Page 46 of Her Silver Fox Firefighters
At the same time, seeing how determined and devoted these men are makes my heart beat faster for them. It makes me think we might actually have a shot at a beautiful life together.
We spendthe rest of the day in bed, making frantic love and reassuring each other that we belong together, that we were destined to be this tightly intertwined.
“Carlos will make that arrest report disappear,” Beck says, checking his text messages before placing his phone back on the nightstand.
“It could cost him his job,” I reply.
Outside, the sun sets over Ember Ridge in violent shades of incandescent red and purple, casting a soft shimmer acrossmy naked body. The sweetness of the afterglow lingers on my lips while Dax traces invisible circles over my bare shoulder.
“You mentioned something about Jocelyn earlier,” I say, remembering fragments of our conversation. I was so busy with my own past unraveling and worrying that they might think less of me that some details slipped my mind. That is, until now, as I rest beside them, my focus clearer than ever. “And you never really told me much about your past with her either.”
Dax takes a deep breath, letting it out slowly.
I watch his chiseled chest drop, my fingertips tingling as I’m tempted to trace the fine contours of his muscles, to play with the silver and black curls of hair that dust across it.
“As you know, Jocelyn was our last and probably only attempt at a real relationship,” he says. “We thought it might actually work.”
“But it didn’t because she wasn’t faithful, right?”
“I’d thought that the three of us were more than enough, but Jocelyn had an appetite. Being with us only served to enhance her need for sexual exploration. She wasn’t really in it for the feelings, for the actual joy and challenges of building something together. She and Carlos got hot and heavy a couple of times.”
I gasp. “Oh, boy…”
“He felt awful,” Leo chuckles. “He’s such a straight shooter, the poor guy. Jocelyn lied to him. Said we’d split up. Worked him over until they wound up in bed. But then she wanted to bring another guy in, a colleague of hers from the prosecutor’s office.”
“That’s when Carlos picked up on the tomfoolery,” Beck adds. “He told us about him and Jocelyn. We ended it with her right then and there.”
I roll over to look at him. “How did it feel?”
“Awful,” he says and offers a faint smile. “Like a punch in the gut. For a long time, I didn’t think we’d ever find someone who would be able to thrive with us. Then you showed up in the middle of the night, alarm blaring, and everything changed.”
Deep laughter makes my ribcage shudder. “Yes, that was quite the meeting between us. So how did Jocelyn take you ending things?”
“Not well. She tried to lie about it. Went on a smear campaign against Carlos, but that only served to strengthen our friendship with him,” Dax says. “In the end, we laid out the terms of our separation clearly. Jocelyn would keep quiet. We would all keep quiet, and move on. But then?—”
“I came along,” I exhale sharply, “and she didn’t like that.”
“She didn’t think we’d actually move on. Jocelyn insisted that the kind of relationship we wanted couldn’t happen, that it would work as a sexual pastime at best, but not to build a life together. Not with real feelings,” Dax replies.
“I don’t know about that. The feelings I’m experiencing are pretty real,” I whisper.
That has Dax turning over to take me in his arms. Beck and Leo move closer, too, the three of them smiling like hungry devils.
“Oh, you feel things, do you?” Dax nibbles on my ear lobe, making me giggle.
“All the feels.”
“Do you feel this?” he asks, his hand slipping between my legs.
Instantly, I’m turned on, my folds slick as his fingers shamelessly explore them.
“Oh, I most certainly do.”
Nausea.
This can’t be right.
I’ve been telling myself that for the past week or so. At first, I blamed it on the stress due to the whole arrest warrant situation, the avalanche of changes that I’ve had to deal with.
