On Fire (6 page)

His lips surrounded the tip of her breast. He suckled her with drawing pulls that were perfectly timed with his plunges between her legs. His tongue lashed at the hardened nipple, flickering over it in a way that sent pulses of heated delight racing across her nerve endings. She heard herself whimpering, her body moving separately from her mind, her hips rocking to meet his and hold the incredible fullness of him deep inside her.

Jared released her wrists, his hands moving to cradle her spine and mold her body to his. It was the singularly most carnal experience of her life. And the most intimate.

“Yes,” she breathed, suspended in his arms. “I’m coming…”

The orgasm swept through her like a gentle wave, lapping at her
senses, gaining strength until she quivered uncontrollably. All the while he continued the leisurely thrusting of his rigid penis, swelling with his own imminent release, spurring her to climax again.

Wrung out and on an emotional precipice she hadn’t expected, Darcy gave herself over to him. Let him pleasure her until she was certain she couldn’t take any more, until her legs hung limply in the cold water and her nipples throbbed.

Only then did he let go, holding her torso against his scorching-hot skin, his chest heaving as he jerked violently and came endlessly.

“They’ve actually made some good headway with the student list from the dance studio.” Trish’s voice came clearly through Jared’s cell phone speaker, accompanied by the rustle of papers in the background. “They’ve already confirmed alibis for most of the repeat students going back one year. Miller is territorial, but he’s got good instincts.”

Jared slid the phone aside to make room for a cutting board on the kitchen counter. “My concern is whether or not the town’s residents are a blind spot in his investigation.”

“I’m working him around to thinking more along those lines. At least considering them.”

“He lets you get a word in edgewise? You’re a miracle worker.” He deseeded a bell pepper, then chopped it quickly into small squares.

“He’s not that bad,” Trish said. “His only experience with federal law enforcement wasn’t a good one.”

“About that.” He worked on an onion next. “I’d like the name and contact information of whoever was the primary on that case.”

“You going to thank him or her for making our job so much easier?”

“Don’t give me ideas.” Using the knife, he scraped half the vegetables into a heated skillet. “It might be worth it to see if anyone
in Lion’s Bay rubbed the Feds the wrong way. Aside from Sheriff Congeniality.”

“What time are you coming into the station tomorrow?”

“Not sure. I want to check out the other two locations in the morning. Why?”

“Wouldn’t want Miller to be out and miss you.”

Gripping the handle of the skillet, he jerked the pan to flip the sizzling vegetables. “I’ve requested courier manifests going back six months. While it’d be stupidly obvious to ship hazardous materials in and leave that trail—”

“We don’t want to be the ones who overlook the obvious.”

“Right. I’m hanging up now. Call if you need me.”

“What is that noise?”

“Dinner. I’m hungry. Good night.” Jared tapped the disconnect button on his phone and turned his attention to cracking eggs to finish up the omelets.

As he moved, he mentally cataloged the state of his body. His damned legs were jellied and there was an odd knotting in his gut that he told himself was hunger. He was having trouble staying focused, his thoughts drifting to the woman presently soaking in a fresh Epsom bath.

The sexpot fire inspector had fried his brain. A wild lay was not supposed to make a man feel strange. It was supposed to relieve stress, provide a workout, and clear a man’s head. Instead, he didn’t even hear Darcy enter the room until she spoke.

“Whatever you’re cooking,” she said, “smells delicious.”

He glanced at her, cursing inwardly for being caught unawares. “Omelets.”

“Awesome.” She maneuvered around him and opened a cupboard to pull out plates. Dressed in jeans and a T-shirt, her composure irritated him. He’d tugged his pants back on because they were about to eat, but he’d left the fly partially open, exposing the
waistband of his boxer briefs. He was shirtless and barefoot, comfortable and relaxed, while she looked like she was ready to leave the house.

“Where are you going?” he asked, scrambling the yolk with enough vehemence to make it frothy.

“Excuse me?”

