Tonya Ramagos [Uniformed and Blazing Hot 02] Beneath Their Uniforms [Siren Menage Everlasting] (pdf)

Uniformed and Blazing Hot 2

Beneath Their Uniforms

Sierra Matthews has sworn off men, especially ones who wear a
uniform. Then she has a brush with death and finds herself locked

in a scorching kiss with a super-sexy paramedic. But her self-
destruction doesn’t end there. Two days later, a devastatingly
handsome firefighter makes it his mission to end her self-imposed

celibacy. There’s no doubt about it, her hormones are definitely
out of whack and, when the men team up, her no-men-in-uniform

vow is burned to ashes.

It’s been years since paramedic Neil Ingram has wanted a woman

bad enough to pursue and he’s determined not to let Sierra get
away. Firefighter Davon Reed knows a hot one when he sees it

and Sierra is on fire. When the two discover they’ve fallen for the
same woman, things get hotter. But it’s going to take more than
their firefighter and paramedic skills to make Sierra see the men

beneath their uniforms.

Genre: Contemporary, Ménage a Trois/Quatre
Length: 63,395 words

BENEATH THEIR UNIFORMS

Uniformed and Blazing Hot 2

Tonya Ramagos

MENAGE EVERLASTING

Siren Publishing, Inc.

www.SirenPublishing.com

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A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK
IMPRINT: Ménage Everlasting

BENEATH THEIR UNIFORMS
Copyright © 2014 by Tonya Ramagos
E-book ISBN: 978-1-63258-263-8

First E-book Publication: August 2014

Cover design by Harris Channing
All art and logo copyright © 2014 by Siren Publishing, Inc.

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be
reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including
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express written permission.

All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance
to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.

PUBLISHER
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com

Letter to Readers

Dear Readers,

If you have purchased this copy of Beneath Their Uniforms by Tonya
Ramagos from BookStrand.com or its official distributors, thank you.
Also, thank you for not sharing your copy of this book.

Regarding E-book Piracy

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This is Tonya Ramagos’s livelihood. It’s fair and simple. Please
respect Tonya Ramagos’s right to earn a living from her work.

Amanda Hilton, Publisher

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BENEATH THEIR UNIFORMS

Uniformed and Blazing Hot 2

TONYA RAMAGOS

Chapter One

“Don’t even think about it.”
But the driver of the car attempting to make an illegal U-turn in

the middle of Brainerd Road did more than just think about it. Sierra
Matthews felt the impact to the front quarter panel of her Mitsubishi
Galant, shouted an oath, and tightened her hands on the steering
wheel even as her foot reflexively stomped on the brake. The sound of
tires squealing on asphalt from her car and others around her filled the
air as the collision sent the Galant off the road. With no time to react,
her eyes widened and fear turned her blood to ice as the tire of a
delivery truck pulling out of a nearby gas station grew larger.

Airbag. This is going to hurt.
The thought barely had enough time to skate through her mind

before she crashed head-on into the tire of the delivery truck. Her
seatbelt locked, yanking her back against the seat as the force of the
impact jarred her forward, but the airbag didn’t deploy.

Stunned, her heart racing and entire body shaking, she leaned her

head against the headrest, closed her eyes, and simply breathed. She
could still breathe. That was a definite plus. Her neck hurt. That was
likely due to a whiplash that would be far worse come tomorrow
morning. Both of her palms felt like they’d been sliced by four narrow

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knives. That would be from her fingernails, she realized as she forced
her hands to loosen their death grip on the steering wheel.

Marginally steadier, she slowly opened her eyes and found herself

staring at a gigantic doughnut over the crumpled hood of her car. She
dragged her gaze up and barked a half laugh at the Krispy Kreme logo
looming over her.

Teach me to resist temptation.
She’d considered stopping at the Krispy Kreme next door to the

Chinese restaurant where she’d picked up takeout less than ten
minutes ago. If she’d allowed herself to give into the urge, she didn’t
doubt she’d be pulling into the parking lot of her apartment complex
now, her car and nerves fully intact.

A noise outside the car drew her attention left. An elderly man’s

face appeared through the glass of the driver’s door window, concern
etched in his wrinkled face.

“Are you hurt?”
Sierra shook her head, wincing when the move sent pain shooting

through the back of her neck, and pushed the button to release the
power lock on the door. “I don’t think so,” she answered loud enough
the man could hear her through the window. She pulled on the handle
and gave the door a push, but it didn’t budge. “It won’t open.”

The man tried from the outside, frustration overtaking the concern

in his expression. “It’s not going to. Car’s pretty messed up on this
side.”

Sierra chewed her bottom lip as she glanced at the passenger door.

“What about the other side? Can I climb out that way?”

The elderly man was already shaking his head. “You should stay

put, Miss. Authorities are already on their way. They’ll get you out
and make sure you’re all right.”

As if on cue, Sierra heard the wail of sirens rapidly growing

louder as the emergency vehicles got closer. She gave the elderly man
a nod and relaxed in the driver’s seat. She was pretty sure she was all
right. Her palms still ached from where her nails had dug into the

Beneath Their Uniforms

flesh and her muscles felt tight from tensing up at impact, but she
didn’t think she’d sustained any serious injuries. Still, she would take
the elderly man’s advice and wait for the paramedics.

“You got real lucky, Miss. If you’d hit that doughnut truck a foot

more to the left, you likely would’ve went under it.”

Sierra didn’t want to think about how bad the wreck could’ve

been. It had all happened so fast. One minute, she’d been driving
home with her takeout Chinese and a rented movie, preparing to
spend yet another Friday night alone and the next, she’d been
involved in an accident she hadn’t been able to avoid.

I could’ve been killed.
The realization of just how quickly life could be taken away filled

her with emotions she couldn’t have described if she’d tried. She’d
heard of people taking a long, hard look at their life after a sudden
brush with death, but she’d never experienced it herself. She did now
as she let her head fall back to lean against the headrest, her mind
reeling with questions and facts she hadn’t considered before.

What was missing in her life? Nothing sprang to the forefront of

her mind. She was a successful seventh grade math teacher at Cherish
Middle School, she had a great apartment in a nice complex with
fantastic neighbors, and she had Cassidy, who was more like a sister
than a best friend. What more could a woman ask for in life?

Sex.
She snorted at the thought, knowing it had been at least three

years since she’d entered her self-imposed celibacy stage. Three years
or not, she didn’t have any plans on letting herself out of that prison.
If anything, she’d been happier since she’d sworn off men, hadn’t
she?

Yeah, keep telling yourself that.
She snarled as she slid her gaze to the rearview mirror and saw the

black uniforms she knew belonged to the men of the Cherish Police
Department double-timing it to the cars that had been involved in the
accident. That uniform had been the deciding factor in her choice to

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swear off men. After devoting herself mind, body, and heart to Kent
Sutherland for more than a year only to discover he’d spent the entire
year lying to her and cheating on her with any woman who got all
gooey when he flashed his badge, she’d vowed to never fall for
another man that wore any kind of uniform again. That vow had
inevitably led her to swearing off men in general, because damn if
every guy she’d met before she’d stopped looking at them altogether
had been a man that wore a uniform.

She startled when someone tapped on the driver’s door window.

Forgetting the stiffness in her neck, she jerked her head toward the
sound, the groan in her throat from the sharp pain instantly morphing
to a growl when she locked eyes with Kent Sutherland.

Speaking of the fucking devil.
“Sierra!” Kent’s dazzling blue eyes widened and he raked a hand

through his already tousled curly blond hair as he leaned down to get
a better look at her through the car door window. “Shit. I knew this
was your car when I pulled up, but I was hoping you’d sold it or
something.”

“No, it’s still mine.” She glanced at the crumpled hood and

frowned. “Though it’ll probably belong to the junk yard now.”

“Are you hurt?”
Not since I got over you. She kept that answer to herself and gave

him a simple, “No. The door is stuck, though. I was about to crawl out
the passenger side, but—”

“No, stay there. The fire department just arrived on scene. They’ll

get you out. Why don’t you talk to me until they get over here? It’ll
help to calm you.”

Sierra gaped at him, astonished at how he could possibly think

that talking to him, of all people on the planet, would help to calm her.
His gaze slid past her to the passenger floorboard before meeting hers
again.

Beneath Their Uniforms

“Was that going to be dinner? It looks like takeout from China

Rose. Let me guess, General Tso’s chicken, pork egg role, and fried
rice? Did you get enough for two?”

The charming smile that spread his lips made her want to slap it

right off his handsome face. Sierra didn’t smile back. “Sure, you can
eat your portion off the floor mat once I’m out of the car.”

His lips thinned. “I thought maybe you’d had a date tonight and

was headed to his place.”

No, the bastard was fishing. She looked at the takeout box that

had tumbled from the passenger seat and opened when it had hit the
floor, knowing it was obvious she’d only bought a meal for one. Not
to mention, he knew damn well Lee Highway was the street she
always took to get home.

She considered telling him that her date was waiting at her

apartment and they’d thought it would be more intimate if they shared
the meal, but there was no way in hell she would stoop his level and
lie. So what if it might have saved her the embarrassment of him
knowing she’d been about to spend yet another Friday night alone?

“Kent, I’m—”
She broke off when the passenger door of her car opened. Glad to

have a reason to no longer have to deal with Kent, she turned her
attention right and blinked at the body filling the doorway. Her blood
heated as her gaze traveled over the stark white uniform shirt straining
over what had to be an abdomen so ripped she could’ve played it like
a piano. The shirt was tucked into a pair of black pants that rode low
on narrow hips and hugged a seriously impressive package that made
her suddenly lightheaded.

Before she could recover from the sight, the body bent at the waist

and a head with buzz-cut ginger hair poked through the doorway.
Light brown eyes that reminded her of a bottle of Southern Comfort
gazed at her from beneath a set of truly perfect ginger eyebrows on an
angular face sporting a five o’clock shadow. Thin, pale, truly kissable

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lips spread in a boyish smile that sent awareness shimmering through
parts of her she had been certain she’d locked down tight.

“Hi.”
His simple greeting spoken in a friendly, slightly husky baritone

with a hint of a Southern drawl drew a soft, breathless giggle from her
throat. She held his gaze, feeling positively drunk by the potency in
his eyes, and realized if she coupled that with the giggle, he might
think she really had been drinking and driving. She licked her lips,
saw his attention drop to her mouth, and watched as his whisky eyes
darkened. “Hi.”

His gaze jumped back to meet hers and, for a moment, he looked

stunned. He recovered quickly enough, the smile on his lips widening
and a playful amusement joining the heat in his eyes. “I’m Paramedic
Neil Ingram. I’m the guy they call when people decide to play
demolition derby on the highway.”

Sierra heard herself giggle again. Yeah, no doubt about it. This

guy was going to think she was three sheets to the wind if she didn’t
get control over herself, but Christ, how was a woman supposed to
react when one look into eyes like that made her feel superficially
drunk? “If you’re looking for the demolition driver, you’ve got the
wrong car. I was an innocent bystander in the crowd.”

He crawled further into the car on his knees, folded his

impressively toned body in the passenger seat, and flattened his hands
on his strong-looking thighs. “A bystander that was obviously in the
wrong place at the wrong time. The cops are getting plenty of witness
statements out there to confirm that.”

“We know you didn’t cause the accident, Sierra.”
Sierra rolled her eyes at Kent’s statement.
“You know one another?”
“Way too damn well.” Her gaze slammed back into Paramedic

Southern Comfort’s in time to see one ginger brow lift and she
realized she’d said the words aloud. “He isn’t my favorite person on
the planet.”

Beneath Their Uniforms

“Well, let’s see if I can be.”
Christ on a pogo stick!
The heat that darkened his whisky eyes told her she hadn’t

imagined the double entendre she heard in that statement. Sierra felt
all her girly parts come online and start an instant meltdown as she
held his gaze. Arousal rushed through her, beading her nipples and
creaming her panties and she couldn't look away, even when his gaze
dropped from hers. The potent intoxicated sensation overtaking her
system got stronger as she watched his attention do a slow slide down
her before creeping its way back up.

Holy hormones!
Every inch of her clothed flesh that his gaze had met felt as if it

had just been physically caressed. Another look like that and she was
certain she would come right then and there, no naked bodies, hands,
or other appendages necessary.

“We can get you out of the car without cutting open the driver’s

door, but I have to know if you’re hurt anywhere first.”

“I’m not.” Any pain she had been feeling had numbed the moment

she’d looked into his eyes. “I was going to crawl out myself, but
people kept telling me to stay put.”

“It’s good that you listened, especially when the accident first

occurred. Shock and adrenaline can mask pain for a while.”

Sierra held up her hands. “My nails made a couple of scratches on

my palms, but my hands are working fine.” She opened and closed
her fists to prove it, then lifted her legs in turn, bending and wiggling
them as much as the small space in the floorboard beneath the
steering wheel would allow. “Legs are working fine, too.” She turned
in the seat, intending to wriggle herself onto her knees, and grimaced
when she jerked her neck too fast.

“And the neck?”
She closed her eyes briefly and sighed at the aha tone she heard in

his voice. “I’m sure it’s just whiplash.”

Both brows winged up in question. “You’re a doctor?”

Tonya Ramagos

“Middle school tea—”
Before Sierra could finish the word, he touched her and her ability

to speak English disintegrated. His long fingers danced over the side
of her neck, his large palm cupped her nape, and she felt every
stalwart vow she’d ever made crumble.

“What grade?”
Sierra gulped as he used his gentle hold on her nape to ease her

head back to rest against the seat. “Seventh.”

“That’s a very impressionable age for kids. I’m not a teacher or a

doctor, but I am a paramedic.”

His voice had turned huskier, as if touching her was having the

same effect on him that it was having on her. He’d leaned forward,
too, until his torso was between hers and the steering wheel. The solid
wall of his chest pressed against hers and she wondered if he could
feel how hard her nipples were beneath her thin lace bra and cotton T-
shirt.

“We should put a neck brace on you before we get you out of the

car, just to be safe.”

His face was so close to hers that she could smell the faint minty

scent on his breath and feel that breath fanning the fine hairs on her
upper lip. A slight movement in her peripheral vision through the
driver’s door window told her Kent hadn’t moved. She didn’t know if
it was the fact that he was still standing there or the sheer inebriating
effect Paramedic Southern Comfort was having on her that compelled
her to do it, but Sierra kissed him.

She tasted his surprise for all of a half second before he was

kissing her back. He licked her lips, softly coaxing them to part as his
tongue swept inside her mouth. One of them groaned. She wasn’t sure
if it was her or him. She couldn’t really tell over the sudden pounding
of her pulse in her ears.

It didn’t matter anyway. Her sense of hearing wasn’t necessary to

kiss a guy. It might have been years since she’d engaged in this
particular activity, but she remembered that much. All she needed was

Beneath Their Uniforms

her senses of touch and taste. Oh, yeah, those senses were definitely
coming out of the prison she’d put them in. He felt stupendous, his
lips soft and his body hard and she couldn’t stop herself from feeling
more of him. She let her hands roam, one flattening on the back of his
head as the other glided over his shoulder and down his bicep. She
licked the inside of his mouth, sampling and devouring that minty
sweet taste mixed with the subtle indescribable flavor that was all
male.

He angled his head, taking the kiss deeper as his hands started to

move, too. His hand on her nape slid until his fingers were laced in
the back of her hair while his other hand covered one of her breasts
through her t-shirt.

Wanting to feel more of him, needing to experience the sensation

of his bare flesh to hers, she dragged her hand from his bicep, turned
it, and pushed it between their bodies, eagerly searching for the
buttons of his shirt. The sound of a female clearing her throat had
Sierra’s hand freezing over his pec. Her eyes popped open. His were
still closed. His tongue slowly retreated, licking its way across her
pallet and the back of her top teeth before easing from her mouth.

“Can you hand me a neck brace, Maddie?”
Sierra blinked at him, understanding Maddie had to be the female

outside the car even though his gaze didn’t waver from hers. All the
heat in her body rushed to her cheeks as she stared into his eyes. She
knew she should say something, offer him an apology, plead
temporary insanity…something, but her ability to speak simple
English, let alone her ability to think logically still hadn’t returned.

“Sure thing, Ingram.” There was no way Sierra could miss the

amusement dancing in the other woman’s voice. “I’ve got it right
here. I was just waiting until you were ready for it.”

Paramedic Southern Comfort’s hand eased from Sierra’s breast

and he reached blindly for the neck brace his partner stuck into the
car, his gaze never leaving Sierra’s. “We really should put this on
before we get you out of here, just to be safe.” His hand on her nape

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slowly slid away as he started to work the brace between her neck and
the seat.

Sierra swallowed hard and forced herself to find her voice, though

she still didn’t have a clue how to explain what she’d just done. “That
was…”

Shock? Adrenaline? Three years without sex?
Christ, she’d never done something so bold and spontaneous in

her life!

“Amazing?” he supplied and brushed a soft kiss to her lips before

he pulled away. “Yes, it was. I hope you’ll give us the chance to do
that some more once we’re sure you really aren’t injured.”

Oh, she was definitely injured, all right. Sierra couldn’t think of

any other excuse for her actions as Neil Ingram—the man wearing the
paramedic uniform that she’d just kissed, kissed—took her in his
strong, capable arms and pulled her from her wrecked car. Her body
might be in full working order, but her mind had apparently gone
through the non-shattered windshield on impact. Before she could
even begin to think of the ramification of the truly insane thing she’d
just done, she straightened in front of Neil as he set her on her feet
outside the car, and spotted a teenage girl a few feet away with a grin
on her lips a mile wide and an iPhone in her hand.

“Oh, dear God,” Sierra whispered as instant recognition took hold.
“What’s wrong?” Neil’s voice filled with concern and his arms

tightened around her.

The girl waved and immediately went back to texting on her

phone.

“Nothing.” Sierra closed her eyes and let her forehead fall to rest

on Neil’s chest, knowing, even as she stood there, Gabrielle Stevens
was posting the news all over every social media site on the internet
that she’d seen her seventh grade math teacher lay a big, sloppy kiss
on an unsuspecting paramedic. “I’m just witnessing another wreck.”

And this one would definitely have far longer, lasting

ramifications than the crash she’d just been through. Being her luck,

Beneath Their Uniforms

the girl’s posts and texts probably included pictures and, come
Monday, every student and faculty member at Cherish Middle School
would be talking about Sierra’s indiscretion, one she didn’t stand a
chance in hell of denying.

* * * *

“So…how about that Red Sox game last night?”
Neil snorted as he pulled Ambulance 42 into the bay of Station 5

and cut the engine. “The Red Sox didn’t play last night.”

In the passenger seat, Madeline “Maddie” Rafferty clucked her

tongue. “Right. I must be thinking of a different team.”

Neil rested his forearms on the steering wheel, angled his head,

and slid her a sideways look. She returned the look with a tilt of her
head that had her short brunette ponytail swinging. The amusement
dancing in her big blue eyes had him biting back a grin. They’d been
partners for years. He figured he knew her probably better than
anyone and, right now, she was just waiting for him to give her an
opening to needle him about what had happened at the accident scene.

“You don’t even watch baseball and neither do I.”
Maddie pursed her lips. “Hmm, I guess you’ve got me there.” She

turned in the passenger seat, bending her left leg and pulling it into
the seat with her so she could face him. “So…how about that kiss?”

Neil threw his head back and barked a laugh. “Now you’re saying

what’s really on your mind.” He could believe she’d let them get all
the way back to the firehouse before bringing it up.

“You didn’t honestly think I could ignore that, did you? There I

was standing outside that woman’s car waiting for you to check out
her condition and…”

“I was checking out her condition.”
“Yeah, the condition of her tonsils! I look inside the car and

you’ve got your tongue stuck down her throat. That wreck could’ve
been really bad, but by all witness accounts, she had been talking and

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appeared to be uninjured. Therefore, Einstein, the woman shouldn’t
have been in need of mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.”

Neil pulled the keys from the ignition and tugged on the handle of

the driver’s door. “She kissed me. I was wedged between her and the
steering wheel. It wasn’t like I had room to push her away.”

He’d been tempted to pull her into his lap, though. He’d wanted to

settle back in the passenger seat, tug her over until she was straddling
him, and feel more of her fantastic body beneath his palms as she kept
on kissing him until sunrise.

Maddie scoffed as she climbed out the passenger side of

Ambulance 42. “Like you would’ve done that. From what I saw when
I looked into that car, another five minutes and you would’ve had her
naked.”

“Nah.” Neil shut the driver’s door as he got out and rounded the

front of the ambulance. “There were too many people watching for
that.” People he’d momentarily forgotten about as all his senses had
zoned in like a laser on the satiny sweet tongue exploring his mouth.

Maddie propped her elbows on the passenger side of the hood and

beamed a knowing smile at him. “Ah, but you wanted to and you’re
not even bothering to deny it.”

Neil crossed his arms and ankles as he leaned a hip against the

front grill of the ambulance. “She was pretty.”

That was the understatement of the century. Gorgeous was more

like it. She’d taken him by surprise. His instant bodily reaction to her
had caught him completely off guard when he’d poked his head inside
the car and met her intense hazel gaze. It had been years since the
sight of a woman had had such an immediate, overwhelming effect on
him. Her blonde hair he remembered feeling like silk between his
fingers had been just long enough to brush her slender shoulders. Her
lips had been bow-shaped, soft, and a perfect fit against his. Come to
think about it, everything about the woman had felt like a perfect fit,
especially when he’d gotten her out of the car and stood her in front
of him.

Beneath Their Uniforms

“Yeah, pretty damn attracted to you.”
Neil lifted a shoulder. “I’m not dog meat, Maddie.”
Maddie giggled. “Of course you’re not. You should’ve insisted

that she let us transport her to the ER. You could’ve rode with her in
the back while I drove.”

She’d insisted she didn’t need medical treatment no matter how

much Neil had tried to convince her it would be best to have a doctor
tell her that. She’d signed off instead, called a friend to come get her,
and handled everything with the responding Cherish PD officers on
scene.

“She was convinced it’s just whiplash. When an accident victim

refuses treatment, there isn’t much we can do.”

“You set up a date with her, right, effective as soon as our shift

ends at seven-thirty in the morning?”

“Not exactly.” He’d wanted to and had even started to, but she

hadn’t given him a chance. There had been that one moment, those
few short seconds, when she’d rested her forehead on his chest after
he’d gotten her out of the car that he might could’ve seized the
opportunity to ask her out, but he’d missed it. She’d lifted her head,
asked him to remove the neck brace, and the only conversation he’d
managed to have with her after that was about her not going to the
ER.

Maddie gave him a you’ve-got-to-be-kidding look. “You at least

got her name, didn’t you? Or do we need to check our paperwork for
that?”

“Sierra Matthews.” He’d glanced at the paperwork back at the

accident scene to find out her last name. “She’s a middle school
teacher. Seventh grade.”

Maddie smacked the hood with the palm of her hand. “Then you

know how to find her.”

“Would that be the ‘her’ I hear laid a big, wet, sloppy one on you

during the last call?” Davon Reed, Neil’s best friend, roommate, and

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firefighter on Engine Company 4, stopped when he reached the front
of the ambulance and leaned on it next to Neil.

“Word travels fast,” Neil muttered.
Davon grinned. “Around this firehouse? You know it. I’m not the

one you need to be worried about, though.”

Yeah, Neil was pretty sure once Captain Stacy Knox got wind of

him kissing a patient at an accident scene he’d have hell to pay.

“I wouldn’t sweat it,” Maddie said. “You’ve already got the

perfect defense. She kissed you and you couldn’t move, what with
being pinned between her and the steering wheel and all.”

Davon tossed her a look and a chuckle over his shoulder. “And

you think the captain is going to buy that?” He met Neil’s gaze,
studying him. “The guys on Squad says she was pretty hot.”

Rescue Squad Company 16 had also been called out to respond to

the accident. In the event they hadn’t been able to get Sierra out of the
passenger side of her car, the squad would’ve been needed to cut the
driver’s door.

“The guys on squad talk too damn much.” Not that he wouldn’t

have been one of the first to ragger any of the other guys if they’d
been the one to be kissed the way Sierra had kissed him.

“Did you get her number?”
Neil couldn’t tell if that was interest he saw in his best friend’s

eyes or mere curiosity. Cherish was a city where men tended to
outnumber women and most relationships were ménage rather than
monogamous. As men who had been born and raised in Cherish and
best friends almost since diapers, he and Davon had enjoyed their fair
share of women together. That had ended years ago when they’d lost
the one woman they’d ever loved, but there had been times since that
he’d wondered if Davon wasn’t missing the old days.

“I’m working on it.” Something about the way Sierra had been so

quick to get away from him after he’d gotten her out of the car was
niggling at him. He didn’t think it had been embarrassment over her
actions that had caused her obvious need to put distance between

Beneath Their Uniforms

them. Maybe it had been the cop that had watched her kiss Neil
through the driver’s side window? She’d admitted to knowing the guy
and had said he wasn’t her favorite person on the planet. Still, the cop
hadn’t backed off much the whole time they were at the scene.

“Ingram.”
Neil jerked his head toward the sound of his name spoken in that

cool authoritative voice he knew all too well. Captain Stacy Knox was
a friend to the firefighters and paramedics on A-shift. He was
someone they all looked up to. He was also someone none of them
wanted to cross.

The captain’s ice-blue gaze locked on Maddie for a quick moment

before it skipped over Davon and settled on Neil again. He jerked his
head toward the door leading inside the firehouse. “My office.”

“Yes, sir.” Neil straightened, looked at Davon, and then Maddie.

His gaze lingered on his partner as hers followed the captain until he
disappeared from sight. “I’d be happy to let you take my place if you
want.”

Maddie’s attention snapped to him and her big blue eyes got even

larger. “Right, like I would want to take the reaming you’re about to
get.”

She tried to play it off, but Neil knew the score. Madeline Rafferty

had the all-out combustible hots for the captain.

Davon leaned back, getting his face closer to Maddie’s, and

lowered his voice. “Maybe not that reaming, but you know you
wouldn’t mind a different kind.”

Maddie’s tanned face turned redder than the fire trucks inside the

bays, but it was the way the look in her eyes hardened as she met
Neil’s gaze that had him leaning over the hood of the ambulance and
dropping his voice to just above a whisper.

“He guessed. I didn’t tell him. I swear. Watch yourself, though,”

he warned. “If Davon figured it out, the other guys are bound to catch
on.”

Tonya Ramagos

She nodded slowly, her slender throat working as she gulped and

looked at Davon. “Keep your mouth shut. Please. I’ll deal with this,
but if anyone else gets a clue…”

It could mean the end of her time at Station 5. She didn’t need to

finish the sentence for Neil to understand and he knew Davon would
get it, too. Fraternizing among firefighters wasn’t forbidden on the
department, but Stacy Knox wasn’t just a firefighter. He was the
shift’s captain. While a relationship between a captain and a
paramedic would still be allowed, if things went south between the
couple, it could spell a bad working environment for those involved.

“My lips are sealed,” Davon promised her.
“So are mine,” Neil echoed.
Maddie’s lips curved in a slow, amused smile. “If your lips had

been sealed, you wouldn’t be headed to the principal’s office now.”

Neil rolled his eyes and pushed away from the ambulance.

Davon’s chuckle joined Maddie’s giggle as he walked through the
bays and headed for the door leading inside. They could laugh all they
wanted, but Maddie had just given him one hell of an idea. It hadn’t
clicked earlier when she’d told him he knew how to find Sierra, but
damn if he didn’t.

Cursing the fact that he had a full weekend ahead of him before he

could start checking the middle schools to see which one employed a
seventh grade teacher by the name of Sierra Matthews, he made his
way to the captain’s office. He stopped outside the closed door,
braced himself, knocked, and prepared to meet his doom.

Beneath Their Uniforms

Chapter Two

“I still think it’s classic.”
Sierra didn’t need to open her eyes and look at Cassidy Walsh to

know her best friend had a smile on her face from ear-to-ear. She
could hear it along with the barely disguised laughter in the woman’s
voice.

“You would,” Sierra muttered and adjusted her hands on the arm

rests of the lounge chair.

They had decided to spend Sunday tanning by the pool at the

Cherish Country Club where Cassidy had a membership and the club
was celebrating their fiftieth anniversary. With her eyes closed, her
other senses took over. The sounds of splashing, laughter, and
conversation filled the air around her. The heat of the sun beat down
on her flesh, drawing sweat from her pours to slicken her skin even as
it tanned. When she breathed, she caught a mix of chlorine and the
faint smell of charcoal. There would be a cookout later that evening
near the outside bar and fireworks were scheduled to light the sky a
half hour after sundown.

“Come on! How could I not? You haven’t been on a date in years.

Years, Sie. Hell, you hardly ever even look at men. Swearing off men
is not healthy.”

“Eating red meat is not healthy. Men have nothing to do with it.”
“Yes, they do, and white meat is healthy. Open your eyes and look

around, girl. There are more hard bodies at this pool today than there
are at the gym downtown. You can’t tell me you don’t want some of
that.”

Tonya Ramagos

Sierra turned her head toward her friend, opened one eye, and

shielded it from the sun with the palm of her hand. “I got something
hard Friday night. It came in the form of a reminder of exactly what
led me to swear off men in the first place.”

Cassidy snickered. “No, dear. What you got hard was that

paramedic’s cock when you kissed him.”

Sierra groaned, closed her eye, and went back to staring at the sky

she couldn’t see through her lids. “I should’ve never told you about
that.”

“I would’ve found out anyway. What you haven’t told me is why

you did it.”

“I had just smacked head-on into a Krispy Kreme delivery truck. I

saw my life flash before my eyes. I wasn’t thinking clearly. And, to
top it off, I had that lying, cheating bastard Kent staring at me through
my car window.”

“So you kissed the paramedic…What did you say his name was

again? Neil? You kissed Neil to make Kent jealous?”

“No, I kissed him because…Oh, hell, I don’t know why I did it. It

was stupid and spontaneous and I made a fool out of myself and
Gabrielle Stevens saw it so now it’s all over the Internet and everyone
at school will be talking about it tomorrow.”

“Was he hot?” Cassidy made a raspberry sound with her lips and

rushed on before Sierra could answer. “Listen at me asking stupid
questions. Of course he was hot. I couldn’t tell much by the picture I
saw on Facebook, but…”

Sierra groaned louder. “That little girl better hope I don’t fail her

for spite.”

Cassidy giggled. “You can’t do that and you know it. The picture

didn’t show much, only the side profile and your lips glued together.”

“Isn’t that enough?”
“He looked hot. I’m not much for redheads, but he seemed to have

a good body on him.”

“A body clad in a paramedic uniform,” Sierra reminded her.

Beneath Their Uniforms

Cassidy made a sound of sheer female appreciation. “Honey, that

man isn’t wearing any kind of uniform and, if that vow you made
prevents you from looking at a fine male specimen like him, we are
going to have your head examined.”

Sierra wanted to ignore her friend, but she couldn’t help herself.

She opened both eyes, shielding them with a hand to her forehead as
she lifted her head off the lounge chair. She didn’t know what
direction Cassidy was looking or what man had caught her friend’s
eye, but she couldn’t believe it was any other man than the one she
spotted stepping out of the pool.

All thoughts and most of her brain function vanished as every cell

of her being focused like a laser on the man’s body. Sleek muscles,
from the top of his sexy head to his well-shaped feet, bunched and
flexed beneath tanned flesh glistening from his recent dip in the pool.
Long, powerful-looking legs carried him to a lounge chair a few feet
away, where he scooped up a towel, dried his face, and dragged it
over his black hair.

“I wonder what kind of date a man like that would take a woman

on.”

Sierra knew exactly what kind of date she’d want him to take her

on. If she were to start dating again, that was. Which, of course, she
was absolutely, positively not going to do. Still, for the second time in
as many days, she felt all her girly parts come online and scream for
attention as the man turned and started toward them. His head turned,
his gaze slowly scanning the crowd surrounding the pool as his long
strides brought him closer and closer. He wasn’t headed directly
toward them, but was more than likely going for the bar at the pool
side. Still, his direction afforded her with a full-on view of one
supremely gorgeously toned body.

Her heart actually skipped a beat when his gaze sliced over hers,

paused on Cassidy, and returned to hers. She swore she saw his step
falter slightly and knew she didn’t imagine the way his next strides
altered off his previous course, carrying him straight to the foot of

Tonya Ramagos

their chairs. He stopped between them, a man obviously comfortable
in his skin, and treated her to a direct gaze through his milk chocolate
eyes.

“Ladies.” His voice was as smooth and sugary sweet as his eyes.

“Are you enjoying your time in the sun?”

“We are,” Cassidy answered. “Thanks. You seemed to be

enjoying the pool.”

His lips, as absolutely perfect as the rest of him, stretched in a

grin. “I was. I needed a quick dip to cool off.”

“You still look hot.”
Oh, God. Please, tell me I didn’t say that out loud.
But she had. She knew it the instant she saw Cassidy’s head whip

her direction in her peripheral vision. The intrigued glint in Mr.
Hottie’s eyes as he met her gaze again gave her another great big
affirmative. Being looked at by him was like being bathed in a
deliciously sensual, warm, luxurious, and bone-meltingly wonderful
bath of chocolate.

Sierra swore she felt her world shift and struggled to find

something to say before she tilted out of her chair. “My friend was
wondering what you would think of as the perfect first date.” Still
holding his gaze, she saw Cassidy’s eyes narrow as her friend all but
gaped at her. “Would it be dinner and dancing or a movie and a walk
in the park beneath the stars?”

The intrigued glint in his eyes sharpened as his gaze slid down her

front from her face all the way to her toes before doing a slow climb
up again.

Sierra fought not to squirm as that leisurely assessment of her

body heated every inch of flesh it passed over. “I don’t date,” she
rushed to add. “But my friend thinks it would be dinner and dancing.”

His gaze held hers for a meaningful moment before sliding to

briefly meet Cassidy’s. “You do, huh?”

“You remind me a lot of my boyfriend.”

Beneath Their Uniforms

It was Sierra’s turn to all but gape at her friend. Cassidy didn’t

have a boyfriend. She’d been relieved when Sierra had called her
away from her date Friday night. Not because Sierra had been
involved in an accident, but because it had given her an excuse to
make a quick escape.

“He’s the dinner and dancing type of guy, so I figured you would

be, too.” Cassidy hooked a thumb Sierra’s direction. “She’s more the
movie and park type.”

His attention locked on her again and one ebony brow winged up.

“I thought you didn’t date.”

“I don’t,” Sierra answered a bit too quickly. “She meant when I

used to date.”

He nodded once, the movement freeing a wet lock of hair to fall

over his forehead. It stretched down his face, stopping just above the
slightly tilted corner of his lips. “I would take one from each option,
dinner in a quiet restaurant and then the walk in the park beneath the
stars. Both allow more time to get acquainted without the distraction
of a picture to watch or loud music playing.”

Sierra licked her lips, watched his gaze dropped to follow the path

of her tongue, and felt her mouth water. “That’s, um, an interesting
combination.”

“It can be.” Was it her imagination or had his sugary sweet voice

grown thicker and huskier? “I would be happy to show you if you
decide to start dating again.”

“Thank you. That’s very—”
“Don’t say it.”
Sierra blinked when he briskly cut her off.
“You don’t know what it does to a guy’s ego when a woman calls

him sweet or nice. It ruins the whole masculine image.”

Sierra laughed and reworded her statement. “That’s very kind of

you. Is that better?”

“Since your answer is apparently still a no, I guess it’ll have to

do.” He draped the towel in his hand over one broad shoulder Sierra

Tonya Ramagos

knew had to have been molded for a woman to hold on tight and took
a step back. “I’ll let you ladies get back to your tanning.” He
hesitated, that milk chocolate gaze bathing her in a world of melting
delight once more, before he turned and walked away.

Cassidy smacked Sierra’s shoulder hard enough to leave a slight

sting behind. “Get your stuff together.”

Sierra shot her friend a puzzled look. “I thought you wanted to

stay until sundown.”

“We’re not waiting another second to get your head examined. I

can’t believe you just turned down a hunk like that!”

Sierra averted her gaze, only to have it lock on Mr. Hottie’s

backside as he continued to walk away. In truth, she couldn’t believe
she’d turned him down either. She knew exactly why she’d sworn off
men. She knew exactly why she hadn’t followed up with Paramedic
Southern Comfort Saturday night. Mr. Hottie, on the other hand, had
been wearing a pair of barely there, magnificent-package-hugging
swim trunks, rather than a uniform of any kind. Well, she supposed
swim trunks were a uniform for professional swimmers, but they
didn’t count.

Sierra tore her gaze from Mr. Hottie’s supremely hot ass, sighed,

and lay back down in her lounge chair. “I just don’t want put myself
in a position to go through the shit Kent put me through again.”

“I know, honey.” Cassidy’s voice was full of compassion. “But do

you really want to keep being alone? Life is too short not to take a
chance.”

Life was too short. Hadn’t she gotten a reminder of that when

she’d smashed into the Krispy Kreme truck?

Sierra was certain she’d been fine before that. She’d been happy

and satisfied. Sure, she’d been sexually deprived, but plenty of people
lived a fulfilled life without sex, didn’t they? Except, ever since she’d
locked gazes with Paramedic Southern Comfort, she’d been unable to
put her hormones back in their safe little box. The way she’d nearly
drooled over Mr. Hottie just now was proof of that. Maybe she should

Beneath Their Uniforms

let herself be with a man again, take a chance, and see how it turned
out. She already knew how to pick up the pieces of her heart if it got
broken. Kent had taught her that.

So she’d make a new vow, she decided. She’d only steer clear of

the men that wore a uniform…and pray she didn’t end up in another
accident that would put her staring at Paramedic Neil Ingram’s
handsome face again.

