"That's not going to happen again. You're going to have to work for it this time." He probably wouldn't have to work too long or too hard, but he didn't need to know that.

"That sounds like a challenge."

"Only if you're up to it," she said, returning that smug smile of his with one of her own.

He touched his fingertip to the hollow at the base of her throat. "I'm always up to a challenge."

He ran that finger down between her b.r.e.a.s.t.s and over her stomach to slip it underneath the waistband of her panties. Because it felt as if she'd been waiting forever, Lydia would have been happy to skip straight to the main event tonight, but when his fingers slid over her slick flesh, she forced herself to relax and enjoy it.

"You feel so good," he murmured before bending to take her nipple into his mouth again.

She buried her hands in his hair as he stroked her, losing herself in the sensation of his hand between her legs and his mouth on her breast. Then he kissed his way down her abdomen and she sucked in a breath.

"I think that's cheating," she said as he settled between her thighs.

Aidan grinned at her before lifting her legs to hook her knees over his shoulders, and Lydia practically trembled with antic.i.p.ation. His mouth was hot and wet and, with a moan, she fell back onto the pillows.

His tongue slid into her, thrusting, before withdrawing to circle lazily around her c.l.i.t. Lydia balled his expensive sheets in her fists and tried to fight the intense pleasure his mouth gave her. She hadn't been kidding about making him work for it this time, dammit.

But when he sucked at her c.l.i.t, two fingers buried deep inside of her, Lydia surrendered to the o.r.g.a.s.m. Aidan didn't stop until the tremors pa.s.sed, and then he nipped none too gently at the inside of her thigh.

"Told you I'm always up to a challenge."

"Oh, you're not done yet," she said, her voice still breathless.

"You're d.a.m.n right I'm not."

She heard the crinkle of a condom wrapper and then Aidan's hands closed around her ankles. A yelping sound escaped her when he tugged her down the bed to him and parted her legs so he could kneel between them.

"You ready?" he asked, his voice low and ragged.

"I've been ready since you walked into the bar my first night back." When he reached down to guide the head of his c.o.c.k into her, she lifted her a.s.s off the bed to take him in.

"Nice and slow," Aidan whispered, holding himself still as Lydia rocked her hips to take him a little deeper with each upward thrust.

"Oh yes," she whispered. "I like that."

Aidan took over then, pulling almost all the way out before plunging back into her. Each stroke was hard and fast, and she felt another o.r.g.a.s.m building. She came then, her fingernails digging into her palms as he held tight to her legs. Her hips bucked and she moaned as the muscles in her body spasmed with pleasure.

Seconds later, Aidan groaned and pumped against her. His fingers squeezed the cheek of her a.s.s and she fisted her hand in his hair. He gasped her name and then collapsed on top of her.

"Jesus," he whispered. "That was...I needed that."

"You do know how to live up to a challenge."

She stroked his back while he caught his breath, and then he reached between them to secure the condom as he withdrew. When he flopped onto his back, Lydia stretched her arms up over her head, savoring the warm pleasure still resonating in her muscles.

But when Aidan went into the bathroom to dispose of the condom, she sighed and got up. She couldn't stay. If he went for a round two, she might end up staying so long she'd fall asleep in his bed and that was a bad idea.

She went on a scavenger hunt for her clothes, basically putting them on as she found them, in the reverse order that she'd taken them off. By the time she shoved her feet into her sneakers, Aidan was watching her. He'd pulled on a pair of boxer briefs-gray this time-but that was all.

"Leaving already?" There was no judgment in his voice, or surprise, as if he'd expected to find his bed empty.

"I didn't think I'd be here long and it was kind of an impulse thing, so I didn't tell Ashley where I was going. So I should...yeah, I'm leaving." She gave him a chagrined look. There was no sense in pretending she had a good reason for not staying. "You know how it is."

"Always awkward," he said, and they both laughed.

"It was worth the awkward, though."

He grinned. "Definitely."

She took a second to make sure she had everything, including her keys and her phone. "I guess I'll see you around, then."

