Before they left the restaurant, Meredith made sure to stop by their little corner table from the night before, which happened to be empty. Under the place where she’d written “First date” below their names, she added two more words: “of many.” Then she drew a heart around the whole thing.
Alyssa, bless her, had mercy on them and crashed with Dane and Marla for the rest of the day, even offering to move her stuff later so they could have the entire unit to themselves for the remainder of the trip. She was the best friend ever.
They needed that time, Meri thought. They needed to talk and make love and get to know each other intimately before getting back to the hustle and bustle of real life. Other couples made it work, of course, but most hadn’t had their kind of inception.
“I could have killed him when he said that,” Cameron confessed as they sat out on the balcony that evening and watched the waves roll in. “I’m sorry. I know I said we shouldn’t bring it up anymore. It’s not even something I would keep from you, but…the night before, you know? It looks bad.” He sighed. “I wouldn’t have had you find out that way. It made me feel like a fucking creep.”
Meredith laughed. “Imagine how I felt, sitting out here…you know. Being a fucking creep.”
He reached across and took her hand. “You could never be a creep, baby.”
“Well, neither could you.” They stroked each other’s hands and fingers in silence for a moment, and finally she could resist no more. “So…she stormed out on you?”
“She was highly pissed at me. I pretty much gave her the boot first thing. I wasn’t trying to be rude, but damn. I didn’t want to spend the day with her, either.”
Meri chuckled. “Poor thing. Though I can’t say I exactly feel sorry for her. I just know how I would’ve felt if you’d given me the boot.” Devastated. Of course, with them, there had been much more at stake than one night.
“Hell, no. Never. You’re different, you know that, right? You always have been.”
“Can I ask what she looked like? I kind of tortured myself over it.”
He met her gaze directly. “At the risk of sounding like a total asshole…she looked a lot like you. Then again, I was seeing you everywhere, Meredith. I usually do.”
It was scary how fast she was willing to forgive him anything. Hopefully this wouldn’t set a precedent; she didn’t want him getting away with too much. She grinned at the thought. “Don’t look anywhere else from now on, okay? That’s all I ask. You can see the real thing right here.”
“Got it.” He leaned over, she met him halfway, and he kissed her as the sun kissed the horizon over the Gulf of Mexico.
Epilogue
Dinner had been delicious, the walk on the beach truly soothing for the soul. They ended up in much the same state as the previous night: wet from splashing each other, sandy from chasing each other and the tumble they took when she let him catch her. Hours passed like minutes, and she began to realize how much she would miss this. At the same time, she was eager to get back to life with him at her side.
Before they did, though, she needed one more thing.
Maybe it was crazy. Maybe she was a little twisted (well, maybe definitely twisted). But when she dragged him out onto her balcony at three in the morning, his sheepish grin was simply too adorable.
“You’re insane, you know that?”
“You didn’t realize that about me?”
“If I didn’t before, I do now.”
“Call it my need to replace a bad memory with a great one. After this, no more mention of it. I promise.”
“I can live with that, if it’s what you need. But please don’t ever be insecure about it, because it was nothing on what I have with you, babe. Nothing.”
She smiled, trailing a fingernail under his chin. “I just thought it was hot, remember? I wondered at the time if I’d let you do the same thing to me. And I decided I would.”
“Well. In that case.” He drew her into his arms, lowering his head to sweep her mind out to sea with one of his kisses. She would never get used to them, would she? That was fine with her.
The wind created a mess of her hair; she kept having to push it out of the way of their hungry mouths. Cameron still wore his swim trunks and Meredith her bikini from an earlier dip, little to get in the way of their equally hungry hands. He lavished kisses on the tops of her breasts, down to the flat of her belly, and lower to her thighs. She lifted her face to the moon, a smile drifting across her lips as he tugged down her bottoms.
Then kisses where she needed them most right now, teasing at the need aching between her thighs.
“Oh, yes, please, Cam...”
Her mind could scarcely follow the rapid procession of events following that helpless little plea. Her top coming off. His trunks disappearing. His body hard and unforgiving in her arms. Being lifted, her back put to the wall as she’d imagined that night, as she’d dreamed about. Oh, God, yes.
“It should’ve been you,” he growled against her throat. “Should’ve always been you. It fucking pisses me off that it wasn’t.”
Again, if it hadn’t happened, they wouldn’t be here. At least not yet. For that alone, she would be eternally thankful for it, and grateful to herself. She’d seized an opportunity she’d let pass her by for far too many years, and it had paid off. Against all odds, he was finally hers.
“It’s okay. I’m here now.” Their mouths fused. The music of the waves camouflaged their murmurs and groans. He found her entrance, claimed it, claimed her, their rhythms at last matched perfectly as she rolled with him. Her fingernails raked at his back; his short ones bit into the globes of her ass as he held her firmly in place.
Somewhere someone might be hearing them; hell if she knew or cared right now. Maybe that someone was thinking of someone else. All she had to say to that person was go for it. You will never, ever know unless you go for it. And sometimes the stars lined up and gave you everything you’d ever wanted in your life.
He was all she’d ever wanted.
