Crash Lights and Sirens, Book 1 (34 page)

A sick feeling turned over in his gut, his patience slipping inexorably through his fingers. “Do it.”

“Or what?”

He turned, looked into her eyes. “Or I’ll do it for you.”

She stared back at him, unflinching. Lounging in her seat with her dyed black hair over one shoulder, black-painted mouth pouting, her jumpsuit spread open, she looked vampish and—
go on, admit it—s
exy. His brain didn’t want to acknowledge it, not about her, but his body had no such qualms. Christ. Now he was getting hard.

“Maybe I want you to do it for me.” She threw the words at him like a gauntlet being thrown down. “Maybe I’d like it.” No escaping the look in her eyes. The look of a woman who knew what she wanted. Him.

Hunter kept himself very still. He’d always known she’d had a crush on him as a young teenager, but as the years had gone by, he’d thought she’d put that aside. Then again, this didn’t look like a crush. There was too much hunger in her eyes. A hunger that called to an answering heat in himself. A heat he didn’t want. A heat he couldn’t stop.

Christ, no. He did not want that heat associated in any way with Ellie Fox. The kid who used to look at him like he was her own personal hero. The one bright spot in his dark, teenage years. Anyone but her.

She made a small sound, as if he’d somehow let slip his response, as if she knew, and she sat forward suddenly. The bright metal of the zip pressed against her soft, white skin, along her stomach, the curves of her breasts. Digging in. Leaving a mark.

His breath caught. “Stop,” he said hoarsely.

She blinked. “What?”

“Don’t move.”

“But…” Her eyes widened and he knew what she saw in his gaze. Oh Jesus, this was getting so messed up. “Hunter…”

He leaned forward, reached for the end of her zip. Getting her covered was imperative, hiding all that white skin away. Turning her back into Ellie, the girl he knew, not some sexual fantasy he hadn’t even known he’d wanted.

“What are you doing?” she asked uncertainly as he began to draw her zip up.

“What I told you I’d do.” Hunter kept his gaze averted, not looking at her, taking care not to touch her or brush against her as he did up her jumpsuit. Only once he’d covered her did he sit back and look into her eyes.

A strange mix of confusion, hurt and anger crossed her face. “Why did you do that?”

“Because I told you to cover yourself and you didn’t.”

Her throat moved as she swallowed. “But… But you… I thought you liked…” She stopped. “I saw it, Hunter. In your eyes.”

“Saw what?”

“You were…attracted to me.”

“No. That’s not what you saw.”

“It was. Don’t deny it.”

“You misunderstood.”

She searched his face. “I know what I saw. I’m not an idiot.”

“Stop pushing me, Ellie.”

“You think that’s pushing?” An expression he couldn’t read flared in her eyes. “No. This is pushing.” And before he could stop her, she moved her hand between his thighs, the warmth of her palm covering his fly. Pressing down on the hard ridge of him. Touching him.

For one intense second Hunter was conscious only of the surge of heat that went through him. A heat so intense he went rigid with shock. Couldn’t move. Couldn’t even breathe.

Ellie’s eyes had gone so wide he could see the rim of gray around the outside of her green contacts. “You’re hard,” she murmured, as if she couldn’t believe it herself. “My God… Hunter—”

Instinct kicked in. An instinct that had been protecting him for sixteen years. An instinct that turned the heat of her touch into the icy grip of fear.

Without thinking, his fingers closed around her wrist and he tore her hand away from him. “Don’t touch me,” he heard himself say roughly. “Don’t ever touch me!”

Sometimes you see love clearly. And sometimes it has to smack you in the face.

She’s the One

© 2013 Erin Nicholas

Counting on Love, Book 1

When a stranger walks up and punches him, Ryan Kaye assumes there’s a good reason. But he’s stunned to learn it’s over a one-night stand that never happened—with his friend’s sister, straight-laced Amanda Dixon. When Ryan confronts her about the lie, Amanda apologizes, but Ryan realizes he doesn’t want her to be sorry…he wants the night they supposedly spent together.

Amanda’s not looking to add anyone to her long list of commitments, so she was only trying to let a nice guy down easy by telling him a fling with Ryan broke her heart. So what if the fling only happened in her dreams? But when Ryan Kaye tempts her with the chance to go crazy and fulfill a few fantasies, she can’t resist. Thank goodness one night isn’t enough time to fall in love…

Warning: Contains a hot paramedic who knows how to get a girl to let her hair down, a girl who thinks she prefers her hair up, some naughty laser tag, some naughty role-playing and a lot of falling in love.

Enjoy the following excerpt for
She’s the One:

“So why laser tag?” Ryan asked, content to simply watch her as they wandered the lobby, looking over the video games that lined the walls, waiting for the laser tag game in progress to end.

“It’s dark so you’re kind of anonymous, you get to run around and hide and
shoot
people and you’re
supposed
to.”

He smiled down at her. “So you get to be bad, but no one really gets hurt. I get it.”

And he loved the insight.

She wanted to be naughty but was afraid of the consequences. She didn’t realize that the consequences of being a little wild could be
good
too. He’d have to help her figure that out.

As he strapped on the vest that would keep track of his shots and hits, he watched Amanda shrug into hers. He snagged the strap that was dangling just out of her reach. She looked up and he tugged on the strap, bringing her closer. She almost stepped on his toes, but she didn’t protest the proximity or him reaching around her to buckle her vest.

“You ready to be a little naughty in the dark?” he asked.

“Yes.” She said it breathlessly. “But before we go in there I need to know—are you for me or against me?”

