by J. H. Croix
Only then did he draw out of me and ease me to the tile floor. The moment felt so intimate with the steam cocooning us—as if we were the only two people in the world.
A mere week without seeing him, and the relief that washed over me when I found him outside my door was immense. I didn’t quite know how I could miss someone as quickly as I had missed him.
I watched as he efficiently soaped up. The man was practically carved from stone, his body nothing but hard planes. As he turned to duck under the water when I stepped out of it, I noticed a few scars on his back and a long, jagged scar along the back of his bicep.
Before I even realized what I was doing, I lifted my arm and trailed my fingertips along the path of the scar.
Donovan turned, his eyes catching mine. “Cut my arm during a fire. A loose piece of bracing fell when I was carrying someone out,” he explained, his tone matter-of-fact.
I looked up at him, my heart thudding hard and fast inside my chest. “Oh.”
He was quiet for a beat, his eyes searching mine as he lifted a shoulder in a shrug. “Just a scar.”
I managed to smile, though my heart tightened. Stepping out of the shower, I handed over a towel as I dried off. I wondered what it was about him that got to me.
I supposed I should’ve been grieving the fact my ex-fiancé had cheated on me. While it stung and I was annoyed with it, I didn’t really miss Glen. That said it all.
Glen had never once looked at me with fierce heat in his eyes the way Donovan did. That very first night I’d seen Donovan—the way his gaze had scorched me had reached in and grabbed ahold of me. He made me feel like a woman in a way that no man ever had.
As we walked out of the bedroom after Donovan tugged on his clothes, and I pulled on sweatpants and a T-shirt, I was speaking before I’d thought about it.
“Have you had dinner?”
Donovan stood there in his bare feet, turning to look back at me. My breath hitched. With his damp hair and his skin flushed from the shower, he was so fucking handsome. All he wore was a pair of faded jeans and a black T-shirt, and I wanted to tear his clothes off all over again.
There was something about what it felt like to be in his arms, his attention nearly devouring me. He literally swept me up into his strength.
“I had a little something at Wildlands, but I’m hungry again,” he replied, his voice low, his eyes searching my face.
“How about I make dinner?”
We stood there, just staring at each other. Somehow, the moment felt weighted now.
“I’d like that,” he finally said.
My heart clenched, and a smile bloomed. “Okay. I love to cook.”
The kitchen here, just like his, had a counter running on the wall with a small fridge, an oven, and a stovetop. Opposite the counter was a small island.
“Let me see what I can whip up,” I said, gesturing to the fridge. “I even have beer.”
Donovan grinned. “I’ll take whatever you have. I’m not picky.”
“I actually have the good stuff, some beer from Diamond Creek Brewery. I was down there a few days ago.”
I handed over a bottle as he settled onto a stool at the island counter. I leaned into the fridge, surveying my options. “How about lasagna?” I called over my shoulder.
“Won’t that take a while? You don’t need to do something special.”
The low rumble of his voice sent a little shiver through me.
Dear God. I was so screwed. This man had just given me two intensely hot orgasms, and I was ready to jump his bones all over.
I straightened, turning back to face him. “It’s quick. I have all the ingredients. I’ll throw it together, and it’ll be ready within the hour.”
He chuckled, the sound sending a prickle down my spine. “I love lasagna, so if you want to make it, go for it.” As I got started, he caught my eye. “So, you’re not a vegetarian then?”
His southern drawl and the teasing tone of his voice made me laugh. I shook my head. “No.”
He winked as he took a pull from his beer. “I thought maybe so, with you living in San Francisco. No offense.”
“Are you kidding? I was born and raised in Alaska. I’m not saying there aren’t a few vegetarians here, but definitely not me. My dad made me learn how to hunt when I was in high school. I have actually killed an animal and eaten it.”
Donovan smiled wide. “Good to know, sugar. Me too.”
Mostly because his smile sent butterflies spinning in my belly and I got anxious, I reached for the remote from the corner of the kitchen counter and turned the television on.
