HEAT: A steamy firefighter romance boxed set Read online

  “Have you tried selling your paintings?”

  “I’m not good enough yet.”

  “Maybe you should let others be the judge of that. Take them to a gallery, and let them see what you can do. It wouldn’t hurt to see if your paintings are commercial.”

  “What if the gallery doesn’t like them? Maybe I’ll never be any good without going to art school.”

  “Every gallery owner is just one opinion. You could try a few places. If you find one that likes what you do, it could open doors. Would your parents be annoyed if I helped you with that?”

  “Probably. There’s not much that doesn’t annoy them.” She starts to mimic an annoyed parent. “Olivia, you shouldn’t wear that. Olivia, you shouldn’t go there. Olivia, you should take this major at college. Olivia, you flunked your exams on purpose.”

  “Did you? Fuck, Olivia. That’s going a bit far with being a rebel.”

  “I didn’t exactly flunk on purpose, more failed to engage in any work. I thought they might decide I wasn’t cut out for academia if I didn’t do well, but they didn’t. They’re just insisting I try harder this year at community college where I’m supposed to excel in business administration to make up for my lack of enthusiasm last year. The trouble is, the whole idea gets me down. But they can’t see that.”

  “What is it with parents? I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with the idea of going to college, but they never seem to get that trying to fit a square peg into a round hole sucks for anyone if they’re the peg.”

  “Why? What did yours do to you?”

  “They didn’t stop me doing anything in the end, but my dad has a plumbing company, and he was desperate for me to follow him into the family business. But I wanted to be a fireman ever since I saw a movie where a guy saved a dog from a forest fire. I can’t even remember the name of the movie, but I remember the dog.”

  “Would that be a black and white movie?” she teases.

  “Very funny,” I pick up her hand and kiss it.

  “I thought there was no touching on the highway,” she says.

  “I assessed the risk first. Straight road. No cars about. Quick kiss on the hand. No untoward effects.”

  “Are you sure about that? It could be having an effect on me.” She laughs and wriggles in her seat.

  This girl is a breath of fresh air. But I feel like we have been in our own little bubble all day so far out of town. What will I do once she is back at her house with her parents? Can I go against their wishes? I’m supposed to offer a service to the community I serve, rescue people, make lives safer, do what’s right, not fuck people’s daughters under their noses. But hell, I want to fuck this one.

  CHAPTER 11

  Olivia

  I haven’t seen Luke for a few days. Is he deliberately staying away from me, or is he working? I watch for him coming home after his twenty-four hour shifts at the fire station. I know the guys stay there while they’re on duty, but I can’t help hoping to see him. I have nothing better to do than keep an eye out, and every time I see a red car coming along the street, I hope it might be his car, Phoebe, and my heart gives a little leap, but I don’t see him. He hasn’t as much as sent me a text since he kissed me bye and rushed off to the fire station after our picnic. Nothing!

  I can’t accept that. There was something between us. I don’t care about his age. In fact, the more I compare him to boys my age the more I want him.

  I send him a text. “Burning here. Rescue me.”

  Maybe he can’t respond when he’s on duty but it takes him six long hours to text back, and his messages says nothing more than, “Talk to you soon.”

  Talking! It’s not talking I want. Last time a guy wanted to talk to me was Jed. I don’t like the sound of that at all.

  It’s time to change tactics. After I spot his car outside the house the next day, I lie out in the back yard in my skimpiest bikini with Bon Jovi on—the volume lower than it was the first time, but loud enough so he’ll notice me.

  I know he’s seen me, after I catch him at the window, but he doesn’t come over. He sends me another text, though. “I’m beat. Honestly, we’ll talk. No need to torture me with your bikini. Luke.”

  Has he rescued some other woman and fallen for her or is he just cooling off? I hate this. I never cared about any of the guys at school and whether they liked me or not until Jed. I never got involved in the drama about who was going out with who or who had a date with Ricky on the football team who all the girls liked. I thought I loved Jed, but I never wanted him so much it hurt like this.

  I’m running out of options so I call Holly to see if she has any bright ideas.

  “Have you got a spare key to the house,” she says. “Wait for him at home.”

