Free Forged in Ash by Trish McCallan

tightened with each word, but his face remained flat, unresponsive.
    Her strokes lightened to a soothing caress. “I know.”
    His bark of laughter was as tight as his voice. “Of course you do.” He paused, and the tightness in his tone eased slightly. “Can you tell if it’s working?”
    He meant the healing. Kait frowned, arching her neck as a trickle of sweat ran down her scalp. She was uncertain how to answer the question. She was hotter than hell, something she associated with a successful healing. But she was also far too attracted to her patient, and a good share of the heat was in places she’d never experienced in a healing before—like her nipples and the damp flesh between her thighs.
    Pausing, she twisted to grab a towel off the coffee table and wiped the sweat from her face again. “I’m not sure.”
    “You feel something, though?” he pressed, bracing himself up with his elbows.
    Kait shrugged. Ignoring the ache in the small of her back from the awkward position, she leaned back over his knee and started in again with that gliding massage. “Maybe. I don’t know yet.”
    “Does it always get this hot?” he asked, something odd, almost watchful in his voice.
    She concentrated hard on her fingers, even though the impulse to check out that massive erection to her right was almost impossible to ignore. “Heat is definitely a factor.”
    “I see,” he said after long pause.
    From the dryness in his voice he saw far too much, and knew exactly why she was being so vague. Which didn’t surprise her. He would have picked up on her attraction to him as easily as she’d picked up on his to her. Okay, maybe not as easily—female physiology was better at hiding the response than the male body was—but still, the damn man was a SEAL. His life depended on his acute observational skills. He had to know that she was as turned on as he was.
    Suddenly she was tired of skirting the issue. She was twenty-nine years old for God’s sake. Sexual chemistry was a fact of life and nothing to be embarrassed about. Besides, he felt it every bit as much as she did, so it wasn’t like she was alone in this attraction.
    Straightening, she reached for the towel again and wiped her face. “There’s always heat in a healing. But this chemistry between us makes it difficult to distinguish between the healing heat and sexual heat.” She paused, locked her gaze on his face, and raised her eyebrows. “It’s rather silly to pretend that there’s nothing simmering between us. We both know it’s there.”
    The words came out as a challenge, which she hadn’t intended. Still, she awaited his response with curiosity. Something slid across his face, something hard and hungry, but it was gone almost instantly. He lowered his elbows back down to the couch. His shoulders followed, and when he was lying flat again, he draped his right forearm across his eyes.
    “Yeah…” His voice trailed off. His flat, uninterested voice.
    This time she couldn’t stop the quick glance to his crotch. His shorts looked like they’d ballooned another inch or so. He may not have responded verbally, but he’d definitely reacted physically to her admission.
    So who was skirting the issue now?
    Another wave of heat rolled through her, only this time a good dose of irritation threaded through the lust. The irritation escalated as the dampness and swelling between her legs increased.
    The tingles skating up and down her spine and into the nape of her neck didn’t help.
    She wanted him, wanted to feel that hot hard weight of him against her, inside of her. She’d wanted him for years. She wanted him more than she’d ever wanted another man.
    And she was tired of him pretending she was the only one feeling this way.
    He wanted her too. They both knew it. It was time he admitted it. Out loud, to her face.
    And she knew just how to drag that admission out of him.

    Cosky closed his eyes, his muscles rigid beneath her touch, trying to banish the