Reckless (20 page)

The words brought looks of curiosity to everyone's faces, and both the gentle nudge and the interest seemed to bolster her resolve. “We opened the soup kitchen three months ago, just after Christmas, although the shelter has been there for just about two years now. Hope House has about seventy-five beds on the residential side of the shelter, although we do our best to feed everyone who comes in hungry and in need.”

“Damn.” Cole slipped out of his seat to grab an empty nearby bar stool, making room for Zoe in the middle of the long, communal table. “That sounds like a hell of an undertaking.”

Smiling her thanks, she sat down between him and O'Keefe. “Truthfully, it is. I only have enough of a budget to pay two part-timers, although they volunteer a lot of their own time to make up for the holes in the schedule. Between only being able to afford a skeleton crew and trying to scrape up enough food to go around, we've really been having a lot of trouble covering all the bases.”

“Great cause, though,” Jonesey said, and Rachel nodded in agreement.

“Tom and I go on a lot of med calls down in that part of the city. The living conditions are pretty scary, and the crime level doesn't help.”

Zoe shot a tentative look in Alex's direction, but his nod of encouragement was a total no-brainer. “There's a lot of potential danger in the area around Hope House. I want to apply for a pretty substantial grant that will help us feed and take care of everyone more easily, along with putting some security into place to keep them safe, but with the shortage of hands, well . . .” She paused, her deep breath straightening her spine with determination that Alex was fast becoming addicted to. “I need help if I'm going to have any prayer of getting it.”

Cole sat back against his bar stool, his perma-relaxed expression tacked firmly to his face. “You know, I've got some community service coming up,” he said, and even though his words were completely no-big-deal, they still peppered Alex's gut with unease at the way his friend had landed the hours in the first place. “I bet I can ask to do my hours at Hope House, if you think it'll help.”

“Anyone volunteering at this point would be a huge help,” Zoe said, and Brennan tipped his chin at Cole, chiming in.

“I'm game to volunteer. I kind of miss working in a kitchen, and anyway, you don't want these chuckleheads in charge of anything culinary unless they're heavily supervised.”

“Trust me.” Alex laughed, toasting Brennan with the frosty cup in his hand. “She knows.”

Zoe lifted her cup to meet both of theirs, her eyes brightening with amusement as she admitted, “While you definitely don't need a lot of experience with food in order to volunteer, if you've got some, it does help.”

She launched into a basic explanation of Hope House's meal schedule and volunteer services, with everyone at the table offering to pitch in and help with either food service, kitchen work, or a bit of both. Their waitress brought a jumbo-sized plate of hot wings to the table, and Zoe kept track of the growing list of volunteers as they all ate, putting everyone's contact information into her phone.

“You know,” Ava said, tapping a finger against her bottom lip. “It sounds like you've got the man power end covered with these guys for the next few weeks. But have you ever considered different avenues for gathering resources?”

Alex's curiosity perked, and he wasn't the only one.

“Like a food drive?” Zoe asked, the edges of her lips twisting downward at Ava's nod. “I tried one right when I first started out. But my reach only extends to the people who need the food, and I've had my hands so full with the basics of getting everyone fed that I simply haven't had the time or the man power to effectively spread the word about a food drive, much less coordinate drop-off points and pickup schedules.”

“You do now.” Ava flipped her cell phone into her palm, tapping it to life with a few quick touches. “I'm a reporter with the
Fairview Sentinel
. If you'd be willing, I'd love to run a personal interest piece on both the shelter and the soup kitchen. We could spotlight the services Hope House provides and talk up a food drive while we're at it.”

“You would do that?” Zoe's lips parted in surprise, but Ava's fingers didn't even slow as she answered.

“Nope. I
did
do that.” She lifted the phone, the backlit glow flashing across the dimmer lighting in the bar. “My editor should get back to me first thing Monday morning on this, but I'm sure he'll be game. I don't mind helping coordinate the food drive in conjunction with writing the story. If you want, that is.”

Shock prickled all the way up Alex's spine. He'd known everyone would be willing to help, but . . . “A newspaper story is a brilliant idea, Ava.”

“I helped my friends in Pine Mountain run a really successful fund-raiser for their bar and grill last year,” Brennan added, running a hand over the neatly trimmed goatee covering his chin. “I can reach out to them, see if they've got any suggestions you might find useful for getting the word out without spending a lot of cash.”

