Set the Night on Fire (16 page)

“Emergency,” he hissed.

“What’s going on? Streaker? Tequila shortage?”

“No. Much worse. Suzanne’s here. Evie’s cousin. We have to talk to her and she scares me.”

Sean allowed his friend to drag him back to the bar area. Someone had put a country song on the jukebox and a line dance was forming. How could so many drunken people manage to boot kick in unison? Suzanne, her hair as bright as lemon sorbet, stood near the bar chatting with two other girls.

She lit up at the sight of them. “Sean Marcus, back where it all started. Barstow’s is like your native habitat, right? I’ve heard all the stories, and then some. You’re planning something big and crazy, aren’t you?”

“See what I mean?” Josh whispered to Sean. “She makes me nervous.”

“Say something,” Sean whispered back. “I’m blanking.”

Josh rolled his eyes and turned to Suzanne. “Not so much, Evie’s cousin. We’re just letting off some steam.”

“Steam?” She waved her hand in front of her face. “More like fumes, Sean’s friend.”

“Well, this is a bar, last I checked.” Josh tucked his thumbs in his front pockets. “Where do you hang out, the Tight-Ass Saloon?”

Sean snorted, which earned him a betrayed look from Suzanne. “How’s Evie doing?” she asked him.

“Evie’s…uh, busy. She’s at a meeting.”

“You haven’t heard? The meeting’s over. Those jerks wanted to fire her.”

Sean shook his head to clear it. It didn’t work. “She’s the president. Presidents don’t get fired.”

“Nixon did,” Josh said wisely. “Clinton nearly did.”

“No,” Suzanne corrected him. “Nixon resigned. Don’t firemen have to study American history?”

Josh shoved his hands in his pockets and scowled at her. “He only resigned because he was about to—”

“Can we get back to Evie here?” Sean felt like his head was about to explode. Suzanne and Josh seemed to really like needling each other. “What happened at the meeting?”

“She walked in and they told her to take a hike, but not in those exact words. So she told them to shove it, again, not in those exact words. She used McGraw language, you know. I understand the language, being related to them, but I’m not a McGraw myself and therefore have avoided the McGraw family communication problems.”

“Too bad,” said Josh with a smirk. “A little less communication goes a long way sometimes.”

Suzanne stamped her foot at him. “Look, Mr. Hotshot, I don’t know who gave you the right to make comments about—”

“Give me the keys, Josh,” Sean interrupted. “Gotta go find Evie.”

Josh put a hand on his shoulder. “Bro, no way are you driving.”

“Of course you’re not driving,” Suzanne said. “In this
one
instance, Josh is right.”

“I’ll drive,” Josh announced, digging in his pocket.

“You will not!” Suzanne lunged for the truck keys, which snagged on the edge of his jeans pocket, half in, half out. She tugged at them, trying to free them.

“Why, you little minx.” Josh spread open his arms in a “come and get me” move. “I didn’t know you were interested. All you had to do is say so.”

“
Moron
,” she hissed, abandoning her quest to grab the keys. Instead, she whipped her phone from her pocket. “Fine, drive if you want. I’m calling the cops right now and telling them there’s a drunken fireman on the road. I bet they’d love to hear that.”

Josh and Sean looked at each other. “Damn, she’s good,” Sean admitted.

“Pains me to say this, but you’re right.”

“
I’ll
drive.” She held out her hand for the keys. “But first, you guys are buying me coffee.”

T
en minutes later
, they were working their way through a pot of coffee at the pancake house on Route 5.

“It’s because of me, isn’t it?” Sean couldn’t get over the news about Evie resigning. “I should never have come back to Jupiter Point. I’ve ruined everything for Evie.”

“That’s not true,” Suzanne said impatiently. “My cousin’s a lot happier since you got here. Regular sex will do that for you.”

Josh snorted coffee through his nose, then clapped a hand to his face with a moan of agony. “You should really warn a guy before tossing the word ‘sex’ out there.”

