Page 106 of Fire Fight

“Fuck me. I’m not going to break, hotshot. I can take it.”

“You want hard and fast, little phoenix?”

“I want whatever you like.”

I chuckled. What a loaded statement.

“We’ll work our way up to that,” I promised, pressing a hard, claiming kiss to her mouth.

With her permission, I unleashed, my hips setting a relentless pace as I pounded into her. The bed creaked beneath us with every advance and retreat, and Aspen’s moans turned from breathy to full-throated screams as I branded that spot deep inside her recklessly. Holding myself upright with one palm on the bed next to her head, I gripped her hip with the other, holding her down as I pistoned in and out. Her nails dug into my shoulders, scraping down my back, hanging on for dear life as I drove us right to the edge of that cliff…

And sent us careening right off. Aspen’s arms and legs fell away as she spasmed beneath me, her entire body quaking as she thrashed against her climax.

Goddamn, she was a sight to behold, her hair a dark corona around her head against my pale blue sheets, her eyes squeezed shut, mouth parted in ecstasy as she chanted my name over and over.

I followed her right down, my back bowing, limbs going rigid,her name breathlessly falling from my lips as I spilled hot and long inside her.

When we stilled, I brushed her hair off her face to check on her, greeted with a fully sated smile that had my own lips spreading into a grin. Then I pulled free, shifted from between her thighs, and landed on my back. I gathered her to my side, rubbing soothing circles across her back as she ran her fingers through the smattering of chest hair between my pecs, her breaths fanning over my skin, our legs tangled. Even an inch of space was too far away from her now.

The silence between us stretched, but not uncomfortably. Simplybeingwith Aspen, basking in the afterglow of our joining was the easiest thing I’d ever done.

This thing between us was quickly becomingeverythingto me.

“I think you just altered my brain chemistry,” I said when I had enough breath to do so.

Aspen propped her chin on my chest to look up at me, delight twinkling in her eyes. “Crew…you made mesquirt.”

She hissed the last word like something dirty, and I barked out a laugh, hauling her over me so I could reach her lips for a kiss.

Scars and all, we belonged together. I’d known it for a while now, but the way our bodies fit together so perfectly only further confirmed it.

“Has it ever been like that for you?” she asked.

I tucked her hair behind her ears, wanting to fully see her beautiful face.

“Never,” I promised. “There’s something here, isn’t there?”

Without missing a beat, Aspen nodded.

“I don’t know what it is, and it terrifies the shit out of me, but…yeah.”

Rolling so I once again hovered over her, I said, “You’re not the only one who’s scared, Aspen. But we’re in this together. I’m not going anywhere.”

“I don’t know what happens after this,” she admitted, and I knew she didn’t mean our fucking mind-blowing sex, but the case that had brought her to town in the first place.

“We don’t have to have it all figured out right now. Can we agree to take things one day at a time?”

She nodded, and the anxiety that coiled in my chest every time I thought of her leaving dissipated.

I pressed another gentle kiss to her lips, then her nose, before sinking back on my haunches and hauling her into my arms and climbing off the bed.

“Where are we going?” she asked, though she sank deeper into my hold, slinging her arms around my neck and resting her head against my chest.

“To get cleaned up. Bath or shower?”

“Bath,” she said quickly. “My legs are fucking jelly.”

I grinned. “Damn straight, baby. And there’s more where that came from.”