Giving Off Sparks Read online

  Sierra bit her lip. This is not a date, remember? She had to school herself not to like him so much.

  Rob smiled, and the touch of shyness mixed with bald cheek in the expression made a mockery of her intentions. “I was thinking about how much I like white lace underwear.”

  Sierra gaped at him. “How did you know?” Then she blushed furiously, remembering how he’d lifted her dress to her waist as she’d been giving him head.

  Rob only added to her embarrassment. “The mirror by the door. I saw what you were wearing underneath this cute dress. That’s why I came so damn quick.”

  “So it wasn’t my unbelievable oral skills after all.”

  “Oh, it was that. Your hot mouth, your clever tongue. And the sight of your ass in white lace. I didn’t stand a chance.” He tugged gently on the strand of hair he still had wrapped around his finger, compelling her to meet his eyes. “You’re beautiful, Sierra. I’ve never seen a woman as beautiful as you.”

  Sierra seriously doubted that, but her entire body hummed in response to his compliment. Lord help her, he was such a sweet talker. It would be so easy to fall for him.

  Don’t, Sierra. For God’s sake, don’t!

  “I’m going to change your mind, you know.”

  His eyes lit with a determined gleam that made Sarah hold her breath. “About what?”

  “About dating a fireman.”

  Sierra thought of Rob running into burning buildings on a regular basis and told her heart to stop its excited jumping up and down. “Don’t count on it, Rob.”

  “Why not? I’m sure we have lots in common.”

  “Like?”

  “We’re both single,” Rob pointed out unnecessarily. “We’re both from a family of four children, we just established that. And I’m guessing you like…” he narrowed his gaze on her face in speculation, “…moody music, like Adele or Paloma Faith.”

  Sierra raised an eyebrow. “You’re telling me we have this in common? You like to listen to ‘Someone Like You’ while you’re in the bubble bath?”

  “Not something I’ve tried yet, but it sounds awesome.” Rob wiggled his eyebrows, letting her know he wouldn’t mind participating in that particular activity as long as he could do it with her. Warmth filled Sierra, as though she were surrounded by wet bubbles right now, having her back washed by the hunk sitting next to her.

  She had to admit, it sounded like heaven.

  It also sounded very domestic, and not at all what Sierra needed to get out of this supposedly casual fling.

  She sighed. “Rob, you make a convincing argument, but you have to believe me. I’m not looking for a relationship.”

  The sparkle in his brown eyes dimmed, and Sierra hated herself a little for dousing it. “Because I’m a firefighter?”

  “Actually, I’m not looking for a relationship with anyone.” Sierra set down her wine and placed her hand on Rob’s leg. “Please don’t take it personally. You’re…well, I think you’re pretty amazing, and if anyone was going to change my mind, it would be you. But I’m serious about this.”

  The devilish spark returned to Rob’s eyes. “You think I’m amazing, huh?”

  Sierra couldn’t help but laugh. He was so stubbornly optimistic that she couldn’t help it. “You heard me.”

  “What about sexy? Do you think I’m sexy too?”

  “I think my behavior thus far ought to answer that question.” And if it didn’t, the blush that infused her cheeks would do the trick.

  “Hmm.” Rob traced the scooped neckline of her dress with his index finger, leaving a trail of delicious tingles behind. “So you think I’m amazing and sexy, I make you laugh and I’m the kind of guy who could convince you to go out with him if only you’d decide to let him. Plus, we have that both being available thing in common. I don’t know, Sierra.” He transferred his touch to her lips, brushing his finger lightly over them. “Sounds like the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”

  “Casablanca,” Sierra rasped, her voice functioning as poorly as her lungs, which seemed to have forgotten how to expel air. Rob’s lips inched toward hers, and there was no possible way she could turn away from the kiss that was coming, even though she sensed it was going to be the heart-melting kind.