“You got dressed.” And her hair was damp and slicked back into a ponytail.

“I didn’t know I was supposed to eat naked. You’re not.”

He unclenched his jaw. “You could have put on a robe.”

Setting the plates on the dining table, Darcy returned to the kitchen. “I didn’t want—” She exhaled harshly. “I don’t want you to feel like I’m assuming anything or taking anything for granted. You made it very clear that things need to be simple.”

“No assumptions, but you assume I’ll get antsy if you follow the evidence that says I prepared to spend the night.” He poured the eggs into the pan with the veggies, then added the ham he’d chopped before he called Trish. “Unless what you’re not saying is that you’re ready for me to go.”

She straightened and approached him. “Sex doesn’t improve your humor, I see.”

“Maybe because I’m not done.”

“Okay, then.” She pulled silverware out of a drawer. “That’s settled.”

A moment later, Jared heard her moving the plastic shopping bag off the table. From the sounds of it, she was looking inside, perhaps noticing the toothbrush, antiperspirant, and razor sitting next to the two boxes of condoms. As far as he was concerned that wasn’t optimistic, that was practical. He flipped the omelet with a deft flick of his wrist.

“I wish I had a camera,” she said. “You look sexy as hell doing that.”

She looked sexy as hell when he was doing her, all soft and warm and flushed. The memory of her in the bathtub was going to haunt him for a while.

He jerked his chin toward the table. “Sit down.”

Darcy exhaled in a rush. “I wanted to put a robe on. Just so you know, I originally thought about ordering something in, answering any questions you might have about the case, and maybe watching TV if it wasn’t too late.”

“You should’ve gone with your instincts.” He tossed some shredded cheese into the omelet, then slid it onto her plate in a practiced fold. “Dig in. Don’t wait for me.”

“This looks as awesome as it smells. Thank you.”

Returning to the stove, he started cooking for himself.

She moaned, making his dick twitch with interest. “Jared. Wow. This is phenomenal. You’re as good in the kitchen as you are in bed.”

He watched her lift a second bite to her mouth, her eyes closing as she chewed and hummed her pleasure.

Swallowing, she went on. “Not that we’ve made it to the bed.”

“Yet.”

“Yet,” she agreed. “You know, I should get some credit for being concerned about scaring you off. I’m giving you credit for being offended at the possibility of a brush-off.”

Jared stared into the skillet. Simple would be taking the out she’d offered him and heading back to the motel to sleep in a solitary bed. Simple would be keeping his eye on the job he was here to do and his hands off the smoking-hot inspector who flooded his system with so much testosterone he couldn’t think straight.

Rubbing the back of his neck, he said gruffly, “Keeping things simple means not making things complicated. You’re overthinking.”

Of course,
he
was hardly thinking at all. He was running on pure animal instinct when it came to her.

Darcy laughed softly. “You can’t put this on me. I know how men work when they start off with the warning to keep it simple. That means don’t get clingy. Don’t expect me to be there for you when we’re not fucking. I get that, and it works for me. That said, I know all men have hot buttons, but I don’t know what yours are.”

He grunted. As far as he was concerned, everything about her was a hot button. And this conversation had veered into a direction certain to drive him crazier than she did.

“You know what I’m talking about.” She set her fork down. “Things that freak you into thinking the situation is becoming more involved than you want it to be.”

He slid his own omelet onto his plate, returned the pan to the stove, and joined her at the table. Too late for the freak-out warning. It had been going off since he’d drilled her into the sofa. He had no control with her. No cutoff switch or throttle.

Darcy leaned forward. “You can’t tell me that a woman assuming a sleepover when you’re in a wham-bam frame of mind doesn’t make things dicey.”

Shoving a bite of his food into his mouth, he chewed through his frustration. He didn’t want to analyze this…
them
. He’d rather stick with orgasmic ignorance. “I can tell you that as long as we’re both in the same place at the same time wanting the same thing, I really don’t give a shit.”