He grinned and moved in even closer. “Against. Always. As much as possible.”

“Then you better watch your ass.”

He laughed, then swatted
her
ass. “I’ll be too busy watching yours.”

She was surprised for one second before her expression turned sexy. “Not in the dark.”

“You’re right. I might have to go by feel.” He couldn’t resist and ran his flat palm over her butt again.

She licked her lips. “Thought you said no sex.”

“I said no sex on
this
date. But not on every date forever.”

“So this is…” She trailed off, clearly wanting him to fill in the blank.

“Foreplay.”

The buzzer sounded to signal the start of the new game and the inner doors swung open.

Ryan watched Amanda stare back at him, the single word
foreplay
hanging between them. She was the one to finally pull her gaze away.

“Then let’s go,” she said.

“Right
behind
you, babe.”

She tripped a little as she turned and started for the game area.

Ryan followed her, a big grin in place that he didn’t think that was going to go away any time soon.

Everyone gathered around the computer monitor that listed all the players by their player names and waited for the signal to begin.

“And when you say ‘against me’, you meant like in a sexy, get-up-against-me way, right?” Amanda whispered.

He grinned. “Sure.”

“You didn’t mean ‘against me’ as in you’ll shoot me if you find me?”

“Guess we’ll find out.” He raised his weapon.

“Ryan—” She was cut off by the starting buzzer.

The lights went down, plunging them into darkness but for strips of neon lights.

Everyone scattered but Ryan and Amanda. She turned and looked at him with wide eyes.

He raised his weapon. Her jaw dropped.

“You wouldn’t.”

“No consequences, remember?”

Her eyes narrowed. “Except maybe never seeing me naked.”

He watched her for a long moment, trying to gauge if she was serious.

“I would so throw this game if you meant that,” he finally told her.

She raised her gun and shot him.

As his vest beeped and blinked, she smiled. “Sucker.”

“You’re in trouble,” he said simply.

They both knew that after being shot, the game would disengage his gun for a few seconds, so she had a little time before he would be able to shoot her back.

She gave him a wink and then turned and ran.

He was laughing as he gave her a head start. He
was
going to find her. And when he did, she was definitely in trouble. Good trouble.

Several minutes later, he had to admit she was good. He hadn’t caught even a glimpse of her. He rounded a corner and suddenly felt someone grab the front of his shirt and yank him into a dark corner behind a padded column.

“Oh, my gosh, I’m in trouble,” Amanda hissed.

“I should shoot you right now,” he said.

She ducked behind his shoulder. “Some of my students are here.”

“No way.” What were the chances?

“They must have been in the game before ours too, so I didn’t see them up front.” She still hadn’t let go of his shirt.

“I take it you don’t want them to see you now?”

“Right.”

“Why?”

That seemed to stump her for a moment. “Well…because.”

It was dark, but he could see enough to know that she looked gorgeous. “You look like a woman who’s having a great time. Nothing is wrong with that.” He brushed a stray strand of hair away from her forehead.

“Yeah. Maybe you’re right.” She took a deep breath. “I just freaked out a little when I saw them.”

“That’s okay. You were surprised.”

“Well…embarrassed.”

“Embarrassed?”

“Yeah. I, um…” She pulled her bottom lip between her teeth.

“You what?”

“Kind of shot one of them. Repeatedly.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Okay, well, that’s what you’re here for.”

“I might have…”

“Yeah?”

“Yelled.”

“Yelled,” he repeated.

“Yep.”

“Something specific?” He was fighting a smile now.

She sighed. “‘Take that, maggot’.”

He couldn’t contain his snort. “Maggot? Wow. That’s harsh.”

She covered her face with her hands. “I know.”

“I’m sure it’s fine.”

“As long as they don’t see me it’s fine. They’ll think that it was a crazy woman who looked a little like their clinical director, but they won’t believe it because I’d never do something like that.”

“Obviously,” he said dryly.

“So if they don’t see me,” she went on. “I’ll be fine. But if they do then…”

“The world will still turn.”

“But I’ll be embarrassed.”

“Which is
not
the worst emotion to feel.”

She met his gaze. “I was thinking that maybe you’d be okay with hanging out in this dark corner with me.”

Oh. He leaned in, bracing his forearm on the wall beside her head. “Well, it’s probably best that these impressionable young people not find out that their director of clinical education would say something so horrible.”

She smiled. “Exactly.”

“Even worse would be for these kids to know that their director of clinical education is so hot and fun.”

He leaned in and kissed her. She dropped her gun and wrapped her arms around his neck. He cupped the back of her head, holding her in place for a full, deep tasting. He stroked his tongue along hers, drinking in the sound of her groan and welcoming the feel of her pressing her hips into his.

Thankful for the wall behind her, he leaned in. Their vests kept them from being breast to chest, but he felt every inch of her legs along his.

When he lifted his head, she sighed. “Wow.”

He grinned. “Yeah, seeing you like this would definitely fuel some major fantasies for a lot of your students. It would be so distracting and so unfair to their learning process.”

She smiled. “Thanks for thinking of all of them. Really generous of you.”

“I feel strongly about the education of our future physical therapists.”

“Uh-huh.” She pulled him down for another kiss.

It was hot and made every cell in his body pulse. He wanted her and he
was
going to have her.

Amanda gripped his hips, her thumbs through the belt loops on his jeans, and pulled him closer.

Their height difference with her flat shoes and the laser tag vests kept him from getting close enough. Though he wasn’t sure if he’d ever actually feel close enough.