by Nora Snowdon
He crawled up the bed and pulled her into his embrace, gently stroking down her spine. His breath warmed her temple as she regained control.
“Mmm.” She curled up to his body sliding one leg over his thigh. “That’s so nice. She ran her fingertips over his chest and then slowly let her fingers drift lower. The muscles on his abdomen twitched under her touch. She slid her leg the rest of the way over his body and straddled his legs sitting up to remove her bra. Sliding down his body, she let her breasts and belly caress his hard abs. She paused to rub his erection in her cleavage enjoying the hardness encased in sensitive, smooth skin. She glanced up to see his eyes boring into her with rapt attention.
Lu licked delicately at the crown of his penis. A quiet moan from above told her she was on the right track. She spread her lips over the top and slid her mouth down his shaft. Slowly up again and she released him.
“You like that?” she murmured blowing cooling breaths on his wet skin.
A grunt and his clenching fists were his answer. With a smile she descended on him again, using her tongue to apply extra pressure. He thrust into her mouth and then seemed to control himself to see what else she might do.
She’d never enjoyed going down on Paul; he’d demanded it and then complained she was lacking in skill. But exploring Byron’s body was actually fun. She could feel his responses and encouragement. She enjoyed the power as she taunted him with long strokes of her tongue and fingers. A little suction and his whole body would tense up in anticipation. Lu was almost sorry when he gently tugged her up his body.
With a sigh, she straddled his hips and began to lower herself around him. “No, I need—” His voice was raspy as he reached out toward the bedside table.
Lu bent down to kiss his lips then whispered, “I’m on the pill.”
“Thank God!” With a groan he speared himself into her. His hot latex-free skin felt so good deep inside her. He put his hands on her hips helping her find the right rhythm. He slid one hand between their bodies and stroked her until she was teetering on the edge of sanity.
“Now,” she gasped, pulling him in even deeper as her orgasm took over all sensations.
“Fuck, Lu. Yes!” The guttural yell came straight from his gut as he thrust his last strokes into her. She drooped unceremoniously onto him, her body still shuddering in aftershock. Limp as a duvet, she molded around his every muscle and bone. After she caught her breath, she propped herself on her elbows and tried to roll off him.
“Don’t go. Please stay this way.” His arms tugged her down. “I want to be in you, under you, forever.” Soft kisses to her hair punctuated his every request.
“Me too. I just didn’t want to be too heavy.”
“Not possible.” His fingers played gently in her curls. “I love you, Lu.”
“Huh?” Her head shot up bumping his chin. “Sorry.”
He rubbed his jaw and laughed. She felt the gentle undulations of his diaphragm. “I didn’t mean to shock you. We can pretend I didn’t say it.”
“No.” Lu looked into his face. “Say it again.”
“I love you.” Byron pulled her face to his for a kiss. “And no, it’s not just the mind-blowing sex talking.” His eyes searched hers.
“Um … I think I’m in love with you.” Lu grimaced. She sounded so wimpy. “I mean, I’m obsessed with you, in lust with you, and in fucking awe of you. I just, um …”
“I guess that’ll have to do.” Byron kissed her. “For now.”
“Sorry.” Lu slid off him. “I’ll be right back.” Half running to the bathroom, Lu tried to process what had just happened. The most incredible man she’d ever met was in love with her. Fucking wow! And she was pretty sure she was in love with him. So what was the problem?
After cleaning up, she looked at her face in the mirror. Reflected back, her face was pale and a little wild-eyed. She realized the problem; he wouldn’t love her when he really got to know her. He couldn’t. He spent all of his working days trying to catch and lock up people like her. Well, maybe not psychic arsonists, but the end result was the same.
Lu shook her head with frustration and quickly rubbed some toothpaste on her teeth with her finger. Even if their love was doomed, she still should enjoy it while she could. She ran her fingers through her tangled curls to tame them and then headed back to the bedroom. There was a warm light now emanating from the bedside lamp.
