OPERATION: DATE ESCAPE (23 page)

Sex with Cole was the last thing she needed to think about.  Not when she had been trying so hard to get him out of her system. Unfortunately that wasn’t going to happen as long as she and Cole were in such close proximity. 

He cupped her chin, lifting her face to his.  “Come on.  I was just teasing you.”

Oh, he had done more than that.  He was making her want.  Bad. 

“I know that,” she muttered, trying to ignore the throbbing between her thighs.  “But I really do owe you an apology for the other night.  I never should have called you when I was somewhat inebriated.”

He arched a challenging brow.  “Somewhat?”

She laughed softly.  “Okay, so maybe I was a lot inebriated.”

His husky
laughter joined hers.  “You were adorably inebriated.  And I honestly didn’t have a problem with anything you said to me the other night, except the part about you wanting to end things with me.  Oh, and maybe the part where you insisted I try wearing your bra to see how it feels.”

She
gasped in embarrassment, the heat in her cheeks rising.  “What?”  She’d wanted Cole to cross dress in her clothes? 

“Well, not me in particular.  Or your bra in particular for that matter.  You just seemed to think men don’t appreciate
the amount of suffering it takes to wear them.”

She groaned. 
“Shoot me now and put me out of my misery.  I’m so embarrassed.”

Cole chuckled and pulled her closer.  It felt so damn good to have her in his arms again.  Something he might not have had the chance to do without her mother’s help.

He smiled into her hair. 
“Has anyone ever told you how sexy you look when you’re blushing?” Hell, she was sexy no matter what she was doing. 

She
groaned again.  “Stop saying things like that.  You’re only making it worse.”

“Come on,” he said,
releasing her.  Taking her hand in his, he led her toward the festivities before he gave in to the urge to take her back to his place and make love to her again.  “The guys are looking forward to seeing you again.” 

“
At least, I won’t be hanging from a tree limb this time,” she muttered.  “I can only imagine what they must think of me after that fiasco.”

“
They like your spunk,” he said as he led her across the freshly mowed front yard to the hinged gate at the side of the house.  Unlatching the gate, he swung it open.  “After you.”

She stepped past him into the backyard.  “You’d better watch it, Cole. 
Holding a gate open for a girl will put you back into the ‘too perfect’ category.”

His gaze fell to her shapely backside and the jean shorts hugging it.  If
she could read his thoughts, she’d know they were anything but gentlemanly.  But before he could set her straight, his date was swarmed by every single unattached guy at the picnic. 

Ignoring him, his buddies offered Kelsie chairs, drinks, you name it.  It was almost comical.  Almost. 
Having had more than enough of his buddies drooling over Kelsie, he laced his fingers through hers possessively.  “You boys will have to find your own woman.  This one’s mine.”

He waited for
her to argue that she wasn’t ‘his’ and put him in his place, but surprisingly she didn’t.  A promising sign.

“Finally,” Joe called out as he led Nanci, drink in hand,
through the dispersing circle of grumbling males.  “We wondered if you two were going to show up.”

Cole
nodded.  “Joe.  Nanci.”

“I see the vultures are after your
date, too,” his friend said with a wink in Nanci’s direction. 

“Well, they’re out of luck.” 
He turned to smile at Kelsie.  “I worked damn hard to get this date set up.  I have no intention of sharing my woman with any of them.”

Kelsie looked up at him, pinning him with her green eyes. 
“Your woman?”

“I was thinking the exact same thing,” Nanci
said, looking his way.

“Did I say my woman?” Cole teased.  “I could have sworn I said my date.”

“Nope,” Joe assured him.  “It was definitely ‘your woman’ I heard come out of your mouth.”

“Hmm...must be all that smoke I’ve been inhaling on the job lately.” 

Or wishful thinking.

Joe
nodded in agreement.  “Yep, that’s got to be it.”

Nanci stepped up to Kelsie,
placing a hand on her arm.  “Before you yell at me for Cole’s bringing you here, I want you to know that I’m innocent.”

“I already know that.”  She cast a quick glance
his way.  “Cole told me you had no idea what they were planning.  So, unlike my mother, you’re off the hook.”

Nanci let her hand fall away.  “Well, judging by the smile I saw on your face when you two arrived, I’m assuming Cole’s already been forgiven.”

“Not quite,” he answered for her.

“He’s right,” Kelsie said with a stubborn tilt of her chin.  “I only stayed because I knew you were going to be here.”