  She wasn’t wrong. His lips were warm and gently persuasive as they pried hers open. Not that they had to do much prying. Sierra was trembling with desire even before contact was made, and by the time his lips were sealed fully over hers, she was pliant and open to him. How could she be anything but a jumbling mass of hormones in the arms of a man who kissed like an angel and quoted Casablanca? The kiss turned from a slowly smoldering thing to a raging bonfire in less than a minute. Something else to add to the list of things they had in common—explosive sexual chemistry.

  No. Sexual chemistry is the only thing on the list you need to concentrate on. She couldn’t let Rob turn this purely physical affair she wanted into something more emotional. She had to keep reminding him that this was a fling that would end soon.

  Dragging her mouth out from under Rob’s, Sierra inched away from him and stood. She reminded herself of what Rob had said about her white lace underwear, that he’d told her she was beautiful. It gave her the confidence needed to lower the back zip of her dress and let the garment drop to the floor.

  Rob’s hot, appreciative gaze made her nipples stand at attention. They pushed at the cups of her demi-bra, distending to the point the lace couldn’t contain them anymore.

  “You are incredible.” Rob watched as her nipples blossomed before his eyes. His voice was thick with lust and Sierra knew she’d been successful in diverting him from his notions about dating her in the traditional sense. He wanted sex and so did she. “I want to suck on those sexy nipples until they’re as hard as diamonds.”

  Rob stood, his clear intent making Sierra’s knees wobble. She teetered on her heels until her butt connected with the dining table. She was his. Utterly weak in the face of his promise. He reached for her.

  There was a knock on the door.

  They both groaned in unison. Sierra’s nipples, her sex, her heart, all ached at the delay. Rob closed his eyes a moment, gathering control. When he opened them again, he grasped her around the waist and lifted her as though she weighed little more than a feather. He planted a short, intense kiss on her lips while he settled her ass on the dining table.

  “I’ll meet him outside. You wait here. Don’t move.” His heated gaze tracked over her as he backed away. “Not a muscle.”

  Too weak to move anyway, Sierra took his command at face value. The timber of the table was cool on the scantily covered flesh of her butt, but her blood was running too hot for her to care. She rested her weight on her hands and closed her eyes, listening to the muffled sound of Rob paying the delivery guy and the rushing thump of her pulse.

  When she opened her eyes again, she saw it. In the mirror beside the front door, there was a woman barely dressed in white lace. Her skin was smooth and even toned, her waist was trim and her breasts were high and tight, almost bursting out of the lacy confines of her bra. If not for the distinctive birthmark on her outer right thigh, Sierra might not have believed the woman was her. This woman was so…sexy.

  It had been a long time since Sierra had thought of herself as a sexual creature. Now, here was everything she’d been ignoring for the past eighteen months out of grief and fear and guilt-ridden self-denial. She hadn’t wanted to enjoy life if Eddie couldn’t, but she realized now that was an insult to his memory. He would want her to live, fully and completely. He would want her to embrace life and hold on to it as tightly as she could.

  She’d never felt so aware of every beat of her heart, every pulse of her blood through her veins. She was alive, and she wanted to celebrate that fact. She wanted to feel like a woman—the living, breathing woman that she was.

  When Rob returned, he placed the food on the kitchen counter and turned to look at her. She wasn’t shy about his avid inspection of her body this time
.

  “I want you.” She’d never heard that sultry tone come out of her mouth before. Rob responded to it without hesitation, dragging his shirt over his head as he walked toward her. Sierra stared at the vast expanse of his well-muscled chest, the tautness of his abs. Her clit throbbed with appreciation. When he undid his jeans and pushed them down his legs, the sight of his rock-hard erection caused a virtual flood of juice from her center.

  She rocked her hips, needing movement, needing something to alleviate the ache between her legs. Rob groaned as he watched her falling apart in front of him. He grasped her knees and drew them wide so he could examine her feminine parts more closely. “You’re so wet. So turned on.”

  “Yes.” What was the point in denying it?

  “Do you want my cock?”

  Sierra whimpered. “Please.”

