Page 72 of Firecracker

“Harder.” She gripped his shoulders.

Oh yeah. Harder. Faster. Her soft cries cheered him on, inflaming his senses. Now he was the one making noises, helpless guttural noises that came from deep inside him. He buried his face in the side of her neck, her knees at his ribs, her heels on his ass, gripped by a nearly paralyzing bliss.

Sweaty and sticky, breathing hard and heart pounding, he lay on top of her, taking as much weight as he could on his arms, feeling like he’d just been caught in a flashover. He was blistered and fatigued and so incredibly satisfied, his brains scrambled, overloaded on sensation.

Her hands roamed up and down his back, her mouth opening on his shoulder in a long, wet kiss.

Arden.

He was with Arden. He’d just defiled the prom queen.

A smile tugged at his lips. Because she’d loved it. Again, not to be cocky, but he’d made her come three times, and there was no way that wasn’t good for her. Not to mention, she’d begged for more.

He couldn’t wait to do it again.

Chapter Fifteen

Another thunderstorm was passing over, but this time Arden was so relaxed and content, it didn’t bother her at all. It helped that there was a big, strong man in her bed, and she snuggled closer into him. His arms wrapped around her, their bodies fitted together in a way that was particularly satisfying. She rubbed her calf against his and breathed in Tyler’s unique scent, that delicious clean and spicy scent.

After a huge crack of thunder, Tyler said, “That was a good one. Are you still nervous?”

“Nope. Not even a little.”

Maybe she was drunk or something…high from breathing in his scent, intoxicated by the flood of hormones several orgasms had released. She knew this was probably a very bad idea, and yet…right now it didn’t seem all that bad. In fact, it seemed pretty damn good.

She wouldn’t think about tomorrow or the next day or what was going to happen between her and Tyler, and whether they would pretend this never happened, or…no, she wouldn’t think about that stuff. She’d just drift on this cloud of contentment for a while longer, enjoying the threat of danger from the violent storm outside while feeling safe and protected in Tyler’s arms.

“Thanks for telling me about what happened.” Tyler’s hand smoothed over her shoulder. “With your husband. I had no idea what a rough time you’ve been through.”

“There’ve been times I felt sorry for myself,” she admitted. “But I’m not a victim. I want to own my part in what happened and hopefully learn something from it.” But would she ever learn how to really love someone?

“Good for you.”

“This isn’t what I thought my life would be. Not the money part! I mean, when I was a kid, my parents always told me I could do anything, be anything I wanted to be. I always believed that. Then I married Michael, and I had everything I wanted. Except…it wasn’t becauseI’daccomplished anything. My own goals and ambitions got…forgotten. And here I am, a widow, twenty-eight years old, and I have nothing to show for myself.”

“I don’t know if that’s necessarily true,” he said quietly. “You’ve proved how strong and resilient you are.”

She was silent, absorbing that. “I guess that’s true.”

“My parents told me I could be anything I wanted, too. But turned out that really meant I should do what they wanted.” He grimaced.

Ugh. She hated that.

“But you know what I’ve learned?” he continued. “We all figure things out differently. Jamie knew what he wanted to do when he was seventeen, but some of us take longer. Mila had about ten different jobs before she ended up working for Jamie. I didn’t know what I wanted to do when I started college. I spent that year all frustrated. Like I said, my parents were pushing me to go into business or law school…” He paused. “When you said this isn’t how you thought your life would be, well, this isn’t how I thought mine would be either. I thought I’d end up in some white-collar profession, but…I didn’t know what. I like computers, but not the way Jamie does. Then when I saw something about applying to be a firefighter, it caught my attention. It was what I wanted to do, and I’d never really considered that.”

“That’s so good you found it.”

“My mom’s never been happy about it.”

“Yeah, you said that. That sucks.” She paused. Again, she hated that his mom didn’t appreciate what he did. “I’mproud of what you do.” Uh…maybe she shouldn’t have said that. “Not that that means a whole lot.”

He squeezed his arms tighter around her. “You know what? It means a lot.”

“I just don’t like the idea that your job is dangerous.”

“There can be danger,” he agreed. “But we’re trained to deal with it. And honestly, there aren’t that many big fires that require rescue.”

“Have you ever had to do it? Go into a burning building?”

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