Byron lifted the covers for her to slide under. “Don’t go anywhere.” He strode back the way she’d come, his heels thumping on the carpeted floor. Lu grabbed the rails at the top of his big brass bed and stretched out her spine. She should go home. It was still too early in their relationship for him to wake up to her baggy eyes, sheet wrinkled face, and the cursed morning breath. Really, was there ever a good time for a lover to see that? And how come guys don’t seem to get sheet wrinkles? Maybe their skin was less impressionable.
Byron walked into the bedroom, his eyes immediately catching hers as if afraid that she might’ve disappeared. Crawling under the covers, he enveloped her in a hug. His skin was cooler and felt fresh under the warm blankets.
“Will you stay the night?”
“Do you want me to?” Oh shit, she should’ve just said no. Eyes, skin, breath, not to mention early work.
“Yeah. I’ll make you breakfast.” He curved perfectly around her body pulling her back to rest against his chest. “I’ll even let you choose which side of the bed you want.”
“Hmm, I’m used to sleeping in the middle.”
“Don’t push it,” he warned her with a grin, then followed up with a kiss. “I’ll set the alarm. What time do you need to be out?” He sat up and fiddled with the clock on the table.
“Let’s see. Up, breakfast, drive, walk of shame, shower, dress, and go. Is quarter of six too early?”
“Nope. If it helps, you can shower here and borrow some sweats for your trip home?”
“Thanks. Not that I know many of my neighbors, but …”
Byron turned to her, “Preference to side?”
“I’m good. You?”
“Yup.” He put his arm over her. “Just wake me if you get too hot or squished. Or if you get horny.” He kissed her shoulder. “Especially if you get horny.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” Lu rolled onto her side so she could cuddle her back into his chest. She felt his erection reawakening and gently nudging her backside. She pulled his hand up to her lips. “Goodnight, Byron.”
CHAPTER 13
Lu tried to wipe the crazy smile off her face as she pulled into the fire hall lot. Facing Reynolds with an “I just had the best morning sex of my life” grin was probably not in her best interests. But God, had she ever! She’d wondered if Byron had meant it about waking him, but sure enough he was already halfway there.
Walking into the hall, Lu concentrated on concealing her joy. The guys were congregating in the common area for the shift report. A quick glance revealed Reynolds leaning against the windowsill across the room. His back stiffened, then he turned to face her, a tentative smile hovering on his lips. He nodded to her and Lu returned the gesture. She wasn’t sure what they were acknowledging: truce or mutual distrust.
Marcus was preparing to give the night report. He glanced over at Lu.
“Oh good, you’re here, Lu. The computer’s been fritzed for two days now. Wanna take a look?”
“Sure.” Yeah! Something to do that wasn’t cleaning.
Marcus looked at his list and continued, “We’re almost out of coffee, TP, and Comet. Ace, can’t you get Laurel Ann to deliver?”
“You mean she’s still holdin’ out on ya, buddy?” Red stage-whispered from the table. Laughter erupted but quickly stopped at Reynolds’ look of disapproval.
Lu was surprised to see Ace actually blush at the joke. Man, he’s got it bad. Or perhaps he’s thinking about morning sex, too.
Marcus wrapped up his report and the night crew slowly left with their loud exuberance. People moped and groaned about
how long the fourteen-hour night shifts were, but then they seemed to take ages milling about before actually leaving. Probably since no one, other than their fellow workers, was on the same energy cycle as they were. Most civilians didn’t have that all wired up and nowhere to go problem at eight o’clock in the morning.
Lu grabbed a coffee, waved at Ace and Red, and ran upstairs to work on the computer. It took a few minutes to boot up and then Lu found the problem. Fixing it was another matter. She played around for a bit to see if there was another way to disable the virus. Downstairs she heard Red and Ace arguing over their fantasy baseball teams. Back in Springfield, she’d tried to get into sports to fit in with her coworkers, but it hadn’t helped. Aside from Edward, her old captain, mostly they’d ignored her. Here they seemed to appreciate her more. Now both Ace and Marcus were asking for her advice when it came to their girlfriends, and no one questioned her status as computer-goddess. Maybe you had to just keep moving until you found your place.
