How to Tame a Wild Fireman by Jennifer Bernard Page B

or beat someone up—­or something. The devil in him had chosen to tease Lara.
    “All I’m saying is, if I lived with all those women, I’d try to pick up a few pointers.” Patrick had waited until Liam’s attention was elsewhere, so he could keep the conversation between Lara and him.
    Lara, as always, gave as good as she got. “So you need pointers? And I thought you were God’s gift to sorority girls.”
    “Nothing wrong with honing my skills. Come on, sneak me in, just once, so I can listen at a keyhole.”
    “What’s in it for me?”
    “I have some ideas. Fun ones.” He winked, loving the way she flushed under his teasing. None of the more sophisticated girls he knew at Prince­ton were as fun to rile as Lara. And when she got mad, her eyes glowed like amber in firelight and her lush lips tightened.
    So did his cock. He couldn’t let Liam know how much his best friend turned him on.
    “Unless your ideas involve you jumping off a cliff, they won’t be fun for me,” she retorted.
    He laughed. “You know you shouldn’t tempt me like that.” And as soon as he said the word “tempt,” he found he couldn’t drag his eyes away from her. She lay on her side, propped on one elbow, her black hair brushed away from her face, black makeup smudged around her eyes, making them even more dramatic. Everything about her contradicted itself. The harsh ink-­black of her hair didn’t match the fine texture of her skin. Her goth-­girl clothes masked the beckoning curves of her body. His hands itched to tear that long gloomy dress off her body and find out what she really had going on underneath. What was it about her that got under his skin like that?
    With a huge effort, he made himself look away, shading his eyes to check the sun.
    “It’s getting late,” he signed, after tapping his brother on the shoulder. “We have fifteen minutes until Liam has to cut up apples for the horses’ bedtime snack.” They all knew how much Liam hated being late for anything in his orderly routine.
    Liam got an anxious look. “Lara can’t help me tonight. She has a date.”
    “Oh really?” Patrick swung his gaze back to her. Her cheeks turned an endearing rose-­pink. “I thought you didn’t date Loveless boys.” Although he tried to make a joke of it, it came out more serious than he’d intended. Lara never went on dates. The local boys were all too scared of her. He was pretty sure he didn’t like the idea of her on a date.
    “The key word is ‘boy,’ ” she said, tossing her head. The movement made her breasts stir under her shroudlike dress. And suddenly he didn’t care if she dressed like a ghoul, if she lived in a whorehouse, or even if she despised him. He had to touch her, had to see what she felt like under him. In a flash he was on top of her, rolling her onto her back and stretching her arms to either side. Her eyes went wide with shock, her breath came hot against his face.
    “What are you doing?”
    “Proving I’m not a boy.” The words sounded like the growl of a wild animal. Her eyes flicked sideways to Liam, who was staring at them in alarm.
    “Stop,” she said in a low voice. “You’re scaring him.”
    He didn’t release her, not yet. She felt too good under him, firm and curvaceous and yielding. “But not you? I don’t scare you?”
    For a long moment she stared up at him with eyes that looked like smoky gold in the late afternoon sun. He felt the beat of her heart, the flutter of her pulse. She smelled like roses and sweat, utterly lickable. “No,” she said. “I know you don’t want me. You’re just playing games, like you always do.”
    He bit his tongue to keep from telling her just how wrong she was. He wanted her so badly he was afraid to move his lower body in case she felt the physical evidence.
    “Get off me.” She wrenched her hands out of his grip and pushed against his chest. From the catch in her voice, he knew he’d thrown her off balance. Good. He liked having