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Saturday, July 12th
“Natalie! Oh, Natalie, are you with me?”
Nat blinked, and turned to look at the slim, pretty brunette driving the gold Lexus. “What?”
Her friend Teri looked over at her and shook her head. “Earth to Nat. We’re nearing our destination, girl. Dave’s party? Bunch of hot guys and some nice women for you to meet? You need to wake up and put your party on.”
Nat smiled ruefully. “Sorry, I’ll try. I just ...” She looked out at the busy boulevard and shrugged uneasily. “I’m not sure where I left my party, to tell you the truth.”
Teri tossed her tousled chic hair as she slowed for a yellow light. Her dangling silver earrings clashed gently. “I know where it is—at the bottom of that damn river with your ex. He did such a number on you. You’ve hardly dated since he died.”
Nat smoothed her hands over her short flowered skirt, contemplating the light tan on her bare legs and her arms under the three-quarter length sleeves of her thin coral top. She felt a little overdressed next to her friend, who wore a pair of fitted black shorts and a red sleeveless top, with little black, strappy sandals on her feet. Nat preferred to hide her own bootie under a skirt.
“I’ve dated. Um, a couple of times.” Both of which had been less than inspiring.
“A couple of dates ... in a year and a half,” Teri repeated. “That’s what I’m talking about! Girl, you used to be the life of the party. Who dragged me out night after night starting with our first night at college, even though I was the local and you were new? And who signed us up for all those co-rec activities and those dumb ski lessons?”
Nat snickered. “The ski lessons were dumb. All the way to Mt. Hood and back on that bus, and we froze our asses off, though we met some cute guys.” She sighed. “I guess I have changed, huh?”
Teri drove for a moment in silence. “Well ... I guess that’s partly a good thing. Because we were girls then, really. And now we’re grown up.”
Natalie nodded. “Although I thought I was grown up when I got married.”
“Maybe you were,” Teri said instantly. “Maybe he was the one who wasn’t, did you ever think of that?”
“Yup,” Nat said quietly. And the therapist she’d visited after his death had helped her see it, too. “Tony thought the bar was his playground and I’d be his playmate.”
“Right,” Teri said. “And when you expected him to work, he ...um.” She winced.
“Turned to other women,” Nat finished for her. “I know. And I came into our marriage with father issues, so I tried to make Tony make up for my dad’s desertion, blah, blah, blah ... which is a lot to load on a guy.” Or so her therapist had said.
Teri snorted. “Especially one who refused to deal with anyone’s needs but his own. You ask me, Tony and his sister were screwed up, not you.”
Nat appreciated her friend’s loyalty, and since the therapist had told her pretty much the same thing, she had tried to take it to heart.
But it still hurt, badly enough that she wasn’t sure she’d ever be ready to try again. Not that she wouldn’t love to go out with a nice, decent-looking guy who would make her smile, give her great sex and then go do his own thing while she did hers, but it wasn’t that easy. Sure there were great guys out there, but there were also a lot of boys masquerading as men.
She ought to know, she’d married one. A handsome, sexy guy with bedroom eyes and a panty-melting smile, but still a boy in many ways.
Teri reached over and patted Natalie’s hand with her own, her crimson nails bright. “It’s okay,” she said cheerfully. “’Cause luckily, you have me to drag you back into the thick of the action.”
Nat smiled at her. “I am lucky. If it weren’t for you, I’d be staying at Motel 6.”
Teri snorted. “Like I’d let that happen. You stay with me as long as you like, until you get re-acclimated to the ‘Couve. I’m gone all day to the salon anyway and it’s fun to come home and have supper with you. Feels like college all over again.”
“Except better food,” Nat retorted. “Remember how much you hated the dining hall?”
Teri laughed. “We ate pizza and sub sandwiches and popcorn all the time, until my mother caught on and made us promise to eat right.”
“Yeah, and fed us on weekends.” Natalie smiled, remembering. “Those were the days. All we had to do was show up for class.”
“And all you have to do now is show up for Dave’s housewarming party,” Teri added with a twinkle as she turned onto a tree-lined street lined with older homes, many of which had been remodeled, their tiny front lawns updated with trendy vegetation. “And believe me, Dave’s friends will do the rest. Firefighters and EMTs are a friendly bunch.”
She pulled to the side of the street and eased into a narrow driveway behind a silver pickup truck. “And here we are. Let’s go make you some new friends—boy friends.”
Teri’s own new boyfriend was fixing up an older home in a neighborhood just north of downtown Vancouver. The invitation had seemed like a good chance to meet some of Dave’s fellow fire-fighters and EMTs on a friendly basis.
