Page 101 of Tasting Fire
“I would’ve given anything for a cadaver like yours when I was taking anatomy and physiology.”
He chuffed out a laugh. “Don’t know how to take that.”
“It’s just so damn perfect.”
Heat rolled up the back of his neck. He kept in good shape and knew he was a decent looking guy, but perfect? Nah.
“Take off your shirt,” she said, softly but with steel behind her words. And damned if they didn’t go directly to his dick.
“We’re outside,” he reminded her.
“Shouldn’t waste such a pretty spring day. And it’s not like anyone can see us. Your nearest neighbor is what, half a mile away?”
“If we start this out here, we won’t finish it inside.”
She looked up, eyebrows raised and a wicked look in her eyes. “I was going to do you on the hood of your truck the other day, but we got interrupted.”
Yeah, that image exploded behind Cash’s eyes. Emmy stretched out on his truck, sun shining down through the tree branches to flirt with her dark hair, her naked skin. It might work on one of those hot rod magazines, but he had to laugh at Emmy’s optimism. “Seriously?”
“I figure your custom bumper would provide plenty of leverage. Don’t you?”
Well, hell. Now he’d have to figure out a place to park and take that challenge. Since his carport was open air and in sight of anyone who drove down his street, that wouldn’t work. Not unless he and Emmy wanted to share a jail cell for public indecency.
But for now, they had this private spot. This private time.
Cash unbuttoned his shirt, let it hang open so Emmy could scratch her short nails down the center of his chest. She pushed the fabric off his shoulders and he caught it before it hit the dirt. Tossed it over the shovel stuck in the ground.
“Why does looking at a beautiful male body bring out the desire to bite it?”
“Marking instinct? To warn off all the other cavewomen on the hunt?”
“How many do I need to warn off, Cash?”
“None,” he said rawly. Honestly. “You’re the only one in the picture.”
“Then maybe I don’t need to bite you.” She walked around him, trailing her fingertips over his biceps, along his upper back, and across his spine. Lingering there, she drew tiny figure eights, proving to Cash that the human back wasn’t given the credit it deserved as an erogenous zone. When she circled back around to his chest, she flicked a nipple with her thumb, almost sending him to his knees in the dirt. “Or maybe I’ll bite you all over just because I want to.”
His jeans felt like he’d washed them in hot water and then tossed them in the dryer on high. He wouldn’t have been surprised to look down and see they’d shrunk ten inches. Because his dick was currently taking up about that much space behind his zipper.
But it was more than a purely sexual response. He’d always liked her, even when he hated her. Now, he respected the hell out of her.
God, he loved her.
If he said those three words right now, would she step back? Insist on distance between them that he couldn’t hope to bridge?
“I never said thank you,” she said softly as she pressed her lips to his left pectoral muscle. Placement coincidence or symbolism? “You saved my life. Saved your sister and my family.”
“It was a joint effort.”
“No one in that department has the heart you do, Cash. Yes, some of them love their jobs. Some just love the power trip. But you… Everything you do is because you care about people. Do you realize how rare that is?”
“Why else would someone run into a burning building?”
When she pressed her cheek against his heart, it just gave up. Flopped over like a dog waiting to have its belly scratched. “The fact that you ask the question makes my point.”
“You do as much, or more, to save people as I do.”
“My original motivation had nothing to do with helping people and everything to do with making my dad proud. I did it to somehow try to balance the scales. To make his death mean something. To make him proud of me. That’s not selflessness.”
