Page 44 of Wild Fires

“Oh, I have a no clothes policy unless guests are over, so you probably don't want me to actually make myself at home here.”

My dick jumped in my pants.

“You'd be very wrong then. If that's the case, I absolutely want you to make yourself entirely at home here.”

I watched her closely. Her chin jutted out in defiance just a fraction and I knew she had just taken my words as a dare. And if that's what it took to get her naked quickly and stay that way for hopefully the rest of the night, then I was more than okay with it.

“Wait, if I'm naked, then you better be too. No clothes means no clothes.”

I'd never much walked around my house naked before. On occasions when I went for a flight, sure. But just because? Never.

“Are you hungry?” I asked, knowing it was a loaded question.

“For food, yes. Food first at least. We skipped lunch.”

“What would you like to eat?”

“What are my options? Where are you ordering from?”

I scoffed. “I'm not ordering out. We can cook here.”

“By ‘we,’ I hope you mean you. I'm not kidding when I say I'm a poor cook. The guys were so excited to have a female rookie join the team. They expected gourmet meals freshly cooked every night I was on call only to learn I struggle just boiling water.”

“By ‘we,’ I did mean me. Chicken, steak, or lobster?”

“Seriously? Lobster,” she said, and I was pretty sure she was teasing me because her eyes nearly bugged out of her head when I retrieved two full Maine lobsters from the freezer.

People were always impressed with a lobster dinner, but to me, it was just good food and easy to fix.

I put on a pot of water to boil and got to work peeling some potatoes.

“Potatoes and asparagus okay?”

“Uh, yeah.”

I felt ridiculous cooking in the buff, but I was fully aware that Gracie was watching me.

“It's kind of hot watching you cook.”

“Turning you on?”

“It is,” she admitted.

I liked that, and I really liked that she was willing to admit it.

Maybe naked cooking wasn't such a bad thing after all.

No sooner had I thought it, my front door burst open and Kim stormed in. I was so shocked that I jerked back causing the lobster pot to shift and splash right onto my chest.

“Sonofabitch,” I yelled. “Ow.”

Gracie jumped up and ran to check on me while I was trying to cover us both, even if all I could reach was a kitchen hand towel.

“Would you stop and let me look at that burn? I am a certified EMT, you know.”

“I didn't know. Kim, get the hell out of here.”

She crossed her arms over her chest, and I knew she wasn't going anywhere.

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