Burnin' Up Memphis: Firehouse 69, Book 1 (5 page)

Noah rammed his shoulder against Coop’s. “Damn, guess you won’t be coming for beer after the game…”

“Huh?” At last, Coop dragged his gaze away and followed Noah back to the line.

“Beer. At O’Malley’s.”

Coop gave a shake of his head. “I have plans.”

“Bet you do.” Noah arched his brow as he glanced over to the sideline. Coop followed his gaze. This time, Moira was turned toward Pansy. The women had their heads close together. Couldn’t be a good thing. He’d heard Pansy was a bit of an instigator.

Before, he hadn’t been sure whether that was a good or a bad thing. Listening to Billy’s and Aiden’s chuckles when they talked about her always made him uncomfortable, because he’d known, even before Billy had come out, that their conversations would lean toward more intimacy than he thought was appropriate with another man. He’d thought of it as locker-room talk, which he’d never understood. Men talking about their conquests. He’d always tried to show more respect for himself and his partners. Another lesson he’d learned from his dad.

Noah nudged him again. “So, you and Moira…”

Coop jerked at Billy’s whistle that pulled their attention back to the game.

He and Noah took their positions, tensing as they waited for the snap, and then surged forward. Billy cussed behind him, but Coop had his hands full. Gus Taggert swept Noah away with one well-placed shoulder and sidestepped like a crab to block Coop from making any progress down the field.

Bodies surged past them. Gus grinned and Coop figured he might as well stop trying to dance away. He gritted his teeth and plowed forward, bending to shove his shoulder into Gus’s gut. The big guy barely grunted and dug his heels into the dirt to press forward.

Coop stood fast for maybe a second, but Gus was unstoppable. When the dust cleared, he stared upward at blue sky.

Noah entered his field of vision. “So, you and Moira…? That not awkward with Christa already in your bed?”

“Christa’s gone. Been gone…” Coop said, gasping for breath. “I’m not cheating on her if that’s where this is leading.”

Noah reached out his hand to help him up. “Good to hear that. Not the part about Christa dumping your ass, but she didn’t deserve you two-timing her. When did it happen?”

“Last shift. She cleaned me out while she was at it.”

“The bitch.” Only Noah wore a look of admiration. “She take everything?”

Standing with his hands on his knees while he dragged deep breaths into his lungs, Coop nodded.

“So she’s free?”

Coop gave him a glare.

Noah held up his hands. “Just kidding. Swear.” His gaze went to the sideline again and Moira, who was staring with concern darkening her eyes.

Coop gave her a wave and a crooked smile to reassure her and then slowly straightened. He didn’t think she’d understand if he explained this was a friendly game. The bruises were badges of manly honor. Forcing himself not to betray a wince, he headed back to the line.

“You know it really isn’t fair.”

“What isn’t?”

“You weren’t alone two seconds before you hooked up with another hot woman.”

“Yeah,” Gage said, his deep voice a raspy growl. “She’s fucking hot. And I spotted her first.”

Coop met Gage’s glare with a slow grin. Felt good that they were no longer treating him with caution. With a sudden pang in the region of his chest, he realized he was moving on. In more ways than one.

“Think you can keep your head in the game instead of on your new girlfriend?” This time the glare was from Billy, whose gaze glinted with humor. “Wouldn’t want you all bruised. Looks like you’ll need all your parts functioning.”

“Fuck off,” Coop said, issuing his own glare but finding it impossible not to grin. He just felt too damn good.

He shot out an arm and ringed it around the back of Noah’s neck, pulling him close to rub his scalp with his knuckles before shoving him away. It was time to get serious about the game. Time to end it. He had places to go. And kiss.

“Let’s kick their asses.”

Chapter Five

Coop pounded the football into the dirt after scoring the winning touchdown—and then changed direction, running straight for her, the look on his face every bit as determined as it had been when he’d stolen the ball from the fingers of the other team’s running back.

Moira rose and glanced quickly at Pansy, who was laughing too hard at her expression to be of any help. And then Moira did the only thing she could think of with a large man bearing down on her, dirt and sweat clinging to his big frame—she shrieked and ran.

