Summer Kisses (167 page)

She pushed away, trying to catch her breath, trying to think about anything but sex with Cole. “Something smells good.”

“You mean besides you?” he teased then bent to nibble playfully at the nape of her neck.

She shuddered as the heat of his mouth eased along her flesh. “I was referring to whatever’s cooking on the grill.” The words came out in a half-whisper as she tried not to recall how that same mouth felt moving over other parts of her body.

Thankfully, he ended the sweet torture. “Come on, let’s go see if it tastes as good as it smells. Or, then again, if you’d rather we could always go back to your place and have emotionless sex.”

More heat moved up her already sensitive neck to settle in her cheeks. Kelsie lowered her gaze to the cotton tee stretched across his muscular chest, determined to avoid that sexy grin and the desire he had once again stirred in her.

Sex with Cole was the last thing she needed to think about. Not when she had been trying so hard to get him out of her system. Unfortunately that wasn’t going to happen as long as she and Cole were in such close proximity.

He cupped her chin, lifting her face to his. “Come on. I was just teasing you.”

Oh, he had done more than that. He was making her want. Bad.

“I know that,” she muttered, trying to ignore the throbbing between her thighs. “But I really do owe you an apology for the other night. I never should have called you when I was somewhat inebriated.”

He arched a challenging brow. “Somewhat?”

She laughed softly. “Okay, so maybe I was a lot inebriated.”

His husky laughter joined hers. “You were adorably inebriated. And I honestly didn’t have a problem with anything you said to me the other night, except the part about you wanting to end things with me. Oh, and maybe the part where you insisted I try wearing your bra to see how it feels.”

She gasped in embarrassment, the heat in her cheeks rising. “What?” She’d wanted Cole to cross dress in her clothes?

“Well, not me in particular. Or your bra in particular for that matter. You just seemed to think men don’t appreciate the amount of suffering it takes to wear them.”

She groaned. “Shoot me now and put me out of my misery. I’m so embarrassed.”

Cole chuckled and pulled her closer. It felt so damn good to have her in his arms again. Something he might not have had the chance to do without her mother’s help.

He smiled into her hair. “Has anyone ever told you how sexy you look when you’re blushing?” Hell, she was sexy no matter what she was doing.

She groaned again. “Stop saying things like that. You’re only making it worse.”

“Come on,” he said, releasing her. Taking her hand in his, he led her toward the festivities before he gave in to the urge to take her back to his place and make love to her again. “The guys are looking forward to seeing you again.”

“At least, I won’t be hanging from a tree limb this time,” she muttered. “I can only imagine what they must think of me after that fiasco.”

“They like your spunk,” he said as he led her across the freshly mowed front yard to the hinged gate at the side of the house. Unlatching the gate, he swung it open. “After you.”

She stepped past him into the backyard. “You’d better watch it, Cole. Holding a gate open for a girl will put you back into the ‘too perfect’ category.”

His gaze fell to her shapely backside and the jean shorts hugging it. If she could read his thoughts, she’d know they were anything but gentlemanly. But before he could set her straight, his date was swarmed by every single unattached guy at the picnic.

Ignoring him, his buddies offered Kelsie chairs, drinks, you name it. It was almost comical. Almost. Having had more than enough of his buddies drooling over Kelsie, he laced his fingers through hers possessively. “You boys will have to find your own woman. This one’s mine.”

He waited for her to argue that she wasn’t ‘his’ and put him in his place, but surprisingly she didn’t. A promising sign.

“Finally,” Joe called out as he led Nanci, drink in hand, through the dispersing circle of grumbling males. “We wondered if you two were going to show up.”

Cole nodded. “Joe. Nanci.”

“I see the vultures are after your date, too,” his friend said with a wink in Nanci’s direction.

“Well, they’re out of luck.” He turned to smile at Kelsie. “I worked damn hard to get this date set up. I have no intention of sharing my woman with any of them.”

Kelsie looked up at him, pinning him with her green eyes. “Your woman?”

“I was thinking the exact same thing,” Nanci said, looking his way.

“Did I say my woman?” Cole teased. “I could have sworn I said my date.”

“Nope,” Joe assured him. “It was definitely ‘your woman’ I heard come out of your mouth.”

