Taking the Heat (17 page)

“Are you going to go?” he asked. “Just to make me jealous?” He kissed her shoulder and trailed his fingertips along the skin of her chest. The blanket had been tugged down by her movements and his fingers helped it along until one of her nipples was exposed.

“No,” she breathed, fighting the stupid urge to tug the blanket up again. Instead of grabbing it and hiding herself, she watched as he circled her nipple and it tightened at his touch. “No,” she tried again, “I'm not having a drink with him.”

“Not even for old times' sake?”

She smiled at his teasing tone. “Definitely not. We made out at a party once, and once was enough.”

“Uh-oh. Not a good kisser?”

She shrugged as his fingers continued to tease her. “No, he was fine. I thought he liked me because he'd been a little nicer to me than Jason's other friends. But Jason teased Dillon after he made out with me, so Dillon played it off. He said he'd never do it again, because my flat chest made it feel like he was making out with a boy. Jason started calling me Ronald or Ron instead of Roni after that. And then a lot of people started calling me Ronald.”

Gabe shook his head. “Jesus, Veronica. I'm sorry. What a fucking asshole.”

“Exactly.”

“And an idiot,” Gabe added. “Look at you. You're perfect.”

She wasn't anything close to perfect. If she could have magically wished her breasts bigger, she would have. But Gabe made her feel beautiful. He leaned in to kiss the nipple he'd teased to a tight point. “Boys are dumb,” he murmured.

“They are.”

“And cruel.” He kissed her again, his eyes closing as he feathered his mouth over her. His beard looked so stark against her pale breast. “And you're beautiful.”

Tears burned suddenly in her eyes, but she blinked them away and slipped her fingers into the soft waves of his hair. He was so sweet. She felt like a new person with him. The person she'd always hoped she might be.

“If you take me climbing,” she said slowly, “I'll trust you.” But that wasn't really what she was saying. Those weren't the heights that suddenly scared her. The heights that loomed before her were far more dangerous than any cliff, and she was pretty sure she was already falling hard.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

G
ABE
 
HAD
 
NO
 
right to feel so energetic after only six hours of sleep, but his eyes had popped open at 7:00 a.m. and there'd been no closing them again. Even the briefest memory of the night before made him smile, and some of the memories went on and on.

He knew it was partly ridiculous male ego puffing him up. After all, he hadn't just made Veronica come, he'd felt her orgasm gripping him as she'd gasped his name.

Goddamn, that had been...heartwarming.

He grinned again as he headed out an hour early for work in the hopes of getting in on a pickup game at the fire station. He needed to work off some of this energy.

The surfeit of energy wasn't ego, at least. It was something dumber than that. He was crushing. Hard. Veronica was cute and sweet and smart. And the sex was fucking fantastic.

Something about her made his mouth water and his cock throb. He wasn't sure what it was, but he knew one thing: this relationship couldn't work. Hell, maybe that was part of the attraction, that she was permanently out of his reach. He could touch her as much as she'd allow right now, but there was an end date to that. They could never belong to each other. He couldn't risk falling in love with her.

So maybe that was part of the urgency to see her again as soon as possible. All he knew for sure was that he couldn't wait for work to be over so he could meet her for dinner. More than that, he couldn't wait for it to be an hour after that, walking her home or maybe watching her sip a martini and waiting to touch her. Waiting to make her come again. Waiting to watch her face melt as he eased into her body.

Damn. He couldn't think about that as he was walking up to the municipal building. He shook off his thoughts of her and headed toward the back door of the fire station instead of the library. If William was around, Gabe would love a game. If not, he'd go for a quick run. A couple of the guys had already let Gabe know he was free to shower up at the station before work.

The door opened into a hallway and the first room he encountered was the locker area. The second was a large exercise room. One guy was lifting free weights, but it wasn't William. Gabe followed the sound of voices down the hallway and ended up in what looked to be a huge living area. He spotted William right away, planted in front of a big-screen TV that was bright with the vivid green of a soccer field.

“William,” he called. “You like to play sports or just watch them?”

“Hey, Gabe!” the firefighter shouted. His eyes flicked down to Gabe's shorts and the gym bag slung against his hip. “Did you come to get your ass kicked?”

“Something like that,” Gabe responded, “but not quite.”

William jumped up from his chair and headed toward Gabe when another firefighter called out from the couch. “Hey, Librarian, who was the hot blonde we saw you with last night?”

Gabe laughed and shook his head. “Just a date.”

“Nah,” William said, “she looked familiar. One of Lauren's friends.”

“Maybe,” Gabe said, then cleared his throat, torn between protecting her privacy and not trying to sweep her under the rug. “Veronica,” he finally offered.