Darcy pushed back from the table. “All right. Excuse me a moment.”

He scowled at the sight of her half-eaten omelet, then glared at her retreating back. He’d give her five minutes to get her tight little ass back in her chair or he was going to drag her back in to finish eating…

She returned in a short white satin robe that revealed her bare legs and the lack of a bra. Jared forgot his aggravation.

As Darcy resumed eating with obvious relish, he leaned back in his chair, watching her.

“In a town of this size, with only one fire station, how does the city council justify paying for two fire inspectors?”

When she looked up at him, her eyes were lit with amusement. “A combination of nepotism, being willing to work part time, and a good word from Jim.”

Jim.
He reined in his irritation with a long, slow exhale. “Who’s the family member?”

“My uncle. He moved several years ago, but memories are ageless in Lion’s Bay.”

“And the rest of your family is gone, too?”

“Yep. Although my parents didn’t go far. They bought a place on Lake Horton.”

Which wasn’t all that far from his place in Seattle. “Why do you stay? What’s here for you?”

Darcy pushed back from the table and picked up her plate. “Why not?”

He studied her as she came toward him to collect his plate, too. “It doesn’t suit you,” he said. “The town. This house.”

“You don’t know that.”

Standing, he followed her to the sink. “I do.”

“Maybe I’m not as easy to read as you think.”

Jared backed off, noting the tension in her shoulders and the way she avoided his gaze. Coming up behind her, he pushed her ponytail aside and brushed his lips over her nape. He’d get the story out of her eventually. In the meantime, he wanted her soft and warm. He wanted to explore what it was about her that made him want to kiss her all over.

She turned to face him. “Why did you join the Marshals Service?”

He gripped the counter on either side of her, trapping her in the cage of his arms. She smelled sweet and clean, and he was hyperaware of the fact that she was mostly naked beneath the thin wrap of white satin. “Because the military and I were done with each other and there’s nothing else I’m good at.”

“You’re a good cook.”

“Thanks.”

Her hands went to his hips, her fingers twining in his belt loops. “You’re seriously hot. You could be a calendar model. Or a Chippendales dancer.”

“That’s not flattering.”

“You’re outrageously good in bed. Although monetizing that is illegal.”

“I like it on this side of the law,” he murmured, bending his head over her. “And I’m picky about who I go to bed with. I’d starve to death.”

“Well, that’s flattering.”

Darcy was a confident woman; she knew the force of her sex appeal. Since it was highly doubtful she would’ve picked up that level of sensual sophistication around a town of this size, where the dating pool had to be painfully small, he was even more curious about the time she’d spent away from this place. And what had brought her back. Maybe she was licking her wounds after a bad breakup, swearing off men for a while and retreating to a place where she’d be left alone.

He stepped back. “Wanna watch TV?”

Her eyes sparkled with silent laughter. She knew damn well he wanted another go at her, but he was going to hold off. He needed to be more careful or risk her burning out on him. He also needed to get a grip on himself.

“Find something you like,” she urged. “I’ll join you after I load up the dishwasher.”

He went along with the suggestion only because he wanted to get a closer look at her place without making her nervous about it. Moving into the living room, Jared took notice of all the details he’d been too lust addled to appreciate earlier. His gaze went to the now infamous couch first. Its modern lines and extra deep cushions were very much in keeping with how he saw Darcy, as was the sixty-two-inch flat-screen TV hung over the fireplace. Both were out of place against dated wallpapered walls. The coffee and end tables were sturdy wood pieces as retro in style as the dining table, while the knickknacks around the room were contemporary pieces.

Pausing by the fireplace, he looked at the framed photos on the mantel. Some were of Darcy with her parents, some were of her sister. He could tell the two apart easily, a difference confirmed by pictures of the two sisters together. The set of Darcy’s shoulders and the cant of her chin were unique to her, displaying a self-possession and boldness that wasn’t as evident in her sister’s shy smile.