by Lynn LaFleur
“Can you drive a stick shift?”
“Yes.”
He dug the keys out of his pocket, dangled them in front of her. “Then let’s go.”
With a squeal of delight, she grabbed the keys and hurried to the driver’s side door. Chuckling, Stephen rounded the car to the passenger side and settled into the seat. He’d suspected his date with Julia would be fun, but he had the feeling it would far surpass his expectations.
The inside of Stephen’s car smelled like leather mixed with the clean scent of the woodsy soap he must use. She hadn’t noticed the scent on the way to the restaurant because she’d been so excited to drive the classic muscle car. Now, in the dark and quiet, the combination of masculine smells made desire curl in her stomach.
Julia didn’t think more than five minutes passed the entire evening without her smiling. She couldn’t remember ever enjoying a date more. There hadn’t been any of those dreaded dead moments of a first date when she had no idea what to say. Conversation had flowed easily and steadily between them, almost as if they’d known each other for years instead of only a couple of days.
She looked down at the Styrofoam container sitting on her lap. She’d had to try the bread pudding drizzled with caramel sauce, but hadn’t been able to eat more than a bite after the amazing dinner of honey citrus pork chops. Stephen had polished off all of his turtle cheesecake despite the huge slice of prime rib he’d eaten and teased her about stealing her bread pudding. She’d teased right back that he wasn’t getting one bite of her dessert.
She wondered if she should invite him in for coffee and to share the rest of her dessert. If she did that, they could easily end up in her bed. After the kiss he’d given her last night, she had no doubt he wanted her. Plus, she saw awareness in his eyes every time he looked at her.
She’d never slept with a man after one date … not only because of morals, but because it usually took her a few dates to get to know a guy before she wanted that special closeness with him. With Stephen, she’d felt that closeness almost from the moment she’d seen him at Burger King two days ago.
“Did you enjoy your meal?” he asked.
“Very much. The food was amazing.”
He glanced at the container on her lap. “Still hoarding your bread pudding, I see.”
The dim light from the dash let her see his lips quirk. His teasing helped her make the decision about whether or not to continue their date inside Dolly’s house. “Actually, I was thinking of sharing it with you. Are you interested?”
“With or without coffee?”
“With, of course.”
“Deal.”
He pulled into the driveway and parked to the side of the garage. By the time Julia gathered her purse from the floorboard, he’d opened her door and held out his hand to help her from the car.
Everything about Stephen screamed gentleman. She couldn’t help wondering why he wasn’t married or involved with anyone. The ladies of Lanville had to be nuts not to go after this guy. Either that, or he had something wrong with him that she hadn’t discovered yet.
He walked by her side to the porch. She’d left one lamp burning in the living room, so the muted light greeted them when she unlocked the door. “Sit down and I’ll start the coffee.”
“I’ll help you.”
Since they’d been so easy with each other all evening, Julia decided to continue to tease him as she led the way to the kitchen. “You’re following me because you’re afraid I’ll eat the pudding before you get any.”
“You got it.”
“I can’t believe you don’t trust me.”
“Not when it comes to sharing your dessert. You could change your mind while making the coffee.”
“I could.” She motioned toward the round table. “Go ahead and sit down. I promise I won’t change my mind about sharing.”
Julia started the coffee brewing, then transferred the pudding to a small plate for warming in the microwave. By the time she set the plate on the table, along with two forks and napkins, the scent of fresh coffee filled the air.
“Black, right?” she asked as she poured the hot brew into two mugs.
“Right.”
She carried the mugs to the table and took the chair opposite Stephen. She noticed he hadn’t picked up his fork yet. He could’ve snitched a bite of bread pudding while she poured the coffee, but didn’t.
Her admiration for him rose another notch.
She tore off a small bite with her fork, which must have given him permission to do the same. Picking up his fork, he cut into the fluffy treat. “Wow, that’s good,” he said after chewing the bite.
“Better than the turtle cheesecake?”
“Different than the turtle cheesecake.” He took another bite, licked the caramel sauce from the fork. Seeing his tongue swirl over the tines sent a jolt directly to her clit. She imagined his tongue licking her feminine folds instead of the fork….
Giving herself a mental shake, Julia sipped her coffee. She hadn’t loved Cole, but she’d cared deeply for him and still missed him. He’d been an incredible lover and she missed sex a lot. Despite what her body craved, she couldn’t see herself becoming involved with another man so quickly.
A night in bed didn’t mean a relationship.
But it did. Sex had always meant caring about the man she chose to share her bed, not simply a way to satisfy her body’s temporary needs.
“You okay?” Stephen asked after eating the last crumb of bread pudding. “You’re quiet.”
She gazed into his eyes. Her heart flipped over in her chest. Looking at Stephen gave her a great deal of pleasure because of his handsome face and hunky body, yet the attraction she felt also had a lot to do with Stephen, the man—the charming, courteous, quick-witted man.
His beard stubble and long mane of hair had given her the impression of him as a bad boy when she first saw him. She wouldn’t call him that now. He held a steady job, worked on the volunteer fire department. Everyone she’d met so far who knew Stephen had nothing but good things to say about him.
