Freed by Fire (6 page)

Quickly turning my face back toward the celebratory display I tensed as Daniel snaked his arms around Ellie, causing her to shriek and turn to slap his chest. My breathing became erratic as I struggled to inhale a decent amount of oxygen. Short and sharp breaths panted in and out of my lips as I licked them too many times in order to keep from drying up on me.

“Maggie,” Caid’s voice rumbled just as a cannon shot off.

She turned and smiled, then looked back. I was still frozen in place.

The second the boom exploded in the sky, bursting red, white and blue sparks and stars, dazzling and amazing, I felt his touch. Slowly and delicately on the back of my arm.

“Emery,” he said it. Again. Like before, making me force my eyes closed and completely lose any chance of taking a breath.

I turned around and looked up into his eyes, just as another firework detonated. His eyes darted down to mine, and in the reflection of his beautiful greens, I could see the firework. Magnificence heightened and even more beautiful when I saw them echoed on his eyes.

“Hi, Caid.” I managed. Still in awe of how truly beautiful he really was.

How on earth could this man have
any
interest in me?

“I was sad I didn’t get to say goodnight to you. Maggie said you were sick. I hope you’re feeling better now.” His lips moved, as his accent flowed out, and I watched his tongue touch his teeth with each striking word spoken.

He was sad? Oh, good heavens.

“I’m better now,” I said, wanting to face-palm myself again. “I—I mean, I’m feeling well. Thank you.”

A slight breeze in the warm air sent a little chill over my body just as it passed through his hair. I shivered as I looked at his face, wondering if he just rolled out of bed and kept his hair that way. It was impeccably unruly, and I wanted to play with it.

“Damn,” he said quietly just before another explosion lit the sky. “They’re beautiful.”

I turned and looked up, smiling. “They are. I’ve never seen anything quite like them.”

“Emery,” he extended his index finger and touched my face to turn my chin. “I wasn’t talking about the fireworks.”

I swallowed, gulped, clawed internally for air, but got nothing. “You weren’t?”

“Your eyes,” he lowered his head down and rasped the words into my ear. I closed my eyes as I felt the hair on his head tickle my ear. His shoulder was merely an inch from my lips, and I wanted to step up on my toes to nuzzle into him, to kiss him, to taste his skin.

“Em! This is the finale!” Maggie, who I had forgotten all about in my brief fantasy, elbowed me gently and pointed.

I granted myself one more look before I turned around. Trailing my eyes slowly down his face, his small dimple as he smiled, his jaw, neck, and down to his shoulders. I sucked in a sharp breath when I saw his tattoos. Something on either side of his shoulders, inked on his skin, I was dying to know what they were. Knowing they were underneath his shirt, and how badly I wanted to pull it off to touch them.

“You’re missing the finale,” Caid leaned into me again as he trailed both hands up my naked arms.

This was crazy. I didn’t know him from a hole in the ground. But, he was touching me, and I wanted more. So much more.

“Do you have a boyfriend, Emery?” He asked when I turned around, his mouth close to my ear once more.

I shook my head. “No.”

A small growl vibrated through him as he stood flush against me. His hands still on my arms, his thumbs circling on the soft skin of my biceps. “Good,” he whispered.

Forget erratic. My breathing was non-existent. Never ever, for a single second, had I ever felt this way prior to that moment. I didn’t even write the female characters in my books to feel this worked up—I just didn’t think it were possible. Caid Burke wasn’t Toby. He was no
anybody.
I was sure of it. This man was created simply to send a woman’s brain skittering around outside of her body, and her heart? Well, her heart didn’t know what the hell was going on.

The finale of the fireworks presentation was amazing. In every sense of the word. What little breath I was able to regain from Caid simply speaking and touching me, was taken away when the last explosions sent off in a frenzied array like a thousand gunshots.

