Ignite (Firefighters of Montana Book 3) (6 page)

Lina wanted to match it. She wanted…fun. “Is that code for something else?” she asked in mock seriousness.

He laughed and she was inordinately pleased she’d amused him. She felt light and jittery and jumbled. That had to be the liquor’s fault because none of this made sense. Not the way she talked to him, not that the loneliness inside of her she’d simply learned to
live
with had somehow disappeared.

Everything was a confusing, exhilarating mass.

His head moved the tiniest fraction closer, and when his finger swept down her cheek, this time it continued, all the way down her jaw to her chin, lighting a trail of warmth and nerves Lina had never before dreamed of experiencing.

“It’s only code for what you want it to be code for,” he said, not gently exactly, but certain and kind.

“Well, I… Cherrie drove me here. I-I don’t really need to drive home,” she stuttered—for the first time in her entire life. She didn’t even know why she was stuttering. Or why she was making excuses. She didn’t really understand…anything that was going on, above the heavy beating of her heart.

“I didn’t ask if you
needed
one,” he returned, still so certain and amused and…hot.

God, he was so unfairly hot.

“You want to go home, and I want to spend some more time with you. So, I’m offering you a ride. Where I will likely kiss you before I leave.”

Kiss. He wanted to spend more time with her and kiss her. Kiss. This insanely hot man, who put her at ease but somehow lit her on fire, which was a ridiculous metaphor. She’d seen people burned by fire. It wasn’t pleasant and this…was.

More than pleasant. Exciting, and she kind of wanted to giggle, but she tried to find objections. She tried to find sense. She never did anything without weighing out all the pieces of the equation.

But this wasn’t a math problem she could do to see if this was the right thing, if it made sense, if she should be the one doing it. There was only the ironic curve to Ace’s mouth and his offer.

“You can drive me home,” she said, a little too girlishly breathless. But, it was nice to feel girlish and breathless for once instead of plodding and cutting.

His grin spread across his face and she felt simultaneously like a million bucks and the biggest fool. What on earth was she doing? She didn’t even know
how
to be kissed.

Ace will know.
Yes, she had no doubt.

“I just have to tell Cherrie that you’re going to take me home. I mean, to my home. My apartment. Drive. That.” Oh, God, she was flustered and babbling and she wanted to laugh at herself or be swallowed up by the earth or just lean forward and get the damn kiss over with.

Instead she slid off the stool on shaky legs and walked over to Cherrie.

“You want to go?” Cherrie asked, looking wistfully at the man who she’d been talking to. He grinned down at her, not even bothering to glance at Lina.

“Actually, Ace offered me a ride.”

Cherrie made a considering noise.

“Is it crazy to let him?”

“Let him what exactly?” Cherrie asked, lowering her voice so the guy next to her couldn’t hear.

“Drive me home! That’s it.” Lina swallowed, looking back nervously—afraid Ace might have come to his senses and disappeared, but there he was. Exactly where she’d left him. Watching her.

Her breath caught. “Mostly,” she amended.

Cherrie’s laugh was low and comforting. “I’d do a lot more than
mostly
with that man, but if mostly is what you’re after, go for it. But text me when you’re home safe. Promise?”

“Promise. You too? You’ll text me?”

Cherrie grinned. “You got it, sister.”

So, she had a friend. And a guy to drive her home. And kiss her. He hadn’t said maybe or that he’d ask or try, he’d simply said, with all the confidence in the world, that he’d
likely
kiss her.

She should find that intimidating or obnoxious or…something, but the truth was she liked it. When she turned to face him, his eyes still on her, his smile still easy, she hoped it’d be a lot more than a peck on the cheek type kiss.

*

Ace couldn’t take
his gaze off of her, even when Jake made some snide ass comment. Ace didn’t care. He couldn’t seem to get his brain to engage beyond the sweet anticipation of sliding his mouth against Lina McArthur’s.

Don’t forget that last name
.

But he wanted to. He wanted to forget where she came from and focus on the fascinating woman walking back to him without an ounce of sway to her hips, without one, sexy feminine glance. Just a cool, bullet-to-its-mark efficiency in every movement.

He was still getting uncomfortably aroused. She wasn’t…an act. Even though he was—his every day was an act of being someone else—he craved a kind of truth with the last woman he could give it to.

No one had ever claimed he was smart.

She came to a stop in front of him, pulling her bottom lip between her teeth…the little play of nerves somehow endearing.

Endearing? Seriously, that blow to the head has messed with your brain.

“So, um…” Her eyebrows drew together and she frowned down at him. She wasn’t tall, which was surprising. In the exam room he’d had this impression of her being…bigger. Such was the effect of her personality, he supposed.

Why did he have to be inexplicably drawn to women with big personality? Why did he have to admire a kind of ruthless efficiency, a straightforward snark? Those were exactly the kind of women who would cut through all of his bullshit in seconds flat.

But that was exactly what he wanted. “Ready to head out then?” he asked, sliding from the stool.

She nodded, clasping her hands together in front of her, turning toward the door as he fell into stride next to her. His hands itched to do something crazy like touch the silky strands of her hair that swung in the ponytail. Or maybe drag his fingertip down the delicate curve of her neck, just as he’d done to her cheek.

He should
probably
keep his hands to himself, but he couldn’t quite manage it. The graze of her cheek under his fingertip wasn’t enough. Nothing about Lina was quite…enough.

So, he placed a hand to the small of her back, smiling too easily when she jumped at the contact. But she didn’t jump away and she didn’t stop walking for the door. She did slant him a sideways glance.

Something lurked in that all too shrewd expression, something he wanted to know more about. Something he wanted to unravel.

