How to use "licking" in a sentence

Tina looked out the side window, watching in disbelief as the flames spread from the shattered garage roof to the main roof of the house, long tongues of lambent fire, licking, licking, hungry, bloodred in the last orange light of the afternoon.

"Very nice little number," Tom said, nodding, licking his lips as he studied the Mercedes.

"But if that's where they went, then they're not just hiding out, licking their wounds