TooHot (8 page)

Paul stuck out his hand and Marco accepted the gesture.

“That shift was a bitch, hey?” Paul asked. “A few of us are
heading out to grab a beer now, you want to come?”

“Nah, but thanks.”

“Going to see Josie?”

“I’m going to try.”

The second he stepped outside, Marco took a deep breath,
filling his nose with the smell of fresh air. After dealing with a fire like
the one they did tonight it always took him quite a while to get the smell of
smoke out of his nose. Even with all of his gear on somehow the smell lingered.
No one else noticed it, but he always did. It was as if the smell held to him,
not wanting to be forgotten.

Needing to get his head on straight, he opted for walking
the half-dozen blocks to Josie’s apartment. Hell, he’d be lucky if she even let
him in the door. He looked up at the building and took a deep breath. If he was
smart he’d go up the fire escape. Doing that was at least comfortable to him,
groveling wasn’t.

With intention in his steps, Marco climbed the four flights
of stairs and knocked on Josie’s door. And waited. And waited some more. He
glanced at his watch. Seven o’clock. She should be home. He leaned closer to
the door. He could hear her moving around inside the apartment so he knocked
again.

From through the door she called, “Go away, Marco. I have
nothing to say to you.”

He breathed deeply. Women. With guys you just punched each
other or at least knew you were willing to go to the mats with the other guy
and it was done. Like with Paul earlier, but women, jeez, they seemed to want
to stew. He banged a little harder.

“Go away.”

“Not happening,” he yelled back.

“I told you earlier there was nothing to talk about.”

He gritted his teeth to keep his anger in check. What the hell?
After everything, she wasn’t even going to give him a chance to explain? Fuck
that. “Open the goddamn door, Josie, or I’ll bust it down.”

He glanced down the hallway, his eyes homing in on the fire
extinguisher and axe on the wall. Perfect. Prepared to take matters into his
own hands, he turned just as the lock unsnicked and Josie opened her door.

“Fine, talk,” she said and placed her hands on her hips.
Pure, unadulterated pissed-off female stared back at him.

Well screw that. He was pissed too. She walked in on part of
a conversation and passed judgment on him? Sure it sounded bad but it wasn’t
that
bad, at least he didn’t think it was.

“We going to do this out here?” he asked.

Josie rolled her eyes and stepped back, allowing him to come
inside. He walked past her and went straight into the living room with Josie
following behind.

She sat down on the couch, tucked her knees underneath her
and crossed her arms over her chest. She looked so small and unsure as she sat
there.

He ran his hand over the back of his neck, trying to ease
the knot that was growing exponentially by the second.

“Look, about what you heard.”

Her chest rose as she took a deep breath and held it.

“It wasn’t what it sounded like,” he went on.

“No? That’s good because it sounded like you went out with
me because my uncle forced you into doing it.”

He grimaced at the acid in her tone. She wasn’t just pissed
off. She was hurt and the look of betrayal in her eyes cut through him.

“Look, the thing is, yes, I did ask you out because your
uncle asked me to. But…”

Josie’s face turned beet red and her eyes welled up with
tears. “God, how pathetic am I that my uncle needs to force his employees to
date his fat niece?”

“You aren’t fat,” he growled. He hated how every woman he
knew thought she was fat. Who the hell were they comparing themselves to?
Sticks? Sure Josie had a little more meat on her bones than most of the women
he dated, but damn if he didn’t like the extra curves. He certainly didn’t want
her to lose any.

Josie snorted. “Right, just pathetic then?”

He gritted his teeth. “You aren’t pathetic. Look, your uncle
said you’d come off a rough breakup and he thought it would be nice if I took
you out to dinner.”

“Oh my god,” she groaned. “And he had to threaten you to get
you to be willing to take me?”

“What? No.”

“Right, so he suggested it and you jumped at the offer, I’m
sure.”

“Well no…not exactly.”

She covered her face with her hands. “This just gets better
and better.”

He dropped down into the chair opposite her and rested his
elbows on his knees. “It’s just that I thought it would be weird to date my
boss’s niece, you know?”

She laughed, but the sound held no humor, just bitter hurt.
“Of course. So he had to browbeat you to get you to go?”

