Author: Bella Andre

He ran his tongue over the plump curve of her lower lip and she melted deeper into him, her curves pliable and so damn sweet as he tasted the corner where her upper and lower lip came together before plunging back into her mouth to tangle with her tongue.

Just as their kiss had gone from zero to one hundred in a millisecond, that’s how Gabe wanted to take her. Fast and hard, up against the wall, the pantry doors banging as he slammed into her to take the intense pleasure their very first kiss was already promising.

And yet, despite how much he wanted her, Gabe knew he had to put the brakes on—and fast. But just as he started to pull away, Megan’s hands abruptly moved from around his neck to splay flat across his chest so that she could push out of his arms.

The words “I shouldn’t be kissing you,” flew from her lips at the same moment he said, “I can’t do this.”

Chapter Eight

He should have pulled away from her; she should have stepped out of his arms. But neither of them moved.

Not sure who he was trying to convince more, Gabe explained, “I don’t date people I’ve pulled from burning buildings.”

Almost before he finished speaking, she gave her own explanation. “I can’t be with someone who could die at any minute.”

It was a moment of pure honesty, their first one.

No, Gabe quickly admitted. That kiss had been their first truly honest moment together. Honest passion...full-throttle desire.

As she finally slipped out of his arms and he moved to let her go, she added, “After the way Summer’s father died, I just can’t.”

He should have been leaving, should have left five minutes ago so that none of this could have happened. But, Lord, he wouldn’t regret that smoking-hot kiss. And he wanted to understand Megan’s reasons as well as he did his own.

“How did he die?”

“He was a fighter pilot.”

“Navy?”

She nodded, looking heartbroken, and he had a moment of serious jealousy over a dead man. What was happening to him?

“I don’t date men like you with jobs like yours. Not anymore. Summer was only a toddler when David died, but it still hurt her. If I were to let her get close to another man with a job like that and one day he didn’t come home...”

She seemed to realize she’d said too much about herself and quickly turned the question back on him. “And I’m assuming you don’t date woman you save because—”

“It never works out.” He’d heard what she’d said about not letting herself date a guy in his dangerous line of work, but he could still taste that kiss, could still hear her sexy little moans as their tongues had slipped and slid against each other. Yet again, he didn’t know whether it was for her or for himself when he said, “It’s just not a normal way for two people to meet. It sets up expectations. Ones that can never be lived up to in everyday, real life.”

Knowing he was the one saying too much now, he was glad when she took another step back from him and said, “Okay.”

She gave him a smile that trembled slightly around the edges. “I’m glad we’ve got that out in the open.” She licked her lips. “Settled between us.”

He shouldn’t have been standing there thinking how cute she was when she was nervous, but damn it, that was exactly what he was doing. And he sure as hell shouldn’t have been on the verge of reaching for her and kissing her sweet mouth again.

Gabe shoved his hands into his pockets to keep them from straying back to her gorgeous curves. He needed to leave, the sooner the better. She’d make the coffee. He’d drink it. And then he’d say goodbye and go back to his place and not let himself think about her, damn it.

If only he could have stuck to his original plan of staying as far away from her as possible. But she’d been to his mother’s house. She’d met his family. She was friends with his sister, the same sister who clearly had designs on getting them together.

As if she needed something to do with her hands, too, Megan picked up the bag he’d dropped on the counter and poured beans into the coffee maker.

“Sophie’s your friend and we’re bound to see each other again—”

“—so we’ll just agree to be friends,” Megan said, finishing his sentence. “No big deal.” She gave him another one of those not-quite-there smiles as she pressed the button on the grinder. When the beans were ready for the coffee maker, she scooped them in and said, “I mean, now that we both know exactly where the other person stands, right?”

Still wanting her more than he’d ever wanted another woman, Gabe nodded.

“Right.”

She was a blur of activity, clearing off a stack of Frosty the Snowman drawings she and Summer must have been working on, pulling out a pretty plate and arranging some white-frosted snowflake cookies on it.

He’d never dated anyone with kids. Not, he reminded himself, that he and Megan were dating. But it was the first time he’d seen anyone apart from his mother juggle more than just her own life.

She handed him the cup of coffee. “Why don’t we go sit down?”

He followed her over to the small living room on the other side of the open kitchen, noting that she wisely chose to sit on the small, velvet-covered chair rather than joining him on the couch.

She slid her heels off and tucked her bare feet up under her, rubbing them with her free hand. “My feet were killing me in those heels.”

Gabe wouldn’t ever have called himself a foot man. Feet were just feet. But Megan’s pink painted toes were incredibly sexy. He wanted to push her hand away and replace it with his. He already knew how sweet her mouth was, how soft her hair was. What would her skin feel like beneath his hands?

He was blowing the “just friends” thing already. What made it worse was that not only was he just as opposed to falling for Megan as she was for him, but he also understood her reasons for not wanting to be with him. She had every right to want to be with a man who wouldn’t die unexpectedly on her this time around.

