I was looking for my brother Ben, but I found Charlie instead.

Tall, broad, big-ass biceps, and with a tattoo of the fertility god Kokopelli on his right forearm, Charlie was the kind of guy that always made my mouth water and my brain go blank. I stood in the doorway to the kitchen and watched him as he stirred something in the humongous cooking pot and loaded trays of garlic bread into the oven.

He caught sight of me and turned. “Katie! What brings you here on this incredibly cold night?” He crossed those massive arms and looked at me.

Had I mentioned my blank brain? He had startling green eyes and a firm jaw, lips that were almost — but not quite — too pink for such a masculine face, and blond hair that was cut short on the sides with just a bit of boyish length in the front. He was still limping a little bit, I noticed.

“Looking for Ben. Dropping off the information I told him I’d bring on that apartment near mine.”

He took a step toward me and I felt anticipation zip from my brain to my chest and then much, much lower. He held out a hand and when I put my hand in his, he squeezed it.

“Just as I thought. Freezing. How about some hot chocolate?”

I nodded dumbly and watched him move his big, bulky body with the elegance of a dancer — except for the limp. Charlie had been fighting a four-alarm fire a few months before and a section of stone wall had collapsed on him. He suffered a hairline fracture of his thigh and a wrenched knee. The limp was barely noticeable if you didn’t know to look for it.

“So, you want your brother living that close to you?” he asked as he made the hot chocolate. He’d be on kitchen duty until he was fully cleared for work, but Charlie seemed to like it. I knew from previous chats that he came from a big family — seven siblings — and their mother had taught all the kids to cook. And then everyone took turns cooking for the brood.

“Yes and no,” I said. I shrugged, pulling off my ridiculous fuzzy hat and wishing I didn’t have hat hair. All the times I’d fantasized about being alone with Charlie and here I was, finally alone, and I had hat hair. And from the pieces clinging to my face, I surmised, there was also some static cling from the cold.

“Yes — ?”

“Yes, because I’ve been on my own since Dan and I broke up and I think it would be nice to have a man close by to help me sometimes.” I frowned slightly, realizing how pathetic that sounded. “Especially if the man is my brother,” I added.

“And no — ?” His question was accented by the sound of him putting whipped cream on the hot chocolate. When I cocked an eyebrow and grinned, he shrugged. “In for a penny, in for a pound. And speaking of pounds, I guess I’ll be hitting the gym early tomorrow.”

I laughed and accepted the big, warm mug from him. “And no,” I said, getting back to his question. “Because as you know, Ben can be a bit overprotective.”

He nodded, and then to my surprise, he put his hand over mine. My fingers had been freezing and were suddenly thawed and tingling from arousal.

“I know he is. I once told him how pretty I thought you were, and he threatened to pull my spleen out through my nose.”

I blinked. “He didn’t,” I said. The sensation of his touch had migrated from my hand to the wet, willing spot between my thighs. I had a swift and vivid image of him over me, fucking me. I swallowed hard and tried to focus.

“Oh, he did. But since we’re alone and the whole team just went out on a five-alarm call, I figured I’d tell you myself. I think you’re really pretty, Katie. And nice. And funny, when you don’t look like you’re going to faint.”

I touched my hair with my free hand. “Do I? Do I look like that?”

Charlie nodded. “You do. Am I making you uncomfortable?”

“Yes,” I said. Then I shook my head and blurted, “No!”

I sighed and sipped my hot cocoa, burning the hell out of my tongue. “Yes and no,” I finally said. “Yes, because I’ve had — ” I shut my eyes. “Bleh.”

“Bleh?” He chuckled and squeezed my hand.

“Bleh because my tongue has tied itself in knots, apparently. Yes, because I’ve liked you for a while, Charlie and no — no because I’ve liked you for a while, Charlie,” I finished weakly.

Then I did something that surprised me. I leaned forward and kissed Charlie. He kissed me back, which warmed me from head to toe. A shiver worked through me when he cupped the back of my head with his big hand.

He broke the kiss, studying my face.

“What are you cooking?” I asked, just to have something to say that wasn’t boy, I kissed you, I hope you liked it and isn’t that weird?

“Five-alarm chili,” he said, grinning.

Another shiver worked through me. “I’m five-alarm chilly,” I said, making a lame joke.

He chuckled and hooked his hand beneath the seat of my chair and tugged it forward. Then he wrapped his arms around me and pulled me in for another kiss. “Don’t tell Ben,” he murmured into my hair.

I snorted. “I’m a big girl. Ben can worry about his own life.”

Charlie’s hand rested on my knee. It seemed to shoot lightning bolts down my legs to my toes and up my thighs to the slick place between my legs. I scooted closer to him, so his hand drifted higher. I’d wanted Charlie for ages, but Ben had said no. No firemen. No guys he knew. And I’d deferred. Charlie had even asked me out once, but I’d been dating someone at the time.

