Ena’s Fire is available now from Liquid Silver Books
Excerpt for Ena’s Fire
By Shaunta Grimes:
*Rated R*
Charlie’s hand tightened around a fistful of Ena’s hair as she breathed in his moan, and pressed her pussy tight against the leg he thrust between hers in a mindless effort to ease the terrible ache of need that had obviously stolen her sanity.
She caught the echo of amused laughter in her head and slammed her mental barriers up hard. Hoped her sisters’ collective heads spun. She got her hands up between her and Charlie and pushed at the heavily-muscled wall of his chest until he let her come up for air.
She wasn’t a virginal princess any more than she was a China doll. Her very insistent instinct was to take what Charlie clearly wanted to give her, hard and deep. His cock lay thick and straining against his jeans, prodding her belly. He was a foot taller than her, and outweighed her by at least a hundred pounds of solid muscle, and she knew he would stretch her body to its limits.
Fuck. She wanted him. Had wanted him since she laid eyes on him, even though it made little sense. He was just another macho, egotistical man who thought it was his duty to protect her from something she had more control over than he could conceive.
She was so wet, so ready to take him inside of her. But something held her back.
Well, not physically, because even as she had the thought, her hips were grinding forward against that bulge and she arched her neck so he could kiss it. She put her hands on his jaw and forced him to look at her.
His green eyes searched her face. Waiting for permission, she suddenly realized. Having a man like Charlie Reese in a vulnerable position should have been a powerful aphrodisiac. Instead, it scared her.
Damn it. She didn’t do scared. She rose up on her toes and kissed him. He burrowed his hand into her hair again and held her immobile. She’d initiated this kiss, but he took control of it.
His aggressive behavior made her panties wet. His fingers twisted in her hair, and she moved, tugged against it. Not to get away, but because she knew he’d grip her harder, demand more. And she couldn’t stop herself from needing that.
What the hell was happening to her? The fear came back with such a vengeance she almost dropped her shields and called out for her sisters. Charlie Reese didn’t know how close he’d come to finding out exactly why she didn’t worry about her safety when she went to fight a fire. She beat against his chest with her hands and turned her face away from his kiss. He loosened his grip on her hair, but didn’t let her back even an inch away.
“What do you think you’re doing?” She did her best convey control, even though he held her hostage and she had to look straight up like a child to see his face.
He chuckled. The sound and movement of it tickled over and around and through her, and pissed her the hell off. About a thousand times better than fear, so she grasped the emotion like a life preserver, encouraged her fire to whip it to a frenzy.
“You’ve been kissed before.” His voice was coolly calm. “I’d think you’d recognize the gesture.”
It wasn’t a question, but she answered anyway. “Yes, I’ve been kissed before.”
Not the complete truth. She’d never been kissed like that. She’d never allowed it.
He moved his hand from the back of her head to the side of her face. His thumb drew along her cheek in a slow, intensely sexy caress. “You want me to kiss you.”
She came pretty damned close to stomping her foot on his. The arrogant ass. She didn’t because she would have hurt herself more than him. He wore heavy work boots in contrast to her thin-soled sandals. “I do not.”
He lifted his eyebrows and ran his free hand over her stomach and then dipped his fingertips under the waistband of her low-slung jeans. She drew in a hard, gasping breath.
He wasn’t holding her to him at all now, but she couldn’t move away.
It was a tight fit, but his hand kept moving, and even when she squeaked in protest didn’t stop until his wide palm cupped her lace-covered sex. Her eyes popped open wide in shock, in indignation, and mostly because his touch sent a sudden and very wet rush of desire through her.
“Oh,” he said. “You definitely do.”
He tilted his head. She knew him well enough to know that if she told him she didn’t want him, he’d take his hands off her immediately. She welcomed the return of a modicum of personal power the knowledge brought with it.
Charlie had a hard edge to him. That, at least partly, was what drew her to him like a moth to a flame. Sometimes she felt like she was all edge, and nothing finely honed either. Rough and raw, not polished like her sisters.
She worked so damned hard at convincing everyone around her that she wouldn’t break. Charlie wasn’t any different. Hell, two minutes ago–two hours ago? She’d lost track of time–he’d tried to convince her to be a desk jockey. She didn’t go for men like him. Ever. Charlie was an alpha dog with a capital D who would never see her as anything more than a little girl playing fireman.
“Stop it, Charlie. I mean it.” She bit hard on her inner cheek to stop the moan of disappointment when his hand moved away from her. He rubbed his fingers together, slick with the evidence of just how much she wanted him.
“Do you fight everything? Or is it just me?”
She took a step back and fisted her hands at her sides to stop from pressing them against the parts of her he’d left aching and desperately needy. “Do you grope all your employees, or is it just me?”
“You aren’t my employee, Ena.”
She looked at the ceiling, searching for patience. It wasn’t hiding in the popcorn-textured tiles. “Fine. Do you always grope your colleagues, or did I win the lottery?”
“I’ve never had a colleague who smelled as good as you do.” He didn’t reach for her, had relinquished his hold on her. So why was she still standing rooted in front of him, her pussy swollen and creamy with need, her breasts full and achy, even her skin screaming for his touch? “I’ve sure never had one that made me want to fuck them up against the wall before.”
That visual nearly did her in. She glared at him, trying to muster up enough anger to walk away, and found she had more toward herself than him.
Later she’d blame whatever happened here on her nature. That way she’d be able to sleep tonight. Ena held the element of fire inside her, and while her sisters had long ago mastered their gifts, she still struggled every single day with every single emotion, every desire, amplified by the heat in her blood.
When the urges got too strong, she found a man to ease them. A man content to let her take what she needed, often one who wanted nothing more than to please her. Some of them even got off on her using them and leaving them.
But while there was something to be said for cracking the whip, she’d never left those occasional encounters with any satisfaction beyond the temporary damping of the constant need living inside her.
She wanted more, always more, and somehow she knew Charlie offered it to her. And that she wouldn’t be the one holding the whip this time. She lifted her chin, forced her spine to tighten, and winced at the sudden twinge of pain in her injured abominable muscles. Her insides felt like Jell-o.
“How badly did that shovel hurt you?” His voice was low, the tone deep and smooth. Before she could answer, Charlie lifted the hem of her t-shirt and exposed her bruised stomach. He sucked in a hard breath through his teeth. “Goddamn it, what the hell was he thinking?”
Ena tugged her top back down. “Ross was doing his job. I got in his way.”
“Ena.” His voice was soft, held too much concern. Too much emotion. He clenched his fists and she had the absurd desire to use her fingers to open them. To put his hands on her skin. She stopped herself.
“I’m not a child, Charlie. I’m a firefighter, the same as you or anyone else on the team. Occasional injury comes with the territory.”
He raked one hand through his dark hair and a low, dangerous growl filled the room. “Not for you. Not on my watch.”
Ena sighed. “Look, big guy. Some girls might swoon when you flex those muscles and make them think you’ll take care of them. But I’m a woman, and I can take care of myself. All you’re doing is pissing me off.” A half-smile replaced his scowl, and it occurred to Ena too late that he liked her pissed off. “If you need me, I’ll be trying to catch some sleep before we’re up again.”
