...He stood, still facing the fire, and unzipped his jacket. He heard movement and thought the dogs were shifting in their sleep. He froze when he heard Dane say, “Here, let me help you with that.”

Bear thought he’d never take another breath again. Electricity shot through him, sparking his naughtiest senses to life. All he had to do was turn, and he’d see what every sensual nerve in him had clamored to see from the first moment he’d looked into those smoky eyes. The few tantalizing glimpses he’d gotten at the firehouse had only fanned the fires of desire higher.

Dane pulled off the jacket. It landed on the floor with a soft swish and hands tugged his shirt out of his pants. “Raise your arms.”

Bear could feel Dane’s breath on his neck, and he shut his eyes against the warm tide that rose inside and lapped against the barrier his heart had built, almost engulfing him. He raised his arms, even as he told himself how dangerous this was. He couldn’t stop himself. He heard the muted sound of the shirt joining the jacket.

Warm hands stroked Bear’s shoulders. A cheek was laid against his back, and he felt the faint stubble of facial hair. By morning there’d be a sexy five o’clock shadow. He felt his cock finish filling.

“Are you trying to seduce me, Dane?” It came out in a whisper.

“Damn right. I’m pretty sure you gave me the look today, but if you want me to stop, say so now. I’ve wanted you since I first laid eyes on you.”

Bear couldn’t have spoken if his life had depended on it.

Dane’s voice was thick with desire as he nuzzled the nape of Bear’s neck and his hands strolled down his spine and squeezed his ass. “Do you know your skin has no scent? Blood could pick it up, but I can’t. I’ll carry the memory of a strong, clean man with me for a long time.” His voice dropped low, became rough. “But when we’ve finished making love, the smell of my cum will be on you and yours will mingle with mine. That’s the scent that’ll be imprinted on both our brains. I want to fuck you, Robert Barrington, and I think you want to fuck me, too.”

Joy flooded him. Bear couldn’t repress the hoarse sounds that escaped his throat as Dane reached around to unbuckle his belt and carefully slide the zipper down over his bulging package. He inhaled quick and sharp as Dane grazed his cock in tugging down his pants.

Crazed with want and hot with need, Bear’s hands shook as he pushed down his boxers and stepped free of pants and shorts.

“You were careful not to look when I undressed. Did you want to, Bear? If you’d wanted to when I lost my towel in the station house, you didn’t. Or if you did, I didn’t catch it.”

“Oh, I looked all right. I was afraid I’d have wet dreams that night.” Bear couldn’t keep the rasp out of his voice, couldn’t halt—didn’t want to halt—the throbbing in his dick.

“Look now. See all of me, and let me see all of you.”

Bear turned slowly and drank in the beauty of a sculpted body whose sinewy muscles were hard as stone and so developed that, just as he’d seen on Dane’s arms, the veins stood out all over it like a drawing by Michelangelo. He’d seen the strength in those arms as they’d handled the force of a fire hose on flames, seen the intellect at work when it picked up the telltale trails of arson and the kind spirit as he’d responded to a hurt child. Now he saw a cock dripping hungrily with the juices of sex, pointing straight at his belly.

Flickering light danced over the trim, angular planes, and Bear’s gaze wandered to the dark swath of hair that began at the navel and traveled down to the mystery between his hips from which his hard-on jutted. “God, you’re beautiful,” he whispered.

“Talk about beautiful. You’re just as I imagined you’d be from seeing the fine hair on your arms. Now I see thick, sandy-colored hair across a broad chest and down your belly to a big cock primed and ready for me. I’m glad you haven’t shaved there. I hate that. Come to me, Bear. Touch me. Love me.”