Ignite on Contact: Brotherhood By Fire

by Jaci Burton

  Honestly, if she got any hotter around him, she would spontaneously combust. Something was going to have to be done about this. And she knew exactly what that something was.

  But first, she was going to feed him dinner, because the man had worked hard today.

  He dried his hands on a paper towel and turned to face her. “Okay, let’s go check out your grandpa’s bathroom.”

  She batted her lashes at him. “I thought you’d never ask.”

  He laughed.

  They went into the bathroom, and he turned on the shower, demonstrating the rainfall shower and the handheld.

  “Grandpa’s going to love that so much.”

  “It’ll give him a little more freedom. He won’t have to be monitored so much when he’s in here.”

  “He’ll love that even more. Thanks.”

  “No problem. Should we try the new kitchen lights?”

  “Absolutely.”

  They went into the kitchen. Rafe hit the light switch, and her normally dull and dim kitchen was bathed in brilliant LED lights. She blinked a few times, amazed by how bright it was in the room.

  “Wow. This is magnificent. I’ll actually be able to see what I’m cooking now.”

  He grinned. “Yeah, it’s a huge improvement, isn’t it?”

  She couldn’t get over the difference changing out the lighting had made. She went over to him and wrapped her arms around him, feeling all that muscle she’d previously ogled. “Thank you.”

  He put his arms around her, tugging her closer. “You’re welcome.”

  He leaned in, pressing his nose against her neck. She shivered at the contact.

  “You showered.”

  “Mm-hmm.”

  “You smell good, Carmen.”

  Was it her imagination, or did his lips brush her neck? Every inch of her skin reacted with goose bumps. Her nipples hardened, and her sex quivered in response.

  She could stay like this or push for more. But she needed to reward the guy for a hard day’s work, so she pulled back. “I bet you’re hungry.”

  The hunger she saw in his eyes had nothing to do with food, making the temptation to stay in his arms even more difficult.

  But he took a step back, too. “I could eat.”

  “Great. I’ll get the grill started.”

  “I’ll do that.”

  “I think you’ve done enough. How about you grab yourself a beer and go put your feet up.”

  “What I need is a shower. But are you sure you don’t want me to grill?”

  She tilted her head. “I’m perfectly capable of doing it.”

  “Okay. I’ll be right back.”

  “Sure.”

  He left the house.

  That could have gone in such a different direction. She could have tilted her head back and stayed right where she was, and she knew Rafe would have kissed her.

  She’d wanted him to kiss her. So why had she put a stop to it? Because she thought he needed a meal?

  Bullshit, Carmen. You’re the one who’s hesitating. You had a hot guy in your arms, and you didn’t pull the trigger. You need to go for it.

  Deciding hindsight was getting her nowhere other than supremely frustrated, she took the meat out of the fridge and laid it on the counter, started rice cooking in her Instant Pot, then went outside and fired up the gas grill.

  Fortunately, the steak wouldn’t take long to cook, and she didn’t have to linger to watch it, which was a good thing, because the humidity level was off the charts today. By the time she was ready to go outside and pull it off the grill, Rafe was back, looking amazing in black-and-white shorts and a white sleeveless shirt.

  “You’re just in time,” she said, handing him a plate. “You can go fetch the steak while I do the veggies.”

  “You got it,” he said, heading out back.

  She grilled the onions and peppers until they were sizzling, then warmed the tortillas and quickly fluffed the rice before pouring it into a bowl. She took out the salsa and guac she’d made earlier.

  “Where do you want this?” Rafe asked as he closed the slider.

  “On the counter so I can slice it.”

  After slicing the flank steak into strips, she brought over the rice, and Rafe helped her set the table and carry the rest of the stuff over. He held her chair out for her, making her smile.

  “Thanks.”

  “Thank you for making me dinner. You didn’t have to do that.”