He laughed as he remembered the conversation with the wily
bastard. “Not in the way you’re thinking. He told me if I didn’t go out with
you he’d ask Phillips to take you out instead.”

Her eyes widened. “God, could this get worse? So what? He
planned to go down the line until he found someone willing to take pity on me?”

He shrugged. “I don’t really know what his plan was. I
didn’t give him the chance to put it into play.”

“Well, I guess I should be thankful you saved me from
looking completely ridiculous,” she mumbled.

“Jos, come on. I might have asked you out because of your
uncle, but the rest had nothing to do with him. I sure as hell wouldn’t have
had sex with you because of him.”

“Thank god for small favors.” Her voice dripped with sarcasm
as she spoke. She rubbed her palm along her arms as if to warm herself up. “We
done here?”

“What?”

“We done? You explained yourself. I get it. You took pity on
poor, pathetic Josie. The girl whose boyfriend cheated on her because she let
herself go.”

“Excuse me?”

She snorted. “Oh didn’t I tell you why Dave and I broke up?
He didn’t find me attractive anymore.”

“Asshole,” Marco mumbled. He looked at her, his eyes
lingered on her full breasts. “The guy was an idiot. There is not a damn thing
wrong with your body.” His cock pressed firmly against his jeans as his
erection grew.

“Maybe, but I can’t say it’s all that much of an ego boost
to know my uncle had to force you to date me.”

“Jesus, Josie. He didn’t have to force me.” He lifted the
front of his t-shirt to show her how hard he was. “Does this look like I don’t
find you attractive? God, woman, just the thought of you makes me hard. I can’t
fake this.”

“You’re a guy, Marco, you can get hard about pretty much
anything. Hell, guys wouldn’t be able to have Troll contests if they needed to
be attracted to the woman to get hard. What’s the saying? A couple of beers and
a paper bag?”

“So that’s what you think of me? That I’m some asshole who
would just fuck anything that moved? Nice, Jos, real nice. Glad you have such a
high opinion of me, or maybe it’s just that you have such a low opinion of
yourself.”

“Fuck you.”

“You already did that.” He rubbed his hand over his face.
This conversation was rapidly going nowhere. He was pissed and hurt and so was
she. If he was smart he’d fucking leave.

“Look, Josie. I don’t know how to convince you about what
happened. Your uncle asked me to take you out. I felt bad about him doing
something like that, thought you deserved better but I was attracted to you,
and I didn’t like the idea of one of the other guys at the house taking my
place, so yeah, I asked you out. Would I have asked you anyway? Maybe, I don’t
know. You weren’t overly receptive at the shoot so I probably would have
thought you weren’t interested. So yeah, maybe your uncle gave me a little
nudge but that was for dinner, Josie, nothing else.” He paused and stared at
her. “You got into my bed because you wanted to be there, nobody forced you.”

“I know that.”

“Do you? Because you sure as shit aren’t acting like it.”

She stared back at him, not speaking at all, and he didn’t
have a clue what was going through her mind. He’d always been good at reading
women, but Josie was different, he couldn’t ever seem to get a full bead on her
and he kind of liked it, except at this particular moment. A huge part of the
attraction was that she wasn’t typical.

Josie took a deep breath. “I think you should go. I need to
think.”

He nodded and stood. “I’m not your asshole ex, Josie.”

“I know.”

“Good, then you should also know this thing between us isn’t
all that common. It sure as hell hasn’t happened to me before and no matter
what brought us together we work.”

She stood from the couch. “I’ll call you.”

He shook his head. Damn stubborn woman. “You do that. But
remember this…” Without giving her a chance to move away, he wrapped his hand
around the back of her neck and pulled her against him. Crushing his lips
against her mouth, he devoured her, fucking her mouth with his tongue, leaving
no questions about how much he wanted her.

When he pulled back they were both breathing hard.
Let
her think about that.
He strolled to the front door with Josie right behind
him. He pulled the door open and stepped outside then turned to look at her.
“Don’t throw what we have away over some stupid misunderstanding, Jos.” With
that he turned and walked away.