He’d shaved the stubble, letting her see the small cleft in the center of his chin. She couldn’t help but be attracted to him, yet didn’t know whether or not to act on that attraction.
She smiled to reassure him. “Sorry. I let my mind wander.”
“Someplace good, I hope.”
She thought again of his tongue between her thighs. “Yes, someplace very good.”
His eyes narrowed a bit, making her wonder if he guessed her naughty thoughts. “Tell me about it. I like good places, too.”
“Would you like more coffee?” she asked, hoping to divert him to another subject.
His eyes narrowed even more. “Why do I get the feeling you don’t want to tell me what you were thinking?”
“You’re way too suspicious, do you know that?”
“Not suspicious, just curious.” He propped his folded arms on the table and leaned forward. “So share with me. Especially if it was something dirty.”
He bobbed his eyebrows, which made Julia laugh. She had the feeling that’s exactly what he wanted her to do. “Sorry, no dirty thoughts.”
“Damn. You just burst my bubble.”
“I’m pretty sure you’ll survive.”
He gave her a devilish grin before leaning back in his chair. His relaxed position made his shoulders look even broader. “You kept steering the conversation back to me over dinner. It’s your turn to tell me all about you.”
“I thought guys like to talk about themselves.”
“I get tired of talking about myself. I want to know more about you.”
Julia glanced at his empty coffee mug. “If I’m going to bore you with my life story, you’ll need something stronger than coffee.”
“I won’t be bored, and I’ll drink whatever you’re having.”
Deciding Merlot would be appropriate for soul-baring, Julia carried their dishes to the sink and removed two wineglasses from the cabinet. Stephe
n appeared beside her as she removed the corkscrew from one of the drawers.
“I’ll open it for you.”
Accepting his offer, she handed the corkscrew to him before choosing a bottle from the wine rack at the corner of the counter. He looked at the label first, then proceeded to remove the cork from the bottle. She watched his hands as he did so, noting his sure, efficient movement.
He’d be an incredible lover.
Julia held the glasses while Stephen filled them half full. After she handed one glass to him, he took her hand. “I vote for getting comfortable.”
He led her from the kitchen to the living room. Julia curled up in a corner of the couch. Stephen sat and turned toward her, one leg resting on the couch. The lamp behind her cast a golden light across his face. The inside of a person mattered more than the outside, but Julia had to admit she liked Stephen’s outside very much.
“Why the Forest Service?” he asked after taking a sip of wine.
“I love the outdoors. I’d rather be outside than inside. Working for the Forest Service gave me that opportunity.” She tilted her head. “Why a roofing company?”
“Nuh-uh,” he said, waving one forefinger back and forth. “We’re talking about you now. Tell me about where you worked.”
“I worked out of the Eldorado office in Placerville. That’s about fifty miles east of Sacramento on Highway 50. It was a gorgeous area to work with lots of pine trees and rolling hills. I loved it.”
“What did you do?”
“I worked in the fire and fuels program. I studied how fire behavior affects fuel types and conditions.” She shrugged one shoulder. “Probably sounds boring.”
“Not at all. I want to know more.”
Julia doubted if he wanted a blow-by-blow account of what she’d done daily, so veered off in another direction. “My boss was a woman, but I worked with mostly men. They were a great bunch of guys.”
“If you liked your job and your coworkers, why did you leave?”
Telling him about Cole and the accident would put a huge damper on an evening she’d enjoyed very much. She didn’t want anything to destroy her and Stephen’s date. “Several reasons that added up to needing a change.”
An emotion flashed through his eyes, but it disappeared so quickly she couldn’t put a name to it. “No problem. I understand.” He swirled the wine in his glass, took a healthy sip. “So tell me something crazy you’ve done.”
Laughter bubbled past her lips before she could stop it. She appreciated the change of subject, but hadn’t expected him to say anything like that. “What?”
“Everyone has done something crazy, something they wish they hadn’t done. I know you have, too.” He stretched his arm along the back of the couch, his fingers barely an inch from her shoulder. “Tell me about it.”
Julia sipped her wine while she thought back over some of the things she’d done that she probably shouldn’t have. Several things popped into her mind, but one stood out among all the others.
“Okay, I’ll tell you, but remember it was for a good cause, so you can’t laugh.”
“I won’t crack a smile,” he said, his tone serious, but his eyes twinkling with humor.
A little unsure whether she should tell Stephen something so personal or not, she took another sip of wine for courage. “I … posed for a calendar.”
Stephen blinked. “Excuse me?”
“It was a fund-raiser for a wing of one of the local hospitals. A bunch of the gals in the Forest Service posed for a calendar three years ago.”
“How did you pose?”
“In a pair of really short denim cutoffs and a pink tank top.” She stopped and cleared her throat. “A wet pink tank top.”
She saw his throat work as he swallowed. “Bra or no bra?”
“No undies at all.”
He released a low whistle. His gaze briefly dipped to her breasts. “Do you still have any of those calendars?”
“I kept three or four, but they’re in storage at my mom’s.”
“Damn,” he muttered.