I could feel his hot breath on my skin, he was still against me. Touching me. Circling my skin in a slow and excruciating way. Was he trying to get a reaction out of me? Was he seeing how far he could go? In public, no less? We were in a sea of people, all with their eyes directed to the heavens, so no one really would be paying attention if I whirled around and crushed his lips into mine. Would they? Oh, who cares…?

Just as I gained my nerve, I whirled around to let myself go, but he wasn’t there. In a split second he moved, and I nearly fell right on my face. Feeling completely embarrassed, I grabbed hold of Maggie and told her I wanted to go.

“Home?”

I nodded.

“Em! I thought…hey, where did Caid go?” she asked, searching around us.

“I don’t know,” I said, in almost a pouting whimper.

“I thought we were going to Leland’s?”

I felt someone touch my free hand and there it was. The spark. The tingle. The fire. It crawled up my hand, my forearm and right through my shoulder into my chest. My heart thrummed.

“Sorry, Emery. I had to take a call.” Caid squeezed my hand. “We’re going to Lee’s now, yeah?”

“Yeah,” I said, lost in his eyes again. “Everything okay?”

He nodded. “Perfect.”

Maggie shot me a smirk and shook her head at me.

Ellie and Daniel walked up ahead of us, and Maggie gave me a wink before skipping up to meet them. We made it through the crowd at a snail’s pace, but I wasn’t complaining. A few times I had to stop and Caid pressed up against me as I let people cross in front of us, or waited to be able to move forward again.

His fingers entwined with mine, heating my hand, and I thanked God I was in the lead as I knew my face was flushed red.

***

Thursday, July 4
— 11:49 pm

“EM!” Leland’s loud voice barreled through the pub the moment I stepped in the door. “I wondered when ya were comin’! Hello, ladies! Danny, Caid…”

We took a cab to the pub. I had climbed in, thinking Caid would have sat beside me, but Maggie and Ellie took the seats on either side, and Caid was forced to sit beside Daniel in the middle of the minivan taxi. He reached for my hand when I climbed out of the cab, and pressed his other hand on the small of my back as we walked inside.

Once we were inside, his hands left me to man-hug his brother. I mourned the loss of his touch. Even for the moment. Maggie pulled me over to the bar and picked up a shot glass that Leland had sitting on a tray.

“If you’re only allowing yourself one. Better make it a good one!”

We clinked the glass and took the shots in unison. It wasn’t the same as last night’s, but it was just as harsh.

“Here!” Maggie stuffed a slice of lemon in my mouth. “Suck!”

The citrus slightly soothed the burning of the alcohol. “Was that tequila?”

“Only the best, ‘round here, yeah!” Leland grabbed two, handing one to Ellie and Daniel, then another two, one for himself and one to Caid.

After they salted their skin, they tipped back, sucked down the Mexican poison, and each grimaced from the taste. Then Caid did something that surprised and turned me on like a light bulb. He took the wedge of lemon from my hand—the one I had just sucked on—and popped it into his mouth.

His eyes bored into me the entire time. I sucked my lip between my lips, jealous of the fruit in his mouth.

“Em, you forgot the salt!” Maggie held up the shaker. “We did it backwards!”

I took it from her and laughed.

Caid took out the lemon from his mouth, held up my hand, licked his velvet-soft tongue across my skin and sprinkled the salt. Molten fire burned through me, I felt my panties—no, not the granny panties either, I’ll have you know—dampen in that instant.

“I don’t think it really matters the order. Lick,” he said.

I licked my hand, tasting the salt and his sweetness. “I need to sit!” I grabbed Maggie’s hand and tugged her toward an empty table. Happy to find one, since the place was filling up fast, the band had begun to test the sound coming from their instruments, and I felt a little overwhelmed from just having my hand licked.

“Em…talk to me.” Maggie slid her chair close to mine, our knees touched. “Are you okay?”

“It’s just…fast, Mags. It’s…
shit!
It’s happening so fast. Mags, I just got divorced.”