But when Nat followed her friend from the car, she found herself wondering if she was going to be a third wheel. She stood on the front porch of Dave’s house and watched as Teri greeted her muscular, blond boyfriend with a deep, wet kiss. He had his hands clamped on the slim brunette’s ass, and neither of them showed any signs of coming up for air.
Natalie didn’t know whether to applaud in admiration or drool in envy. She herself hadn’t been kissed like that in ... forever, it seemed. Certainly not for the last year she’d been married, and since her separation she’d been man-shy, relying on her trusty vibrator for thrills.
That made it nearly two long years without the kind of embrace she was witnessing. She was surprised smoke wasn’t curling up from between them. The heat was reawakening her own libido. Maybe she should take Teri’s advice and hook up with one of Dave’s friends, who according to Teri were all man-licious. Just for a night, of course. Nothing more.
Her heart couldn’t afford more.
“Hey, you two, get a room,” called a deep voice from the front walk below. A chorus of male laughter followed the words. Realizing her ass was probably right at the newcomers’ eye level, Nat moved hastily to one side of the porch. Great, how to impress guys—wave her round butt in their faces.
Teri’s boyfriend finally lifted his head far enough to yell back. “Eat your hearts out, assholes. This is my house, and my girl.”
The three men thumping up the steps laughed again.
Teri, not in the least perturbed, giggled and turned in the circle of his arms to greet them. Then her dark eyes met Natalie’s and widened.
“Oh, sorry, hon, didn’t mean to leave you standing there.” She reached up to cup her boyfriend’s lipstick-smeared cheek and turn his head. “Honey, this is Natalie, my friend I told you about.”
Teri made a ‘can you believe how cute he is?’ face at Nat. “Natalie, this is Dave.”
Grinning unselfconsciously, Dave shuffled Teri forward with him and reached one long arm out to shake Natalie’s hand.
“Hi, Natalie. Glad you could make it.” His grip was warm and gentle. “Just beware, you’re gonna be surrounded by horndog EMTs and firefighters ... and probably worse.”
Feet thumped on the top steps, and Natalie found herself surrounded by men. And Teri was right. They were all fine.
Trev was another blond, lean and sun-bronzed. Darius had dark skin and a beautiful smile. Soren was tall, lean and unsmiling, but he nodded with grave politeness before disappearing into the house with his armload of beer.
But other than nearly choking on a wave of cologne and testosterone, not one of the men aroused any special interest. When Teri gave her a questioning look, Natalie shrugged. Her friend made a disappointed moue.
“Come on in, ladies,” Dave said, holding the front door open for them. “Barbecue’s goin’ and the beer is cold.”
“And the men are hot,” Teri added.
“Amen, baby,” he agreed, dimpling. For a moment Nat was afraid the two were going to fall into another long clinch.
Then Dave grinned widely, looking past both women. “Uh-oh. Here comes the ‘and worse’ I promised you.”
“What the hell?” demanded a male voice so gravelly Natalie looked around, expecting to see an older man with a cigarette in hand and a pack in his pocket. “I believe you mean ‘the finest.’”
Dave laughed, and held out his hand to the other man, Teri still encircled in his other arm. She beamed at the newcomer.
Natalie stared. Her heart skipped a beat, and then began to beat double-time as she drank him in. Oh. My. Gawd.
This guy was not old. He wasn’t the tallest man there either, something under six feet. And he wasn’t the handsomest. But as he sauntered up the steps, sheer masculine confidence in every move of his muscular body, a smile flashing from the neat ‘stache and goatee that framed his wide mouth and set off his wide, determined jaw and high cheekbones, Natalie could not look away.
His straight nose looked like it had been broken once, leaving a small bump on the bridge. His brown hair was cut short, capping his squarish head in short, almost waves. Heavy eyebrows slashed above deep set eyes that were crinkled in an infectious smile.
Despite the heat of the day, he wore a caramel leather vest open over a snug brown tee, and faded jeans that molded faithfully to his narrow hips and muscular legs, with western boots on his feet. The clothing showed off his muscular, broad-shouldered frame to perfection.
Admiring all that was him, Nat hardly heard the words as he and Dave exchanged friendly insults, and Dave introduced him to Teri.
“And this is Natalie.”
The newcomer turned and looked at her. Hazel, his eyes were hazel. Bright and clear and warm, his gaze narrowed on her face, pinning her in place as he moved two steps closer and held out his hand.
“Natalie,” he said in that hoarse, but warm voice. “I’m Mase.”
She replied ... surely she must have. Or maybe she simply sighed.
All she could feel was his hand engulfing hers, warm and strong and calloused, and full of some mysterious magnetism that drew her closer. She had to curl her toes into her sandals to keep her feet still, instead of walking straight into his arms.
“Well,” Dave said, “we’ll see you two inside.”