As they stepped outside, he tried to take a breath of the clean, warm, night air and find some kind of clarity in it. Some kind of sanity. He was really going to risk years of keeping Jess as far away from the poison that was him just because this woman intrigued him?

Jess is miles away. Miles and miles.
He’d made it this far and this long, what threat would this really pose? It wasn’t as though he had time to foster some kind of relationship during fire season. He’d given up trying that long ago. So, at most, this was a roll in the hay, at least, a night of flirtation.

What was he risking?

“Here we are,” he said, gesturing to his truck. He’d finally saved up enough to buy a new one last year and it wasn’t the fanciest truck on the lot, but it was the first big purchase he’d ever made. He’d
earned
this thing in front of him with sheer determination and hard work. A “screw you” to the father who told him he’d amount to nothing.

The surprising thing had been the sense of accomplishment, not just in thumbing his nose at dear, old dad, but in working hard for something and
earning
a reward. He had an apartment, a truck, a job he loved. He’d built a life.

It felt good, even if he wasn’t who he told people he was.

Lina turned to face him, and she had to tip her head back to meet his gaze. He didn’t mind she had to do that, considering he figured this woman he barely knew already had more power over him than she ought to.

“How’s your head, really?” she asked, something of that cool doctor tone seeping into her voice.

He raised an eyebrow, but she didn’t even wilt. She raised her own to match it when he didn’t answer.

“I’m a doctor. I have a sixth sense about these things.”

“Bullshit,” he returned.

He was rewarded by her laughing. “Tell me,” she said, and there was a soft note to her voice he didn’t think was very common for her, because she blinked and shifted, suddenly uncomfortable.

“I had a headache this morning,” he found himself admitting without realizing that had been his intention.

Crap.

“So, you understand that you really
do
have to take the week off?”

He grunted. “My captain’s not giving me any kind of choice without a doctor’s note to rebut the hospital orders. Wait, there’s an idea.” He took a step toward her, caging her slightly between him and the passenger door of his truck. “Write me a doctor’s note.”

She gave a shocked laugh, her gaze dropping to his chest, then back up. It was too dark to see if she was blushing, but considering at how little it seemed to take, he chose to believe she was.

“Um,
no
.”

“How about I seduce one out of you?” It was a ridiculous line, but he couldn’t bite it back. He was getting too much enjoyment out of her shocked responses.

“Ha!” she said, hesitantly giving his chest a little poke, but quickly dropped her arms back to her sides. “You could try.”

He leaned closer, resting his hand on the door so his arm was next to her ear. He leaned close enough their chests just barely brushed and he could feel the slight tickle of her flyaway strands of hair. “Oh, I could definitely try.”

“I didn’t…” She blinked, but her mouth, just barely illuminated by the faraway parking light, was curved in a kind of shocked amusement. “How?”

It was his turn for some bemused shock. “
How
?”

“Yes,” she replied, lifting her chin. “Just how would you seduce a doctor’s note out of me?”

“Now, there
is
a question,” he murmured, taking that last step so not just his chest, but his leg could brush against hers. There was still space between them, but any movement would cause touching.

And each of those touches was electric, like the crackle of a spark in dry brush. Somehow, whatever made up the two of them was something combustible, just waiting for the right incendiary.

“First,” he murmured, lowering his mouth as close to her ear as he could get without touching his lips to the outer shell. He drew his free hand upward, torturing himself by not gliding his palm along the outline of her hips, or even her shoulder. No, he didn’t allow himself to make any contact until the tips of his fingers reached the lobe of her ear.

He wanted to do something unexpected, something that would surprise her. He touched his index finger to the unpierced lobe. Based on the sharp exhale of breath against his jaw, he succeeded in surprising her.

“First,” he repeated, but he couldn’t seem to put into words what he would do, what it would take to seduce a doctor’s note out of her. He didn’t care about the note. He cared about unraveling the affect she had on him.

The more he touched her, outlining the shell of her ear with the tip of his index finger, barely rubbing the scruff of his cheek against her temple, the less sense his thoughts made, the less able to put anything into words he became.

When she made a little moaning sound, he thought his brain might have been completely obliterated. It didn’t matter what he would do. He just wanted to do whatever would cause her to make that noise again. So he trailed his finger behind her ear and down her neck line, soaking in all her soft, velvety skin.

She tilted her head to give him better access and all he could think about was kissing her. Not who she was or why this feeling was so potent. Nothing in his brain existed except this need. Throbbing in his veins. Thundering in his heart.

And because he’d lost any semblance of detached control, he swooped in and claimed her mouth with his. She made a sharp, squeaking sound and again jerked into a little jump of surprise, which was neither censure nor refusal. Because she didn’t back away or try to run, she just hesitated and then
sank
into it.

It killed him. The sinking, her mouth was lusher than he would have dreamed. She tasted like the alcohol she’d had to drink and the smoke that had been in the air of the bar. But more than that, she felt like heaven—warm and soft and exactly where he was supposed to be.

Her lips remain firmly closed until he drew his tongue across the seam, back and forth until she just barely opened for him.

Everything about this strong, confident, hard-assed doctor had gone timid. Hesitant almost, but while she didn’t seem to know what to do with her mouth, she knew exactly what to do with her body.

She was no longer caged against the truck. She was leaning into him, pressing against him. Her fingers had curled around his arms and were holding on for dear life.

Ace didn’t know what to make of that, but he wasn’t in the presence of mind to give any time to analyze. He slid his palm back up her neck and cupped her cheek, tilting her head to get a better angle. Delving deeper into the sweet heat of her mouth, stroking her tongue with his. Forgetting where he was, forgetting who he was supposed to be pretending to be.