Chapter 6
CHAPTER SIX
Ethan
“How long were you there?” I ask June as my truck rolls down the road—music playing through the speakers, the open windows filling the cab with fresh mountain air, the bed full of freshly cut wood.
“Three long years,” she says with a carefree laugh.
I glance over at her and my heart clenches.
Her elbow is resting on the door, her leg propped up on the seat, amber hair loose and whipping in the wind.
It feels so natural and right with her beside me.
It feels like I’ve known her my whole life.
I’ve never clicked with a woman like this before.
I’ve never clicked with anyone like this before.
Her hands move as she talks. She’s so expressive and animated, like her whole body is involved in telling the story along with her. I could listen to her stories for the rest of my life.
“If you made a mistake, he’d smack you with a bamboo stick,” she says, shaking her head. “He did that to me once and I told him I’d shove it into his pee-hole if he ever did that again.”
I get a little twinge of fury at picturing another man smacking her, but then I laugh, brushing it away. This fierce woman can handle herself.
“He didn’t understand me,” she says with a grin, “but he understood me, you know? Anyway, he never touched me again. He smacked my spinning wheel instead. The other apprentices weren’t so lucky though.”
She tells me all about buying and renovating the barn into a pottery studio and all of the big plans she’s working toward of owning her own shop in town. I just know she’s going to do it all. She’s the most determined woman I’ve ever met. It’s such a turn on.
I tell her about my family back home and how I wasn’t compelled to become a doctor. “I don’t know why. It just wasn’t me.”
“It kind of is though,” she says, watching me with her head tilted like she’s breaking me apart and trying to figure me out.
“How so?”
She shrugs that sexy shoulder that’s peeking out of her large shirt.
It’s been driving me crazy all day. “The way you were with me last night. So gentle and caring. I think you would have been a great doctor if you wanted to be. But either way you’re helping people and I can tell that’s what’s most important to you. ”
“Hmm,” I say as I turn to the road, her words swirling in my head. “I never thought of it like that.”
“I don’t think you’re so different from them at the core,” she says like she’s got it all figured out. And maybe she does. “You’re wearing different uniforms, but in the end you’re both helping people when they’re at their most vulnerable, keeping them safe, and protecting them.”
Her words flip a switch in me. Maybe I’m not the odd duck out after all. Maybe I wasn’t switched at birth and am more like my family than I ever thought before.
“So, the gardening,” she says, resting her head on the seat as she turns to watch me drive. “Was that just a calendar thing or is that for real?”
I smile as I turn to her. “Can I show you something?”
She gives me a sexy grin. “You can show me anything, Mr. April.”
I laugh and turn onto the next road. “It’s just a quick detour.”
I take her to the firehouse and park outside.
Her eyes light up as she gets out and looks up at it. “Am I going to get a tour of the firehouse?”
I put my arm around her shoulder and guide her in. “A VIP tour.”
She claps excitedly.
Mason and James are washing the truck and June thanks them for their help last night. I feel so proud as I walk beside her. They keep darting their eyes at me, probably wondering if we’re a thing now. If we aren’t, we will be soon. I guarantee it.
“Oh my god,” Ethan says when the short guy from last night walks in. He has three bright red scratches across his forehead. “Dude, you have to get that checked. You probably need a shot or something.”
“He came clean this morning,” Mason says, chuckling as he comes over with his soapy hands dripping on the floor.
“Shut up, Mason,” Doug says.
“What?” I ask, looking from one to the other.
“The raccoon didn’t do that?” I ask, pointing at the scratches.
“Ronnie?” June says. “Yeah, that guy is a jerk. He’s always getting into my garbage.”
Doug exhales long and hard. “No, he just lunged at me and I got scared and ran into a tree. The branches scratched me.”
Mason chuckles.
“Why did you say he attacked you?” I ask, laughing.
Doug just goes red.
“He thought it would make him sound tougher,” Mason says, cracking up.
“Shut up, Mason,” Doug says louder.
I move June along as they start to go at it. If we get sucked into their drama, we’ll never get out of it.
We head upstairs and I bring her onto the roof to show her my garden. Bubba is sound asleep by my arugula, but he wakes up when we close the door. He runs over, snorting and panting as he heads right for my girl.
June kneels down and lets him collide into her, shaking his butt and covering her jeans in fur.
