Page 26 of Into the Fire
“She was out before her head hit the pillow. S’mores might be the secret weapon.” He took a sip of his beer. The swing creaked, and the wind shifted.
They sat in silence for a few long seconds, the kind that wasn’t uncomfortable, just heavy with something unnamed.
Finally, Levi cleared his throat. “She really likes you, you know.”
Emery glanced over, surprised by the sudden confession. “I really like her too.”
He nodded once, then added, “And she’s right.”
“About what?”
“What she said earlier. You’d be a good mom.”
He kept his eyes on the dark horizon, but Emery saw the way his jaw worked like he wasn’t sure he should’ve said it aloud.
Her throat tightened. “I don’t know about that. I never really imagined it for myself.”
“You should,” he said simply, like it wasn’t up for debate.
Emery’s heart tugged a little at the weight behind his words. She stood and walked closer to him at the porch rail. “You don’t trust easily, do you?”
He shook his head, then glanced at her, his gaze lingering. “Not with June. Not with… this.”
“This?” she echoed softly.
He gave her a look, dry and a little self-deprecating. “Whatever’s happening between you andme that we’re both pretending isn’t.”
She didn’t answer right away, feeling the air between them thin.
Finally, she spoke. “I’m not trying to pretend. I’m just trying not to get it wrong.”
Levi set his beer down on the rail beside him, turning to face Emery and leaning a hip into the rail to look down at her. “You haven’t gotten anything wrong yet, sunshine,” he murmured.
She inhaled sharply as his gaze seemed to paralyze her, the world narrowing to the warmth between them. Her eyes looked him over, and with no interruptions from June running through the room, or alarms reminding her she had somewhere else to be, she had no excuse not to stare. She’d never stood this close to him for this long, so she hadn’t yet noticed how tall he really was. Her mind drifted, wondering about what being in his arms would feel like. Blinking and quickly turning her attention to the porch felt safe, until even just the sight of his hand gripping the rail had her mind running wild and her stomach feelingbutterflies, like a lovestruck teenager.
Her breath caught in her throat as his hand slid over her own. She matched his form and turned to prop her hip on the rail as his gaze flicked from her eyes to her lips, and back, slow and deliberate, like a magnetic pull. Lifting a hand to her face, he let his thumb slide along her lower lip, barely grazing it. “God, you’re beautiful.”
Her stare now landed on his eyes and that perfect shade of blue, but in this moment, they had a heat behind them that she hadn't seen ever before. Her brain suddenly seemed unable to function, like she'd just lost all sanity.
He dipped his head, whispering against her skin, “Emery?” His breath tickled her neck, and with no answer, he brushed a light kiss across her throat.
She felt the heat from his lips like a spark, somehow soft, reverent, and yet igniting something deep inside her. Her eyes fluttered closed—her hands finding their way to his chest.
He paused there for just asecond, his lips hovering just above hers, as if asking one more silent question. He breathed her in, their noses almost touching. His lips parted slightly, like he was about to say something, but he didn’t.
Instead, he kissed her.
She’d caught herself staring at his lips more times than she’d admit, when he was talking, when he wasn’t, when he bit the corner of his bottom lip if he was thinking too hard. There was something infuriatingly confident about them, like they belonged to someone who knew precisely what kind of effect he had.
But up close, and especially now that they’d touched hers, she knew she’d never stop thinking about the way they felt. Warm. Not rushed, not careless. They moved like he could read her, like he wanted her to feel every second of it. Like he knew exactly what he was doing… and exactly what she needed.
The kiss was full of intention, like he’d been waiting, like he didn’t want to waste a single second ignoring anymore. His hand cradled her jaw, hisfingers tangling in her hair, and she melted into him, into the moment.
Her fingers curled into the fabric of his shirt without meaning to, anchoring herself as everything else blurred. All she could feel was his mouth moving with hers, slow and deep, like he was learning her one breath at a time.
When they finally pulled back, both breathless, foreheads touching, she couldn’t stop the smile forming on her lips. Neither could he.
“Damn, Em, I been thinking about doin’ that for a while,” he said, voice low and rough.