There was no question whatsoever that he didn’t fit that bill. At all.

There was a desk in the corner of the living room, along with a couple of large filing cabinets and a bookshelf that looked like it held reference manuals rather than novels.

Following his gaze, she offered, “I work from home. I’m a CPA.”

Before tonight, Gabe might have assumed that all accountants were dry, passionless geeks glued to their calculators and spreadsheets.

Megan definitely wasn’t passionless.

“Do you like being an accountant?”

“I do.” She took a sip of coffee. “I like how numbers add up. I like the rhyme and reason. How they always make sense, and if there’s a discrepancy, I know that as long as I look hard enough, I’ll figure out what the problem is. And solve it.” She blinked at him with those beautiful green eyes. “I take it you love being a firefighter?”

“I was never able to sit still when I was a kid. And I used to like playing with matches a little too much. Fire always fascinated me.”

“Your mother must have loved that,” she said in a tone that indicated just the opposite.

He acknowledged, “Not so much.”

“I guess the fascination with fire makes sense,” she said slowly, as if considering it for the first time. “Otherwise you might not be so willing to run straight into one rather than away from it like the rest of us.”

Did she know that he was fascinated with her, too? That even when he knew he should be turning away from her, he wanted to move closer?

“You have a great family, but I have to say, some of you must have been a handful. My hat’s off to your mother. And,” she said with a slight question to her words, “your father?”

“He passed away when I was five. She raised us alone.”

His father’s death was another reason he’d chosen his career. Also trained as a paramedic, many of the calls he went on were medical. He couldn’t save everyone’s father or mother or child, but he wanted to know, at least, that he’d done everything he could.

Megan’s eyes grew big. “Eight children alone?” She put a hand over her heart in a clear gesture of sympathy for his mother. “Half the time Summer feels like too much for me to deal with by myself.”

“You’re a great mother.”

She smiled at that. “Thank you. Although I’m not sure you’d say the same thing if you could see me yelling at her about homework or clothes on the floor or spending too much time on the phone with her friends.”

He shouldn’t want to see those things, shouldn’t want to get any closer to Megan or her daughter. But the longer he sat with her, talking about family, the more that wanting grew.

Quickly downing the rest of his coffee, he got up and put his empty cup on the coffee table. He noticed the window off the kitchen was open a crack and a cold breeze was coming in.

“Do you want this open?”

“No, it’s jammed,” she replied, coming back into the kitchen with her own still half-full cup of coffee. “The landlord said he’d try to stop by this week to see if he can fix it.”

Not wanting her to have to deal with being cold and paying for heat that just seeped outside, Gabe put his hand on it and pushed. Nothing happened. “Do you have a small screwdriver?”

She pulled one out of a well-organized drawer. “Here.”

It didn’t take him long to fix the problem. “A little glue or paint was stuck in under the metal.” As he handed her back the screwdriver, he said, “Your old place must have had a great view.”

“That’s why I bought that apartment. I knew it was an old building, but I figured the view was worth it.” Her green eyes shadowed. “I never thought about how safe it would or wouldn’t be in a fire, though.”

“Isn’t having a view still at the top of the want list for your new place? Along with a backyard for a fire pit?”

“Views aren’t worth quite as much as I thought they were,” she replied in a soft voice. “And I’m not sure that a fire pit is such a great idea, either.”

For all Megan’s outward resilience, the way she’d clearly moved past losing her husband so young, how capably she’d recovered from her home going up in flames, Gabe could suddenly see her vulnerability.

Along with the fears she was trying so hard to hide.

As if she suddenly realized she was letting him look too deep, she said, “Well, thanks for fixing the window. And for the ride.”

He got the hint. It was time to go.

She was right. He needed to leave before he kissed her again.

She moved to the front door just ahead of him. Opening it, she stood there as he walked out, so close. Too close.

He should have just kept going down the hall and out to his car without looking back or saying anything more, but in the same way that being in her apartment, putting Summer to bed, and staying for coffee had felt so right, leaving felt just as wrong.

“Tell Summer I had a good time playing flashlight tag with her.”

He was standing close enough to smell her perfume, something soft and floral that made him want to bury his nose in the curve of her neck until he figured out exactly what kind of flower it was.

“Okay.”

The one word was slightly breathless and from the way her eyes were focused on his mouth, he knew she was just as close to that edge of wanting as he was.

Just one kiss. That’s all he wanted.

Needed.

Gabe had almost convinced himself it wouldn’t hurt anything, that he could stop at one more, when she abruptly lifted her gaze and took a step back on a sharply indrawn breath.

“Just friends.” She shook her head. “I like you a lot, Gabe, and that kiss in the kitchen...” Another shake of her head. “Well, we’ve got to forget that kiss. Because we’ve both agreed that’s how things need to stay. Even if it’s not easy, we’ve got to keep things totally platonic.”