Reckless Read online

  She made a noise that suggested he had quite a ways to go in the convincing-her department. “Or I might tumble to a slow and painful death.”

  He closed the space between them to a mere sliver of daylight before his brain fully registered the move command pumping up from behind his sternum. “That’s not going to happen.”

  “Oh.” Zoe’s murmur brushed past his ear on the hot shock of her exhale. “I just meant . . .”

  “I know what you meant,” he said, the words surging up on a direct path from his chest. “Look, I respect that heights scare you, and if you really don’t want to try rock climbing, I’ve got to respect that, too. But there’s one thing you need to know. If we do this today, nothing bad is going to happen to you.”

  The fear in her eyes softened for just a second, but it was enough. “How do you know?”

  “Because I’m not going to let it, that’s how.”

  Zoe stood perfectly still, gold-colored lashes fanning up into a wide arc as she held on to his stare. The bold curiosity that had flashed through her gaze when she’d first asked him about skydiving resurfaced, and the end of one braid bounced off the gray fleece of her hoodie as she gave a tiny nod. “Okay,” she whispered. “I’ll give it an honest try.”

  “All right.” Alex’s pulse slid faster through his veins, but he tempered it with the same brand of calm he dialed up whenever they rolled out of the fire station, sirens blazing. If he wanted Zoe to stay relaxed enough to enjoy the climb, he’d have to set the bar at practically pulseless to get her to meet him halfway. Although, damn, the flush still covering the apples of her cheeks was going to make keeping cool a job and a half.

  “The first thing we need to do is get our gear all set, but we can do that over here where we’re going to climb so you can start getting a feel for how everything works.” Alex shifted his backpack to keep it in place on his shoulder, kicking his feet into motion across the cavernous climbing room. Zoe stuck pretty close to his side, but she also didn’t hesitate to follow him, and yeah. Now they were cooking with gas.

  He stopped just shy of the north wall, angling himself toward her while still giving her a clear view of both the space they’d be climbing and the equipment around it. “In most situations, climbing takes two people. One person goes up, and the other person stays on the ground to operate what’s called a belay line. That’s the rope that gets hooked to the climber’s harness, then run through a pulley system that’s steel-bolted to the ceiling. The belay operator adjusts the tension on the line as the climber goes up and keeps him from falling if he loses his grip or his footing. Sort of like a backup plan.”

  “Oh.” She examined the length of thick climbing rope clipped into the wall anchor, the impenetrable knot of her shoulders loosening slightly as she said, “So that’s what you’re going to do then? Be my belay guy so I won’t fall?”

  “Nope.”

  Just like that, her shoulders sprang back into loop-the-loop status, and okay, maybe it wouldn’t hurt him to think before speaking every once in a while. He said, “If I worked your belay, I’d have to stay on the ground, and I wouldn’t be able to climb next to you. But don’t worry. Kyle here is going to have your back.”

  Alex nodded to the spot where his buddy Kyle had reappeared by the door to the equipment room, with a harness slung over one forearm and a smile and “hey” combo on his mouth.

  “Wait.” Zoe’s eyes went wide before tapering to slits. “Kyle, the crazy skydiving guy?”

  Of course she’d be able to pull that little chestnut out of thin freaking air. Not that Kyle seemed to mind being called crazy. “That’s me,” he said with a wave of one heavily tattooed arm.

  “You guys rock climb together, too?” Zoe turned her brows-up stare in Alex’s direction, but all he could do was shrug.

  “We adrenaline hounds tend to stick together across multiple sports. At any rate, Kyle’s an experienced climber. He’s going to operate your belay line right here from the ground, and I’m going to climb the wall with you, step by step.”

  “Okay.” She ran her fingers over the line running up to the pulley in the ceiling, her delicate brow tucking in nice and tight as she asked, “So if Kyle is in charge of my belay line, who’s going to do yours?”

  “I am.” Alex lowered his backpack from his shoulder to the floor, unzipping the bag to unearth his tried-and-true harness. “Most people, especially beginners, need someone to manage their belay line from the ground. It’s a little more comfortable that way. But we’ve got a self-belay device here, too, and since I’m an experienced climber, I’m going to use that.”