As it turned out, I didn’t need it to stay distracted. It was just background noise as I cooked. For the first time since I’d met Donovan, we simply relaxed. There was no tension. We were crazy hot for each other, but we managed to behave like two normal people having dinner. We just talked.
The man clearly had manners, asking me all kinds of questions about where I grew up and what it was like and so on. I learned a lot about him too. Now I knew he had that sexy drawl because he grew up in Georgia. He swore up and down that he’d lost most of it.
“Sugar,” Donovan drawled with a slow wink. “Trust me, I’ve lost a bit of my accent.”
He was the one and only man whose voice alone sent hot shivers through me. It didn’t help matters to be aware of just how expertly he could play my body. Mind-blowing sex aside, it was more than nice to hang out with Donovan. True to my word, I had the lasagna ready within the hour.
He offered to help, but I shooed him away, although I did let him grate the cheese. After we finished eating, we lounged on the couch. I’d say we watched TV, but I don’t remember what was on, and I certainly didn’t pay attention.
I fell asleep, tucked in his arms. When he stood to go, it was me who stopped him. “Why don’t you just stay here?”
He turned, his hazel gaze sweeping over my body and sending sparks scattering through me. He stayed.
Once again during the night, he sent me flying. I woke to the feel of his fingers teasing a nipple, his hips rocking into me from behind, a slow, languid tease.
My climax came over me slowly, flowing through me like molasses, heavy and intense, shattering me at the core. I cried out and shuddered at the feel of his release filling me. I drifted back to sleep, warm, safe, and sated in his arms.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Donovan
The sun filtering through the curtains woke me. Jasmine was warm and soft beside me, one of her legs thrown over mine and tucked between my calves. She was plastered against my side, her fucking tempting, perfect breasts pressed against me. As it was, I woke up with morning wood. Perhaps you’d think after fucking her against the door and then sometime in the dark hours of the night, I’d have been sated, my need slaked.
But no. I was beginning to wonder if burning out my need for Jasmine was even possible.
It was early, but then I woke early. Rolling over, I glanced at the clock on her nightstand. Six a.m. I needed to be at the station within the hour.
For the first time in years, I didn’t want to get out of bed. In fact, I’d have been more than happy to stay here all day. Just maybe I could satisfy my need for her.
I’d pretty much written off getting serious again. It hadn’t been a conscious decision, more that I felt cynical. I hadn’t figured anyone would matter that much to me again. Jasmine had already shimmied through every crack in my defenses. She mattered. A lot.
The sex was fucking amazing. She was so responsive, so raw, so pure. Even when I’d been at the height of being half in lust and love with Katie, sex had never been this amazing. But when you’re in your twenties and you’re a man, well, it doesn’t take much.
When I found out Katie was fucking around on me with my best friend, it burned. Badly. Yet now, with a few years in between, the burn had faded. I suppose I had loved her in the only way I knew how at that time. I also knew that it hurt just as much for Bill to be a part of the betrayal.
Hell, that had burned the worst.
I hadn’t been able to avoid the news that Bill and Katie got engaged, and then later broke up. Bill and I grew up together. Our parents were best friends, so avoiding news about him was near to impossible.
Despite thinking I’d never trust a woman again, there was no doubt in my mind Jasmine would never betray anyone like that. It’s simply wasn’t in her nature. How I knew that, I didn’t know.
As I lay there with her tangled up beside me, sifting my fingers through her hair, my thoughts spun back to the night before. The woman could cook. Now, my mama was a hell of a cook. She was a Southern woman and prided herself on blowing your socks off, no matter what she made. She wasn’t fancy, but everything she cooked was amazing.
I’d be hard-pressed to say that Jasmine hadn’t made the best lasagna I’d ever had. Because I was a loyal boy to my mama, I didn’t even like thinking that. I knew my mama would love Jasmine. Somehow that got to me. Jasmine was like smoke, sliding through the cracks in my walls.