He pressed a hand to his chest. “Ouch, that hurt.”  Then he chuckled.  “But don’t you two believe a word of it.  She stayed because she wants me - bad.”

“In your dreams,” she shot right back.

Joe snorted, choking on his drink.

“Hey
!  Whose side are you on?”

“Sorry,” his friend replied, pointing to the plastic cup in his hand.  “It went down the wrong pipe.”

Nanci laughed.  “Well, whatever the reason, I’m glad you stayed.”

“Yeah,” Joe said, slipping his arm around his date’s waist.  “It’ll
give Nanci here something else to talk about besides sex.  I swear this woman here has a one-track mind.”

His date
looked up at him.  “You have a problem with my sex talk?  Maybe we’ll just forget that phone sex I promised you later.”

“Sweetheart, I’m always up for phone sex,” he said, eyeing the purse slung over his date’s shoulder.  “Speaking of which, you got your cell with you?”

She nodded.

“Good, let’s take a walk in the woods and see what kind of coverage our phones get.”

Joe led her away, the two of them giggling like a couple of teens.

Cole turned to Kelsie.  “Do you think they even remembered we were here?”

Her gaze drifted to the thickening of trees Joe and Nanci had disappeared into.  “Somehow I doubt it.  Sex and anything associated with it has the tendency to alter brain function.”

“So did you bring your cell?”

She turned back to him.  “What?”

“Just in case you decide you’d like to have your brain function altered a little, too.”

“Oh, you have inhaled too much smoke,” she told him, those green eyes looking up at him with more than a hint of amusement.  “Besides, I left my cell in my car.”

“I’d be happy to go get it for you.”  He loved getting her fired up.

“We’re not going to have sex.  Phone-wise or regular ever again.” 

“Never say never,” he warned with a grin.  Because if he had his way, there would definitely be a next time.

“Cole,” she groaned in frustration.

He laughed.  “Come on
, Cupcake.  Let’s get the rest of the introductions over with.” 

He led her in the direction of the checkered tablecloth covered picnic tables where his lieutenant and the rest of his crew were seated with their significant others.

“Maxwell!” the Lieutenant called out.

Cole smiled.  “Lieutenant.”

Standing, the lieutenant held his hand out to Cole in greeting.  “Glad you could make it.”

“Wouldn’t have missed it for the world.”

The lieutenant looked toward Kelsie with a smile.  “Aren’t you going to officially introduce us?”

Cole slipped an arm around her waist.  “
This is my date, Kelsie Collins.  Kelsie, Lieutenant Calhoun and his beautiful wife, Maggie.”

She returned his smile. 
“It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“Actually, we’ve already met,” the lieutenant informed her with a grin.

“We have?”

“Well, not officially until now.  You were a little preoccupied with a tree last time I saw you.”

Cole watched the color deepen in her cheeks.  “Ignore him,” he told her with a husky chuckle.  “He likes to give pretty girls a hard time.  Doesn’t he, Maggie?”

The lieutenant’s wife nodded
and then shook a chastising finger at her husband.  “Behave yourself.”

“It’s all right,” Kelsie assured her.

Maggie Calhoun turned to her with a warm smile.  “We’re so glad you could join us today.  From what I hear, you’ve made quite an impression on our Cole here.  And I’m sure I don’t have to tell you what a great catch he is.”

“Keep on selling me, Maggie,” Cole told her with a grin.  “I’ve been trying real hard to convince her of that, but she’s a tough sell.”

“Judy did the same thing to me at first if you remember right,” Stubby joined in from the far end of the picnic table.  “If you ask me, I think women are put on this earth to drive men crazy in bed and out.”

“Stubby McGuire!” his wife gasped, smacking him on the arm.  “Keep it up and the only place I’ll be driving you to tonight is to the sofa.”

“As you can see,” Cole said, “we’re like one big happy family.”  He went on to introduce her to the rest of his crew and their wives and then led Kelsie over to the food table.

“Hungry?” he asked, handing her a
paper plate.

“Starved.”

“Well, let’s see what we can do about that,” he answered with a wink.

“Your friends are all so nice,”
she said, glancing back toward the picnic tables.

“It’s a job requirement.”

“I take it the ability to tease is another,” she said as she plucked several cherry tomatoes from the veggie tray in front of her.

H
e grabbed them some plastic silverware from the wicker basket on the table.  “They really like you.” 

“Do you think so?” she said, and then quickly added, “Not that it matters.  It’s not like you and I will be going out again.”

