Some Girls Don't (Outback Heat Book 2) (9 page)

Five minutes later
she pulled her car up outside the rural fire service headquarters. A quarter of the building appeared to be office space, abutting a huge concrete hangar area with three massive roller doors that were up and showing off two gleaming yellow fire engines. A small engine took up the third space and beside it sat a sturdy four-wheel drive vehicle with a row of emergency lights on the roof and the rural fire service logo on the sides and front.

It had expanded significantly from the single shed and one engine that had been here when she’d left town all those years ago.

She climbed out of the car, the afternoon sun hot on her bare legs and arms as she approached the building. She walked inside, the coolness of the large concrete space caressing her skin as she slipped between the two big engines. The place seemed deserted, but she could hear voices coming from somewhere nearby even if she couldn’t see anyone.

“Hello?” she called.

Nothing.

She walked across the enormous concrete bay towards the office area, where the voices appeared to be coming from, through an open doorway into a large multi-purpose room. It boasted both kitchen, eating and lounge areas as well as some desks and whiteboards displaying several topographical maps.

Several rooms led off it. There was only one with the door open and she walked in its direction, satisfied that the voices she could hear were coming from inside. She stepped through the doorway to find three buff dudes, in baggy workout shorts and no shirts, pumping iron.

Well,
hellllo
there. This was better than a slap in the face with a wet fish.

Two were standing with their backs to her, working on their biceps, joking around about something. The other guy—Jarrod—was lying on his back on an apparatus, doing bench presses.

There was clearly some truth to those TV shows set in firehouses where fireman worked on their bodies in between running into burning buildings.

None of them noticed her at first. Selena didn’t mind so much. But when waiting turned to straight out ogling she figured she’d better make herself known. She cleared her throat and the two guys working on their biceps turned and she was treated to more fabulous man flesh.

“Hell man, are you seeing what I’m seeing?” the younger guy said, sweeping her from head to foot as he shot her a dazzler, “or do I need to rehydrate?”

Selena smiled. The guy looked like he was twenty and she had to give him points for his cockiness. Maybe he’d been taking lessons from Marcus.

The other guy was probably ten years older but just as smooth. “I sure do hope so, otherwise I’m going to have to see my optometrist about getting my prescription checked.”

Selena laughed. She could see Jarrod replacing the bar, vaulting up, twisting around. “Selena?”

The young guy glanced at Jarrod then at her, faking a wounded expression. “You’re after Jarrod?”

“I’m afraid so.”

He looked at his mate. “What is it with rangas?” he groaned. “Why do they always get the chicks?”

As Jarrod stood and her body started to hum, Selena was tempted to say it was because of his really big cock. She’d show him she could talk dirty outside the sexy times too.

But she didn’t.

“We feel sorry for them,” she said instead.

“Well, I guess somebody’s got to,” the younger guy said.

“Okay, fun’s over,” Jarrod said, picking up a nearby towel and throwing it around his neck, wiping his face with the tails. He walked toward her, his big broad chest and meaty shoulders covered in sweat and she was reminded of him up a ladder in his tool belt.

Her belly did a crazy flop as he prowled closer. This was not the time for it to be getting all needy. They were at his place of employment and she was
leaving town
.

He halted in front of her. Close enough to see beads of perspiration on his chest. Close enough to smell the mix of healthy sweat and virile male. Close enough to touch. “I thought you’d be gone by now.”

“Just on my way out.”

He frowned. “Is everything okay? Is your grandmother—”

“Everything’s fine,” she assured, cutting him off. “Do you think we could … talk?”

She glanced behind him at two very interested onlookers. Young dude winked at her.

“Oh. Sure …” He ushered her into one of the other rooms and locked the door after them. It was a small area that had five low camp beds, evenly spaced, and not much else.

He ran the towel over his head, neck and shoulders and indicated that she should sit on a bed but she refused. She didn’t want him looming over her. Or having his crotch anywhere near level with her mouth.

Having him all pumped up, sweaty and half-naked on the back of last night’s exploits was seriously pushing her buttons. And taunting him with her blow job expertise last night was putting all kinds of ideas in her head.