* * * *

Davon shouldered his duffle bag as he stepped into the parking lot

of the country club and headed for his car. The scent of grilled
hamburgers and hot dogs filled the air and he considered sticking
around for a plate. It wasn’t like he had anything better do to with his
evening. Neil was probably still at his sister’s house. Davon had been
invited, but he’d passed. Being anywhere within a ten mile radius of
Neil’s sister’s husband continued to be too much for him. Maybe the
man hadn’t been at fault for the fire that had taken Mona’s life, but
Davon couldn’t get past the suspicion that the man had been involved.

He pushed all thoughts of Mona and the past from his mind as he

made his way across the parking lot, still tossing around the idea of
detouring back inside. A band had set up on the outside stage beside
the bar and pool and he heard the opening beats of Jimmy Buffet’s
“Margaritaville” starting the party. Maybe he could find the blonde,
coax her into a dance, and offer to buy her a burger. He could alter his
view of the perfect first date and go with the dinner and dancing if it
meant spending more time with her.

He stopped at the rear bumper of his car, popped the trunk, and

stowed his duffle bag inside. A margarita didn’t sound too bad. He’d
hung out near the bar for a while after walking away from the blonde,
toying with the question of what it would take to get her to agree to go
out with him. He’d had a few beers, but he took far more than that to
get him tipsy. He could go back inside, slowly make his way out to

Tonya Ramagos

the bar, and, if he got lucky, spot her again. He could buy two
margaritas instead. She hadn’t struck him as the type to be rude
enough to turn down a drink.

He turned and leaned against the trunk, crossing his arms and

ankles as he stared at the county club entrance. Wanting to chase after
a woman made him feel pretty pathetic, but geezus, when was the last
time he’d wanted to chase after a woman? It had taken him a long
time to get over losing Mona, but he’d known he had to go on with
his life. Things hadn’t been the same since she’d been killed. He and
Neil were still roommates and best friends, but her loss had never
stopped looming between them. They’d both recovered in their own
ways and started dating again, but they hadn’t shared a woman since.

And you haven’t met one you really want to be with either.
True, and he knew the same stood for Neil. At least, it had stood

for Neil until he’d run that accident call Friday night. His buddy was
off-the-charts crushing on the woman who had kissed him senseless
and damn if Davon was jealous about it. Neil hadn’t said much about
the woman beyond the fact that he was going to find her again. Still,
the fact that she’d obviously turned his buddy down even after she’d
kissed the shit out of him made Davon feel marginally better. The
same thing had happened to him a couple of hours ago, only he hadn’t
gotten the benefit of a kiss before he’d gotten politely pushed to the
proverbial curb.

Give it up, Reed. The woman wasn’t interested.
And that was a load of bullshit. He’d seen the interest in her

dazzling hazel eyes. He’d watched the flames rise in their depths as
her gaze had slid over his body. She’d been attracted to him, so much
so that he was almost certain she’d wanted to take him up on his offer
of a date. So what had stopped her? Why had she claimed she didn’t
date?

Mull over it while you drink a six-pack at home, dude.
He pushed off the trunk, intending to do exactly that, when the

double doors of the country club swung open and the blonde and her

Beneath Their Uniforms

brunette friend stepped out. The women were too busy chattering to
see him at first, so he went back to leaning against the trunk, crossing
his arms and ankles again as he allowed himself another good, long
look at the blonde.

The woman was like a ray of sunshine, bright and beautiful, and

he knew she’d be hot to the touch. She’d pulled her hair into a
ponytail high on the back of her head, leaving him to wonder how far
it would stretch when she released the satiny-looking strands. He
decided he liked it up for now. It gave him a view of the slender
column of her neck and slender shoulders. Her golden skin was
slightly pink from her recent sun bathing. Her stunning body was hot
enough to make a man grateful for summer. She’d pulled on a pair of
short shorts over her bikini bottom, but nothing over the tiny purple
top. The shorts didn’t matter. Even with them concealing her shapely
hips, they, along with the bikini top, hugged and highlighted every
mouth-watering curve that had his cock going from soft to rock-hard
in an instant.

He knew exactly when she spotted him. Her step faltered, her gaze

slammed into his, and her tantalizing bow-shaped lips parted in an o
of surprise. To her credit, she recovered quickly, her hazel eyes
narrowing as she and her friend detoured his way.

“Waiting for someone?”
Davon tossed around the truth with a few lies that popped in his

head. He could come on strong, tell her he’d been waiting for her, and
see what kind of reaction he got. He could tell her he’d been
considering going back into find her. Or, he could make something
up. He went with a combination, since it was the truth.

“I was standing here thinking of going back in, buying a drink for

you, and seeing if I could change your mind about that date. I’d more
or less dismissed the idea and was about to head home when you
walked outside.”

She stopped within arm’s reach, glanced at her friend, and

dropped her gaze to her feet. He saw her shoulders rise and fall in a

Tonya Ramagos

deep breath, then she lifted her head, and met his gaze. “And what are
you thinking of doing now?”

He was close, far closer than he’d been when he’d talked to her at

the pool side. Davon didn’t know what the hell had changed in the
last couple of hours and didn’t really give a damn. All he knew was
now was not the time to blow it.

“I’m thinking I should ask your name since I failed to do that

before.” He extended a hand between them. “I’m Davon Reed.”

“Sierra Matthews.”
Her hand was as soft and warm and delicate as he’d expected it to

be, but the jolt of desire that simple touch sent skating through his
body was a total surprise. An image he hoped like hell she couldn’t
see projected in his eyes flashed through his mind. It was one where
the hand he held eased out of his to travel up his arm while her other
hand pushed beneath the T-shirt he’d thrown on and flattened on his
bare chest.

Stopping the image before his mind had them both naked in the

country club parking lot, he shot a questioning glance at her friend,
not wanting the other woman to feel left out.

“Cassidy Walsh,” the brunette obligingly supplied. “But, don’t

mind me, you’re getting closer than any guy has gotten to this woman
in a very long time. Well, except for—” She snapped her mouth shut
at the warning look Sierra shot her.

“Did you eat inside?” Sierra asked him.
He still hadn’t let go of her hand. He couldn’t bring himself to do

it. Since he didn’t feel her attempting to pull it free, he kept on
holding it, enjoying the way it felt encased in his. “No. I had a couple
of beers, thought about waiting for the food to be served, and then
came out here.”

Her luscious lips tilted in a smile that rocked his world. “To think

about coming back in to look for me?”

Davon chuckled. “Yeah.”

Beneath Their Uniforms

Her gaze fell to her feet again and she rocked back on her heels,

but still didn’t pull her hand free from his. It surprised him when the
pad of her thumb grazed lightly over the back of his finger, as if she
were in deep thought or maybe assessing how it felt to touch him. He
wondered if she’d felt that same jolt of desire he’d endured when their
hands had met.

“I live on Dallas Place Road,” she said, lifting her gaze once more

to meet his. “Is that too far of a drive for you?”

Davon considered telling her he’d drive to the end of the earth if

that’s where she lived, but he’d decided he didn’t want to come on too
strong. He was making progress.

Don’t blow it!
“No, that’s not too far.”
She looked down at their joined hands and her thumb stopped.

She took another of those deep breaths that had her slender shoulders
slowly rising and falling and eased her hand from his. “If the
invitation is still open, I can accept the dinner part, if you’ll agree to
drive me home straight after. I have an early day tomorrow.”

He did, too. His next twenty-four hour shift at the firehouse would

start bright and early at seven-thirty in the morning. “I’ll have you
home by eleven.”

That made her laugh, a truly musical sound that reminded him of a

bird’s song on a warm summer day. “Then I’ll accept your invitation
for dinner.”

Bingo! Davon felt himself grin and hoped he didn’t look like a

loon as party balloons and streamers exploded in his head. He wanted
to ask what had changed her mind, but didn’t dare. Instead, he took a
chance, reached out, and flattened a hand on the small of her back as
he pushed himself off the trunk of his car.

“Cassidy, it was good to meet you,” he told the other woman as he

used his hold on the small of Sierra’s back to steer her toward the
passenger side of the car. “I’d ask you to join us, but…”

Tonya Ramagos

Cassidy threw her head back and laughed. “You’re too afraid I

wouldn’t turn you down.” She pointed a finger at him. “You take care
of my best friend. I wasn’t kidding when I said you’re getting closer
than any guy has to her in a long time.”

“I’ll treat her like gold. I promise.” Davon pulled open the

passenger door and smiled down at Sierra when she gave him a look
of half amusement and half say-something-like-that-again-and-I’m-
going-to-call-you-nice. “Yeah, I know,” he told Sierra as she slid into
the passenger seat. “But she strikes me as something close to your
guard dog. I had to say something to assure her you were in good
hands.”

“And what are you going to say to assure me?”
Good question.
Davon stared down at her for several heartbeats before anything

came to mind. “How about thank you and I’ll do my best to make it a
dinner you won’t regret?”

She beamed a smile at him that he knew would keep his dreams lit

for many nights to come. “I don’t care what it does to your ego,
Davon Reed. You are sweet and nice.”

Davon let out a dramatic groan as he closed the passenger door,

smiling when her laughter reverberated outside the car, determined to
make tonight a night she’d never forget.

* * * *

He took her to Sliders, a restaurant situated on the river that

separated Cherish from the city across the water with an outside deck
for dining over said river beneath the rapidly darkening sky. Sierra
thanked him as she settled into the seat he’d pulled out for her and
tipped her head back.

“You figured out how to get that moment under the stars without

the walk in the park.”

Beneath Their Uniforms

“I can improvise when necessary,” he told her as he took the seat

across the table. “Apparently, so can you. Besides, I knew it was a
place that would let us in without being in more formal attire.”

Sierra glanced down at herself. She’d pulled a tank top from her

bag and tugged it on over her bikini top during the drive. It had
amused her how Davon had pretended not to watch her the whole
time. He’d sat in the driver’s seat, the perfect picture of laid-back cool
with one wrist resting on the top of the steering wheel and the other
hand on the stick shift, his face turned straight ahead. She’d seen his
eyes move, though. It had been so discreet she’d nearly called him on
it, the way his gaze slid her way as she unfolded the tank top. She’d
sworn she’d even heard him softly whimper when she’d put it on over
her bikini top.

“How did I improvise tonight?”
“Maybe improvise isn’t quite the right word. Manage might be

better. You managed to change your mind and decide going out to
dinner with me might not be such a bad idea, even though you don’t
date.”

Sierra could see his unspoken questions in his eyes. Why had she

changed her mind? Why didn’t she date? Unwilling to answer either,
she wracked her brain for a safe topic and settled on normal
conversational material for two people getting acquainted. “Tell me
about yourself, Davon.”

“What do you want to know?”
“Anything. Everything. What do you do for a living? Why were

you at the country club celebration alone today? Where do you live?
What’s your favorite color?” The last got a chuckle out of him that
made her smile. He had a great laugh, as rich and smooth and sugary
sweet as his eyes and voice and she knew she’d never look at another
milk chocolate bar without thinking about him.

He leaned forward and propped his elbows on the table. “I’m a

handyman and…” He hesitated and something she couldn’t define
moved through his eyes. “I fix things,” he went on with a shrug.

Tonya Ramagos

“Houses mostly. I do renovations, painting, roofing, and that sort of
thing. I was at the country club alone today because my roommate
and best friend was spending time with his family and my parents
moved to Florida to retire several years ago. I have a house in east
Cherish on Maple Street and my favorite color is dark blue.” He
leaned back in his seat when the waitress arrived to deliver menus and
take their drink orders. “Your turn,” he told her after the waitress left
the table.

“I’m a math teacher, seventh grade at Cherish Middle School. I

wasn’t at the country club alone, so that question doesn’t really apply
to me. However, it really is a small world. I was born and raised in
Florida. My parents, brother, and sister still live there. I moved here to
get away from the beach.” She smiled when he lifted a brow. “Yeah,
funny considering you met me lying out by a pool. Anyway, you’ll
see my house, or rather apartment, when you drive me home, and my
favorite color is purple.”

He drummed his fingertip on the table, studying her for a long

moment. His lips parted as if he were about to speak when the
waitress returned with their drinks. He asked for more time before
they placed their food order and waited for her to leave again before
he spoke again. “What changed your mind?”

Sierra smiled and briefly bowed her head. She supposed it had

been ludicrous to think he’d let that question go unanswered.
“Cassidy. Me. Years of being alone.” She shook her head as she lifted
her glass of wine for a sip. “I got burned a few years ago, swore I’d
never let it happen again, and I’ve been living…shall we say
cautiously ever since.”

“But, today you decided to throw cautious to the wind?”
Sierra laughed softly. “Something like that. I had a reminder of

just how short life can be the other day. Cassidy backed that up today
after you walked away by telling me I should take a chance.” She
shrugged. “I listened and here I am.” She angled her head and

Beneath Their Uniforms

narrowed her eyes, figuring one unanswered question deserved
another. “Why were you so intent to change my mind?”

That got her another laugh, but it came fast and faded just as

quickly as his gaze heated to the point of molten lava. “You’re
amazingly beautiful. You’re the first woman I’ve met in a long time
that stayed in my head after I walked away. It might have only been a
couple of hours before I saw you again, but I knew I wouldn’t get you
out of my head that fast.” He lifted his beer mug and took a swig, his
intense gaze never wavering from hers. “I got hurt a few years ago,
too. I lost the woman I loved and it took me a long time to recover.
I’ve dated since then, but nothing serious. Your friend Cassidy sounds
like a smart woman. What she told you about taking chances is the
same thing I’ve been thinking. Life is too short not to try.”

Uh oh. A warm, tingling feeling exploded in Sierra’s belly and she

knew she was headed for trouble. She’d warned her girly parts not to
get too excited when she’d decided to take Davon up on his offer for
dinner. Too bad for her, said girly parts hadn’t calmed down since
she’d laid that tonsil-examining kiss on Neil Ingram. Couple that with
the honesty of Davon’s answer to her question right along with his
off-the-charts, hormone-zinging, drool-worthy looks and she knew
she was boarding a fast plane to Lustville.

“So,” she said after a long pause, her voice a little breathless even

to her own ears. She cleared her throat and took another sip of her
wine. Lustville was okay. One date didn’t mean she was letting
herself completely out of the vow she’d made. And, if she was going
to allow herself that one date—which she’d obviously already done or
she wouldn’t be sitting across a table from him—shouldn’t it be with
someone she found attractive? “A handyman, huh?”

She let her gaze move over him, taking in the strong line of his

jaw, the thickness of his neck, and the way the material of his T-shirt
strained across his broad shoulders, biceps, and solid chest,
delineating every ridged muscle and hard plane to perfection.

“You don’t see it?”

Tonya Ramagos

“Oh, I do. I can picture you in the work boots, wore jeans, and

tool belt. I’m betting you go shirtless most of the time, especially in
the summer, and maybe even wear a ball cap or do-rag to keep the
sweat from dripping into your eyes.”

“Work boots, work jeans, and tool belt,” he repeated, his eyes

twinkling with amusement. “If I didn’t know better, I would swear
you’d been looking in my closet.”

“Isn’t that what most handymen wear?”
“Now that I think about it”—he opened the menu in front of him

but didn’t look at it—“I guess it is the required uniform for the job.”

Sierra heard the low-throated growl escape before she could stop

it. She opened her menu and quickly averted her gaze to the selection
the restaurant offered, hoping he hadn’t heard it.

“Did I say something wrong?”
So much for hoping. And so much for not elaborating on it. She

couldn’t help herself. Everywhere she turned, she found herself faced
with a man and a damn uniform. “Does every male profession require
men to wear a uniform? I mean, aren’t there any jobs that allow men
to wear normal, everyday clothes?”

Surprise flickered through his expression and something very akin

to suspicion moved through his eyes. “Boots and jeans are normal,
everyday attire for most guys, sweetheart.”

“True.” Sierra sighed. “I’m sorry. I’m just—”
“Are you ready to order or do you still need a few minutes?”
Sierra glanced at the waitress before looking back at her menu.
“I think we need some more time, if you don’t mind,” Davon told

the waitress. “Unless you already know what you want?”

Sierra chewed her bottom lip as she looked at him. “I’m not really

all that hungry.”

The suspicion deepened in his eyes as they narrowed slightly.

“Are you saying you don’t want anything?”

“I was thinking more along the lines of something we can share.”

She glanced at the appetizer section of the menu. “Maybe the sample

Beneath Their Uniforms

platter,” she suggested. “It has mozzarella sticks, popcorn shrimp,
mushrooms, and jalapeno poppers.”

Relief washed through his handsome face as he closed his menu

and addressed the waitress. “We’ll have the sample platter. Thank
you.”

Sierra handed her menu to the waitress and waited for the woman

to leave the table before she smiled at Davon. “You thought I was
about to say I was ready to go, didn’t you?”

* * * *

It was exactly what he’d thought. They’d gone from what he’d

considered to be a simple get-to-know-you conversation, to discussing
what had led them to be sitting across a table from one another, to a
subject that had apparently gotten her back up. For her to follow that
with an announcement that she didn’t want dinner after all had set the
alarm bells sounding in his head.

“I’m glad you didn’t.” Davon lifted his beer and studied her over

the rim of the glass as he took a swig. “I hope it won’t make you say
you’re ready to go now if I ask why talk about men wearing a uniform
on the job makes you growl?”

If it had been a sexy growl it would’ve been one thing, but the

sound she’d made when the word “uniform” had come into the
conversation hadn’t been the irritated kind, the kind that bordered on
disgust. He hadn’t lied when he’d told her he was a handyman.
Firefighting was what he loved most. He’d been drawn to it for as
long as he could remember. Nearly every man had a fascination for
fire trucks when they were a young boy, but most quickly grew out of
it. He hadn’t. He’d studied fire science in college, gone straight to the
fire academy after receiving his degree, and had found his home at
Station 5. He’d never wanted to be anything else.

Still, the job of a firefighter had its serious downtime. With only

twenty-four hours on shift out of every seventy-two, he’d been going

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stir-crazy sitting around the house waiting for his next tour to start.
That’s when he’d started his side business. His father had been a
carpenter before he’d retired and Davon had enjoyed building,
painting, and repairing houses alongside the man as he’d grown older.

She dragged the pad of her thumb thoughtfully through the

condensation on the outside of her wine glass. “They use it as bait.
Most women can’t see past the uniform to the slimeball beneath it and
the men know it.”

Davon agreed to a point. He’d decided not to tell her he was a

firefighter until he got to know her better for the precise reason she’d
just given him. Most women couldn’t see past the uniform. He could
also agree that a lot of guys didn’t care. They’d use whatever it took
to lure women in.

“Not every man that wears a uniform for a living is a slimeball.”

He wasn’t. He’d never used his status as a firefighter to pick up a
woman. He didn’t go for badge bunnies. He wanted a woman that
chose to be with him because of the person he was, not the uniform he
wore.

“Don’t get me wrong. I appreciate the men in our military, police

force, fire department, and all the other branches that put their lives
on the line to keep us safe.” She polished off the remainder of her
wine and set the glass aside. “What I don’t appreciate are the men that
think that uniform should come with special intimate privileges and
that so many women actually give it to them.”

“I get the impression you’re not one of those women.” But she

had been. Maybe not one to so freely give to a cop or firefighter or
other serviceman merely because she’d been dazzled by his uniform,
but a woman who had given her heart to one and had gotten burned.

“Definitely not. I steer clear of men in any profession that requires

a uniform.” She gave his upper body a slow once-over that made him
grateful she couldn’t see the rest of him beneath the table. He’d have
to do something about the pop-tent his hard cock had created in his

Beneath Their Uniforms

shorts before he stood up again. “A handyman, however? I’m
thinking that’s a profession I think I could handle.”

But not a firefighter. Fuck!
If Davon continued to keep his little secret, there was no telling

where tonight would lead. He wasn’t expecting to land in her bed,
though he damn sure wouldn’t argue if that was where she tried to
take him. He was expecting, no, hoping, to see her again. The woman
was beautiful, smart, and sexy. She’d apparently broken what must
have been a stalwart vow that had lasted a very long time when she’d
agreed to come on a date with him. After everything she’d just told
him, he knew damn well she never would’ve done that if she knew he
was a firefighter.

What would happen if he told her the truth? The answer to that

question was a no-brainer. She may not have been about to say she
was ready to go before, but he didn’t doubt for a heartbeat she’d be
ready to go then. Hell, she’d probably hail a freaking cab over
allowing him to drive her home.

Not willing to send what could turn out to be the best encounter of

his life up in flames until he figured out a way to extinguish them,
Davon decided the truth could wait.

“I bet you could.” He thanked the waitress when she delivered

their food, ordered them another round of drinks, and waited for her
to walk away. “I have a sister that used to be about your size and
build. She’s heavier now, pregnancy weight she hasn’t shed yet, but
she used to be able to run circles around me with a nail gun.”

Sierra grimaced as she reached for a mozzarella stick and dunked

it in the container of marinara sauce. “Now that’s a sister you don’t
want to piss off.”

Davon barked a laugh and went for the popcorn shrimp. “Trust

me, she might be younger, but I learned that at an early age.”

He popped a shrimp in his mouth and chewed slowly as he let his

gaze slide over her. He’d wanted to cry when she covered up her tiny
bikini top with a tank in his car. Sure, her slender shoulders were still

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bare, save for the thin straps of the tank and bikini top, and, when she
moved just the right way, he could still get a glimpse of the swells of
her breasts. He’d lost the tongue-teasing sight of her smooth abdomen
and flat stomach, though. Not that it wasn’t implanted in his memory
right along with the sultry legs he couldn’t see beneath the table and
her red polished toenails that did odd things to his libido.

“I can see you in the right…attire.” He’d nearly said uniform

simply because the word was still heavy on his mind, but there was no
way in hell he was going to bring that back into the conversation
again. “A pair of scuffed-up boots, blue jeans, and a ball cap. There’d
be an added bonus to the hat for you. You could wear one with the slit
in the back. That way you can put your hair through it instead of tying
in a ponytail.”

Her lips pursed as she gave the mozzarella stick a cooling blow

and his already tortured cock flexed painfully in his shorts. He
watched, barely holding back another whimper, as her lips parted, the
mozzarella stick moved between them, and her teeth bit in. Geezus,
the woman even made eating a fried cheese stick a pornographic
event.

“You forgot about the shirt.”
Davon grinned at her. “It’s summer time. You won’t need one.”
She threw back her head and laughed as the waitress exchanged

their empty glasses for full ones. “Now you’re being a guy.”

Davon bit into a jalapeno popper, felt the burn explode on his

tongue as he chewed, and suspected it wasn’t anywhere near as hot as
getting his tongue on her would be. “Just making sure you don’t use
that n word on me again.”

She tsked as she popped a mushroom in her sensual mouth and his

cock gave another painful jerk in his shorts. He wanted to feel her
bow-shaped lips close over his cockhead. He wanted to feel the light
graze of her teeth down his shaft as she swallowed his length until her
lips met with the base of his body. He wanted to fist his hand in her
hair and feel her tongue soothing the scrape of her teeth as it danced

Beneath Their Uniforms

over his most sensitive flesh while her hot little mouth bobbed slowly
and drew on his cock until he shot his wad down her throat.

“Actually,” she said as she licked marinara sauce from her fingers.

“All I’m going to do now is combine the two and call you a nice
guy.”

Davon let out a dramatic groan, listened as she gifted him with

another one of her musical laughs, and made a vow of his own that he
prayed wouldn’t stick around for years. One way or another, he would
figure out how to keep this woman around…even after he fessed up
about being a firefighter.

Tonya Ramagos

Chapter Three

“Can I walk you to your door?”
Sierra didn’t know why it surprised her that Davon asked any

more than she knew why she’d expected him to simply drop her off at
the front door of her apartment building. He’d already proved himself
a gentleman more than once today. Why should the act of bringing
her home be any different?

She shot him a smile and instinctively reached for the passenger

door handle. “I’d like that.”

“Wait. I’ll come around.” He was out of the car and on her side in

a flash, pulling open the door for her and extending a hand.

“Your parents raised a gentleman.” She didn’t think to brace

herself for the contact as she put her hand in his. She figured she
should’ve. He’d only touched her in the simplest of ways tonight—a
hand on the small of her back or their hands clasped together—but
those casual moments, just like this one, awakened a desire in her that
ignited a flaming path from her breasts to her pussy. Ignoring the
wetness pooling between her feminine lips, she dug in her bag for her
keys with her free hand as he closed the passenger door and they
started to walk. “It makes it really hard to keep from seeing you as the
n guy.”

He chuckled, pausing when they reached the door of her

apartment building to open it for her. “There are a million things I
could do to erase that image but, as badly as I dislike that word, I have
a feeling I’d hate what you would call me after that more.”

Sierra shot him another smile over her shoulder as she entered the

building ahead of him. “Probably.”

Beneath Their Uniforms

“A friend of mine used to live in this complex,” he commented as

she led him up the stairs to the second floor of the building. “From
what I remember, the apartments are great, good size, and the
neighbors were friendly.”

“Why did he move?” Sierra asked as they topped the stairs.
“He bought a house.”
Sierra stopped outside the door to her apartment and turned to

him. “I’ve been thinking about doing that. My lease will be up in a
couple of months. If I sign another one, the rent will increase. Not that
I can’t swing it, but I could afford a mortgage on what I’m paying
now.”

Davon’s free arm wound around her waist and her breath lodged

in her throat. The move would’ve landed squarely in the casual-touch
category if he hadn’t used that hold on her to draw her against him.

“That’s a deciding factor for a lot of people when they start

considering homeownership.”

His tone didn’t change. He continued with the conversation as if

he wasn’t holding her so close even oxygen would have trouble
getting between them.

Sierra gazed up at him, her mind tripping and stumbling over what

to say next as every nerve-ending focused on the places their bodies
were touching. Acute desire, hot and intense, throbbed through every
erogenous zone as her breasts pressed against the hard wall of his
chest. Her nipples beaded to hardened points and she wondered if he
could feel them poking into his muscular flesh. Though he didn’t
seem to notice, she knew she wasn’t the only one effected by their
closeness. She could feel the thick wedge of his cock though her
clothes and his, resting against her belly and giving her a very hard
clue as to how aroused he had gotten.

“I’m seeing it as my first mid-life crisis purchase.” It surprised her

that she managed to keep her tone as steady and conversational as it
had been before when nothing else about her felt that way.
Nervousness slammed into the needs building in her pussy, wreaking

Tonya Ramagos

havoc with her hormones. Her mind urged her to pull away, but her
body showed no intent to listen. “You know, that decade thing people
start to do as they get older? At thirty, they buy a house. At forty, they
do something else extravagant like go on an expensive vacation.”

“And at fifty, they buy the high-end sports car.” He stared down at

her, the heat in his eyes giving her another clue as to the state of his
arousal. “How far are you from the big three-zero?”

“A few months. About the same time my lease runs out.”
“You should do it. Treat yourself to a great little house for your

birthday.”

Sierra was thinking she’d already treated herself to an early

birthday gift by agreeing to go out with him tonight. “You lived up to
your word. I don’t regret dinner.”

“And you’re home by eleven.”
“I am.” She glanced at the closed door to her apartment. “I would

invite you in for a nightcap, but I do have an early day tomorrow.”

“So do I.” His arm around her waist tightened as he released her

hand and dragged the pad of his thumb down her cheek. “Can I see
you again?”

“I’d like that.” She saw it coming. His gaze flicked to her lips and

he eased in, his mouth stopping a mere fraction from hers. He
hesitated there, drawing out the moment, and causing her heart to beat
faster.

“Is it going to ruin my nice guy image if I do this?” His breath

moved hot and seductive over her lips, seeping through her skin to
touch every erogenous spot in her body. The question probably
would’ve made her laugh if she’d been able to find her brain through
all the sexual fog filling her head.

“It might.” She sounded breathless even to her own ears, at least

what she could hear over the loud thump, thump, thump of her heart.
“But I’ll make sure not to call you anything you hate more after you
do.”

Beneath Their Uniforms

He laughed, a soft and equally breathless sound, and then, oh yum,

he was kissing her. His lips brushed hers in a caress so light, she
thought she might have imagined it, except he'd barely pulled back
before he did it again.

Sierra moaned, her lips parting in an invitation he took without

hesitation. His tongue slid between her lips, explored her mouth, and
tangled with hers. One hand flattened on the small of her back,
holding her even more firmly against him as his other hand dipped
beneath her hair to cup her nape. She melted against him, her body
slinking and molding to the hard planes of his chest, his abs, and his
groin. Still holding her keys in one hand, she rested it on his bicep as
she wound her other around his neck. She laced the fingers of that
hand in the back of his hair as he changed the angle of the kiss, taking
it deeper.

She lost herself in the kiss, feeling things awaken inside her she’d

thought had gone dormant during the years she’d kept her vow. There
wasn’t a single part of her sleeping now. Every sense, every nerve-
ending, and every part of her very being was wide awake, fully
focused, and begging for more.

More? No, she couldn’t allow herself to go that far. Somehow she

needed to find the strength to resist the effect this man was having on
her before she did something she might regret.

“Ah, God.” The words left her on a quiet moan as his tongue

retreated. He nipped her bottom lip before licking his way across her
jaw.

“Sierra.” He whispered her name, his breath hot against her ear as

he licked her lobe between his teeth and gave it a gentle bite. He used
his hold on her to turn them both and backed her against the
apartment door.

Sandwiched between two unforgiving barriers, his solid body and

the wooden door, her attention zoomed in on his lower body pressed
into hers. She felt his cock, impossibly hard and deliciously ready.
Her pussy lips clenched, releasing the juices pooled between them to

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soak her bikini bottom and the crotch of her shorts. The heat in her
womb exploded into a blazing need she feared might burn her alive.

The flame grew hotter still as he pushed a leg between hers and

lifted his knee to touch her aching core. Her fingers in his hair fisted
in a reflexive response as her body instinctively kicked into a bump
and grind with his thigh.

He made a sound that was half moan and half growl as he lifted

his leg higher, pressing it more firmly against her pussy as her body
gyrated on its own accord, eagerly and greedily searching for more.
His hand on the small of her back slipped lower to palm the cheek of
her ass while the fingers of his other hand danced over the side of her
neck, down the front of her shoulder, and pushed between his body
and hers to cover one breast.

“Fuck,” he breathed and buried his face in her hair.
Yeah, if they kept this up, they were well on their way to doing

exactly that.

“This is why I haven’t let myself touch you much tonight.”
Sierra opened eyes she hadn’t realized she’d closed and stared

unseeingly at the apartment door across the hall. His hands hadn’t
moved from her ass or her breast, but they’d stopped squeezing and
fondling. When his knee between her legs slowly lowered, it was all
she could do to swallow the whimper that bubbled in her throat. The
absence of that lovely pressure to her core made her immediately
want it back. She didn’t just want it back, she realized, she wanted
that more her body had been searching for. She wanted the cock she
could feel pulsing against her belly buried deep inside her flaming
channel. She didn’t want to resist anymore. She wanted to finish what
they’d started.

She licked her lips and had to swallow before she could find her

voice. “Why?”

He lifted his head and the heat in his eyes burned her to the soles

of her feet. “Because I knew once I started touching you, I wouldn’t
want to stop.”

Beneath Their Uniforms

“What if I don’t want you to?”
Sierra heard the question leave her lips and knew it had been the

way wrong question to ask. She was making a mistake, a huge
mistake she would likely regret tomorrow. Still, she couldn’t stop
herself from closing the distance between their mouths again, from
brushing her lips to his, and licking her way across his bottom one.

“What if I want to invite you in for that nightcap after all?”

* * * *

Davon couldn’t remember a time in his life when he’d ever stared

into a woman’s eyes and not known what to say. He knew exactly
what he wanted and, geezus, he knew what she was offering, too. She
wasn’t talking about another drink and a little more conversation to
bring an end to their evening. She was talking about sex. She was
talking about taking this heated encounter into the privacy of her
apartment where he knew damn well it would explode into a firestorm
that could leave both of them with fourth-degree burns.

“Are you sure?”
If it had been any other woman, he would’ve either chalked the

offer up to exactly what it sounded like—a chance to fuck—or he
would’ve walked away. He’d had his share of one-night stands, but he
didn’t care for them and he didn’t want that with Sierra. He wanted to
see her again…and again and again. He wanted to find out if the
magnetic attraction he felt between them could morph into something
more meaningful and lasting. The trouble came with the even deeper
need not to walk away.

She threw her head back hard enough to make him wince when he

heard it smack the door behind her. “God, you really are too nice.”

Davon swallowed a laugh. “Sweetheart, whether you realize it or

not, you’re doing everything in your power—and you’re a damn
powerful woman, by the way—to set the bad boy in me free.” He
forced himself to release the breast that fit so damn perfect in his

Tonya Ramagos

palm, delved that hand beneath her ponytail to cup her nape, and
lifted her head until she met his gaze. “I want you, Sierra, but you
have to promise me, if I go into your apartment with you, I’ll still get
to see you again.”

He swore he saw a dart of uncertainty shoot through her amazing

hazel eyes, but then she blinked and it was gone. One of her hands
was still on his nape, her delicate fingers laced in his hair. He liked
the intimacy of that touch. So much so, that he couldn’t bring himself
to pull away despite the indecision he thought he’d seen in her eyes.

She shifted, side-stepping slightly, and he realized she was

reaching behind her with her free hand to unlock the apartment door.
She held his gaze, all hint of indecisiveness burned to bits by the heat
in her eyes, opened the door, and pulled him inside.

Davon let her make all the moves. He held her waist loosely as

she turned them, reaching with her hand closest to the door to close it
and flick on a nearby switch. Then she used her hold on his nape to
pull his mouth down to hers, brushed her lips over his, and licked her
way inside.

The woman kissed like a dream and he found himself hoping, if

this really was a dream, he’d never wake up. She was all soft curves
and heated flesh and any thought he’d had of pulling away went up in
the sexually-charged smoke boiling the air around them. Her tongue
was like a warm, wet strip of satin that explored his mouth and sent
smooth sensations of need traveling through his body to curl around
his throbbing cock.

Still kissing him, her hand on his nape moved to his bicep and

skimmed down his arm. Her other hand mirrored the move before
both hands found his hips, turned, and fisted the material of his shirt.
The backs of her fingers grazed his flesh as she pulled his shirt up,
stopping when the material met his chin.

Wanting to be skin-to-skin with this woman so badly he feared his

cock might rupture if he didn’t get inside her sweet heat soon, Davon
broke the kiss. He eased back and gazed into her eyes as she pulled

Beneath Their Uniforms

his shirt over his head and tossed it to the floor. She gave his chest
one of those slow once-overs that had been turning his blood to the
consistency of molten lava since he’d spotted her at the poolside and
his balls drew up painfully in their sac.

She made a sound of pure female appreciation and licked her lips.

The sight of that moist, pink tongue grazing softly over her lips made
his cock dance in hopes of equal attention. Then, geezus, she flattened
her hands on the front of his shoulders, dragged them down to explore
his pecs, and something exploded in his head. He actually heard the
blast as her wicked hands traveled lower, her fingers curling in their
descent to dip beneath the elastic waistband of his shorts. His knees
started to shake as her fingers slid between the elastic and his gut and
glided over his flesh in opposite directions to his hips.

“I’m sure you’ve heard this before, but you have an incredible

body.”

Her hands paused, but her gaze didn’t. It continued to slide over

his torso as if she were memorizing every muscle and plane. “Being a
handyman obviously keeps you in amazing shape.”

Handyman. Fuck! He couldn’t deny that the physical labor of the

job did help to keep him out of a gym, but he spent a lot of his
downtime working out at the firehouse, too. The need to tell her that,
to erase the regret gnawing at him that he was lying to her, even if it
was by omission, nearly made him confess. He opened his mouth, the
words on the tip of his tongue, but sucked in a breath instead when he
felt her hands start to tug on the waistband of his shorts. His shorts
began to slide down and he said to hell with letting her make the
moves right along with telling her the truth.

Horizontal. He needed to get them horizontal before his knees

gave out on him. Christ, no woman had ever made him feel this weak!

He scooped Sierra into his arms, surprising a sound out of her that

was half laugh and half surprise, and kissed her again. He couldn’t
stop kissing this woman for long, didn’t want to, and couldn’t wait to
put his mouth on every silky inch of her bare flesh.

Tonya Ramagos

He kept on kissing her as he turned with her in his arms, opening

his eyes to glance around the apartment. He absently took in the
cleanliness, the colorful furnishings, and decidedly female touches.
Living room. Yeah, he’d figured that’s the room they’d walked into.
Kitchen. Check. Hallway. He’d been in many homes in his thirty-two
years and the hallway in every one of them had always led to the
bedroom…exactly where he wanted her.

He had to angle them sideways as he carried her down that narrow

hall, his gaze scanning the semi-darkness for the door that would take
him to her bedroom. He found it open on his left and turned into it,
spotting the bed in the middle of the floor. Still unable to tear his
mouth from hers and end the wondrous things she was doing to his
tongue with hers, he toed off his tennis shoes as he laid her gently in
the center of the bed. She kicked her sandals off, too. Then her legs
spread in an invitation for his body to settle between them as he went
down with her. Only then did he stop kissing her in favor of licking
his way across her jaw as he reached to fumble with the switch on the
bedside lamp.

* * * *

Sierra blinked as the lamp came on, bathing the room in a soft

white light. Davon’s long, lean, solid body was stretched on top of
her, his strong arms on either side of her head supporting the weight
of his upper body as he gazed down at her. The intense look in his
eyes took her breath away. She could get in real trouble real quick
with this man. The kind of trouble that would send her on a speeding
train from Lustville to that other place that started with an L, ended
with ville, and had the o, v, and e in the middle.