“We will if I have my way.”

“Cole...”

“What?”  He grabbed the large metal fork from the meat tray and stabbed at a steak, dropping it onto her plate.  “It’s no secret that I’ve got one hell of a crush on you.”  He did a quick scan of the picnic goers and added, “Along with about every other guy at my station.”

“Are you always this persistent?”

“Not always.”  He stabbed at a steak for himself.  “I just like to see things right in the world.  And our being together is right.”

She lowered her plate to the table with a sigh and turned to him, no doubt intending to tell him all the reasons why they shouldn’t be a couple.  But
he didn’t give her the chance.  Instead, he set his plate down and drew her to him for a kiss.

“Hey, you two!” Nate hollered from across the yard where he and another firefighter were in the middle of a game of horseshoes.  “Get a room!”

Cole broke off the kiss, noting the flush that had returned to her beautiful face.  He grabbed their plates from the table.  “Come on.  Let’s go eat where we can have a little privacy.”

“I...I don’t mind eating with your friends,” she said, clearly affected by the kiss. 

“I do.  I have to look at their mugs across the dinner table enough as it is.  I’d much rather be focusing on something a whole lot prettier.  You.”  He nodded toward the iced down keg that sat next to the oak tree a few feet away from the food tables.  “Can you grab us a couple of beers?”

“Sure.”

He watched as she walked over and grabbed two plastic cups from the stack beside the keg and filled them.  His smile widened.  She was so unlike the other women he’d taken a chance on.  Kelsie fit in.  She belonged there.  With him.

The woman of his dreams turned from the keg and smiled at him.  “All set.  Let’s go eat.”

He led her away from the others.  “There’s a clearing just on the other side of those trees,” he said.  “We’ll eat there.”

They stopped beneath the shade of an old oak tree. 
Cole set the plates down on the grass and then turned to her.  “Wait here.  I’ll go grab us a couple of lawn chairs.”

“I don’t need a lawn chair.”  She settled onto the grass, folding her legs.  “It’s a picnic.  You’re supposed to sit on the grass to eat.”

“I thought it was supposed to be on a picnic blanket.”

She looked up at him, her green eyes challenging.  “What’s wrong, Cole?  You afraid of getting a little dirty?”

He lowered himself onto the grass beside her with a grin.  “On the contrary, doll, there’s nothing I’d like better than to get a little dirty with you.”

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Kelsie’s pulse quickened at the thought of ‘getting dirty’ with Cole.  No matter how attracted she was to the ‘perfect’ side of him, she loved his bad boy side even more.  Thankfully for her, there were others around or she might very well have taken him up on his offer. 

Her gaze moved over him, prompting her to immediately retract her last thought.  No might about it.  She
definitely
would have taken him up on his offer. 

“Considering it?”
he asked, his voice low and teasing.

She laughed and shook her head.  “Not for a second.”

“Liar,” he said with a knowing grin as he reached for the plates he’d set on the ground and handed hers to her.

Ignoring his
accusation, she cut into her steak.  It was so tender it gave the plastic silverware no resistance whatsoever.  Stabbing at a piece, she brought it to her mouth.

“Well?”
he asked as he cut into his.  “Any good?”

“Mmm...”
she groaned.  “Definitely as good as it smelled from the road.  I can’t believe how tender it is.”

“It’s the lieutenant’s secret marinade.”

She lifted her gaze to his.  “Secret, huh?”

“Top secret,” he replied with a nod
.  Then he leaned over to whisper against her ear, “Beer and garlic.”

The warmth of his breath against sensitive curve of her ear sent
delicious shudders racing through her.  She turned slightly to look up at him.  “You don’t say.” 

“It’s true.” 
He slowly closed the space between them, his mouth drawing ever closer to hers.  “But you can’t reveal the lieutenant’s secret recipe to anyone.”

He was so close she could practically feel his mouth on hers.  Wanted to feel his mouth on hers. 
“Oh, I wouldn’t dream of it,” she said, her words fading off as she gave in to the temptation and pressed her lips to his.

Cole reached up to thread his fingers in her hair
with a low groan, deepening the kiss.

Closing her eyes, Kelsie
returned the kiss, days of longing for just this moment urging her on.  She sighed into his mouth as he moved to cup her face with his hands. 

A moment later, Cole pulled away with a long, drawn out sigh.  “Sorry.  I got carried away.”

Carry away some more
, she wanted to scream.  But what little was left of her common sense told her she should be grateful.  Lips still tingling, she said, “Thank you for inviting me here today.”

