He cupped her jaw and tilted her face for the perfect angle, moving his lips against hers, savoring the moment, and content to slowly learn the taste and feel of the woman whose professional career had made her nearly a legend despite her young age. Under thirty, if he had to guess, Kat MacKay could sniff out an arsonist where nobody else could. She could walk onto the site of a fire and go almost immediately to the point of ignition. She found evidence where men with five times her experience found none. Some of the more jealous guys called her a witch. Whatever she was, she could kiss.
Reaching up to tangle her fingers in his hair, she thrust her breasts out, and his breath stuttered. He ran his hand up and down her back, stopping before he reached the rounded bottom, forcing himself not to cup her cheeks and fit her tight against his straining cock. She hadn’t even agreed to a date, although the kiss did seem to indicate some agreement on that level.
Her lips parted under his urging, admitting his questing tongue. Hers met it, engaging in a complicated dance as if they’d done this a thousand times before. No first-time awkwardness here at all. Would there be the first time they…? Keep it in your pants, Dante. Kat MacKay is not the kind of girl to jump in bed with a guy the first time she meets him. If she were, she’d have established that rep long ago. Guys were guys and never stopped talking.
And he sure didn’t want to get on the bad side of Mac MacKay. The man was a legend. Kat was his granddaughter.
Strange how even that thought did not cool his lust to sensible proportions. Kat’s lithe body in his arms, the taste of her, her fingers tugging at his hair, and her own locks flying around them made “sensible” a foreign term.
Tilting her head a little more, he delved deeper, wanting to possess her, to show her he wanted more than a quick kiss or a quick anything. He wanted to get beyond Kat, the amazing fire investigator and good kisser. To get to know her on every level. To talk to her.
They broke apart, panting, and he grinned at her. “Hell, what kind of a date is it when I didn’t even buy you dinner?”
“We’re eating at my grandparents, remember?”
“Home to meet the family. Pushy much?”
“You know my family, apparently. It’s me you just met.”
They stared at one another for a long moment, giving him a chance to take in her ice-blue eyes and short, straight nose, full lips slightly swollen now. Dark brows winged over her eyes, giving her face an intensity he supposed people might find intimidating. She was not pretty, but she was beautiful. All the parts of her face came together to create a picture so dramatic, so lovely, it stole his words.
“Dante? You with me?” She patted his cheek, and he grabbed her hand and kissed it. “I guess you are. But did you hear what I said?”
“No,” he said, focused on the soft skin under his lips, the faint lavender scent of, he supposed, hand lotion enticing and clean. “I didn’t.”
She drew her hand back, a furrow on her brow that soon smoothed away. “I said we should probably get back before Grandma’s dinner is ruined.”
“Yeah.” A little scar just to the outside of her left eye made him wonder what had happened to leave it there, and he lifted his fingers to it. “You were hurt.” He hated that idea. “Who did that to you?” Maybe he could kill them.
“What? Oh the scar. Yeah, we were playing pirates one day, my brother and sister and I, and we had these sticks for swords. You know, growing up in the country, we were big on imagination. So Aiden and I were crossing swords and shouting things at each other, and then he tripped.”
“Your brother nearly stabbed you in the eye.”
“Oh, no he didn’t. He tripped and fell and bumped into Brij, and she slammed into me.” The corner of her lip quirked, but he could see no humor in such a dangerous situation.
“And stabbed you in the eye. Those sticks were too sharp for kids to be jabbing at each other with. Wasn’t someone watching you? Your parents? Where was your mother?”
All happiness left her face, and her lower lip trembled. What had he done?
“Dead. They died in a fire when we were little. A suspicious fire. Granddad and Grandma raised the three of us. I thought everyone knew that.”
“I’m so sorry.” He reached for her, but she took a step back. “I’m not from around here, and I just never heard.” Also, I’m too stupid to live. “Suspicious? Did someone set it, then?”
