Phoenix Burning Read online

  Visiting Clement Latham at his art gallery was going to have to wait until the morning. She could see the closed sign on his corner door from across the intersection. The streets were quiet. Only a few couples strolled toward the park situated between Clement’s gallery and the city building at the end of the street.

  Music drifted out of Cheeky’s Wingshack across from the park. Sunday afternoons were one of his busier times. There were plenty of men who would rather spend a few hours watching the game and eating wings than hanging out at home. Emory made a face and turned deliberately in the opposite direction. It was a short walk back to her shop around the corner.

  As she turned, she caught a glimpse of Captain Downtown himself stalking angrily away from Phoenix Rising. His normally impeccable hair looked mussed, and he seemed thoroughly pissed off. He was walking back toward the Wingshack and muttering to himself like a crazy person.

  Panicking, Emory ducked behind a car parallel parked along the curb. She stretched her neck at an awkward angle to watch MacIntyre’s progress back toward his home turf. She was just starting to feel sorry for the poor employees that were going to be likely vessels for his wrath when someone grabbed her from behind.

  “Sh—!” Her yelp was muffled by a large hand.

  “Didn’t mean to startle you, love.”

  Alex’s familiar scent washed over her senses like a balm. She had no idea what he was doing sneaking up on her when she was hiding behind a car, but the whole situation was ludicrous to begin with.

  He released her mouth, and she turned to stare at him. “What are you doing here?”

  “I could ask you the same thing.” He gave her squatted position behind the car a pointed look.

  “I’m hiding from Captain Downtown.”

  His grin was like the sun coming out from behind the clouds. Her heart fluttered and her stomach flip-flopped. “I wondered about that. He came into the bar looking for you.”

  Donovan MacIntyre had gone to Phoenix Rising to find her? Embarrassment warmed her cheeks.

  “You must be a really hot date for him to try so hard for a follow up.”

  Emory thought of the awkward evening they’d spent together at a trendy downtown restaurant several streets over. “Hardly. I think I was tongue-tied the whole time. Unfortunately, that’s the kind of woman he likes.”

  “I think you could do a sexy version of tongue-tied.” His gaze lingered on her mouth, turning her brain to mush and making her pussy cream with anticipation. “In fact, I can think of several amazing things you do with your tongue.”

  She didn’t know what to say to the playful banter, so she ignored it. “Is he gone?”

  “No idea. I’m not paying any attention to that asshole.” Alex stood and swept her up into his arms. It was so sudden she gave a little squeak. “I’m too busy taking you back to your place so I can have my way with you.”

  Chapter Eleven

  Alex loved being with Emory in the peaceful quiet of her bedroom. There was something soothing about the pastel walls and feminine décor. It was as if Emory had infused the space with her own essence. He intended to spend the rest of the afternoon, evening, night, and maybe even the morning pleasing her.

  “So…what now?” She fidgeted with the duvet. “Do you usually hang out naked in people’s bedrooms?”

  “Not me. Do you?” Alex rolled onto his back and stacked his hands beneath his head. She was adorable when she was disgruntled. “I wouldn’t have figured you for the type. But you never really know about people…”

  She swatted him with one of her throw pillows. “Ugh! You know what I mean.”

  “People get too caught up in the niceties, Emory.” He thought about the social dance he watched play out almost every night in the bar. “Most of the time they make it so confusing that both parties opt out just to avoid rejection.”

  “Rejection hurts. What’s wrong with avoiding it?” She lay on her belly and propped her head on her hands. She didn’t say it, but Alex knew she felt less exposed that way.

  “If you spend all your time avoiding rejection, you’re also avoiding the possibility of acceptance.”

  “Acceptance doesn’t guarantee you won’t get hurt.” She fiddled with the fringe on a pillow.

  Her words had been delivered casually, but the meaning behind them was anything but. He didn’t have to be Freud to know she was referring to some major baggage from her past. “Nothing can guarantee you won’t get hurt.”

