Smokin' Hot

by Lynn LaFleur

  Stephen ran after Julia, but he wasn’t quick enough to catch her before she slammed the door to Dolly’s bathroom. Dolly whirled around in her chair, her eyes wide, and stared at Stephen.

  “What happened?” Dolly demanded.

  “She’s upset.”

  Stephen could hear retching from the room. He rubbed the center of his chest, which had tightened from what she’d told him about her accident. Dolly stood, walked over to the bathroom door, and knocked softly. “Julia? May I come in?”

  “No.” Julia’s voice sounded weak, but he still made out her negative response.

  “Do you need help, sweetie?”

  “No.”

  The toilet flushed, water ran, then the door slowly opened. Julia stood in the doorway, her face pale and her eyes dull. Stephen stepped forward to take her in his arms. One sharp look from her stopped him.

  “Dolly, may I borrow your car?” Julia asked, her voice still weak. “I don’t feel well.”

  “Of course.”

  “I’ll take you home, Julia,” Stephen said. He had to talk to her, in private. It couldn’t be over between them before their relationship barely started.

  Dolly looked from Julia to him and back again. He could almost see the wheels turning in her mind. “Actually, sweetie, it’s a good idea for Stephen to take you home. I have a couple of errands to run in a bit.”

  Bless you, Dolly. Stephen slipped his arm around Julia’s waist. He felt her body stiffen, but refused to release her. “I’ll take you right now. Dolly, will you stop my lunch order?”

  “Of course.” She gave Julia a quick hug. “Do you have your house key?”

  “No, I didn’t bring my purse.”

  Dolly reached into her desk drawer, removed a key ring, and pressed it into Julia’s hand. “Here’s a spare key to the back door. Feel better. I’ll see you later.”

  Stephen led Julia through the bar, glaring at the guys who looked as if they might approach or ask questions. By the time they made it to his Mustang, she walked on her own without his help. He opened the passenger door and let her slide onto the seat.

  Once behind the wheel, he glanced her way, but she had her attention focused out the side window. She swiped at her eye, as if wiping away a tear. He wanted to touch her so badly, he ached all the way through his body.

  “Julia, you said you can’t be involved with me. We’re already involved.” Unable to resist a connection, he laid his hand on her arm. “I care very much about you.”

  She moved her arm away from his hand. It hurt that she didn’t want his touch.

  He refrained from speaking the next four minutes as he drove to Dolly’s house. He felt as if he’d gone down for the third time without a life preserver anywhere around.

  Julia had come to mean so much to him in a short amount of time. He couldn’t lose her.

  He parked in the driveway behind her car. “May I come in with you?”

  She hesitated so long, he expected her to say no. Finally, she nodded.

  Stephen followed her to the back door and into the kitchen. “I need something to drink,” she said after laying the key ring on the counter. “Would you like something?”

  “Sure. Whatever you’re having.”

  He sat at the table and watched her prepare two glasses of Pepsi over ice. His stomach rumbled … not from hunger, but from dread of what she would say.

  After setting one glass in front of him, she sat on the chair opposite him. She took a healthy gulp of her drink before wrapping both hands around her glass and staring down into the dark liquid for several moments. “Were you hurt?”

  “When I went through the window?”

  She nodded.

  “No. I tucked and rolled. I may have a bruise on my hip or thigh tomorrow from how I landed, but I’m fine.”

  “Good.” She ran her hands up and down the sweating glass. “Maybe you think I’m being unfair to you,” she said softly.

  “And maybe I am.” She lifted her gaze to his. Tears swam in her cornflower-blue eyes. “But I watched Cole do things several times that could’ve taken his life. Then when the accident happened, I knew I couldn’t be with him—or anyone like him—anymore. I won’t go through that kind of pain again.”

  “Julia, I’m not Cole. I would never hurt you.”

  “Perhaps not intentionally. But I care about you, too, Stephen, and I don’t want anything to happen to you.”