The realization should’ve had her throwing him off of her as she

sprang off the bed and demanded he leave. Instead, she smiled up at
him, knowing she’d already allowed herself to go too far with this
man to turn back now.

Beneath Their Uniforms

“You are so fucking beautiful.”
“So are you.” Sierra grazed her hands over his biceps, enjoying

the way his solid muscles and heated flesh felt beneath her palms.
“But I bet beautiful is another one of those words men don’t like as a
description of themselves.”

His lips tilted in a sexy grin that had her belly dancing. “I’ll let

you get away with it this time.” He lowered his head, buried that grin
in the side of her neck, and caught her sensitized flesh between his
teeth for a nip.

Sierra closed her eyes on a quiet gasp as a sharp dart of pleasured

pain shot through her system. She lifted her hips, needing to feel a
delicious pressure against her flaming pussy, and found his cock, still
encased in his shorts. She ground her pussy against it, delighting
when the move drew an animalistic growl from his throat.

She turned her head toward his and couldn’t suppress the excited

shiver that ran through her as his nose grazed her ear, her cheek, and
the tip of her nose. “Touch me. I want your hands on me, Davon.”

“Geezus,” he breathed as he stared down at her for a long,

meaningful moment before he pushed himself up to sit between her
legs.

He didn’t say anything more as his hands pushed beneath the hem

of her tank top and pushed the material up. His heated gaze fell to
follow the movement, the flames in his eyes growing higher and more
intense as he bared the flesh of her belly, her abdomen, and the bikini
top still covering her breasts.

Sierra lifted her head off the bed as he pulled her tank top off with

one hand and pushed his other hand beneath her to untie her bikini
top. He sent both garments sailing across the room and sat up straight
between her legs again. He touched her, dragging the tips of his
fingers down her shoulders, tracing the tan line created by her bikini.

“This right here”—his fingers continued to follow her tan line to

her breasts—“is so fucking sexy.”

Sierra let out a breathless giggle. “You like tan lines?”

Tonya Ramagos

His gaze flicked to hers and he grinned. “Love them. The contrast

of dark to light flesh drives me crazy.”

Her nipples, already beaded to hardened points, throbbed at the

attention he gave them as he studied them again. To her intense
disappointment, he didn’t play with them and didn’t lower his head
for a taste. Instead, he flattened his large hands beneath them and
dragged his palms down her abdomen and belly.

Sierra’s body instinctively slithered beneath the touch as it set her

nerve-endings on fire. The move drew his gaze back to hers and she
saw mischief swirling with the arousal in his eyes as he hooked his
fingers beneath the strings of her bikini bottom on her hips and the
waistband of her shorts and pulled both down. He scooted back until
he no longer sat between her legs, finished removing the garments,
and tossed them over his shoulder.

Where the sudden rush of self-consciousness came from, Sierra

didn’t know, but when his hands returned to her legs, she tried to keep
them squeezed shut. He gave his head a single violent shake, sending
the long strands of hair that had fallen into his face swinging, and
slipped one large hand between her knees.

“Open them wider for me.” The hint of the animal she’d heard in

his earlier growl remained in his voice. He’d told her she was doing
everything in her power to set the bad boy in him free. Maybe she
was, though it hadn’t been her intention at first. The way her belly
fluttered with an excitement that dived straight to her womb at the
predatory look in his eyes told her, bad boy or not, this man knew
how to pleasure a woman with a capital P.

“I want to see your pussy, Sierra. I want to see how wet you are

for me.”

Sierra took a shaky breath and spread her legs wide, exposing her

pussy to him.

“Damn, you have a gorgeous cunt.”
So far, he’d yet to use a word she didn’t like. Well, except for

when they’d gotten into the conversation about men wearing

Beneath Their Uniforms

uniforms. That word, though, she couldn’t stand. Cunt. Can’t
understand normal thinking. At least, that’s what she’d heard it stood
for. Something about this man told her that he would never use the
word in that context, though. He really was too sweet and nice to ever
purposely disrespect a woman that way.

The funny thing was, when he used it, the way his voice took on

that gruff, admiring tone, it became the most erotic word she’d ever
heard.

His hand, still on the inside of her knee, glided down her inner

thigh. He touched her pussy, the faintest brush of a fingertip to the
edge of her feminine lips, and the look on his face was one of a man
who truly liked what he saw.

“Davon.” She didn’t know what made her say his name.

Anticipation, maybe? A plea for him touch her more, to touch her
deeper? Either way, it spilled from her lips on a sigh that turned
utterly breathless when he lowered his head between her legs and
planted a tender kiss to the fold he’d touched.

He shifted, wedged his broad shoulders between her thighs, and

covered her pussy with his mouth. The tip of his tongue touched the
super sensitive flesh just above her anus, and she stiffened. She
could’ve sworn she heard him chuckle at that, but the wondering if he
did or not fled in the next instant when he licked her from that spot all
the way to her clit.

“Davon.” His name left her on a strangled breath and she knew

exactly why she’d said his name this time as a riot of sheer pleasure
overwhelmed her system. His tongue paused at her clit, drew circles
around the pulsing bud, and then he licked it between his teeth for a
gentle nip. It drew a cry from her lips, ignited a fuse in her womb, and
set her orgasmic beast to pacing in its cage.

His tongue traveled down, flattened over the opening of her

vagina, and then delved inside. He thrust into her channel, a long,
wide strip of satin going as deep as it could into her sodden opening.

Tonya Ramagos

Her hips came off the mattress, and she buried her hands in his

hair, her fingers fisting the silky strands. He twisted his tongue inside
her, licked the ultrasensitive walls of her channel, pulled back, and
then dove deep again.

“Oh, dear God,” she breathed as her body shuttered, the pressure

in her womb building. “Your tongue should come with a warning
label.”

She felt his broad shoulders shake between her thighs and felt the

heat of his breath when he chuckled. It didn’t stop him. He pulled his
tongue from her channel, danced his mouth to her swollen fold, and
captured it, rolling it in a pressured clamp of his lips.

She moaned, her back arched off the bed, and she closed her eyes

as the orgasm inside her grew claws. His tongue picked up pace,
driving inside her channel with a fierce speed that had those claws
digging into the inner walls of her pussy. She felt him shift again, felt
the slightest graze of his hand, and then the pressure of a fingertip as
he pressed it to her clit.

“Yes!” Her head lolled uncontrollably as he fucked her with his

tongue, his fingertip falling into the same rhythm as it drew pressured
circles on her clit. She couldn’t hold back, though she tried her
damnedest to do so. She didn’t want the pleasure to end. Her orgasm
had different plans. It burst out of her with a force that drew a scream
from her lips, her inner muscles convulsing around his tongue as he
continued to fuck her until her entire system turned to the consistency
of jelly.

He lifted his head, his handsome face covered with her cream, and

met her gaze as he licked his lips. Those lips spread in a devious smile
as he climbed up her body to kiss her. “If I had thought that dinner
was even close to being on the menu tonight, I’ve got to admit,
sweetheart, I probably wouldn’t have played around at the restaurant
so long.”

Sierra laughed even as a silly sense of relief washed through her at

his words. It could’ve been just a line, but she didn’t believe so. The

Beneath Their Uniforms

last thing she’d planned to do tonight was fall into bed with him, but
knowing he hadn’t expected it to happen helped tremendously.

Or maybe it didn’t. As she stared up at him, feeling her body

continue to quiver in the aftermath of the spectacular orgasm he’d just
given her, she felt that already speeding train race even faster toward
the L-ville of destruction.

* * * *

Davon watched as an unmistakable dart of fear shot through

Sierra’s eyes. Whatever created that dart silenced her laughter and
sent a mirroring fear racing through him. Fuck! He didn’t want to
scare her. He wanted her hot and wet and ready for him to make her
come again. He wanted to taste more of her, to feel more of her, to
hear her moan his name as he thrust his cock deep in her sweet,
sodden pussy.

He balanced the weight of his upper body on one arm beside her

head and dragged a fingertip down the side of her face. “What’s
wrong, sweetheart?”

She blinked and, as with the uncertainty he’d seen in her eyes

before, all traces of the fear disappeared. “You’re not naked.”

Her statement surprised a chuckle out of him, but the move she

made next stunned him to his toes. She flattened her hands on the
front of his shoulders, locked her thighs more tightly around his hips,
and flipped him on the bed. She landed on top of him, straddled his
waist, and pinned him to the mattress.

“There. That should make it easier for me to finish what I started

in the living room.”

Davon stared up at her, knowing he could overpower her in an

instant if he wanted to regain control, and not finding an ounce of that
want inside him to do so. It was time to let the woman make the
moves again…at least for as long as he could stand it.

“Don’t move.”

Tonya Ramagos

The hint of authority that accompanied her words had his balls

drawing up tight even as a new fear snaked through his system. He
could fall helmet over fireproof boots in love with this woman so fast
it would make his head spin. He wasn’t exactly sure why the
realization scared him. He wasn’t afraid of falling in love again. Like
he’d told her at dinner, life was too short not to take chances. No, it
was the knowledge that he’d yet to be completely open with this
woman that was likely creating that fear. What if he fell for her and
she pushed him away because of his job…his real job, not his
handyman gig on the side?

Vowing to have a good long talk with her as soon as possible, but

damn sure not now, Davon pushed all thoughts of the outside world
from his mind and surrendered. He raised his arms above his head as
she eased her upper body off his. She watched him, obviously waiting
for him to move, seeming pleased when he didn’t, and slowly wiggled
her body down.

Her delicate hands ignited a path of fire down his chest, leaving a

trail of scalding flesh in their wake. She dragged them down to the
waistband of his shorts, and, just when he prayed she would push
them beneath the elastic, she pushed them up again.

“That’s better.” She straightened on top of him, a vixen smile

spread her luscious lips as she glanced up at him from beneath her
lashes. “Now I can touch you, too.”

Davon narrowed his eyes as he gazed at her. “Are you trying to

tease me, Sierra?” She was doing a damn good job of it. Never had a
woman put him this close to the edge this fast. Tasting her, feeling the
muscles of her cunt tighten around his tongue, and feasting on her
sweet cream had already drove him to the point of near madness. Now
she was touching him, exploring his flesh, and looking at his body as
if it were the greatest thing she’d ever seen.

“Who? Me?” Her tone was one of pure innocence as she dragged

her nails up his torso to circle his nipples.

Beneath Their Uniforms

Her playfulness fascinated him. There wasn’t a damn thing about

her that was innocent. She knew damn well what she was doing to
him, and she was enjoying every freaking second of it.

“You said you like tan lines, right?”
“I did.”
“Well, I don’t think I told you what I find to be the sexiest part of

a man.”

“You didn’t, but I’m hoping whatever it is you’re finding the

evidence of it now.”

She laughed, a sound full of heat and sultry promises that he knew

he’d hear echo in his mind for a very long time. “Oh, I am. As a
matter of fact, the evidence is overwhelming.” She trailed a nail to the
center of his chest, twirled it in the hairs she found there, and then
flattened her palm over his heart. “I’m crazy about men with a hairy
chest. A lot of guys shave their chest these days. They just don’t
understand what a playground they’re taking away from a woman.”

Sweet Jesus, if she thought his chest was a playground, he could

only hope she claimed his cock as her own personal amusement park.
Her fingers glided through the hairs on his chest. The heat from her
touch seeped into his flesh, sizzled through his system, and burst into
an inferno in his already aching cock.

“You don’t mind if I play, do you?” Her gaze lifted to meet his as

her fingers started a torturously slow decent down his torso.

“Not as long as I get to pay you back for this later.” He’d wanted

to take his time with her before, to draw out the night, and tease her
into begging the way she was doing to him now. Geezus, it astonished
him how close to begging he really was.

She waggled her brows at him and skimmed the tip of one

fingernail down the path of his chest hair, following it as it narrowed
into a trail that disappeared beneath the waistband of his shorts. Her
nail stopped there to skim along the elastic.

Tonya Ramagos

“It’s a deal.” His cock jumped beneath the material of his shorts

just as her gaze slid down again, and she giggled. “See, I’m betting
what I really want to play with his hidden beneath there.”

“Baby, I’m dying to find out.” The woman was killing him. He

cursed his decision to let her make the moves again even as he fisted
his hands to fight off the temptation to touch her. Another second of
her teasing him and he would lose the battle. He wanted to grab her,
yank off his shorts, and thrust his aching cock into her beautifully
smiling mouth.

He lifted his head right along with his hips as the tips of her

fingers finally hooked in the waistband of his shorts and briefs. She
scooted backward down his legs, taking both with her. His cock burst
onto the scene with the stiffness of a flagpole jutting from between his
legs. She made it as far as his knees with his shorts and briefs before
she abandoned the act of getting him naked and curled her slender
fingers around his shaft.

Davon’s head fell back to the mattress at the first touch of her

delicate hand fisted around his cock. Her slender fingers trailed down
the rigid length of his shaft, curiously exploring each shift of the
bulging veins until she reached the hair-roughened sac below. It
French-fried his brain, left him unable to think and barely able to
breathe.

“Is that better? I couldn’t have you dying on me.”
Geezus, better didn’t begin to describe it and, yet, he felt as if

death by sexual torment was still a very real possibility. Her fist
tightened around his shaft, slid to the base of his cock, and he forgot
his own name. He felt her hardened nipples brush his thighs as she
leaned over him. Every muscle in his body constricted when she
swiped the tip of her tongue over the head of his cock.

Davon jerked, a low, guttural moan escaped his throat, and he

raised his arms, dropping them to the mattress on either side of his
hips a nanosecond before he grabbed onto her. He’d told himself he
would let her make the moves for as long as he could stand it. That

Beneath Their Uniforms

time was quickly running out, but he could hang on just a few minutes
longer, couldn’t he?

She probed the slit in his cockhead with the tip of her tongue, and

he gritted his teeth at the riot of tormenting pleasure that blasted
through his shaft. His lips parted on another moan and he damn near
bit off his tongue when her mouth closed around the mushroomed
head of his cock.

Her tongue caressed the foreskin and then traced the pulsing vein

that ran along the underside of his shaft as her lips glided down his
cock. Her felt her jaw relax as she took in his length, felt his cockhead
bump the back of her throat, and felt that relax too as she swallowed it
down.

“Mother of God.” Her mouth was like liquid silk, and he couldn’t

stop himself from reaching for her this time. He buried his hands in
her hair, fisting the strands as she pushed against his hold and drew
her mouth back up his shaft.

She stopped with only the head of his cock between her lips,

flicked her tongue over the ultrasensitive slit, and then swallowed his
full length again in a single plunge of her head that drew a sound from
his throat he’d never heard himself make before. He couldn’t tell if
she laughed or hummed, but whatever she did, the vibrations traveled
down his shaft straight to his balls. Pressure built, threatening to blow
out his cockhead, and he tried to think about the appropriate PSI
needed in a fire hose to put out a structure fire to keep his own hose
from firing its wad into her mouth.

It didn’t help. He knew nothing would as long as her lips, tongue,

and throat continued to control his cock. Geezus, she’d said his
tongue should come with a warning label. Her mouth should be
fucking illegal!

Time ran out. Not wanting to come until his tortured cock was

buried deep inside her sultry body, he used his hold on her hair to pull
her head up. Her mouth made a soft pop as it released his cock, and
she stared up his body through narrowed eyes.

Tonya Ramagos

“I wasn’t through playing.”
“Sweetheart, your playground was about to get flooded.” She

giggled as he released her hair in favor of curling his hands around the
top of her arms and dragging her up his body. “That’s not where I
want to come in you right now.” He flipped her over, regaining his
position on top, and kicked his shorts and briefs off his legs, catching
the shorts before they hit the floor. He pulled his wallet from the back
pocket, got out a condom, and fisted it.

“I could argue that you already had your dinner, but you just stole

the chance for me to have mine.”

Her sultry purr was nearly enough to make him bury his cock in

her mouth again and let her feast on him until the sun came up.
Instead, he cupped the side of her face and brushed a tender kiss to
her swollen lips. “Next time, okay? Right now, if I don’t get my cock
inside your sweet pussy I’m going to go crazy.”

He didn’t miss the way her expression softened when he said next

time. He’d gotten the impression since they’d entered her apartment
that some of the fear and uncertainty he’d spotted in her eyes had to
do with what he might think of her once this night was over. He
suspected she was worried he might see her as an easy lay.

As he gazed down at her, that was the last thing to go through his

mind. What he saw was a woman as hot for him as he was for her.
What he prayed would come when the night ended was the chance to
open up to her, tell her the truth about himself, and still hold onto her.
He wanted there to be a next time and a time after that and a time
after that. Geezus, he hadn’t even penetrated his body with more than
his fingers and tongue yet and he already knew being inside her once
would never be enough. It would likely take three, twelve, maybe
fifteen times before his hunger for her even started to ebb.

She swallowed visibly, emotions filling her eyes as she nodded.

“Okay.”

Davon sat up between her legs, his gaze shifting to her pussy. Her

feminine lips were flush, her clit swollen, and a thin layer of cream

Beneath Their Uniforms

glistened on her flesh. The sight compelled him into faster action. He
tore the foil wrapper in his hand with his teeth and pulled out the
condom.

“Do you want me to do it?”
He barked a gruff half laugh as he shook his head and slid the

condom over his dick himself. “No way. If you touch me again right
now, I’m toast.”

She angled her head at him, surprise and something more swirling

in her eyes. “Do you really want this that bad.”

Davon eased over her again and cupped the side of her face.

“Sweetheart, I want you that bad.”

“I want you that bad, too.” Her hands explored his flesh, gliding

up his biceps, over his shoulders, and down his back. “Make love to
me, Davon.”

Make love to me. Her words reverberated in his head as he

reached between their bodies, and curled his fingers around the base
of his shaft. He knew women…at least not ones like her…didn’t say
things like “fuck me.” They used the phrase she’d just used. Still, as
he locked his gaze with hers and experience that first soul-consuming
sensation of sliding his cock inside her pussy, he knew this wouldn’t
be a mere fuck. It wouldn’t be love either, of course. He hadn’t
known her long enough to completely fall even if he did suspect he
was already teetering on that edge. Tonight would fall somewhere
between a fuck and making love, somewhere that should’ve scared
the shit out of him, but somewhere he really wanted to be.

He eased his cock inside her, taking it slow and letting her feel

every inch. She was already amazingly wet again, as if sucking his
cock had come as close to getting her off as it had him. Her juices
lubed the way for him, but not well enough that he didn’t see a dart of
pain shoot through her eyes.

Davon stilled, his arms shaking on either side of her head as he

struggled not to move when what his body demanded was to pound

Tonya Ramagos

ferociously inside her. “Am I hurting you? Geezus, Sierra, don’t let
me hurt you.”

“You’re not. I promise. It’s just that…”
It had been a long time. She didn’t have to finish the sentence for

him to understand. It had apparently been years, seeing as she’d told
him it had been that long since she’d even been on a date. This
woman beneath him didn’t do one-night stands. She might be in bed
with him tonight after knowing him only a few hours, but she wasn’t
the type to fuck and leave. The knowledge of that put a heavy weight
on his shoulders to make sure her first time after so long was a
pleasure she wouldn’t forget.

“We’ll take it slow. We’ve got all night.”
So what if they both had to be at work early in the morning. It

wouldn’t be the first time he’d showed up for a shift at the firehouse
nearly dead on his feet. If it happened tomorrow, it would be because
of that death by sex he’d already determined she was fully capable of
delivering.

She smiled at him as if reading his mind. “We can at least pretend

we do for a while.”

Davon smiled back and started to move, taking it slow as he’d

promised, easing his cock the last few inches into her sodden channel.
Her muscles contracted around his shaft, tormenting his cock with a
fantastical pressure that nearly drove him out of his mind.

“Oh, wow,” she breathed, her hips lifting off the mattress to draw

his cock in deeper still. “That feels so good.”

If felt better than good. Having her silky hot wetness closed

around his throbbing cock was enough to make his eyes roll back in
his head. She lowered her hips and lifted them again, this time more
briskly, and plunged him straight through the door to paradise and
beyond. He was so close, too close. If he moved he’d be done for. If
she didn’t stop moving he’d fall right over the edge.

Davon caught her hips, holding her still while he attempted to

regain control. He slammed his eyes shut and forced his mind back to

Beneath Their Uniforms

the structure fire he’d been fighting in his head before. A one-and-
three-quarter-inch preconnected hoseline would require a streaming
force of water at one-hundred psi. Depending on the fire, the psi could
be increased, but…

“Davon?”
He opened his eyes when she softly said his name and felt himself

grin at the amusement he saw dancing in her eyes.

“You’re trying not to come, aren’t you?”
He was pinning her down with his body, holding her hips in a firm

grip of his hands in a desperate attempt to keep her from moving. The
little minx still found a way to torture him. Her pussy muscles
tightened and then eased around his shaft.

“You’re not helping,” he told her through gritted.
“What were you thinking about?”
Davon thought fast and hated himself for what he said. “How

many nails it takes to fully secure a section of sheetrock to a wall.”

Her eyes closed and her chin lifted on a burst of laughter. “Was it

working?”

“Not a bit.” Because the lie about the nails still tasted bitter on his

tongue, he dipped his head and kissed her.

Her hands slid over his biceps and down his arms to his wrists,

where his hands were still holding her hip to the mattress. She tugged
at his wrists, urging him to let go. He did, and then he was making
slow love to her body with his cock at the same tempo he was to her
mouth with his tongue. Sensing he was closer than she was to coming,
he pushed a hand between their lower bodies and found her clit with
the pad of his thumb. The sound she made at that told him he found
just the right spot to detonate the dynamite inside her.

Davon didn’t just want to feel the explosion when she came

around him, he wanted to hear it. He licked his way out of her mouth,
dragged his tongue down her throat, and arched his back when he
reached her breasts. He took one in his mouth, flicked the tip of his

Tonya Ramagos

tongue back and forth over her beaded nipple, and felt her start to
shudder.

“Oh, yes.”
Her words were nearly lost in a throaty moan as he used the pad

of his thumb to draw pressured circles on her clit. He sucked on her
breast, continuing to flick his tongue over her nipple, and thrust his
cock in and out of her clenching pussy, all in the same slow tempo
that drove him closer and closer to release.

She found it first. Her explosion one he heard and felt. She

screamed her release as the muscles of her pussy convulsed around
his shaft.

Davon lost it. Pleasure, mind-numbing, groan-drawing, paradise-

making pleasure rocketed through him as he filled the condom. Her
muscles continued to contract around his cock, milking his dick until
there was nothing left. No semen, no feeling, and no life.

His heart pounding, his breaths ragged, he slowly let her breast

fall from his mouth as he collapsed on top of her. Seconds that felt
like hours passed before he found the strength to lift his head from
where it had fallen on her shoulder and gaze down at her.

She looked amazing. More strands of her hair had escaped the

binding of her ponytail than ones that had remained. Those strands
were matted with sweat and clinging to her beautiful face and the
pillow beneath her head. Her eyes were closed. Her flesh was flush
and her expression was one of an obviously spent, thoroughly
satisfied woman.

“You’re so fucking beautiful,” he heard himself whisper. “I know

I’ve said that already, but you are.”

Her eyes fluttered open and a smile toyed with the corners of her

lips. “So are you. I know I’ve said that already, but you’ll have to let
me get away with it twice tonight.”

Davon chuckled and eased his hips back, letting his sated,

softening cock slip from her pussy. He regretted the move the instant

Beneath Their Uniforms

her sweet heat was no longer surrounding him. “You’re pushing it,”
he teased, “but I suppose I can let you slide again.”

Her shoulders shook slightly on a silent laugh as her head turned

toward the nightstand. He watched her gaze at the bedside clock, saw
the time register in her eyes, and quickly tossed his options around in
his mind. There were only two. He could stay or he could go. Staying
would take what they had started tonight to an even more intimate
level. Going so soon after having sex with her might send her the
wrong signal.

“Jumping jellybeans, it’s after one already.”
Davon snorted a laugh. “Jumping jellybeans? I like that one.” She

met his gaze again and decided he might not have been honest about
everything with her tonight, but he would be about this. “Yeah, I
noticed that, too. I’m, huh, not sure what to do now.”

Surprise flickered though her eyes, but then her eyes narrowed

and got that vixen look in them he remembered seeing in her smile
when she’d been teasing them before she’d sucked his cock. “What
do you want to do now?”

If he was going for honesty, he figured he might as well go all the

way. He lifted his upper body off of her, supported the weight on one
arm next to hers, and covered one of her breasts with his free hand.
“Go for another round.”

That got him a wickedly breathless laugh. “I can’t believe I’m

saying this after the two orgasms you’ve already given me tonight,
but me, too.”

Thank you sweet baby Jesus.
It would take him a few minutes before his cock would be hard

enough to shove inside her again, but a little touching and kissing and
he’d be ready in no time. He gave the breast in his hand a gentle
squeeze, watched as her eyes slowly closed, and listened to the sweet
moan that escaped her parted lips. Then he swallowed his
disappointment when her hand covered his, pulled it from her breast,
and her lips parted enough to speak.

Tonya Ramagos

“Except, we both have work in a few hours.”
Davon sighed and nodded. “You’re telling me to put the bad boy

back in his cage, aren’t you?”

She giggled. “And I have to put my bad girl back in hers.”
He rolled off of her, knowing if he stayed on top of her feeling the

soft curves of her amazing body another second, the bad boy in him
might take over far more than the man in him would ever allow. He
stretched out next to her, propping his head on one hand as he gazed
down at her. “You’re right, of course, but you did ask what I wanted.”

“In a perfect world, we would both be off work tomorrow and

able to lie around in bed doing whatever we wanted to each other all
day.”

Holy smokes! Was that really her idea of a perfect world? He

couldn’t honestly say that would have been his description if she had
asked him to define his, but he could damn sure say it sounded like
perfection.

Inspiration struck and he played along. “In an almost perfect

world, I would have a change of clothes in my car so I could at least
stay the night and leave for work from here in the morning.”

She sighed and sat up enough to wind an arm around his neck.

“But in the not-so-perfect world we live in, we do have to work and
you don’t have a change of clothes.”

“So if I tell you now that I have to leave, no matter how badly I

want to stay, you won’t think I’m scum?”

“No, I’ll think you’re being a responsible adult.” She smiled as

she brushed a kiss to his lips before unwinding her arm from his neck
and easing away.

Davon slid off the side of the bed, detoured into the bathroom he

spotted to dispose of the condom, and stopped at the foot of the bed
where his shorts and briefs had landed. “Just for the record, I hate
being a responsible adult sometimes.”

Beneath Their Uniforms

She laughed as she walked to a chair in the corner of the room,

snagged a robe, and put it on. Davon wanted to cry as all that bronze,
silky flesh disappeared from sight.

“Me, too.” She shot him a smile over her shoulder as she headed

for the bedroom door. “I’ll get your shirt.”

Davon shoved his feet into his tennis shoes and followed her,

loving the way her shapely hips swerved like a well-oiled metronome
when she walked. The robe, despite covering her ample breasts and
the delicious flesh of her upper body, didn’t hide much of the rest of
her. He noted that fact with a supreme satisfaction that had his cock
stirring again inside his shorts when she stopped where she’d tossed
his shirt to the floor. She bent at the waist to scoop it up, offering him
a quick view of the half moons of her perfect, bare ass.

For the first time all night, an image flashed through his mind that

had his heart racing. He saw himself standing in front of her, saw
Sierra bent over just that way with her luscious lips closed on his
cock, and saw Neil moving in behind her, his dick in his hand and
ready to thrust into her tight ass.

“Is something wrong?”
Davon blinked and the image vanished, replaced with the sight of

her holding his shirt out for him to take. He muttered a thanks and
pulled the shirt over his head before curling an arm around her waist
and yanking her against him.

Dismissing her question because there was no way in hell he

could tell her what he’d really been thinking, he dipped his head and
kissed her. It was a short kiss, a quick brush of tongues, but even that
was enough to bring his cock back to its rock-solid state.

“When can I see you again?”
She chewed her lip thoughtfully for a moment as if she were

going through her week’s schedule in her mind. “I have a PTA
meeting tomorrow night and a girls’ softball game on Tuesday. How
about Wednesday night?”

Tonya Ramagos

Davon knew the next three days were likely to be some of the

longest of his life. “Wednesday it is. How about my place? I’ll make
dinner.”

Both her brows lifted over shock-filled eyes. “You can cook?”
He grinned at her. “Like a master chef.”
She barked a laugh. “Oh, this I have to taste.”
Speaking of tasting, Davon wasn’t about to walk away from her

without getting one last sample for the night. He closed his mouth
over hers, drawing the kiss out longer this time. Her arms wound
around his neck and he angled his head to deepen the kiss. In seconds,
she was slithering in his embrace, her belly grinding against his cock,
and yep, no doubt about it, he was fully ready for that second round. It
took every ounce of control he possessed to bring an end to the
moment instead of scooping her into his arms and carrying her back
to her bed.

Instead, he forced himself to rest his forehead to hers as he gazed

into her eyes. “Put a change of clothes in your car just in case?”

The laugh she gave him this time was only partly amused and

wholly heated. “I’m starting think that might be a good idea.”

Remembering they had exchanged cell numbers back at the

restaurant, he made himself let go of her. “I’ll call you with the
address before Wednesday.”

She nodded and turned to watch him as he headed for the door.

“Davon.”

He stopped in the act of walking out the door and shot a look at

her over his shoulder.

“I don’t regret dinner,” she told him again.
He held her gaze for a long moment, letting her see the happiness

that had filled him at that statement. “Neither do I.”

Without another word, Davon left her apartment and chalked

today up as one he knew he’d never forget.

Beneath Their Uniforms

Chapter Four

Sierra groaned with the combination of her alarm clock and

ringing cell phone drew her from a sound sleep at five-thirty the next
morning. She rolled over, slapped the off button on the clock, and
glanced at the caller ID on her cell before answering it with a groggy,
“Hello?”

“Sierra? I woke you, didn’t I?” Margie Lancaster’s too perky

voice for so early in the morning carried through the cellular waves.
“I figured you would be up by now.”

Who in their right mind got up before five-thirty any morning?

Sierra raked her hair from her face as she sat up and bit her tongue on
the question, determined to be polite to the parent president of
Cherish Middle School’s PTA.

“My alarm went off at the same time you called.”
“Oh, good. Then it was time for you to get up anyway.” Sierra

gritted her teeth as the woman’s overly bubbly voice grated her
nerves. “I called to let you know we’ve had to cancel tonight’s
meeting. That stomach bug that’s been going around the school
apparently made it home to some of the parents. There’s just too
many of them sick. We won’t have hardly anyone in attendance.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.” And glad that stomach bug hadn’t made it

around to her, yet. It seemed to be only a twenty-four-hour thing, but
a few of her students had caught it and claimed it to be a horrible day
spent in bed.

“One of the things we were going to discuss at tonight’s meeting

is the end-of-school fling. Several of the other parents and I have been
talking and we thought it would be fantastic to offer the kids

Tonya Ramagos

something new to do this year. You know, besides the face painting
booth and the games and slide we have every year?”

Yes, Sierra did know. She’d offered up a few different

suggestions in recent years, all of which had been immediately
dismissed by the parents involved in the PTA. She’d thought it would
be cool to create a living foosball table on the football field using
blowup figures to mark some of the spots and letting the kids occupy
others to block the ball kicked in by a student on each end. She’d also
suggested a rock climbing wall and mini skate rink, both of which had
been deemed to be too dangerous by the PTA counsel.

“What did you have in mind?”
“Oh, you’re going to love this.” Margie paused dramatically. “Fire

truck rides! We’ll have to get the fire department to agree, of course,
but I know they give them to kids when the firehouse holds its big
shindig for Fire Prevention Week. They could hook up their hoses to
the hydrants, too, and let the kids play in the water or spray them
around. Don’t you think it’s a fantastic idea?”

Sierra grimaced as she swung her legs over the edge of the bed.

They were talking about kids in middle school, not elementary. Sure,
the boys would probably enjoy finding out how a fire truck or hose
worked for all of about three minutes before they got bored. As for
the girls, they’d likely only get involved so they could drool over the
firefighters.

Freaking men in uniform.
Sierra scowled. “Don’t you think we should save something like

that for next year’s career day instead of the end-of-year fling?”

“No, we don’t.” The snippiness in Margie’s tone had Sierra lifting

a brow as she got to her feet. “We think it will be perfect for the end-
of-school fling and you’re the perfect PTA member to set it up.”

“Me?” Sierra pointed a finger at her chest even though the other

woman couldn’t see it. “Why me?” The instant the question left her
mouth she knew she shouldn’t have asked. Closing her eyes, she sat

Beneath Their Uniforms

back down on the edge of the bed as Margie gave her the answer
she’d been dreading.

“Because you’re dating that paramedic, of course. And, oh, my,

how rude of me. I completely forgot to ask about how you’re doing
after that horrible accident you had Friday night.”

“I’m fine, thanks.” As she’d suspected, her muscles had been stiff

and achy on Saturday, but she’d been feeling much better on Sunday.

Yeah, better enough to have hot monkey sex for half of last night

with a guy you met at a country club pool.

“That’s good to hear. We were all so worried about you.”
Sure, they’d been worried enough that her phone hadn’t rang once

since Friday night. Not that she’d cared, but…

“Allow me to be the first to thank you for talking to your

boyfriend.”

“Margie, he’s not—” My boyfriend, she’d intended to say, but the

woman bulldozed over her.

“And let us know the second you get things set up with the fire

department. I’ll let you get ready for school now. It was great talking
with you.”

The woman hung up before Sierra could utter another word. She

pulled the phone from her ear and stared at it as her mind attempted to
sort out what had just happened. She’d been railroaded. That’s what
had just happened. Sure, Margie had made it sound like a request at
first, but the woman hadn’t given Sierra a chance to say no. She
hadn’t even given her a moment to explain!

And how exactly are you going to explain that kiss to the whole

school today?

Sierra flung herself back on the bed, tossed her cell aside, and

covered her face with her hands. She’d managed to forget just how
badly she’d been dreading returning to school today. How was she
going to explain away a kiss that had been photographed and posted
on every social media site the students and more than half the faculty
at Cherish Middle School frequented?

Tonya Ramagos

As she lay there with her eyes closed and her mind reeling, an

image of Davon Reed formed in behind her lids. Thank God no one
knew she’d brought him home with her last night. That would’ve only
made matters worse. Not that she regretted last night. That realization
surprised her enough to open her eyes, even if she did just stare at the
ceiling. What she’d done last night with Davon had been as out-of-
character and spontaneous for her as the kiss she’d laid on paramedic
Neil Ingram, expect Davon wasn’t a man who wore a uniform. He
was a gorgeous hunk of a man without a uniform that had shown her a
great time. He’d made her feel things last night she’d thought she’d
forgotten how to feel. He’d been sweet and nice and…

She laughed so hard she nearly doubled over with it as she sat up

and got to her feet again. Lucky for her, Davon couldn’t have heard
those thoughts or he’d be bringing his “bad boy” out to play again.
Except, that wasn’t lucky for her. His “bad boy” had been a lot of fun
to play with, even if he’d still be sweet and nice the whole time.

“We should’ve been irresponsible adults, Davon,” she told him,

even though he wasn’t anywhere around. “We should’ve stayed right
here in bed together all day. Then I wouldn’t have to face the shit
storm I’m about to walk into.”

* * * *

Neil left Maddie manning, or in her case, womanning, Ambulance

42 as he parked it in the fire lane outside Cherish Middle School.
He’d told the captain he had some personal business he needed to take
care of and would be taking the ambulance and Maddie with him in
case a call came through and they needed to respond.

The fluttering of nerves in his gut as he pulled open the door of

the school and stepped into the quiet hallway surprised him. He’d
gotten the school right on the first try. A quick, unrevealing
conversation with the office secretary had told him that Sierra

Beneath Their Uniforms

Matthews was indeed a teacher at Cherish Middle School. Now, he
needed only to find which room was hers.

Deciding the secretary had been helpful so far and remembering

the sign on the door he’d opened that had told him all visitors must
sign in at the office before proceeding, he found the office and walked
inside. A middle-age woman with gray streaking her otherwise
brunette hair smiled at him in greeting as she stood from behind her
desk.

“Can I help you?”
“Good morning, ma’am. I’m looking for Sierra Matthews. Could

you tell me where I can find her?”

The woman’s gaze flicked to his uniform, lit when she noticed the

Cherish FD Paramedic logo on his left breast pocket, and her smile
widened. “Absolutely, Mr…”

“Ingram,” he supplied. “Neil Ingram.”
“Absolutely, Mr. Ingram. Miss Matthews’s room is down the

seventh grade hallway, number seven-zero-one.” The woman walked
around the counter separating her desk from the waiting area of the
office and walked to the wall behind him.

Neil turned and realized she was pointing at a map of the school in

a picture frame on the wall.

“You’re here.” She tapped a blue dot with the tip of the pin in her

hand. “You’ll go down this hall, take a right when you get to the end,
and then take a left at the second hallway on your left. Miss
Matthews’s room will be the first one on your right.”

“Does she have a class going on now?”
“She does.” The woman glanced at the clock on the far wall

behind her desk. “The bell will ring in about ten minutes to change
classes. You can go ahead to her room, though.” The woman’s eyes
twinkled. “I’m sure she won’t mind the interruption.”

Neil wished he could be so sure, but he didn’t tell the nice

secretary that. Instead, he thanked her, exited the office, and followed
the mental map she’d painted in his head. He found Sierra’s room

Tonya Ramagos

easily and stood for a long moment watching her through the small
rectangular glass in the door. He’d found himself wondering since
Friday if he’d played up how truly beautiful she was in his mind. One
look at her amazing legs peeking from beneath a conservative knee-
length navy skirt, trim waist, and incredible breasts hugged by a no-
frills pale pink blouse and he knew she was as cardiac-arresting as
he’d remembered. Though he could only see her side profile, he could
tell the expression on her angelic face was one of pure concentration
mixed with a hint of excitement, as if she truly enjoyed whatever
subject she was teaching her students.