“So I’m forgiven for tricking you into coming today?”

She smiled.  “Yes.  And lucky for you.  If I hadn’t, I might have turned Nanci loose on you.  She gives new meaning to ‘hitting below the belt’.”

He
feigned a wince.  “I’m thinking I’d prefer not to be at the receiving end of Nanci’s anger.”

“
Smart man.  You should’ve seen...” her words trailed off.  She forced her gaze to her plate.  “Never mind.”  

“Seen what?”
he pressed.

And she thought Nanci had a big mouth. 
“Nothing,” she said, pushing the food on her plate around with her fork.  The last thing she wanted to talk about while sitting there with Cole was her ass of an ex.

He reached
out to push a strand of hair from her face, tucking it behind her ear.  “What aren’t you telling me that I’m going to find out about sooner or later anyway?”

He was right. 
Nanci had probably already told Joe all about their night out which meant Cole was bound to hear about her run-in with Kyle.  She lifted her gaze to his.  “I ran into my ex last night when Nanci and I went out.”

His playful expression sobered. 
“I see.”

“No, I don’t think you do.”

“How did you feel about seeing him again?” he said, his words tight.

He almost sounded jealous.  Wishful thinking on her part, Kelsie quickly decided.  That is, until she noticed the rhythmic tick of a muscle at the hinge of his freshly-shaved jaw.  He cared?

“How did I feel?” she repeated, giddy that the thought of her with her ex bothered Cole.  The man deserved to be a little bothered after scheming behind her back with her mother to get her there.  She smiled brightly, pressing a finger to her lips.  “Let me think.  That’s a hard one.  There were so many things I felt when I saw Kyle again.”  She watched his frown deepen and fought the urge to giggle.  “But, if I were to describe it all in one word, I guess that word would be – nauseous.”

His
dark brown eyes widened.  “What?”

“
My ex-husband is an arrogant ass.  I realized last night when we ran into Kyle just how much better off I am without him in my life.”

Relief
eased his taut expression.  “I’m glad to hear it.  You deserve better.”

“
I know.”

“So where do
es Nanci being the giver of pain come into this story?”

“Kyle was
belligerently drunk and, as Nanci put it, invading my personal space, so she put him in his place with a firm kick to the groin.”

“He’s lucky I wasn’t there with you or he’d have gotten a boot up his ass as well
.”

Cole’s
protectiveness towards her felt good.  “You’d have had an easy target, seeing as how he was curled up on his side in the fetal position when we left him the club.  Unfortunately for my big-mouth ex, Nanci wore her pointiest toed high heels to the club and she knows how to use them.”

“Nanci’s a good friend,” he said with a chuckle. 
“I’m thinking I’d better warn Joe to start wearing a cup whenever he and Nanci go out.  Just in case he says the wrong thing and sets her off.”

She laughed softly. 
“I think your friend’s manhood is safe.”

H
is smile softened as he reached out to stroke her cheek.  “Seriously though, I’m sorry you had to deal with your ex last night.”

“I’m not.”

His hand stilled.  “You’re not?”

Placing her
hand over his, she replied, “No.  Seeing Kyle again was something I’ve worried about for a long time, wondering how I would feel.  Wondering if the hurt I’d felt from his betrayal would still be there.  But there was nothing.”

“Not even a flicker
of feeling?”

“Not even a flicker,” she assured him with a warm smile.  “Even when we were married, I never felt the flame of passion I feel with you.”

He took the plate from her hands and placed it onto the ground next to his. 

He looked like a man on a mission. 
“Cole?”

“Shh...” 
Capturing her face between his hands, he covered her mouth with his.  His kiss was tender, but thorough, making her legs weak.  Thankfully, she was sitting down.  Standing at that moment would have been nearly impossible.

When the kiss ended,
he picked up her plate and handed it back to her with a sexy, lone-dimpled grin.  “Just keeping the flame going.”  

It was more of a bonfire at that moment, but she wasn’t about to tell him that.  She
tried not to think about the other things she’d like Cole to be doing.  Food was safe.  She’d focus on that.  “Thank you for bringing me to your station’s picnic today,” she said as she took another bite of her steak. 

“You know,”
he said as he sat watching her, his expression still heated, “I never thought I’d be jealous of a piece of plastic.”

She paused between bites to look up at him. 
“What?”

“
Seeing that fork slide in and out of your sweet mouth and wishing it were my tongue delving into that sweetness instead.”

