Play With Fire (The Men of Fire 1)

“How many times do I need to tell you?” Reece demands, going red in the face. “Matt is not in the closet.”

“Yeah, right,” Zeke scoffs from the front door, making his view on the matter well known. “His jeans are tighter than yours. He’s the only dude I’ve ever met who has a regular nail appointment, and you know, I swear I caught him checking me out the other week.”

“Talk yourself up,” Ryan laughs, making me realize that despite how much I love my kids, I actually can’t wait to have just this one night away from them. Their endless bickering is tiresome. I don’t know how I’ve done it quite so long. Zeke and Reece have both recently turned eighteen while Coby and Ryan are 21 and 22, and it's as though they wake up every morning wondering how much they can irritate each other.

Knowing they’ll all be just fine, I give them each a kiss on the cheek and smile at the way my son picks up my bag and walks it out to the car like a gentleman, exactly the way Bull raised him to be.

The kids all stand by the front door, waving us off, and the second we pull out of the driveway, my seat gets reclined, and my fingers weave through Bull’s. I’ve been needing this so bad. Life is crazy. A few years ago, I went back to school and got myself a psychology degree, and I earned myself a job right off the bat.

Working in Social Services and helping other women face down their demons has been the best thing I ever did, apart from my husband and kids, of course. Learning to rebuild my life after all the hell Bryce put me through for all those years was hard. But now I'm able to use that experience to help others in similar situations do the same. I get to help make them stronger again, and it's an incredible feeling. I’ve always worked jobs, but this is a career, and it’s one where I feel valued. I don’t think I’ll ever give it up.

Bull and I chat on the short two-hour drive up north to where we have a beautiful resort villa waiting for us as an anniversary gift from our children. We weren’t expecting anything from them, so to receive something like this was amazing, and we instantly knew it was something we had to accept. It would be great to have a whole family vacation again. We haven’t done one in a while, but for now, this will have to do.

We get to the resort only to find it’s right on the beach, and the kids paid for us to have the best villa the resort has to offer. It’s absolutely stunning. Our room opens right up to the most spectacular beach view. We have a couple’s massage booked for this evening out on the deck, a romantic dinner for two, a midnight swim in the crystal clear beach, and who could possibly pass up the opportunity to finish it off with a bit of alone time, just me and my husband and our California king-sized bed?

We have a nice dinner, and just as I had hoped, we go for a late dip in the ocean. It’s so much warmer than I had thought it would be, and just it being the two of us with a glass of wine and the moonlight streaming down, casting its glow across the still water is everything to me.

When my fingers begin to grow prunes, Bull scoops me out of the water and walks me up the shore. We both begin shivering and as we reach the tree with the low hanging branch that Bull hung our towels over, he grabs mine and wraps it around me before rubbing his hands up and down my arms. Like always, he’s doing his best to keep me warm, not even thinking about his own needs.

“What do you say to a few drinks down at the bar?” he asks, finally grabbing his own towel and pulling it around his waist. My eyes trail the long drips of water that make their way down his sculpted body.

I smile up at him, still very much in love with this incredible man. “Let me grab something to wear first, and then we can do whatever the hell we want.”

Bull grins, grabbing my ass and lifting me up into his arms. I wrap my legs around his waist as his lips find mine. “Whatever the hell I want?” he questions with a devilish sparkle in his deep eyes.

I lean in again, hovering my lips just over his. “Whatever you want.”

Bull starts walking back up to our villa, and something tells me that drinks at the bar will be delayed by a few good hours. Hell, we might just have to cancel it altogether.