She came with his name on her lips and a smile on her face, a laugh bubbling out of her. It must have been infectious; he laughed too. Then she watched his beloved face as he followed her into bliss.
Later, an exhausted heap on the bed with the moonlight pouring over their naked bodies, he scooted behind her and drew her into his arms, pressing her as close as he could.
“Is it too soon to tell you I love you?” he whispered.
“Soon? I’ve waited years to hear you say that.”
“I have a lot of time to make up for then, don’t I? I love you, Meredith.” He kissed her ear. Her cheek. Her shoulder.
She closed her eyes and snuggled into his strong arms, shrouded in the complete peace and satisfaction of absolute happiness. “I love you too.”
It was the best sleep she’d had in years.
About the Author
New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author Cherrie Lynn has been a CPS caseworker and a juvenile probation officer, but now that she has come to her senses, she writes contemporary and paranormal romance on the steamy side. It’s much more fun. She’s also an unabashed rock music enthusiast, and loves letting her passion for romance and metal collide on the page.
When she’s not writing, you can find her reading, listening to music or playing with her favorite gadget of the moment. She’s also fond of hitting the road with her husband to catch their favorite bands live.
Cherrie lives in East Texas with said husband and their two kids, all of whom are the source of much merriment, mischief and mayhem. You can visit her at http://www.cherrielynn.com or at the various social networking sites. She loves hearing from readers!
Playing With Fire
By
Kristen Proby
Copyright © Kristen Proby, 2014
All rights reserved.
Chapter One
~Bailey~
“Bailey! Can you help over here?” A harried volunteer with wide, nervous eyes yells for me a
s she has three out of breath firefighters standing before her.
“Of course,” I reply and toss my clipboard on the floor, and begin to strip the closest firefighter to me.
My job doesn’t suck.
Today is the annual Seattle Firefighter Stairclimb. Men and woman come from all over the country to participate in climbing a seventy-four-story building in downtown Seattle. They have to wear all of their gear, as much as an extra eighty pounds, up all seventy-four flights.
By the time they reach us at the top they are overheated and have to shed their gear as quickly as possible. That’s where my volunteers come in.
“Get his helmet off, Molly. Yep, just like that.”
The man before me is panting, can’t talk, and sweating bullets.
He’s also visually stunning.
“Okay, here’s some water. Congratulations.” I smile and guide the half-naked man to the rest area where others are drinking water, stretching and coming down from the high of climbing over thirteen hundred stairs.
I can’t even imagine.
I’ve helped organize this event for three years in a row now. The charity benefits are large, which gets my own blood flowing. Stripping firefighters out of their gear doesn’t hurt my feelings either.
I hurry back to the stripping area and continue helping the volunteers with the heavy gear.
“Bailey, can you help me with this?” Molly is struggling with an oxygen tank that’s stuck on a coat, so I rush over and help her with it then pull the helmet off the out of breath man and feel my gut clench just as it always does every time I see Kevin.
“Good job, Kevin.” I smile at the handsome man as he grins down at me and nods his thanks. I push a bottle of water in his hand and lead him over to the rest area. He’s naked from the waist up, wearing only his firefighter pants and his boots. His torso is gleaming in sweat, his defined abs heaving with every labored breath.
Dear God, what would he look like while having sex?
“You okay?” he asks roughly, his green eyes bright with humor. I close my mouth with a snap, embarrassed that I was caught ogling him.
“I’m great.” I smile wide and pat Kevin’s shoulder. “Is Gray here too?” The two men typically enter the race together.
“Yeah, I think he ran ahead of me.” He swigs half the bottle of water in a few gulps and scans the area looking for his best friend.
“Well you did great, congratulations.” I move to walk away, but he catches my arm in his hand, pulling me up short.
“Are you heading over to the pub after?”
“Oh.” I shake my head and wrinkle nose. “No. I have plans later.”
He narrows his eyes and cocks his head, still panting, his blonde hair a sweaty mess, and dear God I’ve rarely seen anything as sexy as he is.
Except his best friend, Gray, who is equally as sexy.
And that’s the problem.
“You should come,” he says.
“I don’t think so.” He releases my arm, but continues to watch me with those amused green eyes.
“Come on, you know you can’t resist a bunch of drunk firefighters who just ran up all those stairs.”
Oh, I can resist them all right. It’s you and your best friend I have a hard time saying no to.
“Bailey!” Someone calls from the other side of the room.
“I’ll think about it. I have to go.” I wave and jog back to Molly’s side to help her as the bulk of climbers begin to pour through the doors.
The next fifteen minutes are a flurry of helmets, masks, coats, oxygen tanks and excited firefighters. They’re pumped and proud, as they should be. They just worked their asses off.
“Do it! Do it! Do it!” The chanting has begun to my right in the rest area. People are whooping and cheering and to my utter shock, about twenty men who just climbed seven hundred and eighty-eight vertical feet are now doing pushups.
Including Kevin, and right next to him, Gray. Where Kevin is blonde, Gray has jet-black hair and bright blue eyes and both men are currently shirtless and executing perfect push-ups, their arms and backs flexing with every smooth motion up and down.
