Page 37 of Smokin’ Situation (Masked Men of Sage Springs #3)

Annie

My eyes fluttered open, and I blinked in the dim morning light, trying to process my surroundings to figure out why I’d awoken before the sun was fully up.

Tripp’s body trembled beside me as a pained, muffled groan welled from his chest. His fingers flexed against my side and my eyes widened, worry filling my chest.

Turning to face him, I traced my finger down the scar that ran along his hairline. His face was burrowed into the pillow beneath his head, but it didn’t stop me from studying both the beauty and pain so clearly there.

“Tripp,” I whispered, combing my fingers through his hair. “What’s wrong, baby?”

His breathing was choppy as he lay with his eyes clenched tightly, another groan echoing into the dim morning as his back arched.

“No…” he whimpered, and I burrowed closer, trying to turn his head to the side. He was clearly dreaming and judging by the pinched expression and the sounds coming from his lips, it was not a pleasant one.

“You’re okay,” I whispered, finally getting him to relinquish his grip on the pillow so I could turn his face.

“No, no, no…” he groaned, curling in on himself.

Climbing to my knees, I leaned over him, framing his face. “Tripp, wake up. You’re okay, you’re safe. Just breathe.”

Tripp’s eyes opened, but they held the vacant stare he’d had right before I kissed him in the barn again. They weren’t the warm deep blue I was used to, and it startled me how cold his expression was before he blinked hard, turning his face away from me.

“Tripp, please,” I begged, watching his body tremble.

Relying on the techniques I knew could pull him from the flashbacks, I slipped my leg over his waist, gently rolled him to his back and covered his body with mine like a weighted blanket.

I stroked his hair and whispered in his ear, tears leaking out the corners of my eyes as he shook beneath me.

Eventually, his body relaxed, a large, calloused hand settling on my lower back with his lips grazing my forehead.

“Thank you.” His voice was raspy, but I could tell from the tone that he appreciated I didn’t let the moments he slipped into those memories scare me away.

If anything, they made me want to cling to him tighter.

And acknowledge that at one moment in time, he might have been taken away before I ever met him.

This kind, genuine, sarcastic, gentle man would have ceased to exist, and I would have been waiting for someone to finally see me that was already gone.

And the feelings that had been building inside me for days, and continued to flourish, would have been taken away before I got to experience them.

All because of a selfless act that saved someone else’s life.

As we clung to each other, I wasn’t even sure I deserved him, but I was going to try to be what he needed, even when it was heartbreaking.

“Are you okay?” I whispered into the skin of his shoulder, refusing to relinquish my hold on him.

His fingertips traced down my spine, lingering in the dip of my lower back before he fanned them and grasped my butt, pulling me even tighter against him.

“I am now. Thank you for staying.”

Nodding against his chest, I tried not to get emotional, but I’d never experienced this soul-deep connection to someone where I just wanted to be with them all the time.

I knew people would try to write it off as infatuation, that I hadn’t known him long enough to develop real, true feelings.

But I would tell those same people to take a fucking hike, because sometimes…

sometimes you just knew when you found the other half of yourself, and there wasn’t any explaining it.

“I don’t want to be anywhere else.” At his satisfied hum in response, my body melted into his chest, ear pressed tightly to the warm skin, just listening to his heart’s steady thrum.

“Can we just not leave the bed today?” he whispered, continuing to trace patterns on my back with his fingertips.

“We can do whatever you want to do today,” I replied, content to remain how we were, cuddled in our warm cocoon inside his quiet cabin. “But if you still want to go to the barbecue, you know I’ll be there holding your hand the entire time.”

He was quiet for a few moments, and I almost wondered if he was falling asleep again before his deep voice broke through my thoughts.

“I didn’t know it’d happen so soon, and I didn’t know it’d be you, but I prayed for you before I blacked out.” His whispered confession brought goosebumps to my skin, and I shivered as he pulled me in tighter.

“Hmm?”

He pressed a fingertip to my chin, urging me to tilt my head up to look into his eyes.

“In those last few moments before the fire reached me, I prayed I would find someone like you. Someone who would care about me, even the ugly parts.”

Unable to hold back the tears, I nodded, drawing in a shaky breath. While I hadn’t been close to fulfilling the family curse until a few days ago, I’d been secretly yearning for the same thing, but also hiding from it.