“Hmm...must be all that smoke I’ve been inhaling on the job lately.”

Or wishful thinking.

Joe nodded in agreement. “Yep, that’s got to be it.”

Nanci stepped up to Kelsie, placing a hand on her arm. “Before you yell at me for Cole’s bringing you here, I want you to know that I’m innocent.”

“I already know that.” She cast a quick glance his way. “Cole told me you had no idea what they were planning. So, unlike my mother, you’re off the hook.”

Nanci let her hand fall away. “Well, judging by the smile I saw on your face when you two arrived, I’m assuming Cole’s already been forgiven.”

“Not quite,” he answered for her.

“He’s right,” Kelsie said with a stubborn tilt of her chin. “I only stayed because I knew you were going to be here.”

He pressed a hand to his chest. “Ouch, that hurt.” Then he chuckled. “But don’t you two believe a word of it. She stayed because she wants me - bad.”

“In your dreams,” she shot right back.

Joe snorted, choking on his drink.

“Hey! Whose side are you on?”

“Sorry,” his friend replied, pointing to the plastic cup in his hand. “It went down the wrong pipe.”

Nanci laughed. “Well, whatever the reason, I’m glad you stayed.”

“Yeah,” Joe said, slipping his arm around his date’s waist. “It’ll give Nanci here something else to talk about besides sex. I swear this woman here has a one-track mind.”

His date looked up at him. “You have a problem with my sex talk? Maybe we’ll just forget that phone sex I promised you later.”

“Sweetheart, I’m always up for phone sex,” he said, eyeing the purse slung over his date’s shoulder. “Speaking of which, you got your cell with you?”

She nodded.

“Good, let’s take a walk in the woods and see what kind of coverage our phones get.”

Joe led her away, the two of them giggling like a couple of teens.

Cole turned to Kelsie. “Do you think they even remembered we were here?”

Her gaze drifted to the thickening of trees Joe and Nanci had disappeared into. “Somehow I doubt it. Sex and anything associated with it has the tendency to alter brain function.”

“So did you bring your cell?”

She turned back to him. “What?”

“Just in case you decide you’d like to have your brain function altered a little, too.”

“Oh, you have inhaled too much smoke,” she told him, those green eyes looking up at him with more than a hint of amusement. “Besides, I left my cell in my car.”

“I’d be happy to go get it for you.” He loved getting her fired up.

“We’re not going to have sex. Phone-wise or regular ever again.”

“Never say never,” he warned with a grin. Because if he had his way, there would definitely be a next time.

“Cole,” she groaned in frustration.

He laughed. “Come on, Cupcake. Let’s get the rest of the introductions over with.”

He led her in the direction of the checkered tablecloth covered picnic tables where his lieutenant and the rest of his crew were seated with their significant others.

“Maxwell!” the Lieutenant called out.

Cole smiled. “Lieutenant.”

Standing, the lieutenant held his hand out to Cole in greeting. “Glad you could make it.”

“Wouldn’t have missed it for the world.”

The lieutenant looked toward Kelsie with a smile. “Aren’t you going to officially introduce us?”

Cole slipped an arm around her waist. “This is my date, Kelsie Collins. Kelsie, Lieutenant Calhoun and his beautiful wife, Maggie.”

She returned his smile. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“Actually, we’ve already met,” the lieutenant informed her with a grin.

“We have?”

“Well, not officially until now. You were a little preoccupied with a tree last time I saw you.”

Cole watched the color deepen in her cheeks. “Ignore him,” he told her with a husky chuckle. “He likes to give pretty girls a hard time. Doesn’t he, Maggie?”

The lieutenant’s wife nodded and then shook a chastising finger at her husband. “Behave yourself.”

“It’s all right,” Kelsie assured her.

Maggie Calhoun turned to her with a warm smile. “We’re so glad you could join us today. From what I hear, you’ve made quite an impression on our Cole here. And I’m sure I don’t have to tell you what a great catch he is.”

“Keep on selling me, Maggie,” Cole told her with a grin. “I’ve been trying real hard to convince her of that, but she’s a tough sell.”