  She pointed at the kitchen. “You didn’t have to brighten my kitchen or do any of the other things you did. The new faucet works great, too, by the way. Thanks for everything you did today.”

  “It was my pleasure. Thanks for letting me tag along.”

  She fixed herself a tortilla and rolled it up, then took a bite, not realizing how hungry she was. They’d both worked hard today. But her house was clean, laundry was done, and with Rafe’s help, she’d accomplished a lot more than even she’d intended.

  “These are great, Carmen.”

  She lifted her head and smiled at the compliment. “I’m glad you like them.”

  “Who taught you to cook?”

  “My mom died when I was ten, and my dad split not too long after. Never knew what happened to him. So I went to live with my grandparents. I used to cook a lot with my mom before she died. After that, I hung out in the kitchen with my abuela. Unfortunately, my grandmother passed away when I was twenty.”

  He laid his hand over hers. “That’s rough, losing both your mom and your abuela. I’m sorry.”

  The warmth of his touch was comforting. Even if it had been years, she still missed her mom and her abuela. “Thanks. It was. But I had my grandpa, and he was there for me when I needed him most.”

  “Which is why you’ve been there for him.”

  “Yes.”

  “He’s a great guy.”

  She smiled. “Always has been. He was my lifesaver after my abuela died. She and I had grown so close after my mom passed. She got me through my teen years and pushed me to enter nursing school. She believed in me when I didn’t believe in myself. I told her everything that was going on in my life. All my hopes and dreams and heartbreaks. So when she died, I was lost. Grandpa stepped in and picked up where she left off. He offered his ear and his heart, and I leaned on him in ways I could never repay.”

  “But you’re doing that now, being there for him like he was for you.”

  “True. It’s not a hardship, though.”

  “I’m sure it’s not. That’s what family is for. Still, I know it’s been a rough few years for both of you.”

  She shrugged. “Life’s hard sometimes. You know all about that. You didn’t have the easiest life, either.”

  He scooped some rice onto his fork. “Earlier part of my life sucked, that’s for sure. I had shitty parents. It was easier for me to live on the streets than live in fear of getting shot during a drug deal gone bad.”

  She leaned back in her chair, shocked at how matter-of-fact he’d made it sound, when she knew it had been anything but. “Good God, Rafe. I had no idea. Did you run away? Is that how you ended up homeless?”

  He nodded. “It got dicey at the house. People coming and going all hours. I never slept. My mom would disappear for weeks to head down to Mexico to visit family, or so she said. My old man mostly forgot he even had a kid, so I was on the streets anyway. And there were always shootings in the neighborhood. I was scared all the time. I ran into Jackson one night, and he took care of me. Then I just didn’t go home.”

  “And they never came looking for you?”

  He laughed. “They were happy to be rid of me. One less mouth to feed, one less thing to worry about. I stopped by the house not long after, but they’d split. They were always relocating to avoid the cops. I’m sure they were happy to be rid of me.”

  She reached across the table and squeezed his hand. “They were horrible people, and you were the one lucky to be rid of them.”

  “Yup.”

  “But
then being homeless on top of the hell you lived in. That couldn’t have been easy.”

  He swallowed and took a sip of beer. “Surprisingly, the homeless part wasn’t as bad as the hell I came from. And then it got a lot better. The Donovans are amazing.” He smiled as he thought of his real mom and dad.

  She cast a look of concern at him. “No one comes through something like that unscathed.”

  The last thing he wanted was to talk about his past, especially his birth parents. “I imagine with what happened to you, you didn’t, either.”

  She leaned back. “I didn’t. I got married to the wrong guy at twenty-one and got divorced at twenty-three.”

  “So what made you choose him? The wrong guy?”

  “He seemed like the right guy at the time. And I guess I was tied up in grief over losing Abuela, and my heart and my mind were mixed up. Grandpa was mourning as well, doing the best he could with me, you know? But I was in my last year of nursing school, and the grind was tough. I had gone out with my girlfriends on Friday night, and I met Tod at a dance club. He and his friends actually got rid of some guys who were bothering us, so we asked them to sit with us.

