Stoking the Embers (New Adult Romantic Suspense): The Complete Series (10 page)

I grin. She grins back. I grin bigger and start to giggle. “It’s nothing, I’m sure of it, but it’s been fun. I haven’t seen him in the past few days, not since the ride-along, but we’ve been texting and talking about seeing each other again.”

She leans forward. “Texting or sexting?”

“Beth!” I can’t stop the heat from taking over my face, can’t tell her how badly I’ve wanted to ask him over, can’t find the words to share how Ken makes me feel when he looks at me.

“Come on, Steph, this is the twenty-first century. Pull out his hose and cool yourself off.”

My face scrunches, she didn’t just say that.

“Oh yes I did.” Damn, the girl can read my mind. I’m so glad to see her smiling and laughing, I play along.

“What if I’ve already played with his hose?”

Her eyes grow wide. “Did you? Details. All of them. Now.”

I’m saved as my phone buzzes and have to dive to beat Beth from snatching it up. It’s Ken!

“Hi beautiful. Dare you to try breakfast with me again.”

I’m suddenly twelve years old, practically dancing around in circles. I stop long enough to type a response.

“Double dog dare you to try breakfast with ME.”

That’s stupid. I tap the backspace key and try again. I stare at my phone, my thumbs hovering over the buttons. All my wit, any small amount of cool cleverness I might possess deserts me. I stare at Beth and she yanks the phone from my hand. Seconds later, she hands it back. She’s typed:
“I’d love to. When and where.”

I stick my tongue out at her and hit the send button. Moments later, I get his response with the details.

“Huh,” I tell Beth. “He wants to surprise me and come over here, pick me up.”

She gives me a ‘hurry up’ twirl of her finger. “What are you waiting for? Say yes.”

I start to type but she grabs my hand. “You like him, right?” I nod. “He seems to like you.” I nod. “Then just go, have fun. Don’t judge or put limitations on yourself. You’ve been under a thumb for a long time. It’s time for you to explore your options and go for it.”

Deep breath in. Deep breath out. I finish typing out my response and hit the send button. Moments later, I receive:
“Terrific, see you before the sunshine.”

Beth laughs. “That’s kind of corny. But sweet. You gonna sleep with him?”

I’d been waiting for the question. Blunt Beth at her best. “I want to. Like really, really want to. Do you think he’ll think I’m a slut?”

She rolls her eyes at me. “You’ve seen him how many times now? Five? Six?”

“That’s the number of times I’ve laid eyes on him… ever. We had dinner at the pub, a non-date. Breakfast, a non-date. I spilled milk all over his crotch, a non-date. A ride-along…”

“All right, all right. But sweetie, here’s the thing. You’ll know when the time is right. Trust your instincts and allow yourself to have fun. It’s been a loooong time since you’ve had fun.”

She’s right.

“Just remember the condoms.”

I throw a pillow at her.

Chapter 11—Ken

Bzzz, Bzzz, Bzzz.

God, I should hate that sound, but I love it. Bouncing out the station bunk bed, I pull off the sheets and thank Hephaestus and Vulcan for almost five hours of sleep last night. I wonder which god or goddess I should thank for this morning wood. Damn, that was a crazy dream I was having about Stephanie.

Stephanie. Why the hell can’t I get her out of my head? She’s more than tits and ass and it scares the shit out of me.

She did such a wonderful job during the ride-along the other day. Jumping in and helping as needed. First she calms the pregnant woman. Then plays with the little boy, a natural. She’ll make a wonderful mom someday.

Fuck! Where did that come from? No way in hell do I want a kid. Or a wife. Nothing to tie me down, no fucking ball on my chain. No woman is going to get a hook through my nose. Ever.

I grab my jeans and party city t-shirt and head to the john, grateful the morning wood is now kindling and I don’t have to do the bend-it-down shit to take a leak. Thoughts of marriage will do that to a man, wither his manhood into an, almost unrecognizable, version of its former self. I’ve seen that—figuratively speaking—to way too many of my friends.

Dressed and ready to go, I watch the clock getting closer to six a.m. My shift’s over in four minutes and I hope to hell one of the 5:57 calls doesn’t come and ruin my plans.

Luckily, it doesn’t and I’m heading toward the door, stopping only to talk to the day crew for a few minutes.