Before Zoe could agree with anything more than a wide-eyed nod, Rachel said, “My parents own the hardware store over on Atlantic Boulevard. I bet they'd let you use their place as a drop-off point for nonperishable donations.”

“Don't forget all the local firehouses,” Crews interjected, and Alex leaned in toward Zoe with a grin he couldn't help.

“You know Joss would let you use Vertical Climb as a drop-off point if we ask. Kyle even has a pickup truck. If I agree to take another birthday party full of ten-year-olds, he just might help with transporting donations.”

“Wow,” Zoe finally managed, sending her gaze over everyone sitting at the pine bar table. “I don't know what to say. I mean, I know I came asking for help, but this is—”

“What we do,” Alex said as her eyes finally settled on his. Zoe's gaze brimmed with gratitude and something else, something deeper that Alex couldn't quite pin, and all of a sudden everyone else in the bar—hell, in the universe—felt really far away.

“Teflon's right.” Cole's voice, coupled with the reminder of his nickname and its deep roots at the firehouse, knocked Alex back to the buzz and chatter of Bellyflop's busy bar area. “Zoe, your father has had each of our backs since we arrived at Station Eight. If you need our help at Hope House, we've got yours.”

“You have no idea how much this means to me,” she said. “Thank you.”

“Are you kidding?” Rachel grinned, reaching for Zoe's cup to top it off with a healthy splash from the pitcher at her elbow. “You're Cap's daughter, and Hope House sounds like a great place. Besides, those of us with XX chromosomes are totally outnumbered in this group. Lord knows we need another woman around here to help offset all these knuckle draggers.”

“Hey!” Jones and Crews protested in unison, but Rachel gave a snort that belied both her delicate features and her slender frame.

“Please. The last time we were all here, you guys had an arm-wrestling tournament to settle the bar tab. Don't even get me started on the beer-pong-is-a-legitimate-sport argument, either.”

Alex cocked a brow at Rachel, looping his fingers through the handle on the pitcher to tilt the last of the beer into his cup. “Beer pong takes skill, Harrison. You're just cranky because you lost last time and had to karaoke that Britney Spears song.”

“Keep talking, Teflon,” Rachel said over a genuine laugh. “We'll just quietly add to Team Estrogen over here as we help Zoe plan this food drive.”

“That's my cue.” Zoe held up her hands as a smile took over every inch of her face. “Let me grab a pen, and we can start getting a few of these details hammered out. Then I want to hear this karaoke story, with all the gory details.”

Someone produced a ballpoint pen from the bar, and Zoe didn't waste a second getting started. She came up with a volunteer schedule that managed to accommodate everyone's work and personal commitments, then shared some of the ideas she'd come up with for the grant application, patiently listening to everyone's questions and suggestions of ways to help. The more Zoe talked about her plans for Hope House, the more her face lit up, as if she couldn't possibly be meant to work anywhere else. Her eyes glimmered, whiskey gold with excitement as her notes overflowed from the back of one bar napkin to the next, then to a third, and damn, Alex had never seen anyone so fierce or beautiful in his life.

“Hey,” Cole said, interrupting his thoughts by holding up an empty pitcher to match the one just outside Alex's reach on the table. “Looks like we're all out over here. You want to head over to the bar for refills?”

“Sure.” Alex kicked his boots into motion, angling his way through Bellyflop's now-bustling crowd. Nearly every seat at the mahogany bar was occupied, and he and Cole parked themselves by two of the last remaining spaces next to the pass-through.

“You slept with her.”

The empty pitcher in Alex's grasp hit the top of the bar with a sharp
clunk
at Cole's straight-to-the-point statement, but there was no fast-talking his way out of this. Anyway, as highly sensitive as the topic was, lying about it—or, okay, lying about anything—just wasn't Alex's speed. “You really should take that mind-reading show on the road. You could make a freaking fortune.”

Cole's normally laid-back expression turned graveyard serious. “Jesus, Teflon. Have you lost your faculties?”

“No.” The word fired from his mouth, low and sharp around the edges, and Alex took a deep breath to smooth out his redirect. “I'm helping Zoe with this grant project, yes. . . .” He broke off, dropping his voice. “And yes, she and I are spending time together after hours. But we agreed to keep things casual. It's not a big deal.”

Cole ran a hand over the back of his neck, shaking his head in obvious disbelief. “Not a big deal. You do remember Zoe is Westin's daughter, right? The one he brags about every time her name comes up in conversation. And also when it doesn't.”