"I just realized I don't even know how you got here. Did you walk? You can't walk home alone." Before she could respond to that, he lifted a hand. "Don't yell at me. I know you can walk home alone. But just because you're capable of doing it doesn't mean I won't worry about you, so I'll walk you home. I'll even put on pants."

"And they say chivalry is dead." When she got to the door, she shoved her feet into her sneakers. "I appreciate the gesture, but I drove. I can get home okay."

"Text me when you get inside."

He pulled her in for one last kiss and she almost surrendered to the urge to stay. She could be naked again and back in his bed in about thirty seconds. But she forced herself to take a step back when the kiss ended.

"Good night, Aidan."

"'Night. Don't forget to text me."

She wasn't surprised when he watched her get into the car from his window, and it wasn't until she was on the road and about to turn that she saw the curtain drop back into place. It was sweet, she thought, and as soon as she was in Ashley's house and had locked the door behind her, she pulled out her phone.

I'm home.

The response came almost instantly, as if he'd timed it and was waiting for the text.

I wish you were still here. Good night.

Me, too. Good night.

She probably shouldn't have admitted that, but she was still feeling that post-o.r.g.a.s.m glow. After making sure Ashley had locked the back door before she went up to bed, Lydia crept up the stairs and into her bedroom, wincing when she stepped on a floorboard that squeaked. She'd have to remember that one for next time she had to sneak in to avoid questions from her older sister.

Somehow she got the feeling there would definitely be a next time.

Chapter Ten.

AT TEN THE NEXT MORNING, Aidan leaned against the counter in the kitchen area, drinking coffee and trying to stay out of everybody's way. He was in his dress uniform that thankfully he always kept clean, pressed and ready to go since he'd been too busy last night to worry about creases in his pants or the shine on his shoes.

The memory of why he'd been late made him grin again and, dammit, he needed to stop doing that. Walking around all day with a goofy look on his face would attract attention and then questions, and he was determined not to dig his hole any deeper.

And that was why he was hiding in the kitchen. There were too many guys in the station who could pick up on his new and improved mood, and Aidan hoped like h.e.l.l that Scott and Danny showed up soon. Gullotti and Porter were already there, hanging out down in the bays. The five of them were going to represent the firehouse at a promotion ceremony and, since they'd all ride together, they were meeting here. Since E-59 and L-37's second crews were doing the day tour, there were too many people and they were tripping over each other downstairs.

When Scotty walked in, also in his dress uniform and carrying a bag from the market down the street, Aidan straightened his expression out and lifted a hand in greeting. "Good morning."

When his friend did a little bit of a double take, he wondered how he'd managed to screw that up. All he'd said was two words. "Good morning?"

"It's a general greeting often used by two people the first time they see each other on any given day if it's before noon."

"Usually you say 'hey.'" Scotty set the shopping bag on the counter and pulled out two smaller bags of green grapes.

"I got up early today, so I've already had enough coffee to muster two words instead of one." He drained the last of his coffee as if to prove his point.

"No, you're definitely in a good mood today." Scott stared at him for a few seconds before opening the fridge and put the grapes in the fruit drawer. "Did you finally tell your old man to pound sand?"

"Uh..." Aidan had no idea what to say to that, since he couldn't explain the reason for his good mood but also didn't want to say he'd booted his old man out of his life because that lie would easily come around and bite him in the a.s.s.

Another guy walked into the kitchen and saw the open fridge. "Hey, are those grapes?"

"Those are my grapes," Scotty said.

"Sharing is caring, Kincaid."

Worrying about his grapes served as a good distraction for Scott, though, and Aidan took the opportunity to wash out his coffee mug without answering the question about his dad. He was just finishing up when Walsh walked in, looking a little tense.

"Hey," Aidan said, not wanting to reintroduce the one-word versus two-word greeting conversation.

"Are you guys ready to go?"

Aidan and Scotty exchanged a look, and then Scott closed the fridge. "Sure. We're ready."

