Chapter 13
ALEX
IndexEcho: I had a dream about you last night. Nothing inappropriate, just… us talking in person. Your voice was different than I imagined.
DrunkenPoet: Better or worse different?
IndexEcho: Soooo much better. I wanted to listen to it all night.
_____________________
When I woke up and heard about the fire, I didn’t think much of it. Unfortunately, brush fires were common around here in summer, and we’d had plenty of them. But then I’d overheard that the Legacy FD had been called in for the initial response and had stayed all night to contain it.
“Chief Kincaid was a beast,” Kinsey Pope had told Sadie at the Pinecone when I’d stopped in for coffee and a muffin.
She’d looked exhausted and proud, her hair still wet from a shower and her eyes bright with excitement.
“Man’s a good leader who gets right in there side by side with the crew.
And he’s strong as hell, hauling timber and equipment. ”
Sadie had winked at her. “Sounds like someone has a crush.”
Kinsey had shaken her head and grinned. “Little hero worship, maybe. But no crush. Besides, I think he has a girlfriend.”
I’d felt a little smug satisfaction knowing he didn’t, but I hadn’t been about to spill Kincaid’s beans all over town. “Hey, Sadie, can I get the breakfast special to go along with two coffees and an extra cinnamon roll?”
And now, here I was, stupidly standing on the fire chief’s front porch with breakfast in my hands when all the man probably wanted was some peace and quiet to catch up on sleep.
Well, fuck that. I was here, and his eggs were getting cold.
I banged my fist on the door again, and this time, I was rewarded. Except instead of seeing an angry Kincaid, I saw a bleeding Kincaid.
“What the hell happened to you?” I asked, shoving past him so I could put the box of food and coffees down. “No one said you were hurt.”
“Because I’m not.” His voice was sleep-graveled and rough. “What are you doing here?”
I pointed to the box while moving to the bathroom I could see across the open kitchen and living area. “You have a first aid kit in here?”
He poked through the box, pulling out one of the coffees. “Ah, I’m less annoyed now,” he grumbled before taking a sip and groaning in pleasure.
I found Band-Aids and ointment in the cabinet below the sink and moved back out to the kitchen, where he was propped against the counter, cradling the coffee cup.
“You just here to rifle through my shit?” he asked, lifting an eyebrow.
He looked downright edible. Shirtless and wearing nothing but a faded pair of cotton pajama pants slung dangerously low on his hips. My brain skidded to a halt.
I took him all in. The broad chest peppered with crinkly hair that made my fingers itch. The patchwork of raised scars on his forearm I felt the strangest urge to kiss. The slightly padded belly I wanted to drag my lips down. The hint of pubic hair above the drawstring of his pajama pants.
I may have let out a gurgle.
“That right?” he asked, amusement clear in his voice.
I blinked at him. “You have blood crust on your face.”
“Baby, you weren’t lookin’ at my face,” he drawled before taking another sip of coffee.
Maybe I hadn’t been, but I was now. His dark eyes danced, and his grin was wicked. I cleared my throat. “Sit. Let me clean you up and see what’s going on. How’d you hit your head?”
He moved over to the kitchen table, but not before grabbing the to-go container with his breakfast platter in it. “It’s only a scratch from a branch. I cleaned it last night in the shower.”
I wetted a paper towel in the sink and then moved close to stand between his legs. When he tried to fork a bite of eggs around me, I swatted his hand away. “Stay still.”
Kincaid dropped the fork and moved his hands to the backs of my thighs. That’s when I realized my dick was very visible from his position. And it was misbehaving.
“Staying still,” he murmured. Except he wasn’t. Because his hands slowly moved up the backs of my thighs toward the crease of my ass.
Oxygen wasn’t as plentiful at Kincaid’s house as it was at mine, but I did my best to wash off the crusty remnants of dried blood before putting ointment on the nasty cut and bandaging it carefully.
Throughout the entire process, I felt his dark eyes on me and his warm hands on my legs.
“Er, thanks for… the fire,” I began stupidly. “I mean… fighting the fire. Putting it out.”
“It’s my job.”
“No, I know. But from what I heard, it was near the back of Lennon’s ranch. It could have been really bad if you guys hadn’t gotten it under control.”
He moved his hands up, skimming them over my ass until they were curled around my hips. “You’re welcome.”
I stared at the clean bandage and the place where one of my hands was still brushing his hair back from his forehead. His hair was messy and wild, sticking up on one side. There was a pillowcase crease on his cheek.
“Sorry I woke you,” I breathed, not moving an inch. If I moved, he’d take his hands off me.
“I’m not.” He moved forward to rest his forehead on my chest. “Because Sadie makes the best hash browns ever.”
I moved my hands into his hair, holding him against my chest for a beat. “The eggs are probably gross by now. But there’s bacon. And I picked up a cinnamon roll in case you wanted something sweet.”
Kincaid pulled back and met my eyes. “I do want something sweet.”
Okay. I was in way over my head. “Well, um. It’s… it’s in that box, so let me go grab…” I moved out of his reach and escaped to the kitchen counter to grab the rest of the food I’d brought. The sound of his low chuckle followed me.
Kincaid dug into the breakfast I’d brought him and finished up the coffee while I took nervous sips of mine in the chair next to his.
