Chapter 23
Pace
The kiss was over a second after it started.
Her lips met mine, and the shock of it caused me to freeze.
I hadn’t expected her here at all, and then she was running toward me, more terrified than I’d ever seen her.
And she’d been scared most of our time together.
And then, just as I registered that she was terrified for me and I reassured her, her lips were suddenly on me.
I had been in firefighting mode. Not charming-Pace mode.
Literally and emotionally, two very different hats.
I stared down with what must have been an utterly dumbstruck expression as she slowly moved back down and away from me.
She’d come for me. She’d been worried about me. I swelled with a feeling I couldn’t define; it was good but also made my throat tight with emotion. She cared about me and not just the list.
“Sorry, that was—” She shook her head, chin tucked to hide her face. “Sorry,” she repeated. “I can’t believe I just did that.”
My systems slowly switched over, alerting me that the incredible woman I’d been losing my mind over for the last few weeks had just kissed me, and I’d done nothing.
Fire-danger risk assessment: zero.
Desirable-woman-waiting-for-reaction risk assessment: through the roof.
“Sophie,” I whispered roughly from the smoke. I threaded my hand around the back of her neck and into her hair. I used my thumb to gently tilt her chin up for her to meet my eyes.
I was covered in soot, hands rough and cut, even with gloves, from fighting with this out-of-control blast. She was too soft and beautiful for me to cup her face like this. Too gentle, too pure to be defiled by the likes of me.
But I’d been given the go-ahead, and I was taking the shot.
My joy was too effervescent to shove back down. She’d come here for me. She’d been looking for me. She’d kissed me.
I ran my thumb over her lip, mostly healed, marveling at how soft she was, how she let me degrade her with this small touch. I grinned like the lovesick fool that I was.
Her eyes flicked back and forth as they moved over my features, wide and eager for what I’d do next.
“You just surprised me, is all. Can we try that again?” I asked.
She swallowed to take in a shaking breath. Her mouth parted slightly, and then she nodded. My smile widened, and she whimpered.
I dropped my head, letting my lips find hers.
I inhaled her, hovering on the brink of pressure, my touch light so I could tease out the softness of her mouth first. Finally, when I’d felt that I’d had that initial sensation memorized, I lowered, let myself test a firmer pressure of her lips.
It still wasn’t a moving kiss, more a brushing of my lips against her.
Sophie stood up taller with an impatient huff, closing any distance I’d allowed, causing our mouths to move against each other’s in earnest. With a shared moan of pleasure, we opened our mouths, no more hesitation as tongues clashed, seeking, tasting.
My mouth watered with her sweet taste, my body tensed to have her.
Again, I wished I wasn’t so sweaty and filthy from work.
My other arm moved around her back, bringing her closer to me.
She threw her arms around my neck like she had when she first saw me.
I groaned as the length of our bodies connected.
The kiss deepened as we learned each other.
I’d thought about this so much I couldn’t believe it was finally happening. I needed more.
The hand that held her to me began to move up and down her back, comforting yet desperate at the same time. Her body still trembled, but I hoped not from fear anymore.
Soft enough to be lost to anybody who wasn’t as close as I was, her needy sounds drove me wild. I was losing control quickly. I hadn’t yearned like this in so long. I wanted to pull her legs up and wrap her around me. I wanted to push her up against the fire truck and do filthy things to her.
She, too, seemed to feel the same ferocity overtaking us. Her mouth moved with a needy rhythm as my hands struggled to stay in place, thumbs rubbing along her rib cage and up her sides.
If I could feel more skin . . . lay her naked into sheets.
We burned too hot, too fast. This kiss flamed out of control too quickly. A fire made of expectorant burned too quick and had no lasting power. But I wanted this to last beyond a fleeting moment. I wanted a long, slow burn with Sophie.
A voice in the back of my mind yelled that this wasn’t the time or place. I had just been about to break the kiss, maybe . . . eventually, when a whistle beat me to it.
“Take it somewhere else, Leigh. No civilians need to be this close,” Chief Sutter shouted.
Reluctantly, bashfully, she pulled away.
A slow smile spread as she bit her bottom lip.
My heart raced harder than it had when I’d rushed into that factory earlier.
She was heart-achingly beautiful as she looked up at me with a sheepish grin.
Flushed cheeks and plump, red lips. Eyes I could fall into.
I wanted to learn to draw so that I could have an excuse to stare at her uninterrupted for hours.
I was in so much trouble.
I’d heard the other guys talk about the adrenaline rush of a fire and the desire it caused.
Like it was some long dormant animal instinct to claim what was yours and ravage it after the adrenaline burst of fighting fire.
I had never felt that. I understood the adrenaline crash, but it had made me want to work out, burn off steam.
I’d never needed to be doused by consuming another person so desperately.
Not even close. But I understood it now.
I wanted her ferociously. I wanted to pour all this abundant heat I’d taken in and slowly release it over several hours with my tongue and her body.
