so soft and yet so strong and firm at the same time?

The kiss went from slow and sexy to right fucking now in the span of a breath, and Adrian deepened his motions to meet every one of Teagan's soft little moans. Dividing the cradle of her hips with his own, he pressed against her body until she'd reclined over the mattress, her knees listing open in hot invitation. Adrian shifted to his side to ease the weight of his frame off his injured arm, smiling into the fold of Teagan's shoulder as the lean muscles in her inner thigh tightened under his touch. He dragged his fingertips slowly forward, lingering in the crease between her leg and her hip before sliding over her core.

Impulse sizzled through Adrian's veins as he thrust into the slick heat between her legs, burying his thumb in the soft knot above his fingers. Teagan's answering cry of approval only pushed him harder, and he strained to keep his balance on his impaired arm as he worked her closer and closer to the edge.

“Do you know how badly I want to be inside of you?” he whispered, but the words had barely finished passing his lips before Adrian found himself flat on his back, covered by nothing more than the warm, wanting woman and his insane need to have her.

“Yes,” she whispered back, swinging from the bed only long enough to grab a condom from his discarded jeans. Even the gentle motions of fitting it into place made Adrian's cock ache in demand, and he gripped Teagan's hips as she replaced her body over his. She fastened him with her gaze, her eyes glinting with desire and emotion, and even though the scant light of her room shadowed the connection, Adrian still felt the full force of it in his chest.

“Let me in, Adrian. Let me take care of you.”

Teagan sank down, the space between their bodies becoming nothing in one breath-stealing thrust, and going slow never stood a chance. Adrian canted his hips, tilting her closer until he could reach around to palm the gorgeous swell of her ass to control every movement, pushing deeper into her with each unforgiving thrust. Rather than shy away or try to slow down, Teagan rocked right back against him, giving and taking and giving again until her warm, wet body went rigid around him.

“Oh God.” The oath left her lips as more reverence than curse, and Adrian locked her relentlessly into place as he arched off the bed to fill her. With need that bordered on despair, he levered himself up from the mattress, seating Teagan to the hilt in his lap and holding her there as she unraveled in his arms.

Only, instead of going boneless in her release, she knotted her long, strong legs around the small of his back to adjust to her new position. She rolled her hips over his in a torturously sinful glide, squeezing just as tight and hard as Adrian had only moments ago, until a dark, familiar tingle broke free at the base of his spine. He struggled for the last thread of control in his grasp, but then Teagan looked down at him, her cinnamon-gold stare penetrating him like a palpable touch.

“Your turn. Come for me, Adrian.
Please
.”

His release rushed up from every direction, shuddering through him in a heated wave of pleasure-pain, but Adrian didn't fight it. His mouth parted over the sleek column of her neck, and he surrendered to every last impulse as he came with a groan. Teagan held him fast in her arms as the intensity subsided, the earthy, sweet scent of rosemary filling him up as her hair tumbled down over both of their shoulders. Her chest rose and fell against his, her heartbeat sending a pattern over his skin that grew calmer with each breath.

They sat, locked together in silence and bedsheets, and for the first time in his thirty-two years, Adrian felt like he belonged somewhere other than the kitchen.

 

 

Teagan's eyes fluttered open just as the last strains of purple predawn light gave way to smudges of orange and pink through her bedroom window. The thick smattering of oak trees and tall pines around her cottage sent a kaleidoscope of shadows through the sheer white curtains, and she watched the patterns shift over the carpet at her bedside with a swirl of at-odds emotions uncurling in her chest.

She wanted to be wary, to throw on the prickly suit of armor that had served her so well for her entire adult life so she could push her vulnerability away with a nice, mean shove and go back to self-preservation mode. The only problem was, when Adrian had looked all the way into her last night and said he wanted her no matter what, Teagan had trusted him to stay.

And that trust hadn't budged or faded all night long.

Teagan shifted under the covers, slowly turning to her side. The strong angle of Adrian's jaw was lax in sleep, the heavy fringe of his eyelashes sending shadows over his cheeks. Her dark green comforter draped over his imposing frame at the waist, and the corded muscles of his bare chest rose and fell in steady rhythm. Moving one scant inch at a time, Teagan propped herself up on an elbow, leaning over Adrian's body to examine the scrolled letters inked heavily into his right forearm.