“Judy did the same thing to me at first if you remember right,” Stubby joined in from the far end of the picnic table. “If you ask me, I think women are put on this earth to drive men crazy in bed and out.”

“Stubby McGuire!” his wife gasped, smacking him on the arm. “Keep it up and the only place I’ll be driving you to tonight is to the sofa.”

“As you can see,” Cole said, “we’re like one big happy family.” He went on to introduce her to the rest of his crew and their wives and then led Kelsie over to the food table.

“Hungry?” he asked, handing her a paper plate.

“Starved.”

“Well, let’s see what we can do about that,” he answered with a wink.

“Your friends are all so nice,” she said, glancing back toward the picnic tables.

“It’s a job requirement.”

“I take it the ability to tease is another,” she said as she plucked several cherry tomatoes from the veggie tray in front of her.

He grabbed them some plastic silverware from the wicker basket on the table. “They really like you.”

“Do you think so?” she said, and then quickly added, “Not that it matters. It’s not like you and I will be going out again.”

“We will if I have my way.”

“Cole...”

“What?” He grabbed the large metal fork from the meat tray and stabbed at a steak, dropping it onto her plate. “It’s no secret that I’ve got one hell of a crush on you.” He did a quick scan of the picnic goers and added, “Along with about every other guy at my station.”

“Are you always this persistent?”

“Not always.” He stabbed at a steak for himself. “I just like to see things right in the world. And our being together is right.”

She lowered her plate to the table with a sigh and turned to him, no doubt intending to tell him all the reasons why they shouldn’t be a couple. But he didn’t give her a chance. Instead, he set his plate down and drew her to him for a kiss.

“Hey, you two!” Nate hollered from across the yard where he and another firefighter were in the middle of a game of horseshoes. “Get a room!”

Cole broke off the kiss, noting the flush that had returned to her beautiful face. He grabbed their plates from the table. “Come on. Let’s go eat where we can have a little privacy.”

“I...I don’t mind eating with your friends,” she said, clearly affected by the kiss.

“I do. I have to look at their mugs across the dinner table enough as it is. I’d much rather be focusing on something a whole lot prettier. You.” He nodded toward the iced down keg that sat next to the oak tree a few feet away from the food tables. “Can you grab us a couple of beers?”

“Sure.”

He watched as she walked over and grabbed two plastic cups from the stack beside the keg and filled them. His smile widened. She was so unlike the other women he’d taken a chance on. Kelsie fit in. She belonged there. With him.

The woman of his dreams turned from the keg and smiled at him. “All set. Let’s go eat.”

He led her away from the others. “There’s a clearing just on the other side of those trees,” he said. “We’ll eat there.”

They stopped beneath the shade of an old oak tree. Cole set the plates down on the grass and then turned to her. “Wait here. I’ll go grab us a couple of lawn chairs.”

“I don’t need a lawn chair.” She settled onto the grass, folding her legs. “It’s a picnic. You’re supposed to sit on the grass to eat.”

“I thought it was supposed to be on a picnic blanket.”

She looked up at him, her green eyes challenging. “What’s wrong, Cole? You afraid of getting a little dirty?”

He lowered himself onto the grass beside her with a grin. “On the contrary, doll, there’s nothing I’d like better than to get a little dirty with you.”

Kelsie’s pulse quickened at the thought of ‘getting dirty’ with Cole. No matter how attracted she was to the ‘perfect’ side of him, she loved his bad boy side even more. Thankfully for her, there were others around or she might very well have taken him up on his offer.

Her gaze moved over him, prompting her to immediately retract her last thought. No might about it. She
definitely
would have taken him up on his offer.

“Considering it?” he asked, his voice low and teasing.

She laughed and shook her head. “Not for a second.”

“Liar,” he said with a knowing grin as he reached for the plates he’d set on the ground and handed hers to her.

Ignoring his accusation, she cut into her steak. It was so tender it gave the plastic silverware no resistance whatsoever. Stabbing at a piece, she brought it to her mouth.

“Well?” he asked as he cut into his. “Any good?”

“Mmm...” she groaned. “Definitely as good as it smelled from the road. I can’t believe how tender it is.”

“It’s the lieutenant’s secret marinade.”

She lifted her gaze to his. “Secret, huh?”