He stripped off his clothes and put on a condom before moving over her. And then her arms were around his shoulders and her legs were wrapped tightly to his hips and he knew the rest of the naughty things he wanted to do to her would have to wait.

Because right now all he wanted to do was make love to the woman he’d waited a lifetime to find.

“Love me, Marcus,” she whispered as their bodies came together.

And, oh, how he loved her.

Not just with his entire body, not only with every beat of his heart...but from the very depths of his soul.

* * *

The midday sun was coming in through Marcus’s bedroom window as they sat naked on top of his covers eating the picnic lunch he’d pulled together from the sparse contents of his fridge.

Nicola had never felt so exhausted—or so happy—and with her stomach full of food and her body full of pleasure, she yawned and lay down in one of her favorite positions, her head on his lap and one of her hands in his. She never wanted to stop lying there looking up at his beautiful face.

But her long tour hours—and the three rounds of incredibly acrobatic sex they’d just had—had her yawning.

He smiled down at her. “You sure tire out quick for a young thing. My sleepy little kitten.”

“Funny,” she said on another huge yawn, “I was just about to say you have surprising stamina for an old man.” She hummed a few bars of the Joni Mitchell hit My Old Man, ending at the line about “keeping away my lonesome blues."

She loved hearing him laugh and hum along in a really off-tune voice.

Looking up into his eyes, she knew it was time to admit everything to him.

“I didn’t push you away just because I was trying to save you from my circus life.” When his hand didn’t still on her hair and his leg muscles didn’t tense up under her, she knew it was safe to say, “That was a big part of it, but I was also scared of trusting. Scared of falling. So hugely scared that I’d be hurt again. Only this time I knew it would be so much worse, because I loved you. That’s why I ran that day after lunch at your mother’s house, because I thought it would hurt less that way. But running only made everything hurt more.”

“I missed you just as much,” he told her. “Although, I can’t help thinking that if you hadn’t run, I wouldn’t have gotten the chance to chase after you.”

Just that quickly—as he made her burn up at the wicked thought of being chased through the vines and then caught in the most delicious way—Marcus erased any chance of recriminations, of making her feel guilty or selfish for what she’d done.

And as he shifted them so that his naked body was pressed against hers and his mouth was moving over hers, she forgot all about fear and gave in to the most natural emotion in the world.

Pure, sweet love.

* * *

Sitting in the back of a limo with Marcus that night, Nicola wore a fantastic dress that managed to be classic and yet fun and flirty at the same time. All day she’d loved being with the man she loved, but as the driver pulled up in front of the Napa Valley mansion where the event was being held, panic gripped her.

“This is the big moment. Are you sure you’re ready for this? For not being my secret boyfriend anymore?"

Instead of answering her with words, he put her hands over his heart, then leaned in to kiss her.

“As long as you’re by my side, I’m ready for absolutely anything.”

And as the door was opened for them and flashbulbs started going off, his kiss erased what remained of her worries...leaving sweet safety and boundless pleasure in its place.

Epilogue

Over the next two months, the weather cooled and the leaves turned color, falling from the trees throughout Northern California. Marcus racked up the miles on buses and planes as Nicola played dozens of dates on the first leg of her U.S. concert tour and he commuted back and forth between Napa Valley and whatever part of the country the woman he loved was in. For the first time since he’d purchased the winery ten years earlier, he left the bulk of the details of the crush to his staff. Ellen received an enormous promotion along with the matching salary to go along with her new duties.

It was early December when Nicola and Marcus walked into the fire station. The entire fire crew was there, along with their families, to meet her.

Gabe shook his brother’s hand, then hugged Nicola extra long and hard, knowing how much it would bother his possessive older brother. Gabe didn’t bother to hold back his grin as he said, “Thanks so much for agreeing to play this concert, Nicola.”

“It’s my pleasure,” she said before turning to his brother. Going up on her toes, she pressed a kiss on Marcus’s cheek. “You’re scaring the kids with that scowl.”

Marcus put his hand on her chin and turned her face to his for a real kiss that said Mine loud and clear to any man in the room who might have been confused as to which Sullivan brother she was with.

Gabe made sure his grin stayed in place, even though something inside his chest was pinching tight. Over the past months, he’d gotten used to seeing Chase, and now Marcus, as part of a couple. Their mother was beside herself with joy over her sons’ relationships.

Jackie, the girl Gabe had been casually dating off and on for the past few months, was practically shaking with excitement at the thought of finally meeting Nicola. She’d been angling to be invited to Sunday lunch at his mother’s house to meet not just Nicola, but Smith, too. The thing was, Gabe just couldn’t see her around his family. She was too young, too eager. Sure, Nicola was young too, but there was a reason she and Marcus fit so well together. Nicola was far more mature than other twenty-five-year-old girls.

Especially Jackie, Gabe thought as she started toward them, stars in her eyes.

Gabe knew he’d strung her along too long. Quickly deciding that he’d break it off with her tonight, he wasn’t looking forward to her tears. She was a crier, which was partly why he hadn’t had the balls to make a clean break these past weeks.

“How the hell did you end up with her again?” Gabe asked Marcus a couple of hours later as they stood to the side and watched Nicola charm the pants off the tightly packed crowd who had paid big bucks to see her do a short acoustic set in the fire station’s parking lot. The money they’d bring in today with her help would go a long way to getting the new equipment that budget cuts were making hard to come by.

Rather than trying to take any credit for it, Marcus simply said, “I’m the luckiest bastard on the planet.” He nodded his head in Jackie’s direction, way up at the front of the group, clearly in awe of every little thing Nicola said or did. “What about her?”

Gabe shook his head. “Just a casual thing that’s run its course.”

Nicola had just finished her set when the station alarm rang and dispatch rang out over the station’s loudspeakers, alerting them to an apartment fire.

Gabe and the rest of the crew immediately moved to put on their turn-outs and headed out, their alarms blaring to clear the busy city traffic.

“Wow, that was intense and they’re not even at the fire yet,” Nicola said a few minutes later when she and Marcus were standing together in a corner of the station. “I don’t know how your mother deals with this so well. I feel like a basket case right now.”

“This is what Gabe does. He’ll be fine,” Marcus reassured her.

But fifteen minutes later, after they’d said their goodbyes to the volunteers who had set up the concert and were about to get into Marcus’s car to head back up to Napa Valley, another station alarm went off.

“All units responding to 1280 Conrad Street, be advised, upgrading to third alarm.”

Nicola looked at Marcus with huge eyes. “That’s the fire Gabe went to. It sounds like it’s gotten worse, not better.”

“My brother is a hell of a firefighter,” Marcus told her. “He’s not the kind of guy who’d ever do something dangerous or stupid.”

Only, as they stood together while the siren continued to blare and dispatch repeated the call, both of them knew there were plenty of other reasons why firefighters got hurt in the line of duty.

And all they could do was hold on to each other and hope that Gabe would be all right.

~ THE END ~