Hiding with the Mountain Man (Rosewood Ridge Fire #5)

Chapter 4

4

MINA

A big part of me expected to walk back into that locker room and find Wyatt still wearing his jeans and t-shirt. I even thought about sneaking in there a couple of times. Maybe I’d catch him naked.

But no, that didn’t make sense. He didn’t have to get naked to put on the gear. He could put it on over his clothes, right?

When he finally called out that I could come in, I saw that wasn’t the case. He wore khaki-colored trousers that matched the oversized jacket, which had reflective strips. He also had on a helmet and face shield.

The best part was his pose. His hands were on his hips and he’d turned his head sideways and puffed up his chest. Even through the oversized jacket, I could see he was doing that.

“What do you think?” Wyatt asked.

The pose was funny. Like a superhero.

I giggled. “Perfect. In fact, maybe you could pose for the cover. I could ask my publisher.”

His head snapped toward me. “No way. They’ve talked about doing those fireman calendars. That’s not me.”

Those words made me admire him even more. Was there anything hotter than a super gorgeous guy who didn’t want any attention for being super gorgeous?

“Well, nobody they choose for the cover is going to live up to this,” I said.

It was a thought I probably shouldn’t have said out loud, but it was what I’d been thinking since he’d walked into that classroom. No matter what we talked about, all that was on my mind was him. Naked. Both of us naked, actually, doing things I only knew from reading and writing romance novels.

But if the words hit him a certain way, I couldn’t tell. That face shield made it tough to even see his expressions.

“So what do you think?” he asked.

“Hot, but I’m not sure how my characters will have sex with him dressed like that.”

I could feel his eyes on me, but I couldn’t see what was going on beyond that. Was he squinting? Were they narrowed while he tried to figure me out or wide with surprise?

I held my breath in the silence that followed. He could go in several directions, but my money was on him keeping this professional and staying focused on the class. I hoped we were on the same wavelength, though.

“I’d say that depends on the story you’re telling,” he said. “Is he rescuing her from a burning building and they suddenly decide to stop and have sex?”

He took a step closer, but he crossed his arms over his chest at the same time, so I wasn’t sure how to read it. At least now that he was closer, I could see his expression through the mask a little better.

I tore my gaze away and looked around as I took a couple of steps forward too. Then I returned my gaze to his face.

“No, that wouldn’t work,” I said. “Maybe she’s taking a class from him and she asked him to dress up like this and things get steamy from there.”

I was feeling pretty bold right now. I couldn’t even believe the words that were coming out of my mouth. He brought that out in me.

“This is starting to feel less like fiction,” he said.

I shrugged. “I guess you just inspire me.”

I took another step. I could see his eyes much better now, although I’d prefer that he lose the face shield.

“There’s something to be said for experiencing something firsthand,” he said. “Have you ever acted out one of your sex scenes?”

I’d never even had sex. It was something my friends teased me about. I was writing all these scenes and everything I knew about sex came from reading other novels.

I couldn’t tell him any of that, though. If this went anywhere, of course I’d tell him, but a twenty-three-year-old who’d never been with a man was both honorable and embarrassing. I wanted this guy to see me as a woman.

“Never have,” I said. “But plenty of times I want to try something out. Being single kind of sucks in that area. It’s not like I can just ask a guy to try out a position to make sure I have everything right.”

Behind that visor, I saw his smile widen. “I’m pretty sure you could ask any guy in a five-mile radius and get plenty of volunteers.”

“Any single guy,” I said.

I’d never be the type of person who had sex just for the sake of having it. Not that love and marriage were necessary for me to get naked with a guy. That wasn’t the case at all. I just always had a hard time finding a man who was up to my standards.

But this guy had me believing I could have a real-life hero. This was the type of man I’d been writing about.

“First off, this face shield would have to go.” Wyatt whipped off the mask and tossed it to the floor. “There’s no kissing with a face shield on.”

I nodded. The air between us had suddenly gotten thick.

“What about the helmet?” he asked, reaching for it.

I shook my head. “That’s part of what makes it so sexy. It’s getting steamy with a fireman. That’s the trope.”

