Unforgettable You (Starlight Hill Series Book 4)

by Bell, Heatherly

  “I’m quiet when I want to be. Remember that.” He held up a condom packet.

  She blew out a relieved breath. “And always prepared.”

  He swam away from her, towards the opposite end of the lake near a grove of trees. She followed him, amazed at how dark it had become since they’d first arrived. The half-moon gave off an iridescent light in the black velvet night sky and an erotic thrill made her spine tingle. They were going to make love in a place where they might only be able to find each other by touch. A good thing she’d nearly memorized his body even in such a short time.

  You’re moving too fast, Heart said.

  She wanted to ignore this. Wanted Stupid Heart to shut up and sit down and let her enjoy this moment because nothing in her world had ever been so right and perfect. This time she heard him getting out of the water, but couldn’t see his form any longer.

  “Come here,” he called out to her.

  Oh, she was coming. Probably a couple of times, if she knew Scott. But first she would have to find him in the darkness. She followed the sound of his voice until she couldn’t hear him any longer.

  “Keep talking,” she said loudly as she moved in the water. But no more words came from him, and for one terrible moment she wondered if he’d left her here in the dark.

  No. Not Scott.

  Her memory was of the boy she thought he’d been. The one she’d never really had a chance to know. The one who’d asked her to meet him here and hadn’t shown up. Scott the man was someone she could trust. He’d never given her any reason to think otherwise.

  “Scott?” she called into the night.

  In the next moment she felt strong arms around her pulling her straight out of the water. Either she had been stalked by a murderous night crawler-type, or Scott had her.

  “What the hell?” She screamed.

  She’d realized it was Scott the moment she felt his hard chest pressed against her. “Did I scare you?”

  Diana wound up in his lap, and she slapped his shoulder. “What do you think, Sherlock?”

  “I’m sorry, babe. I guess I wanted to have a little fun.” She felt his mouth graze her jawline and kiss her neck.

  Still a boy in some ways. “Yeah, right.” Already forgiving him, she slid her hands up his back and wound them around his neck.

  Instinctively and with a little help from a sliver of moonlight, she found his lips and kissed him. He kissed her back, deepening the kiss and also getting a bit rough with it.

  He broke the kiss, leaving them both gasping for air. “Come here.”

  “I am here.”

  “And now you’re going to come.”

  She heard the smile in his voice even if she couldn’t see it. In another second she was flat on her back, feeling his big warm body covering hers. He slid down the length of her and in seconds had her panties off and his hands under her ass to hold her in place, he nudged her thighs open. His tongue did its magic while Diana’s fingers threaded in his wet hair and she tried not to scream out into the night.

  ***

  She trusted him.

  If she didn’t trust him, she wouldn’t have driven out here with no idea of where he’d planned to bring her. She wouldn’t have taken his hand and climbed out of the truck when she saw where he’d taken her. Wouldn’t have given him another chance at that night so many years ago when he’d blown it so badly in more ways than one.

  The knowledge of that turned him on nearly as much as Diana’s soft little whimpers and moans, which on their own were music to his ears. They increased in intensity until he took her right over the edge, and she cried out his name and shuddered. He worked fast after that because he needed to—couldn’t wait another second until he was deep inside her where he wanted to be. One more second and he felt certain he’d be dead. He reached for the condom where he’d set it down on the ground next to them.

  No fucking way. It was gone. It couldn’t be. Dammit, he hoped some wildlife hadn’t walked off with it. Maybe some squirrel wanted to get down tonight. His hands swept the ground, the lack of any serious moonlight not helping the situation.

  Diana wasn’t helping him either, wrapping her legs around his back. “Hurry.”

  He groaned, his hand still desperately sweeping the area. “The condom. I can’t find it.”

  “Where’d you put it?”

  “Right next to me on the ground.”

  “It didn’t walk off on its own.”

  “No kidding.”

  He could feel her searching the area too. Good thing they were alone and in the dark, because they both probably looked like a couple of fools who’d lost the keys to the kingdom.

