by Jill Shalvis
“And…?”
“And…so am I.”
Griffin looked into her lovely eyes, which she normally kept free of emotion. They weren’t so free of emotion now, nor had they been a few minutes ago in his bedroom. “I don’t want your gratitude.”
“What is it you what?”
She’d used her fingers as a comb again, and hadn’t bothered with any of the usual feminine vices except that her lips once more smelled like strawberries. He thought he could nibble at them for a good long time and never get tired of doing so, but that was a dark and dangerous thought process so he concentrated on the truth.
She still wasn’t looking for anything more than a quick scratch to their obvious itch.
And he still couldn’t fathom having her once, and then walking away. “I just want to get this over with.”
“Then let’s do it.”
“Yeah.” He could have stepped back when she moved past him and out the door, instead he stepped closer.
She eyed him with a question, an expression that turned into something else completely when he put a hand on her hip. “Be safe today,” he murmured.
“I always am—”
“No, don’t give me that automatic response crap you give everyone else. Be safe,” he whispered again, his mouth so close to her ear he couldn’t help but let his lips touch the sensitive flesh just beneath.
Her eyes fluttered shut. “I’ll…try.”
“Yeah.” God, just the taste of her sweet skin…“Try real hard.” Insanely, he had to have more, so he dragged his mouth down over her jaw, to the very corner of her mouth.
“Griffin—” Impatient as always, she slid her fingers into his hair and lined them up better, giving him that taste of strawberry gloss and woman he’d been dying for. Heaven, wet, hot, glorious heaven—until footsteps came into the kitchen.
Lyndie pulled back first, that’s how gone he was, and he slowly blinked Rosa into focus.
The woman smiled. “Don’t you two have something else to do first?”
* * *
When Lyndie got outside, Tom, Griffin, Brody, and three other neighboring ranchers were all climbing into the Jeep to get to the fire.
Lips still humming, Lyndie looked at all of them, trying to figure out how to get in without sitting on someone’s lap. “Maybe we should take another car.”
“There’s nothing else,” Tom said. “A caravan of three other vehicles just left. Hop in, you know it’s practically around the corner now.”
Yes, but…hmm. She glanced at Griffin, who’d taken the front seat. Lyndie could tell he wasn’t thrilled about all of them risking their lives, but hell, his entire crew was risking themselves, as he knew all too well.
Then Nina sauntered out of the house wearing clothes so unlike herself, Lyndie blinked. “You actually own a pair of pants?”
“Look closer.”
Lyndie did, then scowled. “Hey, those are my clothes.”
“Yes, and thank you.” Nina danced around in a little circle wearing a pair of Lyndie’s favorite jeans and a long-sleeved chambray button-up, looking like a pinup girl playing dress up. “Good on me, yes?”
Better than on Lyndie’s much leaner body, but now wasn’t the time to lament the fact she’d never been overly feminine and wasn’t likely to get that way anytime soon.
Nina sauntered up close to the Jeep and smiled at Brody in the backseat. “Guess I’ll have to sit on someone. You don’t mind sharing your seat, do you, cowboy?” she asked.
“Are you kidding?” Brody opened his arms. “Come on in, baby.”
She hopped over the door and right into Brody’s lap as if the spot had been made for her. Brody caught her, barely, looking like he’d won the lottery as his hands got quite comfortable with his load.
“Thanks for spending time with me last night,” Nina purred in his ear.
Tom whipped around and glared, not at Nina, but right into Brody’s eyes, suddenly looking far more like a sheriff who means business than a hapless, go-lucky fly fisherman.
Brody immediately straightened, lifting his hands, managing a small smile at the woman in his lap. “Teaching you to read English was…my pleasure.”
“Then you can teach me more tonight,” she said.
Once again, Brody glanced at Tom, who was now giving him the evil eye in the rearview mirror. “You having fun, boy?” the sheriff asked.
“No. No, sir.”