He started not to knock, figuring he’d wait outside until the bell

rang, but one of the students in the front row caught sight of him
through the window and alerted Sierra to his presence. He knocked
after all and slowly opened the door.

To Sierra’s credit, she hid her shock well. The only indications he

saw of it were in the hazel eyes that had been haunting his dreams
since Friday night and the quick intake of breath he heard clearly
from across the room.

Neil loved movies, especially the dialogue. Before he’d walked

into the room, he’d had an entire screenplay worked out in his mind.
Then he’d locked gazes with Sierra again and every word he’d
intended to say turned to dust.

“Hi.” It was the stupidest thing he could’ve said. Forget that it was

the same greeting he’d given her when he’d slid into the passenger
seat of her wrecked vehicle Friday. Somehow, he’d managed to say it
more casually that night, though. When he said it today, however, he
sounded like a ten-year-old boy nervously trying to talk to the biggest
crush of his life.

He obviously wasn’t the only one that thought it was stupid. The

room exploded in whispers and giggles among the students that had
him itching to shuffle his feet, shove his hands in his pockets, and
bow his head.

Beneath Their Uniforms

Sierra glanced at the students and then gave him a warning look.

“Hello, Mr. Ingram.”

At least she remembers my last name. That has to mean

something, doesn’t it?

“I’m in the middle of a class right now. If you wouldn’t mind

waiting in the hall until…”

“Miss Matthews?” The student in the front row that had spotted

him through the door window, a pretty little thing with sunshine hair
and a pug nose, held up her hand.

Sierra shifted her attention to the girl. “Yes, Paige?”
But Paige’s focus was no longer on her teacher. It was zoned in on

Neil. “You’re the guy from the wreck, aren’t you? The one Miss
Matthews kissed when you tried to rescue her.”

Neil swallowed a laugh, figuring it was the last thing he should do

if he expected to earn any brownie points with the teacher that was
now staring at him with bullets shooting from her eyes. He didn’t
know what to say. Thankfully, or probably not, another student piped
up before he could say a word.

“That’s him. I should know. I took the picture.”
Oh, fuck.
Neil glanced at the second girl, recognized her as the child he’d

seen at the accident a nanosecond before Sierra had rested her
forehead on his chest, and understood more than he wanted to. The
snickers and whispers started again and he knew. That girl had
probably showed all of her friends and half the school the picture
she’d taken of him and Sierra kissing and Sierra had no doubt been
hearing about it all day.

“Class, that’s enough.” The authority Sierra put in her tone

reminded him of the teachers that had gotten onto him for his bad
behavior when he’d been going to school.

The class shut up.
“Neil, I can talk to you in a minute if…”

Tonya Ramagos

This time it was the sounding of the bell that cut her off. Neil

moved out of the way of the door, expected to be toppled by students
rushing to get to their next class. None of the students moved.

Sierra’s gaze slid over her class and he could’ve sworn he saw the

corner of her lips twitch just a little. “Stop being nosy-bodies and get
to your next class. And don’t forget the homework I assigned. I
expect every one of you to turn it in as soon as you walk into class
tomorrow.”

The students left their seats, most of them staring him down as

they passed him on their way out the door. He heard a couple of the
girls whisper how cute he was and swallowed another laugh. But it
was the one kid that stopped, a boy with ginger haircut much like his
own, that really got to him.

The boy looked up at him with a stern face that was going to be

formidable in another ten or years. “Be careful with her. She’s a great
woman. You hurt her and you’ll have to answer to me.”

Too surprised to know what to say, Neil managed a, “Yes, sir.”
The boy nodded and left the classroom.
“Oh, my God.”
Neil turned his attention to Sierra and found her leaning against

the edge of her desk with her head in her hands.

“I’m not sure if I should apologize to you or kick your a—butt,”

she quickly amended as she lifted her head and shot a glance at the
now empty classroom.

Deciding the only thing she could be possibly considering

apologizing to him for was the boy’s warning, he grinned and closed
the distance between them, making sure to stop at a companionable
space away her. He shouldn’t have moved, not that being so far away
from her had been any different, but now that he stood closer, all he
could think about was pulling her into his arms and finding her mouth
for a repeat of the kiss that had been driving him insane since Friday
night.

Beneath Their Uniforms

“If you’re thinking of apologizing for your boyfriend, he’s just

being protective over his woman. It’s completely understandable.”

She snorted a laugh and shook her head. “What are you doing

here, Neil?”

“It was the only way I knew to find you. Apparently, I needed to

see you again more than I realized.”

Way more. As in never-let-his-eye-lose-sight-of-her-again more.

He didn’t know how in the world a woman had gotten her claws into
his so deep with a single kiss, but Sierra Matthews had done it. He
hadn’t been able to get her out of his head for more than ten minutes
in the last three days. He’d gone to sleep every night dreaming about
her and woke up every morning with a raging hard-on and a head
filled with thoughts about her.

“I got the impression just now that I’m the one who should be

apologizing,” he went on. “I had no idea that kiss was…”

“Caught on digital film?” she finished for him and rolled her eyes.

“Not to mention posted on every social media site on the Internet.
Yeah, it’s all over the school and probably every other school in the
county.”

“I’m sorry.” God, he couldn’t imagine the shit she’d been

swallowing since she’d walked into the building that morning. Kids
could be relentless in their teasing of other kids, but to find out
something like that about one of their teachers…

She smiled, but it didn’t stretch far enough to reach her dazzling

eyes. “You have nothing to apologize for. You were doing your job. I
kissed you.” She sighed. “And now I have to endure the talk until they
find something else to gossip about.”

Neil gave into the urge to shove his hands in the pockets of his

uniform pants, figuring it was better than giving into the need to reach
for her. “And I made it worse by coming here today.”

“Probably.” She shook her head and then nodded. “Definitely.”
“I am sorry,” he said again, putting every ounce of sincerity in his

tone that he could find in himself. He hated knowing she was going

Tonya Ramagos

through all of this because of him and loathed the fact that the talk
would only get worse now that a classroom of students and an office
secretary knew he’d come to see her.

“Good morning, Miss Matthews.”
Neil glanced over his shoulder as a boy entered the room and

headed for one of the desks.

Sierra shot him a smile. “Good morning, David.” Her focus

returned to Neil. “Believe it or not, I’m kind of glad you stopped by. I
could use your help.”

“Name it.”
“The PTA has decided they would like to have a couple of fire

trucks at the end-of-year fling next month. They would like for the
kids to be able to take a ride in the truck, play with the hoses, and that
sort of thing. Do you think that would be possible?”

More students filed into the room and Neil heard the whispering

and snickering start again. “It might be.” Station 5 paid visits to the
school often, though it was more typically the elementary schools on
their fun day or the high schools during career day.

“Could you check for me?” Hope swirled in her hazel eyes and

Neil knew, even if he’d had the slightest inkling to, which he certainly
didn’t, that he wouldn’t say no. He started to tell her as much when
one of the students interrupted.

“Hey, aren’t you that guy that—”
“Yes,” Sierra answered the kid’s question before it fully left his

mouth, her voice full of patience. “He’s the guy. Now, class. If you
will take your seats and settle down until the bell rings, I will be with
you shortly.”

Her attention once again returned to Neil and she repeated her

question, even if she did word it differently. “Will you check for me?”

The “yes” was on the tip of Neil’s tongue, but he hesitated to say

it as he caught wind of some of the whispers going around the class.

I wonder if they’ve been on a date.
I wonder if they’ve had sex.

Beneath Their Uniforms

Do you think they’re in love?
I bet they did a whole lot more than kiss that night.
The first wonder was the one that stuck in his mind. He would be

a pig to do it. He knew it with a certainty that would have his
grandmother rolling in her grave. Still, he couldn’t stop himself.

He took a full step closer to her, watched as shock shot through

the heat that swam into her eyes, and knew the attraction he was
feeling for this woman wasn’t a one-sided deal. He lowered his voice,
hoping none of the students would hear him when he said, “Have
dinner with me tomorrow night and I’ll talk to the captain about it on
my next shift at the firehouse.”

Her eyes widened and a spark of temper replaced the shock, but

the heat remained. “I can’t.”

Her answer came far too quickly for believability. Neil angled his

head and let his gaze travel over the line of her jaw, up her chin, and
linger on her lips before dragging it back to her eyes. Oh, yeah, that
kiss had been on her mind, too. Maybe not quite as much as his, but
she hadn’t forgotten about it.

“Why not?”
“I’m, um…” Her gaze flicked to her students that had grown

quiet, many of them leaning so far forward in their desks that Neil
wondered how they weren’t falling on their noses.

He had an idea what she wanted to say, but was holding back. She

was seeing someone else. “Is it official?” He hoped the kids on the
front row that might be able to hear them didn’t pick up on the point
of the question.

He could tell a part of her wanted to say yes, she was officially

dating someone else, but he got the impression it would be a lie. A
woman like her wouldn’t have kissed him the way she’d done at the
accident scene if she’d been involved with someone else. It had only
been three days ago, too. The chances of her starting to officially date
a man in that short of a time, no matter how spectacular she was, were
just too slim.

Tonya Ramagos

Her slender shoulders rose and fell on a heavy sigh as she briefly

closed her eyes. “No.”

Neil grinned. “Then you’re telling me I still have a chance with

you?”

The corners of her lips twitched at that, but she didn’t smile.

“That’s not what I said.”

“I’m getting the feeling I failed at becoming one of your favorite

people on the planet,” he told her, remembering what she’d said about
the cop that had watched her kiss him. Surely that wasn’t the guy she
was talking about. “You’re not giving me much of a chance to change
that, though.”

“Come on, Miss Matthews,” one of the female students on the

front row said. “The guy is hot. You’d be silly not to go on a date
with him.”

The other students, hearing that comment, started a chant that had

Neil biting back a grin even as he made himself a mental note to treat
this class to something special before the school year ended.

“Go! Go! Go!”
Sierra dragged her tongue between her bottom lip and teeth as she

stared at him, amusement mixing with the continued heat in her eyes.
“Fine. You win.” She held up a finger as the class cheered. “But, you
have to promise to talk to your captain for me.”

“Do you like Mexican?”
She blinked at him, obviously not expecting the question. “Yes, I

love it.”

“Amigos, seven o’clock?”
She shook her head. “It’ll have to be later than that. I have a

softball game. Make it eight.”

He nodded. “Eight it is. Where do I pick you up?”
She studied him for a long moment before she replied, “I’ll meet

you at the one across the bridge. It has the best food of the three
locations in the area.”

Beneath Their Uniforms

“Then I’ll see you at eight across the bridge tomorrow night.” Neil

turned and gave the students a big grin. “Thanks, guys and gals. I
couldn’t have pulled that off without you.” He pivoted, still grinning
as the students cheered again and the sound of Sierra’s groan followed
him out of the classroom.

Tonya Ramagos

Chapter Five

Sierra pulled into the parking lot of Amigos Mexican Restaurant

at ten minutes before eight and spotted Neil immediately. She shut off
the flashback that instantly played in her head, the one where she’d
come out of the country club two days ago to find Davon leaning
against the trunk of his car looking like homemade sex, and found an
empty slot several spaces down from Neil. She cut the engine, tossed
her keys in her purse, and got out. Her gaze locked with his down the
lot as she made her way toward him. When a slow, seductive smile
unfolded on his lips and her belly went all wonky on her, she dropped
her attention to his feet.

So much for that idea.
Her vision betrayed her as it insisted on doing a slow climb from

what appeared in the distance to be well-worn tennis shoes, black
slacks that hugged his powerful legs and hung low on his narrow hips,
to a navy blue polo straining over a muscular torso that made her
mouth water.

Just because he’s not in a uniform tonight doesn’t mean you can

let your guard down.

The mental warning helped as she got close enough to see his

Southern Comfort eyes in the slowly fading sunlight. She didn’t get
woozy this time, certainly not like she’d done the moment he’d
crawled into her car at the accident scene on Friday, probably because
she’d managed to keep her temper simmering ever since he’d showed
up in her classroom yesterday morning.

Beneath Their Uniforms

She stopped at a safe distance from him, dragged her gaze to the

car at his back, and lifted a brow even as jealousy twisted with the
butterflies that refused to settle in her stomach. “Nice wheels.”

He shot a glance over his shoulder at the sleek black Corvette

convertible. “Thanks.” He tipped his chin in the direction of her car.
“Rental?”

Sierra lifted a shoulder. “I had to have something to drive until the

insurance settlement is complete.” Unwilling to give an inch, she
crossed her arms beneath her breasts and angled her head. “I’m here,
early, in fact. You’ve blackmailed me into a date. I can give you one
hour. I suppose it’s your choice if that time is spent out here in the
parking lot or inside across a dinner table.”

He winced. “Ouch! I didn’t blackmail you, Sierra.”
“What would you call it? I asked you for help. You agreed to give

it to me on the condition that I come on this date with you.”

“Would it help if I confessed to being a pig?”
It might have if Sierra had been able to believe even for a second

that he truly was a pig. She wanted to and had been trying to since
he’d walked out of her classroom yesterday morning. Being angry
with him had made it easier to tamp down the anticipation at seeing
him again that she hadn’t wanted to feel.

“Only if it’s the truth.”
“Okay, how about this for truth?” He straightened and closed the

distance between them in a single, long stride, stopping close enough
that his body heat wrapped around her. He smelled clean and fresh
and positively male and it filled her head with the image of naked
bodies and rumpled sheets.

He didn’t touch her. He didn’t have to. Getting that close to her

and gazing down at her through those Southern Comfort eyes full of
apology and longing was enough. That intoxicated feeling she
remembered all too well from the moment she’d first met him came
rushing back with a potency that nearly made her stagger. Her

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heartbeat picked up pace, her nipples beaded, and juices pooled in her
pussy.

“I saw an opportunity and I took it. I haven’t been able to get you

out of my head since you kissed me.” A boyishly mischievous smile
stretched his lips. “Honestly, I haven’t wanted to get you out of my
head.”

“That kiss was a mistake.”
It had been a very, very huge mistake! She hadn’t been able to get

it out of her mind either. Even in the hours she’d been with Davon,
she’d had to fight to keep that kiss from weaseling its way into her
thoughts. The times Neil had crossed her mind that night had made
her feel guilty. Davon was nice and sweet, even if he didn’t like it
when she called him that. He was tender and caring and considerate
and he didn’t deserve being with a woman whose thoughts were
divided by another man.

Neil touched her, just the ends of her hair. That touch sent electric

heat zinging to her roots to rain fiery embers of desire through her
body. “It didn’t feel like a mistake to me.” His voice had grown husky
as if getting this close to her had amped his arousal to the umpteenth
power the way it had done hers. “Unless that guy, the cop standing
outside your driver window that day, was the one you were supposed
to be kissing.”

She stiffened. “Hell no!”
That made him chuckle. “In that case, why don’t we take this

inside? I’d like to spend the hour you’ve given me across a dinner
table instead of out here.”

Sierra glanced at her wristwatch. “Fifty minutes now.”
“Are you really going to keep me on the clock?”
She bit back a smile. “You bet.”
“So the only reason you came tonight was so that I would talk to

the captain about getting a couple of trucks involved in the event at
the middle school?”

Beneath Their Uniforms

“I’m not crazy about the PTA’s idea, but they did give me an

assignment. I enlisted your help, but it came with this price. So yes,
that’s the only reason I’m here tonight.”

She could tell by the look in his eyes that he didn’t believe her any

more than she believed herself. She didn’t have to have his assistance
to get the fire department involved in the school’s end-of-year fling.
She could’ve very easily stopped by one of the firehouses and talked
to the shift captain herself. So why hadn’t she? The answer to that
question was one she didn’t want to acknowledge.

“Then I won’t tell you I would’ve helped you regardless of

whether or not you had agreed to this date with me tonight.”

She’d figured as much. It was one more reason why she couldn’t

justify her decision to be here tonight. Not only had she broken a
cemented vow that she’d kept for more than three years when she’d
gone out with Davon Sunday night, but she was blowing that vow to
smithereens even more now by being here with Neil.

What had gotten into her? Sure, she’d had a brush with death, but

what good would surviving that do her if she allowed herself to be
decimated by another man in a uniform?

Neil took her hand in his and led her across the parking lot to the

front door of the restaurant. It was all Sierra could do to keep from
staggering as the contact intensified the already intoxicated feeling
overwhelming her system. It was as if his fingers came equipped with
tiny needles that penetrated her flesh and injected her with a heavy
dose of desire. A part of her—the part that continued to betray
everything she knew to be right and wrong—wanted to protest the
dinner altogether. That part wanted to tell him she would rather spend
the next fifty minutes in the backseat of her rental car with him
steaming up the windows in a bout of wild and crazy sex.

It would be right for her to turn away now. It would be wrong for

her to give this man any hopes that this date would lead to anything
more. It would be right for her to be honest with him. Not that
anything she’d said to him so far had really been a lie. It would be

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wrong of her, potentially devastating to her mind, body, and heart to
get close to him. Sitting across the table from him minutes later, she
attempted to reinstate her resolve that this was as close to this man as
she would allow herself to get again. The trouble came in knowing
even a booth in the middle of a busy restaurant wasn’t going to be far
enough away.

“How much fuel did my showing up yesterday at your classroom

add to the fire you were already fighting at the school?”

Sierra drew her margarita closer and toyed with the straw as she

sat back. “Probably enough to keep it going a day or so longer than it
would have otherwise.”

“I really am sorry about that.” Neil sat across from her painting a

perfect picture of wicked sexy laid-back cool. He’d stretched one arm
along the back of his seat and his other hand was curled around a
glass of Southern Comfort on the rocks. It had been all Sierra could
do not to burst out laughing when he’d ordered the drink. “I had no
idea that girl at the scene was one of your students.”

“She’s a great girl. Smart, too, though her grades don’t often

reflect that. If she spent more time concentrating on her school work
than gossiping, I don’t doubt she’d be an honor roll student. Be
grateful your job doesn’t consist of more than a hundred teenagers
that get serious kicks out of discovering one of their teachers crossed
a forbidden line.”

He picked up his glass, sipped, and looked at her over the rim, his

eyes twinkling with something she couldn’t define. “Firefighters and
paramedics can be just as relentless at getting serious kicks out of
discovering one of their own crossed the same forbidden line. I
suppose the only difference is that line stretched outside of work for
you, but it was on the job for me.”

Sierra knew she shouldn’t smile at that, but she couldn’t help

herself. “The guys at the firehouse have been giving you hell, huh?”

He grinned as he lowered his glass. “Nothing I can’t handle or

didn’t expect. The captain was the only one that worried me.”

Beneath Their Uniforms

Sierra felt her jaw drop as surprise skated through her system. The

waitress arrived with the plate of beef and cheese nachos with extra
jalapenos they’d ordered. She waited for the woman to leave the table
before she asked, “Did I get you in some kind of trouble?”

His grin stretched wider as he reached for a loaded tortilla chip.

“Nothing I could handle.”

“Come on, Neil. Seriously.”
What if she’d gotten him fired? But no, if that had happened, he

wouldn’t have been in his uniform when he’d showed up at the school
yesterday. That also meant he hadn’t gotten suspended, either. Unless
the true ramifications of the kiss she’d given him hadn’t yet occurred
yesterday morning.

“Captain Knox chewed me out a little and threatened to put me on

report if I ever do, or allow, anything like that to happen again on
duty.” He bit into the nacho and Sierra couldn’t stop her gaze from
dropping to his mouth. She watched his teeth sink into the meat and
cheese and found herself wondering what it would feel like to have
those teeth close around her pulsing nipple. He chewed, swallowed,
and the grin that spread his lips this time was full of boyish mischief.
“I told him, as long as it wasn’t you, I promised not to step out of line
again.”

Sierra laughed and snagged a nacho. “You didn’t really tell him

that.”

He held up three fingers. “Scouts honor.”
“Mmm-hmm, and how long were you a Boy Scout?”
“Ten, maybe twenty minutes.” He shrugged and chuckled when

he heard her snort a laugh around the straw to her margarita. “I tried it
out, but I didn’t take long to decide it wasn’t for me.”

* * * *

She, on the other hand, was definitely for him. The more time Neil

spent in her presence, the more certain of that he became. When she’d

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first walked up to him in the parking lot, he’d seen the temper stewing
in her amazing eyes. Her posture had been stiff as she’d stood a
careful distance away from him and he’d picked up on the stay or go
indecision that had been written all over her angelic face.

Then he’d closed that distance and watched the flames overtake

everything else in her eyes. That’s when he’d known he still had a
shot. She hadn’t agreed to this date tonight simply because she
wanted his help. She’d agreed because she wanted him.

Neil flattened a hand on the small of her back, felt her shiver at

the touch, and bit back a grin as he steered her out the door of the
restaurant and across the nearly empty parking lot. They’d spend
more than an hour and a half inside, at least forty minutes longer than
the time clock she’d set for him. He figured that had to be a plus in his
favor, no matter what version of math she used to calculate.

“I have to admit, I really do like your car.”
“It was an impractical purchase.” He’d stretched his paycheck

tight in order to afford the financing. “But one I don’t regret.”

She smiled as her gaze slid longing over his Corvette. “I wouldn’t

either.”

Neil stopped in the empty spaces between his car and her rental

and used his hand on the small of her back to reel her in. He folded
his other hand over her slender hip and watched as her shoulders rose
and fell in a deep breath before she tipped her head back to look at
him.

“Do you regret tonight?”
Something moved through her eyes very akin to that and his hopes

took a fast dive to his gut. He didn’t understand her. One minute, he
felt like he was making positive headway, and the next, she was
pushing him away.

“I kept my end of the bargain. I’m assuming you will now keep

yours.”

Beneath Their Uniforms

“You’ll have to give me your number so I can call and let you

know what the captain says. That is, unless you want me to come to
the school again.”

“Do you have your cell phone on you?”
Neil shifted, keeping one arm around his waist as he dug in the

pocket of his slacks with his free hand. He thumbed open the keypad
and gave her a questioning look. She rattled off her number and he
punched it in, saved it to his contact list, and pressed the call icon.
The theme from Cops started playing from the purse she’d hooked on
her shoulder.

He lifted brow as she pulled her cell from the purse and silenced

it. “That’s the last ringtone I expected you to have.”

“It’s a reminder that works pretty well for me.”
“A reminder of what? Don’t speed or do anything else to break

the law?”

Her laugh sounded dry and held little amusement. “More like

don’t break my own law.”

“And what is that?”
“Don’t date any man that wears a uniform.”
Neil stared at her as he shoved his phone back in his pocket in

exchange for his keys. A plan to get more time with her tonight had
started to form in his mind, but for the life of him, he couldn’t
remember what it had been now.

“You’re talking about cops,” he asked slowly, knowing she could

see his surprise and confusion written all over his face.

“Cops, firefighters…” She paused and said the word he’d been

dreading. “Paramedics. They’re all the same.”

“Baby, the three are about as different as you can get.”
She shook her head. “But the men that do the jobs aren’t.”
“Sierra…” he started, but she was still shaking her head.
“Don’t bother, Neil. I had a good time tonight and I’ll thank you

in advance for talking to your captain for me.”

“But you don’t want to go out with me again?”

Tonya Ramagos

“I should have never kissed you. It was crazy and spontaneous

and wrong on so many levels. I’m sorry if I led you on in anyway.”

Everything she was saying was sincere. He could tell that by the

look in her eyes and the expression on her beautiful face. He almost
wished he could see a lie there, instead. The plan from moments ago
sprang back to his mind and he decided to give it one last shot. He
hooked his finger though his ring and dangled the keys in the air.

“Have you ever driven a Corvette?”
She blinked her surprise at him and let out a breathless half laugh.

“No.”

“Can you drive a stick?”
“Yes.”
He gave the keys another little swing. “Want to take it around the

block?”

Davon’s jaw would’ve hit the pavement if he’d been standing

with them now. Neil’s Corvette was his baby. No one other than
himself had been behind the wheel of that car since he’d driven it
brand-spanking new off the dealership lot.

He could see the temptation to accept his offer swirling in her

eyes and decided to stroke it a little more. “Come on. It might be your
only chance unless you’re going to go to a car lot and take one on a
test drive.”

She made a raspberry sound with her lips. “If I did that, I’d drive

away with it, and that’s an impractical purchase I can’t make right
now.”

He pulled his arm from around her waist, curled his fingers

around her wrist, and lifted her hand. “Then drive mine.”

Her fingers closed around the keys he put in her palm and her eyes

danced with excitement. She drew her bottom lip thoughtfully
between her teeth and his cock whimpered in agony.

“Maybe just around the block.”
Neil grinned as he stepped back and gestured toward the driver’s

door with a flourish of his arm.

Beneath Their Uniforms

“You’re sure about this?” she asked even as she pulled open the

driver’s door and slid in behind the wheel.

Neil double-timed it to the passenger side and got in. “You’ll

probably need to pull the seat forward. My legs are longer than
yours.”

She leaned forward, her hand reaching between her legs to find

the lever for the seat. “You do remember that we met because I was
playing demolition derby on the highway, don’t you?”

Neil threw his head back and let out a dramatic groan. “I had

managed to forget that part, thank you.” He lifted his head, turned it
toward her, and dropped all playfulness from his tone. “I trust you.
That accident wasn’t your fault. I knew that when I pulled up on the
scene.”

“Then fasten your seatbelt.” She put the key in the ignition,

slipped the shifter into neutral, and started the engine.

Neil expected a few jerks, some gear grinding, and maybe even

for the car to die a time or ten. None of that happened. The woman
drove like a professional, even if said professional was one who spent
her time on a NASCAR track. She kept her speed down on the busy
highway in front of the restaurant, hugged the curve as she turned
onto a deserted side street, and pushed the gas pedal to the floor.

“I stand corrected,” she told him as she slowed her speed to take

another turn.

“About what?”
“About liking your car.” She shot him a glance, her lips spread in

a wide smile. “I don’t. I love it!”

Neil laughed and studied her side profile in the dim lights from

the dash and passing streetlamps as she continued to drive. They’d
gone a lot farther than merely around the block, but he didn’t care.
The longer she drove, the more time he got to spend with her and
think about how in the world he was going to pull off making her
break her personal law.

“Who was he?”

Tonya Ramagos

Her brows etched together, but she didn’t look at him. “Who was

who?”

“The man who fucked up everything for all men that wear a

uniform.” Myself in particular.

She sighed and slowed the car to a cruising speed. “The cop

outside my car the other day, Kent Southerland. He’s one of them. As
a matter of fact, he was the last one.”

Neil made a mental note to kick the guy’s ass the next time he ran

across the man. “There were others?”

That surprised him. Sierra didn’t strike him as the type of woman

he and the other guys often referred to as badge bunnies.

“I dated a firefighter once, too.”
“What was his name? I might know him.” And if he did, he’d kick

his ass, too.

“Rhett Cox.”
Neil hung his head and covered his face with one hand as he

closed his eyes. The next question on his tongue had evaporated the
instant she’d said the name. He’d been about to ask what the men had
done to her, but he didn’t need to now. Rhett Cox was a playboy, the
kind that went through women faster than he changed his underwear.
The firefighter had no doubt sent her to the curb the second a different
piece of ass had walked by him.

“I take it from your reaction that you do know him.”
Neil lifted his head and nodded. “His brother, Ryder, and I work

together at Station 5. Ryder is the Rescue Squad lieutenant.”

“Rhett mentioned he had a brother, but I wasn’t with Rhett long

enough to meet him.”

The car eased to a stop and Neil glanced out the windshield. He

hadn’t realized she circled them back around to the highway in front
of the restaurant. He looked at her again, watching her slender finger
tap the steering wheel to an apparent rhythm in her head as she waited
for the traffic light to turn green.

“Is Ryder a lying, cheating, scumbag like his brother?”

Beneath Their Uniforms

“Polar opposite. Ryder and his best friend Blaine are engaged to a

sweetheart named Lesley. They’re planning the wedding for late this
summer, I think.”

“Good for him.” The light changed and the car started moving

again. “It’s always fascinated me how siblings can be as different as
apples and oranges.”

“My brother and I are. He’s a biker, hardcore, gang and

everything.” Neil pushed a hard breath from his lungs as she pulled
into the restaurant parking lot. “Which I probably shouldn’t have told
you since he’s currently doing time in the state pen for armed
robbery.”

“Eek! That’s a rotten orange.” She swung the Corvette into the

empty slot next to her rental car and cut the engine. “But, don’t worry,
I could never hold his indiscretions against you, even knowing he is
your brother.”

She was looking at him, one hand resting on the gear shift, her

other wrist draped over the steering wheel. His world tilted. She sat
there gazing at him with compassion and honesty reflecting in her
eyes from the dim lights of the parking lot and all he could see was
the heated desire beneath. God, he wanted her. Right here, right now,
he wanted her to hold her shapely body against his as he thrust his
cock inside her sodden pussy as far as he could get it and then some.

“But you’ll hold the fact that I’m a paramedic against me?”
Apology moved through her expression and she sighed. “It’s

nothing personal, Neil. It’s just…”

“This other guy, the one you aren’t official with, I take it he

doesn’t wear a uniform.”

“No, he doesn’t. We’ve only been out once, but…”
But she would give that guy a chance for a second date far quicker

than she would Neil. She didn’t need to finish saying it.

He reached for her, cupping her soft cheek in his palm. “I’m not a

lying, cheating scumbag, Sierra. I would prove that to you if you have
me half the chance.”

Tonya Ramagos

He swore he saw temptation spark in her eyes and knew her face

leaned into his touch. “Neil, I…”

She fell silent again when he dragged the pad of his thumb over

her parted lips. The move drew a soft moan from her throat that short-
circuited his brain and snapped the hold on his restraint. Holding her
gaze and letting her see his intention in his eyes, he leaned closer and
captured her mouth with his.

He meant to move slowly, to coax his way into her mouth and

coerce her into more of those cock-squeezing sounds. He fully
expected her to pull away, maybe even slap the shit out of him.
Instead, she kissed him back with the same hunger and passion he’d
tasted the first time she’d kissed him.

Neil felt himself start to fall.
She didn’t touch him, not with her hands at least. She didn’t have

to because her mouth did it all. She licked her way into his mouth,
running her tongue over his teeth, his pallet, his own tongue,
exploring and teasing and taking. Taking. God, yes. Neil wanted her
to take this and a whole lot more.

His hand slipped to the back of her neck, holding her firmly as he

angled his head to deepen the kiss. It was mind altering, explosive,
and fucking sensational! It was even better than their first kiss, hotter
than the subsequent kisses he’d fantasized about since Saturday, and
he didn’t want it to end. He wanted her hands on him again, wanted
her incredible mouth on other parts of his body, and wished like hell
he hand the power to keep her from backing away again.

He hadn’t meant to touch her beyond his hand on her nape, any

more than he’d intended to plunge full speed ahead with the kiss. But
suddenly, his free hand was on her breast, filling his palm with the
soft, warm perfection, and he couldn't stop himself from squeezing,
caressing, and fondling. That touch had haunted his dreams as
effectively as their first kiss. His hand had burned from the moment
he’d pulled it away from her breast the other day in her car. That burn

Beneath Their Uniforms

finally found a soothing relief as he enjoyed the feel of her ample
mound in his palm once more.

The sounds she made vibrated in his mouth and over his tongue,

drumming through his bloodstream like a purely invitational cadence.
Then her hand covered his. He fully expected her to pry his hand
away. Instead, she held it as her other hand dipped inside the
unbuttoned V neckline of his shirt, skimming beneath the material to
grasp his shoulder.

Neil felt her start to pull away and knew the moment was over.

She’d come to her senses, or at least what she obviously thought were
her senses. She’d remember who she was kissing, that he wore a
uniform to work, and that being with him would break the law she’d
made.

He wouldn’t stop her, no matter how desperately he wanted to. He

loosened his hold on her nape and stopped squeezing her breast,
giving her all the room she needed.

She didn’t take it. Sheer shock collided with the desire heating his

blood, speeding his heart to a dangerous rhythm when she nipped his
bottom lip, drew it between her teeth, and gave it a tender bite.

Holy fuck!
Neil opened his eyes, searched her gaze, and saw nothing but

flames of wickedly heated needs roaring in their depths. Encouraged
by the sight and praying to any supreme being that might be listening
that he wasn’t reading the signs wrong, he dipped his head, burying
his face in the smooth flesh of her neck and took his turn to lick, bite,
and explore. Her head lolled back, exposing more of her truly
delicious skin, and he feasted.

* * * *

Sierra lost control. It was the only excuse she could give herself.

Breaking her three-year vow the other night with Davon had been one
thing, but this…Cassidy had been right. She needed her head

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examined, pronto! She’d make the call in the morning, find a doctor
that would see her immediately, and likely have herself committed
after that.

But tonight, as Neil’s mouth did such wondrous things to her

neck, she couldn’t find even an ounce of sanity to stop him. Her nails
dug into his shoulder as pleasure, white hot and debilitating,
consumed her. His mouth was a work of art and the way it
manipulated her flesh at that moment felt too good. His hand on her
breast started moving again. It squeezed, sending bolts of electric
splendor shooting to her pussy, even as his lips skimmed lightly down
her throat, his tongue swiping quick licks along the way. She turned
in the driver’s seat, the better to get close to him, and his mouth
dropped lower.

“Neil.” She breathed his name and released his hand on her breast

as he pushed at the neckline of her blouse with his nose. His tongue
traced a lazy line along the upper swell of her breasts. It was both
intense pleasure and screaming torture, because no way would he be
able to take her breast into his mouth from this angle like she wanted
him to. Still, it didn’t prevent either of them from trying.

Sierra arched her back, pushing her chest against his kisses,

desperate for more. She was on the verge of crying out in agony until
his hand joined his mouth, his fingers delving inside her shirt to pull
her breast free. The neckline of her shirt would be trashed, stretched,
but she didn't care. He sucked her nipple between his lips.

“Neil!” She did cry out then, a breathless plea for what she

couldn’t say. More. She knew she wanted more. Even as his tongue
flicked over her taut nipple, his lips closing around her breast to
suckle, she still wanted more.

Her hand clenched and unclenched in an attempt to fist his hair,

but the ginger strands were too short. She finally settled for flattening
her hand on the back of his head to hold it firmly to her body, gliding
her other hand over the hard muscles of his shoulder and pec. She

Beneath Their Uniforms

knew she was stretching his shirt, too, and thought she heard a thread
rip, but she was too far gone to care.

He released her nape. Then his hand dropped to her knee and

headed north. His fingers danced along her inner thigh beneath her
skirt and she spread her legs for him in an invitation that didn’t need
words.

His hand reached its destination, closed over her pussy through

the crotch of her panties, and a low-throated growl escaped his lips.
“Damn, baby, you’re so hot.”

She was. Her pussy burned so badly she wondered how it hadn’t

turned her panties to ashes by now. The blaze only got hotter as his
fingertips delved beneath the crotch of her panties and pushed the
already soaked strip of cotton-lined lace aside. He slid a long, thick
finger between her sodden folds and she sucked in a quick breath at
the slight chill of the digit to her flaming, sensitive lips.

He lifted his head, looked at her, and pulled his hand from her

panties. A weeping protest was on the tip of her tongue, but before
she could make a sound, he picked her up off the driver’s seat and
pulled her over the stick shift into his lap. She didn’t know how he did
it in the scant bit of space the Corvette offered, but suddenly, she
found herself straddling him and felt the evidence of his arousal, hard
and thick, pressing against the crotch of her panties.

His hands skimmed her thighs, pulling her skirt to her waist. His

gaze dropped to her covered snatch and he made the sound of a
thoroughly tortured man. “I hope these aren’t a favorite pair of
yours.”

Before his words could register in Sierra’s sexually fogged mind,

his fingers dipped beneath the thin string holding her panties on her
hips and she felt the material snap. She laughed, albeit breathlessly.
“I’m glad they weren’t.”

He gave her another of those boyishly mischievous grins that

combined with the intoxication in his gaze as he looked at her and her
world spun out of control. “I want you, Sierra.”

100

Tonya Ramagos

Somewhere, somehow, a sliver of sanity made it through the

chaos in her head, but it wasn’t the sliver that would save her from the
destruction that had already begun. “Have you forgotten we’re in your
Corvette in the middle of a parking lot?”

He glanced out the window and met her gaze again as he lifted the

lever on the side of the seat to recline it back as far as it would go.
“The parking lot is deserted. Besides,” he added as he turned a hand
to cover her pussy through her panties again. “Isn’t a car where we
started all of this to begin with?”

His question might have brought her back to the right frame of

mind, the one where she would put a stop to this before it went even
further, if he hadn’t chose that moment to grind the pad of his hand on
her clit. The pressure and manipulation to her throbbing bud had her
breath catching in her throat.

Sierra raked her hands from his shoulders, to his pecs, to his

abdomen, loving the way the muscles bunched and the flat planes
flexed beneath her palms. She turned her hands, fisted the material of
his shirt, and tugged it from the waistband of his slacks. She didn’t
bother to pull his shirt over his head, knowing she wouldn’t have
room to get to his body the way she was longing to do in the tiny bit
of space the Corvette gave them. She was slumped over him as it was,
barely able to straddle his lap and keep her lower body up enough for
that wicked hand he had still covering her pussy to explore.

The lack of space didn’t seem to bother him. He pushed the

cotton-lined lace aside with a thumb and then, oh, yes, his finger was
working inside her flaming channel.

“You’re so wet. Is that for me, Sierra? Have you been this wet all

night?”

She had. No matter how much she’d tried to hold onto her control

or how many times she’d kept reminding herself he was the last man
she needed to get involved with, her body had continued to betray her.