  “Don’t worry, I’ll find it.”

  Suddenly, Diana stopped trying. He heard her soft voice. “Scott?”

  “Still looking.”

  “I’m on the pill.”

  “Yeah.” His hands were methodically measuring the distance searched in an ever increasing diameter. The damned thing was here somewhere, and he’d die trying to find it. And the way things appeared, his death was likely imminent.

  “So I’m safe. And also clean.”

  The light bulb went off and not only did his hands stop sweeping the ground, but he was pretty sure his jaw dropped. When it came to trust, he couldn’t ask for more than this.

  “I’m clean too. I haven’t even been with anyone in two years.” Two long dry years, but who was counting?

  “Then come here.” This time it was her voice, calling to him.

  He had her back in his arms within seconds, kissing her beautiful breasts, worshipping her. “You sure?”

  “Yes. I want you. I need you. Don’t you know how much?”

  He had begun to understand how much, and nothing was a bigger turn-on than her desire and need for him. She wrapped her long legs around him again, and he slid into her in one hard thrust that made them both gasp. He moved inside her fast and hard, the sensations of her around him with nothing at all between them causing him to lose a little bit of himself. She met him with every move and thrust, clutching at his shoulders, moaning his name.

  When he could no longer hold back and finally had to let go, he realized they were falling together for the first time.

  Scott regained his breath, but now he couldn’t feel his legs. He sensed a small sharp pebble jabbing into the small of his back and pulled Diana closer. “You okay?”

  “The ground is so hard.”

  “I know, I just noticed that too.”

  The night had turned colder, unusually so for August, or maybe it was just the mixture of icy cold water and mild late summer temperatures in the air. Soon enough, God willing, they’d have a good rainfall. Diana shivered in his arms. He slid his hands up and down her arms to cause friction and warmth. But that would only do so much. “Stay here, I’ll get the towels and the blanket.”

  “And our clothes.”

  “Right.”

  Within a few minutes, he’d reached his truck for the towels and blanket, and picked up their clothes on the way back to the outer edge of the lake. He suggested one last dip in the lake to rinse off, seeing as he probably had more than a few blades of grass stuck to his back. Not to mention dirt that his wet knees had turned to mud, but he’d never enjoyed getting filthy as much as he had tonight. He toweled Diana off, helped her dress and covered her with the blanket.

  “Didn’t mean to keep you out so late,” he said looking at the clock in his truck. Ten o’clock.

  “Worth it.”

  “Hell, yeah.” As he pulled out onto the dirt road, he noticed the headlights of another truck coming in, this one carrying a bunch of young people in the cab. “And by the looks of it, just in time.”

  Diana put a hand over her mouth. “That could have been embarrassing.”

  Once they’d reached her house, he walked her to the door and thought he should probably leave her alone so she could get some sleep. He pulled on the blanket that was still around her and she went into his arms again, wh
ere he gave her a long deep kiss that had her moaning and had him reconsidering whether or not he should go.

  “You’re coming in, right?”

  “Not tired of me yet?”

  She smiled shyly and wouldn’t meet his eyes. “Never. But I also wanted to tell you something.”

  “Uh-oh.” It sounded serious. He tried to make light of it. “Am I going to get dumped?”

  She opened the front door and pulled him in by his shirt. “After tonight? You’re getting a medal maybe.”

  “Cool. Is it shiny?”

  She laughed, and went inside, turning on lights as she went. “It’s about my family.”

  “Mrs. Paulsen? What’s wrong?” He loved the old lady as much as everyone else in town did, and the thought that something could be wrong with her now after Diana had spent so much time with her—

  “No, Gran is fine.” She sat down on the couch with his blanket, settling it over her legs.

  “You’re still cold.” He sat down next to her and pulled her into his arms.

  “That was a frigid lake.”

  Was she stalling? “Time to tell me.”

  “This summer my mother hired a consultant to help her take her business to the next level.”

