by Lori Foster
The word victim echoed through Amanda’s head with painful clarity. From somewhere deep inside, she dredged up a polite smile and met the two paragons who had nearly stolen Josh’s heart. “Hello.”
Del stepped forward and embraced her. “Hey, I’m Del, Mick’s wife and a friend of Josh. Sorry if we’re intruding, but Wynn and I finished our business and had the rest of the day free and Josh and Mick insisted on coming here to stick their noses in, so naturally we had to tag along, too.”
She’d said all that without taking a breath and Amanda’s brain whirled. “No, that is, I don’t mind as long as Josh doesn’t care.”
Zack cuddled his big wife into his side. “Doesn’t matter if he cares, we don’t pay him any mind anyway.”
With a beautiful smile, Wynn reached out her hand. “I’m Wynn, Zack’s soon-to-be wife if we can ever get everything arranged.”
“Where’s Dani?” Josh asked.
Wynn said, “With my mother. They’re doing some tie-dye. She’ll have Dani looking like a hippie in no time.”
Zack just laughed and explained, “Dani is my daughter, four years old going on forty. It took her all of about five minutes to get Wynn and her entire family wrapped around her little finger.”
“And when he says little, he means little,” Wynn added. “Dani is a tiny little thing. I feel like a giant around her.”
Amanda wondered that the woman ever didn’t feel like a giant. Not that her height mattered, because she was lovely even with that awful hair that kept dancing in the wind like dandelion fluff. The loose sweats couldn’t quite hide all her curves—Wynn had a body like a model.
Amanda caught herself standing there stupidly with everyone looking at her, and she said, “Oh, I was just telling Josh how we’d do the shoot.” She turned and shoved the soiled pants at him. “Here, you can put these on now.” The man had absolutely no shame, lounging around without pants.
Grinning, Mick said, “It is kinda cool today to be out here in your drawers.”
While Josh pulled on the pants, Amanda fetched his boots. She hated awkward silences and explained, “His is the last picture we need and we’ll use it for the cover and other promo, too. I want a candid shot of him without a shirt, holding his ax, maybe with a small smile.”
Wynn said, “Josh does have a very nice smile.”
Josh blew a kiss toward her, then grunted when Amanda shoved the boots at his midsection, making him scramble to grab them. He looked at her and laughed—the jerk.
Realizing what she’d done, Amanda peered up at the women and caught them watching her with gleeful expectation, curiosity and consideration.
Thank God, Jerry arrived.
Amanda rushed to greet him and help him with his equipment while Josh donned the steel-toed boots. Normally, she knew, the boots were already in place at the bottom of the pants. The firefighters stepped into their pants and boots at the same time, making it easier and quicker to dress.
There was nothing “normal” about this particular day. “I’m so glad you’re here, Jerry. I know you’re not late or anything, but I was afraid we’d lose the light. And Josh is antsy. I don’t know how much longer we have before he storms away. He’s not always the most agreeable man about this stuff. Not at all like the other firefighters we’ve been working with.”
Amanda realized she was babbling and snapped her mouth shut.
Jerry gave her a long look. “No worries. I take a lot of outdoor pictures in less light than this. Like most photographers—” he bobbed his bushy brows “—I have special cameras and lenses with me. It’ll be fine.”
She tried to busy herself by pulling a leather bag out of Jerry’s car and he said, “Hey, hey, easy with that, okay? Just let me get it.”
Flustered, Amanda moved out of his way.
Jerry was a large man, thick through the middle with a drooping mustache and balding head. Though he seldom rushed, he always looked flushed with exertion. Even now, he wore only a pullover without a jacket yet he appeared overheated.
Laden with equipment, Jerry turned and surveyed the collection of people. He frowned. “So who’s our model today?”
They all pointed at Josh.
Jerry huffed and lumbered across the lawn. “Off with the shirt then.” He dug into a bag and pulled out a small can of something. “For the photo, Ms. Barker wants it to appear as if you’ve just been on the job. Very macho stuff, you know.”