“See to it that you don’t.”
When he started the engine, Brody let out a long breath, halted short when Nina leaned in and bit his ear.
“Nina—” Holding his hands at his sides, Brody closed his eyes, tilting his head to give her better access, but dutifully keeping his fingers to himself.
Lyndie rolled her eyes at Nina’s antics, then looked at the man sitting shotgun, the man who was eyeing her right back.
“You getting in?” he asked.
“Yeah,” she said, wondering where she was supposed to do that. She sure as hell wasn’t going to give everyone a show like Nina just had.
“Come on then,” he said, all business except for that glint in his eyes while he waited her out.
And waited.
“Damn it. Scoot over.”
“Seat’s pretty small.” He patted his legs. “But I’ve got plenty of room right here.”
Did he, now. Opening the door, she climbed in over him and sat, wriggling her butt until he was forced to scoot over on the seat. “See?” she said triumphantly. “We both fit.”
“Uh huh.” He’d had to lift his arm to give her room, and as a result, it draped across the back of her shoulders. Tom hit the gas, and Griffin’s other hand, braced on the dash, left her feeling surrounded by him—and just a little bit breathless.
“Funny, for two people who want some distance from each other,” he said in her ear, “We never quite manage it.”
“Yeah. Funny.” Turning away, she gasped as they left town and began their climb. She’d seen the land from the air last night, but the dark and smoke had hindered her view. She was shocked at how much had burned.
“Yeah, it’s bad. We’ve got that north and southwest end to block in again.” Tom pointed to the closest mountain peak, where Griffin had climbed that first day to get a good look at the perimeter. The flames had nearly claimed it. “We get them and things are good, right, Griffin?”
“Right.” But he eyed that peak with misgiving.
Fire headquarters had been moved far east of where it’d been because of the flames. Again, Lyndie was horrified at how much was gone. “My God…”
Griffin looked equally grim as they got out and gathered around the two water trucks.
There were three guys at each tank laying out hoses. They’d just come in from the river where they’d filled up the tanks. One of them had a GPS unit and a computer inside the truck, running on batteries to show them the map onscreen.
“EBay,” he said in heavily accented English and smiled. “Buena, si?”
“Yes, very good.” Griffin studied the map, then pulled out his palm-held and brought up the earlier map, updating it to the current fire lines. Then he dove right in, reassessing what had been done over the last week, what still needed to be done.
Lyndie watched him run the men with a natural leadership and a genuine caring about the efforts that took her mind off the hot, grinding work. She saw that it was easier for him this time, but not by much, not missing the sick look in his eyes as they walked some of the perimeter, taking in the total of five completely destroyed ranches. She saw him go pale when she translated the news that three more men had suffered smoke inhalation last night, and were being taken out of here. And she saw him continually search her out as if checking to make sure she was okay.
Each time he did, something happened to her deep inside, something she didn’t really understand, but they concentrated on the borders of the fire, which should have remained contained and hadn’t. This took a lot longer at the nearly 1,500 burning ac
res now than it had at 300 last week.
Hours went by, and Lyndie spent much of the second half of the day alone because Griffin kept moving around from small crew to small crew, making his way around the edges, looking for true containment, a state that kept eluding them.
Her arms ached, and so did her lungs. She figured she could stand in a hot shower for a week, go to sleep for two, and maybe even eat Rosa’s entire refrigerator, and not necessarily in that order. Sagging just a little, she leaned on a large rake she’d been dragging over the dead pine needles near the northwest end of the fire lines, just above three more ranches, which she kept looking at just to reassure herself they were there in one piece. She also kept searching out Griffin, for the same reason.
“He’s strong,” Brody said quietly, coming up beside her. Griffin was scaling the rock north of them, and just north of the fire, as well.
Lyndie turned to look at Brody, then back at Griffin as his long, lean body easily made the climb. “Hell, yes, he’s strong.”
“I wasn’t sure if this would make or break him.”