“The investigator at the time couldn’t say for sure, but there were a lot of reasons to think it wasn’t just an accident. It’s a big part of why I do what I do. And Brij. And Aiden. We never want another little kid to go through what we did. At least not without resolution. Granddad and Grandma have been wonderful. They gave us the nicest childhood we could have asked for, but I missed Mom and Dad.
“And I wanted whoever killed them caught. I still do.”
This time, when he reached for her, she let him tuck her into his side and walk her toward the low wall. They sat side by side and watched more lights winking on down below. For a lightly populated area, Cedar Valley had a fair number of farmhouses, vineyards, and other buildings. And, of course, the town. Way off in the distance, he could see a glow that must be Sacramento. Farther out, the lights grew thinner with darkness between them for wide spaces. Lines of headlights and taillights showed the river of cars traveling the highway system.
“It looks so peaceful down there, doesn’t it? Like everyone is going about their business with no worries whatsoever.” She rested a hand on his thigh, entirely too close to his dick for his self-control, but she didn’t move it, didn’t do anything more erotic than be there. Which brought his temporarily tamped-down lust roaring back to life.
“Yes, but of course that’s an illusion. Everyone has their worries. Health, money, cheating spouses.” He put his arm on her shoulders, and she rested her head on his chest. “Life has its own special challenges for each of us. Besides the past, is there something weighing on you now?”
She rubbed her cheek on his shirt. “Just a work thing.”
“Want to talk about it?”
“Not right now. Not on a date.”
Yes!
“Then what shall we talk about on our date?”
She let out a long, soft sigh. “I think people are supposed to get to know one another on a first date. Tell me about you. Where are you from?”
Ah, the talk. This he could do. Settling in, he began his story. “I grew up in Portland. Well, a town a little outside of it. I knew every kid in my class and every other one at least by name and face.”
“Small school.”
“Small town. My dad got transferred to San Antonio by his company when I was in high school.”
“I bet that was culture shock.” The wind let up a bit and the calm—colored by desire—increased. He felt like he could sit up there with Kat forever and just watch the lights twinkle until the sun rose behind them, but it would be pretty cold eventually. Still, nice for the moment.
“It was, but I liked it, too. You know how some kids are from smallish towns.”
She giggled. “Yeah. We were convinced there was nothing to do, nothing to see, and we’d die of boredom.”
“Exactly. I hated the idea of leaving my friends but was so ready to see the big world.”
“And was San Antonio a thrill a minute?”
“No.” He chuckled. “It is its own kind of small town, in a way, which was probably good. I wasn’t ready for more than that. I’d always played sports, especially basketball, and that gave me a way to make friends and kept me from being too overwhelmed.”
“I don’t think I’d have done as well. Except when I went away to college, I’ve always lived in the same area. And my family, as you probably know, is everywhere around here.”
“And in Portland. I think I went to school with a couple of your cousins.”
“You really are into my family. We aren’t stalking you, though, honest.”
He chuckled and stroked a whipping strand of her hair
back from her face. “I never thought you were. But the MacKays are quite a group.”
“So did you stay in San Antonio?”
“Until I graduated from high school. I studied Fire Science in Dallas.”
“Finally, the big city. I went to Cal State Los Angeles for my Fire Protection Administration and Tech degree. LA was a little out of my comfort zone, but their program is the best for what I wanted to do.”
“But you were glad to get back after?”
“Immensely.” The wind picked up again, and she gave a little shiver.
“Want to get back in the truck?”
“Not yet. Look at the stars.”
“Wow.” How erudite. While they’d been talking, the sky had filled with them, like millions, billions of diamonds. The cold seemed to intensify their movement, and for a moment he felt like they sat on the edge of the Earth, ready to fall off into space. Her hand on his thigh could have been a burning brand, even in the chill, but he didn’t want to move it. “Did you find out you were born to be a city guy?”
“No. I was honored to be accepted to Dallas Fire, but I missed my friends in Portland and San Antonio. I stayed in touch and headed back to both places to visit when I could. That’s how I got the job I have now, in fact, after I injured my back and had to leave the company.”