He pulled the finger back, added a second, and pushed both side-

by-side into her opening. “So hot,” he repeated, his voice rusty and

Beneath Their Uniforms

101

gruff with his own arousal. “God, baby, you’re burning my hand.
You’re that freaking hot.”

Sierra might have been embarrassed by his discovery if his

experienced hand hadn’t worked her pussy so well. His fingers
plunged in quick, measured thrusts that, even with their speed,
weren’t fast enough.

She bucked and rode his fingers. The top of her head rapped

against the roof of the car so hard, she should’ve seen stars, but all she
could see was Neil. All she could feel was the magnificent rapturous
pleasure his fingers gave her. The sensations swamping her from his
attention should have been criminal!

But then he stopped. He abruptly withdrew his fingers from her

pussy and the absence of that stupendous invasion had her crying out.
“Please.” Her gaze locked with his and a smile toyed at the edge of
his lips. Lips that parted as he brought the fingers he’d had inside her
to his mouth.

“Mmm, you taste good.” He licked his fingers clean of her juices,

his gaze all the while transfixed on hers. “I wish I could taste more of
you. I wish I could make you come with my mouth.”

“Next time.”
The instant the words spilled from her lips, two things happened.

She knew she’d just given him hope that there would indeed be a next
time between them. She saw that much in the flash of surprise and
victory that moved through his eyes. She heard Davon’s voice in her
head, too, when he’d said those very words to her as his way of
promising her that she could suck his dick until he came when they
made love again.

The fumble brought reality slamming back to every part of her

being. What on God’s green earth was she doing? How could she put
a stop to this now? She may not have truly regretted having dinner
with him, but she knew damn well she would regret this come
morning.

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His gaze locked with hers and everything going through her mind

had to have been projected in her eyes, because he cupped her cheek.
“Don’t. Sierra. Baby, please. Don’t think. Don’t do that to me.”

Of all the things he could’ve said, that did it. She had no right to

lead him on, no matter how she felt about the men that held his job
and others like it. If she hadn’t truly wanted this, wanted him, it would
be one thing, but she did. She would give them this night, this time,
and deal with whatever regrets and ramifications she felt because of it
tomorrow.

“Please, tell me you have a condom.”
The smile that stretched his lips was full of relief and held a hint

of amusement. “I’m sitting on it.”

He reached down and she thought he was going go for the

condom, but his hands caught the hem of her blouse instead and
pulled the material up. He freed both her breasts and rose up to take
one in his mouth.

Pleasure—dear Lord, the man had one astounding mouth—stole

her breath as well as leaving her temporarily unable to move. She
quickly found the ability, reaching her hands between their bodies to
find the button and zipper of his slacks as his mouth went wild on her
breasts. He suckled them, his teeth rolling her nipple and sending
scandalous shockwaves straight to her already pulsating pussy.
Needing to drive him as wild as he was doing to her, she fumbled
with the button on his pants, slid the zipper down, and delved her
fingers inside to curl them around his shaft.

Despite their cramped position in the small car, she could feel

enough of his cock to know the man was outrageously packed. Her
fingers strained to close around the full width of his shaft and, even
reaching as far as she could, she knew she didn’t come close to
exploring his full length. Her pussy convulsed at the mere idea of
having such a fantastic specimen of male meat inside her.

He groaned against her breast, the sound vibrating her flesh and

distributing pulse points of satisfaction to flutter through her belly.

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103

His teeth closed around her nipple and bit. She fisted her hand more
tightly around his cock and squeezed.

"Ah, God." His head fell back on the seat.
Sierra laughed as his head fell back on the seat. “Problems?”
“Yeah, one of us is going to have to get that condom out of my

back pocket fast.”

“Do you think you can reach it?” As she asked, she slid her hand

up his shaft, gliding her thumb over the head of his cock, and
spreading the bead of pre-cum around the engorged slit.

Neil growled. “Not when you keep doing that. Christ, baby, I

can’t move a muscle when you stroke my cock that way.”

She considered shifting her position slightly so she could reach

more of his spectacular cock. The idea of watching him lose control in
the semidarkness of the car was almost too tempting to ignore. The
persistent flames in her womb growing more insistent by the second
demanded attention now.

“I’ll stop stroking. You get the condom.”
He steadied her with an arm around her waist as he rolled slightly,

lifting one hip off the seat and shoving his free hand beneath his ass.
He grunted, his expression straining with concentration as he worked
his wallet free of the pocket.

“Ha!” The victorious sound made her laugh. “Got it.” He fell back

on the seat, grabbed the wallet with both hands, and quickly pulled
out a condom.

Sierra plucked it from his fingers and ripped the foil open with her

teeth. “Allow me to do the honors.”

The sound he made as she sheathed his cock with the condom had

her grinning from ear to ear. “You still sound as if you’re having
problems. Are you sure the condom was the only thing you needed?”

His hands gripped her hips, his fingers digging into flesh as he

shifted her, lifted her, and lowered her down on his cock. “That’s
what I needed.”

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It was what she’d needed, too. Sierra let her head fall forward, her

forehead resting against his as the sensation of his cock inside her
drove her straight to the point of near madness.

“Holy cow!” she gasped as his incredibly long, scrumptiously

thick cock stretched her pussy. The feel was beyond mind-blowing as
her channel expanded to take his dick deeper, inch by gloriously
enormous inch. His hands were on her hips, his grip helping to control
the pace of his thrusts as his own hips lifted off the seat to meet her
body.

“You feel…damn, Sierra.” He ground the words through gritted

teeth as she purposely contracted her pussy muscles around his shaft,
squeezing and closing her channel more firmly around him. “You’re
so tight and so wet. When you do that, baby, fuck! You do much more
of that and I won’t be able to last.”

“I can’t help it.” She really couldn’t. It was if he’d taken control

of her body the instant he’d thrust his cock inside her. Every muscle,
every response, every fiber of her being wanted it hard and fast and
felt determined to get it that way. She lifted her hips and let them fall
harder, faster, her pussy clamping on his cock like a vise. “It’s too
good. You feel so good, so hard, so, yes.” Her words turned to a
breathless moan as he reached between her legs, his thumb finding
her clit even as he lifted his head and drew one breast into his mouth.

It was all she needed, all she could take. Flames erupted in a riot

of red-hot cardiac-arresting pleasure from her breast to her pussy,
inside and out. She rode his cock, hard and fast, slamming his thick
meat into her sodden channel with such force that the sound of sweaty
bodies slapping mixed with their groans to fill the heated air in the
car. Then he caught her swollen clit between his thumb and
forefinger, clamped down on her nipple with his lips, and thrust his
cock inside her so deeply and with such splendid abandon that she
saw erotic stars.

Sierra came. The dam inside her built from a celibacy that had

lasted far too long save for that one night with Davon broke as a

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105

tsunami of pure screaming orgasmic pleasure tore through her and
spewed out of her. Her pulse pounded in her ears. Her muscles seized
as her body released the cataclysmic tension, need, and relief in
continuing waves of world-rocking sensations. Somewhere through it
all, she dimly heard Neil’s grunted cry as he came inside the condom.

Boneless and breathless, Sierra went limp on top of him. His

raggedly heated breath fanned the hairs on the top of her head and his
heart pounded in a rapid time with hers against her chest. They lay
there for how long, she wasn’t sure, before Neil finally spoke.

“I don’t suppose you have any medical training.”
Sierra lifted her head and angled a look down at him. “I’m a

school teacher, remember? You’re the paramedic.”

And damn, she hadn’t needed that reminder right now.
He pushed a contented sigh from his lips. “Then I guess we’re

stuck like this for a while.”

Sierra studied him. His eyes were closed and the expression on his

handsome face was completely relaxed. His arms were still around
her and one hand glided slowly up and down her back. “Why?”

His eyes opened and the corner of his lips kicked into a boyish

grin. “I’m paralyzed. Without proper medical treatment, it’s unlikely
I’ll be able to move again for hours.”

Sierra heard herself laugh even as regrets slammed into the fading

euphoria. His grin disappeared and emotions filled his eyes as he
cupped the side of her face.

“You’re going to start thinking again now. I figured you would.

Will you promise me one thing?”

Sierra held his gaze, wishing the tenderness of his hand on her

cheek and his other gliding softly up and down her back didn’t feel so
good. “If I can.”

“Don’t think me out of your life, Sierra. Remember what I’m like

beneath the uniform you loathe so much.”

Sierra’s eyes started to burn. She slammed them shut, not sure

what to say to that and knowing she couldn’t make that promise. Neil

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didn’t make her. Instead, he kissed her, and sent her speeding down
yet another path of self-destruction.

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107

Chapter Six

Sierra rang Cassidy’s doorbell, waited a beat, and pushed the

button again. It took another few seconds before she heard the faint
sounds of shuffling on the other side of the door. The shuffling got
louder and the door finally swung open.

Cassidy, obviously still groggy from sleep, blinked at her.
“You were right. I need to have my head examined.”
Her friend’s cheeks puffed out as she pushed a slow breath

through her pursed lips. “For showing up on my front doorstep an
hour before my alarm clock is set to go off? Yep, it’s past time to
make that appointment.”

“I’ve turned into a slut.”
That statement got Sierra a bark of surprised laughter. “Okay,

coffee first. Then you can explain how that happened.”

Sierra followed her friend to the kitchen and hopped onto one of

the stools at the island counter as Cassidy pulled two mugs from the
cabinet and moved to the refrigerator. She shot a questioning look at
Sierra over her shoulder.

“French vanilla?”
“That’ll do.”
Cassidy snagged a container of French Vanilla crème from the

fridge and closed the door. “I can spike your cup with vodka if you’d
rather have something stronger.”

Sierra let out a half laugh. “That probably wouldn’t be a good idea

this early in the morning when I’m headed to the school to face a
room full of students.”

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“True.” Cassidy poured crème in the mugs, added the coffee, and

slid one of the cups across the counter to Sierra. “Imagine the
impression that would make.”

“The impression I made on Friday was bad enough,” Sierra said

dryly and blew into the mug before taking a cautious sip. “If you
weren’t planning to get out of bed for another hour, why was your
coffee already made?”

“Daylight savings time. I never reset the clock on the

coffeemaker, so it’s still brewing an hour early.” Cassidy curled her
hands around her mug as she leaned on the counter. “Now, explain to
me how a woman that hasn’t been on a date in more than three years
has suddenly become a slut.”

“Remember Davon?”
“The superhot hunk from the country club?”
Sierra nodded. “That’s the one.”
Cassidy’s back straightened a bit. “Which reminds me, I’m mad at

you. You never called to tell me how your date went with him.”

Sierra let out a heavy sigh. “A little too well. I slept with him.”
Cassidy’s jaw dropped and her eyes widened to the size of

saucers. “Holy shit! I’m so proud of you.”

Sierra couldn’t help but laugh even as she rolled her eyes. “You

would be.”

A devilish mischief overtook the surprise in Cassidy’s expression.

“Was it good? Who am I kidding?” she added before Sierra could say
a word. “Of course it was good. A man like that has to be incredible
in bed. It’s like a prerequisite for the totally ripped, drool-over-me
body, and killer grin he’s got.”

Unwilling to go into details about just how incredibly fantastic

making love with Davon had been, Sierra went on. “Neil Ingram, the
paramedic from the accident I kissed, showed up in my classroom
Monday morning.” She giggled despite herself when Cassidy’s mouth
opened wide again. “If you don’t get control of your jaw, you’re
going to have bruises on your chin.”

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109

“Then stop dropping bombshells on me! What did he want?”

Again, Cassidy answered her own question before Sierra could speak.
“Another kiss. Duh! Why else would the man come looking for you?”

“He blackmailed me into a date with him last night.”
Cassidy studied her over the rim of her mug as she took a sip.

“How exactly did he blackmail you into a date?”

Sierra explained about the PTA’s idea for the end-of-year fling.

“And since he did it in front of a classroom of my students, I couldn’t
very well say no,” she finished.

Cassidy’s smile grew so wide it was a wonder it didn’t split her

face in two. “So you went out with him, too, and…Oh, my God, you
slept with him, too!”

“Yes.” Sierra heaved another heavy sigh. “And yes.”
Cassidy rounded the island bar and plopped into the stool next to

Sierra. “You could’ve warned me I should sit down before you started
throwing all these bombshells at me. I can’t believe you!”

Sierra groaned and buried her face in her hands. “I know. I can’t

believe me either.”

“No! I mean I can’t believe you in a good way. And I’m so

jealous! I haven’t met an ubersexy hunk fit to have sex with in months
and you found two in less than a week. Do they know each other?”

Sierra jerked her head up, her eyes growing wide. “God, I hope

not.”

“Are you kidding? If I were you, I would be hoping they do. This

is Cherish, Sierra. Men share women in this city.”

Sierra tried to shut off the idea of being shared by Davon and Neil

before it could fully form. She was too late. An image formed in her
mind in full-LCD, big screen, porno color of herself naked and
sandwiched between the equally naked Davon Reed and Neil Ingram.
Erogenous zones she hadn’t known she had sparked to life at that
picture.

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“You’re missing the point, Cass. Forget Davon for a minute and

concentrate on Neil. He’s a paramedic, a man in uniform, the very
epitome of exactly the kind of man I vowed to avoid.”

“What happened after you had sex with him? Did he ask to see

you again?”

“Worse, he asked me to promise not to think him out of my life.”

Sierra shook her head. “There’s an explanation and conversation that
goes with that, but the gist of it is that he’s trying to convince me that,
just because he wears a uniform, doesn’t make him the same as Rhett
and Kent.”

Cassidy gave her an apologetic look. “Well, it doesn’t, sweetie.”
“But Davon doesn’t wear a uniform. He’s a handyman.”
“So we can stop forgetting about him now? Good. And are you

planning to see him again?”

“I’m supposed to meet him at his place tonight. He’s cooking

dinner.”

“Whoa, a man that can cook. You better not let that one get away.

Does Neil know you’re dating Davon, too?”

“He knows I’ve been seeing someone else, but I couldn’t lie when

he asked if we were an official couple.”

A knowing glint brightened Cassidy’s eyes. “You couldn’t lie

because a part of you wanted to be with Neil last night.”

Sierra groaned. “But that’s the part of me I locked in a cage. What

is it with me being attracted to men that wear a uniform? Am I some
kind of badge bunny or something?”

Cassidy threw her head back and laughed before she put a gentle

hand on Sierra’s shoulder. “Sweetie, a badge bunny doesn’t care
about anything except that uniform. You’re looking for the guy
beneath it. Your trouble is that the men you’ve been with who wear a
uniform so far were asshats. They were the sluts, not you.”

“I gave up men for three years and, in less than three days, I’ve

had sex with two different men.”

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111

Cassidy lifted a nonchalant shoulder. “You were trying them on

for size. A smart woman never makes a purchase without seeing if it
fits first.”

Sierra shot her a withering look. “You are absolutely no help.”
“Okay, you want my advice?” Cassidy waited a beat, chewing

thoughtfully on the insides of her lips. “This isn’t what I would do
because, if I were in your shoes, I’d be introducing the men and
keeping both. But, since you’re insisting on upholding your no-men-
in-uniform law, keep your date with Davon tonight. Don’t see Neil
again and your problem will be solved.”

“He has my phone number. He’s going to call.”
“Then you answer it, get the information you need for the end-of-

year fling at the school, and bid him a polite good-bye.”

“And if he shows up in my classroom again or calls again or…”

She trailed off when Cassidy’s eyes narrowed.

“You don’t trust yourself to even talk to him again, let alone see

him.”

“I’ve seen him three times.” Sierra ticked off the occurrences on

her fingers. “I examined his tonsils with my tongue the first time, I
agreed to go out with him the second time, and I had sex with him the
third time.”

Cassidy didn’t laugh and she didn’t smile, but Sierra could tell her

friend wanted to do both. “So you’re, what, terrified you’ll find
yourself at the altar with him the fourth time?”

Deflated, Sierra got off her stool. “Thanks for the advice. I’ve got

to get to the school.”

“Wait!” Cassidy was in front of her in a blink, her hands closing

gently on Sierra’s shoulders. “I’m sorry. I know I keep making
wisecracks and this is all way too serious for you. It’s just, you have
to realize any man, uniform or not, could’ve burned you just as badly
as Rhett and Kent did.”

“Which is exactly why I had stopped dating anyone,” Sierra

reminded her friend.

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“I know, but life really is too short not to take chances.”
Sierra bowed her head and closed her eyes as Cassidy’s words

took on the sound of Davon’s tone of voice when he’d told her nearly
the exact same thing. “So I keep being reminded.”

They were both right, of course, but did the chances she took in

life have to be so dangerous?

Remember what I’m like beneath the uniform you loathe so much.
Neil’s words reverberated through her memory. She knew he

hadn’t meant what his body was like beneath his uniform. He’d been
referring to the man that went even deeper beneath it than that. And
she did remember, all too well. She had enjoyed having dinner with
him, had laughed at the playful boyish grins and mischievous
comments he made, and had walked away last night wanting
desperately to see him again.

No, she absolutely did not trust herself to talk to him again, let

alone see him. It was just as well, she realized as a firm decision took
hold in her mind. He might be a fantastic guy, but he wasn’t what she
wanted. Davon just might be what she wanted, but continuing to see
Neil would be, in a sense, cheating on Davon, and that would make
her no better than the men that had walked all over her heart before.

* * * *

Neil hesitated at the front door of the house he shared with Davon

and sniffed. A faint scent of smoldering charcoal drifted to him on a
gentle breeze. Someone in the neighborhood was cooking.

His stomach gave a low grumble as he pushed open the door and

tossed his keys on the small table they kept just inside for that very
purpose. The smoky haze dancing near the ceiling had him stopping
in his tracks. That smoldering charcoal scent he’d caught a whiff of
outside couldn’t be coming from their back deck, could it?

His brows draw together, his made his way slowly through the

living room, pausing when he caught sight of the prime strips of steak

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113

marinating on a plate on the kitchen counter. His puzzlement
deepened at what appeared to be three potatoes covered with
aluminum foil sat beside the plate with another slice of foil laden with
fresh vegetables next to it.

Davon was cooking?
Holy shit!
He detoured into the kitchen, snagged a couple of beers from the

fridge, and continued through the house to the door that would lead
him to the back deck. He paused again when he reached it, an odd
sense of everything being right in the world colliding with sheer
shock.

Davon was indeed cooking. His friend stood in front of the

barbeque grill that hadn’t seen life since they’d lost Mona. The man
was one hell of a cook, but he’d lost interest in it, along with a lot of
other things, when Mona died. Seeing him out there now, carefully
working the smoldering coals to even the temperature inside the grill,
told Neil something was definitely up.

The fingers of one hand locked around the necks of the beer

bottles, he slid the sliding glass door open with his free hand and
stepped onto the deck. A patio table sat on the far side and he noted
the vase of flowers in the center of it with unlit candles on either side.

“Hot date?”
Davon tossed him a glance over his shoulder as he closed the lid

to the grill. “Extremely. I take it you got my text?”

Neil passed his friend one of the beers as the man turned to face

him. “You mean the SOS message I got about an hour ago? Yeah, I
got it.”

The corner of Davon’s lips twitched as he lifted the bottle to his

mouth for a swig. “I guess it was a bit SOS. I didn’t drag you away
from anything, did I?”

Neil lifted a shoulder, took a sip of his beer, and leaned against the

side of the house near the sliding door. “I needed the break and the

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excuse to take it. Cramer was arrested last night and Tasha is a basket
case.”

His sister had called him frantic and crying shortly after he’d left

Sierra last night. He’d been at his sister’s since, attempting to calm
her down, and doing his damnedest to talk some sense into her.
Neither had done him a bit of good.

Surprise mixed with years of anger in Davon’s expression. “What

for?”

“Dealing.” Neil let that sink in before he continued. “Tasha is

swearing up and down it’s got to be a mistake, but we both know it
isn’t, and every time I try to say anything that refutes that, she blows a
gasket.”

“He’s her husband,” Davon commented dryly. “Your sister is a

stand-by-her-man kind of woman. We’ve always known that and,
deep down, she’s always known what kind of man he is.”

Neil slowly nodded. “The kind that would let our woman die in a

fire set by thugs he owed money to and not give the cops or the fire
investigator the slight hint of a tip.”

They couldn’t prove it and had never been able to turn up an ash

of evidence to back their claim. That hadn’t stopped them from
believing the fire that had been set at the clinic where Mona had
worked for Cramer had not only been intentional, but a professional
hit that had found the wrong target.

“The charges he’s up against and the cartel that’s been named

aren’t small time.”

“We knew it wasn’t,” Davon reminded him. “If this goes the way

it should, the case of the fire at the clinic will get another look, too.”

Neil nodded again. “And Mona’s killer might finally be brought to

justice.”

Davon pushed a hard, audible breath from his lungs. “It’s nothing

less than what she deserves.”

Neil felt himself smile as he took another sip of his beer. His

friend had let go. It was good to know. Mona would always have a

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115

special place in their hearts, but they had to move on with their lives.
He wondered if the woman Davon had coming over tonight would be
the one to take over what was left of his friend’s heart.

“Your text said you needed advice,” he reminded Davon. “What

about?”

Davon raked a hand through his hair. “How to prevent a backdraft

that’s already been set.”

Neil gave him a half chuckle. “You’re the firefighter, man. I’m

not sure I can tell you how to stop that.” He shot a pointed glance at
the patio table. “Does it have anything to do with the woman you’ve
got coming over tonight?”

“Everything.”
“I didn’t realize you’d started seeing someone.”
Davon backed against the railing and crossed his feet at his

ankles. “It’s new. I met her Sunday at the country club, took her out to
dinner, and went back to her place for a few hours.”

Neil lifted a brow. “Damn, man, since when did you start moving

so fast?”

“You would’ve moved fast, too. She’s sensational. She’s smart,

funny, and principled—despite hopping into bed with me on the first
date—beautiful, sexy…”

Neil grinned around the rim of his beer bottle. “She sounds like a

goddess.”

What she sounded like was Sierra. Neil would’ve used every one

of those words to describe Sierra and then some. He hadn’t called her
today, partly because he didn’t have the excuse of talking to Captain
Knox yet and mostly because he hadn’t figured out the best way to
head off her rejection for a next date when she gave it to him.

“She hasn’t dated in years, at least not until the other night when I

finally convinced her to go out with me.” Davon grinned. “Let me tell
you, I had to sweet talk my way into that.”

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Neil tipped his beer bottle toward his friend. “I might need you to

tell me how you did that after we’re done talking about your
problem.”

“Are you still after the woman from the accident the other day?”
“Yeah, I got her last night, but she’s resistant as hell at letting me

get that close again.” He hooked the thumb of his free hand in the
front pocket of his slacks. “Anyway, back to your girl.”

It had felt odd after Mona’s death for the two of them to talk this

way. Your girl. My girl. For so long, Mona had been their girl. They
hadn’t shared a woman since and Neil missed that. He knew Davon
did, too, though neither of them had ever put the absence to voice.

“She thinks I’m a handyman.”
“You are,” Neil pointed out the obvious.
“Yeah, but she doesn’t know I’m a firefighter.”
A tingling sensation crawled up Neil’s spine at that, like tiny

centipedes prickling up his flesh. “What one does for a living is
usually the perfect setup for get-to-know-you conversation on a first
date.”

“And we talked about that. She’s a middle school teacher.”
The centipedes’ feet turned to sharpened points.
“I told her about my side job, but she thinks that’s all I do.”
“Why didn’t you tell her about your full-time career?”
Davon sighed and shook his head. “She’s got this problem with

men that wear a uniform to work. You know how we are? We don’t
want a woman that’s a badge bunny. To Sierra, that badge, apparently
any badge, is more like a fucking repellant.”

Neil froze with his beer halfway to his lips. “Sierra?”
“Yeah, that’s her name. She thinks men that wear a uniform use it

as bait to attract women. The sad part it, she’s not wrong. A lot of
men do. Here I was sitting across a dinner table from her listening to
this, knowing I was lucky as hell to even get a date with this
woman…”

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117

“And you would’ve blown it if you’d told her you were a

firefighter,” Neil finished for him. Son of a bitch, there was no way he
could be talking about a different Sierra.

“I kept my mouth shut, but then I invited her to dinner over here

and, dude, she’s going to two steps inside, see all the pictures and fire
shit we’ve got on the walls, and she’s going to know.”

Neil felt himself grin despite his surprise. “I’m guessing you

didn’t think that one through, huh?”

Davon chuckled dryly. “Obviously not.”
Neil tipped his chin toward the grill. “Is that thing ready for the

food you’ve got on the counter inside?”

Davon moved to the grill, checked the thermometer, and nodded.

“I need to put the potatoes on first. They’ll take longer than
everything else.”

“I’ll get them and grab us another beer while I’m at it.” Neil

pushed off the side of the house and made his way inside to the
kitchen, his mind reeling. It had to be the same Sierra. Not only was it
an unusual name, but everything Davon had just said fit his Sierra to a
fucking T.

He tossed his empty bottle in the trash, balanced the three foil-

wrapped potatoes in the crook of one arm, snagged two more beers
from the fridge with his free hand, and kicked the door shut. “Is she a
big eater?” he asked as he returned to the deck.

“No.” Davon took the potatoes from him and situated them on the

grill. “Why?”

“You’ve got enough food prepared for three in there.”
Davon closed the grill and turned back to him. “I figured, since I

was cooking, I’d set a plate for you aside. I didn’t know if you’d grab
something to eat somewhere else or not.”

“Thanks.” Neil passed him a beer and twisted the cap on the one

he kept. “So the girl from the accident…I haven’t told you anything
about her, have I?”

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Davon shook his head and went back to leaning against the

railing. “Nothing except that she kissed you senseless.”

“I took a chance and showed up where she works Monday

morning. I didn’t get the warmest of welcomes, but the kids were a
big help.”

Davon lifted a brow. “She has kids?”
“In a manner of speaking.” Neil paused and drank. “I convinced

her to go out with me last night, took her to dinner, and things got
hotter in the front seat of the ‘Vette.”

Davon barked a laugh. “You had sex with her in the front seat of

the ‘Vette? How in the hell did you manage to pull that off?”

Neil chuckled. “Believe me, the lack of space didn’t make it easy,

but I wasn’t letting her get away when I’d gotten her that far.”

“So I’m not the only that’s started moving fast, huh?”
“Apparently not. The thing is, she can’t stand that I’m a

paramedic. The kiss she gave me at the accident that day…” He shook
his head. “That wasn’t a badge bunny thing. That was a spontaneous
brush with death kind of kiss and she’s regretted it.”

Davon winced. “Ouch. What’s her problem with paramedics?”
Neil held his friend’s gaze. “The uniform.”
Davon’s shoulders stiffened and suspicion moved through his

face. “Kids in a manner of speaking,” he repeated slowly. “As in
seventh grade students?”

Neil nodded. “As in.”
Neil watched as realization dawned. Davon’s eyes closed on a

deep breath before they opened again and locked with Neil’s. “Say
it.”

“Her name is Sierra Matthews.”
“Son of a bitch,” Davon whispered. The man pushed off the

railing, raked a hand through his hair as he turned, and then whipped
back around to face Neil. “How in the hell did you even convince her
to go out with you when she already knew you were a paramedic?”

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119

That wasn’t anger in Davon’s tone or his expression. It was pure

bafflement and Neil had to swallow a laugh. “The school PTA is
wanting a couple of fire trucks at the end-of-year fling. That
kiss…one of her students happened to be at the accident scene. The
kid photographed the kiss with her iPhone and posted it to every
social media site on the Internet.”

“Shit.” Davon half laughed the word. “No wonder Sierra didn’t

give you the warmest of welcomes. I bet she was pissed!”

“Because of that pic, the PTA thought Sierra would be the perfect

person to talk to the fire department about getting a couple of trucks at
the fling,” Neil went on.

“You are an ass.” Davon pointed at him. “You used that shit to

your advantage, didn’t you?”

Neil sighed. “Guilty as charged, but hell, I had to try. You know

damn well I would’ve talked to the captain for her, but it got me a
date with her out of the deal, that was even better.”

“Apparently the date went well.”
“Until she started thinking again,” Neil muttered. “I’ll tell you

this. Wearing the uniform around her or not doesn’t change a thing. I
tried to get her to see that not all men that wear a uniform are lying,
cheating scumbags, as she thinks of them, but Rhett Cox and Kent
Southerland—he’s the cop that broke her heart, by the way—damn
near ruined it for, well, both of us, it looks like.”

Davon scowled. “She dated Rhett Cox? Geezus, no wonder she’s

got a bad taste in her mouth for firefighters.”

Neil chuckled. “Yeah, the question is, how are we going to get

that bad taste out of her mouth for uniformed men in general?”

Davon studied him for a long moment. “We?”
Neil instantly understood. He hadn’t realized what he’d said, but

now that he thought about it, he recognized it as the right way to go.
“Neither one of us planned on sharing Mona when we both fell in
love with her.” He paused before he put voice to the feelings that had
been twisting through him since he’d been with Sierra last night. “I’m

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not too scared to admit that I’m already half in love with Sierra.
There’s something about her. I can’t explain it and I’m not going to
try. All I know is that woman got her claws into me the instant I stuck
my head into her wrecked car and I like knowing it.”

“You’re suggesting we take the chance again, together, and see

where it leads?” Davon asked slowly.

Neil toasted the air with his beer bottle. “I’m game if you are.”
Davon’s grin came slow and sure. “Then you better get some

firefighting skills quick, because that backdraft I mentioned is going
to be even stronger than I thought the second she walks through our
front door tonight.”

* * * *

Sierra spotted the sleek black Corvette in the driveway of the

address Davon had sent to her in a text and felt her heart stop. What
were the odds that the two men that had waltzed into her life out of
nowhere and swept her out of her celibately secure life both owned
black Corvettes?

She saw the snow-white older model Mustang Davon drove

parked next to the Corvette and pulled in behind it. Her heart started
beating again, only to pick up pace when she got out of her rental car
and walked between the two vehicles. A glance inside the ‘Vette
showed her it had the same interior as Neil’s.

Do they know each other?
Cassidy’s question echoed through her memory as she stopped at

the front door and balled her fist to knock. It was a simple
coincidence. It had to be, didn’t it? But, even as her knuckles
connected with the hard wood of the door, a sinking feeling erupted in
her belly.

Go. Run! Before it’s too late.
But it was already too late. The door swung open to reveal Davon,

looking far more appetizing than the food she could smell drifting

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121

from inside, and that was saying something, because the food smelled
remarkable. He wore jeans and a solid T-shirt with a pair of well-
worn tennis shoes. She’d mulled over what to wear for nearly an hour
before deciding to go for the casual look, too. She’d put on a pair of
olive-green shorts and a white blouse with a scooped neckline that
offered a tempting view of the swells of her breasts without coming
off as too seductive.

A smile bloomed on his lips and he reached for her hand, saying,

“Hi,” in a husky voice that waltzed through her even as he brushed a
kiss to her knuckles. He tugged her inside and immediately pulled her
close. Her front molded to the solid wall of his body as he leaned
down for a kiss. He tasted as scrumptious as he looked, all warm and
sweet and soft, and she lost herself in the kiss, in him. “Dinner is
nearly done,” he told her when he finally pulled back. “I thought we
would start with a glass of wine and some conversation.”

“That sounds great.” Did she sound as breathless as she felt after

that kiss? She couldn’t tell, so she decided not to say anything more
for a minute, to give herself time to recoup from the toe curling
contact with him.

His hand slid down her arm, his fingers lacing with hers as he

turned and led her through the house to the back sliding door. His
brisk pace prevented her from getting a good look at the inside of the
house, but she caught enough to know it was surprisingly clean for a
bachelor pad. He paused at the sliding door to push it open and she
shot a glance over her shoulder. Faint noises from another room in the
house had her heart picking up pace.

“Is someone else here?”
“My roommate,” Davon answered as he led her onto the back

deck.

That’s right. He’d mentioned having a roommate. No surprise

there. Except if… “Is your roommate the one that owns the Corvette
or is that your second car?”

Please say it’s your second car.

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“Nope, the ‘Vette belongs to him.”
Oh, dear God.
Davon released her hand in favor of flattening a hand on the small

of her back as he steered her toward the patio table. She momentarily
forgot about his roommate and her suspicion that, please, god, no, that
roommate might be Neil when her attention landed on the vase of
flowers and the two lit candles he’d placed in the center of the table.

Sierra beamed a smile at him. “Check out Mr. Romance. This is

so…”

“Don’t say it.”
The playful warning in his tone made her laugh. “I was going to

say pretty, but fine, I won’t.”

“Pretty is always better than sweet.” He grinned down at her as he

reached with his free hand and pulled a bottle of wine from the bucket
of ice on the table. “I hope you like your red wine chilled.”

“I like all my wine chilled, red or white.” He released his hold on

her and poured the wine into the flutes waiting on the table.
“Whatever you have on that grill smells delicious.”

“Potatoes, for now. The steaks and fresh vegetables will go on

next, all of which have a few secret ingredients I like to add.”

She hooked the strap of her purse on the back of one of the chairs

and took the glass of wine he offered with a hand she would’ve sworn
she saw shake the faintest little bit. He was nervous, she realized with
equal parts surprise and pleasure. Wanting to smile at that, she
brought the glass to her lips to hide it and took a sip.

“Did you make it on time for work Monday or did you over

sleep?”

His soft chuckle sounded a bit shaky, too, as he reached for the

beer sitting on the table. “I made it on time…barely.”

“No wine for you?”
“I don’t care for it much, but I thought you might like it better

than beer.”

“I do. Thank you.”

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123

He reached for her again, winding his free arm around her waist

and pulling her closer. “And what about you? Did you make it work
on time?”

“I did, though I had a very rude awakening by the president of the

PTA seconds before my alarm clock went off.”

He winced. “Angry parent?”
She shook her head. “A fabulous idea.” It surprised her how

perfectly she could imitate Margie Lancaster’s voice. “The PTA has
decided they want me to go to the local firehouse and talk with the
captain about getting a couple of fire trucks to show for the end-of-
year fling we’re having next month at the school.” She couldn’t quite
tell if he shuddered or stiffened at that, but she thought he did both.

“Why you?”
Shit! If she told him the truth, he’d know about her kissing Neil.

He didn’t even know about Neil. She’d have to tell him, of course.
She’d been honest enough with Neil to tell him she’d recently been on
a date with another man. Davon deserved the same truthfulness, but
she really, really didn’t want to reveal the circumstances that had led
to her date with Neil.

“The PTA gives each member a different assignment and that one

landed with my name beside it.” Because the lie tasted bitter on her
tongue, she took a sip of her wine. “I tried to get out of it, but Margie
Lancaster can be such a bitch.”

The corner of his lips twitched, but he didn’t smile. “She probably

thought it would be easier for you to convince the fire department
captain than anyone else because you already know someone at the
firehouse.”

“Oh, God.” Sierra let her forehead fall to rest on his chest and

groaned. “You saw the picture on the Internet, didn’t you?” She felt
him shift, heard the clink of glass as he set his beer bottle on the table,
and felt his hand brush her jaw as he hooked a finger beneath her chin
and lifted her face.

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“Sierra, you already know that Corvette out there belongs to Neil.

He’s my roommate, sweetheart.”

Sierra slammed her eyes closed, unable to look at him as he

confirmed the suspicion she really, really hadn’t wanted to face. “I
was hoping I was wrong,” she whispered and forced herself to open
her eyes and meet his gaze. “I’m sorry. I should’ve told you about the
kiss the other night. It was insane. I don’t know what I was thinking.
And then…”

“You went out with him last night,” Davon finished for her, his

voice calm and full of understanding.

Sierra let out a humorless half laugh. “Of course, he told you.

You’re roommates, which also makes you best friends.” She threw
her head back and stared at the slowly dimming sky. “How much did
he tell you?”

“Enough to know I prefer your bed any day over trying it out in

the passenger seat of that little car.”

The amusement that laced his words didn’t help. Sierra squeezed

her eyes shut and made a whimpering sound. “In other words,
everything.” She jerked her head up and glared at him. “I thought
only women shared that kind of details with their best friend.”

He did smile this time and, despite her embarrassment, that smile

did wondrous things to her belly, heart, and girly parts. “Men do, too,
when they realize they’re talking about the same woman.”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “You don’t seem too upset about

it.”

His face was close enough to hers that she felt the warm of his

breath fan her lips when he sighed. “That’s because I’m praying,
thanks to that, you’ll have mercy on me when I tell you something
I’ve kept from you.”

Alarm bells sounded in her head so loudly they were nearly

deafening. “What have you kept from me?”

He held her gaze as his arm tightened around her waist, drawing

her even closer. The finger he’d used to lift her chin moved and

Beneath Their Uniforms

125

turned to drag caressingly over her cheek. “Neil and I aren’t just
roommates, Sierra.”

Oh, dear God in Heaven. They’re bisexual lovers.
“We’re also coworkers.”
Relief slammed into her so hard she nearly laughed before the

realization of his words sank in. “Coworkers?”

“I’m a firefighter, sweetheart. That’s my full-time career. The

handyman gig is just a side job, something to keep me busy during
my forty-eight off from the firehouse.”

Sierra’s world spun as she stared at him. A firefighter. He was a

firefighter! She wished she could rewind the last few seconds, go
back to when she’d thought he’d been about to tell her that he and
Neil were lovers, and make it so. That, damn near anything else,
would’ve been easier to swallow than finding out he was another
fucking man that wore a uniform.

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Chapter Seven

“I have to go.”
Davon’s heart took a nosedive to his gut as Sierra leaned over to

set her glass of wine on the table before peeling herself from his
embrace. He wanted to tighten his arms around her, keep her from
walking away, and make her listen. Instead, he forced himself to
release her.