“He’s really into you, I gotta say, I’m a little sad about being the fifth-wheel. I should have called Lance,” Maggie said, laughing. “Then again, there’s always the older Burke brother.”

I turned and smiled at Leland, who was still by the bar with Caid, Daniel and Ellie. Leland was speaking to them, but Caid wasn’t paying attention. He was staring at me. Watching me. His emerald and jade eyes glimmering, penetrating, and making me squirm.

Leland made his way to the table and set down some girly looking drinks. “Now these won’t be putting’ hair on yer chest.”

I took one of the glasses and looked at Maggie with a raised eyebrow. “You’re a bad influence on me.”

“Then, more for me!” She took the glass from my hand and started to sip the pink liquid.

“Dance?” Caid placed his hand on my shoulder.

Maggie sipped my drink, smiling too innocently.

I stood up and took his hand. “Wait, I’ll be right there.”

Caid nodded and made his way toward the dance floor. I sprinted over to the bar and found two more tequila shots in my hands. I slung them back and sucked the lemon. I didn’t care. I needed a little courage. Or I wasn’t going to make it over to the dance floor. I was going to bolt out the door and hail the next cab.

The band kicked off their set with a sultry rock song. Part of me wondered if it was requested because the moment I set foot on the floor, Caid pulled me into him and slowly started to move. As if he knew the tempo wasn’t about to change.

His body felt so good. So warm, so seamless with his arms wrapped around my waist. I let mine rest on his broad shoulders and forced myself to keep my fingers still when they reached the back of his neck.

“Tell me about you, Emery.”

There it was. The twenty questions portion of the night. Where to begin? I’m Emery. Twenty-three. Newly divorced orphan. Belleville transplant. Recluse in all things sex, except I seem to have the ability to write about things I know nothing about first-hand.

“I’m Emery,” I said.
Oh yes, I’m a real wordy girl.

“I believe we’ve made it past that point already. Emery. No boyfriend. What else are you willing to divulge?”

“How about you tell me something about you.”

“No girlfriend.”

“Wife?”

He shook his head. “Nope. And my name’s not Caid.”

I blinked. “Huh?”

“It’s actually Kincaid.”

I smiled. I liked it. Either way. “My turn.”

Caid ground harder into me, pressing his hardening length into my belly just like last night. But this time, I knew I wasn’t going to run away puking. “You smell so good, Emery with no boyfriend.”

“You smell better, Caid/Kincaid with no girlfriend or wife.” I smiled as Caid leaned his forehead down to meet mine.

“It’s still your turn.”

“How long have you been a firefighter?”

“Four years this December. My turn.”

I pulled back from the skin-to-skin contact of our brows and looked up into his eyes. “Go ahead.” I was unsure if I was telling him to ask me a question or to kiss me. I hoped for the latter.

“Are you new to Chicago?”

I nodded and smiled. “I am. I’m staying with Maggie right now. Until I find a place of my own. I moved here from Belleville last week when—” I stopped before I spilled my guts and more than likely scared him off. “Your turn.”

Caid dug his fingers into the skin of my hips and expanded his chest with a deep breath. “I would like to kiss you. Can I kiss you?”

I simply nodded. I wasn’t able to speak. If my lips only had one more use in them, I wasn’t going to waste it talking.

Caid swooped, caught my mouth with his lips and kissed me. Hard. Like no other kiss I had ever felt in my whole life. Or, any other kiss that I had ever written about, for that matter. The kiss alone was earth-shattering, mind-altering, and panty-dropping.

His hot tongue curved into my mouth, with slow and languorous laps. His lips engulfed my own, pulled me in, and paralyzed everything in my body but my mouth.

Harder and with more force, the strain in his jeans surged, achingly into my belly. Creating a deep and all-pervading burn to linger and wisp around inside of me. I let out tiny whimpers and gasps throughout the inebriating kiss, causing Caid to groan and add more urgency to the experience.
Fuck me, that man could kiss.