Laughter erupted all around them. But she didn’t pay anyone much attention. She ran down the field, away from the loud thudding steps trailing her, until the moment he grabbed her, his arm encircling her waist to slow her down and pull her back against his chest.

She leaned away from him—not because he was dirty—but because she was too turned on. Too aware of every hard bump and hollow, especially one steadily filling ridge digging into her backside.

“Now look and see what you did,” he whispered in her ear.

She snorted. “You might have tried walking toward me, like the other guys did to their significant others. I wouldn’t have panicked.”

His warm breath gusted against her cheek. “Was that what you were doing? Panicking? And there I thought this was foreplay.” He tsked and bit her earlobe.

She tilted her head to the side to let him nuzzle her neck. “Do we have an audience?”

“Didn’t think that would bother you much,” he said, his voice a deep, dark rumble.

“Doesn’t if it doesn’t bother you,” she murmured and rubbed her butt against his erection, feeling a shudder roll through his frame. “We going for beer with the gang?”

“What do you think?” he’d growled.

“Guess the only question left is…” she said, dragging it out, “…my place or yours?”

His hands closed around the notches of her hips and held her snug against him. “I’m five minutes away,” Coop rasped.

“I’m twenty.”

“Christa left me a bed. Not much else.”

“It’s all we need. Unless…”

“I’ve got condoms. And beer.”

Her laughter caught her by surprise. “Yeah, we’ll need those, but I was going to say,
unless
you wanted me to bring a few things…to play with.”

His cock jerked against her butt. “Really want to wait that long?”

Restraints, a blind fold… She could improvise. “No.”

He moved away, slowly releasing her.

She turned, watching as he raked a hand through his thick dark hair. His gaze bore into hers, so hot she would have sworn she felt steam rise on her skin. “I better walk in front of you,” she said, her tight voice croaking as she looked down to check out what had prodded her so insistently.

“Wish I could give it a pull,” he said under his breath. “Fucking hard…and your fault.”

“Mine?” she said, her mouth twitching. He was stalling the moment he had to turn toward the lot, waiting for the others to drift away and leave. And she didn’t blame him. With his back turned toward his buddies, only she was aware of his predicament.

And of course, she wasn’t about to cooperate. She bent her head to get a good look at his expanding erection. She’d bet anything if she went to her knees now, he wouldn’t give a damn. His cock was hard and pushing up against the soft gray cotton, a thick, bulbous head tenting the fabric.

“Maybe you should go back to your car,” he rumbled.

“Maybe you should adjust it or something,” she said, still staring. “Doesn’t look comfortable.”

He snorted and turned his head left then right. She knew what he was thinking. No one at his sides. Woods beyond the grassy field. Swallowing hard, he reached down, held the waistband away with one hand and slipped his hand inside his shorts.

His breath hissed at the contact. His hand rose in a slow, subtle motion, stroking up and down, and then he aligned his cock straight upward, done with the adjustment.

But she took a quick step forward and peered downward, her actions hidden behind his broad frame. He sucked in a startled breath as her fingers tugged to hold his waistband outward a little more. The fat, round head of his cock peeked up from the top of his fist—red and blunt, so big around she knew exactly what he’d feel like pushing up inside her. “I want that in my mouth,” she murmured, wetting a finger and then slipping her hand inside to rim the hot, silky skin of his cock head.

“Not helping,” he gritted out.

After giving his tiny hole a caress, she withdrew her hand and leaned to glance around his body. “Everyone’s loading up or gone. They aren’t paying us any mind.” She looked up. How did she tell him she wasn’t the least bit embarrassed by his public reaction to her—and that she wouldn’t mind taking it a little further? Would he be into it? Holding his hot gaze, she whispered, “Kiss me. Now. Please.”

He made a noise, something between a groan and a growl, and shot out his hands to grip her hips and pull her snug against his erection. She rubbed against it, ground her hips as he slammed his mouth down on hers. To her delight, he slid a hand beneath her tee and roamed it up her naked back. When it slid around her front to cup her breast through her thin bra, she thrust it against his palm, inviting his caress.