“Believe me, I remember,” Alex said, replacing any heat the words might carry with straight-up honesty. “But she's an adult, and so am I.”

Cole leaned one forearm against the bar, finally nodding. “Okay, family tree aside, I thought you wanted to do this community service as painlessly as possible. Don't get me wrong, it sounds like Zoe helps a lot of people at Hope House, and that's admirable as hell. But you seem awfully invested for a guy aiming for nothing more than a volunteer drive-by.”

Unease filled Alex's chest instead of air, but he tamped the emotion down. “I don't have any choice but to do this community service, and phoning it in when Hope House is so short staffed is a dick move, no matter where I'd rather be. Just because I'm helping Zoe for a few weeks doesn't mean I don't know the score, though, and Zoe knows it, too. I'm a firefighter. I belong at Eight, and Cap is more than just my boss. When I come back to the house in a couple of weeks, things will go back to normal.”

They had to. Alex's livelihood—his life—depended on it.

He met his best friend's eyes without hesitation. “Trust me, Cole. I know exactly what I'm doing.”

But Cole's stare didn't waver, either. “That, my friend, is exactly what I'm afraid of.”

Chapter Nineteen

Alex woke slowly for the first time in a dog's age, sleep clinging to him like a lover as he rolled over beneath the warmth of the comforter. Not a terrible analogy, considering how the rest of the night before had shaken out. Zoe's high-velocity excitement from their gathering at Bellyflop had been contagious, to the point that after they had gotten to his house, they'd barely made it to his bedroom before the last of their clothes had hit the carpet. And that had been after he'd made her come in the hallway.

Twice.

Huh. No wonder he'd slept like a baby.

His cock stirred at the sleep-edged memory of Zoe, with her panties in a pool of lace on the shadowy hallway floorboards as he'd knelt between her thighs, teasing and tasting her until she'd screamed. With her throaty, honey-covered moans and her blond hair wild around her face, she'd been the picture of lust-blown sexiness, and Alex blinked his eyes open, wanting to match the image in his mind's eye with the sight of the woman who had fallen asleep next to him.

But his bed was empty.

Letting his eyes adjust to the sunlight spiraling in past the blinds, Alex scanned his room. The navy-blue sheets and matching comforter were appropriately rumpled, albeit unoccupied. The pink top and faded jeans Zoe had worn to Bellyflop lay neatly folded on top of his dresser, in the exact spot she'd put them after retrieving them from the hallway last night. Soft, indistinct sounds filtered in through the doorless entryway to the alcove on the far wall of his bedroom, past the small, sunlit sitting area. Alex slipped from the bedcovers and into a pair of basketball shorts, shaking off the last of his sleep as he padded toward the short pass-through leading to the master bath. The bathroom door was ajar just enough for him to catch the sound of running water and the strains of a crooked song being hummed by a familiar, velvety voice.

Alex knew propriety dictated that even though Zoe had left the door cracked open, he should knock. But with the toilet itself set off to the side of the en suite behind a separate door, chances were pretty high he wouldn't catch Zoe terribly indisposed. Even though Alex knew he was skirting the boundaries of propriety, he nudged the door just far enough from the frame to take a quick peek inside.

Zoe stood in front of the far-side vanity, a toothbrush in one hand and a wide-open expression on her face. The L-shaped room gave him a good enough vantage point to see her without being noticed, and he used the opportunity to take her in from head to heels. The hair that had tangled around her shoulders last night in provocative waves now sat in a tidy knot at her crown. Her face had been scrubbed free of any makeup she'd had on, leaving behind a trail of light freckles over her nose and a pair of bow-shaped, pale pink lips. The dark blue tank top reading
Do Not Disturb
and the pair of matching, ruffled short-shorts she'd slipped into offered Alex a flawless view of her decadent curves as she leaned in toward the mirror to brush her teeth.

A minute later, she paused in her humming to wipe a smudge of toothpaste from her lip with a washcloth, her eyes finally connecting with his in the mirror as he stepped farther into the room. Rather than jumping out of her skin or becoming self-conscious at his watching, though, Zoe's face broke into a smile that took over her whole face, and all of his chest along with it.

Holy hell. He'd thought she'd been gorgeous last night, with her sexy moans and barely there lace panties. But standing here in her silly pajamas, smiling over at him through the honest, bright light of morning, Zoe Westin was the most stunning woman Alex had ever seen.

