Controlled Burn (5 page)

“So, you
are
checking into arson.”

“Have to. There’s no such thing as five coincidental fires. But I don’t want to talk about them. It’s bad enough fighting them.” He reached across the table and took one of her hands in his, loving the smooth feel of her skin. “So, you’re back from California? Visiting or to stay?”

“Yes, no, and yes. I think.” Her mouth, with those plump, sexy lips, twisted in a grimace. “I probably should have done this a long time ago, but I was too stupid to know that.”

“Hey.” He squeezed her hand. “We all do stupid things. No one’s immune. But if you don’t mind my asking, what were you doing at Pete’s last night?”

“I had spent about twenty hours on the road, driving all the way from Los Angeles with just a few hours rest. I stopped to get a little liquid courage before facing my parents. God, you’d think at my age I’d be past that.”

“For what it’s worth,” he said in a soft voice, “I’m glad you were there.” He leaned forward so no one could hear him except her. “It was one of the best nights of my life.”

She gave him a tentative smile. “Mine, too.”

“I, uh, don’t suppose we could see each other again? Maybe dinner, or something?”

“Boone, I—”

“I’d really like that.”

She let out a long breath. “I should tell you I have no idea what I’m going to do next with my life. I just got out of a really bad marriage, and I feel as if I’ve wasted the last ten years. I need to take some time, breathe a little, figure out where to go from here.”

“No pressure, Montana.” He squeezed her hand. “Nothing more than dinner. Between two friends?”

“Is that what we are? Friends?”

“We can be whatever you want us to be, until you figure out what’s next for you.”

She hesitated for so long he began to think she was going to turn him down.

“I’m not a really good bet for anyone, right now.”

“My choice to take the chance,” he pointed out. Every muscle in his body was taut with waiting. “So, what do you say?”

When she smiled, the tension eased from him a bit. “Okay. Dinner. But I have to warn you. I’m staying with my folks, and I’m afraid they still think I’m eighteen years old.”

A deep laugh rolled up from inside him. “I can relate to that. My parents live in Dallas, but they still call and ask me if I’m sure I know how to run a ranch. Even though I’ve been doing it for ten years.”

Her answering laugh had a musical quality to it, like silver bells. “Then I can imagine what they have to say about you being a firefighter.”

“You have no idea.”

“How did you happen to get into it, anyway? Is that what you wanted to be when you grew up?”

Her question sobered hm. “About a month after I moved here, I had a lightning strike in one of the pastures at my ranch, and it set the hay ablaze. I called 911, and I couldn’t believe how fast the fire department responded. Or how hard and efficiently they worked under difficult conditions. I was shocked to learn most of them were volunteers.”

Montana nodded. “It’s always been that way. The population of the county is so small, there isn’t enough in taxes for a lot of things.”

“I talked to Ray Curtis and asked if I could add my name to the list. He was in the process of setting up another volunteer training course, so the timing was right.”

“I admire you for doing this.”

He could tell from her tone of voice she really meant it. “I like giving back to the community.” He took a healthy slug of coffee. “I’d like it a lot more if we could figure out who’s causing this. This many fires don’t happen spontaneously.” Ray had asked him to keep what he’d found out quiet, so he didn’t feel he could share. “So.”

She smiled, lighting up her whole face. “So?”

“Would tonight be too soon for that dinner?”

That warm, musical laugh bubbled in the air again. “I have to say, you don’t waste time.”

“No reason to.” He locked his gaze with hers. “Not when I know what I want.”

He held his breath, hoping he hadn’t scared her away by pushing for this so soon.

“Seven o’clock work for you?” she asked.

“Sure does.” He grinned. “See you then.”

Montana stood on the back porch of Boone’s ranch house, looking out at the peaceful scene stretching to the horizon. Over the past week, he’d taken her to dinner three times. The sexual tension between them was so incendiary, she thought she might have to ask him to get the fire department to put it out. At the end of each date, he’d taken her home and left her with a kiss that scorched her right down to her toes.

“I think we have something going here,” he’d told her when he took her home the night before. “And I’m talking about more than the sex, which you have to agree was off the charts.” He’d reached across the table and stroked his thumb over her lower lip. “But I don’t want what else we could have going to get lost in that. You have no idea how fucking hard it’s been to keep my hands off you.”