“Well, I’m not dating him now,” I said aloud.

He kissed my neck, and the skin on my shoulders erupted with goose bumps. “What’s that?”

I shivered when he used his teeth on that tender skin. “Nothing. I think I spoke what was in my head out loud.”

His hand moved higher, and the tops of his fingers brushed the center seam of my jeans. I had to bite back a moan. “Not dating who?”

“Dan. Not dating him. Not dating him and Ben’s not here.”

He sat back and stared me down. I felt naked despite being bundled in layers upon layers of warm clothes. “No. He’s not.” Charlie brushed one of my crazy red curls off my forehead and smiled.

“Where’s your bed?” I asked before I could lose my nerve.

“I don’t necessarily have a bed. The beds are pretty much communal and — ”

I wrapped my hand around his and said, “A bed. Where’s a bed?”

His eyes darted to the clock and then the doorway. He snagged my wrist in his large hand and I felt my already rapid pulse hit runaway status. “Come on, Katie. Let’s go.”

With one hand, he turned the burner down to low and took the bread out of the oven all while holding my wrist hard enough with the other hand to make my pussy grow even wetter.

We never made it to the bed. When we moved through the communal room, I tripped on the leg of the humongous brown sofa and fell. Charlie hovered, ready to help me, but then his eyes darkened and his smile grew wider. I wriggled there like a bug on a pin. A very turned-on bug.

“Now, how can I resist a beautiful woman on her back?” he asked and unzipped my parka like he was unwrapping a package.

I struggled out of it even as his large fingers slipped beneath the hem of my thermal top and touched my cool skin. He slid his hands higher and pushed my tank top up as he went. When he reached my bra, he thumbed my nipples through the sheer fabric until I fought to draw a single breath. “I’d love to get you totally naked, but — ”

Time was a factor.

I shook my head. “Hurry.”

He undid my button and my zipper, yanked my jeans down to my knees, and then stroked the soft yellow fabric of my panties until I couldn’t stand it. I whispered “please,” and he grunted low in his throat. The sound alone almost made me come. It was a sound of unadulterated need.

“Purse?” I gasped. “Where’s my purse?”

He just looked at me.

“In my purse, in my makeup kit — condoms.”

He moved fast for such a big guy, but we were under the gun. We both feared the worst: fucking on the big brown sofa when an audience of dusty, smoke-tainted fireman struggled in with their gear. One of them would be my brother, who would not be amused to find his baby sister in flagrante delicto with one of his best friends.

Charlie was back in a flash with a condom wrapper trapped between his teeth and his hands working his belt and then his button and zipper. My body arched up to tempt him. The flash in his bright eyes told me it worked.

“Hurry,” I said again.

“Say that again in that sexy-ass voice and we’re going to have a problem,” he said, chuckling. He shook his head, his blond hair hanging in his eyes for a second. Then his cock was out and he was handling himself in rough strokes and my mind went black. Utterly empty.

I was just a collection of pinging and zinging nerve endings aching for him to touch me. Charlie rolled the condom on and then he touched me. He grabbed my thighs and pulled me gently toward him. He covered my body with his, my shirt and bra tucked up beneath my chin, and he kissed me. The kiss made my body hum like a live electrical wire. It started as a sound I made at the sensation of his fingers on my skin but seemed to resonate through all of me.

I pushed my body up to meet his touch again, too turned-on and desperate for him to be inside me to feel even a lick of self-consciousness.

“Charlie — ,” I said and then shook my head. I chewed my lower lip and watched him there, positioned between my thighs.

“Yeah?” Charlie cocked his eyebrow in that way that never failed to get my blood up.

“Nothing,” I said.

He stroked the tops of my thighs, slid his fingers over my hipbones, and studied my exposed pussy, making sure I could see him doing it. Then he licked his lips and stared me in the eye. “Surely it’s something. If you started to say it — ”

“I’ve just been — waiting for this for a long time. Wanting this for a long time.”

He shook his head and a small half-smile played across his handsome face. “Oh, sweetheart, me, too. You have no idea.”

But I thought I did have some idea. A very good idea.

He positioned himself between my thighs, his sheathed cock brushing my belly. He kissed me once more and I lost myself in the feel of his tongue stroking over mine until my mind kicked in and reminded me that he had an injured leg.

“Shit!” I said.

“Not what a guy wants to hear at a moment like this, Katie.” Another kiss, this one just above the hollow at my throat where my pulse pounded the hardest.

“I just remembered your leg. Should you — can you? I mean, is this a good idea?”

“This is a fan-fucking-tastic idea,” he said, covering my breasts with his toasty warm hands before pinching my nipples so I felt the sudden flood of adrenaline from the blink of pain he’d delivered.

