Page 59 of Smokin' Situation

This kind, genuine, sarcastic, gentle man would have ceased to exist, and I would have been waiting for someone to finallyseeme that was already gone. And the feelings that had been building inside me for days, and continued to flourish, would have been taken away before I got to experience them. All because of a selfless act that saved someone else’s life.

As we clung to each other, I wasn’t even sure I deserved him, but I was going to try to be what he needed, even when it was heartbreaking.

“Are you okay?” I whispered into the skin of his shoulder, refusing to relinquish my hold on him.

His fingertips traced down my spine, lingering in the dip of my lower back before he fanned them and grasped my butt, pulling me even tighter against him.

“I am now. Thank you for staying.”

Nodding against his chest, I tried not to get emotional, but I’d never experienced this soul-deep connection to someone where I just wanted to be with them all the time. I knew people would try to write it off as infatuation, that I hadn’t known him long enough to develop real, true feelings. But I would tell those same people totake a fucking hike, because sometimes…sometimesyou just knew when you found the other half of yourself, and there wasn’t any explaining it.

“I don’t want to be anywhere else.” At his satisfied hum in response, my body melted into his chest, ear pressed tightly to the warm skin, just listening to his heart’s steady thrum.

“Can we just not leave the bed today?” he whispered, continuing to trace patterns on my back with his fingertips.

“We can do whatever you want to do today,” I replied, content to remain how we were, cuddled in our warm cocoon inside his quiet cabin. “But if you still want to go to the barbecue, you know I’ll be there holding your hand the entire time.”

He was quiet for a few moments, and I almost wondered if he was falling asleep again before his deep voice broke through my thoughts.

“I didn’t know it’d happen so soon, and I didn’t know it’d be you, but I prayed for you before I blacked out.” His whispered confession brought goosebumps to my skin, and I shivered as he pulled me in tighter.

“Hmm?”

He pressed a fingertip to my chin, urging me to tilt my head up to look into his eyes.

“In those last few moments before the fire reached me, I prayed I would find someone like you. Someone who would care about me, even the ugly parts.”

Unable to hold back the tears, I nodded, drawing in a shaky breath. While I hadn’t been close to fulfilling the family curse until a few days ago, I’d been secretly yearning for the same thing, but also hiding from it.

I didn’t want to hide anymore.

“Tripp, I…” My lip quivered and I couldn’t respond, too overwhelmed by the unfamiliar emotions flowing through me for him.

The morning I went to that festival and encountered this grumpy, brooding firefighter who had zero interest in small talk, Ihadn’t realized I was meeting the man I was going to fall hard for a few days later.

“Maybe coming back home wasn’t running away. Maybe itwascoming home. To you.”

He arched his neck, warm lips caressing mine while his muscular arms tightened around my body. He held me close—like I might be as much of a lifeline for him as he’d been for me.

“I need you,” he whispered against my lips, reaching down to grasp my waist as his hips pressed up into me. “Please. I just—”

Placing a fingertip on his lips, I shifted my hips until he was poised at my entrance. “You don’t need to beg. You know I’m yours.”

That might be as close as we’d get to a confession of love this morning, but as I took him inside my body and rocked against him, chasing something I’d never been able to find before, I knew that we both felt it.

Sweet and passionate seemed to melt away as he held me tighter and shifted to sit upright against the headboard. His large hands grasped my hips, and I gasped as he thrust up from the mattress hard. It coaxed me into a fast pace that had me breaking the once quiet atmosphere with my loud cries.

I couldn’t control how he made me feel—wild like the fire we’d both escaped, but beautiful and in control in a way that no one ever had.

“That’s it,” he groaned, throwing his head back against the headboard as I rotated my hips and met every thrust, my fingernails raking down the taut muscles of his chest. “You fucking own me, Rhey. Mark me.”

Digging in deeper, I watched the marks blossom on his pale skin, trailing down to where we were connected. He watched me with hooded eyes, his grip possessive as he steered me closer and closer to the edge.

“I wanna feel you, sweetheart,” he panted, his chest heaving. “Just keep lovin’ on me until you come.”

I wanted to laugh at the way his voice dropped into a southern accent when he saidlovin’ on me,but I was already there, falling apart as he held me, calling out his name like a prayer and he was the only one who could save me.

“Fuck,” he groaned, his grip almost painful as he held me still moments later, pulsing deep inside as he filled me with his release.

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