Phoenix Burning(32)

Precum spilled across her tongue. The tangy taste made her mouth water with the desire to swallow his seed. She whimpered and sucked hard. Alex shouted something she couldn’t understand. It didn’t matter. She released suction and then increased with a violent desire she couldn’t restrain.

His shaft quivered in her mouth, and he arched his back. Semen erupted from the tip of his cock and bathed her mouth in his essence. Ecstasy swept Emory’s psyche, and she sucked and swallowed every bit of his ejaculate until he caressed the top of her head and drew her attention.

“Lover, you’re going to be the death of me yet.” Alex tugged her to her feet. “After you, nothing will ever be enough.”





Chapter Ten





Emory toyed absently with a rose. Alex’s words ran in an endless loop through her mind. She didn’t want to be that person who became obsessed with someone else. Surely this was just a brief infatuation. The intention had been to pursue a casual relationship in the hope of getting beyond the baggage she’d been toting around for so long. She didn’t want a long-term attachment. Did she?

She clipped the stem and gently tucked the rose into a tall vase filled with a pastel rainbow of gel water beads. Sundays at her shop were catch-up days. And thanks to her night on the town and complete preoccupation with Alex, she had had a lot of catching up to do.

A rap on her front window shattered Emory’s introspective moment. Her prep table was tucked into the far back corner of her shop in hopes of keeping customers from thinking she was a total slob. The surface was perpetually littered with bits of wire and ribbon. So while it was out of the way, it also denied her a view of the front door.

Another series of knocks made the glass shiver. She had a sinking suspicion she knew who’d come calling.

Emory slid off her stool and ducked behind a shelf of green plants she kept on hand for quick sales. Peering through the leaves, she was able to glimpse the recessed entryway between her two front display windows.

She drew back when she saw MacIntyre’s face pressed up against the glass. Some days it sucked to be right. She didn’t want to talk to Captain Downtown. She didn’t even know what to say.

Taking another peek, she realized he’d brought the petition with him. Emory sank to the floor behind the plant shelf. She’d been so preoccupied with how Alex could solve her personal problems; she hadn’t even thought to ask him if he knew about Captain Downtown’s desire to shut down the bar. Even that day Alex had seen MacIntyre in her shop she had been too wrapped up in her own problems to explain the man’s mission against Phoenix Rising.

The knocking stopped.

Slowly getting to her feet, Emory checked to make certain MacIntyre had given up.

The front door was clear. She wiped her hands on a rag and reached for her keys. The floral arrangement would have to wait. She had some investigating to do. Alex had done so much for her already. It was high time she tried to do something for him in return.



* * *





Alex and Connor both looked up from the liquor order they were putting together when Gabriel leaned against the doorframe. The former captain of the Royal Marines had been with Alex during the six years he’d been stationed in Britain. When Gabriel had come to the states after resigning his commission, Alex had immediately suggested Connor give him a job until Gabriel decided on something else. That had been over a year ago.

“Captain Downtown is up at the door, wanting in.” Gabriel’s accent made MacIntyre’s mocking title seem almost official.

Connor stood and stretched. “I suppose I should go see what the asshole wants to complain about now.”

“Actually, he’s asking for Alex.” The expression on Gabriel’s face expressed a certain enjoyment about the confusion his announcement caused. Smug bastard.

Half a dozen possibilities ran through Alex’s mind, but deep down he knew exactly why Donovan MacIntyre was asking for him.

Connor cocked his head. “Well?”

“I don’t know the details, but I suspect MacIntyre has had his sights set on Emory for a while now.”

“She dated a bloke like him and wound up with you?” Gabriel crossed his arms over his broad chest, and Alex had the inane thought that it was no wonder Gabriel and Connor had formed an instant camaraderie. They were nearly identical in personality.

“She didn’t date him.” Alex realized he didn’t really know what she’d done with MacIntyre. The idea didn’t go over very well. Of course it didn’t help that he kept feeling so possessive of her either. What was wrong with him? He would help her through whatever it was she was going through, and then that was it.