I didn’t want to hide anymore.

“Tripp, I…” My lip quivered and I couldn’t respond, too overwhelmed by the unfamiliar emotions flowing through me for him.

The morning I went to that festival and encountered this grumpy, brooding firefighter who had zero interest in small talk, I hadn’t realized I was meeting the man I was going to fall hard for a few days later.

“Maybe coming back home wasn’t running away. Maybe it was coming home. To you.”

He arched his neck, warm lips caressing mine while his muscular arms tightened around my body. He held me close—like I might be as much of a lifeline for him as he’d been for me.

“I need you,” he whispered against my lips, reaching down to grasp my waist as his hips pressed up into me. “Please. I just—”

Placing a fingertip on his lips, I shifted my hips until he was poised at my entrance. “You don’t need to beg. You know I’m yours.”

That might be as close as we’d get to a confession of love this morning, but as I took him inside my body and rocked against him, chasing something I’d never been able to find before, I knew that we both felt it.

Sweet and passionate seemed to melt away as he held me tighter and shifted to sit upright against the headboard. His large hands grasped my hips, and I gasped as he thrust up from the mattress hard. It coaxed me into a fast pace that had me breaking the once quiet atmosphere with my loud cries.

I couldn’t control how he made me feel—wild like the fire we’d both escaped, but beautiful and in control in a way that no one ever had.

“That’s it,” he groaned, throwing his head back against the headboard as I rotated my hips and met every thrust, my fingernails raking down the taut muscles of his chest. “You fucking own me, Rhey. Mark me.”

Digging in deeper, I watched the marks blossom on his pale skin, trailing down to where we were connected. He watched me with hooded eyes, his grip possessive as he steered me closer and closer to the edge.

“I wanna feel you, sweetheart,” he panted, his chest heaving. “Just keep lovin’ on me until you come. ”

I wanted to laugh at the way his voice dropped into a southern accent when he said lovin’ on me, but I was already there, falling apart as he held me, calling out his name like a prayer and he was the only one who could save me.

“Fuck,” he groaned, his grip almost painful as he held me still moments later, pulsing deep inside as he filled me with his release.

I collapsed against his chest, trying to catch my breath while he held me to him, combing his fingers through my chaotic hair. My fingertips traced the marks I’d left on his skin, smiling at the drowsy hum coming from his chest as I did.

“Now that you’ve gotten me sufficiently dirty, you ready to get cleaned up?” he teased, and I laughed, leaning back to look him in the eye.

“Pretty sure you’re the one who made the mess.” Lifting off him, we both watched the evidence of that mess leak onto his lap with matching smiles.

And when I glanced up and met his eyes, I smiled even wider at the naughty tilt of his eyebrow when he dipped a finger through it and extended it in my direction. “And I intend to make a few more messes before we go to sleep tonight if you keep looking at me like that, Ms. Thomas.”

“Challenge accepted,” I goaded, pulling his finger to my mouth and sucking suggestively before I climbed off him, rolling to the side of the bed. My giggles carried behind me at his deep, masculine groan that followed on my way toward the bathroom. “You coming to get clean with me, dirty boy?”

“There’s still time for me to turn around,” Tripp murmured, his fingers flexing on my bare knee.

While I’d always have a fondness for the blue dress he’d destroyed the night we went dancing, I was taking full advantage of the seasonably warm weather and had worn another new sundress.

And yet again, the man had stolen my panties.

But I wasn’t about to kink shame, because truth be told… I loved it.

I’d gotten so accustomed to my ritual of wearing band tees and ripped jeans at the bar, I wasn’t used to embracing my femininity like when I was with him.

But when we’d gone to the general store the other day, Tripp’s enthusiasm every time I added a new dress to the shopping pile had me buying several dresses I never would have looked twice at before.

“I told you earlier we could stay home if you weren’t feeling up to it.” And I meant it, if he didn’t want to go socializing, I wouldn’t make him.

“No,” he sighed, blowing out a breath. “I know we need to go. My mom has been harassing me to come visit since the fire, but I didn’t want to leave you alone. Just try not to mention exactly how close to the fire line we were, I’ve put her through enough close calls this year.”

“You realize I’m an adult, right?” I teased, laying my hand over his and interlacing our fingers. “While my self-appointed babysitter is kind of a hunk, I don’t actually need one.”