  Rob cursed. Then he took a moment to shuck his jeans and grab a foil packet from his wallet. Sierra’s anticipation mounted as she watched him roll the protection on. She licked her parched lips, expecting him to drive that stiff pole inside her so hard she screamed. Instead of doing that, Rob sat on the chair he’d vacated earlier and tugged on her hand. “Come here.”

  Perplexed, Sierra blinked as she hopped down from the table. Didn’t he want her as badly as she wanted him? As though reading her thoughts, Rob reached up and smoothed the furrow from her brow. “If I take you when you’re spread out beneath me like that, I’ll go too fast. Too hard. I want you so much I hurt, but I might hurt you, and I won’t have that.” He leaned back in his chair and grabbed the base of his cock as though offering it to her. “You set the pace.”

  Sierra’s heart thundered. He thought he would have been too fast? Wait ’til he got a load of her. She slid her panties down her legs and straddled him. She wanted that thick hardness inside her, full and deep.

  But she was only halfway impaled when she had to stop to catch her breath. “Oh, God.”

  “I know, honey. Fuck, you’re tight.” Rob held her waist in his big hands, keeping her from sinking onto him. “Take it slow.”

  She didn’t know if she could take it at all. She’d been so aroused, so ready and wet. She hadn’t thought the differences in their size would be a problem. Holding her weight on her tip toes, Sierra breathed in and out. Then she lowered herself another inch.

  Oh dear Lord Almighty! Sierra’s pussy was on fire. Her inner muscles burned from the invasion. She lifted herself again, needing some relief from the unprecedented stretch. But when only the tip of Rob’s cock breached her opening, she missed the sensation of having him stretch her. She lowered herself back down, and this time she accepted him more easily.

  It felt good. Really good. So good Sierra did it again, lifting off him and lowering herself back down over and over, taking in a little more of his length each time. Rob held her waist, guiding her on and off him. Sierra saw the fine sheen of sweat on his brow and kissed it away. He was holding back when she knew his body was screaming at him to fuck her hard. How had she stumbled across such a good man?

  “Almost there, honey. Is it okay?”

  Sierra nodded enthusiastically. “Better than okay.”

  “Good.”

  Rob buried his face in valley between her breasts, breathing hard against her sensitive flesh. Then he turned his head and sought out her nipple, which had popped all the way out of her bra while she’d been pumping him. He took it into his mouth, clamped on to it with his full soft lips, rolled his tongue over it until it was wet and flint hard. Then he switched breasts and treated the other one to the same attention.

  It was bliss. Sierra arched her back, thrusting her breasts toward his eager mouth. In the process, her careful rhythm was forgotten and she sank onto Rob’s lap, impaling herself on the full length of his cock.

  They both gasped. Rob moved his hands to her hips, holding her on him as though he couldn’t do things any other way. “Fuck. Christ. Shit. Sierra.”

  They sat there together, inhaling each other’s breath, for a drawn-out moment. Rob sought out her gaze, and the look of pure gratefulness in his eyes warmed Sierra’s insides like a microwave warming honey. She grabbed a fistful of his thick, curly hair and set her other hand on his shoulder. “I’m going to ride you now, Robert McConnell, hard and fast. You’ll tell me if it starts to hurt?”

  A laugh stuttered out of him, a laugh that soon turned to a groan as Sierra acted on her promise. She planted her feet on the ground and filled her body with him, over and over again. He was big, and it wasn’t always easy. But it was incredible. Especially when Rob latched onto her nipple again and lavished it with attention that made more dampness seep out of her and facilitate Rob’s upward thrusts. He dug his fingers into her hips as he helped guide her. Sierra knew her own fingernails were leaving marks on his shoulder.

  She liked that idea. Liked that he would have a mark on his skin that would remind him of her.

  “Honey, please. Please, I’m gonna come any second.”

  Sierra’s orgasm had been hovering, waiting in a holding pattern because she didn’t want the glorious sensations to end. Rob’s words brought it soaring toward her. She rocked her hips just so, using his pelvic bone to create the pressure that would set her off. She cried out as she came.