He flicked her nipple, making it tingle. It tightened, and hardened more when he circled over the prominence. Holding her buttock to keep her pressed hard against him, his hand still on her breast, he slipped his thigh between her legs.

The brush of thick terry against her bare inner thighs, the press of a rigid thigh against her sex was intoxicating. Every bit as mind-blowing as the kiss he gave her. His tongue snuck between her lips and rimmed her teeth. He hardened his tongue and thrust it inside, fucking her mouth with shallow, straight plunges that told her exactly what he wanted to do to her pussy.

Good God, they had on too many clothes. She clamped her thighs around his and rode it, but it was all one big hairy tease. She jerked back her head. “Your place,” she gasped. “Your car. Somewhere we won’t get arrested.”

His knowing smirk didn’t annoy her. He’d earned the right to gloat. She’d wondered if he could do public displays, and he’d given her back something sexier than any illicit fingering she’d ever gotten from a boyfriend. He’d gotten her so hot she’d forgotten where they were. If he pulled her up, she wouldn’t care if he humped her right there.

So here she was, edgy and needy. So excited she was afraid she’d be a useless lay because she’d come like a rocket. And she wanted to be the best he’d ever had. Wanted him to want her even a fraction as much as she wanted him.

Watching him play with his friends, watching as he’d been hammered time and again for his inattention and then watching those spurts of power and speed had proved he was in some damn shape. All hills and hollows and oodles of stamina. And now she knew how hard the muscle was cloaking that tall, angular frame. She wanted everything he’d bring to bed.

When they reached the parking lot, he dragged her straight to his car. “We’ll get yours later.” All during the five-minute drive to his apartment, his hand remained on her thigh, anchoring her there, claiming her in a way. Something that kept her hot.

Moira waited silently beside Coop as he fumbled with his keys at the apartment door. Her whole body felt tight and hard. And she was shivering despite the heat.

He opened the door, shoved it wide and then stood back to allow her inside.

She stepped over the threshold. The soft bottoms of her flip-flops snicked on the floor, the sound echoing in the empty space. She glanced left into a bare living room, dark blond bamboo floors that looked dusty, a bundle of brown packing paper sitting square in the middle of the floor. “Wow. She cleaned you out.”

“Doesn’t matter.” A muscle worked at the edge of his jaw, tensing.

She stepped toward him, reaching up to soothe it, hoping the tension was for her, not that other woman. “You said she left a bed.”

His gaze flickered toward the ceiling. “There’s not any sheets or pillows.”

She arched a brow. “Baby, they’d only get in the way.” Taking a deep breath, Moira turned and lifted her T-shirt over her head. She let it fall from a fingertip as she began walking slowly toward the wooden staircase, Coop on her heels. She left her flip-flops at the bottom of the stairs and reached behind her to unclasp her bra. Midway up the staircase, she tossed the bra over her shoulder and smiled when she heard a slow inhalation, knowing he’d caught it and was sniffing at her perfume.

She wagged her hips, exaggerating their sway even as she undid the snap of her jeans shorts and pushed them halfway down her hips. At the top of the stairs, she paused, let them drop and then glanced over her shoulder.

He stared back, his glance sweeping over her ass, crushing her bra in his fist. Again, his sweatpants stretched over his erection.

“Which way?” she asked.

He jerked his chin to the left.

When she turned back and strode toward the door on the left, she felt fingers scrape the waistband of her panties. The elastic stretched and then gave, and he tore them away. Naked now, she walked faster as her chest rose and fell in deep, excited swells.

She walked into the room. There were no curtains hanging from the brass rods. Sunlight gleamed between the slats of the blinds. She noted the bed with its bare mattress, a closet with clothes spilling out onto the floor. Again, she glanced at the bed. Although the top looked pristine, it
felt
dirty that they’d fuck on a naked mattress. Their fluid would sink into the pale cream fabric. And he didn’t care.

How did she want this to begin? She knew she needed him. Needed to feel the stretch of him quickly because her knees were shaking, her chest and arms shivering. But she didn’t want to be in charge. Wanted him to take control.