  “Then why take a chance?”

  “It’s risk versus reward, love. As in, I would risk anything for the reward of being with you.” He would have given anything to know what she was thinking behind those luminous dark eyes.

  Emory wondered if he could hear the thud of her heart inside her chest. In what world had she ever imagined having a conversation about risk and reward with a naked sex god?

  The black haze that had dominated her psyche for so long lingered behind a curtain of fire. It pressed and prodded, but the brilliance of Alex’s presence kept it at bay. Being with him was a soothing balm. He was stronger than the past and experienced in a way that gave her confidence.

  “What are you thinking, love?” His fingers brushed her cheek.

  It was on the tip of her tongue to tell him the truth about her past. There were so many things to say about her, about Donovan MacIntyre, and about the Phoenix. None of it could overshadow the desire she felt to bask in the warmth and reassurance he gave her every time he touched her body.

  “Emory, what do you want?”

  “I think I’m tongue-tied again.”

  Fire leaped in his blue gaze, and she knew he understood. His palm skated down her shoulder and beneath her body until he touched the sensitive skin on the underside of her breast.

  She squirmed and whimpered, waiting for that exquisite moment when his fingers would brush her nipple. Her pussy grew warm and wet, anticipation danced along her spine until she was completely focused on Alex’s touch.

  Emory groaned when he finally took a firm hold of her breast and slid his thumb across her areola. She stopped thinking about the darkness, about the past, about anything other than the man stroking her body.

  “Come closer.” His whisper made her shiver with desire.

  She crawled to his side, but he tugged her closer still, pulling until she was straddling his body. The hard length of his cock was trapped beneath her. The bulge pressed maddeningly against her crotch. His shaft rubbed a delicious trail of friction across her clit. She wiggled, wanting more, but he forced her to bend at the waist and dip forward instead. The position left her ass up in the air and too much distance between his dick and her pussy.

  Her protest died on her lips when his mouth latched onto her nipple. He nipped and licked like an animal. A hard pull had her gasping for breath and squeezing her eyes shut while sparks danced beneath her eyelids. His tongue was wet and soft, his teeth hard and demanding.

  He let go with a pop. Her breast hung heavy and needy, the nipple pouting for more. Alex took the other in his mouth instead, giving it the same treatment. His teeth scraped over the delicate surface until she was panting with frustration. Juice from her swollen sex coated the insides of her thighs.

  He let go of her breast and grabbed her hips. “Sit up and grind your pussy against me. Show me how wet you are. I want to feel it.”

  Feeling wanton and sexy, Emory did as he asked. She arched her back and moved her pelvis. His engorged shaft slipped through her hot slit. Soft and silky, they moved together until she thought she might die. Her channel clenched reflexively, wanting the penetration he could provide.

  “I don’t have a condom with me, love.” His expression was tight with restraint. “I get tested regularly and I’m clean, but the choice is yours.”

  The thought of being with Alex without a barrier between them was exciting. “I’m clean too, and I’m on the pill.”

  “Lift up, love. I’m going to slide right into you.” The muscles in Alex’s arms
bunched as he helped her rise. “It’s all you. You control how fast or slow we go.”

  Power swept her like a storm. It was unlike anything she’d ever felt before. The round head of his cock probed her entrance. She shifted her hips, letting it push inside. She hovered, enjoying the sensation, until she realized Alex was panting beneath her.

  She watched him then, his expression changing in subtle nuances as she began to sink slowly down on his shaft. The planes of his face grew harsh. He clenched his jaw. Her muscles welcomed him inside. That feeling of liquid heat coaxed her channel to spread and accommodate his wide girth.

  When she’d lowered herself fully, she could no longer keep her eyes open to watch. He brushed the sweet spot deep inside her body, and she convulsed in sheer gratification. It felt so good, like a shot of pure pleasure.

  “Fuck, Emory. You’re so tight.” His fingers dug into her ass cheeks.