“Yeah?” William pressed. “I'd ask for an introduction, but you two looked pretty damn friendly.”

He shrugged, but his stupid face gave him away. The cavernous room was suddenly filled with echoing hoots. He waved them off and turned to head back toward the court but found his way blocked by an imposing man with a very stern look on his face. Gabe backed up a step, then recognized the man as the fire captain, Jake Davis.

“Morning, Jake,” he offered. Lauren had already introduced Jake as her boyfriend, and the guy had seemed polite and friendly then. He didn't look polite and friendly now.

“Veronica?” Jake asked. “Veronica Chandler?”

“Yes?” Gabe started uncertainly.

“You're dating?”

“We've gone out a couple of times.”

“So it's...
casual
?”

Gabe wasn't quite sure how to respond to that. First, Veronica might be willing to be seen in public with Gabe, but that didn't mean she wanted him discussing their relationship with other people. Second, the captain hadn't exactly asked it in a friendly way.

Gabe glanced toward the roomful of men for help, but all their eyes were now locked studiously on the television, even William's.

“It's...um...” He wasn't sure why he was nervous, but it seemed as if he was about to answer a very important question. He finally settled on a nonanswer. “I've only been in town a couple of weeks. Lauren introduced us.”

Jake Davis grunted and narrowed his eyes at Gabe, seeming unimpressed with the explanation. Gabe felt like squirming, though he didn't know why. Probably something to do with the fact that Jake was old enough to be Veronica's father and Gabe had done filthy, filthy things to her only hours before.

He felt heat creep up the back of his neck, but he held the captain's gaze.

“She's very young,” Jake finally said. “I'd better not hear that you've pulled any crap with her.”

“Of course not,” Gabe answered.

“She's a nice girl.”

Gabe offered a crisp nod. “Yes, sir.”

Jake stared at him for a moment longer, then grunted again and disappeared into an office. The door slammed behind him.

Gabe felt William's hand land hard on his back. “Close one, my man.”

“What the hell was that? Is he a relative?”

“To the blonde? I don't think so, but the captain is old-fashioned. No shit-talking about women around here. I mentioned
once
what I wanted to do to a certain little librarian, and he put me on toilet duty for a month.”

“He caught you talking about Lauren?” Gabe asked in horror.

“No, not Lauren! I'm not an idiot. It was her friend. The one you replaced. I asked that girl out a dozen times. Anyway, just try to avoid him for a few days. He'll cool down.”

“But I didn't say anything!”

William shrugged and tipped his chin toward the door. “Come on. A little one-on-one.”

Gabe shook off the encounter and followed William outside to the court. It was only 9:00 a.m., but the sun had already started to warm up the day and it melted the new tension from his muscles.

Forty-five intense minutes later, Gabe had forgotten all about the interaction with Jake, and he was ready to get to work. Hair still damp from the shower, he slung his bag over his shoulder and crossed the ten feet between the fire station door and the library.

He was supposed to get the last of the bid numbers on the digital lending system today, and once that was resolved with Jean-Marie, he could start getting down to the nitty-gritty of it. They could strike an agreement with a lending company, get the software loaded onto a test server and then start integrating it into the existing library system. Once the bare bones were in place, Gabe would work on the collection with the other librarians.

Granted, actual lending was probably months away, but engineering it all would be fun as hell.

A half hour later, he was deep into a comparison spreadsheet he planned to present to Jean-Marie at the end of the day when Lauren burst into the tiny office that was tucked behind the circulation desk.

“Oh, my God, you sneaky little bastard.”

“What?” he snapped, whipping around.

“You totally pretended not to like Veronica when I introduced you!”

Gabe winced. Damn. Of course Jake had passed that information on to Lauren. Or maybe Veronica had told her? “Ah. Veronica.”

For a moment, he couldn't read her narrowed eyes, but then she smiled and kept smiling until he cleared his throat.

“How many times have you gone out?” she asked.

“A couple. But you'll have to ask her anything else.”

“Oh, you don't kiss and tell?” she crowed.

“No, I do not.”

She shoved his shoulder, sending the chair spinning back toward the computer. “I can't believe she didn't say anything to me! You were the one texting on her birthday! Why didn't she tell me?”

He shook his head. “Maybe because you and I work together?”

She nodded. Then her face fell. “Wait a minute. Does that mean I don't get details? That's not fair.”

Gabe hoped it was true. Lauren already felt like yet another big sister, as if Gabe didn't have enough of those.

“So...you like her, Gabe?” Lauren pressed.

“Yes,” he answered, starting work on his spreadsheet again in an effort to stave off more questions.

“She's great, isn't she?”

Shit. A smile tugged at his mouth and Lauren was standing right next to him. No question she could see it. He tried to cover himself by changing the subject. “Jake didn't seem happy to find out.”