Moira crawled onto the mattress and lay down on her belly. She pulled her hair to one side and stared at Coop. He was still standing in the doorway, curling his fists at his sides. The look in his eyes was predatory, feral. He needed a bath. Sweat glistened on his exposed skin. Dirt smudged his cheeks and arms. There were bits of grass on his clothes and hair.

The sight of him made her nipples so aroused she pushed up slightly to rub her chest on the bed side-to-side as she stared back at him.

At last, he moved, taking a step inside the doorway. “Aren’t you going to show me?” Coop said, his voice silky and deep.

“Show you what?”

“What you want fucked?”

She gasped. Her pussy spasmed, tightening so suddenly cream leaked. He was so perfect. Did he know? Was it deliberate—the voice, the words, the cool glint in his eye that said he would get exactly what he wanted of her? Or was he just made this way?

Didn’t matter. Forcing herself to go slowly, she came up on her knees and swung around, giving him the view he’d had of the woman they’d both watched nights before. Once there, she put her chest against the mattress and reached between her legs to spread her pussy with fingers from both hands. Had she gone a step too far? Would he be repulsed?

“What do you want fucked?” he repeated, his voice a fraction deeper, raspier.

She dipped a finger inside her entrance and sank it to the second knuckle, then sank in a second.

“Anything else you want fucked?”

She pressed her face against the mattress. “My mouth, Sir.”

“Can I touch you however I like?”

“And wherever you want,” she said, breathing deeply as she gave him permission to do as he liked.

“The first time’s for me. I find I want to be…selfish.”

“I could come fast. Don’t worry about me.”

He was silent for a moment. “When did I give you the impression you could come?”

Her head came up and she glanced back to see his expression. Was he joking?

No. His gaze was narrow, steely. His jaw displayed an unmovable edge.

Thrilled, more fluid slipped from her vagina.

His blue eyes darkened and he knelt on the bed, reached for her hips and tugged them, forcing her to scoot back to the edge of the mattress. Faced forward, she tried to sink her nails into the mattress, but there was no give to grip.

A nip to the crease dividing thigh and buttock made her jump. Another, higher on her ass, made her jerk, and she inched open her knees, wanting to give him more access, dying for a bite or nip to tender places.

“I don’t want you touching yourself. I don’t want you controlling anything.”

He said this while reaching over her for her hands. He tugged them down, placing them on the separate halves of her ass and forcing them to spread her cheeks.

“I want to see what I’m going to fuck.”

Moira moaned, embarrassed to have him staring so intently at her shaved pussy and gaping hole. But it was the kind of embarrassed that she loved. He’d allow no modesty between them. He’d take exactly what he wanted of her, no prohibitions. He was going to take her ass at some point, and she did love anal sex. In fact, just the thought of him sliding that thick, long cock of his inside her there made her groin throb. Her clit was hard and slick. Prominent. He couldn’t miss the rounded red bulb of it. But when would he touch it?

His hands roamed her ass, smoothing up and over, avoiding her hands and trailing moist fingers down her crack. She squirmed, unable to keep still as he explored.

When he moved one of her hands away, he pinched that side of her outer labia and she wriggled, sticking her ass up higher and gasping for air.

When he patted away her other hand, she didn’t complain as he pinched that side, holding both lips apart. Something solid and pointed entered her. It was also warm and wet. Lord, it was his tongue, pointed and thrusting just as he’d taken her mouth on the field. He tasted her there, sinking inside her, pinching her labia so hard they stung. But dear God, the burn was delicious.

He withdrew his tongue, rolled his whiskered cheeks and chin in her tender inner folds, and she knew she soaked his face with her arousal.

That he didn’t mind was too apparent. His deep inward breaths were accompanied by guttural groans. And then his tongue began to devour her in broad wet strokes. Lapping and licking, flicking toward her bulbous clit. The moment he touched it, she nearly flew—his muffled
uh-uhn
the only thing that held her back. She’d be good for him. Give him everything he asked. And then maybe he’d give her what she needed.