  He listened as Diana told him the whole story of what looked like a case of clear cut embezzlement by the consultant, with Diana’s mother and sister now on their way to Starlight Hill to hide out from a bunch of crazy Bridezillas.

  He’d hide too. “When did all this happen?”

  “Last night. When you came by and told me about Sophia?”

  He swallowed. The night he’d been upset about Jake and only had the guts to tell her about Sophia and nothing more than that. It had seemed safer. Harmless.

  “You should have told me. Not let me go on and on about Sophia.”

  She shook her head. “It’s not that important.”

  “The hell it isn’t. This is a life-changing kind of thing. And besides, if it’s important to you, it’s important to me.”

  She smiled. “You know what? You’re a really good friend.”

  He couldn’t speak for a moment and his stomach dropped. He wanted to be a lot more than a good friend. But to be with her, to connect on more than this incredible physical level they had, he’d have to learn how to share the deepest parts of himself. The way she had just now with him. She’d given him everything, and he’d given her only what he considered to be safe. Because he was a chump.

  “Right back at you.”

  Chapter 18

  Back on his shift by Monday, Scott hadn’t heard anything of significance from Sophia. She’d sent him short cryptic text messages, apologizing for her timing but assuring him she was okay and that she had no regrets. It was good to hear. Even if he had stayed in town to be supportive, and hadn’t been needed after all. That was okay by him, since he’d spent the last four days working his ass off for Wallace and his nights making Diana his captive audience.

  Or she’d made him his captive audience. Either way, it worked. He smiled now remembering just how good it worked.

  “What are you grinning about, Turlock?” Benny teased from the stool in the firehouse kitchen.

  It was Scott’s turn cooking and tonight dinner for the crew was his famous firehouse chili. He still had to sleep with these men and Julie (who might kill him for this) for the next few evenings, so he’d brought three cans of air freshener just to be on the safe side.

  “Just thinking about how good this is gonna be tonight. No one else cooks worth a damn around here.”

  “Yeah, well it helps to have a sister-in-law who gives free cooking lessons to anyone who asks. This such a good idea? You know what happened last time.” Benny nudged his chin in Rookie’s direction.

  He was a few feet over, staring intently at his phone.

  “Already thought of that.” Rookie had the worst farts any of them had ever been privy to judging by their Firehouse 54 scale. One to five was in the acceptable range and anything over five meant you were in danger of sleeping outside under the stars. Rookie regularly straddled the edge. The guy was young and agile and according to Julie a real ‘hunk’, but Scott didn’t know how he’d ever get a woman. Or keep her.

  “How’s it going with you and the Princess?” Benny teased. He’d also seen all the Internet videos, which, thanks to a talking dog who managed a fairly coherent “I love you” whine to his owner, weren’t getting as many hits these days.

  Scott slid Benny what he hoped was his most intimidating look. “We’re just friends.”

  “Right. You two looked real friendly when you came out of your brother’s apartment suite.”

  Scott froze. He was unaware anyone in his work circle had noticed.

  He kept stirring. “Just friends.”

  “Does she know that?” Benny pressed.

  Benny was only trying to help. Close to retirement, he was biding his time. Plus he was the fatherly type, handing out advice whether anyone asked for it or not.

  “Yeah. She knows.”

  Diana had her own agenda, taking care of her grandmother, her entire family, not to mention figuring out what she wanted to do with the rest of her life. It was a tall order and she didn’t need him complicating her life.

  Even if he was ready as hell to complicate it to death.

  Like him, she cared deeply about family and was loyal to the core. She also no longer held a grudge against him. And whether or not anyone else wanted to notice, she cared about the people in this town and wanted them to change their minds about her, one cake and donut customer at a time. She was by far one of the strongest women he’d ever met next to his own mother, even if Diana didn’t even know that about herself.

  Yet.

  “Good, because I’d hate for you to mess around with Mrs. Paulsen’s granddaughter. That could earn you the kind of reputation you don’t want.”

  Scott snorted. As if he didn’t already have a reputation. “I’m. Not. Messing with her.”

