New Recruit (11 page)

“My bet’s on Hanna. The minute she starts putting on that fire gear, we’ll all freeze and watch,” Weezer called out.

A hot growl seared Jagger’s throat, and he didn’t realize he’d released it until everyone laughed.

“All right—everyone ready?” The chief looked at each man and woman in line. They nodded. “In five, four, three…”

Hanna seemed to quiver in readiness. When Chief said, “Go,” she threw on her first item, just as Jagger had instructed. When she stepped into the too-big boots and yanked up the huge pants, she earned a couple wolf-whistles. Extreme concentration stole over her features.

Jagger was mesmerized. He’d only ever seen her this way in her photos. She really got off on the high of her life on the line—or in this case, someone else’s life, even pretend. Precious seconds to get into gear meant a victim was walled in by fire for longer.

She yanked the breathing mask into place and attached the oxygen hose. Jagger threw a look down the line. Corey was in the lead with one more article of gear on than Hanna, but she could close the gap.

Come on, beautiful. You got this.
He wanted her to come in first—mostly because of what he’d give her as a prize—a night in handcuffs and blindfold.

His cock pulsated in time to his heart, and around him, the guys chanted a countdown. Behind the mask and helmet, her eyes were round. She yanked her gloves into place just as Chief called time.

“Corey!”

“No, it was Hanna. She got that glove on a second before he did.”

“Weezer, what’s your call?” Chief turned to the tallest man on their team. With his height, he was always given the job of hooking the ceilings down.

The man folded his arms and widened his stance. “Corey,” he said with lazy conviction.

“Sorry, Hot Lips. Corey’s the winner,” Chief said.

Several boos followed, and Jagger grinned at the nickname she’d been given, even if he didn’t want the guys thinking of his girl that way. She’d performed like one of them and deserved a nickname.

Hanna pulled off her helmet as the chief extended a hand to her. She shook it. “Thank you, sir.” Her words were muffled behind the mask.

“We’re glad to call you an honorary member of East Street Firehouse. Now get out of that gear.”

With pride bursting the seams of his T-shirt, Jagger came forward and pulled off her gloves. Soft hands filled his, and he grazed her knuckles with his lips before leading her out of the way so the next wave of firefighters could compete.

She stumbled in his too-big boots, and he righted her. Slowly, he began to strip her. As each piece fell away, his cock hardened a bit more. When her pink cheeks appeared, he couldn’t resist stealing a kiss.

Cat-calls from behind. To show everyone just who was kissing this stunning and sexy woman, he plunged his tongue between her honeyed lips. She gasped and leaned into him. Too quickly their need was at a crescendo.

With a groan, he tore his mouth away and stared down at her. She was panting, her eyes shining, and her lips wet. He swallowed hard and battled the need to pin her to a wall and fuck her until she screamed his name.

“You did great with the challenge.” His words caressed her temple—it was the farthest away he could force himself. Even buried under the weight of his gear, she tore him up. He peeled more protective layers off her and set aside the SCBA unit.

Behind him, he heard the next winner announced, and then another group of three were up.

Hanna stared up at him. “That was fun.”

“Not many fireman can do what you just did.” He slipped his hand around the curve of her ass, aware that nobody could see because of the angle of his body. She sucked in a sharp breath in response. “I’m going to reward you as soon as we get out of here.”

“Oh God.” She sagged against him. For a long heartbeat, he couldn’t think of anything but being buried deep in her tight, hot body.

“Let’s go.” He picked up his gear in one huge armload and started toward his locker. When they reached the door, he stopped her. “Wait here.”

“But you came into my locker room.” Her teasing tone drew a grin from him.

“That’s different. I have no intention of letting you see any of the half-naked men I work with.”

“But it’s fine for you to see that half-naked woman at the club.”

“She was nothing, Hanna.”

As he whirled into the locker room, he caught her soft smile. While he put his gear in order so he could jump into it in a moment’s notice, he considered what it was Hanna needed to feel safe and secure. And he believed he’d figured it out.

She wanted to be shown how much she mattered. That he wasn’t going to be swayed by a pretty woman in a towel when he had Hanna. Anybody who would be was a complete idiot.