“Sorry, big guy. I’ll be more careful with your delicate sensibilities from now on,” Suzanne teased.

Josh just blinked at her.

Wow—Sean couldn’t remember the last time a woman had rendered Josh speechless. His estimation of Suzanne went way up. He propped his elbows on the table and rubbed his forehead. “I didn’t come here to mess around with Evie’s life.”

“You know something, Sean Marcus? I’ve been wondering just why you
did
come back.”

Josh bristled at Suzanne’s tart tone. “He came here to save your starry-eyed butts from wildfires.”

Suzanne made a face at the tall man slouched next to her in the booth. “He can be a hero anywhere. Why did he decide to come here?”

“Why are you riding him about it? Despite the way you prance around, this town doesn’t actually belong to you.”

“
Prance
around? You haven’t been here long enough to see me prance.
When
I prance, it will be down the aisle with my fiancé.”

“And I’ll be there doing the slow clap for the poor man.”

“Stop it, both of you.” Sean couldn’t stand their bantering a second longer. “I came back because—” He broke off. Suddenly it felt strange to be saying this at two in the morning in an empty diner at a table sticky with boysenberry syrup. “I came back—”

“You don’t have to explain it.” Josh stepped in when he still couldn’t spit it out. “Suzanne’s just being a busybody. Ignore her. I have a feeling that’s the best way to handle her in most circumstances.”

Suzanne’s nostrils flared. Sean reached for the cup of coffee in her hand before she could fling it in Josh’s face. “I already told you I came back because I don’t want this town thinking I’m a piece of shit.”

They both turned their attention to him. Josh straightened up with an outraged expression. “
Who
here thinks you’re a piece of shit? Give me names. I’ll open a frickin’ truckload of whoop-ass on them.”

“Right, that’s the solution. Go all macho.” Suzanne rolled her eyes at Josh then gentled her voice. “Sean, no one thinks that about you. If anything, they feel bad for you because of the crash.”

“No.” He shook his head, pushing his coffee cup in circles on the laminate surface of the table. “I know how people looked at us. The fucked-up Marcus family. The hippie planning to smuggle drugs into town.”

“But that was your father, not you. Sean, don’t you realize half the girls in Jupiter Point had a crush on you? I…might have, too, a little bit.”

Josh lifted an eyebrow at her, shaking his head. “That’s Magneto for you. What is it, the dark good looks? The ripped physique? The lone-wolf act?”

Sean ignored the entire tangent. He’d just realized there was another reason he’d come back to Jupiter Point. “Here’s the thing. This town was good to me. I’d lived in fifteen different states before we came to Jupiter Point. After the crash, this place took care of me. I don’t mean just the McGraws. Everyone watched out for me. My teachers did, the guys on the basketball team, Hunter, the bartenders at Barstow’s. I remember I got drunk one night at Stargazer Beach and a cop car came. I thought I was done for, but the officer bought me a coffee, let me cry in the backseat of the car, then took me back to the McGraws’ house.”

Josh and Suzanne had forgotten their quarrel and were watching him with differing degrees of sympathy and alertness.

“Leaving the way I did, skulking out of town after a night in fucking jail, I’ve always regretted it.” He met Josh’s eyes. “I thought of it during the burnover. I wanted to come back here and show everyone I wasn’t a fuckup. I don’t want to be the piece of shit who took everything this town gave me and threw it in their faces. I want to do something good for Jupiter Point.”

The passion in his own voice shocked him. He hadn’t even known he felt this way until just now. Suzanne and Josh exchanged a look.

“Holy fuck.” He downed the rest of his coffee. “I must sound like an idiot.”

“You don’t,” Josh assured him. “You’re actually making sense, for a drunk guy.”

Sean gave a snort. “At least I haven’t married a stranger this time.”

“Notice the joke.” While addressing himself to Suzanne, Josh indicated Sean. “A time-tested way to avoid honest emotion.”

