Page 104 of Smoke and Fire
“Ravage you." I cleared my throat. "That's what I meant. I want to kiss you until you can't find your breath ever again. I want to have my hands on you until you don't remember that other guy who broke your heart. I want to play with your hair all night while I hold you in my arms and we stare up at the stars."
Her eyes widened like globes. Dahlia sucked in a sharp breath and held it. Honoring the truth sent courage through me. Finally, I would lay it out there for a woman to decide what to do with.
"The only thing that held me back from kissing you the other day was the genuine sadness in your voice when you spoke about Jakob," I continued. "If I never heard his name again, I'd die a happy man. I want to do more than get to know you better, Dahlia. I want to test all my romance novels with you. Figure out how to giveyoubutterflies. How to say your name so that you get goosebumps. I want to touch every inch of your body. I want to prove that maybe I don't have to do everything alone."
My throat knotted.
Being the son and the brother had sucked up all my bandwidth. Fire was the only choice I actively made. I hadn't let go of it, because then I really would have been lost. Lost in expectations and care. Lost in the miasma of medical issues and helplessness. Fire had been my only anchor, my tether, to me.
My life had always been sculpted by the people that didn’t want me. By the people that left. My birth parents. My adopted Mom. Even the girlfriends that walked away from Dad because they didn’t want to deal with his children.
Deep down, I finally understood what I’d avoided all along: that writing romance novels was my safest attempt to create the relationship I desperately wanted.
The relationships so honest and powerful they couldn’t be real.
The ones that must be fiction.
Somewhere along the way, I believed that romantic novels had a guaranteed-happily-ever-afters that didn’t apply to life in the same way. That had been a lie too.
Because now?
Now I had Dahlia, and everything had changed. With her, I stared down the path of an imperfect future with the perfect woman. A flawed woman, like me.
A woman that I wanted at my side so I could help her and she could help me.
"That's what I want," I finished, brought back to the moment. "And if that's totally freaked you out, I would understand and—"
Her soft lips cut me short. She collided into me. I took a step back to keep us both upright. On instinct, my hands grabbed her waist to keep her from falling. Her body pressed into me, her smell like smoke. Her touch like fire.
I fell to her blazing inferno.
27
DAHLIA
He burned underneath me.
Bastian wrapped his arms around my back until I couldn't breathe. His chest pressed on mine, forcing our hearts together. The warmth of his mouth slanted over mine, equally intense and possessive. I tightened my hold around his neck and pulled us closer.
Just when the taste of smoke lingered at the back of my throat, he pulled away. Dazed, he blinked.
"Damn, Dahlia," he breathed.
I closed my eyes in silent agreement.
He didn't let go of me, but I loosened my hold on his waist. My feet returned to the ground, though my head played in the clouds. He kept me close, but his gaze darted to the spot where the other two firefighters had disappeared. My thoughts reeled around, consumed by his words.
Kiss you.
The burning intensity that I'd always sensed under him continued to play out now. My heart thudded wildly under my chest as Mark appeared again. I stepped away at the sound of a whinny.
"Just a sec," I murmured.
He nodded, dazed, as I slipped away. Mark led a white-and-brown colored horse that trotted a circle around him as he attempted to take her closer to the trailer. Her wild eyes glanced to me, then away. I stepped back, fading into the smoke as Mark crooned to her. She trotted in another circle, this one a little closer to the open trailer back.
"Stay back," Mark called. "She's nervous. She's the one that'll be hardest to get in. The easiest one will be last."
"How can I help?"