I’d learned a bit about her last night. Her family was tight, that much was clear. She teased that Levi fancied himself the best cook in her family. She’d grudgingly acknowledged that he was at least as good as she was.
While she clearly adored her older brother, there was a thread of tension there. But then, wasn’t there a thread of tension in everyone’s family? I knew my mama still had her opinions on the mistake I’d made in asking Katie to marry me. Angry as she was at Bill after what went down, I knew she wished I would forgive him.
That was a sore spot between us. Mama also hadn’t been thrilled when I’d moved all the way to Alaska. I hadn’t run to Alaska. It’s just that hotshot firefighters were in much higher demand out West. I went where the job took me, and I’d fallen in love with Alaska. I went home every year, and my parents came here to visit every year.
I took a breath, reminding myself I needed to get up and get my ass in gear. The moment I shifted, intending to carefully slide out from underneath Jasmine, she came awake with a start.
She rose on her elbow, her eyes swinging to me.
Fuck me.
With her hair a tangle around her face, her cheeks flushed from her sleep, her lips puffy from too many kisses last night, and her eyes sleepy, she was so damn sexy, my cock got hard. Again.
“Oh,” she said, as if surprised to find me here.
That made me laugh, a little chuckle rolling out.
Her cheeks pinkened and then she smiled, her smile a little ray of sunshine, warming me inside and out.
“Good morning,” she said, her voice husky.
“Morning.” I briefly considered whether I had time to take her again. Her legs shifted, her knee brushing against my cock, and then her cheeks flushed an even deeper shade of pink.
Another chuckle rumbled out. “I need to get to work,” I murmured.
“I’ll make coffee,” she said quickly, hopping out of bed in a flash.
That didn’t help the state of my cock. I had a perfect view of her heart shaped ass, full and curvy. An image of her bent over while I sank inside of her from behind flashed through my thoughts.
I knew exactly what I would be doing tonight when I got home. I wanted her from behind, her ass in the air while I buried myself in her slick, wet pussy.
Kicking the sheets back, I willed my cock down. As I walked out of the bedroom, tugging my boxers on, I looked over to where she stood by the kitchen counter, getting coffee ready.
“I’m gonna grab a shower across the hall, and I need a change of clothes. Be back in a few.”
She glanced over, casting a quick smile my way. “Okay, coffee’ll be ready by the time you get back.”
I did not want to go to work today. I wanted to lose myself in Jasmine. I was falling for her. Hard. I needed to keep myself in check and stay sane. She hadn’t said another word about it, but I remembered the first night I met her and what she told me. Her ex had fucked around on her. I knew a bit about how that felt and knew that it burned. While I knew what I felt between us and knew it was real and deep, I sensed Jasmine might be skittish if I moved too far, too fast.
A quick shower later—a cold one at that—I yanked on my clothes and walked back across the hallway. As soon as I entered her apartment, I knew she’d been up to more than making coffee. Somehow, inside of the maybe ten minutes I’d been gone, she was making pancakes.
“I decided you needed breakfast,” she said, as I closed the door behind me and walked toward her.
“Sugar, you’re perfect.” I slipped my arms around her from behind, dipping my head to breathe her in. She flipped two pancakes.
“Pretty sure I’m not perfect, but I figured you needed to eat.” She paused, a coy gleam in her eyes. “Food.”
And just like that, I was hard again.
The pancakes were delicious, as was the coffee. Because I was bordering on being late, I left without taking her against the wall on the way out.
I just had to figure out how slow to take this.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Donovan
The morning at the station was quiet. Our crew, having just returned from a rotation out in the backcountry, was responding to local calls. The local crew was handling a controlled burn nearby.
I did some work in the garage, walking Emily through how to change the oil on one of the trucks. She was a blast to have around the station with her purple hair and her attitude. When lunch rolled around, I offered to go to Firehouse Café for everyone and pick up pizza on the way back for the crew. Of course, no one said no. Within minutes, I pulled up in front of Firehouse Café.