The door swung closed with a soft thud, leaving Natalie alone on the porch with Mase. His hand squeezed hers gently, and he smiled, his white teeth glinting, his eyes twinkling under his thick lashes in a shared joke.
“EMTs,” he said. “They triage, then they’re gone.”
Natalie blinked. What? Oh, right, Dave had gone in, and so had Teri. And she was still gaping at this man like a high school girl meeting her favorite rock star. Geez, she did not do this kind of thing. And she didn’t wanna do this kind of thing—not right now. No entanglements, no romance, no, no, no. Down, girl.
She tugged at her hand. For one puzzling instant he held on, not letting her go, as a new gleam entered those narrowed eyes. Then he let her hand slide through his and she stepped back, her hand still hot from his touch, and missing it already.
She curled her fingers into her palm, her gaze falling away from his.
“Um ... right,” she agreed. Look at him, don’t be an idiot. “So, you’re not an EMT or a firefighter, huh?”
He leaned back against the porch railing. “Nope. I’m a cop. How about you, Natalie?”
* * *
TERI’S FRIEND LIFTED one slender hand, bare of rings, and played with the end of one of her strawberry blonde curls. Her hair hung below shoulder length in a big, messy waves, the kind that made her look like she’d just tumbled out of the rack, or at least had a man’s hands on her. Thick, tousled bangs framed her pretty, rounded face, giving glimpses of her small ears and the tender curve of her jaw.
She copied his movement, leaning against the railing and crossing her legs. Hers were bare under a short flippy skirt with flowers on it, and her arched feet were nearly bare in strappy bronze sandals that he was bemused to see matched her toenails.
Her knit top was orangey-pink, with an asymmetrical neckline that revealed just a hint of cleavage, then draped her very nice rack to nip in toward her waist, before flaring out over her slanted hips. She was round in all the right places, but those legs, mm-hmm. They were long enough to wrap around a man.
He’d give a week’s pay to see the hips and ass under that skirt. Nice and full and cushiony, the kind that a man could sink his fingers into and hang on. Like, say, when he was buried balls-deep inside her, fucking her for all he was worth.
And were the curls at the apex of her thighs the same color as her hair, or darker? Or maybe, given her careful grooming, she waxed, leaving only a narrow trail guiding the way to heaven.
Damn, if they were elsewhere, he’d flat-out ask her right now. But this was neutral ground and she was the friend of a friend, not a member of Club 3.
She shrugged, which did great things for her breasts. “I just moved back to the area,” she said, her voice pitched low and sweet. “I’m kind of in-between, you know?”
In between what? Or whom? “So, did you move here with someone?”
She looked startled, then smiled wryly, one cheek indenting. A shadow slid through her brown eyes. “No. All by my lonesome. How about you?”
“Likewise.”
Her gaze skittered away from his. “It’s not as easy as it was back in college, huh?” Then her cheeks flushed again, and she twirled the lock of hair more tightly around her finger. “At least ... it’s probably different for you.”
He refrained from puffing out his chest, but just barely. “Babe, the guys around here are not blind. You won’t have any trouble finding whatever you’re looking for.”
“Oh, well, I’m not looking,” she said, then frowned, her arching brows scrunching together as if she’d said too much. “For anything long term, that is.”
Holy shit. His heart thumped and the rest of him all but sat up and begged like a dog eyeing a juicy bone. Did that mean she wasn’t averse to short term, as in hooking up?
She was blushing again. Damn, she was cute. Interested, but skittish. And no giggling college girl either. She looked to be late twenties or even early thirties, like him. Old enough to know what she wanted.
Hell, maybe he should just be honest, let her know what he wanted. Sex, now. Hot, raunchy, dirty sex, with no holds barred—until and unless she called it.
A burst of laughter sounded from inside the house, reminding him that he was at a party. Jeezus, he needed to rein it in. Just because he hadn’t gotten laid in over two months was no reason to do something totally stupid.
At the club, the women knew the score, knew it was just sex, knew to smile and walk away afterward. Now that he was feeling strong enough, he could head down there and get it on. No reason to jump in deeper waters here.
“So,” Natalie said cheerily, in that way women had of covering a silence that made them uncomfortable. “We should go in, right? The party moved on without us.”
She turned for the door, and Mase stepped behind her, reaching to hold it open for her. She gave him a sidelong look, her long lashes veiling her eyes. “Thanks.”
“My pleasure,” he said, his gaze dropping down her slender back. Yup, her ass was full and heart-shaped, just as he’d guessed. Totally grabbable.
He followed her inside, surreptitiously inhaling her scent. Clean woman, overlaid with perfume. Something dark and spicy, not that flowery stuff a lot of women preferred. This made him want to find out just where she’d dabbed it and how it smelled in each of those damp crevices.