He sounded so disappointed, she couldn’t help but laugh. “Sorry. I guess I shouldn’t have told you without being able to show you.”
“You can model your outfit for me any time.”
He sounded like a little boy asking for a puppy for Christmas. Julia struggled not to laugh again. “You’re much too eager.”
“Well, you can’t blame a guy for trying.” He took another sip of his wine. “I guess since you told me a secret, I should tell you one, too.”
“I love secrets.”
“Do you have a computer?”
His question threw her for a moment. She didn’t understand what a computer had to do with telling her a secret. “I have a laptop in my room.”
“Great.” He set his wineglass on the coffee table, took her hand, and tugged her up from the couch. “I want to show you something online.”
Julia set down her glass, then led the way to her bedroom. She stopped by the small desk beneath the window, turned on the lamp, and gestured to her laptop. “Go for it.”
“Are you connected to the Internet?”
“Yes, Dolly has wireless.”
She stood behind his left shoulder and watched as Stephen opened the computer, started the browser, and keyed in an address. A Web site for something called Hot Shots popped up.
“What is Hot Shots?”
“It’s a magazine published by Maysen Halliday. She’s the girlfriend of our fire chief, Clay Spencer. Maysen came here last month to do an article about the fire department. She fell in love with our town, and with Clay.” He looked at her over his shoulder and grinned wickedly. “We were voted the sexiest firefighters in Texas by the magazine’s readers.”
She’d met few of the firefighters so far, but the ones she’d seen in Boot Scootin’ last night would definitely qualify for the sexiest something.
Stephen added more letters to the URL address. “She came up with the idea of putting together a calendar as a fund-raiser to help us buy our new tanker truck. It’s supposed to come out in September.”
A page full of thumbnails appeared when Stephen pressed the return key. “She put all the pictures on a hidden page on her Web site so we can see them.” He scrolled down the page, bypassing several photos of hunky men … some in full firefighter gear, some in only pants, some alone, some in groups. She got a glimpse of a few pictures of females before he stopped scrolling. “Here it is.”
He double clicked on the picture. Stephen’s face filled the screen. Julia caught herself before she moaned at how sexy he looked. Several days of stubble covered his lower face; his mussed hair looked as if he’d run his hands through it several times before someone snapped the picture. He gazed directly into the camera lens with an I’m-ready-to-ignite-your-hormones expression.
Very appropriate for a firefighter.
Stephen pressed the tab key. In the next photo, he stood with three other men next to a fire truck. They wore pants, but no shirts. Stephen casually held an ax on one shoulder, which made his biceps bulge. He had tribal-band tattoos on both biceps. His pants rode low on his hips, letting her see he had no hair on his chest, but did have an impressive set of abs and an enticing happy trail of dark hair that ran down from his navel.
The next picture showed Stephen in the foreground with other firefighters in the background while they battled a brush fire. He tabbed through several more pictures, until he reached one of another man.
“That’s it for me. I’ll leave this page open if you want to look at some of the other pictures later.”
She would definitely look at the pictures of Stephen again … over and over and over.
He turned in the chair, braced his arm along the back. “So we have something in common. We’ve both posed for calendars.” His gaze once again briefly passed over her breasts. “Although I’m sure your picture is much sexier.”
“I don’t know. The picture of you shirtless with that ax on your shoul
der is pretty sexy.”
A slow grin turned up his lips. “Yeah?”
Julia nodded. “Definitely.”
His grin slowly faded, as did the playfulness in his eyes. “I’m glad you think so,” he said softly.
He continued to stare into her eyes, making her tummy flutter. When several seconds of silence passed, Julia broke it with a simple question. “Is something wrong?”
Stephen shook his head. “I’m thinking about how much I want to kiss you.”
He hooked one forefinger beneath her chin and gently urged her to bend closer. She did, until her lips brushed his.
5
Her lips tasted of Merlot, with a hint of caramel mixed with the unique flavor of Julia. Stephen didn’t deepen the kiss or use his tongue. He kissed her softly, gently, touching her with only his lips and fingertip.
Since discovering how nice sex could be shortly after he turned sixteen, he’d indulged whenever possible and probably fucked more than his share of women in the last eleven years.
He’d never wanted any of them with the fierceness that he wanted Julia.
With his lips still pressed to hers, Stephen slowly stood. Julia gripped his shoulders, tilted her head to the side. He took that as a silent request for him to deepen their connection. He slipped his arms around her waist, splayed his hands over her back. The tip of his tongue slid over the seam of her lips. They parted, blessing him with an intimate taste of her.
The tiny taste made him crave more.
He dropped kisses on her cheek, her jaw, beneath her ear. “I want you, Julia.”
Instead of responding with words, she kissed him. Her lips were so soft, so satiny, so warm. Desire galloped through his veins. All the blood in his body headed to his dick, filling it in only moments.
Stephen wanted her naked and beneath him as soon as possible, but his first time making love with Julia should be special. Taking her hand, he led her the few steps to the bed. Pushing gently on her shoulders, he silently asked her to sit on the edge of the bed. He dropped to one knee before her and slipped off her high-heeled sandals.
Before he could rise again, she leaned over and kissed him.