“When you bringing Stephanie back?” Octavio asks with a slap on my ass.

“Yeah, don’t you think she needs some more training?” Robert air quotes the word “training.”

Ty joins in, “Yeah, I didn’t get to show her my hose.”

I gotta get out of here. This shit is on a downhill roll and I don’t see it stopping anytime soon.

“Fuck you Ty.” I kick up the kickstand with the back of my boot and decide to kick start the Harley this morning. The deep roar of the hog always pisses off my fellow brothers, but I don’t care. I haven’t had her at the station for months and I feel like she needs a little freedom after the other day.

Flipping off all the guys mockingly, I head up Pebble and stop to get some donuts. I have to bring something; I don’t want Steph to think I’m completely useless.

Pulling into her apartment complex, I throttle down. I shouldn’t have brought the beast here this early, but it’s too late to get my truck. Coasting into the one remaining visitor spot and parking quickly, I hop up the stairs two at a time. What the fuck has this girl done to my brain? I’ve never brought food to a girl before—or been this excited to watch her eat it. This is messed up. I just need to fuck her and get this obsession out of my system. All this emotional foreplay has me worked up.

In Ohio, everyone had wooden doors and the metallic sound when I knock still weirds me out. Of course, here in Vegas wood dries up and warps within a season so all the doors seem to be made of metal. I can’t ring the bell, it sounds too urgent. Why the hell am I over-thinking something as innocent as this?

I hear footsteps on the other side of the door and I’m greeted by the glorious sight of a very sleepy Stephanie. She’s pushing her hair back and rubbing her eyes, clearly embarrassed for having been caught oversleeping.

“I’m so sorry. My alarm didn’t go off. I must’ve over slept. Please, come in.”

It’s amazing how hot she looks, even when she’s just waking up. Those tits set free in the half-tee, yeah, I need to “massage” those. She has to know what she’s doing to me. She could have asked me to wait outside a bit while she changed. She’s either a good actress or completely innocent and unaware of how scrumptious she is.

Stepping into her apartment, it takes every ounce of willpower not to press her against the wall and feel every inch of her still warm from the blankets body.

Down boy. I try to hide my growing erection with the grocery bag. “Steph, if you want I can come by a little later. I just figured you’d be awake already.”

She points toward the laptop sitting on her coffee table. “I was up late studying. Summer sessions at UNLV go by fast, so I have to cram harder and faster. I don’t have as much time as during the regular semester. On the bright side, class is over in the blink of an eye.” she answers with a smile.

I’m still stuck on ‘harder and faster’ and how her lips looked when she said the words.

As the silence stretches between us, she fills it, eyes going to the bag of donuts. “What’s in the bag?”

Looking down at them, I turn the bag to show her the logo on the side. “I picked up some donuts. We can go somewhere if you like, but since we didn’t plan that far ahead, I figured I’d bring something.”

“You have a serious sweet tooth, don’t you? Pancakes, donuts… do you mainline sugar?”

Fuck, I couldn’t help it, I look at her tits again with those words. I imagine licking and sucking on their sweetness. She crosses her arms over her chest, shifting from foot to foot and I force myself to snap out of it. “Speak, asshole,” my brain is screaming at me. “Say something that doesn’t make you sound like a perv.” Hell, I can’t think of anything. I watch her bite her lip and shift from foot to foot again.

“Well, uh, how about you set those on the kitchen table and I’ll go change out of these pajamas.”

She’s already turning, probably prepared to run screaming from the room when, “Don’t do that on my account,” comes flying out of my mouth. Holy fuckin’ shit. I can’t believe I just said that.

Steph turns around, still biting that lip, her cheeks turning pink. Then, I see her shift from little girl to confident woman right before my eyes. “Okay, pajamas it is. I can always change later. Donuts first; I get first dibs.”

Instead of the kitchen, we end up sitting on the couch. She pushes her laptop backwards to make room for the donuts and coffee and her screen comes to life at the movement. Her desktop is a mess, completely filled with little icons and her Chrome tab shows she has eleven internet tabs open.

“Double task much?” I tease her and she laughs.

“I know. I’m terrible. I can’t leave a dirty dish in the sink, but a thousand tabs and icons don’t bother the OCD side of me.”

She takes a chocolate éclair, puts an end to her mouth and takes a big bite. I nearly groan as her lips wrap around the phallic confection.