  She rocked against him, grinding deeply. The base of his shaft brushed her clit and made her shiver. She discovered that there was a perfect angle for this. A perfect position where she could feel his shaft stroke her inside while it delivered delicious friction to the hood of her clitoris. It was exquisite.

  Splaying her hands on his chest, she braced for more. She’d forgotten everything but the man beneath her, inside her, surrounding her with his scent and feel. She clenched her ass, fucking harder, until her body was quivering, until she was poised on the edge of something.

  She could feel it, brush against it, and sense it coming harder and faster as she increased her tempo. It was so beautiful. She wanted it, needed it. She was wetter, slippery, and hot with cream that dampened the place where their bodies were joined. Pumping harder, she raced toward the place she could finally see. She was reaching, she was so close, but it eluded her still.

  “Relax, love.” Alex’s murmur reached through her haze. “There’s no rush.”

  Emory became abruptly aware of her physical self at that moment. It came back in a rush. Exhaustion made her muscles tingle and spark. Her feet were asleep. Air rasped in and out of her lungs in short pants. Sweat dampened both their bodies.

  How long had she been riding Alex?

  Did it matter?

  She rolled to one side and lay on her back, staring at the ceiling in wonder. “I felt it.”

  “Felt what, love?” He turned on his side and brushed a kiss across her lips. He looked concerned.

  “An orgasm, I think.” She was still reeling from the too brief taste of ecstasy. “I’ve never done that before.”

  “What was it like?”

  “Beautiful, terrifying, like a cliff with the most stunning view that I want to dive off of.” She frowned, trying to remember. With the euphoria dying away she began to worry that she’d never find that place again. “I don’t know what I’m looking for. I don’t know what it looks like or what to expect.”

  “You’ve been there once.” He kissed her. “You’ll find it again. I promised to help you and I will.”

  Her earlier mission to the bookshop launched into her brain like a missile. “MacIntyre is circulating a petition to all the downtown business owners to try and shut down Phoenix Rising.”

  Alex tried and failed to find his equilibrium. They had just shared a sexual experience he would rank in his all-time top five—really his top three, the other two being his other two times with Emory—and she was thinking about MacIntyre?

  “I’m sorry, Alex. I didn’t mean to creep you out.”

  She reached up to touch his face and he caught her hand. “What made you think of that?”

  “You said you would help me.” The tender look on her face made his stomach do an unfamiliar acrobatic. “You’ve told me that before. I just wanted to do something in return. So I’ve been talking to some of the people who signed the petition and trying to figure out what’s really behind it.”

  Alex felt like he’d been dropped in the middle of a play with no script. “How long has this been going on?”

  “He came to me that first day you and I met, not long before I came to the Phoenix Rising.”

  She was a baffling combination of savvy and naïve. Every ounce of street smarts Alex had told him she’d probably come to him under false pretenses from the beginning. Yet his instincts argued that it was impossible to fake the kinds of insecurities Emory was lugging around.

  “Don’t look at me like that.” Her tone drew his gaze back to her face. “Please don’t look like you think I’ve been lying.”

  “Have you?”

  “I told you I had a short and rather ridiculous history with MacIntyre.”

  That was true.

  “I didn’t come to the bar to do some kind of reconnaissance for Captain Downtown.”

  And there it was. The thing he’d been trying to figure out from the very start. She’d given him all sorts of half-truths and pat answers. “Then why did you come?”

  “My father was a Fundamentalist Pentecostal preacher in a backwoods hill town down South.” He could see what it cost for her to continue, but she didn’t stop. “When he wasn’t raging against my brother for being less than a man, he railed at me for not denying my sinful nature.”

  Alex suddenly wanted her to stop. He was afraid he knew where this was going. But he had to listen, just as she had to continue.

