Flashpoint

Chapter 9

At Zach’s response to her kiss-a thrillingly low, rough sound from deep in his throat-Brooke melted and kissed him again, and then again…

“Brooke.”

Lifting her head, she looked into his eyes.

His breathing had gone uneven, and against her body she could feel his, solid and warm and…hard.

Very hard.

She put her hand to his chest and felt the solid thudding of his heart. “Don’t change your mind.”

“No.” Eyes hot, a low laugh escaped Zach. “No. But we could go to my place, or-”

“No.” She wanted another kiss. She loved the way he tasted, the way he smelled, so innately male she could hardly stand it. How long since she’d felt this way? Too long, that’s all she knew. “Right here. It’ll help me relax, Zach. I really need to relax.”

Laughing silkily, he slid his hands to her waist, squeezed, then let them glide up her ribs, stopping just before her breasts. Her aching breasts. “Anything to help,” he murmured, leaning in to kiss her again.

That worked. So worked. He wanted her. She could feel it in the tension in his broad shoulders, in the taut muscles of his back. Knowing it gave her a heady rush of power, and she demanded more, pressing closer.

His hands slid down her back, pulling her onto his lap, making her momentarily lose concentration as she tried to remember-did she have on pretty panties?-but then she couldn’t think at all because his hands were skimming beneath her dress and were on those panties, and he let out another of those sexy rough sounds…

Oh yeah, letting loose worked. She should have tried it a long time ago. Already it was beating back the inexplicable loneliness she hadn’t been able to put a name to. With Zach, she never felt alone; it was part of his appeal. He fascinated her. He had from the start. He was such a presence, so virile, so physical-especially right this minute.

“Brooke?”

He wore his intense firefighter face, or maybe that was just his intensity, period, but mixed in with it was need and desire, stark, glorious desire-for her. “Yes?”

His eyes were on hers as his hands continued to mess with her mind. “What are you wearing beneath this dress?”

“Not much.”

The sound he made gave her another heady rush, and she gripped the hem of his T-shirt. Helping her, he tugged it over his head, then pulled her back in. The full physical contact made her hum, and then his fingers played with the tie at the back of her neck, the only thing holding up her dress, and the breath evaporated in her lungs.

“Your skin is so soft.” He was touching as much of it as he could, running his hands up and down her sides, her arms, her back, under her dress, pressing his face to her throat. “And you smell so damn good…”

He smelled good, too. So good she leaned in and put her mouth to his shoulder, opening it on him because she needed a taste, just a little teeny tiny taste-

He sucked in a breath when she bit him.

“Sorry,” she managed behind a horrified laugh when he lifted his head. “I’m sorry. I couldn’t help it, I just had to-”

The words backed up in her throat as the front of her dress slipped to her waist. He immediately filled his hands with her breasts. “Sorry,” he murmured, repeating her words. “I couldn’t help it, I just had to.”

She would have laughed again but his thumbs slowly rasped over her nipples, and any laughter vanished. Unbelievable. She was closer to an orgasm than she’d been during the last time she’d actually had sex. “Zach…”

“Relaxing yet?” His voice was low, silky.

“T-trying.”

“Good. You keep trying.” Bending her back over his arm, he dragged hot, wet, openmouthed kisses down her throat and across a breast, and sucked her into his mouth.

At the feel of his tongue stroking her nipple, she gasped, and then again when he settled her so that his erection pressed against the core of her.

He felt hard, very hard. And big. She looked into his glittering eyes, gulping as his hands slid down her thighs, then up the backs of them to play with the edging of her panties.

Oh, God. This was happening. They were doing this. She untied his board shorts.

He hooked his thumbs in the sides of her panties.

She tugged his shorts down, freeing the essentials.

He repeated the favor with her panties and slipped his hardness between her legs, using the rough pad of one finger to stroke her.

She quivered. “Zach-”

He did it again, adding a second finger, and she tightened her legs on his hand so he couldn’t stop, because if he did she was going to die.

“I won’t stop,” he promised, reading her mind, playing in the slippery heat he’d generated, a heat she’d forgotten existed.

“Condom,” she managed.

He went utterly still, then pressed his forehead to hers. “Christ. I don’t-Brooke. I didn’t think about-”

“I have one.”

His gaze, so steamy hot it singed everything it touched, met hers.

“In my purse. It’s been there for a while…” She fumbled for the zippered compartment. “I wish I had two-”

His laugh was soft and sexy as he took it from her fingers. “This’ll work for now.”

Biting her lower lip, she nodded, touching his chest, his flat abs, and then lower still, where his shorts were opened.

He stopped breathing.

So did she.

Bold in a way she hardly recognized, she wrapped her fingers around him. Loving the way that made him let out a rough oath, she slowly stroked. Swearing again, he slid the skirt of her dress up to her waist, baring her to the night and his searing gaze.

“Um…”

“Relaxed yet?”

“Not quite, no.” Her dress was now bunched across her belly, leaving her hanging out in the wind. Literally. Relaxed? Try wound up tighter than a coil.

