His eyes flared with such intense heat that she almost had to kick off the blanket.

Hardly able to believe what she was doing—but knowing she would die if she didn’t get to taste some part of him in the next five seconds—she brought his thumb to her mouth.

And sucked it in between her lips.

She didn’t know who groaned first, herself or him, as she swirled her tongue over the pad of his thumb, tasting the champagne, but mostly that unique, slightly smoky taste of his skin.

A flavor she hadn’t been able to forget since Lake Tahoe.

“I’m keeping my promise.” His voice was husky as he lowered his head to her neck, where he’d brushed away the liquid. “No kisses yet,” was the last thing she heard him say before she felt the slow sweet press of his tongue over her pulse point.

She arched herself against his mouth even as her teeth came down lightly over the flesh on the tip of his thumb.

He lifted his gaze back to hers and just the look in his eyes was nearly enough for her to come apart right there. He slowly pulled his thumb from her mouth and moved his hand to the curve of her hips, pulling her onto his lap.

She was straddling his erection, already rocking into him as he said, “God, you’re sweet.”

A moment later, the first blast of color shot out in the sky above them, joined by the crowds of people cheering from the streets, but all Megan knew was that it was—finally—time for Gabe to kiss her.

Only, she never gave him the chance, because her hands were already in his hair and she was attacking him, kissing him with more passion than she’d ever realized she possessed. His mouth claimed hers right back, his tongue tangling with hers, their combined gasps of long-awaited pleasure joining right in with the explosions from the fireworks and the sounds of happy strangers in the distance.

“Now.” She pulled her mouth away from his. “I need you right now.”

She reached for the hem of her sweater and yanked it up over her head, taking her long-sleeved T-shirt with it. She reached for the button of her jeans next, her hands trembling not with cold, but with pure desperation to be naked with this man.

As she shifted off his lap to unzip her jeans and pull them off, she realized Gabe was just sitting there staring at her.

She’d never been this kind of woman, never needed to have sex so badly that she was practically ripping her clothes apart in her hurry to get them off. But then, she’d never been with anyone like Gabe before, had she?

Besides, how could a girl’s mind not be warped by all those muscles? All that barely leashed power when he was holding her? Kissing her? Loving her senseless?

“Hurry,” she said, and then he was yanking off his clothes too, his shirt joining hers across the roof where she’d tossed it.

Of course, she’d forgotten that he had more practice getting clothes off and on quickly in the firehouse than she did, and she was still getting shoes and socks off by the time he’d stripped down to...

Nothing.

“Wow.” Her hands stilled as she took in his gloriously naked body. “Women would pay really good money to see that.”

“I’ll keep that in mind if I’m ever looking for a new career.”

Realizing her crazy thoughts must have just spilled out, her hands became even more useless, but then Gabe was there, kneeling in front of her, slipping off her shoes and socks and tossing her jeans to the side.

She reached for the waistband of her panties just as he undid the clasp of her bra and then, a moment later, she was naked too, and he was the one staring.

“Mine.” He was crawling up over her, now, pressing her against the pillows. “You’re mine, Megan.”

She could barely gasp out the word, “Yes,” before his mouth was back over hers and he was kissing her.

She was his.

Chapter Twenty-one

Play well with others.

~ from “Firefighting 101” ~

When Gabe had made his initial plan, he’d decided that if things went well and he ended up being lucky enough to get naked with Megan again at some point in the future, he’d go slow. He’d savor every inch of her beautiful body and focus on bringing her right to the edge of ecstasy and then over so many times that she wouldn’t be able to keep denying their connection.

But he hadn’t counted on their combined desperation to be with each other.

Gabe picked up the condom wrapper he’d dropped on the blanket and before he could rip it open, Megan was leaning up to grab it in her teeth and pull it open. She caught it before it fell onto her chest and then she was reaching down to his throbbing erection and sliding it over him, the arousing touch of her slender fingers causing him to grit his teeth to keep from exploding right then and there in her hands.

And then her hands were in his hair and she was pulling his mouth down to hers at the exact moment that she wrapped her legs around his waist and took him inside. He swallowed her gasp of pleasure and gripped her hips in his hands to drive deeper, harder.

A big man, Gabe had always been careful to make sure he didn’t hurt his lovers. But as her inner muscles clenched against his shaft, the pleasure of being with her again was so intense he couldn’t hold onto a single thought, couldn’t do anything but give into the intensity of his desire for the woman writhing and crying out beneath him.

She arched into him and he leaned down to capture one of her ni**les between his lips, sucking hard, loving the sweet taste of her skin against his tongue. The fireworks were still going on above them as she came apart beneath him, her pelvis grinding against his as she rode out her orgasm, her hands in his hair holding him over her br**sts.

He didn’t have a chance of holding back, of holding on a single second longer, not when her strong muscles were milking him for everything he was worth. Lifting his head from her br**sts, he shifted his weight to his knees, grabbed her ankles and lifted them up to his shoulders.

He had to get deeper, had to touch every part of her.

Her hands went to his forearms so that she could hold tight as he drove higher, harder into her.

“Oh, God,” she whispered as her eyes fluttered closed. “That feels so good. So, so good.” Her head was falling back, her hands moving to her own br**sts to fondle them as she took everything he was giving her and begged, “More, Gabe. Please.”

He hadn’t thought anything could drive him higher, but the sound of her sweet voice begging him like that, watching her touch herself while he loved her, did crazy things to his insides.

“Sweetheart,” he groaned as the fierce physicality of their lovemaking gave way to emotions just as fierce inside of him. “Don’t make me go here alone.”