“I don’t want to hurt you.”

He moved his hips so his cock pressed against me again. He was hard. Ridiculously, gloriously, amazingly hard. “This, my lovely Katie, does not hurt me. At all. Trust me.”

But then he reared back to look at me and grinned. “On second thought. Ouch, oooh, ouch.”

“What?” I chirped, confused and turned-on. Not a great combination.

“How about — ” He turned us as he spoke, getting us in a position where he was on the bottom and I was on top. My shirt and tank and bra were still shoved up against my collarbone. Not the best look, but it would have to do. He swept his thumbs over my sides, and my muscles danced at the provocation. “You be on top. You know — ” This time his thumb stroked low over the shaved skin of my mons pubis. Deep inside me, my lust thrummed wetly. My pussy clenched tightly around nothing but anticipation.

I nodded mutely and finally took him in hand. He was hard and warm, and I simply squeezed him for a moment. Then I positioned his cockhead at my labia and lowered myself slowly. My head went swimmy because I was holding my breath and focusing on nothing more than the feel of him stretching me as he filled me. His hands settled on my hips and I made a soft noise that I hoped spoke volumes. Good, it was too, too good, especially after over a year and a half of anticipation.

When I was fully seated, I didn’t move. I simply sat there with him buried deep inside me and breathed. Charlie reached up and cupped my breasts in his hands. His hands were so big that my breasts felt tiny and delicate. I liked it.

“You know, Katie, you’d better move soon. It would be a damn shame for everyone to come rushing in here, dirty, cold, and hungry to find us like this without the actual fucking completed.” He grinned.

I sighed, nodded, and rocked my hips long enough to provoke a low moan from both of us. Then I began to move in earnest, pushing my hands into the chocolate-brown sofa, raising and lowering my hips, feeling bursts of warm pleasure every time I drove myself down onto Charlie.

He thrusted up from beneath me, and the action caused him to bump my clit hard enough for me to cry out. He thrusted up again, hard and deep, and I came, shuddering over him, saying his name so softly I barely heard it myself.

“That’s what I wanted.” He traced my nipples with just his fingertips, and the sensation buzzed below my skin. He thrusted up again and grabbed my hips. He met my every motion until I felt a second orgasm building in me. I was charged like the air before the storm. I wouldn’t have been surprised if my hair crackled with static electricity.

I leaned over him, and Charlie wrapped his arms around me. He held me close, tight enough that I couldn’t move, and even though he was beneath me, he’d taken charge. His hips shot up over and over again as I surrendered, trapped by his arms. My own movements were mere accents to his bigger, more forceful ones.

“Kiss me, Katie. They’ll be back soon by the sounds of that squawking radio and I want you to come again. Come with me this time.”

I nodded, pressing my lips against his and pushing my tongue into his mouth. I loved the feeling of being bound by his arms. Of being exposed and the possibility of being discovered.

He drove up once more, hard and fast, and then his jaw went tight and his eyes drifted shut. I rocked my hips once more, giving my body that extra added bit of friction, and then I joined him. His mouth was warm and soft against mine as we came. His left hand had migrated to the back of my head, cupping it, holding me there for the kiss as surely as his other arm held me tight to his body.

Someone called out, startling me.

“Shit, shit,” he laughed softly. “That’s the chief, running late tonight because his daughter had a school program.”

I wasn’t really listening. I was wrestling my top down, tugging my jeans up, and hoping I didn’t look as satiated as I felt.

We were barely dressed when the chief came in. He saw me and his already florid face lit up with joy. “Katie bug! What are you doing here?”

I smoothed my hair and cleared my throat. Standing beside me, Charlie chuckled under his breath. I wanted to nudge him but restrained myself.

“I came to see Ben. Just waiting around.”

Chief Burns rubbed his arms and passed a hand over his bald head. “Colder than a witch’s tit out there, isn’t it?”

I nodded. “It is.”

“Yeah, Katie was cold when she came in, too,” Charlie muttered with a coy half-smile.

“Did you warm her up?” Chief Burns asked. “I smell that five-alarm chili of yours, Charlie.”

“Yeah, I think she warmed up,” Charlie said. “But no chili yet. Come on, you two. Follow me and I’ll dish it out. You’re warm now, right, Katie?” Charlie asked, smirking as he moved past me to lead us to the kitchen. But as he did, he brushed his pinky finger against mine.

A brush fire of desire and contentment kicked off along my skin. I shook my head, laughed, and said, “Yeah, chief, I’m good and warm. But now I’m starving.”

“Work up an appetite today, did you?” he asked, clapping me on the shoulder. Since my dad had been a firefighter, too, he’d known me most of my life. But I was hoping right now that he didn’t know me too well.

“I did, chief. I certainly did.”