“Lie back, Brooke.”

Doing so would pretty much spread her out like a feast. “Yeah, but-”

He merely laid her back himself. Towering over her, he slid a leg between hers and glided his hands down her arms to join his fingers with hers. “How about now? Relaxed now?” he murmured, pulling their entwined hands up, over her head.

Was he kidding? She was so far from relaxed she couldn’t even remember the meaning of the word. He was holding her down in the dark, only the moonlight slashing across his face, making him look like a complete stranger. But instead of the logical response of panic, she arched up against him, wanting more.

He gave it to her. Lowering his mouth to within a fraction of hers, he nipped at her lower lip, then danced his tongue to hers, long and sure and deep, and she gave back everything she got.

She was a different woman with him, someone who let herself live and love. And she wanted to be loved, more than she’d imagined. Closing her eyes, she rocked into him, moving impatiently against him, her fingers digging into the muscles of his back. “Zach, please.”

“I plan to. I plan to please you until you-”

“Relax?”

“Come.” He slid down her body, kissing her stomach, her ribs. “And then again.” Making himself at home between her thighs, he smiled wickedly. “And again.”

Oh, God. If he kept at it, she was going to go off in approximately two minutes-

He gave a slow, sure stroke of his tongue and she revised her estimation to two seconds. His hands skimmed up her legs to her inner thighs, holding her right where he wanted her, and then he added a finger to the mix and she couldn’t have stopped from exploding to save her life. It hit her like a freight train, and he made her ride it out to the very end, slowly bringing her down…

After a moment, or maybe a year, she came back to her senses and realized she lay there on the rock, staring up at the stars, her hands fisted in Zach’s hair, holding him to her in a way that would have horrified her if she’d been capable of rational thought, which she wasn’t. Not quite yet.

He pressed his lips to one inner thigh, then the other, then crawled up her body, his mouth trailing hot and wet kisses along her skin as he went. She ran her hands up and over his back, his shoulders, and he let out a quiet sound of pleasure.

Taking her face in his hands, his mouth came back on hers as he pushed inside her, filling her so that she thought she might burst, holding her there on the very edge with fierce thrusts that sent pleasure spiraling through her, so far beyond anything she could have imagined. They never stopped kissing, not until the end when she fell apart for him again, and when he did the same for her, his head thrown back, her name on his lips.

When it was over, he rolled to his back so that they lay there on the rock side by side, breathing like lunatics, staring up at the stars, listening to the ocean crashing onto the sand just below them.

“That was…” She let out a half laugh. Words failed.

“Yeah.” His voice was husky, rough. “That was.”

Turning her head, she looked at him and felt her heart catch at the sight of him, all long, defined grace, lit only by the silvery moon, which was a good color for him. Hell, any color would be good for him with that mouthwatering body.

Shifting to his side, he smiled as he reached for her and pulled her against him.

A cuddle.

Damn it, he really knew the moves, didn’t he. Hard to keep her distance with him, that was for sure. But she was letting loose, so what the hell. Brooke scooted in as tight as she could get, loving the steady thud of his heart beneath her ear, loving the warm strength of his body all around hers, loving the feel of his hands skimming over her. “Maybe we should get up before we forget we only had the one condom.”

His answer was a soft laugh, and he pressed his mouth to her ear. “There are plenty of ways around that.”

She stared into his naughty, bad-boy smile, a smile that assured her that whatever ways he had in mind, she was going to like them. Her body was already halfway to another orgasm at just the thought. “The party.”

“Yeah.” He let out a breath. “Right.”

“I mean, we should go, right? Blake said you need the kiss-up points with the chief.” She sat up, looking for her panties, which were behind them, lying on top of his shorts. It was silly, given what they’d just done, but it looked so intimate. Too intimate. Snatching them both, she tossed him his shorts, and watched him pull them on that body she could happily look at unclothed for hours.

Days.

Weeks. Oh, God. So much for keeping her head.

She spent the next few awkward seconds trying to right her dress, and not having much luck until he turned her away from him and tied her halter himself. “Brooke?”

Just the sound of his voice did her in. Closing her eyes, she swallowed hard. “Yeah?”

Zach stroked a finger down the back of her neck, evoking a shiver and a yearning that weakened her knees again. “I loved watching you let loose.”

“Twice.”

He grinned as he pulled on his shirt. “I still think we should try for a perfect hat trick.”

“Party,” she said weakly, tempted to do just that. “We’re going to the party.”

They walked down the beach toward the party together, Brooke’s mind working overtime. The hot, sexy guy walking alongside her had seen her naked.

Touched her naked.

Kissed her naked-

“Well, well. What do we have here?”

Brooke jerked her thoughts to the present and looked at Cristina, who stood in front of them on the sand in a tiny bikini top and a pair of board shorts riding low on her trim hips. “You two look quite…flushed this evening.”