“Are you sure everything’s okay,” he asked planting his feet near the closed door.

“Yes. I just … didn’t want to leave without saying goodbye. Properly.”

His gaze swept up her legs to the popped two buttons of her T-shirt. “Properly?”

His voice sounded strained. “Without an audience,” she clarified.

“Right.” He threw the towel around his neck again and hung onto both tails.

“I feel like we should talk about last night,” she said. “I’m sorry about it being kinda … weird afterwards.”

“Yeah.” He rubbed a hand along his whiskers and she felt the delicious scraping noise deep behind her belly button as if he’d gotten on his knees and rubbed his chin there. “It was kinda weird wasn’t it?”

“I’ve never done
anything
like that before … I mean, had sex with someone I wasn’t in a relationship with and well … it was
you
and … I couldn’t really wrap my head around it for a while. I didn’t know what to say, and then I was afraid I might say the wrong thing, and it seemed easier not to say anything. To just … let it be what it was.”

His gaze locked with hers. “And what was it?”

“Crazy? Impulsive? Cathartic? Inevitable … And, apparently,” she smiled, “your pleasure.”

His eyebrows lifted and he seemed uncertain for a moment before he smiled back. “Fucking A it was.”

Selena laughed and he joined her as they remembered their little moment at the footy, and some of the awkwardness from earlier lifted. “I guess I just didn’t want to leave here without knowing that you were … okay with what happened. I don’t want to have anything that feels like unfinished business between us. Not after last time.”

He shrugged his shoulders, no sign of laughter now. “Okay.”

Selena frowned. What did that mean? Okay, fine. Okay, whatever. Okay, I’m still pissed at you. His lack of response needled at her. Jarrod had always been infuriatingly brief.

“Nothing’s changed because of what happened, Jarrod. I can’t just drop everything because you and I had sex.”

He pulled the towel off his neck and threw it on the nearest bed, shoving his hands on his hips, doing the finger drumming thing again. “I don’t believe I asked you to.” His jaw was tight, his glare frosty.

“No … Right.
Shit
, sorry.” How fucked-up arrogant must that have sounded? A few days back in his orbit and the Selena who’d hoped she was pregnant all those years ago was rearing her ugly head again. Sabotaging her. She should have killed that bitch dead instead of just cutting her off at the knees.

What had happened to coming in here and telling him she was sorry and she missed him?

“Ignore me. I think my conscience is especially sensitive when it comes to you.”

“You can leave with a clear conscience, Selena. I’m a big boy, I know casual sex when it lands in my lap.”

Selena blinked as his words slapped her hard in the face. Hang on … what? Is that what he thought it was? Sex with Jarrod may have been a one-off, but there hadn’t been anything
casual
about it. Not for her anyway. “It wasn’t casual sex.”

He gave her an
oh-really
look. “How would you describe it?”

Was he serious? Did he really think she didn’t know that it had meant something to him too? “You
are
pissed that I’m going.”

“I’m not.” He shook his head. “I’m just debating your definition of casual. We had sex. We’re not in a relationship. Now you’re leaving with, I assume, no plans for continuing to have sex with me. I think that’s the very definition of casual.”

“I think casual is about more than frequency, or
in
frequency as the case may be. It’s also about … intention.”

He cocked an eyebrow. “Are you
intending
that we should do it more often? You going to … drop in for a booty call every now and then? Or were you hoping for a bit of goodbye action in the firehouse?”

Blood flushed to Selena’s cheeks. Okay, he was
definitely
pissed at her. “Oh
nice
, Jarrod,” she said, sucking in a breath, ignoring the primal beat inside her that had leapt to life at his crude suggestion. “Real nice.”

She brushed past him heading for the door, her resolve to be contrite and acknowledge her mistakes evaporating into thin air. She had better things to do than stand here and be cheapened by him.

“
Shit.
Selena … stop,” he said, one hand sliding onto her shoulder, the other over her hand on the knob, his naked front sandwiching her between him and the door. “Don’t go.”

Selena’s hand paused. Her breathing came thick and heavy. She pressed her forehead against the back of the door.

“I’m sorry,” he muttered, his lips brushing her temple.