He closed his locker and went back out. Hanna was nowhere to be seen.

An animalistic sound left his throat. “Dammit.”

When he found her with Gabriel, sitting on the long dining table talking to him in a hushed voice, Jagger’s fists clenched involuntarily. He set his jaw and stared at them until they felt his glare and looked up.

Hanna jumped off the table and Gabriel gave Jagger a chin-nod of greeting. “Just congratulating Hanna on her near-win.”

In three strides, Jagger had his arm around Hanna’s shoulders and was drawing her to the door. She pushed away from him. “I’m allowed to talk other men, Jagger.”

“Of course you are.”

“I wasn’t riding Gabriel’s cock.”

His eyes bulged. “Gabriel wouldn’t have arms, legs, or teeth if that were the case.” He caught her hand and led her out of the firehouse. The minute they were free of the place, he picked her up, hooked her thighs around his hips, and kissed her. His erection dug into the V of her legs, and they shared a noise of need. Passion flowed into his veins, as hot as lava.

“Jagger, we’re…in the…street again.”

Her words didn’t penetrate, but he was damn well going to sink into her. Here—now. He reached for his fly and her beautiful face came into focus. He stopped dead. “Let’s go somewhere so I can’t ravish you.”

She laughed, a low chuckle that sent him into paroxysms of need again. He ground his teeth together. “Go where?”

“Um…bowling. The bowling alley is two blocks this way.”

“Bowling?” She pushed a lock of hair behind her ear. “I’m kind of shit at bowling.”

A laugh bubbled up. “I assumed you’re good at everything you try.”

“Not bowling. And I might be a little bit crappy at pool too.”

“Good. I can see you suck at both in one date.” He curled his fingers around hers and tugged lightly. When she looked up into his eyes, he saw a bit of her reluctance fall away. She was softening toward the idea of them calling this a relationship. Which was good, because he couldn’t come up with any other name for what he was feeling. This blind need to be with her at all hours of the day and night was new to him.

But he wasn’t going to question it. Since a very early age he’d been running on instinct. From his decision to become a firefighter to letting his senses lead him to find the victims he saved, he let his sixth sense guide him. Now was no different.

It didn’t surprise him that he’d gone for a woman who forced intense feelings from him. The fact that Hanna needed every hard-core and urgent emotion inside him to feel special gave him a thrill unlike any other.

»»•««

“You think it would be easier for a girl to select some balls she likes.” Hanna’s joke earned her a wicked smile from Jagger, which was exactly what she was after. She wanted to see the dangerous Jagger who made her stomach fall and her feet feel as if she stood on crumbling earth.

He positioned himself behind her and cupped the weight of the bowling ball she held. “This is too heavy for you.” His whispered word brushed across her earlobe, sending a shiver rolling up her spine. His fascination with kissing and nibbling her ears had quickly become one of her most favorite things.

He took the ball from her and placed it back on the rack. Selecting a shiny blue marble of a ball, he placed it in her hand.

“Ohhh, I like the blue ones.”

“I know you do, naughty woman. Test that weight. You want enough to get to the pins but not so heavy you’re torqueing your shoulder.”

She took the ball from him and poked her fingers into the holes, which made her suppress a giggle. “How did you become an expert on bowling?”

“The volunteer crew I was with had a Saturday time slot. I picked up a lot of tips but I was never very dedicated. I was young and for me, it was more about camaraderie with the guys I worked with.”

“So you wanted to be like them?”

“Like I said, I was young.” When he strutted down the rack to find his own bowling ball, she admired his backside in fitted jeans and his rippling back muscles. Ever since he’d asked her to think of what they were doing as a relationship, she’d been more than a little freaked out. She liked Jagger, so why mess it up with commitments and labels?

Yet it was undeniable that she liked it when he went into alpha mode and let everyone know who she was with. Surely there was something wrong with her. She either wanted a man or didn’t, right?

She walked to the lane they’d rented and tried to act as if he didn’t affect her or steal her every intelligent thought. She dragged in a breath of disinfectant-scented air and tried to rearrange her brain cells. Getting caught up with Jagger would do neither of them good in the end. He was very dedicated to his job, as he should be. Unlike Dominic’s work, Jagger had something worth giving up his life for.

