Light Her Fire (Private Pleasures 2)

In the back of his mind, Josh realized the chief had presented him with an opportunity, but he couldn’t get past the news about Warren’s wife. Sylvia Warren was a vivacious woman with sleek blond hair and laughing blue eyes. A lot like Melody, actually, and if anything happened to her…he couldn’t even go there, and they’d barely been together a month, much less married for twenty-some years.

“I’m sorry about Mrs. Warren. I don’t know what to say.”

“Thank you. She and I would like to think something good comes of this, so say you’ll come back and take over as chief. I think you’re familiar with the pay and benefits, as well as the scope of the duties.”

“I am—and I can’t say I’m not tempted. I think you know a role like the one you’re offering has always been my goal…” But even as he said the words, he thought about Melody.

“You’d be the youngest chief of a department our size in a long time, but you were born for this job, and everyone knows it. Your father would be proud. Don’t stand there and say you’re tempted. Tell me yes.”

His conscience cautioned him to talk the offer over with Melody, because he suddenly realized he couldn’t picture his future without her in it. Somewhere between shooting her suggestive looks in Boone’s Market and snuggling up next to her when he dragged his sorry ass to her bed after a late night on the job, he’d fallen. Fast and hard and un-fucking-deniably in love with her. But her? She wanted simple and easy. Moving away from the home she loved? Changing her entire life around to fit his ambitions? None of that struck him as simple or easy.

But his ambitions were hard to ignore, more so because fulfilling them went hand in hand with securing the approval of a man who’d been like a father to him, and attaining a goal fate had deprived his actual father of achieving.

“Yes” tumbled out of his mouth before his brain fully vetted the response. “I accept the job.” You’ll talk her into i

t.

The chief smiled and pumped his hand. “Excellent. Syl will be pleased, and so am I.” He patted Josh’s shoulder. “Go find your girl and tell her the good news so she forgives me for commandeering you.”

“Will do,” he managed, still shell-shocked by the events of the last five minutes. But when he looked around the bar, “his girl” was nowhere in sight.

…

Melody ignored a trio of women around her age who stood nearby, eyeing her and whispering. She didn’t need their unfriendly stares and hushed comments to know she didn’t fit in here. Instead she focused on her goal and shouldered her way through the door to the ladies’ room. The barrier swung closed behind her, muting the noise of the party enough to allow her to hear herself think. What a nightmare.

She walked to the sink and ran cool water over her hands and wrists. It helped—a little—but couldn’t alleviate the real source of her discomfort. She was hot under her proverbial collar, after less than five minutes at this so-called party. Too crowded. Too loud. And packed with people who wouldn’t know good manners from a swift kick in the behind. The ones she’d met so far had disparaged her hometown and Josh’s role there as soon as they’d opened their mouths. Then the man of the hour had swooped in, spared her a greeting, and basically asked her to get lost while he spoke privately with her date. No one in Bluelick would treat a stranger like a stray dog. She’d cool her jets in here until she could be civil, and then get out there, find Josh, tell him her headache and upset stomach were back with a vengeance—completely true at this point—and ask him to take her home. Maybe by the time they made it back to her place she’d be in a frame of mind to make it up to him for leaving the party early.

Liking the plan, she turned off the water, dried her hands, and took her compact and lipstick out of her purse. Three women came into the restroom laughing and talking. The clique she’d passed on the way in. Perfect.

“Say.” The tallest one, a lithe brunette, stretched her mouth into a big, fake smile and approached Melody. “You’re Josh’s date, aren’t you?”

Melody met the woman’s dark eyes in the mirror, raised one brow, and finished applying her lipstick. Then she rubbed her lips together and let them pop apart. “And you are?”

“I’m Helene. Josh may have mentioned me. He and I are…good friends.” She gestured to the other women. “Josh has a number of good friends.”

“Sorry.” She shook her head and smiled. “I don’t believe he mentioned you.”

“He’s not one to kiss and tell.”

The small curvy one with the sharp eyes and a pink streak in her straight blond hair bounced up and grinned. “Which is a shame because there’s always so much to tell when he kisses.”

“Yes,” the black-bobbed Katy Perry look-alike agreed enthusiastically. “The man definitely has bedroom skills…not that he’s limited to the bedroom.”

Pink streak raised her hand like a student. “In his truck.”

Two more hands came up.

“In my kitchen,” Katy Perry added. The other two women nodded.

Memories whirled in Melody’s head. Her in Josh’s truck with her feet propped up along the top of the doorframe. Josh fucking her so thoroughly on her kitchen island that they’d broken the condom. The night she’d possibly gotten pregnant, and definitely convinced herself their relationship was special. A wave of nausea pitched in her stomach. She was going to be sick for real if these women didn’t stop talking.

Too bad Helene wouldn’t shut up. “I still have a little orgasm whenever I think about the time he invited me to the fireman’s ball. I didn’t wear any panties, and when he sat down across from me at the banquet table, I made sure he knew it. He pulled me into the coatroom so fast I almost lost a shoe. Then he put me on my hands and knees, hiked up my dress and spanked me like the naughty girl I was.” She shivered and fanned her face. “So hot.”

The blonde nodded appreciatively. “Nobody pulls that kind of thing off the way Josh did. My boyfriend tries, but”—she rolled her eyes—“it’s not the same.”

Helene’s sultry brown eyes found Melody in the mirror, and her gaze turned downright pitying. “Oh, honey, how small is that town you’re from? Don’t tell me you thought he came up with all those moves just for you? Did you think they were some special you-him thing?”

She snapped her purse shut, turned to face the women, and lifted her chin. “Not at all. I’m just wondering why he didn’t do the…hmm…I’ll just call them his premier moves, with any of you.” She twisted her lips into a tight smile. “Then again, he told me he’d had quantity, but no real quality, until recently.” While the three faces around her slowly registered the insult, she shrugged her shoulders and laughed. “Of course I’m sure he wasn’t referring to any of you…ladies. Excuse me.”