Free The Bad Boy Firefighter's Secret Fling (Red Hot Reunions Book 3) by Jessie Evans Page B

more responsibility. Especially if the dough’s premade and all she has to do is load the pans and man the ovens. She thinks maybe you’re a little bit of a control freak.”
    Maddie licked a bit of syrup from her lips. “Oh, yeah?”
    “But I told her that’s not true,” Jamison said, leaning closer to her tempting mouth. “Because I know for a fact that you have fantasies about being tied up and blindfolded by a domineering man with an impressive love-rod.”
    Maddie laughed, that low sexy laugh that felt like fingernails raking down his back. “You did not. The poor girl would have died. She would have blushed hard enough to set her hair on fire.”
    “No, I didn’t.” Jamison admitted. “But I did tell her I’d put in a word for her, you know…next time I saw my friend Maddie.”
    “You’re a good friend,” Maddie said.
    “I am.” Jamison kissed her, confirming that her syrup-sticky lips were every bit as delicious as they looked.
    “Yum,” Jamison whispered as they pulled apart.
    “Cloves,” Maddie replied in a husky voice. “And possibly molasses.”
    “You’re the sexiest food detective ever.” Jamison cut her another bite and delivered it directly to her mouth.
    “You’d better believe it.” She closed her mouth around the fork in a slow, deliberate way that made Jamison’s thoughts turn to the way her lips had closed around something much more intimate last night.
    He blinked hard and forced his eyes away from her lips. If he let his thoughts head in that direction, it wouldn’t be long before he’d be sneaking Maddie down to his Mustang for a drive into the country, out into the boonies until they found a deserted road where he could pull over and taste every inch of her.
    Since she had to be back at work soon, that wasn’t a good idea. Besides, he was enjoying hanging out with her. Their relationship had changed in dramatic ways from a week ago, but she was still as easy and fun to talk to as she had always been.
    “You’re not too bummed about missing out on the family meal are you?” she asked, taking another sip of coffee before offering him the mug. “I know you guys all love Saturday mornings.”
    Jamison shrugged. “Nah, I’m good. I’ve had more than my share of brunches and, I don’t know…it didn’t feel the same this morning.”
    “How so?” Maddie asked, brow knitting. “What’s wrong?”
    “Nothing,” he said. “I guess it’s just…”
    “Just what?” she asked, her warm gaze making it feel okay to be honest, to let her know that this was quickly becoming about more than sex for him. Way more.
    “I like having you around,” he said. “A morning doesn’t feel right without you in it.”
    Maddie’s eyes widened slightly before she smiled and dropped her gaze to the coffee mug. “That’s sweet.”
    The words were right, but her tone was several degrees cooler than a moment before and Jamison couldn’t help but feel like he’d taken a misstep. He did his best to move the conversation back to safer ground—asking Maddie what he should get the baby for a christening gift and if she’d be up for a trip to the old drive-in movie theater that had just reopened over in Red Bank—but things still felt off. When Maddie stood a few minutes later and made her excuses to leave, Jamison wasn’t surprised.
    Bummed, but not surprised.
    She kissed him goodbye and promised to see him tonight, but there was something wrong, something that made Jamison’s chest feel tight and his last few bites of waffle taste like sandpaper in his mouth.
    For the second time in his life, Jamison was falling for a woman, but his second matchup with love was starting to look like it might end the same way as his first—with Jamison out cold in the ring and the woman he’d fallen for slipping out of the arena, never to be seen again.

CHAPTER ELEVEN
    Maddie
    Maddie paced back and forth in front of the apartment window overlooking the street with her cell to her ear, nibbling