  If anything, Diana was messing with him. But he’d sign up for her kind of messing any day of the year.

  So that’s how it is.” Benny grinned.

  Scott felt a scowl coming on. “That’s how what is?”

  Benny shook his head, laughed, and made his way over to the couch with Rookie.

  Yeah, Scott didn’t need any comments from the peanut gallery. He realized he had a huge grin on his face when his thoughts went to Diana simply because he’d probably never been quite so satisfied in his entire life. It wasn’t just physical, either. She made him feel comfortable, at home. He couldn’t recall when he’d voluntarily sought a woman out for four nights in a row.

  Gen had mentioned that Diana might stay if she had a reason to, and he wondered if it could be true. Wondered if he would be enough of a reason. If he meant to take this thing between them to the next level, at some point he should probably ask her to stay. Right after he told her about Jake.

  Maybe.

  For now, he had too much on his mind. Priorities, Scott. Priorities. He’d worry about whatever the hell he wanted in his life later. He wasn’t the one that mattered anyway. The wildfires were raging, and their squad still hadn’t been called up for backup. But judging by the general dryness of their state, they would soon all need to worry about their own backyard. A couple of hours later, Scott sat with the crew as they rated each other’s farts. As usual, Rookie was about to get sent outside. Scott brought out the air fresheners, but Julie had still left the building, only not before she called them all a bunch of ‘infantile frat boys and the bane of my existence.’

  Scott caught Rookie googling “bane” when the alarm sounded. As usual, everyone sprang into action. Julie ran back inside and joined everyone in suiting up.

  Ty carried the iPad that fed them the information from dispatch. “Another accident, this one right by 101. Car over the embankment, Shit, sounds bad. A truck and a car.”

  Benny hopped into the engine. Ty would drive the squad car as usua
l, and Scott hopped in with him. They arrived within short minutes to a chaotic scene. Even though traffic wasn’t at its height at eight o’clock, there were already enough looky-loos to cause a serious backup.

  “Out of my way, fuckers,” Ty grumbled to the cars that couldn’t hear him.

  He expertly managed to get the squad car through the cars that pulled over where they could and he pushed and shoved his way through. The engine truck had arrived just ahead of them, and the firefighters were already securing the scene. In a situation like this one, the safety of others and their squad came first. It was in the rule book right after ‘don’t be an idiot’.

  A large diesel truck had sideswiped a car off the embankment. The EMTs had already arrived in the ambulance and were taking care of the truck driver. Scott helped to set up barrier cones with the others. Something in the pit of his stomach froze when he smelled the spillage from the truck.

  “Gasoline,” Ty said before Scott could. “Shit! Fuck! We gotta wait for hazmat to clear this up. No one’s going anywhere near that car.”

  Not what Scott wanted to hear, but he realized Ty was right. They couldn’t overlook scene safety, rule one. No point in risking the lives of their squad. Still, he walked to the guardrail and leaned over to get a better look. For the second time, he nearly lost his cookies. He recognized the car, none other than Timmy White, who’d already had two accidents. Either his parents were idiots who hadn’t taken his keys away or Timmy had taken off on a joyride. Probably hadn’t planned to meet the wrong end of a truck. No kid planned for that when they were testing out how fast their baby could fly.

  “You know who that is?” Scott said to Ty.

  “I don’t care if it’s Scarlett Johansen, we have to wait. I don’t like it any more than you do.”

  “It’s Timmy White.”

  “The idiot kid again?”

  “Yeah.” Idiot or not, he was still a person who needed their help. “He’s just a kid. A stupid kid.”

  “Hazmat is on its way,” Ty said gruffly and walked away.

  Scott realized as lieutenant jockeying in line for a promotion to captain, Ty wouldn’t take any chances. But Scott didn’t have that problem. If there was one thing he understood down to his core, it was a stupid selfish kid. If not for his older brothers, maybe Scott wouldn’t have made it out alive either. It only took one more moment of hesitation before Scott jumped over the guardrail and headed towards the kid.