In the cozy bed in the guesthouse, Lisa wrapped Finn’s body around her like a blanket. She inhaled the warm, woodsy scent of his almost-sleeping body. This—this was the best kind of luxury. To be loved by someone you loved in return—it was practically decadent. Especially when you’d spent most of the past week in bed.

The dreamy hours between bouts of lovemaking had given them a chance to catch up on everything they’d gone through while they were apart.

“As soon as I got to Houston, I wanted to come back,” she told him.

“I thought you were done with me. Done with our little ‘sex-capade.’”

“I’ll never get enough of your sex-capades.” They snuggled for a while after that. “You know, when I went back to the hospital to meet with the management, so many emotions came over me. All the stress, all the suffering I saw there. I remembered what you said about running into the crisis. I did that, yes. But I was running away from my heart. I didn’t stop running away until I found you, Finn. Until I fell head over heels for you.”

His breath caught. “Such a romantic.” Even though he was obviously teasing her, he couldn’t mask how her words moved him.

She lifted herself on one elbow. “Are you blushing?”

“What? No. Big strong firemen do not blush. If you see any red at all, it’s an inflammation of my scar.”

“Pfft. I know a blush when I see one.” She peppered his scarred side with kisses. “That’s okay, I won’t tell anyone you’re a total sap. Everyone already knows anyway.”

“Yeah, I guess they do. Tabloids don’t lie. Oy, that picture of us in the hospital. The hotshots will never let that one go. Ever.”

She laughed. Jeez, would she ever stop laughing around Finn?

“And Stu told me Annika blew a fuse over that story. She fired Gemma. Or vice versa, hardly matters. Stu’s staying out of it.”

“I’ve been thinking…” She hesitated. The idea had popped into her head in his hospital room, but she still didn’t know how he would react. “As you know, I’m a medical professional currently between jobs. What would you think about inviting your father here to Jupiter Point to recuperate from his surgery? I’ll take care of him, and you can spend time with him when you’re not on a fire.”

After a long, stunned silence, he flipped her over onto her back. “You would do that? You would really take care of my asshole father?”

“I’m not afraid of assholes as long as they’re not setting my motorhome on fire or attacking my friends.”

“You are incredible. How’d I get so fucking unbelievably lucky?”

She grinned up at him. “That’s not one of your cheesy pick-up lines, is it?”

Before he could answer, the phone rang. She snatched it up and found Merry on the line.

“That man. Gah. He owes you a favor, doesn’t he? Can you call it in for me?”

“Who does? Who could possibly make you this mad?” she asked innocently, even though she knew perfectly well who Merry was talking about. Only one man got under her friend’s skin like this.

“Don’t make me say his name.”

“If you’re talking about Will, Will doesn’t owe me any favors. He was the one who rescued Finn from the Dumpster, so I owe him.” She winked at Finn, who still cringed at any mention of that Dumpster. “I’m sure you guys can work it out. You’re both grown-ups.”

“You’re being a bad friend,” Merry hissed, sounding nothing like a grown-up.

On Finn’s side of the bed, another phone rang. Finn picked it up with one lazy move of his muscled arm. “Finn here.”

A deep voice carried into the room. “You’re a writer, Finn, right? Used to be? I need a translator. Someone who understands what’s going on in that woman’s brain.”

“What woman?” Finn winked at Lisa, who smothered a giggle. He stroked a finger up and down her upper arm. “Who are you talking about?”

“No comment.”

“I heard that ’no comment’!” Merry yelled from Lisa’s phone. “I hear those words in my nightmares!”

“Is that Merry? Let me guess, she’s pestering you guys for a story. She never stops, does she?”

Finn and Lisa looked at each other and shrugged. As one, they laid their phones side by side on the nightstand. Will and Merry kept talking, phone to phone.

“You’re going to have ’no comment’ written on your tombstone, aren’t you?” asked Merry.

“You sound a little too eager to witness that.”

“Oh, I’m sure you’ll take your time getting to the Promised Land, just like you do everything else.”

“Funny, I don’t usually get complaints from women about that.”

“You just haaaad to go there.”

Lisa looked around for something to muffle the phones. All she could find was the star-and-moon fabric from her motorhome, which lay on top of a pile of stuff she still had to unpack. She reached for it, the movement giving Finn the opportunity to stroke her naked side.

Shivering with pleasure, she folded the indigo fabric and tucked it around the two phones. There. Will and Merry’s sparring was now just a buzz.

She snuggled back into the warm circle of Finn’s arms. “Sounds like things are going well with those two.”

“Maybe I should lend Sparky to Will. Romantic Gestures 101—buy a turtle.”

She laughed and nibbled on his firm chin. She brushed her cheek against the rough grain of his stubble. “He doesn’t stand a chance. Merry’s the last remaining member of Team Cynic. She’ll hold the line. It’s her civic duty.”

He pulled her on top of him and stroked the curves of her ass, making her melt and squirm. “You badass cynics sure know how to make a man work for it.”

She licked his neck, savoring the intoxicating flavor that was just Finn. Only Finn. “It just takes the right person, that’s all. Someone who can see past our beastly exteriors to the sappy souls inside.”

“Did you just call yourself beastly?” He swatted her butt lightly.

“Yeah. What are you going to do about it?” She loved it when he got all commanding—and he knew it.

“I’m going to make mad, incessant love to you.” He moved her up and down on his swelling shaft. “I’m going to keep you naked in bed until you forget the meaning of the word ‘beastly.’ I’m going to make you so happy, even your smile will set off sparks. Any more questions?”

“No questions.” Hot joy swamped her as she gazed into his loving eyes. “Okay, maybe one.”

“What?”

“Should we hang up our phones first?”

He burst out laughing and rolled her under him, bracing his strong, scarred, powerful body atop hers. Deep in a place beyond logic, she knew that days just like this—filled with heart and laughter—lay ahead as far as the eye could see.

And she gave silent thanks to the stars and their mysterious ways.

The next Jupiter Point book, Merry and Will’s story, is coming in summer 2017.

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