The
plastic fork slipped from her trembling fingers to the grassy earth below.  So much for food being safe.

“Come on,” Cole said, dumping their drinks in the grass.  Then he stacked the empty cups together.  His need for her was beyond painful.  He wanted to hold her as he had the night they’d made love.  To kiss every beautiful inch of her.  To open himself up to her as he never done with any other woman.  The heat of desire driving him, he pushed to his feet. 

“Where are we going?”
she asked as he took the plate of barely touched picnic food from her hands and placed it under his own. 

Setting the empty cups atop the plates, he said huskily,
“Some place more private.”  He extended his free hand.  “My house.”

She took the offer hand, allowing him to help her to her feet. 
“But we haven’t finished eating.”

He smiled
as he pulled her to her feet, his gaze pinning hers.  “Doll, food is not what I’m hungry for right now.” 

“That makes two of us,” she admitted with a breathy little sigh.

His heated gaze traveled appreciatively down her slender form.  Then he lowered his head to brush his lips over hers, murmuring huskily, “I want you so bad I hurt.”

She responded to his needy admission by running the tip of her tongue teasingly along his bottom lip.  “We can’t have you hurting, now can we?”

“Oh, hell,” he said with a groan, his desire erupting like a three-alarm fire.

Threading his fingers through hers,
he led Kelsie back to the main picnic area where most of his friends and their significant others were still seated, eating and talking.

“What are we going to tell them?” she whispered with a glance toward the picnic tables as he tossed
their trash into an old wine barrel that had been turned into a makeshift garbage can. 

He followed her
anxious gaze and then shrugged with a grin.  “How about the truth?  That we’re leaving the picnic to go back to my place to have incredibly hot sex.”

Her
head snapped around, her eyes meeting his.  “Don’t even think about it.”

He chuckled.  “Oh, I’m thinking about it all right.  Hot, sweaty, love every inch of you
r sweet body kind-of-sex.”

Color flooded her cheeks.  “Cole...”

She had no idea how sexy she was when she blushed like that.  Before he could tell her, Stubby called out, “You two done eating already?”

The others seated at the picnic table with
him turned to look their direction.

Cole nodded and called back, “The steaks were great, Lieutenant.”

“Thanks,” the lieutenant replied with a nod.

Taking Kelsie by the hand, he led her
over to the table where most of his crew sat talking.  Or at least they had been until Stubby had directed everyone’s attention his and Kelsie’s way.  “We hate to eat and run, but we have another party we need to get to.”

Maggie Calhoun stood and walked
around the table to give Kelsie a hug.  “I’m sorry you have to leave so soon.  We haven’t had much of a chance to visit.  Hopefully, next time we’ll have the opportunity to get to know each other better.”

Kelsie offered her a warm smile. 
“I’d like that very much.”

The older woman looked to Cole.  “B
e sure to bring her around again.  I like this one.”

“You and me both,” he admitted openly.

“Maybe to the company Christmas party,” she suggested.

“We’ll be there
,” he told her with a mischievous grin his date’s direction.  “Right under the mistletoe.”

Kelsie
responded with a warning jab in his ribs, making him chuckle.

Laughter rose up around the table.

Maggie turned to Kelsie.  “All silliness aside, we’re so glad you could join us today.”

“Thank you for having me.”

The lieutenant stepped up beside his wife, slipping his muscular arm around her waist.  “Any friend of Cole’s is a friend of ours.  And I have to say that you’re even prettier than your picture.”

“My picture?”

“You know.  The one they ran in the newspaper after Cole rescued you from that tree.”

Cole
rolled his eyes.  Just what she needed to be reminded of.

Maggie nodded. 
“And you’re a lot more down to earth than those other women─”

“Will you look at the time,”
Cole blurted out, cutting her off.  “We’ve really got to get going.”  With a quick goodbye to his friends, he hurried Kelsie away toward the open gate.

“Other women?”

Maggie was about the sweetest woman he had ever known, but she had a bad habit of blurting out whatever came to mind without thinking it through first.

He glanced her way with a grin. 
“Jealous, doll?”

Oh, was she ever, Kelsie thought.  She hated the thought of Cole being with another woman.  Not that she had any right to feel that way.  They weren’t in a relationship.  More her doing than his.  But the thought of committing herself to one person, putting her heart out there to possibly be broken again, was terrifying.  She couldn’t help but think of the old saying ‘too good to be true’.  What if Cole really was just that?