  He pointed to the separate line running down from the covered circular housing bolted into the top of the wall, and Zoe shook her head. “I didn’t realize rock climbing had so many safety regulations.”

  Ahhh, screwing with her might not be the coolest thing going, but then again, no one had ever accused Alex of being buddy-buddy with the straight and narrow. Plus, maybe a little teasing would loosen her up another notch. “What, you thought I was going to just put you in front of the wall and tell you to hold on tight?”

  She chirped out a laugh, and affirmative on getting her to kick some of that tension to the curb. “Well you are pretty reckless.”

  Leave it to Zoe to lead with something he really couldn’t argue. Still . . . “It’s like skydiving, Zoe. I might want the rush, but I don’t want to end up in traction, either. You ready to get geared up?” He gestured to the harness in Kyle’s hand nice and easy, and her nod followed in exactly the same manner.

  “Okay, sure.” She unzipped her hoodie, slipping the slouchy fleece from her shoulders to fold it into a neat square, and in that moment, Alex realized he’d made a huge tactical error.

  Not only was Zoe wearing a formfitting tank top that revealed just enough creamy skin to be both disarming and hot as hell, but she’d paired it with black yoga pants. On their own, yoga pants were dangerous enough to a guy’s concentration.

  On the perfectly curvy hips-to-ass ratio Zoe had just revealed? They were a fucking weapons-grade distraction.

  “. . . Right, Donovan?” Kyle’s voice jerked him back to reality with all the subtlety of an ice bath in August, and how the hell had the guy gotten Zoe into her harness so fast?

  “What? Yes! Absolutely,” Alex blurted at the same time his brain screamed Focus, you dick-thinking dummy!

  Kyle buried his smile in the crook of his shoulder, but not before Alex caught it in all its ear-to-ear, asshole-friend glory. “So anyway, like I was saying, before I came out here I was sorting through those new climbing shoes we got from our distributor to use as demos and I’m pretty sure I saw an eight in the box. Since Alex agrees they’ll probably give you a better feel for the footholds than your cross-trainers, we can go ahead and get you a pair for your climb if you want.”

  Zoe turned, propping her chin on her shoulder to look at him. “If you’re sure it’s okay for me to borrow them.”

  Alex made a mental note to let Kyle off the hook for the next two birthday parties in exchange for diverting Zoe’s attention from his momentary lapse of decency. “Sure. I’ll go grab a pair while you guys finish up here,” he managed. Thankfully, by the time he’d completed the ninety-second trip to the equipment room, his cock had followed the stand-down issued by his conscience.

  Mostly.

  “Size eight. Here you go.” Alex waited until Zoe’s attention was fully engaged in swapping out her footwear before subtly adjusting the last of his hard-on into a more socially acceptable position beneath his loose-fitting climbing pants. Christ, he was a moron for even momentarily forgetting that Zoe was about as hands-off as a woman could get.

  Not that he didn’t want his hands on her. He might be a moron, but he sure as shit wasn’t blind.

  Alex stepped into his harness and tightened the straps into place, squelching the heat running through him like a live wire current once and for all. Zoe was Cap’s daughter, and anyway, he had a bet to win and a fi
rehouse to get back to, both in short order.

  “Okay,” he said, the clack of metal on metal sounding off in his palm as he unlocked the carabiner holding Zoe’s line from its anchor spot in the wall. Passing it off to Kyle, he let his buddy attach the line to the front of her harness while turning to mimic the process with the self-belay line and his own gear. “As we climb, Kyle will adjust the tension in your belay line by either pulling on it or letting out slack. He’ll have a good visual on you the whole time, but just in case the line feels too tight or too loose, all you have to do is twirl your finger like this.” He paused to rotate his index finger in a handful of circles. “And he’ll adjust it for you. This is a beginner wall, so the hand and footholds are pretty big and easy to use. We shouldn’t have too much trouble to start out.”

