Free Into the Fire by Keira Ramsay Page A

local law
enforcement and firefighter hangout. Inside, they found a secluded
circular booth in the back of the bar, after ordering two drafts on
their way.
    Charly got settled and then swung to
face Nate. “All right, spill. Who’s meeting us?”
    He reached into her lap and caged her
fisted hands. “He’ll be here in a few minutes. But, I need to tell
you something first.” His thumb rubbed her knuckles
comfortingly.
    He? Charly’s brain screamed at her.
Then it wasn’t another woman, and Nate sure as shit wasn’t gay or
even bi.
    “ What the hell, Nate. Just
spit it out.”
    “ Jesus, I don’t want to tell
you this,” he said with strain bracketing his scrumptious mouth. “I
found out who spread the rumors.”
    Charly sat up a bit
straighter. He was all worked up about the rumors? When she’d
thought it was Nate, she’d been pissed, even devastated. But, some
third party idiot spreading gossip? She
was  so  not worried about that. She’d made her peace over the
past few days, though now she was a little curious.
    “ That’s it? I haven’t lost a
wink of sleep over it since I figured out it wasn’t you.” Oh shit,
she’d given too much of herself away again; she just told him how
important he was to her, then and now. While she might have
reconciled their relationship in her mind, it wasn’t something
she’d planned to let slip so soon.
    A slow smile curled his lips and
seemed to pull at something deep within her. Damn.
    “ So you don’t mind if I
pound his face into pulp, and then take you back to my place?” His
eyebrow raised in question.
    She gulped. “I’ll watch for the
face-pounding part and get back to you on the second, all
right?”
    His smile turned into a wicked grin.
“Sure, Charly. You can call the shots. You always have.” His tone
held no censure, only amusement and genuine affection.
    “ Damn straight,” she
replied, and realized he was right. He’d always let her lead until
she was comfortable, and then the control was all his. The thought
was heady.
    “ Speak of the devil,” Nate
said, waving to the man who’d entered the bar wearing running
shorts and a LFD tee.
    “ CC?” Charly asked, confused
as all get out. He wasn’t exactly high on her list of people to be
around, ever, but now his open antagonism over the last eight years
made sense, sort of. What baffled her was how the man could
possibly know about her and Nate. No way in hell would Nate have
confided in him; they were as opposite as two men could possibly
be.
    The veteran settled into their booth,
after grabbing a beer of his own, so that Charly was sandwiched
between the two big men. “Looking for a little threesome action,
kiddies?” he said with a wink and leer.
    “ Hardly,” Charly replied;
sudden anger swept through her. No, she wasn’t pissed about what CC
had said about her over the course of the years--well, maybe a
little bit--but that he’d entered this discussion with such a
coarse suggestion. Oh, she’d touch him all right but not in the way
that he was thinking.
    As Nate’s face turned raging purple in
response to CC’s innuendo, she slid her hand under the table.
Before Nate could say a word in reply, she grabbed CC by the balls
and began squeezing.
    “ What the fuck!” His voice
was strangled.
    “ Nate,
here, wanted to beat you senseless, but I think this is a much more
fitting punishment.” She twisted her hand and watched in interest
as beads of sweat began to pop out on his Cro-Magnon forehead. “I
never knew being a
ball-buster--that  is  what
you call me, right?--could be so much fun.”
    She hazarded a glance at Nate, who was
holding his stomach to contain his laughter. His face had gone from
livid purple to over-the-top, cherry-faced amusement.
    “ A little birdie told Nate
that you were the ugly bastard who spread the word about my sexual
proclivities. I want to know how in the hell you came by your
so-called information.” She gripped harder, and CC groaned