“Delivering apparatus?”
“Yep. My best buddy since kindergarten is a genius in the field. His dad actually owned the firm before him, but when he retired, Andy took over Engles’ and has made some incredible advances in the field. He does trucks like this baby, but also has some military contracts, very hush hush.”
“Wow. I’d love to tour his plant one day.” The yearning in her voice made him smile. Nobody could deny they had a lot in common. “Do you think you could get me in?”
“Sure, a lot of the plant is not classified. Maybe come up and spend the weekend, and I can show you around Portland?”
“Maybe, I—”
“I could get you a hotel room if you don’t want to stay at my place. It’s kind of small and not fancy.”
“I don’t care about fancy.” She turned away from the panoply below them to face him. “I only want to see two things in Portland.”
“The plant and…”
“You.”
Chapter Three
Dante lifted her and stepped over the low wall, striding back to the truck. Kat flung her arms around his neck and held on. “I don’t think you should be doing this,” she protested. “I’m too heavy.”
“You weigh nothing.” The gravel crunched under his feet, and, over his shoulder, a shooting star flashed in the sky. “Open the door for me.”
Unable to think of the very important reason he shouldn’t be carrying her when she’d never experienced anything one tenth as romantic, Kat did as he asked, and the cab flooded with light, but it was the rear door he’d stopped by, and she found herself deposited inside the roomy back section of the cab. Two rows of seats faced one another with a wide expanse of floor in between. In one corner lay a rolled sleeping bag, inflated air mattress, pillow, and a duffel bag.
She moved deeper inside, sitting in one of the captain’s chairs, and he joined her, pulling the door closed behind him. The lights went out at the same time. “Pretty dark in here,” she said, no longer the confident woman who’d spent a good half hour sitting in the cold with her bare hand exposed to the wind on his thigh, hoping he’d get the message. She blew on her frozen fingers.
It had been too long since she’d been with a man, and she’d never wanted one like she did Dante. His kisses had awakened longings she’d put aside. Her nipples peaked against her shirt as she sat with an uncrossable space between her and the man she’d seduced. At least she thought she had. Her experience was so limited, she wasn’t sure she’d accomplished it. Maybe he just wanted to take a nap or get out of the wind.
Out of the dimness, a hand closed on her wrist. “Come down here, Kat. This is probably better accommodations than I could offer you at home and, if you are willing, I would like to give you a taste of what a weekend in Portland with me would be like.”
Oh. My. God. Message received.
“Will there be a tour?” Her voice cracked under the strain as he drew her to the floor where he’d spread his sleeping bag on the air mattress. “I am sure I paid for the tour.”
“Baby, I’ll be the one taking the tour this time. Of every inch of your beautiful body.”
She had no response, but one didn’t seem necessary as he slipped her jacket off her shoulders and laid it to the side somewhere. She wore a simple button-down shirt, and he took his time slipping each disc free until he’d exposed her bra and bent to press a kiss to the top of each breast where the demi-bra exposed their curves. She was so happy that despite her unisex profession, she wore pretty underthings, not that he could see them well.
“I’d turn the light on so I could see what I’m doing, but then so could any passing motorist, so I’ll have to do this mostly by touch.” He eased her shirt off and flipped the front clasp of her bra with such ease, she had no doubt he could do fine without light. “Stand up a minute.”
Kat braced a hand on his shoulder while he unlaced and eased off the heavy steel-toe work boots required when she was on site. She sighed in relief as the weight lifted, but what a shame he wasn’t slipping stilettoes from her feet. She suppressed a giggle at the impractical idea of wearing them to work.
Then tried to push the crowd of thoughts that brought up back where they belonged. She’d be damned if she’d waste an evening in the best fire truck ever with the sexiest man ever born working.
The puzzle would be there in the morning.
“Composite, baby,” he murmured, flexing her foot. “It’s the modern way. So much lighter.”