“Oh, please,” she scoffed. “He's so overprotective. His daughter is about that age, so he likes to imagine that Veronica couldn't possibly be doing anything dirty. Even though his own daughter is married now! So...is she?”

“Married?” he asked in shock.

“No. Is Veronica doing anything dirty?”

Gabe could practically hear Veronica in his ear, begging him not to stop fucking her. Somehow, he kept his eyes on the screen and breathed slowly and his face didn't betray him with a blush. “Workplace,” he muttered.

“Shit,” Lauren bit out. “Don't report me.”

“Only because I'm scared of your boyfriend.”

She walked out but almost immediately stuck her head back into the room. “So you'll be at the show Thursday?”

“I will.”

“Great! You can sit at our table and convince Jake that you're good enough for Veronica.” She dropped that bombshell and disappeared.

Gabe groaned. Lauren really was like a big sister: sharp and admirable and infuriating. But he couldn't keep his irritation alive for long. In any normal situation, even if he and Veronica were only dating casually, he'd get to know her friends. They'd hang out together. And he wouldn't mind that at all. He liked Lauren, and he certainly liked Veronica enough to get to know the people in her life.

The problem was that this wasn't a normal situation. He didn't want to disrupt her world. He didn't want to find himself woven into it, knowing he was going to leave so many loose ends when he moved back to New York.

On the other hand, she'd already become a new passion, and she was the perfect addition to the perfect year in Jackson he had planned. Getting to know everything about her, teaching her everything he knew about sex, finding out what made her tick.

He rolled his shoulders and told himself it was too early to matter. They'd just started dating. They hadn't discussed how serious it was or even agreed to be exclusive. He could watch her show, hang out with her friends. It wasn't a big deal. It didn't have to be.

He checked to be sure Lauren hadn't reappeared in the doorway to drop another bomb, then set back to work on the spreadsheet. The library was fully staffed today, so unless it got busier than expected, he could devote himself to the project. Good news, because it was the only thing that could keep his mind from steadily straying back to Veronica. She'd already staked out an alarming amount of space inside his mind.

After working halfway through his lunch hour without realizing it, Gabe was just about to rush out the door to grab a sandwich when Jake Davis walked into the library, looking as if he was ready for a fight. Gabe had the completely irrational thought that Jake had somehow discovered that nice Veronica Chandler had been a virgin...until last night.

Adrenaline poured into Gabe's bloodstream and he stood straighter when Jake's eyes locked on him, but it turned out that Gabe had misidentified the threat.

“MacKenzie,” Jake barked. “We've got a river guide and four rafters trapped in a narrow offshoot of the Snake River. Two injuries, as far as we can gather. Quickest way in is from the top. You want to assist?”

Gabe's thinking slid from self-defense to rescue in half a second. “I'll tell Jean-Marie.”

“Meet us in the station in two minutes.”

Gabe had informed his new boss that he'd be serving with the rescue squad during the summer months, though he hadn't expected to be called up during training. Still, if five people needed to be lifted out of a canyon, they'd need as many hands as they could get. Jean-Marie gave her immediate okay for him to go, and Gabe grabbed his bag and rushed to the fire station. He was tugging on his workout shirt when William walked into the locker room and tossed him a pair of canvas work pants. “See if these fit and grab a sweatshirt out of one of the lockers. We roll in one minute.”

Gabe's phone rang as he buttoned the pants. He saw his sister's name and ignored it to grab a fire department hoodie and jog toward the garage bays, his heart still thumping with the rush. He couldn't talk to his sister right now, but he'd have to text Veronica and cancel their dinner plans tonight. He couldn't imagine he'd be back in town anytime soon. Even with all the excitement of the shouting firefighters and gathering volunteers, Gabe still winced in regret.

Gabe piled into a Search and Rescue SUV with three other guys, and it was just pulling out when Benton jogged up. “Hey,” he huffed as he jumped in next to Gabe. “What's the word?”

The guy in the driver's seat offered what little information they had.

“You guys got extra gear?” Benton asked.

“It's all in the back,” the driver answered, and Gabe breathed a sigh of relief. He was new to this and hadn't even considered he might need his own gear.

Benton slapped his thigh. “Ready for a baptism by fire?” he asked Gabe. “Or white water, I guess.”

“Hell, yeah,” he muttered. His heart beat hard with anticipation. If he hadn't gotten his MLIS, he might have ended up being a firefighter. He'd had the same fireman dreams so many kids had, but they'd come too late. He'd already been head over heels in love with the New York Public Library. With its white columns and stone lions, he'd always felt as though he was Indiana Jones going in to explore a long-lost temple.