  “Nothing is going to happen to me.”

  “You don’t know that!” She blinked away the tears, ran one hand through her hair. “What happens when jumping through a window into a fire or racing motorcycles isn’t enough to give you the high you crave?”

  “You make me sound as if I don’t give a shit about protecting my life. I don’t have a death wish.”

  “I didn’t say you do.”

  “Didn’t you?” A bit of anger crept into his apprehension at what he perceived as her demanding something from him she shouldn’t. “You said I’m going to hurt myself if I don’t stop what you consider my dangerous ways. You’re going to break up with me if I don’t change.”

  Tears filled her eyes again. “Yes, I am,” she said in a choked whisper.

  “You aren’t being fair, Julia. We met four days ago. Yes, I care about you, but you can’t ask me to change who I am after only four days. You have to give us more time to get to know each other.”

  “Don’t you see, Stephen? I can’t give us any more time unless you do change.”

  He stared at her as his heart crumbled. He’d finally met the woman who could be “the one” and she wouldn’t even give them a chance because of something that happened to her in a previous relationship. Part of him understood her fear, yet a bigger part of him knew she had no right to try to change him. “I guess we have nothing else to talk about.”

  “I guess we don’t.”

  Stephen continued to look at her, memorizing every one of her features for the upcoming nights when he’d ache for her. He’d still see her around town. A person couldn’t help bumping into people he knew in a town as small as Lanville. He’d simply have to turn the other way to avoid her and wanting something that would never be.

  He slowly pushed back his chair and stood. “Good-bye, Julia.”

  Without a backward glance, Stephen crossed the floor and walked out the back door.

  10

  Julia stopped running the vacuum in the library when the young woman from the Lanville Journal brought in this week’s edition. She wanted to see the issue out of curiosity for the kind of newspaper Lanville produced, but also to see if Stephen appeared on the front page.

  Not only did the photo of Stephen’s rescue make the front page of the newspaper, it took up almost the entire area above the fold with the headline, DARING RESCUE SAVES WOMAN. Julia stared at it as her heart turned over in her chest. She couldn’t see his face clearly because of the faceplate he wore, but she knew it was Stephen who carried the elderly woman close to his chest.

  A hero, just like Manny had said.

  She carefully replaced the newspaper on the stack at the checkin counter. These issues were for The Inn’s guests, so she didn’t feel right about taking one. She’d buy one on her way home tonight. Although she and Stephen no longer dated, she wanted to keep his picture. She only had the one picture of him that she’d snapped with her cell phone. This would make two.

  Two pictures to remind her of their time together … a time she’d cut short out of fear, both for him and herself.

  She missed him. Ever since he’d walked out of Dolly’s kitchen three days ago, he’d rarely left her thoughts. She didn’t think it possible to care so deeply about someone after a few days of knowing him, but she did. What she felt for Stephen could easily turn into love with a little nurturing.

  She’d put an end to the possibility before it got the chance to start.

  A prickling along the back of her neck had her straightening. Slowly, she turned her head to the right. Stephen stood three
feet behind her.

  Her heart took off at a gallop. He looked amazing in his brown McGettis Roofing polo shirt and faded jeans. Three days’ worth of stubble covered his cheeks and chin. He carried a clipboard in his hand, the same one she’d seen him with at Dolly’s house. That must mean he had work in the area.

  She couldn’t tell a thing from his blank expression. Julia had to swallow before she could speak. “Hi.”

  “Alaina called and asked me to stop by this afternoon.”

  Straight to the point and all business. Julia didn’t know why she expected him to be any different after the way she’d demanded he change his life for her after knowing each other only four days. “She isn’t here. She went to the post office, but I expect her back soon.”

  “Okay if I wait for her?”

  “Sure.” She motioned toward the room off the foyer. “You can wait in the library.”

  He nodded once to acknowledge her comment, then turned and walked away.

  Just like Sunday.