  “Tod and I started up a conversation. He had just graduated from UCF with his degree in Criminal Justice and was preparing to apply to the police academy in Ft. Lauderdale.”

  Interesting. Rafe knew a lot of Ft. Lauderdale cops. “Yeah? Is he still on the force now?”

  She shook her head. “He was. I mean, he’s still a cop, but he transferred to Orlando a couple of years ago. Anyway, we hit it off and talked about how tough college was, and he asked me out and I said yes. In the beginning, everything was great. We’d been dating for about six months when he asked me to marry him. And I was so into the whole romance of the thing that I didn’t see the signs.”

  Rafe frowned. “What signs?”

  “That he always put himself and his needs first. I saw that as his commitment to his career, and I put the same emphasis on finishing school, so it was one of the things I admired about him. What I didn’t see at the time was that he was always going to put himself first, no matter what.”

  “Ouch.”

  “Yeah. But we got married, and the first six months were great. We got an apartment. I graduated nursing school and started my job. And that’s when things started sliding downhill in a hurry. I had second shift, so I was gone nights, and he was on day shift, and I wasn’t there to put dinner on the table when he got home, and sometimes the laundry and dishes piled up and the house wasn’t clean, and who was going to cook him his dinner if I was at work?”

  Rafe’s jaw clenched as Carmen ticked off her ex-asshole’s list of items he could have done himself. “He did realize those were all things he could have been doing while you were working, right?”

  “Oh, he said he wasn’t going to cook, and cleaning was a woman’s job, and his job as a police officer was way more important than mine, and he worked way harder than I did and he was sooo tired when he got home.”

  Rafe could do nothing but blink.

  “It gets better. Turns out he was sooo tired because he was banging one of the rookie cops while I was working. Some really cute blonde who had no idea he was married because he left his wedding ring on the bedside table before he went to work. Until I showed up at the precinct one day to bring him his wallet, which he forgot, and found the two of them making out in the parking lot. She was shocked as hell to discover he had a wife and slapped him—hard. I found that very satisfying. So the affair wasn’t her fault and entirely his.”

  “What a prick.”

  Carmen smirked. “I know, right? Anyway, that was the end of our marriage. I moved out that day and filed for divorce, while he called and texted me, telling me I was being totally unreasonable and it only happened that one time, blah blah blah. Asshole.”

  “You are so much better without him.”

  “You said it. But that was a harsh lesson to learn. And a really rough year.”

  Now it was his turn to grab her hand and give it a squeeze. “It wasn’t your fault, Carmen. That was a painful time in your life. No one makes great decisions when they’re hurting.”

  “That much is true. Easier to never let yourself get hurt. Then you don’t make bad decisions.”

  “I don’t know about that. You’ve grown since then. One person can’t rule over your future just because they hurt you in the past.”

  She stared at him. “Maybe. I don’t know. I like my life the way it is. I have control over the decisions I make, and no man can ever tell me what to do or how to feel.”

  She definitely still stung from being hurt by her ex. Not that he could blame her. The guy had put her through hell and made her wary of trusting men again.

  But Rafe intended to show her there were nice guys out there. And he was one of them.

  CHAPTER 13

  CARMEN WORKED SIDE BY SIDE WITH RAFE IN THE KITCHEN putting leftovers away and doing dishes. It was nice to have him in there, especially after the conversation she’d had with him about how little her ex had done to help around the house. Not that there was any comparison. Rafe had proved that earlier today. He’d busted his ass doing things she’d never even asked him to do. Which was ten times the amount of work her ex had ever done around the house.

  She hadn’t intended to blurt out her past to Rafe in such detail. She hadn’t intended to tell him anything. But she’d been so relaxed at dinner, and then he’d told her all about his parents, and he’d commiserated about her mom and her abuela, and before she knew it, all the details of her marriage had come spilling out.