“Are you going back to sleep?” I asked, then answered before he could. “Probably not with all that caffeine, sorry.”
He shook his head. “I need to head to the station. And I appreciate you bringing me breakfast and coffee.”
I felt suddenly awkward. Why had I come here? It wasn’t to thank him. For fuck’s sake, he was right. Fighting fires was his job. Was I going to thank him after every fire?
“I was worried,” I admitted in a soft voice. My finger traced the whorls and lines of the wood grain in his kitchen table.
He moved his chair a little closer and put his hand on the side of my neck, moving my face with his thumb until I had to look at him. “Why?”
I pressed my lips together, trying to determine whether to confide in him or not.
“I had a friend who was killed. He was a firefighter, too. I…” I blew out a breath.
“I don’t want to lose another friend.” I stood and began gathering the breakfast trash.
“Anyway, glad you enjoyed the food. I’d better head to work, too. ”
Kincaid reached for my wrist and then pulled me until I was straddling awkwardly over his lap. “Sit.”
As soon as I let my weight settle, I felt the press of his hard cock under my ass. His eyes watched me. “I’m sorry about your friend.”
I nodded and felt a little bit like crying. IndexEcho had been a good man. A kind soul. And I missed him dearly.
But I couldn’t deny being nearly as overwhelmed by this man as I’d been by my online boyfriend. “Thanks.”
“I want you, Alex,” he said in a low voice. “But I meant what I said. I’m not looking for a relationship.”
“Me neither,” I said quickly, lying better than I ever had in my life. “Not at all. I just want some experience. Physical. Sexual, I mean.” My cheeks ignited. “Obviously, that’s what I mean.”
He bit back a smile and rolled his hips so I could feel his cock was still hard beneath me. “Okay, so we’re going to lay out some ground rules.”
My eyes began blinking maniacally. Was this actually happening? “Yeah, ’course. Me too. Ground rules.”
“First, we’re going to take it slow. And you’re going to tell me to stop when I do something that makes you feel uncomfortable.”
I nodded. “That’s not going to happen. What’s next?”
“Second, our jobs come first. If one of us has to work, that’s it. No questions asked. We both care a lot about our careers, and I need you to know where my priorities are. Okay?”
There was me, the bobblehead again. “Of course. Same. Timber means everything to me.”
“This also means that my inspections of Timber continue per our agreement. You can still be annoyed as hell, but that doesn’t change anything.
My job is more important to me than you are, Marian.
And I don’t plan on putting myself at risk of being seen as influenceable if anyone catches wind of us fucking around.
If anything, I want them to think us hooking up made me more of a hard-ass. Do you understand?”
Now, this one made me pause. “Are you going to be worse than you already are?” I asked incredulously. “Because you’re hot, but not that hot.”
He grabbed my face and pulled me in, crushing our mouths together in a hard kiss. Once again, I was powerless under the sheer intensity of his commanding presence. He owned that kiss. And me.
When he finally pulled back, I sucked in a heaving breath. “Yeah, okay.”
Kincaid’s bottom teeth pinched his upper lip to keep from laughing. “Good.”
He leaned in and kissed me again, only this time, he started with my lips and moved across my cheek and down one side of my neck until his stubbled chin moved the collar of my shirt down. His warm tongue tipped into the little divot at the base of my throat.
“Last rule,” he murmured against my skin.
“Yeah.” My voice was breathy and strange.
“No Monroe.” His voice was firm and the message clear. “If you’re kissing me, you’re not kissing anyone else. Do you understand?”
A bubble of incredulous laughter escaped. “There’s not a long line of people waiting.”
“Bullshit.”
I shrugged. “No sense in arguing because I agree. But that rule goes both ways, Chief.”
“Noted.”
I reached out and flicked his bare nipple. “Say you agree.”
“Ow,” he said with a laugh, covering the injury. “You’re a cruel negotiator.”
I moved my hands to his shoulders and up into the back of his thick hair. “Oh, is this a negotiation? These are negotiable terms?”
His eyes were bright, and his cheeks were flushed. He looked downright edible. “Definitely not.”
“Mm.” I moved my hands around to cup his cheeks before meeting his eyes. “So when do my lessons start, Professor?”
“You haven’t agreed to the rules yet.”
“Yes I did!”
“Tell me it’s just me until it’s over. I’m really not good at sharing, Firebug.”
His large hands moved up my back under my shirt, and my skin prickled with millions of goose bumps. “Yeah. Okay. Yeah.”
The edge of his lips quirked up on one side. “I have to go into the station. And then I need a regular night’s sleep. Come back tomorrow night. We can start then.”
Somehow, there were enough vestiges of rational thought left in my brain to remember, “Tomorrow’s Monday night. We’re doing a big pizza-and-beer-flights thing for the football game. It’s going to be too busy for me to—”
He cut me off. “Enough said. Work comes first. What about Tuesday night?”
I nodded with relief. I could make it to Tuesday night. No problem.
Except when Tuesday night rolled around, Kincaid was caught on the mountain on a training exercise. And then Wednesday night, I had a family thing.
It started to feel like by the time we both had another night free, I’d be the oldest virgin in the modern era.
And then the texts and stolen moments began.