“Don’t leave like this. Let me explain.”
She was already shaking her head as she backed away. “You’ve

already explained enough.” The look in her eyes tore his insides apart.
She paused at the sliding glass door and shot him a watery smile.
“Thanks for cooking dinner. I’m sorry I can’t stick around to eat it. It
really does smell fantastic.”

“Sierra, please.” The sound of the sliding door opening and the

sight of her stepping through it sprung him into action. He raced after
her, catching up quickly, and nearly slammed into her when she
halted in the middle of the living room. Her head turned slowly,
scanning the room. Davon knew exactly what she saw. Pictures and
framed certificates on the walls, the Firehouse Magazine on the coffee
table, and the firefighter and paramedic trinkets on the mantel above
the fireplace.

“I wondered why you pulled me through here so quickly when I

came in.” She started walking again, her course taking her on a direct
path to the front door. “Now I know.”

Davon followed, unwilling to let her walk out so easily. “I wanted

to tell you before you found out some other way.”

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127

Her brisk steps took her straight out the front door and down the

driveway to her car. He caught up with her again and placed a firm
hand on the top of the driver’s door when she reached to open it. He
watched as she bowed her head and her shoulders rose and fell in a
slow, deep breath.

“Davon, let me go.”
“No. Not like this.” He started to reach for her, but she backed

away.

“Don’t touch me.” Her gaze slammed into his, anger and hurt

swirling in the depths of her amazing hazel eyes. “I can’t handle you
touching me right now.”

“Can you handle it later?” Maybe it was a stupid question to ask,

but the fact that she’d said right now gave him hope.

This time, her gaze rolled to the sky, but he swore he saw the

corner of her lips twitch. “I’m trying not to make a scene in your front
yard. I need to think, okay? You touch me and I lose my head.”

The hope that had already started to grow got larger. “That’s a

good thing, isn’t it?”

Her soft laugh sounded with more derision than amusement. “No,

it’s not. Look, I know why you didn’t say anything about being a
firefighter the other night. After our conversation during dinner, you
knew one word about it and the night would’ve ended right there.
Instead, I let it go a whole lot further than it should have and you were
more than willing to go along for the ride.”

Davon felt his temper spark, not at her, but at himself. He raked a

hand through his hair and pushed a hard, controlled breath from his
lungs. “You’re right.”

Sheer shock filled her angelic face. “You’re agreeing with me?”
Davon shrugged. “Any argument I could say to that would be

another lie. I did keep my mouth shut the other night because, yes, I
knew the instant I said anything about being a firefighter you would
tell me to get lost.”

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“And any hopes of getting me into bed would’ve been blown,”

she added, sarcasm lacing her tone.

Davon glared at her. “Who let the night go further than it should

have, Sierra? I wanted you. There’s no denying that. I walked you to
your door and I kissed you. From that point on, I got nothing but full
speed ahead signals out of you.”

“Signals I wouldn’t have given you if I’d known the truth,” she

countered, her voice rising slightly. “And you damn well knew it.”

Davon took a half step closer to her as his control on his temper

slipped. “I’ll tell you exactly what I know, sweetheart. I don’t tell
women I’m a firefighter when I first meet them because there’s too
many badge bunnies out there looking to get laid by a man in a
uniform. When you and I sat across that table together and listened to
you talk about men in uniforms, I knew you weren’t one of those
women. I didn’t say anything because I hoped that, once you got to
know me, the uniform wouldn’t matter. Now that I’ve gotten to know
you, I realize just how wrong I was.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”
“You give a new meaning to the badge bunny label, sweetheart.

Those women are so blinded by the uniform they don’t give a damn
about the man beneath it. You, on the other hand, are so blinded by it
that you can’t fucking see the man for who he is.”

Her jaw dropped, her eyes filling with more hurt than anger and

Davon wished he could take back the words, no matter how true they
had been. Suddenly needing distance before he said something else to
hurt her, he backed away.

“Why don’t you give us a call when you get your sight back?” He

spun on his heel and headed back to the house, knowing with each
step he was likely walking away from the best thing that had come
into his life in years.

* * * *

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129

Neil heard footsteps being him and turned from the grill to see

Davon stepping onto the deck. He didn’t meet Neil’s gaze as he
walked to the table, snagged his beer, and upended the remains into
his mouth. Neil glanced at the sliding door, only half-surprised when
he didn’t see Sierra follow Davon out.

“Did she leave?”
Davon tossed the empty bottle to the trash can across the deck. It

missed and hit the hardwood, bounced, and rolled a few inches before
it stopped. “Not yet, but I’m sure you’ll hear her car start up any
second. If you hurry, you might can catch her. Maybe you’ll do a
better job at getting her to listen than I just did.”

Neil closed the grill and turned to study his friend, focusing on the

sounds in their air. The instant he heard her car start up, he’d make a
break for it, but his instincts were keeping his feet planted in place for
now. “You want to fill me in?”

“She’s not interested. She’s got this damn hang up and she can’t

see anything through it. It doesn’t matter what we say or do.” Davon
shook his head. “We’re not going to get through if she doesn’t want
us to.”

Neil lifted a brow. “You’re giving up?”
Davon heaved a heavy, audible breath. “I’m giving her time to

think. I went off on her out there. I lost my cool.” He raked a
frustrated hand through his hair. “What I said was harsh, but it was
the truth. Maybe if we give her some space, she’ll realize it.”

“So you’re just going to let her go?” Neil wasn’t about to walk

away until he’d given it everything he had.

“Fuck no.” Davon shot an arm toward the sliding glass door. “Go

catch her before it’s too late.”

Neil didn’t know what he could say to defuse the situation now.

He only knew he had to try. He turned to the door and froze in
midstep when his gaze locked with Sierra’s. “You came back.” He
saw Davon whirl around in his peripheral vision at that.

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Tonya Ramagos

“I forgot my purse.” She stepped onto the deck, not looking at

Davon as she walked to the table and reached for the purse hooked on
the back of one of the chairs. Her fingers closed around the strap, but
she didn’t lift it. “I thought I knew Rhett. I really thought I knew
Kent.” Her eyes narrowed, her brows drawing together as she finally
looked at Davon. “I’m not sure I told you their names.”

“I filled him in,” Neil told her.
She nodded once, her gaze still fixed on Davon. “Rhett hurt my

pride. Kent hurt my heart. That’s when I stopped dating. If I didn’t let
anyone get close, I couldn’t get hurt again. It worked. Then I met
you.” Her attention shifted to Neil and she added, “Both of you.” She
made a breathy sound that might have been laughter and a small smile
unfolded on her lips. “I still can’t explain why I kissed you like I did.
You slid into my car and I looked at you and felt something I hadn’t
felt in a very long time.”

“That makes two of us.”
“You lost her, too, didn’t you? The woman Davon was in love

with?”

“Yeah, she belonged to both of us.”
“I’m sorry.”
“It was a long time ago.”
She took a deep breath and let it out slow, her gaze dancing from

Neil to Davon’s, back and forth. “And so was what happened with
Rhett and Kent. The thing is, when I thought I knew them, I went
places with them and their friends from the departments. I watched
their friends, other firefighters and cops, use their job to get women
and the women were all over it. I learned rather quick Rhett was the
same way, but Kent convinced me he wasn’t until the day the truth
slapped me in the face.”

Her attention settled on Davon again. “You accused me of being

blinded by the uniform to the point that I can’t see the real man
beneath it. You were half-right. I can see the man. I just don’t know if
the man I’m seeing is the one that’s really there or not.”

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131

Neil took a step toward her, stopping within arm’s reach. “The

only way we can prove to you what you’re seeing is real is for you to
give us a chance.”

Davon closed in, too, moving in on her other side. “I didn’t get off

to the best start by keeping a secret from you.”

She gave him a small smile. “No, but you tried to make that right

as soon as I got here tonight.”

Neil watched the relief move through Davon’s expression and

mentally cheered his buddy on when the man reached for Sierra and
drew her against him.

“Does that mean I’m forgiven?”
Her arms wound around Davon’s neck as she tipped her head back

to look at him. Neil’s hands itched to close around her hips as he
moved in behind her. He shoved his hands in the pockets of his
slacks, denying himself the feel of her shapely body against his, and
waited for his turn to hold her.

“I was willing to keep dating you before I knew you were a

firefighter. I get that you didn’t want to tell me because you knew
how I would react. Even so, you did tell me on a second date where
you have dinner cooking for me, which proves you didn’t keep the
secret simply to get me into bed the other night.”

“For the record, I had no intentions of letting you get very far

tonight before I came after you.”

She laughed. “I probably wouldn’t have gotten very far before I

would’ve come back anyway.”

Emotions churned in Neil’s mind, around his heart, and in his gut

as he watched Davon kiss her. He recognized all of them…the want,
desire, need, hope, and even the love he’d started to feel for her. It
was the jealousy that had him throwing back his head on a growl.

“I’m so fucked.”

* * * *

132

Tonya Ramagos

Sierra thought kissing Davon again after admitting to him and

herself how badly she wanted him despite his uniform should’ve set
her world to rights. It didn’t. As his tongue caressed her mouth in a
soul-searching kiss and reached her very soul, she felt an emptiness
she couldn’t define, one that didn’t seem right. The low-throated
growl that reached her ears followed by Neil’s words explained
everything.

She slowly broke the kiss, smiling when Davon nipped her bottom

lip before allowing her to ease back. Guilt twisted in her belly as she
pried herself from Davon’s embrace and turned to Neil.

“Why are you so fucked?” The expression on his handsome face

told her he hadn’t realized he’d spoke aloud.

“Everything you just said to him. There wasn’t a bit of it that

applied to me. You knew I was a paramedic from the start. You
weren’t willing to date me, even though I managed to wrangle you
into going out with me last night. And, even though you let me have
you in the Corvette, you made it clear you had no intentions of giving
me a second date. Ergo, I’m so fucked.”

A part of Sierra wanted to laugh. The other part wasn’t sure how

to respond.

Why don’t you give us a call when you get your sight back?
The words Davon had said to her before he’d left her standing in

the driveway echoed through her memory. Us. That hadn’t been the
first time he’d used the word tonight. Neil had told her the woman
Davon had lost had been his, too. The men had obviously shared her.
Did they think they were going to share her, too?

“I’m not sure what to say to you right now,” she admitted. Though

she’d turned to fully face him, she felt Davon’s presence behind her.
He made that presence more known by stepping closer, until the solid
wall of his front was pressed to her back, and put his hands on her
hips. “I’m in uncharted territory.”

“You can tell me that he’s not the only one you want,” Neil

suggested as he closed the distance between them. He slipped an arm

Beneath Their Uniforms

133

around her waist between her body and Davon’s and cupped her
cheek with his other hand. “You can say that even though you knew
about my uniform, you still wanted to go out with me, even though
you were fighting it tooth and nail.”

He was right on both counts. Davon wasn’t the only man she

wanted and she had still wanted to go out with Neil last night, despite
knowing that he was a paramedic.

“Or, if you want me to leave so you and Davon can continue with

your date alone, all you have to do is say so.”

She didn’t want him to leave, but what would happen if she told

him to stay? Needing time to think and knowing there was no way she
could manage a single rational thought with both men touching her,
she scrambled for something that would buy her some time.

“Can we discuss this over dinner?”
The boyish smile that drove her crazy unfolded on his too-kissable

lips. “We can discuss it over anything you want.” He dipped his head
and brushed a kiss to her lips. At first, she thought she might have
imagined it. Then he pulled back a fraction, gazed briefly into her
eyes, and took the kiss deeper.

The sensation of kissing Neil when she knew Davon was standing

behind her, holding her, and watching blew her mind. She hadn’t
experienced that sensation a few minutes ago when Davon had kissed
her because she’d momentarily forgotten Neil was even there.

He made sure she didn’t forget him this time. His tongue went

wild in her mouth, tasting, consuming, and controlling the kiss until
her head spun and every erogenous zone in her body was begging to
be stroked, fondled, and pleasured. She felt breathless and woozy by
the time he ended the kiss and she found she was actually grateful for
Davon’s continued, steady hold on her hips. With the way her body
reacted to both of these men, having both of them around at the same
time could prove beneficial in a variety of ways.

134

Tonya Ramagos

Davon’s hands moved to her shoulders and he started to massage,

lightly and slowly. It felt good. Sierra let her head fall forward on
Neil’s chest as a bit of the confusion and tension left her.

“I need to get the steaks and vegetables on the grill,” Davon told

her. “And the potatoes are going to turn to mashed if I don’t take them
off the fire.”

Eyes still closed, Sierra moaned. “Okay.” She heard his soft

chuckle as his hands fell from her shoulders and he moved away. She
would’ve protested at the absence of his touch, but Neil made up for it
by stroking one hand down the back of her head while the other
caressed its way up and down her spine.

“How was school today?”
Sierra smiled even though she knew he couldn’t see it with her

head still on his chest. “Aside from the fact that you totally destroyed
my lesson plan for the day, it was great.”

His chin brushed the top of her head. “How did I destroy it?”
She let out a half laugh as she finally lifted her head to look at

him. “A classroom of students heard you ask me out yesterday.
Naturally, that classroom of students told every other classroom of
students in the school. I spent the day attempting to teach math while
thwarting off questions about how our date went last night, where we
ate, and what we did afterward.”

He grimaced, but she didn’t miss the laughter dancing in his

Southern Comfort eyes. “We had a great time, ate at Amigos, and you
took my ’Vette for a spin afterward.”

“You let her drive the ’Vette last night?”
The sheer surprise in Davon’s tone had Sierra giggling as she

looked at him. He’d stopped just outside the sliding glass door, a plate
of steaks in one hand and a closed foil packet balanced on the other.
The surprise she’d heard in his voice was etched into his expression
and only made her giggle more.

“I take it you don’t let people drive your car often?”

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135

Davon answered before Neil could. “Often? Try ever! He’s never

let me drive it.”

Sierra grinned at Neil. “I think he’s jealous.” She said the words

in a whisper loud enough that she figured Davon heard them, too. She
wiggled in Neil’s embrace. “And I feel special.”

Neil chuckled and kissed the tip of her nose. “That’s because you

are.”

Sierra held his gaze for a long moment, searching the emotions in

his eyes and the feelings winding their way through her system. She
didn’t focus on the arousal, though that was a definite sensation that
was making itself more pronounced the longer she stood with his
strong arms around her. She realized that, other than the short seconds
he’d held her after he’d gotten her out of her wrecked car, this was the
first time since she’d met him that he’d held her while they were
standing. Her body fit against his like a long-lost puzzle piece, her
pliant breasts flattening and molding to the hard planes and ridged
muscles of his chest. Her belly gave against the pressure of his cock,
long and thick and impossibly hard beneath the confines of his slacks.
Remembered ecstasy ricocheted from her nipples to her pussy, her
feminine lips clenching with the desire to feel his enormous cock
invading her body again.

She focused on the feelings that ran surprisingly deeper than her

arousal. She saw those emotions mirrored in his eyes and felt them in
his embrace. She wanted him. She’d known it from the first moment
and had done a very shitty job at fighting it. Her need to be with him,
not just sexually, but merely in his presence, was as strong and all-
consuming as her need to be with Davon.

“I don’t want you to go,” she heard herself say and watched the

pleased smile unfold on his too-kissable lips.

“Then I’ll stay.”
Her arms were around his neck and she let him go, easing out of

his embrace as she turned to Davon. His back was to her as he flipped

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the steaks on the grill, the muscles and sinews in his shoulders and
back flexing deliciously with the movements of his arms.

“And you’re really okay if he stays?” She was, after all, supposed

to be on a date with Davon tonight.

She knew he was still listening, even though he seemed to be

distracted by the grill. He proved it when he shot her a glance over
one broad shoulder and nodded.

“I’m really okay if he stays.”
She looked from Davon to Neil and back again. “The two of you

are planning to share me, aren’t you?”

Davon closed the grill and turned to face her. “It wasn’t a plan

either of us had before we realized tonight that we’re falling for the
same woman, but yes, now that we know, it’s what we want.”

Her mouth suddenly dry and her heart racing ninety-to-nothing,

Sierra moved to the table and lifted the glass of wine she’d abandoned
to her lips for a sip. “Have you guys always done this? Share the
women you date?”

Both men shook their heads.
“You won’t be the first, but you already know that,” Neil

answered. “Mona, the woman we lost, wasn’t the first, either, but she
was the last until you.”

“For the record, I know relationships like this aren’t uncommon in

this city, but the two of you would be a first for me.”

She watched as the men exchanged a wordless glance. Then

Davon gave her a grin that rocked her world.

“For the record, we like knowing we’ll be your first.”
Sierra laughed and sipped her wine as she slowly walked the

perimeter of the deck. She scanned their backyard, the stairs that led
off the deck to the concrete walk surrounding a swimming pool, and
drew her brows together as she looked at Davon.

“Why were you swimming at the country club Sunday when you

have a pool in your backyard?”

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137

His eyes twinkled. “Fate. If I hadn’t been there I wouldn’t have

met you.”

Sierra bit back a smile. “Nice try, but you didn’t know you were

going to meet me.”

He lifted a broad shoulder. “Like I said, it was fate.” He moved to

the railing at her side, rested a forearm on the top, and leaned against
it. “A client from the handyman gig thought it would be a nice bonus
if he paid for me to have a membership at the club. I use it on my off
days sometimes, more for the gym than the pool.”

“Which job do you enjoy most, being a firefighter or a

handyman?”

“Firefighter.” His answer came quick and sure. “If I could do it

twenty-four-seven, I would, but the schedules don’t work that way.
The downtime, on and off shift, can be grueling, but those minutes
when I’m facing off with something intent on being out of control are
worth every hour I spend sitting on my ass. Figuratively speaking, of
course.”

“Is anyone in your family a firefighter?”
He shook his head. “Dad was a carpenter before he retired. That’s

where I learned to do the handyman stuff.”

“What made you become a firefighter instead of completely

following in dad’s footsteps?”

“A fascination I never grew out of at first. Next came the

adrenaline rush. Then I grew to respect it. Fighting a fire is like going
to war every time. You’re going against an enemy that wants to
control and consume everything in its path. Maybe you can beat it,
maybe it’s going to beat you, but you give it everything you’ve got
and hope like hell you’re victorious.” A shadow moved through his
eyes and his lips thinned. “It’s the times when you’re not that make
you understand the full destruction you’re facing and the horror it can
leave in the aftermath.”

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“When there’s someone you can’t save.” Sierra said the words

quietly as more of a statement than a question, but he nodded and
answered anyway.

“Where there’s someone I don’t get to in time. That’s how we lost

Mona.”

Sierra inhaled a quick, startled breath and felt her eyes widen.

“Oh, my God. She burned to death?”

“Smoke inhalation killed her first.” Neil’s softly spoken words

drew her attention across the deck to him. He’d settled in one of the
armless chairs at the patio table, his long legs outstretched, one hand
flattened on his thigh, and the other curled around a beer on the table.

Seeing him like that gave Sierra the sudden urge to straddle his

lap again. It was an insane thing to cross her mind given the
seriousness of the conversation. Except, maybe it wasn’t. The sadness
that had darkened his eyes made her want to offer him any comfort
she could, but there was no way she would give him that and leave
Davon out of the equation. He needed just as much comfort. Knowing
she couldn’t give both men the solace she wanted with the distance
between them, she stayed where she stood.

“She was a nurse working at a clinic downtown. She got trapped

in the supply room. The investigators said the door somehow locked
itself from the outside when she went in. The smoke got to her long
before the flames.”

“We, the firefighters of Engine Company 4 and Rescue Squad 16,

found her before she’d suffered more than second degree burns.”
Davon raked a hand through his hair, pushed off the rail, and returned
to check the steaks and vegetables on the grill. “She could’ve lived
through that, but she was already gone by the time we got to her.”

Tears for a woman she’d never met and the pain these two men

had been through burned the backs of Sierra’s eyes. She blinked them
away as she turned her attention to Neil. “She was a nurse. You’re a
paramedic. Is that how you met?”

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139

“She was doing her residency in the ER at the hospital. I brought

in a patient. We started dating, I brought her home to meet Davon,
they clicked, too, and the three of us became an item.”

Sierra was sure there had been more to it than the quick summary

he’d just given her, but she let it go. Rehashing the past had covered
the air around them in a melancholy blanket she wanted to lift away.

“Why did you chose becoming a paramedic over a doctor?”
Neil took a swig of his beer, seeming to contemplate his answer

before he gave it to her. “I didn’t want to be confined to a hospital or
office all the time. I wanted to help people, but I’d go stir crazy
looking at the same walls day in and day out without a break. Being a
paramedic gets me out of the firehouse. I get the adrenaline rush, too,
just in a different way. It’s the pressure of knowing it’s up to me to
give the victim whatever treatment I’m authorized to give to keep that
person hanging on in a rush to get him or her to the ER.”

“What made you become a teacher?” Davon asked before she

could respond to what Neil had said.

He walked to the sliding glass door, stuck a hand inside, and must

have flipped a couple of switches because the lights in each corner of
the deck came on along with the ones in the pool. Though the setting
sun still offered enough light to see, it was good to know she’d still be
able to see him and Neil clearly when darkness fell over them.

“Kids.” She answered Davon as quickly and surely as he’d

answered her about his decision to be a firefighter. “I love children
and working with the students that are just reaching their teenage
years is giving me tons of knowledge and practice for when I have my
own kids someday.”

Neil barked a laugh. “I bet! So, how many kids do you want

someday?”

“Oh, I don’t know. A couple of dozen at least.” She swallowed a

laugh when Neil choked on the swig of beer he’d just taken and the
lid to the grill slammed with a thud as Davon whirled around to gape

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at her. “You’ve got to remember I’m used to at least that many kids in
each of my classes. Having just one or two would be weird for me.”

The men looked at each other with near mirroring expressions that

morphed from shock to consideration and, finally, acceptance.

“You take twelve. I’ll take the other twelve,” Neil told Davon as

he grabbed a lighter and lit the two candles in the center of the table.

“Deal,” Davon agreed as he turned back to the grill, lifted the lid,

and began plating the steaks and vegetables.

It was Sierra’s turn to gape at them. She’d only been teasing, but

something in their voices, in Neil’s nonchalant posture, and in the
way Davon had gone back to cooking, made her believe they were
serious.

“Uh, guys,” she said slowly, shifting her attention back and forth

between the two men. “I was teasing. Three is probably the max
amount of kids I’ve ever thought about having.”

Davon shrugged as he turned with the plate of steaks in one hand

and the plate of vegetables in the other. “Three or twenty-
four…whatever you want, it’s our job to make sure you get it.” The
corners of his lips twitched at the look she knew must be on her face.
“Dinner is ready. Let’s eat.”

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141

Chapter Eight

Sitting at a table across from either of them wasn’t a first, but

sitting there between them definitely was and Sierra enjoyed the hell
out of it. They kept her laughing, sometimes so much she couldn’t
stop long enough to eat the meat Davon had prepared. That was a
shame because the steaks he’d seasoned and grilled to perfection,
along with the fresh vegetables and potatoes that also had a flavor that
exploded on her tongue, was delicious. She managed to nearly clear
her plate through fits of giggles before she set down her fork and
leaned back in her chair.

“If I eat another bite, I’m going to pop.”
Davon grinned. “I’ll consider that a compliment to the chef.”
“Oh, it was definitely that. Where did you learn to cook like this?”
“Dad is the retired carpenter. Mom is the retired master chef. They

both taught me a thing or two growing up.”

Sierra slid her wine glass closer when he lifted the bottle from the

ice bucket and tipped it toward her in offer. “I haven’t seen your
handyman work, so I don’t know how good of a teacher your father
is, but your mother is obviously fabulous.”

Davon filled her glass and shot a glance around the deck as he put

the wine bottle back in the bucket. “You’re sitting on an example of
my handyman work. I built this deck when Neil and I bought the
house.”

“And remodeled the inside, installed a private bath in my room so

we both had master suites, and divided the kitchen and dining room
into separate areas so we had a private eating space when we wanted
it,” Neil added.

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Sierra gave him a teasing smile. “What did you do while he was

doing all of that?”

His eyes twinkled with mischief. “Tended to all his nicks, dings,

and booboos. Believe me, the man can swing a hammer like a pro, but
he tends to forget to move the fingers before contact.”

Sierra threw back her head and laughed. “I didn’t notice any dings

the other night.” She reached for Davon’s left hand and dragged the
pad of her thumb lightly over the bruised nail on his middle finger.
“This must be new and it looks like it hurt.”

“Trust me, it’s feeling much better now.” The conversational tone

that had been in his voice since they’d sat down at the patio table to
eat had turned husky and gruff. The sound of it, coupled with the
sudden heat in his eyes, ignited a slow burning flame in her pussy.

She swallowed, licked her lips, and watched the heat in his eyes

turn to flames of need as his gaze followed the path of her tongue.
“I’m glad I could help.” She shifted her attention to Neil when he
took her other hand in his.

“It’s a beautiful night. How about we go for a swim?”
Sierra chewed her bottom lip. “I didn’t bring a swimsuit.”
Davon’s fingers gave hers a gentle squeeze. “You won’t need

one.”

Excitement fluttered in her belly at the idea of going skinny-

dipping with them. She tore her gaze from Neil and scanned the
backyard. The privacy fence surrounding it would prevent anyone on
the outside from seeing.

“I’m not going to be the only one naked in that pool.”
“Of course not,” Neil told her as both men got to their feet. They

attempted to use their holds on her hands to pull her to her feet, too,
but she resisted.

Feeling incredibly bold and just a bit naughty, she looked up at

them in turn before she settled her gaze on Davon. “Whatever I want,
it’s your job to make sure I get it, right?”

Intrigue filled his handsome face. “Right.”

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143

“I want to sit here and watch both of you get naked for me.”
His gaze flicked to Neil’s before he looked back at her and

nodded. “I think we can do that.” He let go of her hand, shifting his
weight from one foot to the other as he kicked off his shoes, and
reached for the hem of his shirt.

“Hang on, Road Runner. I can watch you and Wile E Coyote over

here at the same time when you’re standing on opposite sides of me.”

Neil barked a laugh and released her hand. “Yeah, Road Runner.

Slow down, man.”

Sierra giggled at the narrow-eyed look Davon shot Neil as both

men rounded the table to stand in front of it. “Watch it, Wile E.
You’re liable to get an anvil dropped on your head.”

Unable to see them from her position across the table, Sierra

moved to the chair Neil had vacated. “Proceed, please.”

Shoes already gone, both men reached down to remove their socks

before fisting the hem of their shirts in their hands and pulling them
up and over their heads. Sierra pushed a slow, appreciative breath
from her pursed lips as her gaze feasted on the spectacular sight of
Davon’s truly ripped, deeply tanned torso before dinking in Neil’s
equally ripped, hormone-rocking sculpted body.

She caught herself squirming, felt the wetness soak her panties,

and barely prevented the moan that bubbled in her throat from
escaping as both men reached for the buttons and zippers of their
pants. They shucked them down without show or design, taking their
briefs along with them. It amused her when both thought to reach
inside their wallets to fist a condom before kicking their pants aside.

Gloriously naked and obviously comfortable with their bodies,

they stood in front of her and allowed her to look her fill. Because her
gaze had landed on Davon last, she studied him first, starting with his
handsome face and working her way down. Though she’d already
seen him naked, the effect the sight had on her very being hadn’t
lessened a bit. Every erogenous zone in her body sizzled in please-do-
me-now demand at the ebony springs of hair that covered his broad

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chest, thinning on his abdomen, and narrowing to a path that led to his
groin. She remembered playing with that tantalizing path of hair her
first night with him, remembered how she’d followed that path down
his amazing body, and how she’d closed her lips around his thick
cock. Her mouth watered as her attention locked on that cock now,
fully hard and jutting from his body between his powerful legs and
strong feet.

She gulped as she slid her gaze to Neil’s feet and worked her way

up him. He stood with his feet apart, his knees locked, the muscles in
his thighs corded and beautifully defining the long, rigid cock hanging
between them. His dick jumped as she locked her gaze on it and she
giggled, knowing he had done it on purpose. The muscles in her
throat flexed at the thought of giving him a blowjob. While Davon
was packed to perfection with a truly marvelous thick and long cock,
Neil’s was even larger. Would she be able to swallow his full length if
she tried? She wasn’t sure, but the urge to find out was almost too
demanding to ignore.

She tamped down the desire anyway and dragged her gaze up his

narrow waist, over the thin blanket of ginger hairs that covered his
abdomen and chest, up his thick neck, and finally met his gaze. “I
didn’t get to look at you last night in the Corvette. Thank you for the
opportunity to do it now. You’re gorgeous.”

“I didn’t get a good look at you last night in the ‘Vette, either,” he

countered. “It seems to me that you owe me one now.”

The slight edge of authority in his tone sent whips of heat slashing

across her breasts, over her clit, and her pussy. She held his gaze as
she got to her feet, silently willing her muscles not to shake. She
wasn’t ashamed of her body. She worked hard and ate right to keep
herself trim and fit. But, just as it had done with Davon the night
she’d taken him to her bed, as sudden rush of self-consciousness
rushed through her.

She understood the cause as she toed her sandals off her feet.

Getting undressed in front of one man was one thing, but getting

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145

naked with two men watching was something she’d never
experienced. Their gazes on her were almost like tangible touches as
she peeled her shirt from her body, pulled it over her head, and let it
fall to the deck. Her attention settled on a point in the air between
them as she reached behind her back and freed the clasp of her bra.
She shrugged it off her shoulders and shivered as the thin lace fell
away and a gentle breeze moved over her already beaded nipples.

With only her shorts and panties to go, she took a deep breath and

removed them both, pushing them down until they fell in a pool
around her feet. She stepped out of them and only then did she force
herself to look at the men again.

Davon’s gaze had locked on her pussy and her feminine lips

tingled at the memory of having his mouth on them. Neil’s attention
was moving all over her, taking in her body inch-by-inch.

“Damn,” he breathed. “Next time we’re in the ‘Vette, remind me

to turn on the dome light.”

Sierra giggled and felt every ounce of self-consciousness wash

away.

“I made sure to turn on the bedside lamp,” Davon told him, his

gaze finally lifting from her pussy only to glide slowly up her front in
a way that left a path of scorching need in its wake.

Their reaction renewed the bold, naughty urge inside her to see

what other responses she could get out of them. Inspired, she danced
her fingers up her thighs, skimmed them over the apex of her pussy,
and dragged them up her belly and abdomen until she reached her
breasts. She cupped them, raked the pads of her thumbs over the taut
nipples, and heard both men groan.

“Holy shit,” Davon growled, his gaze locked on her hands.
Sierra bit her bottom lip as she released one breast and lowered

that hand to cover her pussy. Her gaze landed on Davon and she saw
the challenge spark in his eyes.

“Do it.”

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She flicked her attention to Neil and didn’t miss the predatory

control etched in his expression.

“Play with your pussy for us, Sierra. We want to watch.”
That predatory control sounded in his voice and sent another whip

of desire lashing through her body. She slid a finger between her
folds, sucked in a quick breath when the pad of that digit raked over
her already engorged clit, and felt her knees shake as she delved that
finger into her sodden opening.

“Sweet mother of God.” Davon’s words sounded strained and

tortured.

It made her smile as she let her head fall back on her shoulders

and stared at the star-filled sky. She heard the soft footfalls closing in
a nanosecond before strong arms wrapped around. She lifted her head
and saw it was Neil who had taken her into his arms. His eyes were
flaming with dark needs and wickedly mischievous intentions. She
realized those intentions in the next instant when he lifted her off her
feet. She wound her arms around his neck, locked her ankles behind
his waist, and he lowered her onto his cock in a single, swift move
that drove his dick impossibly deep into her channel.

“Oh, yes!” Her head fell back again and she closed her eyes as she

cried out at the sudden intrusion. Her pussy was wet, burning hot, and
ready for his cock. Even so, the girth of his shaft stretched her
opening as stupendously as it had last night.

He held her still, his large hands gripping her ass, and the tips

digging into her flesh. “Look at me, darlin’,” he told her gruffly, his
tone strained.

She had to force her head up and push her eyes open to meet his

intense gaze. She loved looking at him, but right now all she wanted
to do was melt in his arms and feel as he assumed command of every
ounce of her being.

“You can swim, can’t you?”
She blinked at him, confused by his question with the pleasure

overloading her brain. Why would he ask? She’d met him by the side

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147

of a pool. Except, no. That had been Davon she’d met that way. Neil
was the one she’d kissed until she’d felt senseless in the front seat of
her wrecked car. “Of course.”

He carried her off of the deck, his cock slowly plunging in and out

of her pussy with each step as he took her to the edge of the pool. She
caught a glimpse of Davon following behind them, but Neil was
holding her now, his strength and power demanding her full attention
for the moment. He inched around the edge of the pool, dipping his
head to plant soft kisses on her cheeks, her lips, and her neck along
the way. When he stopped walking, he bent his head further, catching
the flesh at the bend of her neck and shoulder between his teeth for a
bite that sent shards of pleasured pain straight to where their bodies
joined. He marked her with that bite as effectively as he had marked
her heart from the moment she’d set her gaze on him. The realization
sent an arrow of fear shooting through her even as a slow acceptance
fisted in her chest.

Sierra braced herself for the chill of the water, but found it warm

and inviting instead. He stopped when the water reached his shoulders
and walked her back against the wall of the pool. She released her
grip on his shoulder and splayed her arms along the wall behind her as
he eased his dick out of her until only the head remained before he
slowly inched his way into her again.

“Neil. Please.” She panted as he repeated the same snail-like

paced movement. Her fingers wrapped around the pool ledge and she
tried to use it for leverage, tried to meet his thrusts with quicker,
harder ones of her own. He held her too close, his hands on her hips
and ass too tight. He controlled their pace and nothing she could do
would change that. She was at his mercy and that show of dominance
excited her more.

“You’re driving me crazy.” Her inner muscles flexed around the

thick, hard meat inside her, milking his cock and urging it to move
again.

“I’ve got more room to move tonight.”

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“And, yet, you aren’t moving enough,” she countered, attempting

to wriggle in his embrace. It didn’t work. He’d pinned her to the wall
of the pool with his body against hers and his enormous cock buried
deep in her pussy. One of his hands did move. It slipped between their
bodies to cup and fondle her breast, adding another level of tormented
need to the calamity already wreaking havoc inside her.

“Davon isn’t with us yet. I’m not sending you over the edge until

he’s got his hands on your sexy body, too.”

Davon. Yes. She wanted Davon with them. She wanted to feel his

strong hands exploring her body while Neil made love to her pussy.
She looked around, but couldn’t find him. He’d been right behind
them a second ago.

“Where is he?”
“He’ll be here in a minute.”
Before she could say anything more, Neil kissed her. His tongue

invaded her mouth as effectively as his cock had invaded her pussy,
taking and controlling and sending her head racing with ecstasy. Then
finally, finally, he drove his cock into her pussy with a ferocity and
speed that didn’t slow. He pounded inside her, reaching the end of her
womb with each harsh inward push, and drawing ragged cries of
pleasure from her lips that were muffled by his continued kiss.

Water sloshed around them, the sound joining with their moans of

passion. All gentleness had stopped, but she was grateful for it. She
didn’t want tenderness. She wanted out-of-control, animalistic sex.

He gave it to her, sending pulse points of pleasure through her clit

and pussy until she teetered on the edge. He seemed to know when
she reached the point of near release. He chose that moment to
wrench his mouth from hers and his cock stilled in her pussy once
more.

“No!” The protesting cry exploded from her as she tried, and

failed, to return to that brisk thrusting that would break the dam he’d
slammed up to thwart off her release. “Neil, please.” The man was a
sadist. How had she not picked up on that before? He was torturing

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her, bringing her to that fantastical place of mind-blowing pleasure
only to snatch it away and leaving her wanting even more.

“Shush, baby.” He cupped the side of her face and brushed his lips

to hers. “I’m going to give you what you want, but I told you it
wouldn’t happen until Davon is with us.”

Her gaze locked with his, relief skated through her system when

she heard the water softly slosh beside them.

“Looking for me?”
Sierra might have laughed at the absurdity of Davon’s question if

she hadn’t been so close to losing her mind.

“Our woman definitely is,” Neil told him as he used his continued

hold on her to ease her away from the wall of the pool.

Our woman? Their woman? They were making it so tonight, she

realized as she felt the hard wall of Davon’s body move in behind her.
His hands closed on her sides and dragged up, slowly moving
between her body and Neil’s to flatten just below her breasts.

The warmth of his breath seeped into the flesh on the side of her

neck when he dipped his head and fiery embers rained through her
body to join the inferno Neil had created in her pussy. “He’s been
teasing you, hasn’t he?”

Sierra narrowed her gaze on Neil. “He’s devious. He wasn’t like

this last night.”

A wicked grin tilted Neil’s lips. “I didn’t have the room or the

time to be like this last night. I also didn’t want to scare you away. I
was still trying to convince you that you wanted to be with me,
remember?”

She angled her head and lifted a brow. “And you aren’t trying to

convince me anymore? You’re not worried you’ll scare me away
now?”

“Oh, I’m still convincing you, baby.” He eased his cock back and

worked it slowly back inside her, forcing her to feel every glorious,
enormous inch. “I figured you needed to know the man you’ll be
dealing with. I’m not always as gentle as Davon is most of the time.”

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The devilish promise in his tone awakened a part of her she hadn’t

known truly existed. It was a part that wanted it rough, harder than
she’d ever had it, and solely at his mercy. She’d be at Davon’s mercy,
too, she remembered as one of his hands inched that final distance
from her abdomen to close over her breast. If she was going to be
their woman, then they were going to be her men. As she allowed
Davon’s solid body to support part of her weight, she realized being
sandwiched between them had made her feel more whole than she’d
ever felt in her life.