“If that Idaho fire didn’t break him,” she said. “I don’t think anything could.”
Far, far above them, Griffin stopped to check his GPS, then began climbing again. “And if it means anything,” she said to Brody. “I think you’re an amazing brother.”
His eyes never left Griffin. “It means a lot.”
Lyndie smiled and went back to watching Griffin. She wanted to be with him up there, even though she knew she’d have slowed him down, because her asthma was really getting to her today. Still, she wanted to be with him in a way that was new and fairly terrifying. So she purposely buried herself in the physical work so that she couldn’t possibly think. She shoveled and raked, used her inhaler, and then shoveled some more.
It worked, and much, much later, hours after their lunch break and more hard work, she looked up in surprise when two arms snaked around her from behind.
“We’re contained,” Griffin said, the victory in his voice as he twirled her around and around. “Tell them as long as the wind stays calm, we’ve got the son of a bitch.”
She started to smile, but his mouth came down on hers in a hard-earned celebratory kiss.
* * *
At dusk, they fell out of the Jeep at the Rio Vista Inn, an exhausted, filthy, hungry bunch, parting ways as everyone stumbled on their own various routes home.
Brody stood there for a moment in the pitch-dark night, as tired as everyone else, but unable to get over all they’d accomplished today. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d been part of a team like this, or the last time he’d worked so hard.
Maybe he’d never worked so hard. Ever.
Not an easy admission even to himself, surrounded as he was by people who worked that hard all the time, including a woman he’d known all of one day and couldn’t get enough of.
He looked at her now. Nina looked right back, her eyes soft, sexy. Sweet. She waited until her father went inside his house. Then, managing to look cool and pretty despite being out in the fire all day, she put a hand on Brody’s chest and leaned in. “Tonight?” she whispered.
He turned his head and watched Tom’s front door shut. It had the sound of his own coffin shutting, and yet the promise in her voice drew him in like nothing else.
“We could sit in the courtyard,” she said. “And read just like last night…”
Though they both knew that hadn’t been all they’d done last night.
“I know I can get a good job in the States if you show me just a little bit more,” she added softly.
“You underestimate yourself, you’re already reading English—”
“Are you worried I’ll keep you up too late? Work you too hard?” There was such a promise in her gaze, it took his breath. “Don’t worry, big guy. I’ll tuck you in if that’s what you want.”
“What I want,” he said, shocked to realize the truth, “is to just be with you.”
A slow smile curved her mouth, and she hugged him tight, pressing in closer, sighing when he wrapped his arms around her body. “You’re such a good man, Brody Moore. A good teacher, too.”
Closing his eyes, he held on. A good man? A good teacher? Hell, he might be educated, he might have his degree and be capable of teaching, true, but he’d never bothered. Too much work, too much time…
And if he was facing truths here, then he had to face this one—he’d been quite lazy with his life, and quite content with that. “I’m not the man you think I am.”
“No?” Her smile was softhearted. “You haven’t traveled five hundred miles to see that Griffin is okay while he fights this fire for us? You haven’t lent your own hand to the cause when you could have stayed in the village all day and let the others do it? You haven’t spent your valuable sleeping time helping me learn English?” She leaned in close, put her mouth to his ear. “You haven’t made love to me beneath the night sky and showed me a heaven I didn’t know existed?”
“Nina…” He cupped her face and looked deep into her eyes, letting out a helpless groan as he saw the emotion reflected there. “I’m different at home. I don’t work very hard, I don’t. I just skate by, and…and people let me.”
“It’s your sexy smile.”
“I mean it. Until very recently I was a shitty brother, and I wouldn’t have wanted to see you again after we—”
“Shh.” She put her fingers to his lips. “I don’t know that man you describe. I know the man I’m standing in front of, the man who is going to help me read better English, and then who is going to drive me wild for the rest of the night, because we are good together. Now.” She let out a breath, smiled. “Any questions?”