Hello, incinerated panties. Is it even legal in the state of Washington to look like that? Because it’s seriously impairing for me to watch.
When they finish, Gray collapses onto the floor and Kevin pushes back on his haunches, laughing and panting and coated in a fresh layer of sweat.
“How do they do it?” Molly asks beside me, the last of the men having been stripped down and cooling off.
“I think they’re super-human,” I reply with a laugh. “I’m in decent shape, and there’s no way in hell that I could do it. Just the thought makes me nauseous.”
“Right?” She giggles and chews her thumbnail. “They’re hot.”
“Of course they are, they just climbed seventy-four floors.”
She rolls her eyes at me. “Ha ha.”
I smirk at the younger woman. “Yeah, they’re hot.”
“Are you coming to the pub after?” she asks.
“No.” I shake my head and consult my clipboard blindly. At this point, everything on my list is done.
“You have to! Bailey, you helped organize this thing. You have to come celebrate.”
I shrug a shoulder and bite my lip. I’d planned to go until Kevin asked if I’d be there. They have both asked me out and flirted relentlessly. They’re handsome and sweet, although very different in personality. But they’re best friends, and how does a girl choose between them?
She doesn’t. She steers clear, that’s what she does.
“One shot,” Molly says with a hand over her heart. “We will do one shot in celebration and then you can leave if you want. You’ve earned it.”
I glance back over to where Kevin and Gray are talking and laughing with the others and feel my heart speed up. “One shot.”
“Yes! I knew I’d talk you into it.” She jumps next to me and then throws her arms around me, hugging me against her ample bust line.
“One shot,” I repeat.
“If you say so.”
***
~Gray~
The pub is bursting at the seems with joyful firefighters, laughing and yelling, drinking and cat-calling.
It’s completely typical after the stairclimb event.
“Here’s your beer,” Kevin says as he hands me the long-neck and taps the neck of his bottle to mine. “Good job, brother.”
“Back at you.”
“My time fell about twenty seconds this year.” He winces and then shrugs.
I smirk and watch my friend as he scans the room, looking for Bailey I’m sure. We’ve both been looking for her. “I haven’t seen her.”
“She said she had plans tonight.” His eyes meet mine and I can read him as if the thoughts were my own.
She’s going to let another bastard put his hands on her.
“She has a life.” I try to shrug off my own frustration. Kevin and I have been enamored with Bailey since the first time we met her at a BDSM event she attended last year. We’ve approached her separately but she’s turned us down.
I can’t figure her out. I don’t know how deep into the BDSM community she is. She doesn’t attend the club, Temptation, that Kevin and I both belong to. I know she’s good friends with Matt Montgomery’s girlfriend, but that’s all I know.
And I want to know a hell of a lot more.
Suddenly the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. My eyes search the crowd, and land right on her as she swigs back a shot and high-fives the volunteer she’s been hanging out with all afternoon.
“Looks like she’s had a change of heart,” I murmur to Kevin and point her out to him, but his eyes are already pinned on her, bright green, and filled with lust.
I’ve seen the look on him many, many times over the years. We’ve shared women for years. I know what he looks like when a woman turns him on.
But I’ve never seen possessiveness mix in with the lust.
<
br /> Not until this woman.
“She’s interested,” Kevin says with a half smile. “I caught her looking at us a few times today, and although her mouth said no when I asked her if she was coming here this evening, her body said hell yes when I touched her.”
“You touched her?” My head whips around in surprise.
“Just her arm.” He shrugs. “Like I said, she’s interested.”
“She’ll come around.” Kevin is a take control kind of guy. When an opportunity he wants doesn’t immediately present itself to him, he makes it happen. I don’t want him to move too quickly with Bailey and scare her off for good.
“When? When we’re seventy? I’m fucking sick of waiting.”
We both watch as two firefighters approach Bailey and her friend, flirting, offering to buy them drinks. The girls grin and nod, and I feel my blood boil when one of the guys wraps his arm around her shoulders and smiles charmingly down at her.
“Fuck,” I whisper.
“I’m done waiting.” Kev sets his beer on the table and stands. “She’s not coming to us, and those assholes are coming on to her. You can wait until you’re seventy if you want, but I won’t.”
And with that, he takes off through the crowd.
Fuck. I grab my beer and follow him. The crowd is thinning as some of the guys have headed home, or to another bar. Bailey’s friend is laughing with the man who approached her, twirling her hair on her finger, giving off all the signals that if the guy plays his cards right, he’ll be getting very lucky.
I watch with amusement as Kevin approaches Bailey from the side and rests a possessive hand on her shoulder while glaring at the other man who quickly backs away. She whirls around and turns her surprised gaze up to Kev.
“Hey, gorgeous,” he murmurs with a smile. “What can I get you to drink?” He flags down the bartender as she shakes her head no, but licks her lips and glances at his chest, which is covered with a tight-fitting T-shirt.
Her friend vacates the stool next to her as she leaves with the guy who’s about to get lucky, so I snatch it quickly and grin at my friend then at Bailey who as turned those big baby blues over to me.