On his way past, Aidan grabbed the shopping bag and shoved it into the fabric sleeve hung on the wall so somebody could reuse it, and then he followed the others to Gullotti's truck. He had a four-door, short-box Chevy, but it was still a little cramped with three of them in the backseat. Gullotti drove, of course, and Porter automatically got shotgun because he was too big to shove into the backseat, which left Aidan, Scotty and Danny getting very cozy in the backseat. They forced Scotty into the middle since he was the shortest by maybe an inch.

"I'm going to get wrinkled," Scotty complained, lifting his b.u.t.t to try to straighten his dress pants.

"Next time we'll order you a limo," Danny snapped.

"Ouch. Aidan's in a strangely good mood and you're in a particularly bad mood, and I'm sandwiched in the middle. What a fun day this is going to be."

"You know I had to go by the house this morning," Danny said after a few minutes of silence, "since I had my uniform but forgot to grab the shoes. It's the second time I've had to knock on the door of my own house and it sucks."

Aidan guessed that was understatement, which was Danny's style. "How was talking to Ashley?"

He really wanted to ask if Ashley had said anything about Lydia, like maybe she'd been out late the night before, but he didn't. Not only because her brother was sitting between them, but because his first instinct should be sympathy for a friend, not worrying family gossip might reach Scotty.

"It was awkward," Danny said. "I feel like when she looks at me, she's willing me to say the right thing, but I don't know what the h.e.l.l the right thing even is."

"I've been married twelve years," Porter said from the front seat, "and I can almost guaran-d.a.m.n-tee you the right thing to say is 'I love you.'"

"She knows that." All four of them made a you might be wrong about that sound of some sort, and Danny shook his head. "How could she not know that? I married her. I go home to her-or I did before this-and I don't run around on her."

"When it comes to expressing emotions," Gullotti said, "you're kind of like...a stone wall. There are some cracks and gaps here and there, but mostly it's just rock."

While he was talking, the phone vibrated in Aidan's hand. He couldn't wear its holster with his dress uniform and the pants pockets were so shallow it had a tendency to fall out when he was sitting, so he was holding it for the ride. As soon as it went off, he tilted it so Scotty wouldn't be able to see the screen.

Busy?

Making a mental note to change her name in his contacts to anything but Lydia Kincaid-and feeling like a douche bag for thinking of it-he looked out the window to get his bearings. Then, using just his right thumb because of the screen angle, he tapped in a response.

Hold on 10 mins.

"Who's that?" Scotty asked, because of course he would. They were buddies and he was easily bored, so he always asked. He kept his voice low, though, because the other guys were still talking about Walsh being a stone wall.

"A woman I met at...the corner market. She was buying sour cream and onion ripple chips and I like those." Sour cream and onion ripple chips? He needed to stop talking.

"And you didn't tell me you met somebody? Is she from around here? What's her name?"

"I, uh, forgot her name."

"Didn't you put it in your phone when you put her number in it?"

"No. She said her name and wrote her number on my hand with a pen. By the time I put her in my contacts, I forgot it."

"You're an idiot. How did you list her?"

"Blonde from market."

Scotty snorted. "She'll be really impressed if she sees that. You should put a pa.s.scode on your phone if you haven't already, so she can't snoop in it while you're in the shower."

"It'll be a while before she's around while I'm in the shower. We're just in the 'hi, remember me?' phase." That might buy him a little time before Scotty would expect to meet her or run into her at the bar.

When they finally arrived at their destination and climbed out, Aidan was relieved to see a crowd of firefighters milling around outside. Letting the others go ahead to say h.e.l.lo and talk with guys they didn't get to see all the time, he stayed by the truck and pulled up the contacts on his phone. He felt like an idiot, but the first thing he did was change Lydia's name to Blonde from market because if they were sitting around and Scotty wanted to look something up or get a score check, he'd just grab whichever phone was closest, no matter who it belonged to.

I have a few mins, he typed into the reply box of her last text.

Alarm?

No. Promotion ceremony.

It took her a while to type her reply.

So you're wearing your dress uniform. I like that look on you. You should model it for me sometime.

He chuckled, trying not to laugh loud enough to attract attention.

I think it's against regulation to use my uniform as a s.e.x prop.

Even for me?