Just behind her, the chief’s birthday bash appeared to be in full swing. There was a big bonfire and several barbecues going. Music blared out of a set of speakers, and people were sitting on the sand, standing around the fire or dancing. Aidan was swaying like peanut butter on jelly with a pretty brunette. Dustin and Sam were happily flipping burgers. Blake was adding logs to the fire.

There were a bunch of other people, as well, from different shifts and different firehouses. In the center, enjoying the attention, stood Chief Allan Stone himself. A tall man in his fifties, he had the air of an army general and commanded respect-even fear-on the job. But tonight he was smiling and looking more comfortable than Brooke had ever seen him.

But mostly all she could see was the cynical twist to Cristina’s lips as the female firefighter took the time to scrutinize Brooke from head to toe.

Brooke could only imagine what she looked like, and shifting uncomfortably, glanced down at herself. Yep, her dress was a wrinkled mess, not a surprise given that ten minutes ago it’d been rucked up to her waist.

Zach reached out and pulled something from her hair. A piece of dried seaweed. Perfect.

“I’d call the cute police,” Cristina said dryly, “but they wouldn’t know who to arrest first.” And with that, she turned and walked back to the fire.

“She knows,” Brooke whispered.

Well, she wouldn’t go back and change it even if she could. She’d be remembering tonight for many, many nights to come, and would undoubtedly get all hot and bothered all over again at the remembering, and maybe even ache over what might have been, but she wouldn’t take it back.

“Ready?” he asked.

She nodded, and they joined the crowd. Zach was immediately pulled away and put on barbecue duty, leaving her standing on the outskirts, a little bit anxious. Which was ridiculous. She’d just been bare-ass naked on a rock, she sure as hell could handle this.

Dustin came up to her and offered a plate of food. He waited until she’d taken a big bite of the burger. “Hungry, huh?”

She slid him a glance. “Yes.”

He nodded and said nothing else. Just stared a little glumly at the dance floor where Cristina was dirty dancing with someone Brooke had never seen before. “Why don’t you ask her to dance?” she asked.

“Because she’d think it was funny.”

“Funny that you have a crush on her?”

“I don’t have a crush on her.” He sighed. “Okay, I do. Shit.”

Sam and Eddie brought Brooke a drink. “To replenish the fluids,” Sam explained. Both men looked at her expectantly.

“What?”

“You tell us,” Eddie said.

Instead, she took another large bite of her burger.

“Don’t you have anything you want to share?” Sam looked hopeful. “With your two best friends?”

“We’re best friends?”

They both nodded eagerly. “So if something was on your chest,” Sam said. “And you just needed to, you know, get it off-”

“In detail,” Eddie added. “We’re all ears.”

Her burger congealed in her gut. “You know?”

“Oh, we know all.”

She looked at Dustin, who grimaced, then nodded. She handed him back the plate, and Eddie the drink, and then walked off. She stopped at the water’s edge.

“Stop sulking, will you?”

Brooke turned and faced Cristina. “I’m not sulking.”

“Pouting, then. Look, this is a fire station. We’re all walking God complexes who put our lives on the line every day, and yet socially? Immature as high school kids. Come on-” she snorted when Brooke scoffed “-we love to talk. You’ve given us something new to talk about. Deal with it.”

Brooke sighed. “How long will it last?”

“Until it’s over.”

“It is over.”

“Please.” “It is. It was a one-time-only thing.”

“Okay, now I know you’re crazy.”

“Why?”

“Why would you sleep with that man only once? That’s just a waste of all that hotness.”

“I’m leaving in a few weeks. We agreed it was just a letting-loose thing.”

Cristina stared at her, then laughed. “And let me guess. You’re already regretting that stupid decision.”

Brooke looked away, into the bonfire. “No.” Yes.

Cristina just shook her head. “Well, lucky for me, your shortsightedness is another woman’s gain.” And she walked away in her sexy little top and shorts, heading directly toward Zach, stopping to hug Blake.

Zach stood at one of the barbecues, holding a long spatula, flipping burgers and laughing at something Aidan was saying to him. Just looking at him, something happened inside Brooke. A clutch. A quiver.

What would it be like if she wasn’t leaving? she wondered.

But she always left.

Always.

Besides, she’d said no strings. She’d insisted. She’d come here tonight, just wanting to let go, to live and, oh boy, had she. She just hadn’t realized that in doing those things, something else would happen.

In spite of her promise, she’d begun to fall for Zach.

She watched as Cristina took the plate out of his hands and handed it to Aidan before drawing Zach over to where people were dancing, proceeding to grind up against him in tune to the music.

“Here.”

Brooke stared down at the proffered beer, then into Blake’s face.

“You looked like you could use it,” the tall, thin firefighter said gently.

“I…”

“Drink. Then we’ll dance. If it makes you feel better, you can rub all over me like she is with Zach. I’m a good friend like that.”

“I’m not jealous or anything.”

“Okay.”

“I’m not.”

He just nodded.

And she drank the beer, then took him up on his offer to dance.