“I won’t stop,” he promised, reading her mind, playing in the slippery heat he’d generated, a heat she’d forgotten existed.
“Condom,” she managed.
He went utterly still, then pressed his forehead to hers. “Christ. I don’t-Brooke. I didn’t think about-”
“I have one.”
His gaze, so steamy hot it singed everything it touched, met hers.
“In my purse. It’s been there for a while…” She fumbled for the zippered compartment. “I wish I had two-”
His laugh was soft and sexy as he took it from her fingers. “This’ll work for now.”
Biting her lower lip, she nodded, touching his chest, his flat abs, and then lower still, where his shorts were opened.
He stopped breathing.
So did she.
Bold in a way she hardly recognized, she wrapped her fingers around him. Loving the way that made him let out a rough oath, she slowly stroked. Swearing again, he slid the skirt of her dress up to her waist, baring her to the night and his searing gaze.
“Um…”
“Relaxed yet?”
“Not quite, no.” Her dress was now bunched across her belly, leaving her hanging out in the wind. Literally. Relaxed? Try wound up tighter than a coil.
“Lie back, Brooke.”
Doing so would pretty much spread her out like a feast. “Yeah, but-”
He merely laid her back himself. Towering over her, he slid a leg between hers and glided his hands down her arms to join his fingers with hers. “How about now? Relaxed now?” he murmured, pulling their entwined hands up, over her head.
Was he kidding? She was so far from relaxed she couldn’t even remember the meaning of the word. He was holding her down in the dark, only the moonlight slashing across his face, making him look like a complete stranger. But instead of the logical response of panic, she arched up against him, wanting more.
He gave it to her. Lowering his mouth to within a fraction of hers, he nipped at her lower lip, then danced his tongue to hers, long and sure and deep, and she gave back everything she got.
She was a different woman with him, someone who let herself live and love. And she wanted to be loved, more than she’d imagined. Closing her eyes, she rocked into him, moving impatiently against him, her fingers digging into the muscles of his back. “Zach, please.”
“I plan to. I plan to please you until you-”
“Relax?”
“Come.” He slid down her body, kissing her stomach, her ribs. “And then again.” Making himself at home between her thighs, he smiled wickedly. “And again.”
Oh, God. If he kept at it, she was going to go off in approximately two minutes-
He gave a slow, sure stroke of his tongue and she revised her estimation to two seconds. His hands skimmed up her legs to her inner thighs, holding her right where he wanted her, and then he added a finger to the mix and she couldn’t have stopped from exploding to save her life. It hit her like a freight train, and he made her ride it out to the very end, slowly bringing her down…
After a moment, or maybe a year, she came back to her senses and realized she lay there on the rock, staring up at the stars, her hands fisted in Zach’s hair, holding him to her in a way that would have horrified her if she’d been capable of rational thought, which she wasn’t. Not quite yet.
He pressed his lips to one inner thigh, then the other, then crawled up her body, his mouth trailing hot and wet kisses along her skin as he went. She ran her hands up and over his back, his shoulders, and he let out a quiet sound of pleasure.
Taking her face in his hands, his mouth came back on hers as he pushed inside her, filling her so that she thought she might burst, holding her there on the very edge with fierce thrusts that sent pleasure spiraling through her, so far beyond anything she could have imagined. They never stopped kissing, not until the end when she fell apart for him again, and when he did the same for her, his head thrown back, her name on his lips.
When it was over, he rolled to his back so that they lay there on the rock side by side, breathing like lunatics, staring up at the stars, listening to the ocean crashing onto the sand just below them.
“That was…” She let out a half laugh. Words failed.
“Yeah.” His voice was husky, rough. “That was.”
Turning her head, she looked at him and felt her heart catch at the sight of him, all long, defined grace, lit only by the silvery moon, which was a good color for him. Hell, any color would be good for him with that mouthwatering body.
Shifting to his side, he smiled as he reached for her and pulled her against him.
A cuddle.
Damn it, he really knew the moves, didn’t he. Hard to keep her distance with him, that was for sure. But she was letting loose, so what the hell. Brooke scooted in as tight as she could get, loving the steady thud of his heart beneath her ear, loving the warm strength of his body all around hers, loving the feel of his hands skimming over her. “Maybe we should get up before we forget we only had the one condom.”
His answer was a soft laugh, and he pressed his mouth to her ear. “There are plenty of ways around that.”
She stared into his naughty, bad-boy smile, a smile that assured her that whatever ways he had in mind, she was going to like them. Her body was already halfway to another orgasm at just the thought. “The party.”
“Yeah.” He let out a breath. “Right.”
“I mean, we should go, right? Blake said you need the kiss-up points with the chief.” She sat up, looking for her panties, which were behind them, lying on top of his shorts. It was silly, given what they’d just done, but it looked so intimate. Too intimate. Snatching them both, she tossed him his shorts, and watched him pull them on that body she could happily look at unclothed for hours.
Days.
Weeks. Oh, God. So much for keeping her head.
She spent the next few awkward seconds trying to right her dress, and not having much luck until he turned her away from him and tied her halter himself. “Brooke?”
Just the sound of his voice did her in. Closing her eyes, she swallowed hard. “Yeah?”
Zach stroked a finger down the back of her neck, evoking a shiver and a yearning that weakened her knees again. “I loved watching you let loose.”
“Twice.”
He grinned as he pulled on his shirt. “I still think we should try for a perfect hat trick.”
“Party,” she said weakly, tempted to do just that. “We’re going to the party.”
They walked down the beach toward the party together, Brooke’s mind working overtime. The hot, sexy guy walking alongside her had seen her naked.
Touched her naked.
Kissed her naked-
“Well, well. What do we have here?”
Brooke jerked her thoughts to the present and looked at Cristina, who stood in front of them on the sand in a tiny bikini top and a pair of board shorts riding low on her trim hips. “You two look quite…flushed this evening.”
Just behind her, the chief’s birthday bash appeared to be in full swing. There was a big bonfire and several barbecues going. Music blared out of a set of speakers, and people were sitting on the sand, standing around the fire or dancing. Aidan was swaying like peanut butter on jelly with a pretty brunette. Dustin and Sam were happily flipping burgers. Blake was adding logs to the fire.
There were a bunch of other people, as well, from different shifts and different firehouses. In the center,