“I’m not trying to avoid anything. If I was, I wouldn’t have come near this town. I want to prove something. So far, it’s going pretty frickin’ well, don’t you think? The police have reopened the crash investigation and I’m being accused of fucking up the Big Canyon fire. I should have stayed in Colorado.”

“But then you wouldn’t have seen Evie again,” Suzanne pointed out. “Maybe it’s destiny. Written in the stars.” She made a scribbling gesture in the air over his head.

“Exactly. I wouldn’t have seen Evie again. I’ve been nothing but trouble for her.” He pulled out his wallet to pay the bill.

“I don’t believe that,” said Suzanne. “I know my cousin, and she’s so much happier now. She’s been in such a rut, I was seriously worried about her. Now she smiles and laughs and wears clothes in colors other than neutral.”

“And there we have it.” Josh sat back with a lazy grin. “Our work here is complete, Sean. Evie doesn’t wear neutrals anymore.”

Suzanne swatted him on the upper arm. “Moron. Besides, Sean Marcus, think about this. If you hadn’t come back, I wouldn’t have met Josh.” An evil grin spread across her face. “And I so look forward to making his life hell.”

Josh shot Sean a panicked look and tried to hide under the table.

Sean laughed at their clowning, but a heavy weight had settled somewhere around his heart. He tossed a twenty on the table and stood up to go. No matter what Suzanne said, if he was ruining things for Evie in any way, he should do something about it. Like leave Jupiter Point. But he couldn’t leave; he’d committed to this job. He couldn’t leave until the hotshot crew was up and running.

But—he could do something else. He could step away from Evie’s life.

E
vie had
a tried-and-true method for recovering from a tough day of “peopling,” as she called it. Although she loved people, especially her friends and family, her naturally introverted nature required a certain amount of solitude. That was why she lived alone, and why she loved the time she spent roaming the terrain around Jupiter Point shooting photos for her mother.

In her experience, there was little that a long bubble bath, hot chocolate spiked with rum, and a pint of Ben & Jerry’s couldn’t improve. Add in some Netflix, and life definitely started looking up.

But she couldn’t find anything she wanted to watch on Netflix, she’d poured the last of her rum into the flask she’d taken to the Point, and the jasmine scent of her bubble bath kept making her sneeze. None of it helped. She was still the woman who’d been outmaneuvered, silenced, and kicked to the curb.

Finally she gave up and tried Plan B. She called her brother. Hunter had recently gotten engaged to a famous pop star, so she never knew where he might be at any given moment. Backstage? Onstage? Tokyo? Australia?

“Hey sis,” he answered. “I’ve been thinking about you.”

“Really? Don’t you have more exciting things to think about?”

“I was wondering if Sean Marcus managed to track you down.”

“He did.” She sealed her mouth shut so she didn’t reveal any juicy details. In her fuzzy robe, curled on the couch against her newest load of clean laundry, she could feel Sean’s dynamic presence in her house as if he’d never left.

“Okay then. I see we’re following the McGraw family policy of don’t ask, don’t tell, don’t say anything unless you have something nice to say, and…hmm, what am I leaving out?”

Evie reached with her big toe and hooked the laundry basket closer to the couch. Her head throbbed and she felt as if the room was closing in on her. Was she doomed to never, ever speak about anything difficult? Was that her fate in life? Was she really such a coward? “The coalition ousted me,” she blurted.

“What?”

“For my own good, they said. Because I can’t handle controversy.” She halfheartedly folded a towel and dropped it in the laundry basket. “Is that true, Hunter? Am I controversy-challenged? Is that like some kind of disability?”

And then a flash of revelation struck her like a two-by-four to the head. “Oh my God, Hunter. I’m disabled. Not in a physical way. Psychologically. I can’t deal with conflict.”

“Come on, Evie—”

She picked up a blouse that had wrapped itself into a tight knot in the washing machine. “Shush. Don’t try to sugarcoat it. I’m on to something here. It’s not just that I’m a McGraw and our parents raised us a certain way. Look at you! You’re a bodyguard. You handle conflict all the time.” Giving up on the blouse, she tossed it into the basket.