  “Every night we had to kneel in front of his chair and pray for forgiveness.” Her eyes grew distant. “Chris had to ask God to forgive him for his love of books and ask to be cleansed of his womanliness. I had to beg God to make me pure. I promised to bind my breasts and swore not to touch myself. Then my father would…”

  He couldn’t take it. Alex wrapped his arms around Emory’s slender frame and held her to his chest, heart to heart.

  “He checked me every night.” She whispered against his chest. “He would clean what he always referred to as my ‘forbidden parts.’ So that I would never be tempted to touch them for any reason.”

  Anger and hatred roiled inside Alex’s heart. Even shrouded in a cloak of religious piety, abuse was abuse. If he could have found her father at that moment, Alex would have killed him with his bare hands.

  “When Chris and I were seniors in high school, he came out to my parents. I sided with him, and we were both thrown out as abominations.” She snuggled even closer. “It’s sad. We got away, but there are still so many that believe my father’s bullshit and lies. God isn’t at fault. The Pentecostal religion isn’t at fault. My father is just a sick bastard.”

  “There are always people who use God and religion to justify their crazy beliefs.” Alex managed to keep his voice low and soothing.

  “That’s why I always fail at relationships. I can’t seem to put it all behind me.” She squirmed in his arms until she could look up into his face. “I went to Phoenix Rising because I wanted a place to find myself. I thought if there were no empty promises or expectations, I could put the past in the past and learn to let go.”

  “Why me?” He was staggered by the weight of her faith.

  “You chase the darkness away, Alex.” She kissed his throat. “You bring the fire.”

  Emotion crested in a wave so fierce that Alex was left gasping. It wasn’t enough to be beside her. He needed to be in her, to sink into her heat and feel the welcoming sensation of her body beneath his.

  He rolled her to her back and took her mouth in a searing kiss. Desperation made him long to be rough, but necessity made him gentle, and he sank into her taste and feel as though he needed her to live.

  She spread her legs until he was nestled against her pelvic bone. His shaft thickened, anticipating their joining. Alex didn’t want to wait. He needed to feel her then and there.

  Bracing his weight on his hands, he slid the head of his erection into her slit. The head nudged her entrance. Emory’s eyes widened even as she spread her legs to give him better access to her body.

  “I’m going to take you right now. I need to be inside you, Emory.” His voice was ragged to his own
ears.

  “I’m yours, Alex.”

  Her words fanned the flames until he was burning with desire. Alex thrust into her body in one stroke. Her slick folds parted, caressing his length as he sank balls deep in her pussy.

  Always before he had gone slow, eased into her, measured his thrusts. This wasn’t the time for slow. It was raw and real and passionate. He pounded her pussy in short, rhythmic thrusts that filled the room with the sound of their bodies slapping together. The scent of sex permeated everything, and her juices left a slick trail on their skin.

  Heat pooled at the base of Alex’s spine. His climax snaked through his limbs like an inevitable storm. Her fingers tangled in the hair at the nape of his neck. She stared up into his face, her mouth open with the sounds of her pleasure.

  He came like a freight train. Blood rushed in his veins and pounded in his ears. His dick throbbed as though it would pour his very life into her. His testicles clenched tightly against his body and then released as his orgasm played out in a flow of warm ejaculate.

  A sense of weakness stole over him as he started to come down from his erotic high. Their sweat-slicked bodies began to cool in the room’s evening air. Not wanting to crush her, Alex rolled to his side. His cock slid from her pussy and she shivered.

  “Being with you challenges my self-control, love.” He brushed noses with her.

  “It might seem stupid, but I like that it does. It makes me feel powerful.”

  “You are powerful.” Alex wondered if she could possibly imagine how true that was.

  She yawned. “We still need to figure out what to do about MacIntyre.”

  “That one is going to take some thought. We’ll talk it over with Connor in the morning.”

  The silence was comfortable. Alex watched the light recede, stretching into shadows on her walls until the streetlights cast their orange glow into the room. She’d dropped off to sleep almost immediately.