He removed her fingers from his mouth and smiled back, his chest loosening with relief, with arousal, with other things too, things that suddenly no longer scared him. “No questions.”
Her smile caught his breath, his heart. “Good.”
* * *
Too keyed up to go to sleep, Griffin left Brody outside with Nina and went in the inn. He got halfway to the kitchen when he realized there was one thing he wanted more than food.
Lyndie.
He walked back down the hallway, but no Lyndie in the front room, the courtyard, anywhere. He checked her room, which was empty of all fiery-haired women.
And also empty of wild kittens.
What had she done with Lucifer? And how, after the day they’d had, did she have the energy to be anywhere but in that bed?
Exiting again, out the back door of the inn this time, he heard her voice in the darkness and moved forward. He found her sitting by the creek, Lucifer in her lap batting at her chin with his paw.
“Cool it,” she said to the cat, who did his best to climb up her body. “Did you really think I wasn’t coming back for you?” She let out a soft laugh over the sound of the rushing water. “Would have served you right, you obnoxious little fleabag.”
“Mew.”
“Yeah, yeah.” She stroked the little back and Lucifer arched with pleasure. “Look, I’m not going to ditch you or anything, but honestly, I’m not a good bet.”
Surprised, Griffin stopped short. She thought she wasn’t a good bet? She, with the strength and bravery of ten men? How could she believe that?
Still not seeing Griffin, she plopped to her back on the creek bank, lifting the kitten up to look into his face. “Look, cat…I’m not that good for you. I’m demanding and pushy, and quite honestly, I’m not even that nice. Seriously,” she whispered, “you ought to be running for your life.”
The kitten didn’t appear concerned, and Lyndie let out a soft laugh that broke Griffin’s heart, bringing Lucifer down to her chest. “Why aren’t you running?” she asked, rubbing her cheek to his.
Griffin ached to go to her, to prove her wrong about being a bad bet.
But he wasn’t a good bet either.
So he steeled himself, not an easy task, and turned and walked away.
19
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After getting back from the fire, Tom took a quick shower at his place, then walked his own well-worn path to the inn, entering in the back door, where he stepped directly into the kitchen. As he knew she would be, Rosa was there, directing several of the local women on how to set everything out; “everything” being more dishes and platters of food than Tom could count.
“You nearly ready for all of us?” he asked, smiling when she whipped around, looking unusually harassed.
“Did you tell everyone?” she demanded.
“How come you always answer my question with one of your own?” He touched her on the very tip of her worried nose. “Everyone’ll be here, soon as they clean up.” He bent to pet Tallulah, who was sitting on his foot, waiting, quivering, for his attention. “For an impromptu fiesta, they’ll come out of the woodwork.”
“And Nina—”
“She’ll be here, too. Her obsession to get to the States has been superseded by her obsession with Griffin’s brother. She won’t miss a chance to dance with him.” Tom wasn’t naive; he knew his daughter had an abundantly healthy appetite for men. He just didn’t like to think about it, especially because this week she was hungry for the jobless, directionless American, damn it.
“Where’s Lyndie?” Rosa asked.
“The girl worked her fingers to the bone today, she has to be exhausted. She can’t have gone far.”
Rosa’s mouth pulled into a concerned frown.
“Don’t fret, you know our girl. She’ll be drawn in by the scent of food.”
That got a smile out of the woman who’d probably been cooking all day. “She deserves a little fiesta, si?”
“Impromptu or otherwise,” Tom agreed. “You do understand this is going to piss her off when she figures it out. She hates being the center of attention.”
“She does so much for us. She needs a life, and since she won’t get it for herself, we are going to help her. If she is as exhausted as you say, she won’t question all the fuss anyway.”
“She’s exhausted, yes, but smart as hell—” He broke off when Rosa took his face in her work-roughened hands. “What?”
“You know this fiesta could just as easily be for you, Tom Farrell.”