  A moment later, Rob unleashed himself. He thrust up into her with a guttural groan and climaxed as Sierra’s inner walls were still quaking around his cock. The reflexive jerk of his hips punctuated her own orgasm, treating her to tiny bursts of remnant pleasure that felt like aftershocks. She held onto him, wrapping her arms around his neck as they both moved through it and came out the other side a bundle of twined limbs and sheer sexual exhaustion.

  Two people forged into one, Sierra thought before she could remind herself she didn’t believe in such fanciful things. The thought she could reject, but the feelings weren’t so easy to eschew. Rob skated his hands over her back, holding her to him as he kissed her neck. There was no denying how close she felt to him in that moment, as though they were bonded in a way that would make walking away from him more difficult than she wanted it to be.

  But you will walk away, Sierra.

  She would.

  Somehow.

  Chapter 6

  Rob whistled a tune as he bounded up the stairs to Sierra’s house. He opened the door without knocking, a habit he’d fallen into sometime in the past six days, one that, to his delight, Sierra hadn’t complained about.

  Every time he worked a day shift, he spent the night with Sierra. They ordered takeaway and watched the news or reruns of old sitcoms and then maybe a movie. They discovered they were both fans of Ben Stiller comedies and movies based on Marvel comic book heroes. They also had a running competition of World Cup Soccer going on the Playstation that had become very hotly contested. Sierra was surprisingly competitive for such a sweet little thing. Rob didn’t even mind that she was seriously kicking his butt. As long as he got to spend time with her, he didn’t care how badly she humiliated him with the joystick.

  Then, when his schedule had switched so he had to work nights, he would slip into Sierra’s house in the morning and climb into bed with her. They had a couple of hours before she had to leave for work and Rob made the most of it. He’d tell her about his night and she’d tell him what she dreamt about, then they’d make slow love as the sun rose higher in the sky.

  It worked surprisingly well, despite their different schedules. Just as it would when they were officially a couple.

  He had decided to be optimistic about their future, even if Sierra still seemed reluctant to discuss the details, or to explain why his being a fireman was such a problem. Whenever he asked her about it, she either made a joke about firemen having big egos or deflected him with sex. Something she was pretty darn good at, he had to say.

  But Rob knew what he felt for her was mutual. He could feel it in his bones. Sierra was softening toward the idea of making their relationship official because what they had was too good. It felt right.

&nb
sp; “Sierra?”

  “I’m in here.”

  Her voice filtered out from the bathroom. Rob found her in there, her butt in the air as she bent over to scrub the bathtub. Her position provided such a terrific view of her ass encased in faded khaki shorts that Rob had to momentarily ignore his gentlemanly instinct to offer help. He leaned on the doorjamb and watched instead.

  “Are you enjoying yourself there?” Sierra asked after a moment, flicking him an unimpressed look over her shoulder.

  Rob merely grinned. “Very much. Don’t stop on my account.”

  Sierra hurrumphed and went back to her scrubbing. If Rob wasn’t mistaken, she put a little more oomph into her actions this time, causing her butt to thrust back and forth with more vigor than necessary. The little minx was provoking him on purpose.

  It was working. His groin filled with heat and his dick stirred. “Sierra…”

  She looked at him over her shoulder again. This time her expression was all faux innocence. “Is something wrong?”

  “Yes. For the rest of my life, the smell of bleach will probably give me a hard-on.”

  Sierra giggled. “Kinky.”

  “I’ll show you kinky. If you stop this cleaning nonsense and come to bed.”

  “It’s nine o’clock in the morning. I only got up an hour ago.”

  “Nine o’clock on Saturday. Our first day off together.” A day Rob had been looking forward to all week. “I let you sleep in so you’d have plenty of energy.”

  “And I do. For cleaning.” Her cheeky smile thwarted his intentions and turned him on at the same time. The woman had him twisted up in so many knots a career sailor couldn’t name them all. She sat back on her haunches, taking away his view of her ass too. “I want to make sure the house is spic and span for when Cheryl gets back on Tuesday.”

  “Tuesday? I thought she wasn’t back until Thursday.”