“Hey. You're up.” She lowered the washcloth to the vanity, her bare heel squeaking softly against the ceramic tile as she turned to look at him.

If the current state of affairs in his shorts was any indication, her words could headline the understatement of the month club. “Mmm-hmm.”

“I didn't mean to go poking through your stuff,” Zoe said, biting her lip and dropping her gaze to the toothbrush still in her hand. “But I left my toiletry bag at home by accident. You had an extra toothbrush in the medicine cabinet, so . . .”

Alex cut her off gently with a shake of his head. “It's fine. That's what the extra is for.”

“You keep an extra toothbrush for all the women you seduce in your hallway?” Her retort arrived with a saucy tip of her lips, but Alex had already seen the sweet side tucked deep beneath her moxie.

He'd already had one. Now he wanted the other.

“Nope.” The tiles were cool against his feet as he took the handful of steps necessary to reach her. Plucking the toothbrush out of her hand, he turned toward the sink on the other end of the counter, placing it in the holder next to his before saying, “I bought it three days ago.”

Her lashes fanned upward in a honey-colored arc. “You did?”

“Sure.” Running his own toothbrush under a steady stream of water, he lifted one shoulder in a half shrug. They'd spent all of their nights together at Zoe's apartment, but ending up here at some point had only been a matter of time. “I figured we'd stay here sooner or later.”

“The house is beautiful.” Zoe gestured to the ivory-tiled space around them, and Alex completed a quick but thorough scrub-down of his teeth before answering.

“I had the master bedroom and the bath in here completely redone a couple of years after I graduated from college. I wish I could take credit for how the job turned out, but I kind of just let the contractor do his thing.”

Her expression softened, but she didn't pull back from the subject. “Wanting to make the space your own makes sense.”

Alex nodded, his words coming easily enough to surprise the hell out of him. “My parents left me the house, and even though it was a tough choice, I decided to stay rather than sell. After that, it seemed disrespectful not to really live in the place.”

As if Zoe could sense that he didn't want poor-baby sympathy, her lips curved into an honest smile. “So does really living involve nice, long soaks over there? Because I have to tell you, that bathtub looks like heaven.”

“Ah, there's another thing I let the contractor take charge of.” He followed her gaze to the oversized multi-jet tub on the wall to his right. “I've used it a few times after a really hard shift or a long day of rock climbing. But I'm not here enough to take full advantage on a regular basis.”

“That's a travesty,” she said, a soft puff of laughter crossing her lips. “And here I thought you were all about seizing the moment.”

The earlier bolt of want in Alex's blood charged back to life, running the length of his spine in a hard ripple before settling low and deep between his hips. He eliminated the space between him and Zoe in the span of time it took her to suck in an audible breath, pressing his palms to the granite vanity top to cage her tight against his body. Where last night had been fast, full of the thrill of the moment, right now he wanted to slow down, to explore every inch of the flip side of Zoe's sexiness.

To draw out that sweet, hidden part of her, only so he could rediscover it again and again.

“So tell me.” Alex dropped his mouth to the sliver of space just above Zoe's ear, close enough to feel the heat radiating off her in a thousand places although he touched her in none. “Do you want to seize this moment?”

She pulled back just far enough to meet his eyes, the small of her back pressing flush against the vanity. “Yes.”

“And do you trust me?” He tightened his grip on the counter behind her, keeping his hands anchored in place even though every instinct he had screamed at him to touch her.

“Of course,” she said, the words wrapped in husky desire. Alex's lips hovered over the sweet, pale expanse of her neck, his cock growing instantly hard at the rasp of her shaky breath and the brisk citrus scent of her hot, mostly bare skin. But when Zoe shifted forward to link her arms around his shoulders, he dodged back to capture her wrists, one in each hand.

“If you want to take this moment and really live, then let me show you how.”

Swinging Zoe around, Alex lowered her hands to the vanity top, pressing her palms against the cool granite before covering her fingers with his own. The good half foot he had on her in height gave him the perfect vantage point to see over her shoulder. The contact of their hands was their only connection until Zoe's eyes met his in the mirror, and fuck, this was going to take every last ounce of his already questionable restraint.

He didn't hesitate.

“Leave your hands where they are,” Alex murmured, squeezing once for emphasis before letting go of her fingers. Although her palms didn't budge, her gaze widened in confusion, and he leaned in to answer her unspoken question with a dark smile.