Chapter Seven

Josie closed the door and leaned against it. What was she
going to do? She could still feel the lingering effects of Marco’s
soul-shattering kiss. He was certainly right about that. Heat like they had was
rare. She’d certainly never had anything like that with her ex. Even when
they’d been in the new phases of lust she hadn’t felt like that about Dave. His
kisses never consumed her, just the thought of his touch never made her wet
like Marco did. Even now, as hurt and angry as she was she could feel the moisture
in her panties, the side effect of Marco’s kiss.

She sagged against the wall and sat on the floor. Her mind
raced in every direction. Was she being an idiot to let this bother her? Was
she kidding herself that she’d be able to hold onto someone as sexy as him?
Hell, once his picture was splattered over the cover of the firefighters’
calendar every woman in the tri-state area would be all over him and then what?

Maybe that was part of her problem. As much as she knew
Marco wasn’t like Dave, a small part of her worried about whether she’d be able
to hold onto him. She hadn’t been able to keep her ex and he wasn’t anywhere
close to as sexy as Marco. She was in Dave’s league. She wasn’t even close to
being in Marco’s.

Was that what she was really afraid of? She pushed herself
off the floor. She needed to talk to her uncle and hear his side of things.

Josie grabbed her purse and keys off the counter and slipped
her jacket on as she left her apartment. Twenty minutes later, she stood
outside her uncle’s apartment waiting for him to buzz her in.

When she got up the stairs her Uncle Jack stood with the
door open, waiting for her, his expression reserved and unsure.

“Hey,” she said.

“Hi, kiddo. Guess I don’t have to ask why you’re here.”

She looked at him and shook her head. “Nope.”

Her uncle took a deep breath. “All right then, let’s hash
this out.” He stepped back from the doorway to let her in. “You want tea or
anything before we sit down?”

“No, I’m good, thanks.”

Leading the way into the living room, Josie sat down in her
favorite chair. The big, cushy brown suede wrapped around her. She always felt
safe and comforted in that spot. It didn’t really make sense since it was just
a piece of furniture but for some reason it always worked. He uncle smiled at
her as she snuggled in deeper into the seat.

“Josie, I’m sorry about today. I never meant for you to hear
that.”

“You’re sorry about what I heard?”

“Of course.” He raised his eyebrow at her questioningly.

“Shouldn’t you be sorry that you bribed someone to date me?
Not sorry that you got busted doing it?”

“Oh, Josie, you always were a stickler for semantics,” he
said and shook his head. “I’m sorry you got hurt, but I’m not sorry I asked
Marco to ask you out.”

Her eyes bugged out at his audacity. “How can you not be
sorry that you bribed one of your employees to ask me out?”

“It was for your own good.”

“Right, because I’m so pathetic I can’t get a date on my
own.” Pain lanced through her as she spoke the words out loud. It hurt having
her uncle think she was so needy.

“What are you talking about, girl? Of course I don’t think
you’re pathetic.”

“Then why would you have forced Marco to date me?”

Her uncle’s head tipped back with laughter. “Force him? I
didn’t force him to do anything.”

“He said you coerced him.”

“I kind of did.” He grinned. His eyes twinkled as if he were
proud of himself.

Josie narrowed her eyes as she looked at the glee on her
uncle’s face. Clearly she was missing something here. “’Kay, you forced Marco
to date me and you don’t feel bad about that?”

“Hell no. Although I am a little pissed that he sweet-talked
you into his bed.” His face turned red and he looked down and shook his head.
“I’d kind of hoped all those talks about premarital sex we had when you were
younger would have stuck.”

Even talking about sex now seemed to embarrass her uncle.
Josie laughed. Unfortunately by the time he’d started having those
uncomfortable conversations with her in high school, that ship had already
sailed. They hadn’t stuck then and they sure hadn’t lingered on in her mind at
this late date. “How can you not feel bad?”

“What do you mean? Why would I feel bad? You’re a great girl
and Marco’s a good guy. I thought you’d make a nice couple.”

Josie shook her head, trying to clear out her ears because
there’s no way she’d heard that correctly. “Excuse me?”

“Oh come on, Josie. I saw the way you looked at him at the
shoot. You were interested and after that asshole Dave I thought you deserved a
good guy for a change.” He grinned. “I happened to overhear him talking to
Scott about you and how, umm…” He cleared his throat. “How attractive he found
you so I thought I’d play matchmaker a little. Shoot me.”