“I’ve been meaning to check them out,” she replied, bemused by having this conversation when she wanted to be naked and under him ASAP. “There never seems to be time.”
“Good equipment…there’s always time for that.” He rolled off a sock and massaged her foot, easing the tightness in her toes and arch that always followed a day in the stiff, unyielding shoes. “Feel good?”
She moaned.
“Good.” Removing her other sock, he gave her other foot the same treatment, and she was momentarily glad she’d worn nice new socks today even if he couldn’t see them. Made a girl feel sexy to wear clean white cotton…well, not sexy but at least not yuck.
He skated his palms up her calves and thighs and down again. A modern woman, she was used to give and take but it didn’t have to be simultaneous, and, after tromping all over the Cobb farm looking for clues, her calves were in knots. And the strong hands she’d admired driving earlier now worked out every bit of tension, every ache until her legs were as relaxed as the rest of her was tense in anticipation.
On the final trip up, he paused a moment at the apex of her thighs before opening the button on her slacks and tugging the zipper down. Her tailored pants fell down her legs, and she stepped out of them then had a moment’s panic at standing in front of a man she’d just met, clad in only a tiny lace thong, before he was settling her on the sleeping bag and kneeling beside her. The darkness helped.
“Aren’t you going to undress, too?” she asked, licking her dry lips. Kat MacKay had never slept with a guy on the first date. She’d never wanted to before, and since most of the men she met were firefighters or others she met via work, she always thought twice before letting anything happen, which usually resulted in deciding not to sleep with them.
“Once I do, things are going to move fast, I’m afraid. And I want to get to know you better.”
“Me or my body.”
“Yes, on both counts.”
She lay on her back in the dimness. Now that her eyes had adjusted, she could see better. Outside and above them, the sky was aglow with the millions, billions of stars on this moonless night. Some of their light made its way inside the cab, giving enough illumination for her to m
ake out Dante’s silhouette looming over her and, at the right angle, his face. And likely for him to get a fairly good, black-and-white view of her as well.
“Dante, do you pick up women at every firehouse where you stop?” She hated her plaintive tone, but she wanted this to be special to him as well as her.
“First time, Kat.” He lifted the end of her now very messy braid and eased the elastic off then untwined the strands until they lay free around her like a cape.
“Oh my god, that feels better. You know just what to do to take the stress away. Some days, I want to just cut it off and make life easy.”
He stroked her locks and frowned down at her. “What a waste that would be. It’s like silk even after being out in the wind.” Twining a strand around his finger, he tugged on it. “Promise you’ll keep it long.”
“Forever?” Awful early for hairstyle requests, wasn’t it?
“Sure.”
He was so serious, not even cracking a smile, as far as she could see. “What about when I’m old and gray and use a walker?”
“Yes, even then.”
“You’re a nut.” But she liked it. “I never feel very feminine, clomping around in boots with a tablet taking notes, usually in a hard hat and safety vest. I guess my hair, even though I have to plait it to keep it out of the way, is my one vanity. So while I am not acknowledging I’d decide on my hair for the rest of my life based on a request from a total stranger, I’ll probably keep it long. I cut it shoulder length once and it was completely uncontrollable anyway.”
“I’ll just pretend it was because I asked.”
She rolled her eyes. “Sure thing. Now take off your shirt?”
He’d removed his jacket when he got into the truck, but nothing else so far.
“Okay.” Under her hungry gaze, he crossed his arms, grasped the hem of his shirt, and drew it up, revealing inch by inch of toned male body. His jeans hung at his hips, revealing the trail of hair leading into the waistband below six-pack abs as nice as she’d ever seen. His waist had not an ounce of fat, and his chest was broad with muscles her fingers ached to touch. The arms he brought down were masculine beauty to the nth degree. No wonder he’d been able to carry her.
Dallas Fire & Rescue: Wheels on Fire (Kindle Worlds Novella) (MacKay Destiny Book 4) Page 3