That knowledge should’ve scared her into demanding both men

release her. It should have sent her running for her car, still parked in
their driveway. She’d known with both of them individually that she
was setting herself up for destruction. Being with them together was
setting herself up for an obliteration from which she’d never recover.

Resigning herself to that fact, she let her head fall back to rest on

Davon’s chest, turned it to look up at him, and then locked her gaze
with Neil’s again. The emotions and heat she saw in both men’s eyes
told her this wasn’t just a fly-by-night thing for them. She knew damn
well it wasn’t for her. She’d started falling for both of them nearly the
instant she’d met them and she’d blown any chances she might have
had at turning back at nearly the same time.

She reached a hand behind her to lace her fingers in the back of

Davon’s hair, keeping her other hand on Neil’s broad shoulder. “The
two of you together are the best of both worlds. I think I’m going to
enjoy this sharing thing immensely.”

Davon chuckled and nipped her earlobe. “Damn, no wonder I’m

so fucking crazy about you.”

Neil pulled his hips back, stopping when only the head of his cock

remained inside her pussy. “She makes it impossible not to be.”

Davon’s free hand moved from her abdomen, sliding down and

turning when it reached her ass. A single, long finger slipped between
her spread ass cheeks and she sucked in a startled breath. “For us to

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really give you the best of both worlds, one of us will need to be
inside this tight ass of yours, sweetheart.”

Sierra’s vision blurred as the implication of his words hit home as

the pending orgasm Neil had created inside her grew claws. Those
claws raked a heated path from her pussy to her ass as fear slammed
into an anticipation in her system that had her head lolling on his
shoulder.

“Have you ever let anyone make love to your sexy ass, Sierra?”

Neil asked as the pad of Davon’s finger flattened over her forbidden
entrance.

“No.” The word sounded weak and frightened, even to her own

ears. It sounded needy, too, as if her body knew exactly what it
wanted even if her mind hadn’t yet figured it out.

Neil thrust his cock inside her to the hilt, slamming their groins

together, and drawing a pleasured cry from her lips even as her
thoughts scattered. “Then we’ll be showing you another first tonight.”

Tonight? Her eyes sprang open at that, her mind racing. She had

the evidence of Neil’s enormous cock inside her pussy right now and
she felt Davon’s, long and thick, resting against her spine. Either one
of their cocks would stretch her ass to a point she couldn’t even dare
to imagine.

The pad of Davon’s finger rotated on her anus, pressing and

working the hole until she felt it start to relax. “Don’t worry,
sweetheart. I’m the gentle one, remember.”

“But won’t it hurt?”
Neil’s gaze flicked to Davon’s over her shoulder. “You got the

waterproof lube while you were inside, didn’t you?”

“It’s on my hand and dick now.”
Neil’s attention settled back on her. “It will, but only for a minute.

Let Davon do the work. All you have to do is relax.”

Relax. Yeah, that’s going to be a piece of cake.
Sierra took a deep breath as Davon’s other hand moved to her ass.

The finger he’d already placed there worked its way inside and the

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breath she’d taken lodged in her throat. A bittersweet pleasured pain
shot from her ass to her pussy as he delved the finger deeper,
wiggling it inside her back entrance, and urging the muscles to spread.

“See,” he said against the side of her neck, his tone tight and

husky with his own arousal. “That doesn’t hurt, does it?”

“No,” she admitted, surprised by the truth of the words. It felt

wickedly amazing and stupendously naughty. “But your cock is a lot
larger than that finger.”

He chuckled softly, pulled the finger back, and added a second,

easing them both side-by-side into her ass. “What about that?”

“Oh, God.” Her head lolled on his shoulder on its own accord as

the bittersweet pain and devious pleasure collided in her system. It
wasn’t true pain, but a magnificent sting that threatened to steal her
sanity.

Again, he pulled the fingers back, added yet another, and eased all

three inside her virgin ass. “And that? If you can take three fingers in
your tight ass, you can take my cock, Sierra.”

Pleasure, intense and all-consuming, had her hips bucking

between the men. The move drove Neil’s cock deeper inside her even
as she rocked back on Davon’s fingers, taking them deeper still, too.

“Yeah, you can definitely take it, sweetheart.” Obviously

convinced by her body’s reaction, he slowly withdrew his fingers
from her ass.

“Please!” The plea sounded wrenched from her throat as she

jerked her head on his chest to look at him.

The smile he gave her as he met her gaze was a velvet ribbon

tying around her heart. “I’m not done, sweetheart. I promise.”

He made good on his word. She felt the backs of his fingers close

around his shaft as he angled it to enter her. She took another deep
breath, calming her speeding heart as desire settled between her anus
and pussy. He took his time, easing his cock into her anus and slowly
breaching the tight ring of muscle inch by gloriously long inch. With
his cock deep in her anus and Neil’s buried in her pussy, she felt fuller

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than she could have ever imagined, more complete, oh, God, so very
right.

“How does it feel, Sierra?” Neil slowly began to move, easing his

cock out of her pussy only to slide it back in again in a snail-paced
rhythm that Davon immediately started to match.

“If feels…yesss.” She couldn’t form a complete sentence, could

scarcely breathe as pulse points of pleasure slammed through her clit,
her pussy, and her ass.

“That good, huh?” Amusement laced Davon’s tightened voice as

he licked a path across the back of her shoulders.

“Astonishingly…good,” she managed as they moved inside her in

a choreographed dance that manipulated her body straight to the edge.
She bit her lips together and still cried out from the sensations
barreling through her, thrashing between them as the fiery pressure
built anyway. She tried to hold it off, not wanting the moment to end,
and actually found herself wishing Neil would be that devious sadist
again.

He didn’t. Together, they made love to her in a way no man had

before, showing her an exotic pleasure she’d barely even fantasized
about. Moans mingled with growls and pants, the water sloshed
around them, beating against their flesh, and Sierra lost the final,
tenuous hold she’d had on her heart.

“Davon! Neil! I’m going to come.” She wanted them there with

her, wanted to feel them come apart against her back and her front as
viciously as she knew she was about to do in their arms.

“Now, Sierra,” Neil growled. “Come for us now.”
She let herself go, screaming as the orgasm tore through her,

spilled out of her, and left her feeling lightheaded and spent. It
amazed her how Neil seemed to be able to read her so well. She
watched as his face contorted with his own release and listened as, a
nanosecond later, Davon grunted with his.

Feeling like a rag doll, she let her head fall forward on Neil’s

chest and closed her eyes. Her body continuing to rock from the force

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of her orgasm, her mind whirled with the realization of what they’d
just done, and her heart accepted the fact that she’d fallen in love with
the two men that held the power to demolish her very soul.

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Chapter Nine

Neil knocked on the door to Captain Knox’s office, waited for the

curt order to enter, and walked inside. The captain sat behind his desk,
his attention focused on the computer monitor. He held up a finger,
telling Neil to wait, as his gaze flicked briefly Neil’s way.

Neil stood with his feet shoulder-width apart, his hands clasped in

front of him, and waited. He heard the soft click of the computer
mouse, then the captain leaned back in his swivel chair and gave him
his full attention.

“What can I do for you, Ingram?”
To some, the captain’s penetrating ice-blue gaze was enough to

make them want to squirm in their skin despite the mix of authority
and friendliness it projected. It didn’t bother Neil one bit.

“I have a favor to ask if you have a minute, sir.”
“I do. What’s on your mind, son?”
At barely forty, Stacy Knox was several years shy of being old

enough to be Neil’s father. Still, many of the firefighters and
paramedics, himself included, under the captain’s command looked
up to him as a father figure. Neil knew of one paramedic in particular
that didn’t. He wasn’t even close to being gay, but he could see
Maddie Rafferty’s attraction to Stacy Knox. The man turned his share
of heads with his wavy blond hair, rugged features, and fit six-foot-
three body.

“I’ve been asked by the PTA at Cherish Middle School to see if I

can arrange a couple of fire trucks to show for their end-of-year fling
coming up. I don’t remember the exact date, but I know it will fall
during one of our shifts.”

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One blond brow arched over the captain’s quizzical eye. “When

did you join the PTA at Cherish Middle?”

Neil chuckled. “I didn’t, sir.” He’d hoped he wouldn’t have to go

into too much explanation with the captain, but he could already see
that wasn’t going to happen. He turned to close the door to the office
he’d left open and moved to one of the guest chairs in front of the
man’s desk. “The request came from one of the teachers at the school
that is involved in the PTA. The PTA president asked her to arrange
the trucks for the event.”

Stacy Knox obviously refused to let him off too easy. “Why isn’t

she sitting in front of my desk now instead of you?”

“Because I owe her a favor.”
The captain leaned forward in his chair, propped his elbows on the

desk, and steepled his fingers, holding Neil’s gaze. “I would’ve
thought pulling the woman from a wrecked car after she kissed you
blind and nearly got you on report would’ve been enough cause for
her to owe you the favor.”

It was all Neil could do to keep a straight face when the corners of

the captain’s lips twitched. “I can’t get anything past you, can I?”

The captain shook his head. “It’s my job to know what’s going on

with the men and woman on my shift.”

Neil wondered if the man knew what was going on with Maddie.

Did the captain realize she had the hots for him? He’d seen the way
Stacy Knox looked at Maddie. If the attraction was mutual, the
captain had never once let it show.

“Believe me, sir. She’s paid up in full.”
Stacy Knox slowly nodded. “Glad to hear it.” The amusement in

his eyes dimmed and sincerity took over. “It’s been a long road for
you and Davon. It’s good to see the two of you are finally moving
on.”

Neil didn’t think he or Davon would’ve made it through and

stayed on the job after losing Mona if it hadn’t been for Stacy Knox.
The man had been the rock they’d needed to get their heads back in

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the job. He’s stayed by their sides, offering a listening ear, and
pushing them, when the time was right, to work their way back from
the darkness and gloom that had taken over their lives.

Neil swallowed a lump that formed in his throat. “Thank you, sir.”
“Get me the exact date for this event at the middle school. I’ll get

us cleared to make it happen.” The captain’s attention returned to his
computer monitor.

“Thank you, sir,” Neil said again as he got to his feet, recognizing

a dismissal when he got one.

“And, Ingram,” the captain said just before Neil walked out of the

office. “I’m assuming your girl will be at this event. Make sure she
keeps her lips off of you while you’re representing our firehouse.”

Neil shot the man a grin as he pulled open the office door. “I’ll do

my best, sir.” The sound of the captain’s laughter followed him out of
the office.

* * * *

Sierra found a narrow spot along the sidewalk outside of Vivian

Hall’s house, judged the distance between the SUV and Lincoln, and
barely managed to parallel park between them. “I hope one of them
decides to leave before we do,” she told Cassidy as she cut the engine,
grabbed for her purse, and opened the driver’s door. “I got this car in
here, but I’m not sure I can get it back out.”

Cassidy giggled as she slid out of the passenger side. “Any news

yet on when the insurance company is going to pay up so you can get
another car?”

Sierra sighed as she rounded the front bumper and followed

Cassidy up the walkway to the house. “I talked with the adjuster
today. He’s determined that my car was totaled.”

Cassidy slowed her step and shot Sierra a withering look. “Hmm,

imagine that.”

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“Yeah, that’s pretty much what I said. He told me I should have a

check in a couple of weeks.”

Cassidy rolled her eyes. “Jeez, you would think they’d move

faster, since they are forking out the dough for the rental car you’re
driving.”

Sierra scanned the cars lining the sidewalk and the driveway as

she squeezed between two that were parked side-by-side on her way
to the front door. She spotted Davon’s Mustang among the cars and
her belly fluttered.

“You know, I wouldn’t have minded if you’d told me you wanted

to ride with your men to the party.”

Cassidy and Vivian Hall both came from families with money and

often ran in some of the same circles. It was Vivian Hall’s birthday
and Cassidy had made Sierra promise she’d attend the party with her.
Little had Sierra known until she’d told Neil and Davon about it that
they had been planning on going to the party, too. In the oddly small
world of Cherish, Tennessee, Vivian’s best friend was Lesley
Davenport, the same Lesley that was engaged to Ryder Cox and
Blaine Ellis, two firefighters that worked with Neil and Davon.

Sierra turned back to Cassidy, realizing her friend had stopped at

the bottom of the steps to grin at her. “And miss the three hours of fun
watching you try on all the clothes in your closet until you settled on
the perfect outfit? No way!”

Cassidy did look great. She’d chosen a yellow sundress that was a

stark contrast to her long, straight brunette hair and deeply tanned
flesh. The dress clung to her curves, leaving little to the imagination,
stopping at midthigh to expose her long legs and matching sandaled
feet.

Sierra had gone for simplistic, but flattering. She wore an orange

skirt that hugged her hips and flared at her midthighs with a blue and
orange blouse cut just low enough to show a tantalizing bit of
cleavage and matching sandals.

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“Besides, Davon had some work to do on a client’s house before

he showered and got ready for the party, and Neil was spending time
with his sister.”

Cassidy planted her hands on her hips. “You never did answer my

question when I was getting dressed.”

“That would probably be because you kept getting sidetracked by

your closet.” Sierra pointed at the closed front door of the house. “Are
you going to knock or are we going to stand out here for the entire
length of the party?”

“We’ll go inside after you answer my question. What’s it like to

be in a ménage with two fantastically gorgeous men?”

Sierra leaned on the hood of the nearest car, hoping she didn’t set

off an alarm. “It’s exactly that…fantastic. Davon and Neil are polar
opposites in a lot of ways. Davon is sweet and tender while Neil is
more demanding with an edge of dominance that really gets my juices
flowing.” She folded her arms beneath her breasts and glared at
Cassidy. “There. Is that descriptive enough for you?”

Cassidy moaned and turned to ring the doorbell. “Too descriptive.

You’re so lucky it makes me want to puke. And to think, I’m the one
that encouraged you to go out with Davon in the first place.”

“And to keep seeing Neil,” Sierra pointed out. “Little did either of

us know, they were best friends and I would end up in love with both
of them.”

The door swung open and a short, stumpy woman Sierra didn’t

recognize invited them in before leaving the opened doorway to head
back to the party.

“At least you’re not running anymore,” Cassidy told her before

she stepped inside.

Sierra shrugged. “Life’s too short not to take a chance, right?”
Cassidy shot her an ear-to-ear smile. “It’s about time you

listened.”

The party was already in full swing, with music blaring beneath a

din of conversation and laughter. Sierra scanned the standing-room-

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only space in the lavish house, her gaze sweeping over faces she knew
and some she didn’t in search of Davon and Neil.

“Do you see them anywhere?” Cassidy asked, raising her voice to

be heard over the noise.

Sierra shook her head, still looking for them as they slowly started

to make their way through the crowd. “They’re here somewhere.
Davon’s Mustang is out front.”

They shouldered through a group of people blocking a doorway,

entered the next room, and her gaze landed on Davon. The initial
lovely, slow roll of her heart at the sight of him stopped when her
heart plummeted to her belly. He and Neil had obviously arrived in
time to find a place to sit. They were together on a loveseat across the
room with a stunning redhead between them. The redhead was nearly
in both their laps. Her long bare legs were draped over Neil’s and one
hand was splayed on his chest. Her other arm was around Davon’s
neck and her lips spread in a seductive smile as she whispered
something in his ear.

“I’m going to find the bar while you look for them. Do you want

anything?”

Sierra hardly heard Cassidy’s question over the deafening sound

of her pulse pounding in her ears. She stared at Davon and Neil as
both men laughed at something the redhead said and her eyes filled
with tears.

Stupid! She’d been so damn stupid to let down her guard. She’d

broken her own rule, a vow that had been set in stone before she’d
met them to protect the very heart she could feel shattering into a
million painful pieces at the sight of them with another woman.

Numb from her head to her toes, she barely felt Cassidy’s arm

beneath her hand when she reached out to touch her friend as she tore
her gaze from the heartbreaking sight. “Can you find another ride
home?”

Cassidy blinked her surprise, her brows drawing together in

confusion. “I’m sure I can. Sie, what’s wrong?”

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“It’s happening all over again.” Her voice cracked on the words

and she knew she had to get out of the house before she burst into
tears. She spun on her heel and pushed her way through the crowd,
muttering an apology as she fought not to cry.

It was happening all over again, everything that had forced her to

swear off men that wore a uniform in the first place, only this time, it
was double the hurt. She managed to hold back the tears until she got
inside her rental car before the dam broke. The sobs burst from her
throat as she started the car. She’d have to be careful not to hit the
SUV and Lincoln still parked in front of and behind her. With her
hands shaking uncontrollably, she knew it wouldn’t be easy,
especially when all she really wanted to do was curl up and die.

* * * *

“You son of a bitch!”
Davon felt the sting of the slap across his cheek a nanosecond

before he heard the words. Stunned, he gapped at the brunette with
the green eyes armed with enough anger to shoot bullets through his
skull and felt grateful the act wasn’t possible.

“What the?” he heard Neil say at the same time Tasha barked a

half laugh of surprised shock and said, “Holy shit!”

Davon hated to admit it wasn’t the first time he’d been slapped by

a woman, but it was the first time he knew damn well he hadn’t done
anything to deserve it. He stared at the brunette, his cheek on fire, and
felt his temper spark. “Who the…” Recognition slammed into the
confusion and anger twisting in his mind. “Cassidy?”

The riot of conversation that had been going on around them

silenced as everyone within earshot stopped to listen and watch the
show. Cassidy didn’t disappoint them.

“How could you do this to her?” she yelled, loudly enough for the

whole house to hear even over the still blaring music. “First you lie to
her about what you really do for a living and now this!” She pointed a

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finger at Tasha. “I should have never convinced her to go a date with
you in the first place.”

His head reeling, Davon looked at Tasha. She’d covered her

gaping mouth with a hand and her eyes were huge in her face. Neil sat
next to her, his expression one of sheer bafflement as he glared at
Davon.

“You know this woman?”
“She’s Sierra’s best friend.” Davon raked a hand through his hair

as he turned his attention back to Cassidy and prayed she didn’t slap
the shit out of him again. “Where is Sierra? I thought the two of you
were riding together.”

“We did.” Cassidy’s posture was stiff and her hands were balled

into fists at her sides. Davon watched those hands closely, ready to
dodge the punch if she decided to throw one. “She left as soon as she
saw the two of you with her.”

Understanding plowed into his gut harder than any punch Cassidy

could’ve thrown. “Fuck!” He briefly closed his eyes and bowed his
head, knowing exactly what Sierra had seen, or rather, exactly what
she’d thought she’d seen.

“That’s all you wanted from her, isn’t it?” Cassidy fired. “A quick

fuck?”

Davon snapped his head up, gritting his teeth in an effort to

control his rapidly rising temper. “No, far from it.” Cassidy stumbled
two steps back as he got to his feet and shot a look at Neil. His friend
was already standing.

“Let’s go.”
Davon nodded once and glanced at Tasha. “Introduce yourself to

Cassidy, please. I don’t have time to explain this to her.”

* * * *

Sierra closed the door to her apartment, leaned against it, and sank

to her bottom, drawing her knees to her chest as she cried yet another

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river of tears. She couldn’t make them stop any more than she could
make the pain go away. It felt as if her heart had been ripped from her
chest. Her eyes closed despite her efforts to keep them open. All she
could see behind the darkness of her burning lids was the image of
that redhead with her hands all over Davon and Neil and the smiles
that had been on both men’s faces.

She threw her head back, not even phased when it smacked the

door behind her with a hard thud. It shouldn’t hurt so bad. She’d
barely been with Davon and Neil a week. How could she have fallen
so deeply in love with them so fast? It shouldn’t be possible. But it
was. She’d fallen for them harder than she’d ever fallen for anyone.
And she was going to hurt harder and longer than she’d ever hurt
before.

She didn’t know how long she sat there against the door, the tears

continuing to spill down her cheeks. It might have been minutes. It
might have been hours. She couldn’t find the strength to care anymore
than she could find the ability to move. Her sobs finally quietened,
but the serious crying jag hadn’t done anything to relieve the pain
tearing through her soul.

She stared at her empty living room, wanting to remember what

life had been like before she’d met them, but only seeing the memory
of Davon. She’d pulled him inside her apartment that first night and
proceeded to start undressing him in the middle of her living room
floor. Then he’d scooped her up and carried her to her bedroom.

“Oh, God,” she groaned, her eyes filling with tears as her head hit

the door again. There was no way she could go to her bedroom now.

The sound of her head smacking the wood behind her echoed, but

then it happened again. Realizing that hadn’t been an echo, but a
knock, she pushed a hard breath from her lungs and shakily got to her
feet. She’d wondered how long it would take Cassidy to come check
on her. Though the last thing she wanted to do was talk right now, she
hated knowing she’d ruined the party for her best friend.

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Wiping the tears from her face, she squared her shoulders and

pulled the door open. For the first time since she’d seen Davon and
Neil with the redhead, the agony tearing her apart got swamped by
another, far stronger emotion…fury. She saw red as her gaze locked
with Davon’s. Her hand still on the door, she attempted to slam it in
his face. He shot a hand out, preventing it from closing in the nick of
time.

“Sierra…”
“Leave me alone,” she said through gritted teeth as she spun on

her heel and stomped away from the door.

Hardheaded, lying, cheating, pompous ass that he was, he

followed her inside. “Not until you listen.”

“I am listening. To me.” She poked a finger in her chest as she

whirled to face him. “Like I knew I should’ve done from the very
beginning.” He’d stopped several feet from her, his posture relaxed,
and his eyes full of apology. She ruthlessly ignored that as she
glanced to his right and saw Neil standing next to him. The boyish
smile playing around the corner of his lips set her off.

“You mother fucking son a bitch,” she screamed at him. “You

actually think this is funny?”

Neil shoved his hands in the pockets of his slacks and pursed his

lips. “Actually, my mother is a very wonderful woman. You’ll see
that as soon as you meet her. And, no, I don’t think this is funny, but I
do think you are supremely sexy when you’re pissed.”

Sierra gaped her astonishment at him. The man had nerve. She’d

give him that. Her mind tripped and stumbled over something to fire
back at him, but he didn’t give her a chance.

“That woman at the party was my sister, Sierra,” Neil told her

calmly with a hint of amusement in his tone. “If you had confronted
us yourself instead of sending your pitbull to beat up on Davon, I
would’ve introduced you to her. She’s been looking forward to
meeting you.”

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“Your…pitbull…meet me?” Sierra stuttered as everything he’d

just said slowly penetrated the anger in her mind and started to make
sense.

Her knees wobbled and she was glad she’d walked close enough

to the sofa before she’d turned that her ass connected with the edge of
the arm of it when her legs gave out. She stared up at them, her gaze
dancing from Neil to Davon. Her attention locked there as she really
saw Davon for the first time since he’d followed her into the
apartment. His right cheek sported a handprint from what had to have
been a vicious smack.

“Oh, my God. Did Cassidy slap you?”
He rubbed his cheek and grimaced. “She’s got more strength than

I would’ve give her credit for.”

Sierra shifted her attention to Neil. “That woman was your

sister?”

He nodded. “Tasha. She’s about to be going through a divorce.

It’s a long story, but she’s been torn up about it. I convinced her to go
to the party with us. She needed to get out of the house and I thought
it would be a great time for her to meet you.”

Sierra closed her eyes and covered her face with her hands. “I

thought…”

“We know what you thought, sweetheart.” Davon’s soft words got

louder and she lowered her hands from her face to find him sitting on
the end of the coffee table in front of her. “Tasha isn’t much of a
drinker and she’d already had a few by the time you must have
walked in. I was driving and we were both there to watch over her, so
we were letting her go. She gets…flirty when she drinks, especially
with me. She’s had the hots for me since we were kids, but there’s
never been anything between us.”

“I walked into that party, saw her all over both of you, and

thought…”

“That we were doing the same thing to you that Rhett and Kent

did,” Neil finished for her as he rounded the coffee table and sat on

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the end of the sofa. He curled an arm around her waist and pulled her
to sit sideways on his lap, her legs draped over the arm of the sofa. “I
can understand why you would’ve thought that, but you’re going to
have to quit jumping to conclusions with us, baby, especially when
they’re the wrong ones.”

Humiliated, Sierra buried her face in his broad shoulder. His arm

tightened around her waist and his free hand flattened on the back of
her head to softly stroke her hair. He was right. She’d been making
him and Davon pay for other men’s transgressions since she’d met
them.

Davon put a gentle hand on her thigh. “You’re going to have to

learn to trust us, Sierra. If you can’t, then, God help us, we’re wasting
our time.”

She lifted her head as a new fear turned the blood in her veins to

ice. She wound an arm around Neil’s neck and reached to cup
Davon’s reddened cheek with her other palm. “You’re right. You both
are. I do trust you.” She shook her head and sighed. “I know it doesn’t
seem like it after the way I acted today, but I do.”

Neil’s lips grazed over the line of her jaw. “You are the only

woman we want, baby.”

Davon turned his lips into her hand and kissed her palm. “The

only woman we’ll ever want.”

“And you’re the only men I want.” She pulled a face at the sound

of that statement. “Man I want?” She shook her head. “It doesn’t
sound right when I say it.”

Neil chuckled and hooked a finger beneath her chin, turning her

face to look at him. “It sounds perfect to us.”

He kissed her and she melted in his arms. Perfect. Yes, he and

Davon were perfect. They were everything she’d ever wanted despite
the uniforms they wore and, as Neil’s tongue found hers and took
control of her very soul, she knew, even if they didn’t yet love her as
much as she loved them, they wouldn’t cheat on her the way others
had in the past.

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Sierra gave herself over to the kiss, to Neil, and to Davon as she

felt the cushion shift beside her and Neil and Davon leaned in behind
her to nuzzle his face in the side of her neck. He gave it a tender nip
as Neil’s tongue made dominating love to her mouth in a kiss that was
hot, full of passion, and ignited a burn deep inside that never seemed
to go out when she was with him and Davon.

Neil pulled back, licking his way along her jaw to her ear as he

eased her back and nudged her head with is nose toward Davon.

Davon’s fingers laced in the hairs on the side of her face as he

claimed her mouth in a tender, delicate feast that sent desire
shimmering warmly through her veins. It drew a soft purr from her
throat, the sound muffled by his mouth as he deepened the kiss.

A hand covered her breast. Neil’s or Davon’s? She couldn’t tell. It

molded her tit in its palm and she thrust her chest forward, wanting
more of that touch, needing to know she hadn’t ruined everything
between them by reacting the way she had today. More hands moved
over her body, these gliding up her thighs beneath her skirt to grip the
thin strips of material holding her panties on her hips. Neil’s hands,
she deduced, given that she was now lying back in Davon’s lap with
one of his strong arms supporting her as he continued to do delicious
things to her mouth with his lips, tongue, and teeth. As his other hand,
she knew now it had to be his other hand, on her breast, working her
nipple until electric sparks shocked at her heart and plunged to her
center.

“Lift your hips, baby, so I can get these off of you.”
She complied, putting her feet on the arm of the sofa and using it

for leverage as she lifted her hips. Davon let go of her breast as Neil
peeled her panties off her bottom, leaving her skirt bunched around
her waist. She settled her ass back on Neil’s thigh as Davon gathered
the material of her blouse in his hand and pulled it up. He broke the
kiss long enough to yank the shirt over her head and toss it to the
floor. Then his mouth was back on hers, the hand supporting her back
inching up to fumble with the clasp of her bra even as he held her

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steady. He peeled the straps down her shoulders and arms with his
free hand, letting the bra fall as he covered one of her breasts with his
large, callused palm.

“Scoot that way and give me some room, man.”
She heard Neil’s words and felt him slip from beneath her legs as

Davon’s arm tightened around her waist. He held her in his lap, still
kissing her, as he shifted both of them until they reached the opposite
end of the sofa.

Neil’s long fingers closed around her ankles and glided up her

legs as Davon eased back to nibble at her bottom lip, his tongue
grazing over the bite before licking down to her jaw to give it the
same treatment. Her head fell back and a quiet moan rolled from her
parted lips as he tasted her jaw, her neck, back up to her cheek, and
then over to her earlobe.

“Spread your legs for me, baby.” Neil’s voice was dangerously

hot, the words acting like flames licking the air to shower her body
with burning embers. “I want to see your sweet pussy. I want to see
how wet you are. Are you wet for us, my love? Is your pussy slick
with juices for me to taste?”

It was. Oh, God, she burned for his touch, for his mouth, for his

tongue to lap at the juices slicking her folds and seeping from
between them to moisten her inner thighs. His hands skimmed back
down to her ankles and he lifted her feet off the cushion and placed
them on his broad shoulders.

She sighed blissfully as he wedged himself between her wide-

spread legs and felt the warmth of his breath flutter over the moist
flesh of her pussy.

“You smell delicious.” The warmth of his breath fluttered over the

moist flesh of her pussy and she shuddered.

Davon nibbled at the sensitive patch of skin at her hairline,

sending slivers of fiery ice down to her toes and scattering her senses.
“He hasn’t tasted you yet, has he, sweetheart?”

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Sierra shook her head as anticipation rendered her speechless. Her

pussy throbbed painfully with the need to feel Neil’s mouth on her
most sensitive flesh. He captured her pussy lip with his mouth, rolling
and nibbling until she writhed against his face. His lips pulled at her
folds, massaging and tasting until her mind tripped and tumbled into
an abyss of pure ecstasy.

“Damn, you look amazing this way.” Davon’s mouth moved

down the side of her neck, his hand working her breast, kneading and
caressing one while the other breast burned for equal attention.

She felt amazing this way, at the mercy of the men she loved. She

liked what they were both doing to her, but that didn’t stop the need
for more that scorched through her very being. She wanted Davon’s
mouth on her breast. She wanted Neil’s mouth on her pussy. She
wanted. “Oh, please. Guys, you’re driving me insane!”

Neil’s shoulders shook against her inner thighs as he chuckled and

continued his teasing exploration of her outer folds. He eased back
slightly and his hands skimmed her flesh as he reached between her
legs and spread her sodden folds with his fingers.

She cried out at the first jab of his tongue deep inside her aching

channel. Her head fell back on the cushion behind her, her eyes
closing as Neil’s tongue went wild inside her pussy. Her inner
muscles convulsed, contracting around the wet, warm length of his
tongue.

Davon’s supportive arm behind her laid her further back until he

could dip his head to suck a nipple between his lips. He worked her
other nipple with his thumb and forefinger, drawing them both to
hardened, pulsing points.

A low-throated moan escaped her as Davon’s alternated soft nips

and tenderly pressured pinches to her nipples. Neil’s tongue thrust in
and out of her pussy, making love to her with licking strokes that sent
her teetering on the edge of a precipice he and Davon controlled. Her
orgasm climbed higher and higher as the men feasted on her body,
taking her senses to places she’d never visited before them.

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Always so in tune with her body, Neil obviously sensed how close

she was to release. He found her clit with the callused pad of his
thumb as his tongue delved deeper into her throbbing channel. That
touch had her toes curling as she exploded in cries and spasms that
rocked her body and stole her breath. Sated and spent, she turned to
mush in Davon’s lap as her very being shook with the aftermath of the
orgasm.

“Let’s get her to the bedroom.”
She heard Neil’s words, felt him lower her legs from his

shoulders, and ease from between them. Her eyes popped open and
she found a renewed strength as she bolted up, catching him before he
got off the sofa. He sat on his heels, still completely dressed, and her
gaze traveled straight to his cock. His slacks were straining fit to
bursting over his massive erection and she knew exactly what she
wanted next.

Dragging her gaze back up his spectacular body, she shifted out of

Davon’s lap, getting on her hands and knees between her men. It
wasn’t until she felt Davon move behind her as his large hands closed
on the half moons of her ass that she realized her new position stuck
her pussy and ass damn near in his face.

“I don’t think we’re going to make it to the bedroom just yet,

man,” Davon said.

Smiling, Sierra shot a look at him over her shoulder. “I have

something else in mind at the moment. You’re welcome to come up
with your own ideas.”

He chuckled as one of his hands slipped between her legs to cup

her pussy. “Sweetheart, I already know exactly what I want.” He shot
to his feet, pulled his wallet from his jeans, and shucked his pants and
briefs to the floor.

Anticipation zinged through her core as she turned back to Neil.

She started to sit back on her heels so she could unfasten his pants,
but Davon had already returned behind her. She felt his hair-

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171

roughened thighs against the back of hers as he positioned his cock to
enter her pussy.

“Take him out for me. I would do it myself, but I’d probably fall

on my nose.”

A grin toyed with the corners of Neil’s lips as he unfastened his

fly and curled his hand around the massive expanse of his shaft. “Is
this what you want, baby?”

Sierra licked her lips as her gaze landed on the bead of pre-cum

glistening on the bulbous head of his cock. “Oh, yes.”

She leaned in, angling her head for the most prone position, and

closed her lips around his cockhead. Behind her, Davon dragged the
head of his sheathed cock down the crack of her ass, found her sodden
pussy hole, and slowly thrust balls-deep into her throbbing channel.

Davon’s movement pushed her forward and her mouth sank

deeper on Neil’s cock. The enormous girth stretched her lips and she
opened her jaw wider, wanting to take as much of his massive cock as
she could. Her gag reflex threatened, but she fought against it. She
would take all of Neil’s dick. She would feel every deliciously huge
inch of it in her mouth and down her throat if she had to work at it all
night.

“Fucking hell!”
She looked up Neil’s body from beneath her lashes as she eased

her lips back to close tightly around his cockhead and licked at the
pouting slit with the tip of her tongue. He was staring down at her, his
expression one of sheer concentration and torment, the muscle in the
strong line of his jaw ticking as he clenched his teeth.

“Damn, baby, you have a wicked mouth.”
Davon chose that moment to start to move. He eased his hips

back, pulling his dick out of her pussy until only the head remained
before slowly pushing every glorious inch inside her to the hilt, then
repeating it all over again. Sierra matched his rhythm, sinking her
mouth back down on Neil’s cock, taking more of his length down her

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throat each time until she finally felt her lips meet with the hair-
roughened plane of his groin.

“Suck him good and hard, sweetheart,” Davon instructed her, his

words strained and tight with his own arousal as he continued to make
slow, spectacular love to her pussy. “You know how he likes it.”

She did and, now that she knew she could take his every inch, she

was ready to give him exactly what he liked. She abandoned the
rhythm Davon had set and bobbed her head on Neil’s cock, billowing
her cheeks to suck his shaft harder, letting her teeth graze the
supersensitive flesh, and delighting when one of his hands fisted in
her hair.

“Fuck, baby, you’re sucking my soul through the end of my

cock.”

She smiled around his shaft, not slowing her speed or loosening

the suction she’d created with her lips. She feasted on him as hungrily
and crazed as he’d feasted on her pussy moments before. Davon was
taking care of her pussy now, working her body to a new height of
needs and pleasures until they stacked to an ever nearing paradise. It
remained just a few clouds away.

“Davon.” Neil’s warning to the other man sounded more like an

animalist growl as his hand in Sierra’s hair fisted tighter.

“I know.” Davon’s response came through gritted teeth as his

thrusting picked up pace.

Then the men plunged at the same time, Davon’s cock ramming

faster than he normally made love to her in her pussy and Neil’s hips
thrusting forward, sending his dick straight down her throat.

A cry of pleasure managed to make it around Neil’s cock lodged

in her throat as Davon reached a hand around her and found her clit
with the calloused pad of his thumb, working the engorged bud, and
drawing more cries from her throat as she exploded. The orgasm
seized control of her muscles, her breath, and her very being as it tore
out of her in a blast of pleasured flames. Still rocking from the force

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173

of it, she dimly heard Davon growl with his release, then sucked
profusely as Neil shot his seed down her throat.

Exhausted, Sierra drew back, letting Neil’s now softening cock

fall from her bruised lips, and shot him a wide smile that had him
chuckling as he drew her into his arms.

“Damn, baby, that was fantastic.”
She licked her lips, tasting the remnants of his cum on her flesh. “I

know. You taste delicious.”

Davon righted himself on the sofa and threw his head back on the

cushion, his strong chest rising and falling in rapid breaths. “I guess I
should’ve warned you how good she is at that.”

Neil’s gaze flicked to Davon before settling back on hers. “You’re

the first woman that has ever sucked all of my cock.”

Sierra stared at him and felt her jaw drop. “You’re not serious?”
He nodded and cupped her cheek. “Yes, I am.” The boyishly

mischievous grin she loved so much unfolded on his lips. “Please tell
me you’ll do it again soon.”

Sierra let her head fall onto his chest as she laughed, knowing she

would very happily suck his and Davon’s cocks all night long if that’s
what they wanted.

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Chapter Ten

“Ingram.”
Neil stopped at the door leading to the locker room inside Station

5 and turned as the captain came down the hallway. “Yes, sir.”

“I got the clearance we need for a couple of trucks to attend the

event at the middle school. Engine 4 and Ladder 29 are good to go.”

“Thank you, sir. I’ll let Sierra know and she can inform the PTA.”
Stacy Knox’s eyes narrowed. “You realize that doesn’t include

you, right?”

“Yeah, I think the kids will enjoy the fire trucks more than they

will an ambulance.”

“I can get another paramedic to cover that shift for you, if you

want to take off,” the captain offered. “Then you won’t have to worry
about keeping her tongue out of your mouth since you won’t be
officially representing our firehouse.”

Neil chuckled. “I’ll take you up on that, sir. I appreciate it.” He

started to push open the door to the locker room when the captain
stopped him again.

“Have the three of you set a date yet?”
Neil slanted the man a look. “A date for what?”
Amusement danced in the captain’s eyes. “The wedding.”
“We, uh…” Hell, Neil didn’t know how to answer that. He and

Davon hadn’t asked Sierra to marry them. They hadn’t even discussed
it, but he knew it was on his friend’s mind as much as it had been on
his lately. It didn’t matter it had been less than a month since they’d
met her. The last three weeks and couple of days, especially since the

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175

party at Vivian Hall’s house, had been the best weeks of his and
Davon’s lives.