  Julia pressed a hand to the center of her chest. Her throat tightened, tears formed in her eyes. She should follow Stephen into the library, tell him she didn’t mean to hurt him, tell him she wanted him in her life. Cowardice and fear kept her from doing it.

  “You should talk to him, Julia,” Kelcey said from behind her.

  Julia turned to see her boss standing at the checkin counter, her eyes full of sympathy.

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to eavesdrop, but I was in the next room when Stephen came in.”

  Julia blinked to hold back tears. “You know about what happened between us?”

  Kelcey nodded. “There aren’t many secrets in a small town.” She rounded the counter, walked up to Julia. “Something happened to me when I was young that made me leery of ever trusting a man, especially a man like Dax Coleman.” She released a small laugh. “He was such a tomcat, flitting from woman to woman without any intention of settling down. I couldn’t trust a man like that.”

  She took Julia’s hands, gently squeezed them. “But I did trust him and now I’m the happiest I’ve ever been in my life. He still flirts outrageously. That’s part of him. He doesn’t know how to be any other way. But I know it’s all for play and in the evening, he comes home to me and only me. I have no doubt about that.” She squeezed Julia’s hands again. “Every moment in his arms is worth the pain I went through in my past. I can’t imagine my life without him.”

  Although her time with Stephen had been brief, Julia could honestly say she’d been very happy with him, too. That didn’t stop her fear. “He does such dangerous things. How can I live with the thought that I could lose him at any time?”

  “Julia, none of us are guaranteed a long life. Stephen is more likely to fall off a roof while doing his regular job than wreck his motorcycle.”

  She couldn’t help sputtering out a humorless laugh. “Great. Now I’ll worry about him roofing, too.”

  Kelcey grinned, then turned serious again. “He’s on a roof almost every day. He races his motorcycle once a month. Figure out the odds and you’ll see I’m right.”

  Kelcey’s words gave Julia a lot to think about. Nothing would be settled, though, until she talked to Stephen. “Could I take my break now and talk to him?”

  “Of course. Take all the time you need.”

  Julia turned and walked toward the library. As she got closer to the room, she heard voices. She stepped through the doorway to see Stephen speaking with Alaina. She must have come in the back door since Julia hadn’t seen her come in the front.

  The owner of The Inn smiled at her. “Are we in your way, Julia? We can go back to the office to talk.”

  “No, that’s okay. I’m finished in here.” She shifted her attention to Stephen. He still wore that blank expression. “Could I talk to you when you’re finished with Alaina?”

  “I have another appointment.”

  “Oh.” It hurt that he didn’t want to talk to her, but his refusal didn’t surprise her.

  “I could come by Dolly’s house after work.”

  All the sadness drained out of her body, to be replaced with hope. “That would be great. Thanks.”

  Julia left Alaina and Stephen alone to conduct their business. She didn’t know how the evening would end, but she prayed she and Stephen could work out their differences and be together.

  Stephen wiped his palms on his thighs before he rang the doorbell to Dolly’s house. He hadn’t decided yet if he was an optimist or a fool to think he and Julia could start over.

  She answered the door wearing a V-necked, pale blue T-shirt and denim shorts. His gaze swept down her legs to her bare feet. Pink nail polish covered her toenails.

  He wanted to nibble on every toe.

  “Hi,” she said softly. She opened the door wider. “Come in.”

  The scent of cheese and spices wafted toward him when he stepped over the threshold. “Something smells good.”

  “Dolly made a Mexican chicken casserole before she left.” She shut the door behind him. “It’s in the oven.”

  “Dolly isn’t here?”

  Julia shook her head. “She went out to dinner with friends. She told me she wouldn’t be home until late.”

  So they had the house to themselves. They could talk as long as necessary without interruption. Again, emotions battled inside Stephen … a mixture of hope and apprehension.

  “I need to check on the casserole,” Julia said. “Be right back.”

