Free Flirting with Fire (Hot in Chicago #1) by Kate Meader Page A

all that manly magnificence. So sad, but it was really for the best. It would be too easy to lose herself in his dangerous heat. In those eyes.
    “Haven’t you had your pound of flesh from me yet, Miss Taylor?” Luke murmured as he finished buttoning up, languor in his motions.
    She fisted her hands at her hips and shook her head.
    “Not quite, Mr. Almeida.” Meeting his smoldering gaze head on, she issued the next order in her brightest voice.
    “Josie, release the kittens.”

 CHAPTER SIX
    L uke balled his fists against the cool tile and let the spray crash over his body. He had no idea how long he’d spent in the shower. Long enough for the water to run cold. Long enough for the crew’s ribbing to dwindle to chirps and for the ravenous crowd to clear out.
    But not long enough to quit his brood over his ex-wife’s appearance, apparently. Who the hell did she think she was showing up in his house?
    Of course, that was just the beginning of the Lisa torture fest. Not enough to waltz in with her smug airs and expensive perfume, she had to cozy up to Kinsey in that conspiratorial huddle. Two sophisticated, out-of-his-league women getting a kick out of the man meat on display. That’s what had truly enraged him. Not just that Lisa had shown her face in the last place she was welcome, but that she might have been corrupting Kinsey. Telling tales out of school about what a terrible husband he had made, how inadequate he had been as a provider, maybe even a dig about his family.
    Lisa really hated his family.
    His ex and Kinsey gettin’ chatty. His past and his . . . nothing. An easy-on-the-eye distraction, thePR princess was barely his present, never mind his future.
    But she had sure felt shockingly present when she’d gotten up close, those bombshell curves molding to him perfectly. She had put her slender arm around his body, curving in an almost protective sweep, and whispered those two beautiful words in his ear.
    Screw. Her.
    Damn, he didn’t need her defense. He wasn’t used to it, either. From his family, sure, because that was their default setting. But another woman—a strong woman like Kinsey—stepping up like that confused him with its heady brew of territoriality and care. More likely she was playing some game to make him look like a dumb, horny beast in front of his crew.
    And now he was stupid with anger again.
    Out in the locker room, he took a moment to absorb the blessed quiet now that the firehouse was back to its usual state of watchful readiness. The lull before the twister. He grabbed at his locker door hard enough to send the picture of Logan and Sean floating to the floor. As he bent to pick it up, a taunt of heels broadcast her arrival.
    Miss Kinsey Taylor.
    His eyes traveled upward, his crouch giving him an excellent view of her well-toned legs, skirt-hugging thighs, the flare of her hips. Standing, he caught the scent of fragrant citrus that made him dizzy.
    Unable to think above the haze of emotion short-circuiting his brain, he deposited the photo in his locker. Then he slammed the door shut, making a lot of noise while he did it.
    Kinsey raised an eyebrow. “Use your words, Luke.”
    Good fuck, she had not just said that. This woman was determined to drive him insane. Between her know-it-all flounce into his house last week and this day from hell, her edging under his skin was city-sanctioned torture of the highest order.
    She leaned against Gage’s locker. “Want to know what she said to me?”
    Speech was impossible, but she must have taken his raging silence as permission to continue because she went on. “She said you were only good at three things. Two of them I already knew about. All those commendations for bravery.”
    He strained to hear the derision in her tone, but his mock-o-meter was off.
    “She said you’ll move heaven and hell in defense of your family.”
    He doubted Lisa had put it in quite those terms. Her resentment of Luke wouldn’t allow a kind word.