“Not yet, but you’ll be the fourth to know when we do.”
The captain laughed as he turned and started back down the

hallway. “I better be.”

For a third time, Neil started to enter the locker room when the

ear-piercing shrill of the firehouse alarm sounded through the
speakers, immediately followed by the dispatcher’s voice.

“Engine 4, Truck 29, Rescue 16, Ambulance 42, fire at 3074

Hickory Valley Road. Stations 2 and 4 have been toned out for
backup.”

The address rattled through Neil’s head as he sprinted down the

hallway. He met up with Davon in the common room as every
firefighter in the house double-timed their way to the trucks in the
bays.

“Why is that address so familiar?”
Davon shot him a look that had his blood freezing in his veins.

“It’s the middle school. Cherish Middle School.”

Neil’s step faltered as realization dawned. “Oh, fuck!”

* * * *

The sharp shrill of the school’s fire alarm cut Sierra off in

midsentence as she explained the concepts of mean, median, and
mode to her class. She shot a puzzled look at the intercom speaker
near the ceiling in the corner of the classroom. The teachers were
usually informed ahead of time when the principle decided to hold a
fire drill, but she hadn’t heard anything about that happening today.

“Okay, class. You know what to do,” she yelled over the alarm.

“Leave everything at your seats and fall into a single-file line as we
leave the classroom.” She pulled open the door, taking a deep breath
as she let the students lead the way into the hall. That deep breath had
her heart stopping even as her nose caught the scent of smoke.

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She stepped into the hallway and whirled, her gaze slamming into

Ashley Blanchard’s as the English teacher gave her students
instructions to pick up the pace. “Ashley?”

The woman shook her head, her eyes full of fear. “This isn’t a

drill, Sierra. There’s a fire in the building somewhere. We’ve got to
get these kids out of here.”

Sierra flattened herself against the wall as another classroom of

students started to pass. “Stay close, stick together, and move as
quickly as you can to the exit,” she instructed them. “Once you get
outside, get as far away from the building as you can.”

She knew there were other teacher and staff ahead of the students

showing them where to go as they led them to safety. They rehearsed
this once a month to be sure everyone knew what to do in the event of
a real fire.

Stay calm, stay focused, and stay alert.
She repeated the words like a mantra in her mind as she continued

directing the passing students to safety. Seeing the last of them
coming closer, she pushed off the wall and started to follow when a
sixth grader whose name she’d forgotten rushed up to her. The boy’s
eyes were huge in his face and he was shaking from head to toe.

“They can’t get out!”
“Who can’t get out?”
“Mrs. Morrison’s class. They’re stuck up there in the lab.

Something in there exploded. It sounded like a gunshot, but then
something fell and we can’t get the door open.”

Sierra forced her hand to steady as she hooked her arm around the

boy’s shoulders and propelled him toward the exit. “Go. Get outside.
Find the closest fire truck and tell them what you just told me.”

“Yes, ma’am.”
Sierra swiped her hair from her face as she watched the boy hurry

away. She should’ve sent him to find one of the teachers that had
already made it out, but that would’ve only taken up more precious
time. Mrs. Morrison was the sixth grade science teacher. She had a

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double classroom, one filled with desks and another with a connecting
door that led to the lab, on the second floor of the building. If Sierra
remembered correctly, that door opened inward rather than out, which
meant, if something had fallen in front of that door, the students and
teacher were trapped inside the lab with the fire.

She didn’t know what she could do to save them, but she had to

try. Praying to any supreme power that might be listening, she broke
into a run for the stairs that led to the sixth grade hallway and Ava
Morrison’s classrooms.

* * * *

Davon searched the midday sky for smoke and flames as Engine 4

arrived on scene. Their response time had been less than ten minutes
after the call had come through the firehouse speakers. He had to give
the faculty of Cherish Middle School credit. They were obviously on
top of their game. As he hopped down from Engine 4, he scanned the
grounds around the building, noting that more than a hundred students
had been brought to safety. One of those students caught his attention
as the boy pushed his way through the crowd, ignoring the teachers
that attempted to stop him, and made a beeline for Davon’s feet.

“Hey.” Davon put a hand on the boy’s shoulder. “You should be

over there with your teachers.”

The boy shook his head, his shoulders heaving as he struggled to

catch his breath. “Miss Matthews…told…me to…find the…first
firefighter…I saw.” The boy labored out the words and Davon saw
the fear racing through the boy’s eyes.

“Miss Mathews? Sierra Matthews?”
The boy shook his head again. “Dunno her first name. Mrs.

Morrison’s class…they’re trapped in the lab. You’ve gotta help
them.”

Davon glanced at the school, his mind reeling. A classroom of

kids were trapped. Miss Mathews—it had to be Sierra, didn’t it—had

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sent the boy out to find the first firefighter he could. Which meant
Sierra was still inside the building and, knowing her the way he did,
she was trying to help the kids in that classroom.

Fuck! He bit his tongue on the word before he could spill from his

lips and looked back at the boy. “Where is Mrs. Morrison’s
classroom?”

The boy turned and pointed to the building. “Upstairs in the sixth

grade hallway over there on the other side.”

Davon stared at the building where the boy was pointing and saw

smoke starting to billow into the sky over the roof of the building on
the opposite side. “Get over there with everyone else,” he told the
boy. “We’ll get to them.”

Shoving his hands in his fire retardant gloves as he ran, he double-

timed it around the front bumper of Engine 4 to the captain’s SUV.
Stacy Knox was issuing commands over the radio and coordinating
with the captains from Stations 2 and 4. Davon didn’t hesitate to
interrupt the man.

He pulled the captain’s microphone from his mouth and turned to

point at the smoke. “There’s a classroom of kids trapped in the sixth
grade hallway.” Even as he said the words, he spotted a child
staggering around the corner of the building with another kid at her
heels.

The captain wrenched his wrist from Davon’s and barked into the

microphone. “All paramedics on scene get to those kids coming
around the side of the building.” He briefly lowered the microphone.
“They have to be jumping out of a window over there.” He spoke into
the microphone again. “Truck 29, I want a ladder around the west end
wing of the building, second floor. All firefighters on Engine 4, get
over there and help the ladder company get those kids out of that
window. Squad 16, assemble a search and rescue from the front.”

“Stacy.” The captain’s gaze snapped to Davon at the use of his

first name. “Sierra is in there.”

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179

Understanding swept through the man’s eyes and a muscle in his

jaw ticked. “You stay right here.”

“Fuck no!” The words exploded from Davon’s mouth before he

could think to stop them. He fisted his gloved hands at his sides and
struggled to reign in his temper. “We need all the firefighters we can
get on this, sir.”

The captain nodded once. “Then get over there with the rest of

your company. Keep your head in the game, Reed. She’ll either come
out that window or Squad will find her from the inside.”

Davon wanted to argue, but he knew it would only take him

completely out of the action and land him on report, if not worse,
when they returned to the firehouse. If they hadn’t had two other
departments serving as backup, firefighters of Engine 4 would’ve
been sent in to aid the squad in their search and rescue. But those
other departments had their own squad and those firefighters were
going in instead.

He broke into a run, trailing Taylor Parke, another of Engine 4’s

firefighters, and keyed up his radio. “Cox, my woman is in there
somewhere. Find her.”

“Copy that, Reed.” Rescue Squad’s lieutenant Ryder Cox’s voice

came back almost instantly.

Not that Davon would leave the job to the lieutenant if he could

get to her faster. If the kids were getting out of the building through a
window, that same window would give him entrance inside to get to
Sierra.

Hang on, sweetheart. I’ll get you out of there one way or another.
He just hoped to God this time it wasn’t too late.

* * * *

Sierra pulled the neckline of her blouse up to cover her nose as

she pushed against the jammed door with everything she had. She’d
managed to get it to budge, but all that movement had gained her was

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a thick layer of smoke that pushed through the opening she’d made.
Choking despite the material protecting her mouth and lungs, she
shoved again. It had been more than a minute since anyone from the
inside had talked to her. She knew they had opened the two windows
in the lab classroom and Ava Morrison was somehow managing to
lower the kids to the ground even as the fire in the room continued to
grow. Still, she could hear way too many students coughing and
crying inside.

Hope surged through her as she thought she felt the door move

another fraction of an inch. She refused to believe it could’ve been
merely her imagination. One of the students had told her a large,
metal filing cabinet had fallen in front of the door when the explosion
happened, blocking their way out. Ava Morrison was close to sixty
and didn’t have enough strength to move the cabinet from the door,
even when a few of the sixth grade boys had attempted to help her.

She wanted to curse the male teachers that had all apparently

gotten out of the building, but she willed herself not to. They
obviously hadn’t known Ava Morrison and her students were trapped.
They’d done what they had been instructed to do, get their classroom
of students out of the building. She couldn’t fault them for that.

She hunkered down lower as the smoke in the outer classroom got

thicker, searching for precious oxygen that would give her the
strength to keep pushing against the door. Determination gave her
more strength than she’d known she had as she shoved and swore the
door moved yet another fraction of an inch. Where were the
firefighters? She’d heard their sirens as they’d pulled onto the school
grounds. Had the boy been able to get to them? Surely someone knew
there was still people trapped in the school.

The thoughts and questions ricocheted through her mind as she

continued to give the door every ounce of strength she could muster.
“Move, you motherfucker,” she said through gritted teeth, shoving
with all her might and hoping no students on the other side heard her
foul language.

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“It’s been a long time since I’ve been called that, sugar.”
Sierra startled at the muffled voice behind her. She whirled from

the door, squinting through the smoke, and saw the masked face
beneath the firefighter’s helmet. “They’re in there,” she told the
firefighter as she moved away from the door. “I got it open some, but
not enough. There’s a heavy filing cabinet blocking it.”

“Reed, Sloan, get that door open,” the firefighter barked at the two

men behind him. “Are you Sierra Matthews?” he asked as he moved
closer.

Sierra blinked her stinging eyes at him. “Yes, but…”
“Ryder Cox, pleasure to meet you.” He gave her a quick nod

before he turned his attention to another firefighter at his side. “Ellis,
radio Reed and Ingram and let them know you’re bringing her out.”
He glanced at her again. “Your men are worried sick about you.”

Mona. Oh, God. She could only imagine what was going through

Davon’s and Neil’s heads right now. She sucked in a quick breath that
had her doubling over as she coughed so violently she felt as if she
were hacking up a lung.

“Here. This will help.” The firefighter Ryder Cox had called Ellis

slipped an oxygen mask over her face and she breathed in crisp, cool
oxygen. He scooped her into his arms and carried her out of the
classroom.

Sierra settled against him, feeling odd in another man’s arms, but

knowing those arms were taking her to the double set she wanted to
be in most.

* * * *

Neil ruthlessly shut off the horrifying flashbacks as Blaine Ellis

carried Sierra across the school grounds toward him. Safe. She was
safe and she was apparently okay. That wasn’t Davon carrying the
burnt, lifeless body of the woman he loved. It was Ellis and he had a

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moving, very alive Sierra in his arms. The women Neil loved now
with all his heart.

“You’ll want to get her to the ER and have her examined for

smoke inhalation, but I think she’s okay,” Ellis told him as he passed
Sierra into his arms.

“Thanks, man,” he told the firefighter, but his gaze was locked

with Sierra’s. Her eyes were red and watering, probably from the
smoke. He raked a look over her, examining every beautiful inch, and
didn’t see any burns.

One of her arms instantly went around his neck and she pulled the

oxygen mask off her face with her free hand. Her lips unfolded in a
loving smile as she cuddled against his chest. “Saved by my favorite
paramedic again.”

Neil said to hell with reports and suspensions and kissed her. Her

lips parted on a gasp of surprise and he drove his tongue between
them, finding hers, and pouring his heart and soul into her through her
mouth. He absently heard the crowd of students and teachers around
them break into cheer and ignored the reprimand he heard from the
microphone on his shoulder when he heard Captain Knox’s clipped
voice order him to get his mouth off the victim. Yeah, he’d have hell
to pay when he got back to the firehouse, but it would be worth every
moment.

Sierra broke the kiss first. She eased her face back and gazed at

him, laughter dancing in her amazing eyes. “You’re going to get in
trouble.”

“I don’t care.” Neil kissed her again, a quick brush of his lips over

hers. “You’re safe. The woman I love is safe. That’s all that matters to
me.”

A dart of surprise shot through her eyes and he stupidly realized

he’d never said those words to her before. All his and Davon’s work
to get her to see them for the men they were beneath their uniforms
and they had failed to say the three words that meant the most. Christ,
what had they been thinking?

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The hand she’d used to remove the oxygen mask flattened on his

shoulder and she dragged it down his bicep. “You’re shaking.”

“I was terrified.” He didn’t think he’d ever admitted that to

anyone about anything. “And you’re not going to deny medical
attention this time. You’re going to the ER. I don’t care how much of
fight you try to give me.”

“But, I’m—”
“Sierra.” He put just enough authority in his tone to ignite the

flames in her eyes. His cock stirred as he recognized they were flames
of anger, but ones of a wicked desire. Dear God in Heaven, how could
he not be badge over boots in love with this woman? “Zip it.”

She heaved a sigh and frowned. “Fine.” Ryder Cox’s rusty

baritone came through the microphone on Neil’s shoulder announcing
the building was all clear. Her hand tightened on his nape, the tips of
her nails digging into the flesh and sending a mirroring wicked desire
shooting straight to his already stiffening cock. “Does that mean all
the children are out of the building?”

Neil nodded. “It means everyone, children and faculty, are safe.”
She breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank God. Where’s Davon?”
“He’s still around the side of the building. He knows you’re with

me now. His job is just beginning. He has to get that fire out before it
spreads.”

She cupped his cheek and gave him a quick kiss. “Both the men I

love are safe and so are the children. That’s all that matters to me.”

* * * *

Davon lay in his bed propped on one elbow beside Sierra and

gazed down at her. She was lying on her back with Neil in a mirroring
position of his on her opposite side. He dragged a fingertip over her
forehead, traced his way over one eyebrow to her temple, and
skimmed it down her cheek.

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“You scared the shit out of me today.” He could still feel the

tsunami of relief that had washed through him when Blaine Ellis had
informed him over the radio that he had Sierra in his arms and she
was safe.

“Out of us,” Neil corrected him.
She lifted her hands to their faces and gave them both an

apologetic look. “I know. I didn’t mean to. All I could think about
was getting to those children. I didn’t mean to—”

“Put your own life in danger?” Davon supplied.
Her gaze narrowed on his. “Isn’t that what you do on a daily basis

at the firehouse?”

“Yeah, but I’m trained to do it. It’s my job.”
“And protecting the children in that school is my job,” she

countered.

Neil shot him a grin. “Give it up, man. You’re not going to win

this one.”

Davon frowned. “I know. You did the right thing,” he told her,

“but that doesn’t mean I have to admit it.”

She giggled and stretched languidly between him and Neil,

drawing his attention down her very naked, stupendously amazing
body. “You just did, skippy.”

He chuckled. “Yeah, I guess I did.”
She flipped over, resting the weight of her upper body on her

elbows as she looked at Neil. “So, how much trouble did I get you
into this time?”

“You mean when I gave you a very thorough tonsil examination

after Ellis passed you over to me?” Neil dragged the pad of his thumb
over her slightly parted lips. “None at all. Captain Knox had mercy on
my soul.”

“I’ll have to remember to thank Captain Knox when I finally meet

him.”

“About that…” Neil hesitated and exchanged a look with Davon

that Davon couldn’t quite read before he went on. “Just before we got

Beneath Their Uniforms

185

the call about the fire at the school today, he asked me if we’d set a
date yet.”

Holy shit.
Davon watched as confusion moved through Sierra’s beautiful

face before understanding obviously dawned. Her eyes quickly
widened slightly before returning to their normal size as she pushed
herself up between him and Neil and sat back on her heels. Her gaze
was full of suspicion with a hint of innocence as she stared at Neil.

“A date for what exactly?”
Though he and Neil hadn’t discussed asking Sierra to marry them,

Davon was on board for the ride. “Our wedding.” He reached for her,
intending to pull her down for a soulful kiss before he popped the
question, but she lightly smacked his hand away.

“Don’t do it.” Her eyes flashed with warning despite the heat and

sheer emotions he saw rising in their depths. “You know what
happens to me when you get your hands on me. I can’t think! And,
right now, I really, really need to think.”

“No,” Neil disagreed slowly, putting a hand on her upper thigh.

“What you need to do right now is say you’ll marry us.”

Davon pushed himself up and leaned against the headboard,

splaying a hand on her other thigh. “Will you marry us, Sierra?”

“Say yes and we’ll have you a ring on your finger tomorrow,”

Neil added.

Sierra’s head tilted as she studied Neil. “What if I won’t say yes

until you have the ring in your hand, ready to put it on my finger?”

Neil’s attention whipped to Davon. “Get dressed. There has to a

jewelry store somewhere open this late.”

Sierra put a hand on their chests, stopping them as she threw her

head back and laughed. “You two aren’t going anywhere tonight.”

Davon skimmed his hand from her upper thigh to her knee and

back again, loving the silky smooth feel of her flesh beneath his palm.
“We’re serious, Sierra.”

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She leaned down and kissed the tip of his nose. “I know, and I’m

sorry I turned it into a joke.”

Davon caught her when she started to sit up again and flattening

his hand firmly on her nape. “I love you, Sierra.”

Tears glistened in her eyes as she stared at him and he realized

that had been the first time he’d said those words to her. Geezus, why
in the hell hadn’t he told her that sooner? Her lips trembled as the
unfolded in a smile that made his heart dance in his chest.

“I love you, too, Davon.”
His dancing heart raced as she pulled her head down and covered

her mouth with his. She tasted sweet, hot, and delicious. His other
hand was still on her upper thigh and he slipped it between her legs,
pressing the back of his palm into her silky, warm pussy. He felt her
shiver, heard her breath catch, and was dimly aware of the bed
shifting beside them as Neil pushed a hand between his body and hers
to cover her breast.

He shifted his head, taking the kiss deeper as his tongue danced

soft and slow over hers. She moaned into his mouth, likely as much
from the passion of their kiss as Neil’s hand that had started fondling
her breast. Wanting to feel more of her, needing to be inside her, he
pulled his hand from between her legs, slid it around her waist, and
gave her a nudge.

She took the hint as he’d hoped she would and rose to her knees.

Davon lifted his head, refusing to break the kiss as she swung one leg
over his body and straddled his waist. He moved his hands to her hips,
needing to draw out the moment despite the demand of his aching
cock. She hadn’t answered him. He wanted to hear her answer, but
couldn’t bring himself to break the kiss. He moved his hands to her
hips, stilling her when she attempted to lower her shapely body onto
his fully erect cock.

The bed dipped again and her moans into his mouth grew louder

as both of Neil’s hands slid between them. The man worked her
breasts as effectively as Davon was working her mouth. Together,

Beneath Their Uniforms

187

they took control of her body, manipulating her in a way they knew
would set the fires burning deep inside her.

Sierra was the one to finally break the kiss, her head falling back

on her shoulders to expose the thin column of her neck to Davon’s
mouth as she panted. “You guys are not being fair.”

“All is fair in love and war, baby,” Neil told her as Davon arched

his back, giving his friend room to get his head between her chest and
his to suckle her breast as Davon explored her neck with his tongue.
“I love you, Sierra.”

“Oh, God, Neil. I love you, too, both of you.”
Unable to wait another heartbeat to be inside her, Davon used his

hold on her hips to pull her body down. He sheathed his shaft with her
pussy in a slow descent that buried his dick inside her sodden channel
to the hilt. The sounds she made, the way her inner muscles gripped
his shaft to draw it deeply inside, and the feel of the slick walls of her
channel lubing the way for…

Fuck! Davon tightened his grip on her hips, stilling her when she

attempted to start to ride him. Neil eased away from her breast and
shot him a knowing look.

“Sierra, will you marry us, sweetheart?”
She lifted her head on a laugh of part amusement and part

desperation. “Oh, you’re really not being fair now.”

Davon stared up at her, letting her see every emotion he felt in his

eyes, right along with one very huge apology. “No, I’m not. I forgot
the condom.” He felt her inner muscles convulse at that as her eyes
widened and her lips parted in a surprised O. “I’m not asking you
again because I don’t want to pull out.” Although, geezus, being
inside her pussy without the barrier of a condom felt too amazing for
words.

She giggled and gazed down at him with her heart in her eyes. “I

know.” She laced her fingers in the side of his hair. Her other hand
found Neil to cup his nape as her gaze shifted between them. “You

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should know this is the week before I start my period. If there was
ever a time to get me pregnant, it would be now.”

“God, I hope so,” Davon heard himself whisper and realized, as

the words left his lips, they were true. He wanted to see this amazing,
smart, funny, sexy woman’s belly rounded with his or Neil’s child
growing inside her. It didn’t matter which one of them provided the
magical sperm, they would both be the child’s father.

A dart of surprise shot through her eyes as they started to glisten

and a smile that dazzled his world unfolded on her lips. She looked
from him to Neil, including them both when she answered, “Yes, I
will marry you.”

“Do you want me to get him a condom, baby?” Neil asked.
Sierra shook her head. “No, I want him, and you, when it’s your

turn, just like this.”

It was exactly what Davon had needed to ear. Feeling himself grin

from ear to ear, he snaked one hand beneath her hair to pull her down
for a kiss as he used the hold of his other hand on her hips to lift her
body off his cock until only the head remained inside her before
slowly lowering her down again. He impaled her sultry body slowly,
her soaked pussy lubing the way. Her inner muscles contracted
around the head of his cock, drawing him deeper as he pulled her
down inch by glorious inch.

Wanting to see her reaction, he wrenched his mouth from hers and

looked at her. Though her head was bowed so he could see the
pleasure-filled expression on her face, her eyes were closed. He
pushed inside her the final inch that settled her body firmly on his
cock and a soft gasp escaped her lips.

She squirmed a little as if trying to intensify the pleasure and he

tightened his grip on her hips again, keeping her right where he
wanted her as Neil crawled to the foot of the bed to position himself
behind her.

* * * *

Beneath Their Uniforms

189

Feeling close to delirium, Sierra gave moving another shot. She

pumped her hips forward, grinding her pussy on Davon’s cock, and
smiled down at him, opening her eyes as a low growl rumbled from
his throat.

“You do that again and I’m going to go off far sooner than I want

to, sweetheart,” he warned, his expression turning tight and
concentrated.

“Maybe I’m already as close to going off, as you so eloquently put

it, as you are.” Since he still wouldn’t let her move, she purposely
flexed the muscles in her channels, squeezing them around his shaft.

“Shit,” he growled, and she couldn’t help but laugh. “Neil, if

you’re planning on joining us, you better make it quick.”

Sierra gasped as the understanding of Davon’s words to Neil sent

whips of anticipated heat slashing from her clit to her ass, even as
trepidation arrowed through her system. Davon had made love to her
ass a couple of times in the last few weeks, but Neil hadn’t. While
Davon’s cock was stupendously large and she’d grown accustomed to
feeling it penetrating her ass, Neil’s dick was enormous! He was
rarely as gentle with his love making as Davon was, too. Could she
handle Neil’s cock in her ass? The mere idea of its massive size filling
her ass with Davon’s huge cock buried in her pussy had her panting
for breath.

The foot of the bed dipped, the mattress swayed, and then she felt

Neil’s hands flatten on the backs of her legs. He dragged his palms up
in a slow caress until he reached her ass and then covered both of her
cheeks with his large hands.

“This is where I want to take my turn, Sierra. I’ve been holding

off making love to your sexy ass until I thought you were ready to
take my cock. I think you’re ready tonight, baby. Will you let me do
it, Sierra?” Neil’s voice husky with need and laced with hope. “Will
you at least let me try?”

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The idea made her feel dizzy, intoxicated, and filled her with more

desire than she’d ever thought possible. That desire, the sheer need to
feel Neil’s cock in her ass while Davon made love to her pussy,
erased every ounce of the trepidation in her system.

“Yes,” she said breathlessly. “God, please. Yes.”
“Hold still and let me prepare you first,” Neil instructed her as the

warmth of his hands left her ass.

She’d flattened her hands on Davon’s chest when he’d pulled her

down for that last kiss and her elbows started to shake, as much from
the continued weight she was putting on them as the anticipation of
Neil’s preparations. Cool, wet fingers moved between her buttocks,
and she couldn’t hold Davon’s gaze any longer. She bowed her head,
her mind racing as rapidly as her heart as Neil’s fingers massaged her
flesh, spreading the lubricant over her ass. His finger pushed inside
her anus, bringing with it a stinging pain that quickly dissolved into a
mind-numbing pleasure. Not one to draw things out longer than
necessary, he pulled that finger back, added a second, and then a
third, and worked the inner muscles of her ass until they spread and
invited his digits deeper.

Astronomical bliss erupted in a flaming path from her ass to her

pussy, stealing her breath right along with her sanity. “More.” Had
she managed to say the word aloud or had it only been in her head?
She swallowed, licked her lips, and tried again for good measure.
“Please, Neil. I want you.”

Neil twisted his fingers inside her, pulled them free, and plunged

again until she pleaded with him to stop, to give her even more, to do
something to relieve the talons of confusion clawing through her
body.

“Oh, God. Neil, I can’t wait.” Her elbows gave out. She collapsed

on Davon’s chest, her eyes squeezed tightly shut as the pleasure
blinded her, the pain a burning craze that shouldn’t feel good, but
somehow did, and the intense need for more penetrated her soul.

Beneath Their Uniforms

191

Neil’s fingers spread deep inside her, separating to stretch her as

they circled and eased back only to pump inside her once more. The
burn magnified, her pussy leaking juices around Davon’s cock even
as it convulsed around his shaft. The intensity of it drove her to a
crazed state of need. Her eyes filled as her clit begged and her hips
jerked against Davon’s firm hold at the invasion of Neil’s fingers now
pumping methodically into her rear.

“Now you’re ready for me, baby,” Neil announced as he pulled

his fingers free and positioned his cock to enter her ass.

Unable to think, barely able to breathe, she forced her eyes to

open and looked down at Davon. His lips were drawn tight, intense
concentration and arousal darkening his eyes. Neil filled her ass with
a slow but persistent thrust that pushed her body down onto Davon’s,
drawing his cock deeper still into her pussy.

“Geezus,” Davon breathed, his neck arching and his eyes rolling

back. “Is it crazy that I love feeling his dick going inside you?”

Somehow, Sierra managed to giggle. “It can’t be crazy because I

love the feel of it, too.” She felt overfull, stupendously invaded, and
perfectly complete. Neil stopped when the base of his body met with
her ass, his balls dangling between her legs and his. He folded himself
over her, nuzzled his face in the side of her neck, and whispered in
her ear.

“I want to move so badly, but if I do, I’m not going to last.”
Sierra flexed the muscles in her ass, squeezing around his cock,

and smiled at the animalistic growl the act pulled from his throat.

“You’re a wicked woman, baby,” Neil said through clenched

teeth.

“Only because I’m wickedly in love with the two of you.” She

rocked her hips back, drawing his cock deeper still, and then pushed
her hips down on Davon’s cock.

It was all she had to do to get them both moving. Neil straightened

behind her, his hands gripping her hips as he pulled his cock back

192

Tonya Ramagos

until only the engorged head remained before ruthlessly ramming his
full length into her once more.

Sierra cried out as the move pushed her down onto Davon’s cock.

The men settled into a rhythm, one pulling back while the other thrust
inside until the pressure built in her womb to mind-blowing
intensities. When she came, her scream filled the night as she
dissolved between them, her body quaking and her breaths near
hyperventilation from the force of her orgasm. Somewhere in the
recesses of her mind, she heard Neil’s low-throated growl as he filled
her ass with his semen and Davon’s harsh grunt as he shot his cum in
her pussy.

Sated, her muscles useless, Sierra drifted between consciousness

and sleep, sandwiched between her men.

Neil collapsed on top of her, his heart beating a furious rhythm

against her back in time with hers and the beating of Davon’s heart
against her chest.

Davon brushed a soft kiss to the top of her head. “Do you think

we made a baby just now?”

The hope lacing his voice had her eyes filling with happy tears as

she lifted her head to gaze down at him. “You really want that, don’t
you?”

She saw the truth of his words in the smile that spread his lips

even before he spoke. “More than you could ever know.”

Neil’s head lifted off her back and lips cruised over her flesh,

peppering it with kisses that brought excited goose pimples to the
surface of every inch of her skin. “I do, too. I’m thinking after we take
a little break, we’ll give it another try, just to double our chances of
getting our future wife pregnant.”

Overcome with emotion and sheer bliss, Sierra turned to look at

him over her shoulder. “I love the sound of that.”

He grinned at her. “Which part? You being our future wife or

being pregnant with our child?”

Beneath Their Uniforms

193

“Both,” she said against his lips as he leaned in to kiss her.

“Definitely both.”

194

Tonya Ramagos

Epilogue

Sierra stared across the crowded school grounds at the Engine and

Rescue truck from Station 5 and the children surrounding them. “See,
that’s exactly why I knew it was a bad idea to have fire trucks at the
end-of-year fling.”

“Why? Because the trucks take up so much space?”
She shot Neil a withering look. “No, look at the girls. They’re not

interested in the trucks. They’re going all gaga over the firefighters.”

“Can you blame them?” Tasha’s voice dripped with pure female

adoration.

Sierra bit back a smile as she shifted her attention to Neil’s sister.

She’d made a point of apologizing after the huge misunderstanding at
Vivian Hall’s party and had discovered she and Tasha had a lot in
common. Neil loved the fact that his woman and his sister were now
spending a lot of time together.

Tasha threw her hands in the air. “Hey, my divorce will be final in

a few months. Cramer will remain behind bars where he belongs and I
intend to go on with my life.”

“As you should,” Sierra and Neil agreed in unison.
The district attorney had reopened the case of Mona’s death and it

was looking every day like Cramer had been involved, even if he
hadn’t directly murdered Neil and Davon’s former lover. Simply
knowing they were one step closer to Mona getting justice had helped
Neil and Davon, too. Sierra no longer saw the shadows in their eyes
when they talked about Mona. She knew a part of them would always
love the woman, but their hearts belonged to her now.

Beneath Their Uniforms

195

“But do you really have to move on with a man that wears a

uniform?” Sierra asked.

Neil barked a laugh as he hooked an arm around her waist and

drew her close. “Are you sure you’re not just jealous because the
main firefighter those girls are going all gaga over is Davon?”

“I promise you I’m not going all gaga over Davon,” Tasha

announced.

Sierra giggled. “I know you’re not, and I can’t blame those girls

for drooling over him either. I did that before I knew he was a
firefighter. But look at that group of girls around that other guy.”

Tasha dragged her tongue slowly over her top lip. “Yeah, he’s

definitely eye-candy.”

Sierra shook her head and glanced at Neil. She wrinkled her

brows as she searched her brain for the firefighter’s name. He was
tall, lean, and young, with light brown hair, a movie-star worthy face,
and the body of a professional swimmer. “That’s Shawn McKenzie,
isn’t it?”

“Yeah, he’s the engineer for Engine 4.” Neil slid an amused look

at his sister. “Do I need to introduce you?”

Tasha seemed to mull over that for a second. “You just might

have to, brother.”

Confused, Sierra chewed her bottom lip. “You said he’s an

engineer, but he’s a firefighter, too, right?”

Neil nodded. “The engineer drives the truck to the fire scenes,

stays with it, and operates the controls, but he’s also trained to fight
fires the same as the rest of them.”

“He’s obviously been trained to use the uniform to his advantage

the same as the rest of them, too,” Sierra muttered.

Neil gave her a playful shake. “Will you stop it? What are those

girls, twelve? I know McKenzie is young, but he’s not a cradle
robber.”

Tasha folded her arms beneath her breasts, her attention still

locked on Shawn McKenzie. “How young is he, exactly?”

196

Tonya Ramagos

“Mid-twenties, I think. He’s a few years younger than you, but

he’s a whole lot older than those girls. Besides, he’s a good kid.” He
glanced around as if to see if anyone was paying attention to them
before he brushed a quick kiss to Sierra’s lips. “And I thought you
had started seeing the real men beneath their uniforms.”

She looked back at Shawn McKenzie and felt herself smile as the

firefighter laughed at something one of the girls said to him. Sure, he
was eating up the attention, but so was Davon, she noted as her
attention shifted to him. He was putting on quite a show for another
group of girls as he taught them the concept of stop, drop, and roll
from the professional perspective. The girls stopped and dropped, all
right, and then rolled with laughter.

She covered her flat belly with her left hand that now sported a

gorgeous sparkling diamond as butterflies took flight at the sight.
“You guys are going to be great fathers.” She looked to Tasha and
added, “And you’re going to be a fantastic aunt.”

Neil sidestepped until he stood behind her and covered her hand

on her belly with his. “We better be. We’ve still got twenty-three
more to make in here after this one comes out.”

Tasha’s jaw dropped. “Girl, you’re going to be busy.”
Sierra threw her head back on Neil’s shoulder and giggled. “I was

not serious about wanting two dozen kids.”

Neil’s eyes twinkled with a wicked mischief that always ignited a

fire in her pussy as he brushed a kiss to her forehead. “I am. You were
amazingly beautiful before, but you’re drop-dead gorgeous pregnant
with our baby.”

“I’m not even starting to show, yet.” At six weeks, her belly was

still frustratingly flatter than a pancake. She wanted to look down at
herself and see her belly rounded with the child growing inside her.
She wanted the whole world to be able to see she was carrying Neil
and Davon’s child without her having to tell them.

“Believe me, when you do, you’ll wish for this moment back,”

Margie Lancaster announced in her too perky voice as she came up

Beneath Their Uniforms

197

beside them. “Especially when you start to feel like you’ve shoved a
boulder in the waistband of your pants.”

Neil’s slowly released her, moved back to her side, and extended a

hand. “I don’t believe we’ve met. I’m Neil Ingram.”

Margie beamed a wide smile at him as she shook his hand. “Yes,

you’re the paramedic.”

“And this is my sister, Tasha.”
Margie shook hands with Tasha next. “I’m Margie Lancaster,

PTA president.” Her bright smile landed on Sierra. “Well, lady, you
pulled it off. I have to tell you, I wasn’t sure you would go through
with it, but I’m glad you did. It saved me from having to step in and
take over.”

“Take over what?”
“Getting his fire department to come here today, of course. I could

tell by the sound of your voice the morning I called you that you
didn’t want to ask him, but the instant I saw that picture of the two of
you kissing, I knew I had to find a way to make you. I bet you
probably would’ve never talked to him again if you hadn’t had this
fling as an excuse.”

Sierra gaped at her. “You set me up!”
Margie tried for innocence and miserably failed. “You’re such a

great woman, Sierra. All the parents and teachers in the PTA have
been so worried about you, what with watching you stay single and
alone all these years. But, when I saw that picture of the two of you in
that heated kiss…” Her twinkling eyes widened and she let out a low
whistle. “I just knew he was the man for you.” She shot a glance
toward Davon. “He’s the other one, isn’t he?”

Nonplused, all Sierra could do was nod.
“See, my little plan worked out even better than I thought it

would. There’s just something about a man in a uniform, isn’t there?”
Margie shivered. “Well, it was nice meeting you, Neil. I hope you
enjoy our little event. And Sierra, we could use you over at the face
painting booth when you get time. You, too, Tasha, if you want to

198

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help.” She started backing away, her gaze landing on Neil before
shooting to Davon again. “Got to love those men in uniform,” Sierra
heard her whisper as she turned and walked away.

“Oh…my…God,” Sierra said slowly, doubting Neil heard her

over his bark of laughter. “That didn’t just happen.”

Still chuckling, Neil nodded. “Yes, baby, I’m pretty sure it just

did. Come on. Let’s go bug Davon before we head to the face painting
booth.”

“You two go ahead and take your time.” Tasha started walking in

the direction Margie had taken. “I’ll fill in at the booth until you get
there.”

“Are you sure you don’t want that introduction now?”
Tasha waved Neil’s question away. “He’s busy right now.

Besides, you work with him. I’m sure there will be plenty more
opportunities for me to meet him later.”

“I never thought about it, but my sister and Shawn would

probably make a good couple.” Neil flattened a hand on the small of
Sierra’s back as he steered her toward Davon.

“Are you going to try to set them up?”
Neil shrugged. “Maybe. We’ll see how things go for a while.”
They were halfway across the grounds when Davon caught sight

of them. His gaze locked with Sierra’s and the already burning need
in her pussy intensified.

“You know, Margie was right about one thing.” Neil looked at her

and waggled his brows. “You do have to love those men in uniforms.”

Sierra rolled her eyes even as laughter bubbled in her throat. Oh,

she didn’t have to love all of them, but she did love everything about
her men in uniforms. She loved Neil and Davon in and beneath their
uniforms as deeply and completely as she knew they loved her and
always would.

Beneath Their Uniforms

199

THE END

WWW.TONYARAMAGOS.COM

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Tonya Ramagos is a best-selling author of erotic romance series

such as The Heroes of Silver Springs, The Service Club, and The
Heroes of Silver Island, as well as many single title romances. She
also writes Old West novels under the name Bonnie Parker. She is a
full-time author writing exclusively for Siren Publishing, in her
opinion, the absolute best publishing company in the business. An
avid reader, hiker, and dart thrower, she lives in the Chattanooga,
Tennessee, area with her boyfriend, their five children, and four cats.

For all titles by Tonya Ramagos, please visit

www.bookstrand.com/tonya-ramagos

Siren Publishing, Inc.

www.SirenPublishing.com

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