Damn, she hoped Susan would be able to keep Kaitlynn from blabbing the next time her stupid boyfriend gets picked up. And that Byron never discovers her fire problem. Jeez, she was on a tightrope between manically happy and scared shitless today.
At 13:00 they got a “senior down and can’t get up” call. Red and Ace had easily lifted the man off the floor into his wheelchair. The man’s wife had chattered away in some strange language, and they’d all smiled and nodded. Luckily dispatch had a translator so they knew going in what was needed. As they left, the woman pressed a small paper bag into Red’s hand. Lu wondered if it was money, which was strictly verboten, but then it turned out to be some sort of fried dough-things rolled in sugar. Ace tried one and said it wasn’t bad. He put the rest in the fridge at the hall. Probably destined to be next week’s “something died in the fridge” mystery.
Lu was sitting at the computer when her phone buzzed. Seeing the call display, she carefully checked there was no one lurking behind her. Lu smiled as she answered, “Hey there, cutie.”
“Ooops, let me get you off speaker-phone,” Byron quickly cut in.
“What?”
“Kidding. Hey there cutie, yourself.” He chuckled. “How’s your day going?”
“Better now. Actually it’s just like my old job at Compu-Shack. Here I am back doing computer diagnostics. How about you?”
“Same old. We’re trying to pick up that kid we caught at the last fire for questioning again.”
“Really?” Lu’s stomach clenched. God, what if Kaitlynn had told her boyfriend about Lu? She was so screwed.
“Shouldn’t be difficult to find him. I’m sure he can give us something—”
“Were there any traceable numbers on the hydroponics equipment at the new site?” Lu interrupted.
“I’m more interested in the kid at this point. The pop tart that bailed him out was pretty interesting, too.”
“Huh?” Lu’s brain froze then suddenly melted and let loose a tidal wave of understanding. Oh God! He meant Kaitlynn! What did he mean interesting? Had he talked to Kaitlynn?
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t bug you with my work shit. I’ll be off a little later tonight, about nine. Some stupid dog-and-pony show for a bunch of French diplomats. I think the mayor’s angling for an exchange shopping trip for his wife.”
“Dog-and-pony show?”
“You know—a company show-and-tell event.”
“Oh.”
“Can you come over tonight?”
“Are you asking me out to play?” Lu teased.
“Uh-huh.” His voice was a low growl that set her body tingling with anticipation.
“Okay. But Thursday night I’m busy,” she reminded him.
“Doing what?”
“Working. Some of us do that for a living, you know.”
“I’ll let you off this time—Hey, gotta go. See you tonight, love.” The phone went silent.
Lu stared at the receiver for a moment, a smile hovering on her lips. What a guy. With a sigh, she went back to the computer. She jumped when she heard Ace’s voice from the doorway.
“Hey, Lu.” Ace shifted from one foot to the other. “How’s the computer coming?”
“I’m getting it. Someone downloaded a virus.”
“Can you tell who?” Ace asked. “Probably that college kid. He was playing a bunch of new games when it went down.”
“That’s likely.” She turned back to look at him. “So what’s up?”
He looked at his shoes. “Laurel Ann wants to meet my friends.” His mouth turned down with the admission.
“That’s a good thing, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, but …” Ace looked at her hopefully then blurted, “Want to come to dinner some night?”
“Oh … um, sure.” Lu smiled. “That’d be fun.”
“Thanks.” Ace heaved a sigh of relief. “I didn’t want to invite any of the other guys. Who knows what they’d say?”
“Let me know when,” Lu told him.
“Tuesday,” he said.
“Tuesday is fine,” she said.
Ace edged out the door, his mission accomplished. After a couple of hours of tinkering, Lu got to the root of the virus. Man, this one had a lot of tentacles. She patiently went through each app and drive and deleted the offending intruder. It was slow, but if you missed any then next thing you knew they would start regenerating. Hackers were always getting better with their malware. Reynolds had poked his head in the computer room once then left without saying anything. Lu didn’t know whether she should feel relieved or worried. At six, Ace gave the outgoing report and she received a cheer for fixing the computer.