As they walked into Dave’s living room, he imagined laying her back on that big coffee table and chasing her perfume up under that skirt with his nose and mouth, tasting her pussy with that scent in his nostrils, then fucking her right there, with the others looking on. She’d be hot and slick and wet around him.
Arousal shot through him, low and deep, headed straight for his cock. He cussed himself under his breath. It was either pull his tee out to hide his erection or get the hell away from this woman for the rest of the evening. The chances that she was into the kind of sex he liked were slim to none. And after his forced sexual hiatus, he didn’t have the patience to hang around and be disappointed.
Although he’d enjoyed talking to her, and wouldn’t mind just doing more of that too. What would it take to make her smile at him again, or even laugh? Why had she come back to a place that put shadows in her pretty brown eyes? And why was a fox like her still single?
So, stay at her side and see where it led ... or have some supper and a few laughs and then skedaddle down to Portland, where he knew he could blow off his tension and soul-deep weariness just the way he liked? At Club 3.
He steeled himself to temptation and chose the latter. To do anything else was opening himself up to someone else who would expect more of him. And then discover that really, there wasn’t any more. Just an ordinary guy trying to fill out his badge—not to mention the red cape that had been assigned him lately.
That at his core, he was just a good-time guy, a fun guy to party with but not really worthy of being the focus of a woman’s dreams. And sure as hell not a hero.
* * *
A FEW HOURS LATER
Natalie shut the back door of Dave’s house behind her and moved the three steps necessary to lean on the railing of his small back porch. Taking another drink of bottled strawberry margarita, she swallowed and then heaved a deep sigh as she gazed into the inky shadows of the back yard. The only light was the streak cast from the small kitchen window across the porch railing, revealing a dusty shrub and a pile of construction debris in the yard below.
Behind her, music thumped and voices and laughter drifted on the quiet, summer night air. Dave’s party had grown until the house overflowed into the front yard with boisterous partiers, both male and female.
Nat had met lots of people, and done a little flirting, even hoped for more. But since the only man who truly interested her had jetted away from her side the minute they’d entered the house like a man freed from bondage, the attraction had clearly been one-sided. As in, all on her side.
She’d caught glimpses of Mase throughout the evening, always in the middle of a group, if not the life of the party, always a part of it. Twice when she was dancing with other guys in Dave’s as yet unfurnished dining room, she’d felt a funny awareness as if someone was watching her, but when she turned, Mase was always looking the other way. A couple of times he danced with other women. He was a good dancer ... the dumbass.
Because he could be dancing with her. Heck, he could be doing more, if he’d just stuck around. Never had she felt such an instant pull, like he was tugging her toward him with some kind of weird, male-only magnetism. She was so tuned in to him she swore she could still smell his woodsy cologne out here on this porch.
She took another drink. Forget him, there were lots of other guys in this city and even more across the river in Portland. And she was a big girl, she could live without getting everything she wanted. Hell, she was an expert at doing without what she wanted, emotionally and sexually.
But though she’d eaten dinner with Trev, had a drink with Darius and chatted with some other women and several other outgoing, muscular men who dragged large hoses and injured people around for a living, the evening had lost its shine. Tired of trying to hear and be heard over the loud music and even louder voices, she’d finally, under the guise of touring Dave’s renovations, ventured through a tiny mudroom and out the back door.
So here she was in the inky shadows of the back porch, with one last drink and some country singer urging her to put her party light on. She grinned wryly to herself. She was a little bit lit, floating on a warm buzz of alcohol. Not drunk by any means, but not completely sober.
She didn’t usually drink much, but just for one night, she wanted to let loose, feel young and free again. Free to go back to being the girl she and Teri had reminisced about, the girl she’d been the first time she arrived in this river city, before she met and married Tony.
Although if she wasn’t careful, with her mind this loose and undisciplined, she’d start feeling sorry for herself and sink down into the morass of sadness and anger that had dogged her for the last several months. Nope, not going there. Tony was not worth it. He’d proved that.
Tony Roden, the original Big Talker and Complete Failure to Follow Through on all that made a marriage ... like being faithful to his wife and loyal to their dreams. So she’d been too much, too demanding, too clingy for him—he could still have tried, couldn’t he? Could’ve at least talked it out, told her he needed a little more space, instead of showing her in the worst possible way ... with other women.
His loyalty, he’d saved for that damn, crazy sister of his.
Still leaning on the railing, Nat moved her hips to the music. She’d just give herself a minute before she rejoined the party. She’d chat and laugh like she was having the time of her life. Maybe that would make it come true. Self-fulfilling prophecy, like the pop psychology articles that her mother swore by.
And she would not think about Mase. Jeez, she really would swear she could smell his woodsy scent back here.
“Now that’s a fine sight,” drawled a raspy voice behind her.