Page 29 of Reckless
“I want your mouth on me. Right now.”
He didn’t think. Just moved.
Rounding his back and shoulders, Alex wrapped his arms around her body to cup her bare shoulder blades and hold her close. A slight dip of his chin gave her what she’d asked for, and he drew one nipple past his lips to swirl the hardened tip with a groan.
“Alex.” Zoe rocked against him with her fingers and hips, locking their bodies together as the nails on her free hand turned into his shoulders with sweet, sharp pressure. But rather than dissuade or distract, the sensation made him even harder, and he slipped one palm beneath her breast to hold her closer still as he sucked. Her nipple tightened with every pass of his tongue, every taste drawing little moans from her throat and friction from her hand on his cock. Widening his stance, he reached around the lush curve of Zoe’s ass, lifting her level with his hips to thrust against the soft, fabric-covered heat between her thighs, refusing to loosen the contact of his mouth even when her moans shaped his name.
“Alex. Take me inside. Please.”
Yes. Inside. Oh hell, yes.The pure impulse grated up from the darkest, most reckless piece of his mind. He returned to her mouth to sweep his tongue over hers in one last promise before taking her upstairs and turning his unspoken oath into raw, hot action.
But then the fragments of all the words Zoe had just spoken slid up against what they really meant.
I thought you don’t mix business with pleasure…business…business…
Holyshit.He was standing in the garage of his childhood home, barely one degree of separation from taking his captain’s only daughter into his house and stripping her very, very naked. And up until this split second, he’d had every intention of letting her return the favor so he could drive her on a straight, hot path from a sigh to a scream.
All night long.
“Zoe.” Alex lowered her feet to the concrete floor, his limbs slow and clumsy as if they were weighted and trapped under water. “I can’t…we can’t do this.”
“I know. We’re in your garage, and you have neighbors. Why do you think I asked you to take me inside?” Her eyes fluttered open over a slow, sexy smile, but then her gaze narrowed over his face in the scant glow of the streetlight spilling through a side window, and realization covered her features all at once. “Oh.” Zoe stiffened, letting go of his shoulders to right her misplaced clothing with a handful of precise tugs. “You don’t mean we can’t do this here. You mean you don’t want this atall.”
Shit. Shit, fuck, and damn it to the stars, the hurt slicing across her face sent a pool of guilt to the bottom of his gut. But despite his reputation, as well as the truth that fueled it, he knew the difference between recklessness and a total lack of regard. He’d given Captain Westin his word he’d stay ruler straight and just as narrow, and God knew Alex owed him more than this.
In fact, God alone knew exactly how much he owed the man. Which meant Alex had to make this right, even as much as he wanted to kick his own ass right now—and as much as refusing Zoe would likely launch him right back to square one with her.
The captain’s daughter was always, always off limits.
He pressed his lips together, ignoring the way they still tingled and tasted like want. “We did a lot of climbing today, and the adrenaline must’ve gotten to me. I guess I just got carried away.”
“I thought you believed in being reckless. Life’s too short, and all that?” A tinge of something Alex couldn’t place flickered through Zoe’s voice, there and then gone in the same breath. Still, his answer was absolute.
“I do, but not like this. Not with you.”
“I see,” she said, stabbing her arms through the sleeves of her hoodie before turning to stare at the expanse of the garage door in front of her. “Well. At any rate, you won your bet. I guess I’ll see you Monday.”
For a split second, Alex nearly backpedaled. But better for her to think him a jerk than for her to know the whole, harsh truth.
It wasn’t that he didn’t want her. But he sure as shit couldn’t have her, and he double sure could never tell her the whole reason why. So Alex took the only option left on the table.
He said, “Good night, Zoe.”
When she squared her shoulders and walked a straight path to her car, he didn’t turn to watch her go.
11
Zoe propped her elbows over the gray-flecked Formica tabletop in her favorite booth at Scarlett’s, staring into her mostly full cup of coffee while mentally banging her head against the closest solid surface. Alex’s community service dictated that he serve four ten-hour shifts Monday through Thursday, which meant she’d had Hope House’s kitchen to herself today for both breakfast and lunch. Considering the code red embarrassment of their parting last night, Zoe had thought not having the outlandishly gorgeous firefighter right there in front of her as she nursed her battered pride back to working order would be a relief.
But every time she’d tried to squelch the memory of Alex’s lips, so strong and bold and undeniably good on hers, she couldn’t get around one simple fact. She’d thrown herself at him not once, but twice now. And even though twice, he’d gone for the oldthanks but no thanks, the bald-faced rejection still couldn’t stamp out how recklessly hot she’d felt with his hands on her body. How hot—even now—she still felt at the memory.
Turned out they didn’t have to be actually sharing the same airspace in order for Alex Donovan to make her pride feel like it had been run through a high-speed woodchipper.
“Come on, girl,” Zoe whispered, brushing a hand over the fresh prickle of warmth on her cheeks. “Time to get back on the reality horse.”
So Alex had blamed their kisses on the heat of the moment, not the heat of the attraction she’d felt sure had been building between them all day. But Zoe was already highly acquainted with how being risky and impulsive only led to errors in judgment. While in this case, the only thing that had been torched by Alex’s hot and heavy risk-taking had been Zoe’s pride, she knew all too well that the stakes of not playing it safe could be so much higher. Family relationships. Marriages.
A person’s life.