“I feel the same,” she’d whispered. “How did this happen, Boone?
What
happened?”

He touched his mouth gently to hers for a brief moment. “At first, I thought it was nothing more than a combination of circumstances. The night we met, we were both on the ragged edge of emotion, needing something to ease that. To satisfy some internal need. And, god, we certainly did that.”

He whispered a kiss over her mouth again.

“But?” she’d asked in a low, barely audible voice.

“But when I saw you again, that day in the Sunrise Diner, it was like being hit by one of my prize bulls. It purely knocked the breath out of me.” He’d traced the line of her mouth with the tip of his tongue. “But, in the next minute, I wanted to tear off your clothes and throw you down right then and there.”

“That would have certainly livened up the diner.”

“But, sitting there, talking to you? I realized it was more than the physical. What we shared that night at The Highway Motel was a lot more than raw sex. I wanted to give it a chance to develop, and it’s been hell keeping my hands off you. I never believed in fate before, but I swear, Montana, fate definitely had a finger in this.”

“I think I have to agree with you,” she’d murmured. “I felt it, too.”

It was a good thing she had something else to occupy her mind because just being near Boone Crider sent her temperature spiking and every pulse pounding with frenzy.

Tonight, unexpectedly, he’d asked her to drive to the ranch for dinner. From the moment he’d called, she was filled with anticipation.

They’d enjoyed a leisurely meal of grilled steaks accompanied by ice-cold Lone Star beer. All the hands had obviously left for the day, unless Boone had stuffed them in a closet somewhere. Waiting for whatever came next had her nerves stretched to the limit. She only hoped she could keep herself from attacking him. Lord, what was wrong with her? From the moment she and Boone met, the air between them ignited and the heat kept climbing higher on the scale. She was glad she had other things occupying her mind. They at least gave her some attempt at self-control. And those thoughts had been front and center since she’d gone back to meet with the Royals.

Now. At last. They’d be alone together and….

She jerked slightly when Boone’s lean fingers slid beneath her hair to caress the nape of her neck. He had come up behind her, molded his body lightly against her. Heat radiated from him, and his cock was like a steel baton digging into her ass. Even two layers of clothing did little to diminish its effect.

“I’d offer a penny for those thoughts,” he said in his molasses-warm voice, “but I think they’re probably worth a lot more. Thinking about the Royals and the diner?”

Her parents had been shocked when she’d brought up the subject, as much by her decision to stay in Winslow as the idea to buy the diner. But they’d given her some good feedback. She’d spent several hours with Darlene and Jeb, and finally, last night, laid it out for Boone. His reaction had become important to her in a short amount of time.

“I am,” she told him. “I’m still talking to the Royals about it, and I have a lot of figuring to do but….” She shrugged. “I have to say, I can’t believe how impulsive I’m being.”

He turned her to face him. “Maybe you were really searching for an excuse to stay here. Replant your roots.”

“I guess I had to run away from here to find out how much I loved it.” She snorted. “California certainly isn’t the heaven people make it out to be.”

“You haven’t said much about why you left here or your marriage. Or why you came back. And I haven’t wanted to ask you.”

“I appreciate that. It’s not the easiest thing to lay out for anyone.”

“You don’t have to tell me until you’re ready.” He paused. “If you ever are.”

She lay her cheek against his chest. “It’s so hard admitting what an idiot I was. Especially when—” She stopped, afraid to say too much.

He tilted up her chin and looked into her eyes.

“Especially when what?”

“When I’m hoping we’re going somewhere with this.”

His slow smile warmed her from the inside out. “Oh, we’re going somewhere. You can count on that.”

“Then you need to know how young and stupid I was. I thought Winslow was the dead end of the world and couldn’t get away fast enough. Richard Havilland was the smooth-talking, rich, newly-minted attorney who was going to show me the high life.” She snorted. “It was high, all right. He was high with some of his clients and a long string of women. I can’t believe I stayed as long as I did.”

“Are you sure buying the Sunrise Diner is what you really want to do?”

“You mean, not just some knee-jerk reaction, so folks don’t think I came home a whipped puppy?”