Josh’s jaw tightened, but he did tug off his shirt and threw it toward Mick, who caught it handily. He stood there in only the pants and boots. His suspenders hung at his side, and the waistband to the bunker pants was loose, curling outward to show his navel and a downy trail of hair on his abdomen.
Amanda forced her gaze upward, to safer, but no less tempting ground.
Gooseflesh had already arisen on his arms. The air had a definite nip, but Amanda assured herself it would only take a few minutes to get the picture. Josh was a big man layered in muscle. He’d be fine.
“I’ve got some blackening here,” Jerry announced. “We’ll rub it all around on you, your chest, arms, neck, maybe even your gut, dirty you up a bit so you match those scruffy pants and then I’ll spray you with baby oil to simulate sweat, and voilà, a hard workin’ man.”
Jerry carefully set all his equipment on a nearby picnic table then opened the jar. He started toward Josh and Josh said, “No damn way.”
Jerry wavered. He looked at Amanda, one bushy brow elevated.
Amanda looked at Josh. He stood braced as if for combat, jaw jutting slightly forward, eyes narrowed, his arms loose but fisted at his sides, his feet braced apart, his stomach tight.
She stomped forward. Her high heels sank into the ground with the ferocity of her pique. “Josh,” she hissed close to him, “you agreed.”
Green eyes glittering, he said, “I never once agreed to have some guy smear black stuff on me.”
“Only a little,” Jerry explained, oblivious to the static tension in the air. “It won’t take much.”
Josh shook his head. “Hell no.”
“I need you to look like you’ve been working,” Amanda insisted.
He glared at Jerry while replying to her. “I’ve never in my life had a guy rub me down and I’ll be damned if I’m going to start now.”
Mick choked and Zack guffawed. Even Wynn and Delilah began chuckling.
Amanda wanted to shout at them all; their hilarity didn’t help the situation. Despite Jerry’s assurances, she wanted to make use of the remaining light. She could just picture Josh with a halo of crimson sunshine behind him.
She wanted everyone else to see him as she saw him.
She was in far too deep and she knew it.
“Fine,” she said, refusing to dwell on her growing admiration for Josh. “You can rub it on yourself.”
He gave one hard shake of his head. “No way. I don’t want my hands in that goo.”
Wynn shouted, “Oh for pity’s sake, I’ll do it.” She started forward, her long legs eating up the distance in record time.
Amanda whirled on her just as Zack snagged her by the seat of her pants. “No,” Amanda said.
“No,” Zack said.
It was a contest who frowned more, Zack or Amanda. Left with few choices, Amanda snatched the jar from Jerry’s hand and stuck her fingers into the greasy goo. No way would she let one of the paragons touch Josh’s naked flesh, not now, not right here in front of her. The slick inky gunk went between her fingers and beneath her manicured nails. She wrinkled her nose in distaste.
Then she looked at Josh’s magnificent chest.
“Hold still,” she grumbled at him, seeing that he now looked triumphant.
“I won’t move a muscle,” Josh promised, and then he held his arms out to the sides, his muscles going all rigid and tight as he waited for her touch.
With a fortifying deep breath that did her no good at all, Amanda smoothed in the first dark smear, right across his pectoral muscle. Despite the late Oct
ober weather and the lateness of the day, he felt warm. And hard. And…sexy.
God, she hadn’t learned a thing. Every moral reparation that she’d fought to gain over the past seven years had been obliterated by Josh Marshall. Now what was she supposed to do?
JOSH WATCHED Amanda, knowing he’d end up aroused but not giving a damn. She looked adorable. With fierce concentration, she watched the movements of her hand on his body as she smeared the blackening here and there. It wouldn’t take much imagination on his part to visualize her making love with that same degree of intense focus.
He shivered.
Amanda glanced up and in a low, slightly raspy voice, she asked, “Are you cold?”
He answered in kind, every bit as affected as she. “You’re touching me, sweetheart. I’m getting hotter by the second.”
Her lips parted.
Jerry said, “Put a little on his abdomen, around all those macho muscles. Highlight ’em a bit.”