  He had taken it well. He hadn’t bolted or told her she was an idiot for marrying so young, or choosing the wrong guy or not waiting until she knew him better, which was what her grandpa had told her when she’d gotten engaged after only six months. But she’d been in love—or so she’d thought—and at the time, she’d been convinced Tod was the right guy.

  She’d been so wrong.

  But that was in the past, and she didn’t linger there very often, because she couldn’t change what was. She could only be sure she didn’t make the same mistakes again.

  Like buying new fancy underwear and thinking you’re going to have sex with this guy? Those kinds of mistakes, Carmen?

  She needed to shut up her inner voice, because it was really beginning to annoy her.

  But yeah, maybe. Though her situation with Rafe wasn’t at all like it had been with her ex. First, she was much older now. Second, she’d already known Rafe longer than she’d known Tod. And third, they weren’t dating or having sex or rushing into anything, certainly nothing like love and marriage.

  So her inner voice could suck it.

  And now he’d grabbed a wet paper towel and cleaning spray and was wiping down her table.

  Could the man be any hotter? It was time she took advantage of what was right in front of her.

  She finished wiping off the kitchen counter, then washed and dried her hands. Rafe tossed the towel in the trash and came over to her.

  “I think that’s everything,” he said, looking around the kitchen.

  “Not quite everything.”

  He glanced down at her. “What else do you need?”

  She raised up on her toes and cupped the back of his neck. “You.”

  She brought his head down, and he obviously caught the drift of what she was after, because he scooped his arm around her waist and pushed her against the kitchen island. His mouth met hers in a mix of expelled breaths and tangled tongues and fiery-hot passion that nearly melted her toes to the tile floor.

  This kiss—this kiss was everything she’d imagined it to be. His lips were soft, yet demanding, promising her a passion she so desperately needed.

  Rafe lifted her—with one arm—onto the kitchen island. She wrapped her legs around his hips, and he stepped into her, his hot body making contact with hers. As the kiss deepened, Carmen felt an explosion of heat as his lips molded to hers.

  Dulce D
ios ten piedad, the man had incredibly soft lips. And he knew what to do with his mouth, making her wonder what else he could do with it—and where.

  She was on fire, and as he began an expert exploration of her back with his fingers, she couldn’t wait to touch him, to taste him, to—

  She heard the garage door, effectively dousing the fire of passion that had flamed up between them.

  Rafe must have heard it, too, because he quickly pulled her off the kitchen island.

  “I’m going to need to slip into the bathroom for a few seconds,” he said.

  She looked down, supremely disappointed she wasn’t going to be able to play with his sizable erection.

  She blew out a breath then nodded. “Okay.”

  She was flushed, hot and sweaty and needy, so she stepped to the sink and turned on the cold water, running it over her wrists in the hopes it would cool down the heat burning her from the inside out.

  “Oh, you’re home.” Her grandfather used his walker to slowly make his way inside, followed by his friend Theo. “And why’s it so bright in here?”

  “Rafe did some work around here today,” Carmen said after she shut the water off. She turned and smiled at him. “And then I fixed him dinner.”

  “Oh, Rafe’s here?” her grandfather asked.

  “Yes. He’s in the bathroom.”

  “Great.”

  Rafe came out of the bathroom. “Hey, Jimmy. Hi, Theo.”

  “Rafe,” Jimmy said, offering up a smile. “Carmen said you did some work around here today. Did she put you on laundry duty, or do I have you to thank for the brightness in the kitchen?”

  Rafe laughed. “No laundry. I put LEDs in here.”

  Jimmy nodded. “Looks great, doesn’t it, Theo?”

  Theo looked around. “Gonna need my shades on for poker nights.”

  “We also got a new kitchen faucet,” Carmen said. “And wait ’til you see what Rafe did in your shower, Grandpa.”