Free Freed by Fire by Ashley Christine Page B

body felt so good. So warm, so seamless with his arms wrapped around my waist. I let mine rest on his broad shoulders and forced myself to keep my fingers still when they reached the back of his neck.
    “Tell me about you, Emery.”
    There it was. The twenty questions portion of the night. Where to begin? I’m Emery. Twenty-three. Newly divorced orphan. Belleville transplant. Recluse in all things sex, except I seem to have the ability to write about things I know nothing about first-hand.
    “I’m Emery,” I said. Oh yes, I’m a real wordy girl.
    “I believe we’ve made it past that point already. Emery. No boyfriend. What else are you willing to divulge?”
    “How about you tell me something about you.”
    “No girlfriend.”
    “Wife?”
    He shook his head. “Nope. And my name’s not Caid.”
    I blinked. “Huh?”
    “It’s actually Kincaid.”
    I smiled. I liked it. Either way. “My turn.”
    Caid ground harder into me, pressing his hardening length into my belly just like last night. But this time, I knew I wasn’t going to run away puking. “You smell so good, Emery with no boyfriend.”
    “You smell better, Caid/Kincaid with no girlfriend or wife.” I smiled as Caid leaned his forehead down to meet mine.
    “It’s still your turn.”
    “How long have you been a firefighter?”
    “Four years this December. My turn.”
    I pulled back from the skin-to-skin contact of our brows and looked up into his eyes. “Go ahead.” I was unsure if I was telling him to ask me a question or to kiss me. I hoped for the latter.
    “Are you new to Chicago?”
    I nodded and smiled. “I am. I’m staying with Maggie right now. Until I find a place of my own. I moved here from Belleville last week when—” I stopped before I spilled my guts and more than likely scared him off. “Your turn.”
    Caid dug his fingers into the skin of my hips and expanded his chest with a deep breath. “I would like to kiss you. Can I kiss you?”
    I simply nodded. I wasn’t able to speak. If my lips only had one more use in them, I wasn’t going to waste it talking.
    Caid swooped, caught my mouth with his lips and kissed me. Hard. Like no other kiss I had ever felt in my whole life. Or, any other kiss that I had ever written about, for that matter. The kiss alone was earth-shattering, mind-altering, and panty-dropping.
    His hot tongue curved into my mouth, with slow and languorous laps. His lips engulfed my own, pulled me in, and paralyzed everything in my body but my mouth.
    Harder and with more force, the strain in his jeans surged, achingly into my belly. Creating a deep and all-pervading burn to linger and wisp around inside of me. I let out tiny whimpers and gasps throughout the inebriating kiss, causing Caid to groan and add more urgency to the experience. Fuck me, that man could kiss.
    “Emery, you’re…beautiful,” he breathed. “So. Beautiful.”
    If I weren’t slightly tipsy from the combination of tequila and that kiss, I would have rolled my eyes and laughed. But his words drove me crazy, and I pulled him in for another. Taking that damn perfect bottom lip of his into my mouth, sucking it and licking it with my tongue.
    “Shite,” he pulled back. “I’m going crazy here, Emery. You can’t do that.”
    “Why not?” I whispered in his ear, tugging his hair slightly as I pulled his ear down to my lips.
    “Because I’m going to fuck you right here,” Caid straightened and looked around us. “And I don’t like to share.”
    Maggie was my best friend, but I don’t know if she would be okay with me taking a man back to her apartment to have wild and crazy sex. Well, I hoped it would be wild and crazy. Then again, if he kissed like that. Wild and crazy was pretty much a guarantee.
    “Take me to your place,” I said. Surprising myself and making Caid catch his breath and lick his lips.
    “Let’s go.” He took my hand and pulled me off the dance floor.
    Panic. Sheer panic had begun to creep into my body,