Amanda looked down at Josh’s stomach and hesitated.
“Go ahead,” Josh encouraged her, wanting her hands on him even if they had a damned attentive audience. Mick and Zack would give him hell the rest of the month, but he could live with it.
She swallowed, and dipped her delicate hand back into the can. Her fingers and the goo felt cool against his heated skin. Hoping she wouldn’t notice too much, Josh put his hands on her shoulders in the guise of steadying her. Their foreheads almost touched as they both watched the progress of her fingers caressing him.
Jerry made an impatient sound. “Hey, you two. If we’re not going to take pictures after all, then at least go get a room.”
Mick and Zack howled with laughter—until the paragons hushed them into reserved chuckles.
Amanda sprang back, appalled, mortified and without thinking. She wiped her hands clean on the skirt of her suit. Josh thought about breaking Jerry in half, but then Amanda wouldn’t get her damn photo.
He caught her wrist and pulled her closer. “Ignore them.”
“I’m…I’m done anyway.” She tugged her wrist free and began tidying her hair, making sure no strands had escaped the elegant twist.
Used to be, Josh hated to see her fussing around. Wynn and Del seldom did the feminine fretting that seemed so much a part of Amanda.
But now that he understood Amanda better, he knew that she used the busy little movements to collect herself. His heart wrenched, seeing her look so lost, so alone.
Jerry appeared with a spray bottle and began misting him all over.
“Damn! That’s cold.”
Jerry paid him no mind. “Almost done,” he said, and then, “Close your eyes.” He gave Josh just enough time to comply before spraying the oil right in his face.
“There. You’re dirty, sweaty, everything a real man should be.”
The irony in Jerry’s tone couldn’t be missed, and Josh shared his sentiments on that one.
Amanda protested. “It’s not about being a real man. I just want the illusion that he’s been hard at work. I want to capture the…” she cast about for a word, and settled on, “drama of fighting a fire.”
This time Josh didn’t take exception. He had a few troubling ideas about Amanda’s preoccupation with the benefit calendar and her reluctance to get involved sexually. He hoped like hell he was wrong, and tonight he intended to find out. Whether his suspicions proved true or not, he still wanted her. More so every damn day.
But until then, he would treat her with kid gloves. “Let’s get this over with,” he said.
Amanda rushed to hand him his heavy ax. “Prop this on your shoulder, and lean on the tree.”
“Prop it… What? Like Paul Bunyon?” he teased.
“No, like Josh Marshall, firefighter extraordinaire.”
He shook his head, but inside he was pleased with her description. He sauntered to the tree, propped the ax handle on his shoulder and lifted his brows. “Good enough?”
“No.” She rushed up close to him again. “You need a sexy smile.”
Everyone else stood a respectable distance away—Jerry adjusting his camera, Josh’s friends huddled together by the car chuckling. Josh felt safe in touching her chin and saying, “I don’t have anything to smile about right now.”
“Bull. Your mind is probably crowded with thoughts of…physical things.”
“My mind is crowded with thoughts of you.”
She huffed. “Must you always be so difficult?”
“Yeah, because you’re difficult.” She drew up and he said quickly, “You know what would make me smile?”
“I’m afraid to ask.”
Taking her by surprise, he leaned down and kissed her forehead. “Don’t ever be afraid with me, okay?”
“I didn’t mean… Okay, what? What does it take to make you smile?”
“Promise me a kiss.”
Her eyes narrowed and her brows beetled. “You just took a kiss.”
“Uh-uh. A real kiss. On the lips. Mouth open, a little tongue play…”
She started to turn away. Josh waited. She took half a step, crossed her arms around her middle, then propped her fists on her hips, then rubbed her temples. Such a telling reaction to such a small request!
Whirling back around to face him, Amanda asked in a low hiss, “Just what is it you hope to accomplish? I’ve told you I don’t want to be involved.”
“Even to a teenager,” he explained gently, “one kiss doesn’t equal involvement.”
“But if I kiss you once…” Her voice tapered off like a fading echo.