“One sensation at a time. All of them are yours. Which means I do all the touching.”

Zoe's stare glinted in the mirror's reflection, his pulse burning faster in his veins when she complied with a tiny nod. Alex lowered his attention to the column of her neck, sliding the edge of his tongue over her skin while keeping his distance from the rest of her body.

“Alex.” The sigh that spilled out of her vibrated beneath his lips, but he refused to give in to the want screaming through him. With only the very slightest pressure, he strung a path of kisses from Zoe's neck to her shoulder, following his movements with an equally featherlight glide of his fingertips. He hooked the edge of one finger under the strap of her tank top, her hips arching toward his as he lowered the ribbon of fabric just enough to run his teeth across the spot where her neck met the curve of her shoulder. But rather than giving Zoe the added contact she sought, he shifted back.

“Uh-uh, Gorgeous. No touching unless I say so.” Alex buried his smile deep in her shoulder. Christ, the blush on her skin was enough to undo him right here on the damn tiles.

“We're supposed to be seizing.” Zoe's tone toed the line between sensuality and sweetness, both daring him to take her hard and fast and right freaking now, but he didn't give in.

“If you want to really live in this moment,” he said, swirling his tongue against the pulse point in her neck before lifting his head to lock eyes with her in the mirror, “then feel each touch all by itself. Let me give you the experience. Bit”—he broke off to dust his fingers over the indent above her collarbone, skimming over her sternum and down the midline of her belly before falling away from the flare of her hip—“by bit.”

Zoe's answer came by way of a want-soaked sigh that was far from an argument. Alex returned his gaze to the reflection in front of him, her parted lips and shuttered, warm honey gaze testing his resolve while hitting every one of his
fuck yes
triggers. Zoe's face flushed dark pink with desire, and his cock grew even harder as he raked his gaze lower over her body. Her shallow breaths lifted her chest in quick rhythm, her nipples beaded into tight points against the loose cotton covering them, and Alex pressed his mouth to the shell of her ear.

“Close your eyes.”

Her lashes fluttered before settling, sending a shot of heat to the base of his spine. Reaching beneath the arm Zoe still had extended toward the vanity, he spread his palm over the front of her tank top at the top of her chest, her heart answering the pressure with a wild thrum against his skin. He centered himself behind her, lowering his hand to the slope of her belly before moving back up to the valley between the curve of her breasts. Zoe's rapid breaths became heady moans, and each one pushed Alex to repeat the circuit with slow, soft strokes.

“Are you with me, right here?” He let his fingers play in the spot right over her breastbone, dipping to the underside of one cotton-covered breast to tease her delicate skin through the fabric. Zoe's shoulder blades squeezed together on another moan, her knuckles going white over the granite ledge in front of her hips as her nipples peaked into hard points, begging to be touched.

“Yes. Oh, God. Yes.”

The wicked thrill of her voice sent his hands over the hem of her top. “Where do you want me now?”

Zoe's eyes flashed open, her expression so sensual and wanting at the same time that it stole Alex's breath.

“Everywhere, Alex. I want you everywhere.”

Forcing himself into slowness that shook his hands, he lifted her tank top over her head, guiding her hands back to the counter as the garment fell to the floor. He stepped in behind her, bringing his chest as close to her back as possible without making a connection before brushing his lips over her neck. Zoe gasped at the contact, her body tightening even further as he kissed his way down the ridge of her spine. Every response to his touch, no matter how subtle, made Alex crave the next one all the more, and he kissed a path over her neck, her shoulders, her back, until he'd shown every inch of the skin in front of him the attention of his fingers and tongue. But between the overt sexiness of the rest of her mostly bare body and the sheer desire on her face as she stood there trusting him to pleasure her, Alex couldn't wait any longer. Keeping one hand steady around Zoe's rib cage, he linked his other arm beneath hers, sweeping the pad of his thumb slowly over her nipple.

“
Ohhhhh.
” Her breath kicked out on a sharp cry, his cock jerking hard as she arched all the way into his touch.

“See? Just feel my hands on you. Right here.” Alex circled again with his thumb. From over her shoulder, he sent his stare back to their entwined reflection, watching her nipple tighten and flush dark pink under his touch. “I'm with you, baby.” He rolled the tip of her nipple between his thumb and the callused edge of his forefinger, picking up speed and pressure. “Right here. I've got you.”