Selena shut her eyes against the huskiness in his voice and the stir of his breath in her hair. “Do you honestly think this was just some booty call?”

She really had come to try and make it right with him.

“No … God … I’m sorry,” he muttered, pressing a kiss to her temple this time. “I just …” his hand dropped from her shoulder, sliding down her back to her hip, goosebumps fanning out in its wake. His other hand joined in, sliding onto her opposite hip. “These bloody shorts have been driving me nuts since the footy.”

He ran his hands onto her ass and squeezed. Selena bit down on her lip to stop herself from moaning as she gripped the door knob harder.

“All I’ve been able to think about,” he muttered, his hands gliding around to the front, his lips just behind her ear now, “is getting in them.”

“Jarrod,” she gasped as he rubbed her intimately through the fabric and things inside her shorts started to go into meltdown. “This is crazy …”

“I know,” he said, his voice strained. “
God
 … don’t you think I know that?”

He made short work of the button, then her fly. “Oh fuck
yeahhh
,” he groaned as his fingers breached her underwear, sliding straight through her slick folds.

Selena moaned, trying to hold onto some sense of reality as her whole pelvic floor tightened deliciously. “Jarrod,” she panted, “I don’t think we should be …”

“I know,” he muttered, his voice rough. “Just let me …”

Then he found her clit and Selena gasped, barely able to keep upright let alone voice any more objections, grinding herself against his fingers shamelessly.

“You feel so damn good,” he groaned in her ear.

He
made her feel good, his fingers flying over her clit in a perfect rhythm, the loom and press of his naked chest against her back, the aroma of him filling her up with every desperate drag of air into her lungs. She built quickly until all she could do was hold on and let the rapture take her.

She flung her head back against his shoulder as the first cry was wrenched from her throat and he clamped a hand over her mouth to muffle it. Selena bit back more cries, acutely aware of and even more acutely turned on by being in the firehouse with two of his colleagues on the other side of the door.

The silent orgasm seemed more intense without any vocal outlet as it shuddered through her body, and she desperately sucked in air around his hand as it peaked then slowly ebbed. He dropped his hand from her mouth as she sagged against him, sliding it onto her hip. His other hand eased out of her underwear finding the opposite hip.

Selena shut her eyes, pressing her forehead against the door as her legs trembled and everything spun a little.

“Are you okay?” he murmured after a bit, his face pressed into her nape.

Selena wasn’t sure she’d ever be okay again. But she didn’t feel like she was imminently about to fall down anymore either. She moved a little and he eased back, which allowed her to turn around in his arms, his big hands warm around her waist. Her gaze roamed over his face. Over his seriously sexy whiskers, his green eyes and the soft wave of his red hair.

“Hey,” he said, a small smile on his lips.

Selena’s heart did a funny double beat, and she wasn’t entirely sure it was still from exertion. “Hey,” she replied.

“I’m sorry for being a dick before.”

Selena smiled. “I think you well and truly made up for it just now.”

He laughed. “Good to know.”

They smiled at each other for a moment. The skin at the edges of his eyes crinkled, and she had the weirdest urge to touch it. She didn’t.

“It wasn’t casual sex for me, Jarrod,” she said, as her smile dissipated. “Casual sex implies that it didn’t mean anything, that it was
just
sex,
just
a physical thing, and it wasn’t.”

“So … you’re saying …” His hands tightened around her waist. “Last night meant something to you.”

“Of course it did.” She crinkled her brow. “This is you and me, Jarrod. We have history. We can’t just separate that out from the physical. Didn’t it mean something to you?”

He nodded slowly. “Yeah. It did.”

A knock on the other side of the door startled Selena. Jarrod tensed, his hands sliding from her waist to flatten against the door either side of her even though he’d locked it.

“Phone call for you, boss. Head office.”

Selena’s pulse settled, and she felt absurdly like laughing. She stifled a grin as Jarrod cleared his throat and said, “Tell them I’ll ring back in five.”

They both held their breath waiting for any more conversation. When it became obvious there wasn’t going to be any, Selena let out the laugh pushing at her larynx as Jarrod muttered, “
Crap
,” and sagged against her,
his
forehead on the door this time.