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

Kinsey’s slightly crooked smile acknowledged her reworking of whatever his ex-wife had said about the Dempseys.
    “The third thing she mentioned . . .” She looked him up and down, her visual dissection turning him hard. “I can only imagine.”
    Sex. That’s what Lisa had said. Damn straight, that had never been a problem.
    “A woman who can make you mute, Mr. Almeida? Or perhaps all the blood that’s usually fueling your cerebral cortex is busy elsewhere.” The challenge in her tone was unmistakable. She was goading him into losing his head, compelling him to play to type.
    “She cheated on me with Detective McGinnis.”
    Okay, that was not what he had planned to say. Hehad planned to put his mouth to a more rewarding use, meet her expectation of him as the brute who led with his emotions. But something checked him at the last nanosecond. He wanted her to know that he wasn’t a complete animal. That occasionally he had God’s honest reasons for his outsize behavior.
    Kinsey drew a sharp, audible breath. “When?”
    “Over a year ago, she left me for him after they had been . . .” Fucking for months. In the bed they had shared. In the bed he no longer slept in.
    Christ, he needed to eighty-six that bed.
    A flicker of something in her eyes registered his pain and offered understanding. He resented it despite the fact that he had invited her sympathy by basically handing her his balls on a platter. Would you like them sautéed or roasted, Miss Taylor?
    “The fight in the bar was about your ex-wife?”
    “He used to be a friend of mine. We’d play hoops, get sauced together, dinners at my house.” Luke had invited the bastard into his life and he stole it. Stole her. Dan and Lisa hadn’t even gone the distance, but broke up not long after Luke’s discovery of them one fateful March morning over a year ago. “He got grabby with Alex at the bar but she could have taken care of it. Instead, I did. Because that’s what I do.”
    She laid a warm palm on his arm. Sparks ignited beneath his skin. “I’m sorry—”
    He coughed out a caustic laugh. “No, you’re not. Because my little outburst just gives you a chance to shine, right? You’re having a blast, Miss Taylor.”
    Her eyes widened in shock. It was bordering on mean, but right now he was the meanest sonofabitch who ever lived.
    He stepped in close, a howl of pleasure ripping through him when she placed a hand on his chest to keep him at bay. “I’m just some panting piece of flesh to you. The assignment. A means to my end.”
    His gaze fell to her lush, full mouth and then she—Christ Jesus—moistened her lips with the briefest flash of her tongue. This woman knew exactly what she was doing to him. Somewhere between his cock thickening in need and grasping a lungful of her intoxicating scent, he made a decision. Unable to cage the beast any longer, he pushed back against her hand and crowded her until she met the next locker over. Gage’s with its rainbow sticker. Then he stamped his mouth on hers and let his emotions be his master.
    So good to give in.
    So good to give in to her .
    If he had expected her to go meekly, then he clearly needed to think again. When he could think clearly. Dominance was something that came naturally to him. It suited his need to punish—his birth parents, the people who took Jenny and couldn’t take care of her, the whole world. Sometimes his head was more demon than human, and heaven help whoever got in his way.
    Most women surrendered to him. Lisa had, then complained later he had been too rough because he abraded her skin and left his stubble rough mark on her. My bedroom brute , she had called him.
    Kinsey was . . . different. Against his lips, she gave in by degrees, then fought her way back up to equal his carnal assault. She kissed like he imagined she did everything. With fervor and passion and a healthy dose of, Screw you .
    “Luke,” she rasped when they both came up for air.
    Oh, the way she