Stepping into the café, I scanned the room, finding a lucky pause in the action. While the tables were full, there was no one waiting at the counter as Janet handed over a coffee to someone.
She immediately cast her smile my way as I approached, her warm brown eyes crinkling at the corners. Janet was one of the first people I’d met when I moved to Willow Brook. I’d arrived late one afternoon at the end of days and days of driving, starving and in desperate need of a cup of coffee.
With Firehouse Café smack in the middle of Main Street, I’d stopped and found her behind the counter. As soon as she heard I wasn’t a tourist and I was actually moving to town, she’d insisted on giving me my coffee for free and proceeded to tell me essentially the entire history of Willow Brook inside of a half an hour.
Of course, she did this in between waiting on other customers and checking on me at my table. As a result of that free cup of coffee, she’d earned over a thousand dollars or more from me since then. I stopped by here almost every day that I wasn’t out in the field.
“Donovan,” she said, her voice containing a hint of laughter in it. “How are you?”
“Good, good. Just got back last night. You know I can’t go a day without getting coffee when I’m in town, so here I am.”
“I expected you this morning,” she said with a wink.
My mind flashed to how I woke up this morning with Jasmine tucked beside me. Just that passing thought, and a jolt of need spun through me. Fuck. I didn’t even have to see Jasmine to get hot for her.
In fact, I still knew precisely what I was hoping to see tonight — her sweet ass tilted up in the air as I fucked her from behind.
I gave myself a mental nudge, forcing my attention to Janet. I wasn’t used to obsessing over a woman like this. I shrugged. “Busy morning, that’s all. Anyway, I’ve got a bit of an order for you.”
“What’ll it be?”
“I’ll take my usual Shot in the Dark, but I need ten house coffees. Just give me some cream on the side because I don’t know who likes cream and who doesn’t. We’ve got sugar at the station, so we can survive without that.”
Janet chuckled. “Lunch run?”
“Of course.”
She spun around and began to get our coffees ready. I moved over to the side of the counter, and we chatted while she worked. She paused a few times to wait on other custo
mers. At one point, she glanced over, her eyes taking on a gleam. “So, I have a question,” she said.
“What’s that?”
“Jasmine’s going to use the empty garage in the back for her studio. I’m wondering if I could persuade you to help her get it set up. She’s a bit stubborn, and I’m guessing she’s not gonna want to ask anybody for help. I’ll pay you.”
Over my dead body.
No way in hell was I going to let Janet pay me to help Jasmine.
“Of course I’ll help. I need to talk to her about it though. I don’t see how I can do what she needs without making sure I know what she’s looking for. And for God’s sake, you don’t need to pay me. The place is built. I’d guess she needs a few shelves, perhaps a table, something like that.”
Janet beamed as she handed over the last coffee. “I knew you would say yes. I figure you’re right next door as it is, so you can just add it in when you’re working on stuff for my place.”
“Did you forget you’re not paying me because you let me stay for free? I can probably do what she needs in about a day or two, so consider it done.”
“Well, I am paying for materials, and I’ll do the same here. I’m gonna tell her I asked you to do the work because it’s my space,” Janet offered with a smile, seeming quite satisfied with herself about this.
“That big of a deal?”
“Well, I don’t know how well you know Jasmine yet”—my mind flashed to the feel of Jasmine’s channel around my cock as I fucked her against the door last night—“but she’s kind of stubborn. I’m on Team Jasmine, and I want her to stay in Willow Brook. To make that happen, we all need to conspire to make sure she can do her pottery here.”
“Oh? So that’s what it’s for?”
She quickly rang me up, and I handed over the money.
“Yes, she’s amazing and her work is beautiful. She’s all set up to sell to a chain of galleries here in Alaska. With Amelia and Lucy busy this summer, I figured I’d stick my nose in things and make sure she gets her studio in working order.”