Desperate to distract myself, I dig in the bag for my own breakfast. I skip past the other éclair—I’d never thought eating one would look so sensual and I didn’t fancy the picture I had in my head of me holding a chocolate dick to my mouth.

I grab an apple fritter and take a bite and then nearly scald myself on the still too-hot coffee. I risk a glance at her and notice a smudge of chocolate icing on her cheek. I can’t help but smile.

“What?” she asks.

I shake my head, my smile growing bigger.

“What?” she asks again as I point at her face.

“You’ve gotta little…” I point again.

Damn her. Her tongue snakes out in an attempt to wash it off. I shake my head, “Higher.” She tries again, lifting a thumb to assist, but she misses.

“Here, let me.” I grab a napkin, scoot closer and swipe at it ineffectively. The icing is like crazy glue, the son of a bitch won’t wipe off. Inspiration strikes and before I can talk myself out of it, I lean forward and lick it off.

Her entire body stiffens and she pulls away, but only enough to look into my eyes. Her hand lifts, fingers trailing down my cheek, thumb tracing a path over my lower lip.

“You scare me,” she said.

“How do I scare you?”

To my surprise, she removes her hand from my face and scoots closer before curling into a ball at my side. I wrap an arm around her shoulder, pulling her close. When she reaches out a hand, I take it, my thumb stroking the softness of her skin.

“The way you make me feel. You make me want to throw all caution to the wind and just… I don’t know… just be crazy and alive.”

“Crazy and alive is fun.”

“I’m learning that.”

Curious, I have to know more. “Haven’t you been crazy and alive before?”

She shakes her head. “More like cautious and anal.”

I don’t believe her. She doesn’t give herself enough credit. “Why do you say that?”

Lifting a shoulder, she looks up at me and I watch her search her mind, trying to find an answer to my question. “I guess I had to grow up really young. I started working when I was fourteen to help make enough money for rent. Like I said the other night, my dad was in a serious accident that left him paralyzed and in a great deal of pain. I had no choice but to go to school, work and take care of him. There really wasn’t time for anything else, so I never had a boyfriend until college.”

“Is that why you wanted to become a nurse?”

She nods. “That’s part of it, but also because my mom was a nurse and after she died, my dad gave me her nursing stuff. She had one of those old-fashioned hats, a stethoscope, her nursing pin. I wore that hat like most girls would wear a tiara.”

“You were really good the other day. With the pregnant mom and the little boy. You’ll make a fabulous nurse… or a paramedic… or any damn thing you choose.”

“Thank you. And thank you for encouraging me. Really, I don’t think you know how much that means to me.”

Looking into her green eyes, I’m pulled to her and I stop trying to fight it. I draw her onto my lap, tip her chin up so she would look at me again. “There should be a man encouraging you every day, every minute. You’ve got it all. You’re smart, fun and beautiful.”

She wasn’t able to hold my gaze with the last comment. She frowns and shakes her head.

“Yes,” I insist. “You’re beautiful here.” I touch her nose. “You’re beautiful here.” I touch her forehead. “You’re beautiful here.” I touch the left side of her chest, just above the heart.

She smiles at me and takes my hand. With a shaky inhale, she places it on her breast. Her bottom lip quivers, as if she’s scared, but it wasn’t really scared, more like excited?

“I want you to make…” She pauses and starts again. “I want you to have with sex me,” she says, looking at my face so intently it’s as if she’s trying to read my mind. “I promise I won’t go all crazy and get attached and make your life miserable. And I know we barely know each other and you’ll probably think I’m a slut and…”

I cut off her words with my lips, turning her until she’s straddling my lap. Hands deep in her hair, I force her head back and pave a trail down her soft neck.

She moans and begins to move, shifting her hips back and forth on my crotch. I want to toss her on the floor, fuck her so hard, make her scream as she comes. But, I also want to take my time. She said she’d only been with one man and I believe her, although girls lie about their numbers all the time.

Plus, I know who that one man is. Dickhead. I’ll be damn if I’m not better in bed than that skinny excuse for a cock.

Turning, I lay her on the sofa, my lips moving to her ear. I feel goose bumps rise on her flesh and her body tenses up. Nice. I lick her ear again.

“Where’s the oil from the other night?” Her eyes open and she stares at me. “I want to touch you like you touched me. Is that alright?”