“Honestly, sometimes I think I look for it. Makes me feel alive.”

“I can’t believe I didn’t see this before. I’m Evie McGraw, and I’m disabled.”

“You really think ‘disabled’ is the right—”

She plucked a bra off the pile and waved it in the air. “Fine. I’m Evie McGraw and I’m an addict. I’m addicted to peace and harmony. I’ll do anything to avoid conflict. Even ruin
my own life
.”

“Evie—”

“No, this is good, Hunter. It’s really, really good. And it’s not just good in an ‘I feel so much better’ way. It’s good because I know exactly what to do now.”

Tomorrow, Brad was holding a press conference.

Maybe it was time she got over her aversion to the spotlight.

Suddenly energized, she jumped to her feet and bounced up and down on the couch. Clean clothes went flying off the pile. Maybe she should feel bad because she’d just seen what a huge flaw she’d uncovered in herself. But she didn’t.

She felt free and alive. Up to now, she hadn’t really been living. Not fully and completely. That had to change. Immediately.

“What are you doing? I’m hearing weird sounds.”

“I’m pulling a Tom Cruise. And I’m also waving a bra around. Hunter, this is amazing! You’ve changed everything. We should have talked like this long ago.”

“You’re freaking me out, sis. Do I need to call someone?”

A knock rattled her front door. “Evie,” called a deep male voice.

Sean
. Shivers rippled up and down her skin.

“Nope. All good. Thanks for letting me rant. I’ll call you soon.” She hung up, tossed the bra back on her laundry pile, and danced to the door. She flung it open. Sean stood on her front stoop. His jaw was dark with stubble, his eyes hooded and bloodshot. Despite that, he was a glorious sight. She beamed at him with pure joy.

He took a surprised step backwards—it must have been a lot of joy.

“I…uh…came to make sure you were okay. I heard about the coalition.”

“Yes, they’re done with me. Too bad, so sad.”

She reached for his hand and dragged him inside. As soon as he was through the door, she leaped into his arms and wrapped her legs around his waist. “Let’s celebrate.”

He staggered backwards a half step, but managed to keep his balance. He was so strong, her Sean. Strong enough to handle fires and plane crashes and all manner of conflict.

She was pretty sure…no, almost entirely sure…that she loved him.

C
learly
, Sean hadn’t sobered up nearly enough. Evie’s almost manic happiness made no sense to him. Shouldn’t she be angry, upset, hurt, crying? Instead she was rubbing up against him like a cat, and if there was a man alive who could resist that…well, it wasn’t Sean.

He walked backwards toward her couch, which looked as if a bomb had gone off in the middle of her laundry pile. Clothes everywhere. Not that he minded standing-up sex. Pinning Evie against the wall worked for him too. But he’d had just enough tequila that he didn’t want to risk either or both of them hitting the floor mid-orgasm.

The back of his legs hit the couch and he fell into the cushions, his arms filled with warm, passionate woman. And a pink fleece robe with little fluffy sheep.

“I know, it’s not exactly sexy,” she told him, sitting back on his thighs so she could slip off the robe. “If it makes a difference, I’m naked underneath it.”

His heart thudded as he let his eyes wander up and down her nudity. He touched the rosy tips of her breasts and felt her shudder. She shifted on his lap to press her sex against the hard ridge already pushing against his jeans. He groaned at the searing wave of pleasure that followed.

“Oh man. That’s too good, Evie. You always feel so incredible to me.” With a seductive look from under her eyelashes, she slid off his thighs and settled herself on the floor between his legs. “What are you doing?”

“Well, I only got a taste of you that night on the cliffs.” She unzipped his pants and reached in to draw out his fierce erection. “It was also dark. I didn’t really get the full experience. From now on, I’m all about the
full experience
. Of anything and everything.”

He held on tight to the arm of the couch. “Like what?”

