Ignite (Wildwood 1)

“Exactly. And they won’t do anything about it either.” He touched her. He couldn’t resist, had been dying to do it since he first saw her. Pushing a wild strand of hair away from her face, he tucked it behind her ear, his fingers lingering on her skin. “You look pretty this morning, Harper.”

“I’m still wearing my makeup from last night.” She pointed at her eyes, which were still rimmed with eyeliner. “I collapsed into bed once I got home and forgot to take it off.”

“Slept all right?” She had the lightest smattering of freckles across the bridge of her nose. He wanted to count them. With his lips.

“Amazing.” She smiled. “Crazy what a night of sex does for you.”

“So it was good?” What the hell? Had he turned into an insecure kid who needed constant reassuring that what they shared had been good enough for her? That she was satisfied? Yeah, she’d come two times so she better say she was satisfied.

“You know it was good, but if you need to hear it again . . . ” She stepped even closer to him, settling her hands on his shoulders and rising on tiptoe so she could whisper in his ear. “It was really, really good last night, West. Like, the best I’ve ever had.”

Smiling, he slipped his arm around her waist and dipped his head, pressing his mouth to her neck. Fuck, her smell was addictive. He couldn’t get enough of it. Couldn’t get enough of her. “I can give you more if you’d like.”

She withdrew f

rom him, her hands dropping from his shoulders, regret etched all over her face. “Oh, I have to work today. Sorry.”

Damn it, his arms felt empty without her in them. “How about later? After you’re done with work?”

“I don’t know.” She shrugged. “I’m not sure how long it’s going to take for me to clean out that office. I’m determined to get it done in two weeks. Everyone who works at the BFD laughed at me when I said that, and I’m dying to prove them wrong.”

He admired her determination, but he’d much prefer if she said screw it and came home with him instead. He had nothing planned today. The weather was nice, if a little warm, and there was a breeze. The makings of fire weather, though it was still too early in the summer to do any serious damage—or so he hoped. With the drought conditions, anything could happen. “It’s my last day off. I go back on shift tomorrow morning.”

“Aw.” She frowned. “So I won’t see you for the next four days?”

“Yep.” Unless she wanted to come by the station and hang out with him one evening? Maybe? Visitors were allowed though they had to understand that a call could come in at any time.

But he didn’t make the offer. Bad enough what he’d said so far, looking totally desperate by trying to convince her to see him again.

“Hmm.” She rested her hands on her hips, contemplating him. “Have you ever had sex in the shower, West?”

Jesus, where did she come up with this shit? More like where did his sweet little Harper get the nerve to ask such bold questions? “Um, would you like to have sex in the shower, Harper?”

She nodded, her smile blossoming, making his stomach get all jumpy. She looked at him like that and he wanted nothing more than to sling her over his shoulder and haul her off somewhere private. “I’ll probably be really dirty after digging around in my grandma’s office all day.”

“I’m sure,” he drawled, smiling.

“And I’ll need someone to get all those hard-to-reach places. You know the ones I’m talking about.” She went to him again, pressing a lingering kiss to his cheek. He turned his head at the last minute, their lips meeting, and he took the kiss deeper, sliding his tongue in her mouth, needing to get a taste of her. Just one. So he could have something to carry with him for the rest of the day. The memory of Harper’s lips. Harper’s smile. The way Harper felt in his arms.

“Whatever you need me to do, I’m here for you,” he murmured against her lips after he broke the kiss. “Soap your back, wash your hair. I’m real good in a shower.”

“I bet you are.” She withdrew from him again, smiling as she started to back away. “I should go back inside and check on Delilah. Make sure she hasn’t ditched me for Lane.”

“Yeah right. Don’t know if that’s ever going to happen,” he teased.

“Hey, you never know. I’m sure no one thought we could happen.”

Before he could say anything in return she was gone, slipping back into the restaurant without a word. He waited a few minutes, checking his phone, studying the sky. There were big white thunderclouds forming around the nearby mountains that didn’t look good. Any thunder brought with it dangerous lightning and one strike could cause a raging fire high up in the mountains. Something he definitely didn’t want to deal with.

Giving up the pretense of standing around outside, he reentered the restaurant and joined Lane at their table, where his breakfast was waiting for him. Lane was already mostly finished and he glared as West dived right in.

“What did you do? Fuck her on the bathroom counter?” he asked snidely.

West glared. “Shut the hell up.” A hesitation. “And for the record if I’m going to fuck a girl on a bathroom counter, I’m not choosing this place to do it. Plus, I can last longer than that.”

“Right.” Lane snorted. “Excuse me for insulting your sexual skills, little brother.”

“We shouldn’t even be having this conversation,” West muttered as he munched on a piece of bacon. He watched Harper out of the corner of his eye as the two women paid their bill and rose from their table, Delilah making her way toward them and Harper falling into step behind her.