  Stephen waited five seconds before he followed Julia to the kitchen. He watched her open the oven door, bend over to peer at the bubbling casserole. Her shorts tightened across her ass, making him long to peel them off to get to the sleek flesh they hid.

  Before they made love again—if they made love again—they had to talk first, settle things between them.

  Taking a chance she’d want his touch, he walked up behind her as she shut the oven door and slipped his arms around her waist. “I’ve missed you,” he whispered into her ear.

  She laid her hands over the top of his. “I’ve missed you, too.”

  “Can we start over?”

  Turning in his arms, she touched his chest and looked up at him with pleading eyes. “Can we?”

  “I’m willing to try if you are.”

  She ran her hands up his chest, over his shoulders. “I’m still scared.”

  “I’ve been thinking about that a lot the last three days. It’s natural to be afraid of something you don’t know. Maybe you wouldn’t be so scared if you went with me and experienced the things I do.”

  Her eyes widened in disbelief. “You mean race motorcycles?”

  “Not race them, but you could watch and see all the precautions we take. We aren’t reckless, Julia. None of us want to get hurt, or hurt anyone else in the race. And maybe eventually you can find the courage to ride with me. I promise no zipping in and out of traffic.”

  “Maybe.”

  He slid his hands up and down her back. “I’m going white-water rafting in Colorado in July. Go with me.”

  “I’ve never done anything like that.”

  “You can participate or just watch. It’s up to you.”

  “I have a brand-new job, Stephen. I don’t know if I could get any time off this quickly.”

  “Okay. I understand that.” He slid his hands down to her hips. “What do you think about skydiving?”

  “That people are insane to jump out of a perfectly good airplane with nothing but some cloth to keep them from splattering all over the ground.”

  Stephen threw back his head and laughed out loud. “Don’t hold back, darlin’. Tell me how you really feel.”

  “You do that, too?”

  He nodded. “I’m going this weekend. Come with me.”

  She covered her face with her hands. “Arrrggghhh! You aren’t making this easy.”

  “Probably not.” Clasping her wrists, he pulled her hands away from her face. “I live an active lifestyle, Julia. That doesn’t make
me an adrenaline junky. It makes me … adventurous.” He kissed both her palms. “I’m willing to compromise. I can give up some of the more … physical things I do, but you have to participate or at least watch before I give up anything. Deal?”

  Her gaze traveled all over his face. Stephen braced himself for her refusal. Then a soft smile turned up her lips. “Deal.”

  He kissed her, gently, sweetly. Soon, he needed more than gentle and sweet. He needed her naked beneath him as fast as possible. The way she clung to his neck as they kissed proved she had a similar thought.

  He moved his lips to the sensitive area beneath her ear. “How long does that casserole have to cook?”

  She sighed when he nipped the pulse in her neck. “About twenty minutes.”

  “Plenty of time for a quickie.”

  Stephen bent over and pulled her across his shoulder. Julia squealed. “What are you doing!”

  “Demonstrating a proper fireman’s hold.”

  Laughing, she gripped his belt as he started toward her bedroom. “If you drop me, you’re in big trouble.”

  “I have no intention of dropping you, darlin’. I’m going to hold on to you for a long, long time.”

  Smolder

  1

  Marcus Holt leaned on the fender of his pickup and took a long pull from his can of beer. The sun had set a few minutes ago, which meant the fireworks show would start soon.

  He wouldn’t be here if the Fourth of July barbecue and fireworks hadn’t been sponsored by the Lanville Volunteer Fire Department. He’d avoided the downtown parade this morning, not interested in being around so many people, but couldn’t avoid something in which he played such a huge part. As one of the three fire department captains, he felt he had to at least make an appearance. He planned to escape as soon as the show ended.

  Some of his firemen buddies apparently had other ideas.

  Nick Fallon and Stephen McGettis wandered over to him and took their places on either side of him. Beer cans in hand, they leaned against his pickup and crossed their ankles.

  “Nice night,” Nick said.