Free Into the Fire by Keira Ramsay

the steering
wheel, and then a grin pushed up the corner of her mouth. “Fine. I
can’t wait to hear what it is.”
    Oh yeah, you can, Nate thought,
grimacing as he did.
    *
    He was wearing her down, bit by tiny
bit, until she knew she’d beg for his touch, just as she had all
those years ago. Only now, just a few days into their renewed
relationship, it didn’t seem like such a horrible thing. The
bantering, which they’d enjoyed so much back in the day, had
returned, as had their easy friendship. Still, whatever bombshell
he was going to drop seemed to bother him mightily.
    She knew he’d worked hard to gain her
trust again; he’d fought to hold back his baser instinct to control
every situation. He thought he hid it, but she’d seen his jaw tense
when they were discussing the case, when he thought she might be in
danger. He was a protector at heart, and because of that, she knew
she would be damned hard pressed to refuse him when he pushed past
‘normal’ sex. Just the thought of it sent a thrum of heat through
her, lit her core on fire, and made her nipples ache for the bite
of the clamps. She’d never done anything similar with any other
man, and she missed it badly.
    She shuddered and pulled her attention
back to the road, realizing they’d reached their
destination.
    Just as with her interview with Marie
Wilkins, this was a dead end. The caller was a kindly older lady
who absolutely doted on Nate, which he took with a smile and a
faint blush. In the end, the only thing they got out of the
interview was cookies and lemonade.
    They walked to the car in silence, and
as Charly slid behind the wheel, she glanced at her watch. It was
already four, which shocked the hell out of her. Time had flown
today, and part of that was due to Nate’s presence.
    She would admit it to herself, if
nothing else, that she enjoyed having someone to talk to, to bounce
ideas off. She’d resisted partnering up on the rare occasions a
partner had been offered because letting anyone from work get too
close seemed like a really stupid idea.
    The men she’d dated after
Nate had all been business types, white-collar guys who had no
freakin’ grip on what she did for a living, or that firemen and
beat cops regularly risked their lives protecting people they’d
probably never meet under any other circumstance. Oh, sure, her
past men had said they understood, but until they’d stood in a pair
of turnouts or slid their sidearm into its holster, there was no
way they could  know .
    Nate did know, maybe more than anyone
she’d ever met. He’d not only been a firefighter, but he’d also
served in the military; he probably got shot at more in a six-month
rotation than street cops were in their entire careers. He
understood what it was like to watch helplessly as something ... or
someone ... slipped through his fingers.
    She finally came to that realization
as she watched him interact with the elderly tipster. Because of
his new maturity, she decided she’d give him, them, more of a
chance than he had eight years ago.
    “ So where to?” she asked,
putting the car in gear.
    “ Mickey’s. We’re meeting
someone there, but only if you want to, after you hear what I have
to say.”
    Charly’s stomach clenched. He said it
so ominously... Was there another woman? A child? He’d said no
earlier, but maybe it had just been a ruse to get in her
pants.
    She clenched her hands around the
steering wheel, furious at herself, at the thoughts she’d just had
of giving their relationship a second chance. Jesus, she was
gullible. The biggest question was why he was still hanging around
when he’d accomplished his mission.
    She briefly considered stopping the
car and booting him out, but in the end, she decided to see who
this mysterious “someone” was. If nothing else, it would teach her
a lesson for future reference, even if it broke her heart all over
again. She’d allowed Nate to get too close again.
Dammit.
    They pulled into Mickey’s, a