But that presented another problem—each time he rushed to a fire, she was left to sit for hours with a crawling sensation in the pit of her stomach. Waiting for word about his safety was damn hard.

I don’t want that pain if I hear bad news.
But it was too late.

His warmth against her spine made her turn. He reached past her and set down his ball. “So you’ve bowled before.” His tone was nonchalant as he moved to the seat and entered their names into the scoreboard. When she looked up at the screen and saw what he’d typed, her heart gave a wild flip.

Jagger’s girl.

Warmth settled in her belly, low.

He stared into her eyes, his jaw set as if waiting for her to protest. But she just grabbed her ball and held it the way she remembered from her college years when her sorority sisters would put together a bowl-a-thon for charity.

In a flash he was behind her, curling his long fingers over hers. His body blanketed hers and she felt the stirrings of his cock at her ass.

Breathless, she said, “I got this.”

“Think of it as private instruction.”

She got the feeling he wasn’t only talking about bowling. He was teaching her to give herself with every passing moment they were together. And it was too confusing when her inner woman of steel resisted.

“Now calm your breathing. Nice and slow. When you release, you want to have enough air.” His voice slid deeper into her psyche, in that hidden room where together they made so much sense.

Enough air to scream…

Unable to stop herself, she wiggled her hips closer to his and found his cock at full glory, protruding into the seam of her ass.

“Now take a few steps, swing your arm back and let go of the ball.”

She hardly recalled moving away from him, but the ball was suddenly rolling right down the center of the lane. She fist-punched the air. Jagger came to stand beside her and watch the progress—just as the ball did a wild turn and ended up in the gutter.

“Damn it,” she muttered.

His eyes twinkled. “I guess you need more instruction.”

Warily she returned to her seat and watched him bowl a strike. His swagger was sexy as hell. Double damn it. Why did he have to appeal to some primal need in her?

Her next time up she got a few pins down, but nothing to leap for joy over.

“I know you’re used to succeeding at everything you try.”

Not relationships.
The words lay on the tip of her tongue, but she bit them back. She’d agreed to give him a chance. And she wasn’t so blind that she didn’t know her hang-ups were just that—hers. Jagger was great boyfriend material.

“I told you I suck at bowling,” she said with a reluctant smile.

“But you’re soooo good at other things.” His crooning tone wheedled into her deepest point, and she was suddenly too hot.

“You take your turn. I’m going to grab a drink. You want anything?” she asked.

“No thanks. Want me to come with you?”

She waved him away and set off for the snack bar. As soon as she approached, though, her stomach cramped.

Her coworker Rick was paying for nachos and a Coke. “Oh hey, Hanna. Let me get yours too.”

“No, I’ve got it. Thanks, Rick.” She tossed a look over her shoulder. If Rick set off Jagger’s radar, she didn’t want to know what her fireman might do. She still didn’t like the times he went crazy about her being near other men—such as in the firehouse with Gabriel. They’d been talking about Joey. The pair had hit it off and Joey had spent the night at Gabriel’s place twice.

But Jagger seemed to make every man she spoke to into a threat. Maybe… She blinked at the revelation. Could he have trust issues? Had someone hurt him as she’d been hurt and he failed to trust?

Rick’s hand landed on Hanna’s arm. “Are you here alone? We could share a lane.”

“Thanks, Rick, but I’m here with someone.”

“She certainly is.” From behind, she felt Jagger’s presence before she’d heard him speak. Some of the irritation she’d normally feel when he pulled out his possessive tone was absent. If he really was struggling to work through a trust issue, she could make exceptions. At least for a little while.

She turned to Jagger and rested a hand on his shoulder. “Rick, this is Jagger. I work with Rick.”

Holding her breath, she waited for Jagger’s reaction. But nothing came besides a smile and a hand extended for Rick to shake. “How’s it going?”

Rick looked extremely uncomfortable shaking Jagger’s hand, and no wonder. His hand dwarfed Rick’s. They broke their grasp and Jagger slung his arm around her shoulders. “Is this your drink?” He picked up the bottle on the bar before her, and she nodded.