“What?” Damn he wanted to touch her. He wished like hell that they were already alone. “You might want to kiss me again?”
Sounding tortured, she said, “Yes.”
It felt like his knees got knocked out from under him. “Ah, babe…”
Jerry yelled, “Ready when you two are.”
Josh touched the small gold hoop in her left ear. “Promise me, Amanda. Give me something sexy to think about, a reason to smile.”
She closed her eyes, swallowed hard. “Okay.”
The sexy little smile came of its own accord. So did the boner, but damn, he’d never in his life anticipated a kiss quite so much.
Luckily, the bunker pants were, by necessity, thick and insulated. It’d take an impressive man indeed to tent them.
Amanda looked at him, her eyes widened, and she quickly backed up. “There, Jerry! Take that shot.”
Josh continued to watch her, their gazes locked and his imagination in overdrive, while Amanda backed away and Jerry’s camera clicked enthusiastically.
Amanda blushed, her brown eyes darkened, her lips parted. Josh took it all in, all the signs of beginning arousal, and wanted to groan. He knew his own face was flushed and his eyes hot, but it was so much like foreplay, sharing thoughts with her this way.
Amanda kept backing up until she was eventually pressed to a wide bare tree trunk. Her arms were crossed over her middle and her chest rose and fell with her breaths. Josh thought about taking her right there in the woods, with the cool air around them, his hands protecting her soft bottom from the rough bark, lifting her, grinding her forward…
But Amanda, with her prissy suits and polished appearance, likely wouldn’t appreciate a romp in the dirt.
He’d have to be patient—not his strong suit.
“All done,” Jerry called out. “I think I got some good ones. I don’t know what you said to him, Ms. Barker, but…”
“Nothing! I didn’t say anything to him!”
“Then he’s one hell of an actor.” Jerry, not one for small talk, saluted them both and headed back to his car.
Josh called out, “When will the prints be ready?”
“It’s a rush job,” Jerry answered. “I can pull them up on the computer tonight. Amanda can have the disk to look over tomorrow morning. Once she chooses which shots she wants I can have ’em ready in a day.”
Amanda, still looking tongue-tied, pushed herself away from the tree and ru
shed after Jerry. Josh approached Mick and Zack.
Without preamble, he said to both men, “Take off, will you?”
Mick grinned. “You got plans?”
Del elbowed her husband. “Of course he does. Did you see the way they were looking at each other?”
Zack edged in. “What happened with that business of her not wanting you?”
Wynn pretended to reel. “My God! You mean there’s a woman who doesn’t want Josh?” She shook her head, making her frizzy hair bounce. “No. I refuse to believe it. All my illusions will be destroyed.”
Zack pinched her behind, and she jumped.
Laughing under his breath, Josh said, “Yeah, a few actually.” He gave Wynn and Del pointed looks, because they had indeed made their sincere disinterest well known. Then he explained, “I don’t know what’s going on, but I hope to find out. Only I can’t find out a thing with the curious quartet hanging around, watching my every move.”
Zack leaned around his wife to see Mick. “Does he mean us?”
Mick nodded slowly. “I think he might.”
Del swatted her husband, then went on tiptoe to kiss Josh’s cheek. “We’ll drag them away. And good luck.”
“Careful,” Zack told his wife when she went to kiss Josh, too. “You’ll get all greasy.”
Wynn was tall enough that she could reach Josh’s cheek without bracing on him anywhere. “You’ll win her over with your charm,” she assured him, all kidding put aside.
Josh remembered a day when Wynn hadn’t noticed his charm, but evidently she considered her resistance superior to that of most women.
Half a second later Amanda was at his side, scowling, furious maybe. Her normally arched brows were lowered in a dark frown and her mouth looked pinched. “What’s going on here? Why is everyone kissing you?”
“Just saying goodbye,” Mick told her, and he and Del turned to get in the car.
Zack said, “I hope you got some good shots, Ms. Barker. Thanks for letting us observe.” And he and Wynn also got into the car.
Amanda just stood there, looking self-conscious and bemused. Together they watched the car back out and drive away, Jerry following close behind them.