“Like this.” She fixed her gaze on his penis. “Your cock.”

Oh God
. Seeing those perfect, sensual lips say the word “cock” nearly made him come right then. But he bent his entire will on
not
coming so he could savor every bit of what she was doing to him.

She settled her mouth around the head of his cock and slid downwards, lips clasping him with wet, velvety heat. She explored his balls with light, feathery touches, then moved on up his shaft.

He flexed his hips to deepen the contact with her mouth and throat. She hummed, eyes closing halfway. The vibration traveled across the skin of his cock and directly to the pleasure center of his brain. “Holy mother of…” he breathed. It took everything in him to keep from coming. His balls tightened, energy gathered at the base of his spine. God, he wanted to come right there in her sweet, suckling mouth, explode into her throat.

But he also wanted
her
. He wanted to plunge deep into her core, to touch the part closest to her innermost being.

With shaky hands, he withdrew his cock from her mouth, trying not to look at its glistening surface because that might put him over the edge. “Stand up,” he told her, voice tight and rough with lust.

She came to her feet, naked before him. He snagged a condom from his pocket, then kicked his own jeans all the way off. He drew her between his thighs. Buried his face between her legs and inhaled her heady scent. Already aroused, already wet, already trembling under his tongue. He held her tight, hands gripping her ass, while he gorged himself on her sweet juices, her swelling clit, her delicate folds, her tight channel.

He had to have her. Now. He pulled his mouth away, hearing her gasp, and stood up. Her body was so flushed and beautiful, he could look at her all night. But he had a much better idea than that. Moving behind her, he growled in her ear. “Bend over and put your hands on the back of the couch.”

Eyes widening with excitement, lips parting, she did so.

“Lower down,” he prompted, putting his hand to her lower back to direct her. When she’d reached the perfect angle, he widened her stance by inserting his knee between her thighs. He looked away because the sight of her in that position was almost too exciting. He might come before he even got inside her.

He slipped on the condom and positioned himself behind her. Anchoring her hips with one hand, he used the other to work his insanely hard cock inside her.

She gasped and arched her back. “So good,” she whispered, looking over her shoulder at him.

A spasm lanced through him—the first warning shot of an oncoming orgasm.
Hold off, hold off.
He wanted to do this together, dammit. He reached around and found her clit. Pressed his palm against her sex, making sure the hot little kernel received plenty of friction.

He thrust into her channel, keeping his hand firmly in its position. Again. Again. Long, sleek, commanding strokes until he couldn’t maintain his control any longer. He let it all loose, all the passion and lust churning inside him. He pistoned hard and fast, pinning her between his cock and his hand, working her from both sides, surrounding her, consuming her, driving both of them over the edge.

When she let out her first cry of release and her body clenched around him, he let go of the last tiny bit of his control. He exploded into an orgasm so intense, he forgot where he was. He bent over her body, held her tight and emptied himself inside her. The room spun, the world shifted. He must have made sounds, but he didn’t hear.

All he knew was pleasure, release, and a deep, deep connection to the woman in his arms.

S
ean slept
in her bed that night, although Evie thought it might have been more a case of passing out. They entwined, naked, under her comforter. Other than the nap they’d shared the other evening, she’d never slept in the same bed with a man before.

Just one more example of how she hadn’t really been
living
.

Sean conked out right way, but she had too much adrenaline cruising through her system to sleep. She wished she’d told Sean about the feelings growing inside her. The certainty that she loved him—that this was something real for her—wouldn’t go away. Maybe their involvement had started as a way to reclaim her sexuality. But it wasn’t that anymore. She’d fallen in love with him.

And she knew perfectly well that he wasn’t interested in a relationship. For Pete’s sake, he didn’t even live in Jupiter Point. Their relationship was doomed. The dark fire warrior in her bed was destined to break her heart.

She could kick herself for being so reckless.

Except it was absolutely worth it. From now on, there would be no keeping silent, no holding back, no half living. She was going to live her life even when it hurt.