  She took in the wall with a methodical sweep of her eyes, calculating every step of the way. “Okay, but there are hundreds of them. How do I know which ones to use?”

  Oh, man, she was going to hate this part. But hell if it wasn’t half the reason he’d fallen in love with rock climbing to begin with. Not to mention the entire reason he’d wanted to get her on the wall. “No risk, no reward. You’re going to have to try them all out to see which ones work best for your frame and your strength.”

  Zoe muttered under her breath. “Fabulous.” Still, the tiny V of concentration marking the space between her brows told Alex she hadn’t changed her mind about giving this an honest go. Gripping one of the holds at eye level, she edged the ball of one foot to a low-standing foothold, tightening her muscles to pull herself all the way off the climbing room floor.

  “Once you start moving, you’ll get the hang of what works for you pretty quickly. Just take it one step at a time. Literally.” Alex moved a couple of paces up the wall with an easy hand-over-hand, tipping his head at her in a wordless c’mere, and Zoe’s forehead creased deeper still beneath the slender brim of her helmet.

  “Like this?” she asked, readjusting her death grip on the hold in front of her before awkwardly tilting her hips back to search for a place to put her foot.

  Okay, yeah, so this was going to be a bigger challenge than Alex had bargained for. But between her fear of heights and her extreme determination to concentrate her face off, Zoe was going to fry her motherboard in about ten seconds unless he scheduled a straight to the point intervention, stat.

  “Not exactly,” he said, ignoring her I told you so glare as he backpedaled to the spot next to her. “First of all, breathe. I promise it won’t hurt.”

  Her glare doubled in intensity, but she sucked in enough of an inhale that he didn’t push his luck.

  Not too much, anyway. “Okay, we’ll call that a work in progress. Next, the wall isn’t going to bite you. If you drop your weight backward to look for footholds, you’re burning unnecessary energy and risking a fall.”

  “How am I supposed to move upward then?”

  “By bringing your body right up on the wall and leaving it there. Like this.” He reached around the back of her rib cage, ushering her torso and hips flush to the wall without warning or force.

  Zoe went bowstring taut beneath his arm, turning her chin toward him so they were face-to-face against the profile of the wall. Her parted lips and eyes-wide-open stare put a spotlight on her vulnerability, and even though he had to fight for it, Alex met the tension in both her stare and her body with nothing but calm.

  “It’s all about balance. You’ve got to keep your center of gravity nice and tight”—he paused, adding just the slightest pressure against the arc of her rib cage to punctuate the words—“right here while you relax everything else. Then you can move your arms and legs laterally rather than out and back, away from the wall, and you’ll stay grounded. Now give it a try.”

  For a breath, Zoe went completely still, and Alex’s gut doubled down to match. But then her body loosened by slow degrees, the rigid line of her torso growing more pliable beneath his grasp as she inhaled, testing her weight on the footholds to nudge her way upward. “That does feel a little more comfortable.”

  “You need both push and pull to be flexible enough to move. Good, see? You’re not going to fall, I promise.” He nodded, shifting his arm from a tight hold to the barest press of support on her lower back as she climbed up once, then twice, keeping her motions careful but compact. “There you go.”

  “Oh.” The word curved her lips in its wake, sending a dark thrill all the way through Alex’s blood. “Okay, yeah.”

  Zoe paused to flex the fingers on her free hand a few times, and he took advantage of the moment to show her a couple different types of holds. “Most of the handholds on this wall will accommodate a variety of grips, but I’m not going to lie. You’re probably going to feel this tomorrow in some unexpected places. Climbing’s a little tough on your fingers and hands.”

  A quick burst of laughter popped past her lips. “I’m a chef, Alex. Believe me, as far as being tough on my hands, this is nothing.”

  She furrowed her brow, scanning the selection of multicolored options in front of her before reaching for the next handhold. Stalwart concentration reset her forehead into a deep crease, drawing her shoulders higher around the column of her neck, and she completed each maneuver as if checking chores off a bottomless to-do list.

