And she’d caught a glimpse of that white bandage against his dark skin. Her heart had wrenched in her chest, telling her she still wasn’t ready to pull Sean into her arms and start something foolish.
Their past relationship was one of keeping their sexual distance. Platonic friends, they were not. Lana knew this. You didn’t lust after a platonic friend, and shelustedafter Sean. He had never verbalized his interest in her, but a woman knew when a man was interested. It was an instinctive thing. Lana knew if she made any attempt to seduce Sean, he would cave into the seduction without much of a struggle.
The souvenir dare now added a whole new spin to a workable relationship. They could pretend to be friends and pals as long as they didn’t give in to their baser instincts. The dare both excited her and scared her. She was moving into a new area with Sean, and she wasn’t sure that it was a good idea. But the thought of finally seeing Sean naked and having his body take hers was more than she could deny she wanted.
Sometimes, fighting fire was the least of her battles.
CHAPTER2
Sean caught up to her as she was stepping up to the rig to sit down. She was exhausted and dirty. She was angry with not only Sean and Bryant, but herself as well.
She didn’t look at Sean as he settled next to her.
“Why didn’t you go home or to the hospital?” Her tone was belligerent as if she was trying to start a fight. Sometimes it was easier that way. Her feelings often surged to the surface at the end of a tough fire. They were hard to contain. The things she saw could haunt her for days unless she blew off the steam.
Hiding her emotions from a man she wanted to get into her bed wasn’t easy. Lana was a straightforward person and said what she thought most of the time, but with Sean, she held back. Their relationship wasn’t just man to woman or firefighter to firefighter. They were friends and had been friends for years. Had she always had a crush on him, or had it developed? She couldn’t remember when she’d gotten these feelings for him. Perhaps she’d always had them.
“Leave a fire? No way. Besides, I was fine, just a little bit of a headache.”
She knew exactly how he felt. To leave a fire was sacrilege. To leave a fire and not make sure that all the bases were covered bothered her, too. The fact that Bryant had pushed her suspicions aside because he didn’t like women firefighters was troubling, too. This shouldn’t be about gender. It was about saving lives and catching whoever was setting these fires.
The thoughts chased themselves around in her head, and Lana knew that she was going to do something about it. Bryant could go to hell.
When the engine pulled into the station, Lana jumped down and cleaned her tools, checking and restocking her belt. Sean worked close by, but Lana didn’t engage him in conversation. She still felt too raw with emotion to speak. If she’d been going off-shift, she would have headed over to talk to Sienna or Kate, but that wasn’t possible.
It was best to shower, eat and sleep since she’d be on duty another twenty-nine hours. Not a bad schedule most of the time. Lana liked the two days on and four days off.
The showers were coed and afforded no privacy, so Lana had to wait until the men were finished before she could take hers. Lana simply put a sign on the door when it was her turn.
Distracted, Lana didn’t realize that someone was still in the showers, until she heard the water come on. She had already taken off her grimy clothes and with honed reflexes; she grabbed up her towel and wrapped it around her body, tucking the end in snugly between her breasts.
That’s when she saw the discarded pile of clothes. She recognized the badge on the shirt. Glancing back toward the door, she realized that they wouldn’t be interrupted. The dare reverberated in her head. She had pushed her friend Sienna to go after her hot Navy SEAL. How could she back down now and miss an opportunity to take what she wanted from Sean?
She approached the open stall and her breath caught. He stood with his back to her, the powerful muscles of his torso gleamed under the heated spray of the shower.
Her eyes moved down lower, unable to stop the sudden need to see every inch of his virile strength. Fat rivulets cascaded down his wet, gleaming skin, over the thick muscles of his powerful buttocks, tangling in the golden whorls of hair covering his lets.
Steam eddied and curled around the misty bathroom from the hot flowing water. She breathed, “Oh my.” Unable to tear her eyes away from the magnificence of his muscular body. She forgot to swallow, or breathe, or blink, gaping at him, as if he were an alien creature. Obviously hearing her whispered explicative, he stilled, his back muscles taut and sleek. He turned and the movement brought her gaze to his smoky eyes, flaming brightly.
His luxurious blond hair was slicked back off his face, the locks dripping water over his broad shoulders.
She watched in fascination. The droplets slid tantalizingly over the molded contours of his pectoral muscles, down over the rippling strength of his stomach, disappearing into the golden hair at his groin. Her eyes remained there, her pulse jumping in rapid succession, her breathing increasing into little puffs, desire curling inside her. Her breath caught in her throat when she saw what her scrutiny did to him.
She should leave. She should back up and walk out of the room, but even as she thought it, she couldn’t follow through.
She wanted him, she thought quickly, and her body answered with a thrumming response over which she had no control. But fear grew in her, a fear of herself, her emotions, her heart.
She could see the desire in his eyes. His arousal had been instantaneous, just from having her eyes on him. She was playing with pure, unadulterated fire, and she had no business standing here ogling him as if he were hers.
Yet, she was supposed to make him hers for a bet. He grinned at her, a slow grin that turned her stomach to mush.
“Lana? What are you doing in here?” he whispered in a voice laced with surprise, and what she thought sounded like pleasure.
The words beckoned her to him, a man whom she’d wanted for years. She had to acknowledge that to herself. She wanted him for what seemed like forever.
She moved toward him, caught in the magnetic pull of his body and eyes, the promise of his lips.
As she drew close to him, she could feel the warmth of his body. “Lana?” he asked in a thick voice as if he were strangling.