Read Into the Fire for Free Online Page B

in response, her rational mind screamed, “No,” and she
was drowning in the pleasure. Her world centered on Nate, on the
sensations thundering through her body.
    He filled her slowly, as if they had
all the time in the world. From his standing position, he drove
deep within her. Clasping her hips in his big hands, he pulled
until she was flush against him, his pubic bone hitting her clit
with each thrust. Her muscles clenched in response to each of his
thrusts as her body strove to keep him within her, filling her to
overflowing.
    She squirmed beneath him, desperate
for the contact of his hard chest against her breasts, but he
maintained his standing position, his cock pistoning in and out so
methodically she thought she’d scream.
    Lunging up, she grasped his short hair
in her hands and pulled him in close. “Faster, dammit,” she ground
out.
    He laughed against her lips but sped
up as she wrapped her legs around his hips. Her nipples brushed
against his chest with each thrust. His mouth, hot against hers,
took her fully with lips and teeth and tongue until she couldn’t
remember where she ended and Nate began.
    Then his thrusts became harder,
faster, more punishing, his thumb pressing against her clit, and
she burst into rapture around him, her breath heaving in her lungs
as she arched into his chest. He followed her seconds later,
shouting her name as he came.
    *
    Charly slid off the kitchen table,
righted her clothing and surveyed the crime scene data scattered
across the floor. Anguish crowded her heart, pushing away the
double-time thump of satisfaction. She ached to snuggle back into
his arms, or better yet, lead him to her bedroom. That just
wouldn’t do. This was fucking, not making love and snuggling. To
maintain her composure, she had to fall back on her life, on the
case.
    She’d let her personal feelings waylay
an investigation. It didn’t matter that she could put everything
together again in a matter of minutes. What mattered was that she’d
forgotten, for the briefest time, that someone’s life might very
well be at stake. And for what? A fuck with a lover from the
past.
    The fact he’d completely rocked her
world, again, had to be irrelevant. It had to be to maintain her
sanity and self-worth.
    She forced steel into her spine and
turned to face him. “You need to leave now.”
    His expression was shocked ... and
hurt. “What?”
    With all her resolve, she resisted
wiping the pained looked from his face. Right this second, she
needed to be the Ice Queen more than she needed her next breath,
otherwise, she’d come completely unraveled. “We had our fun, now
I’ve got to get back to work. The agreement was sex ... just sex.
Now that we’re both satisfied...”
    “ The hell we are,” he
stepped forward, bulling into her space, the very essence of an
alpha male in all his glory. “This was an appetizer,
Charly.”
    In that moment she realized he’d been
handling her with kid gloves, hoping not to scare her away. But she
wasn’t scared in the least; she was turned on beyond
reason.
    Regardless, she wouldn’t be deterred.
She couldn’t be if she wanted to keep her heart intact.
    “ For you, maybe, but it was
more than enough for me. You got sex, and the information you
wanted about arson investigation. We’re through here.”
    He stood there for a long moment, his
muscles corded and his fists clenched in frustration. Finally, he
dignified her cold shoulder routine with an answer.
    “ Fine, you want it that way,
Charly, you can damned well find me.” Nate was furious; she could
see it in his eyes, hear it in his tone. “You remember the things
we did before I left, and you want them again as much as I do. This
was just a warm-up, Sweetheart.”
    Charly’s heart thudded against her
ribs with his words; her nipples hardened all over again at the
mere suggestion. How could she make him understand she couldn’t
lose herself that way again, even if her body craved it? Why did
she even want