  Oh, no you don’t. “So how come you left that restaurant in DC to run a soup kitchen in the projects?”

  Surprise colored Zoe’s eyes in a burnished brown flicker, but hell if he hadn’t grabbed at her attention just enough to get her to breathe.

  “I, uh. Well, it’s kind of a long story.” She took a second to set her fingers into a pinch hold, the back of her tank top smoothing out over her spine as she relaxed into the move and tugged herself up another step.

  While Alex didn’t want her to lose focus on what was in front of her, overfocusing, especially when the path to success was to stay loose, was equally problematic. If one thing could not just chill Zoe out, but keep her that way, it was talking about Hope House’s kitchen. And as much as he wanted her to find her happy place so he could win this bet, a deeper, darker part of him also wanted to rediscover that reckless-abandon smile she’d let slip the other day in the kitchen.

  And Alex wasn’t going to stop until he got both.

  Chapter Nine

  Zoe had been so busy concentrating on how to keep herself balanced and upright that she didn’t see Alex’s smile until it caught her right in the solar plexus. Although she’d been starting to get the hang of at least some of the climbing movements, being this close to the off-limits firefighter was a completely different ball of wax. Between the utter confidence in Alex’s bright blue eyes and the warmth of his lean, hard muscles wrapped tight over her rib cage as he’d guided her against the climbing wall, Zoe was about ready to spontaneously combust.

  She didn’t even want to get started on the weird pang she’d felt from her chest to her caution meter as he’d sworn to keep her safe.

  “A long story, huh?” Alex let go of the climbing wall with one hand, gesturing grandly to the space between them before easily replacing his grip. “As it turns out, I’m a captive audience with nothing but time. So come on, Gorgeous. Wow me.”

  The laughter that barged past Zoe’s lips took her by complete surprise, and judging from Alex’s expression, she wasn’t the only one. But her reasons for leaving Kismet weren’t exactly a secret. Even if they were largely unpopular among both her former colleagues and her family. “Okay, fine. I guess the easiest way to explain it is that working in a professional kitchen just wasn’t what I thought it would be.”

  “Yeah, I remember my first year in the house.” Alex slid the toes of his black climbing shoes to a new foothold, pressing his way up the wall with the ease of someone who had done it no less than a billion times. “Jobs with breakneck hours on top of breakneck workloads are a bitch to get used to. I’m guessing that being a chef isn’t exactly a nine to five.”

  She tried—unsuccessfully—to keep he
r snort in check as she did her best to copy his upward movements. “Definitely not. But I was actually fine with the schedule and the workload. It was the bottom line that ended up driving me crazy.”

  “I’m not sure I understand.”

  “I spent three years clawing my way through culinary school because I love food. The smells, tastes, the textures, the way simple ingredients can come together to create something so vital.” Zoe paused to let the pure goodness of the thoughts in her head push a smile over her mouth. “God, I even loved the scut work, and believe me when I say, in a professional kitchen, there’s plenty.”

  Alex’s laugh was all low, warm rumble. “Like coring lettuce?”

  “Please. Talk to me once you’ve chopped onions for vegetable stock. For like a month straight.”

  “I don’t mean to be a jackass, but that pretty much sounds like hell on earth.” He shuddered, although the glint in his eyes made both the gesture and his words more mischievous than malicious. Zoe didn’t even think twice as she shrugged and took another tentative step up the climbing wall.

  “For someone who’s not a chef, I’m sure it does. But it’s just like keeping your equipment in check at the firehouse. You want your irons ready to go when you need them, right?”

  “Uh, yeah.” Alex tugged his sun-kissed brows into a nonverbal is that even a question? and Zoe responded with an equally silent exactly.

  “So you take good care of your ax and your Halligan bar and you put everything where it belongs even though the inventory you do at the top of every shift is a pain in the ass. When you love your job, even the boring stuff isn’t, well, quite so boring.”

  “I guess that makes sense. But if you didn’t mind the grunt work, the long hours, and the weird schedule, what made you want to leave? Wasn’t the place pretty upscale?”