So this was what it was supposed to feel like, being part of a team. She was now Ace’s official friend. Her coworkers actually appreciated her efforts. And now she was driving over to spend the evening at her lover’s house. Damn, life was good. Lionel Ritchie’s “Hello” came on the radio and she turned it up.
Lu stopped as she heard herself singing, “I love you …”
Fuck. No. She couldn’t risk getting any more emotionally entangled with Byron. Eventually he would find out her fire secrets and break up with her. She needed at least the appearance of distance between Byron and her heart.
*
Two nights later, Lu was getting ready for work at Byron’s place, and trying to find her hairbrush. “You know, it’s a helluva lot easier getting ready at my place,” she said.
Byron looked up from his book. “Why?”
“I have everything there, and I know where it is.”
He shrugged. “Then move in here. There’s plenty of room, no noisy neighbors, and you can cut down on your gigolo expenses.”
Lu dropped her hairbrush as she glanced at him in surprise. He looked like he meant it. Holy shit. “I don’t know.” She kept her voice casual. “I hear that as soon as you move in, the sex goes downhill.”
“No, that’s marriage. I have to keep you interested at least until I get the ring on your finger.”
She’d spent almost every night there since her first visit, and he’d already given her a key. But it was so fast for that final step. And it would be harder to get away when he found out about her. Still, in the meantime there would be more time for sex …
*
There wasn’t much to do on night shift so Lu decided to work out for a bit in the fire hall gym. Aside from the energetic sex, she’d been bad about exercising since hooking up with Byron. She smiled as she climbed onto the elliptical. It actually felt good pushing her muscles again. And the sweat. Something about dripping in sweat made her feel especially virtuous in her endeavors. Lu felt a draft behind her and checked in the mirror. The door had opened; Reynolds stopped just inside the doorway. Was interrupting her mid-sweatfest supposed to put her at a disadvantage? She pretended not to care.
“Can I talk to you for a minute, Dawson?”
“Sure.” Lu hit the pause button.
“No, feel free to keep going. I could use a little exercise myse
lf.” Reynolds walked in, stepped onto the treadmill beside her, and punched a few buttons.
“Okay.” She eyed him warily as she pushed the start button and started exercising again.
“I want to apologize. I would say I was drunk, but I know that’s not an excuse.” He paused.
“That’s—”
“No. Please let me finish.” Reynolds took an audible breath. “I don’t know how much Morgan told you, but we go back a long time. We fought when we worked together and over the years it’s only gotten worse. I don’t like the man. He’s unethical and uses people to further his career. When I saw you with him, I overreacted. I didn’t want him to use you to score points against me again.”
“Look, I—”
“I know. Like you expressed so eloquently, your personal life is none of my business. I get it. I promise never to bring this up again. I just wanted to apologize and let you know where I was coming from. Are we okay here?”
Lu looked at Reynolds’ face and was surprised at the concern she saw there. “Yeah, we’re okay.” She teased, “You don’t have to stay and sweat if you don’t want to.”
“Thanks.” He grinned. “I hate gyms. Squash and skiing are more my style,” he admitted as he switched off the treadmill. He turned at the doorway to add, “You’re a great fire fighter, Dawson. I don’t want to lose you. I need you on my team.”
Lu choked back her thanks when she saw that he’d already left the room. Phew. From worrying about getting fired to a compliment from the boss—this was good. But it was odd how the two men could dislike each other that much. Byron at least seemed to have a grudging admiration for Reynolds. She tried to remember Ace’s take on the fight. Something about them fighting over a woman, both getting suspended, and Byron had got the girl. So where was she now? Had she just been a pawn, too?
Lu lost her rhythm on the elliptical and stumbled. No. I’m not a pawn. Byron wouldn’t go as far as to ask me to move in with him just to piss Reynolds off. And he’d have to be an incredible actor besides. Lu finished her thirty minutes on the elliptical and moved to the stationary bike for her cool-down.