Trope. Did he know what that term meant? If not, he didn’t ask.

“Well, he couldn’t keep all this gear on and have sex,” he said, looking down at his body. “This coat is a pain in the ass.”

“So take it off.”

I was being way forward. I didn’t even know what had lowered my inhibitions so much. Maybe it was that I felt comfortable with him. Or maybe it was just that this whole setup was so familiar. Like something straight out of one of my novels. And even though I wasn’t exactly pretending to be one of my heroines, I could suddenly access a part of me that I’d kept shut away for all those years. A part of me that had come out on the page.

“If you say so,” he said.

He unzipped the jacket and shrugged it off, letting it fall to the floor. Beneath the jacket, he wore the T-shirt he’d had on earlier, but he also wore suspenders.

I narrowed my eyes at him. On the cover of one of my books, the guy wouldn’t be wearing a shirt.

“Can you remove your T-shirt but leave on the suspenders?” I asked.

Was that going too far? I was legit sexually harassing my trainer. At any moment, he could get offended, and I wouldn’t blame him.

His gaze met mine and my heart began racing. “Are you requesting as an author or as a woman who wants to see me naked?”

This was it. No more playing around. I could back out of this now, or I could rise to the challenge.

There was no way I was walking away from this.

“A woman,” I forced out. “A woman who wants to see you naked.”

That changed the tension between us noticeably. Suddenly, his expression had an edge to it.

He kept his eyes on me as he lowered the suspenders, then tugged the T-shirt over his head. At the first glimpse of his naked upper body, my breath caught. He was toned beyond belief. Washboard abs, muscular pecs… I doubted he was a gym rat. Something told me this guy stayed fit through manual labor.

“How’s this?” he asked.

I had to catch my breath to answer. That should have been a response in itself. But I chose to take things back to lighthearted and flirtatious, if only to give my head a second to catch up with my body.

“You forgot to keep on the suspenders,” I said, gesturing toward them. They hung at his sides.

He gave a nod. “Yes, ma’am.”

He obediently shoved them back up on his shoulders, then put a hand on each hip, posing like before. Except this time, he didn’t look off to the side. This time, he stared straight at me.

“What about you?” he asked.

My eyes widened. Things were getting warm between my legs. I’d describe it more explicitly in one of my books, but when it was real life, it wasn’t so easy to even think those words.

“What about me?” I asked.

“You’re wearing an awful lot of clothes. I’m assuming in your books, the women get naked even before the men do.”

I frowned at that. “Actually, they do. I never thought about it. Why would that be?”

In asking that question, I might be giving away a little too much about my lack of experience. But the question seemed to stump him initially too.

“Because a true hero puts a woman first,” he said, crossing his arms over his chest.

I wanted to protest. I didn’t want him covering up even an inch of that beautiful body.

“You mean, she has an orgasm first?” I asked.

I couldn’t believe I’d actually used the “o” word in front of a man. But just saying the word made my heart rate speed up. Was it possible I could eventually get comfortable saying anything I wanted in front of this man?

Definitely possible.

“In every way,” he said. “But especially in the bedroom. I’m sure the men in your romance novels are like that too. The woman comes, then the man.”

“Sometimes two or three times.”

My voice sounded even hoarser now. This conversation was doing things to me that went beyond anything I’d felt before. Yes, I’d gotten wet down there, but I’d never done anything about it.

This was more of an ache that needed to be satisfied, though. And there was only one man who could satisfy it.

I took a deep breath and gripped the hem of the fire department T-shirt I still wore, jerking it upward and over my head. Only then did I remember I’d worn my ugliest bra. I’d come here for shelter, not to bang a hot firefighter.

“God, you’re beautiful,” he said.

His hands had fallen to his sides, and I wondered if he was resisting the urge to touch me. Maybe that was why he’d crossed his arms in the first place.

If he was trying to hold back, he shouldn’t. I wouldn’t stop him.

I took another step toward him as I reached behind me to unfasten my bra. “There’s something you should know about me, though.” I began lowering my bra straps with trembling fingers.

His eyes were on my chest, but they lifted to my face. “What’s that?”

“I’m a virgin. I’ve never done this before.”