“You grew all this?” she asks, looking amazed as she looks around at my garden. It’s only spring, but it’s still impressive since I’ve been growing the seedlings all winter. Plus, it’s well organized and well loved.
I smile when she gets up—Bubba following on her heels—and walks around, slowly inspecting each planter box.
“You’re an artist too,” she says.
“I don’t know if I’d call this art,” I say.
She just nods as she gently touches a tomato plant. “I would.”
I want her.
Badly.
My eyes turn ravenous as I watch her looking over my garden.
She brushes her fingers over the leaves like they’re something precious. The spring sunshine is shining on her, throwing warm golden rays across her skin. I stare at her in awe, wondering if I’ve ever seen something so beautiful before.
I can’t stop watching the way she moves—slow, sexy, and so fucking tantalizing. It’s like she’s trying to torture me. It’s like she knows exactly what she’s doing, but she doesn’t. It’s innocent and unconscious, and that makes it so much more tempting.
“What are these?” she asks, looking at a section of sprouts.
“Hot peppers. They don’t look like much yet, but they’ve got a bite.”
“Spicy,” she says in a sexy voice while giving me a dirty look.
It undoes me. It cracks my core open. I want to possess that sexy mouth of hers. I want to make her mine.
I’ve never felt so possessive of anything in my life. In this moment, it’s undeniable. I have to have her.
“Do you like it hot?” I ask in a low, deep voice as I prowl toward her.
Her eyes flicker with an acknowledgment that something has changed. That something is about to go down. And then she grins, loving it.
“How hot?” she whispers as I come up to her, close enough that I can smell the apricot shampoo in her hair.
I slide my hand onto her hip, feeling her shivering under me as I put my lips an inch away from her ear.
“Red hot,” I whisper. “So hot, you can’t breathe. So hot, you’ll be crying out.”
She sucks in a breath as her hand slides onto my arm, gliding over my bicep.
I move my head so I can look down into her sexy hazel eyes. They’re full of lust as she looks up at me, her breath coming out quicker and raspy. “Can you handle it?”
“I don’t know,” she whispers, our bodies coming together. “I might need a taste.”
That’s it. That’s the last thread.
I can feel the heat of her body burning for me as I grip her hips and kiss her.
It’s not a slow and cautious first kiss. It’s hungry and hard and raw and full of passion.
She grips my shirt in her fists and pulls me against her writhing body, shoving her tongue in my mouth as I hold her tight and kiss her just as hard.
All of the need and desire that’s been simmering all day boils over into this hot frenzy of a kiss.
We pull away—just for a moment—to look at each other. God, she’s so beautiful. I can’t even take it. My heart feels like it’s going to explode. My body feels like it’s going to combust.
Our eyes drop back down to each other’s mouths, and we lunge on each other again, kissing and pulling and moaning. My cock is so hard it’s aching. When she feels it against her hip, she pushes against it harder and I feel like I’m going to die if I don’t get inside this girl.
I slide my hand into her silky hair, tilting her jaw up so I can kiss her even deeper. These lips are so soft. So perfect. I need to be able to kiss them whenever I want. I need to taste them every day for the rest of my life.
Her eager hands slide into my beard, cupping my jaw and holding my mouth against hers. She moans as she kisses me without a single ounce of shyness or hesitation. When she whimpers softly, the sound goes straight to my core, and I almost lose my mind.
This woman is mine. I know it in my bones. I know it in the way my body molds around hers like it’s found home.
I need to know what else her sexy little tongue can do. I need to know how the rest of her tastes.
There’s a fire roaring through my veins when we finally break apart, still clinging, still holding each other tight, but giving our ravenous mouths a break.
Her hazel eyes are glassy and full of arousal as she looks up at me. I can only imagine what’s in my eyes right now, what I’m looking like. I want to devour this girl whole. I want to possess her. I want to own her.
I’m already addicted. I’m already obsessed.
Every thought from now on will be centered around her. I take deep breaths, trying to get myself under control.
“Too hot for you?” I ask with a grin.
She licks her lips like she’s trying to savour every last bit of my taste, and then shakes her head. “That was fucking perfect.”
She’s fucking perfect. And she’s mine.
June smiles—soft, breathless, dangerous—then steps on her toes and reaches for my mouth. She brushes her lips against mine, tempting me with another sexy moan.
I growl softly and pull her back against me, knowing—absolutely knowing—this is just the beginning.
I kiss her again, slower this time, sealing it.
There’s no putting this fire out now.