“Busy woman.”
“I want to get the place fixed up,” Michaela said. “I kind of feel like I owe it to my great-greats. And to me. I owe it to me.”
Lewis and Randy traded a look. They moved, just a little, and warmth filled her. Somehow, they’d cocooned her between them, and she liked that feeling—a lot.
“We can understand that, baby girl.” Lewis reached out and stroked the side of her face with one finger. A shiver coursed through her. Then he used that finger to lift her chin.
“This was just our first date. There’ll be more. But right now, we’re going to kiss you goodnight.”
“Oh, goody.”
Lewis smiled and laid that smile right on hers, and it was a perfect fit.
Michaela felt as if Lewis’s smile melted into hers. His tongue stroked, and she opened, and the flavor, the taste of him, flooded her, body and soul. They drank from each other, sipping, lapping, a sweet and yet sexy-as-hell little dance that felt so good, so right, she wondered how she’d been able to exist up until now.
A sound emerged that came from some place deep down, a place that, until now, had been hidden away, languishing. Her arms rose on their own whim. Her hands slid along his arms to his shoulders as her arms wrapped around his neck. The heat of his body and the press of his erection slayed any doubt she might have had this was mutual. She burned, but he burned right along with her.
Lewis raised his head, but before Michaela could protest, she was turned and tucked into Randy’s body.
He didn’t bother with a finger. He just dipped his head and covered her mouth with his own. Warm, wet, and wonderful, his flavor blended with Lewis’s on her tongue, and she tasted heaven. Then he plundered, using lips and tongue to treat her to a deep, soulful seduction. She felt every bone in her body begin to melt. She clung to him, and when Lewis, as if sensing her moment of surrender, braced her back, she whimpered and began to seriously fall for them both.
“God Almighty.” Randy’s hoarse, heart-felt whisper brushed her very moist and very sensitive lips.
“Yeah.” Lewis’s agreement bolstered her. “We’ll see you at the roadhouse tomorrow. Save us a few minutes of your break so we can set up our next date.”
“I will.” They held her a moment longer, their embrace a step back from steamy. The sound of footsteps approaching should have acted like a bucket of ice water.
There was enough light in the parking lot to let her see their faces. These men who’d just shown her that she’d never been kissed until tonight looked at her with tenderness—and yes, lust.
But it was the tenderness that stayed with her as she drove, with Shar beside her and Jesse and Barry following behind, back to her house.
And it was the tenderness that, half an hour later, wrapped around her and followed her into sleep.
Chapter Six
“Are you going to drop in for supper later, Tammy?” Michaela held her cell phone to her ear as she stood back and examined the entire front porch. She’d just nailed in her last boards, and the structure was ready for stain.
That would make it look better, because there was a difference in the shades of wood now. She’d been told that the right stain would make all the difference.
“Not today. Charlie and I are working a double. That’s not as bad as it sounds. It just means we’re bunking here at the firehouse overnight. Sundays are generally quiet, anyway.”
“I bet they are. Still, I think it’s a comfort to everyone in town and surrounding areas to know that there are paramedics on duty, twenty-four-seven.”
“I hope so. It sometimes doesn’t seem as if there’s enough work for all four of us, but then we have days like the fire day last month. And on those days, I totally get it.”
There’d been a bad grass fire that had hit a few miles south of town near the end of May. Fire crews from other parts of Benedict County as well as a few from Hamilton County had answered the call. Some of the firefighters had needed medical care. On that day, all of Lusty’s paramedics had worked, and worked hard.
“I don’t think you need to worry about your job, Tammy.”
Michaela grinned, and she guessed her friend could hear her smile in her words when she chuckled.
“Not unless I make a play for a couple of wranglers someone else is interested in.”
Michaela wanted to chuckle but couldn’t. “Interested is a good word. Let’s just keep it at that for now.”
“You’ve got it. Anyway, don’t feel sorry for me. Charlie’s cooking supper tonight, so that’s a bonus. I’ll chat with you later. Work safe.”
“I always do.”
She slipped her cell phone into her pocket then nodded at the porch. The stain would come after the house had been painted. That way, if she made a complete mess with the paint, she could sand it off the porch and then stain it.
Michaela had another couple of hours before she needed to be at the roadhouse, so she went inside the house to attack the final repair for the day. Somehow, a piece of the doorframe on the front door had been damaged and needed to be replaced. The damage wasn’t extensive, so the piece she’d need to replace it with wasn’t very big.
As she’d done for the porch repairs, Michaela had scanned a few YouTube videos, to see how to do the job that needed doing. She considered herself fortunate that the piece of the frame that was broken wasn’t on the hinge side of the structure. In her estimation, that made it less tricky and less heavy lifting, as the door didn’t need to be taken off its hinges.
There were a few things she’d need to hire a professional for. But she wanted to do as much of the work as