So lost that I was, I had forgotten about the people all around, watching us.
Sophie was a fire I’d let consume me without a second thought.
The catcalls and whistles registered on delay.
Sophie brought a hand to her lips, eyes wide in surprise.
I hoped my pleasure was written all over me as it was on her dazed face.
Without wasting another second, I scooped Sophie up and carried her back across the street to where she’d come running, away from the clapping and whooping.
Claire and Levi waited there, but I wasn’t ready for company, so I set her down a few yards away, and they pretended not to notice us.
Claire did very little to hide the happy surprise all over her face until Levi gently turned her back to him.
“Did we just—in front of everyone?” Sophie asked as reality brought her shoulders closer to her ears.
“Yes, we did,” I said as confidently as any crowing cock.
“I have never done anything like that,” she said.
“Me neither,” I said softer, and lowered to kiss her cheek.
I hadn’t released her completely yet. My hands still rested on her shoulders, so it was easy to distract her by running a finger down the column of her neck to the strange houndstooth coat she wore.
“I like your costume.” I grinned.
She swallowed and blinked. “God, I completely forgot I was wearing it. I forgot it was Halloween. I forgot we were on Earth,” she mumbled.
“I get the text hint now. Sherlock Holmes.” I thought of the confusing emojis she’d sent, understanding now—the okay or sure sign, a lock, and a house or a home.
“That feels forever ago.” Her hand reached up and rubbed something off my cheek.
“Sorry. I’m so filthy,” I said.
She bit her lip. Her gaze raked me up and down. Without my jacket and blanket, my sweat had long cooled. I was dressed in only my pants, boots, shirt, and suspenders. I preened under her long gaze that tracked over my body as I got goose bumps.
“I do not mind,” she said.
Her hands ran down my arms under the guise of warming me up, but spent a lot of time in the bicep/tricep region.
“And sorry about our plans for the night. And that we couldn’t mark tonight off the list.”
She frowned. “I—It’s okay. Obviously. You’re a literal hero.”
“What’s wrong?” I asked and smoothed the pinch between her brows.
I worried that she regretted the kiss. That the whole thing was a mistake in the heat of the moment.
“I guess I forgot that when you aren’t helping me and most of the town and charming the pants off everybody, that you’re an actual freaking hero. You go running into buildings that are on fire.” Her voice was threaded with disbelief.
I shrugged. “Yep. That’s sort of the whole thing.”
“You’re amazing,” she said with such earnest sincerity that my throat tightened.
“You’re pretty amazing yourself,” I said, but the words came out rough.
She glanced around. I watched as she looked to Levi and Claire, across the road to the fire crew and all the people—some of them still looking at us—before coming back to meet my gaze.
It was hard to tell in the little bit of light from the scene, but the color drained from her. “I can’t believe I just came here. To your place of work like some stalker.”
I didn’t want to admit how much I liked it because I didn’t want her to get into the habit of throwing herself into dangerous situations.
Even if it stroked my ego. I never thought I was jealous of the guys with wives and partners.
They showed up with food or supported them at events.
A forever built-in plus-one. I didn’t think it was something I wanted, let alone as desperately as I wanted it now, staring down at Sophie.
I would drag her all over town and show her off.
“And then I just kissed you in front of everyone like that,” she said.
I straightened, feeling a hundred feet tall. “I kissed you back.”
“I am so sorry. People are going to talk.”
“I don’t mind,” I said.
She stilled and studied me carefully, not giving anything away.
“Do you?” I asked. Because, of course, she did. All she did was worry about what people thought.
“I can honestly say I haven’t thought clearly in hours,” she said.
That wasn’t the answer I’d been hoping for. Did she think the gossip mill would assume we were dating now? Was that so bad?
She smashed herself against me to hug me again. Her ear pressed against my chest. Could she hear how hard she made my heart beat for her?
“I’m all dirty,” I said futilely, but lowered my arms to squeeze her back.
Hugs were so nice.
“I’m just glad you’re okay,” she said. “That’s all that matters to me.”
I kissed the top of her head. “I’m okay.”
The fire chief whistled for me from across the street. “Yo, Leigh. Not done yet.”
I waved back to him in acknowledgment.
“I better go,” I said to Sophie.
“Yeah. God. Of course. Go do your job.” She rubbed at her temples, and I knew she’d be beating herself up all night for showing up here.
“You can’t be hard on yourself about this,” I told her.
She frowned, and I could see her thoughts churning.
“Hey.” I grabbed her hand and squeezed it. “I like that you came. I like that you worried about me. It means you’re thinking about me.” I tried to sound light despite the absolute truth of my words.
I loved that she showed up. I loved that all the guys got to see that she was worried about me, and honestly, I wouldn’t care if the whole town knew. It was so nice to be fussed over by Sophie.
“I’m always thinking about you, Pace,” she said as though that were the most obvious thing.
It didn’t even matter how much shit I got from the other guys. I didn’t stop smiling the rest of the night.