Page 48 of Fierce-Baker

She’d come this far. It was time to take the next step.

Her lips left his in a soft pull, dragging out the contact and not wanting to let go. Even if it was only for a moment.

Her feet were planted firmly on the patio as she set her glass aside. Then she shifted slow enough to give him a chance to stop her, but steady enough to show she didn’t want him to either.

She settled onto his lap, right where she wanted to be. Right where he guided her with hands that were on her hips. His arms circled her, and his eyes locked onto hers so dark and intent, he was seeing straight through her.

He absolutely knew she was testing them both.

Then he closed the distance, capturing her mouth in a kiss that told her everything he felt. A kiss that erased doubt, erased air, erased everything except the two of them and the truth burning between their bodies.

His mouth moved over hers with a hunger that wasn’t rushed, but sure. Confident. Like he’d finally been given permission to stop holding back.

His hands slid up her spine, his fingers splayed wide, anchoring her to him as if he needed her close to breathe.Every shift of his lips, every slow drag of his tongue, felt like a confession neither of them could speak out loud.

Her fingers gripped his shoulders because she wanted to feel him. She wanted to feel a solid, steady man letting her take up space on him like she belonged there. Like she’d never be given a reason to leave.

And the way he reacted…the low sound deep in his throat…the way his hands tightened on her hips like he might pull her even closer if he could, it sent another rush of heat spiraling through her.

She hadn’t expected this.

But she wanted it. She’d hoped for it.

She just hadn’t really thought it’d happen.

And now that it was, she didn’t want it to stop. She didn’t want those doubts any longer.

She didn’t want to be cautious. She just wanted to feel.

He pulled back just far enough to rest his forehead against hers, their breaths mingling and equally unsteady.

“Tasha…” he murmured, her name sounding like something dangerously close to losing his last thread of control. Like he was fighting a battle she didn’t fully understand yet.

Except she understood it because she was right there with him.

“What?” she whispered, brushing her thumb over the sharp line of his jaw. Losing herself a fraction at a time around him. She told herself not to do it but couldn’t seem to stop.

His eyes flicked to her mouth, then back to her gaze with a look that hit her straight in the chest. “If you keep kissing me like that,” he said, voice low and rumbling in his chest, setting off an avalanche of sensations between her legs, “I’m not going to have the strength to stop where we are.”

But they had to stop. At least right now.

So, as hard as it was to do this, she climbed off his lap and planted her butt back in her chair.

“This sucks,” she said before she could stop herself, because the truth was, she was setting the rules and she wanted to break every single one of them.

14

JUST FIRE

Baker had no problem taking a day off of work the following week. Not even last minute, as long as he had nothing pressing he had to do for the day.

As luck would have it, he didn’t, so when Tasha texted she was thinking of bringing Micah to daycare on her day off, if there was a chance he could free up a few hours, he jumped on it.

If she was willing to give them some time alone, no way he was going to say no.

It’d been two weeks since their first kiss. The past seven days he’d gone to her house after her son was in bed three times and all three times he could barely walk home without his dick getting in the way.

She wasn’t teasing him.