“Montana, that is the furthest thing from what you are. But it’s a big commitment, and you need to be positive it’s what you want.”

She smiled at him, sure of what she was doing for the first time in a long while. “I worked there in high school, and we ate there at least once a week. When Darlene said they wanted to sell, I wondered if it was a sign.”

He smoothed her hair back from her face, tucking one lock behind an ear. “Maybe you had to leave to realize you wanted to stay. That happens, sometimes.”

“I probably shouldn’t even ask you this.” She searched his ebony eyes. “How would you feel about me buying the place and staying?”

“Whether you buy the diner or not, I want you to stay. But it has to be what
you
want.”

She gave him a slow smile. “Maybe you could find a way to convince me.”

He swept her up in his arms and carried her into the house, down the hall, and into his bedroom. Setting her down next to the bed, he cradled her face in his work-roughened palms, the hard calluses like little erotic stimulators against her skin.

“I’ve been on slow simmer all week,” he said in a raspy voice. “Do you know what a controlled burn is?”

She shook her head.

“It’s used a lot to manage forested areas and wide-open pastures like we have around here. When we’re in a drought situation and there’s a danger of fire, we burn off the waste and debris and manage it so it doesn’t go wild. We keep the explosive nature of it under control.”

“What does that have to do with us?”

His eyes were like twin flames boring into her. “I’ve been burning off my own wasteland this week to keep my fire under control.”

“I don’t understand.” She frowned. “I mean—”

He lifted his right hand and gave her a suggestive smile.

“I don’t—oh!” It struck her what he meant. He’d been using his good right hand to take care of himself all week so he didn’t spontaneously combust.

“Flying solo isn’t much fun. It’s taken every bit of control this week not to drag you back here every time we were together, rip your clothes off, and fuck you senseless.”

“Well.” The word came out on a breath of air. “I’m here now, so feel free to have at it.”

His fingers shook so much as he fumbled with the tiny buttons on the front of her blouse that she batted his hands away.

“I’ll take care of my clothes if you’ll do the same with yours.”

“I wanted to undress you slowly, but damn, Montana. I’m so hungry for you, I can’t make my hands work.”

“I’ve got it,” she assured him.

Then they were both naked, both trembling with need. Fire blazed in Boone’s eyes as he ran his hands over her neck, her shoulders, her arms, and around to her breasts. Holding them in his palms, he brushed his thumbs lightly over her already painfully taut nipples, drawing forth a cry of need from her. Reaching between them, she closed her fingers around his very hard, very erect cock. When she rubbed her thumb over the velvet head, he groaned and squeezed her breasts reflexively.

“Why is it the moment you touch me—hell, the minute I get near you—I’m as randy as a teenager and my control is shot to shit.”

She gave a shaky little laugh. “I think I have the same problem. And there’s something I’ve been dying to do.”

Dropping to the edge of the bed, she lowered her head and closed her mouth over his shaft. Very slowly she ran her tongue over the head, probing the tip while at the same time sliding her fingers up and down his hard length. He tunneled his fingers into her hair, gripping her head as a loud groan rolled from his throat.

“Damn, Montana. That feels so fucking good, but I don’t know how long I’m going to last if you keep doing it.”

In answer, she sucked harder and slipped her hand between his hair-roughened thighs to cup his balls. He flexed his hips, his cock sliding even deeper. When she scraped her teeth along the silky skin, his fingers dug into her scalp.

“Jesus,” he breathed. “Just being with you makes me so horny, I’m always riding the edge of an orgasm. I won’t last like this, and I want to be inside you when I come.”

Gripping his shaft, she tilted her head back and let his cock slide out to the tip of her tongue. She swirled it around the head before lifting her eyes to him.

“Are you saying you aren’t good for more than one, Boone Crider? I know better than that.”

Not giving him a chance to pull away, she gripped his shaft harder, took him in as deep as she could, and sucked hard. She could feel how primed he was. A few steady strokes of her hand, a rhythmic squeezing of his balls, and the touch of her lips were all it took. In seconds, he jerked his hips forward hard, pulled her head toward him, and his cock pulsed, spilling his cum down her throat.