“You think I’m hot,” he teased, though I was too focused on getting the candid shots of Rafe smiling and teasing, making eyes at me through the lens of the camera.
I shrugged and stopped shooting. Finally. “If I say yes, will you let me shoot you in only the protective pants?” Did I really just ask that? Yes I did. I was turned on and out of sorts and it was all Rafe’s fault. It was only fair we both be a little bit out of sorts.
Rafe’s grin, when it appeared, was wide and damn near blinding as I moved him to the exact spot I wanted him to stand under the lights. “Sure. In exchange for a kiss.”
I looked up at him and then over my shoulder before continuing my impersonation of a very paranoid person and checking to the left and the right for any ear hustlers or gossip hounds within hearing distance. “Here? Don’t be crazy?”
“You ashamed for people to know you find me attractive?”
I frowned at him and barked out a laugh. “You’re kidding right? I’d have to be blind not to find you attractive you big dummy. I just don’t want anyone getting any ideas.” And by anyone, I meant me.
“The matchmakers,” he guessed correctly.
“Yeah. Even though I’m in no danger of them hooking us up, I don’t want to tempt them into adding me to their list of people to screw with.” It didn’t matter that they didn’t think Rafe and I were right together, I wasn’t sure they were wrong.
Rafe’s blue eyes stared at me for a long time, like he was trying to figure me out and then his expression shifted, like he was amused by me and I wasn’t sure if that was more or less comforting. “Not here,” he said with a smirk and pointed up. “There.”
My gaze followed the line of his finger to the top of the fire truck that stood sentry behind us, providing the perfect backdrop for Tulip’s last Hometown Hero, and I sucked in a breath. He wanted a kiss on top of the fire truck. Hell yes. Was it some kind of weird fetish that I recently developed, because now that he’d mentioned it, I wanted nothing more than to climb on top of that fire truck. With Rafe. “Up there? On the truck?”
He nodded and took another step closer. “Scared?”
“No,” I insisted because that wasn’t what I was feeling. “Cautious,” I corrected because it felt like an important distinction. Making out on top of a fire truck was like a fantasy fulfillment kind of thing, the kind you’d do with a boyfriend. Or something more than a boyfriend but definitely not a booty buddy.
“Tell you what,” he said and took a step closer, putting his hands on my hips and gliding them up and down in a slow, drugging motion. “I’ll even let you get a few shots of me up there. That way if anyone comes we’ll have the perfect excuse.”
I glared at his smug, satisfied smile. “You don’t have to look so pleased with yourself.”
“Don’t I?” His thumb found a strip of skin and slid across it, catching my breath in my throat.
I put a hand to his chest, slightly mollified that his heart raced as fast as mine, and nodded. “One kiss. I get a dozen shots of you up there. In the pants.” His grin grew even wider. “Only the pants.”
“Be right back,” he said and took off once again, leaving me to figure out how I would get a light on top of the truck. The sun was shining bright so I opted for a small handheld light and my lightest camera, climbing slowly until I made it to the top.
“Oh.” It wasn’t as big as I thought it would be. Well it was big but it wasn’t spacious, since the giant firehose and the ladder extension took up all the surplus space.
“You didn’t wait for me.”
I sucked in a startled breath at Rafe’s words or maybe it was his nearness or that hint of man and coffee and early mornings in bed. “It’s cozy up here.” And it got cozier by the second when his arms wrapped around my waist and his lips touched down on my neck and shoulder, sending shivers down the length of my spine. He nipped my ear lobe and dragged his tongue along my jawline until I trembled with need. “Rafe.”
“Janey,” he groaned and spun me around in a move that was both overdramatic and incredible, and then slammed his lips against mine as if he couldn’t get enough. Of me. The kiss went on and on, heating up as the sun rose higher in the sky, heating my skin as much as the man underneath my fingertips. He was shirtless and his skin was hot to the touch as my fingers skidded up his triceps and wrapped around his hard shoulders. “Cozy is good,” he said when he pulled back with a lazy smile and sex in his eyes.