  “I couldn’t do that. He might think I’m breaking in and knock me out before he sees who it is. But we don’t have a key to their place anyway.”

  “What about his back yard? Does he spend any time out there?”

  “Not when I’m outside. Oh… but you just gave me an idea.”

  “What?”

  “Never mind. I’ll let you know if it works.”

  It has to work. It just has to.

  And that’s how I find myself totally naked in Luke’s back yard the next evening when my parents are at a work function together.

  *

  My state of undress is not as bad as it sounds. There’s a hot tub next door, and I’m in it, waiting for Luke to get back from the gym—I saw him go out with his bag. I just hope he comes home alone. If he has one of his friends with him, I’ll have some explaining to do. Not that I won’t have explaining to do anyway. A lot of explaining. But I don’t care at this point.

  When he’s at work, I keep catching myself watching the local news, keeping an eye out for major fires breaking out, hoping he gets home safely.

  And when there’s nothing in the news, I wonder if he’s doing boring stuff at the fire station, washing the truck or whatever they do when there are no fires to put out, wrecks to untangle or kitties to rescue from trees.

  Do they even do that for cats? I must ask him sometime, but I hope I’ll have more interesting things to keep him occupied with tonight. At least I know he won’t be in any danger at the gym.

  The skin on the ends of my fingers is crinkling up with the water now, though, and suddenly I realize this is a BAD PLAN. My worst plan ever. What if he brings some woman home from the gym, and I’m here naked in his hot tub? I’m so stupid. I’m just about to grab my towel to get out when he comes around the corner from the garage.

  “What the fuck, Olivia? What are you doing there?”

  “Waiting for you. What does it look like?”

  “You’re crazy.”

  “I know. But good crazy or bad crazy?”

  “Damn, Olivia. You’re naked. Fucking crazy, crazy.”

  “You were ages. I’m turning into a prune.”

  “I didn’t know you’d be immersing yourself in water in my back yard, otherwise I might have returned home earlier instead of going by the store to pick up a few things. Let me get that for you.”

  He hands me the towel. I know he’s not annoyed. Not judging by the reaction in his jeans. And at least he’s talking to me.

  He indicates the grocery bags. “I was going to invite you over for dinner tomorrow. I have another day off duty. But now that you’re already here, are you hungry?”

  “I could eat a horse.”

  Now that he’s talking to me, my appetite seems to have magically returned. I haven’t been hungry since the picnic. Except for chocolate. I’ve been inhaling that like it was calorie free and going out of fashion.

  “I didn’t pick up any horse, but I could whip you up a pizza now and something classier tomorrow, or you could hang out for something classier now.”

  “Pizza now, classy tomorrow.” Yay! I’m seeing him twice in a row. Maybe I didn’t need my over the top stunt in his back yard, but I got his attention. And I’m seeing him tonight i
nstead of just tomorrow. I call that a victory. Maybe he wouldn’t have called me. I don’t know, but he seems sincere.

  “Are those all the clothes you have with you?” He points to my bikini lying by the hot tub after wrapping me in the towel.

  “Yes, I didn’t plan on dressing for dinner.”

  “Go and make yourself respectable while I cook then.”

  “Are you sure you want me respectable?”

  “Not really, but I don’t want you catching your death either.”

  “It’s a warm night…”

  “Do you ever do anything you’re told?”

  “Are you going to make me?”

  “Don’t tempt me. Just go…” He whacks me on the bottom through the towel, which I find surprisingly hot, and I take my bikini from his hands and put it on. He kisses me, a long lingering kiss, removing any shadow of doubt that he might be mad at me, his thumbs running over my hard nipples, making my breath hitch, and he sends me on my way with a “don’t be long.”

  It takes me no time to put on my cutest dress. I want to wear a dress for him, just not my mother’s. I want him to tell me to take it off. It was lying at the back of my closet, but it’s short and fun and red for danger, and I’ve got red sandals too.

  I think about staying naked under it, but I want to have fun with him as he peels my clothes off one item at a time, so I wear the little funky boy shorts and bra set I know he likes. Then I take my hair out of the tie I used to keep it out of the water in the tub, and I’m ready.

  His eyes light up when I get back, and he kisses me on the neck. “Gorgeous. Nice dress.”

  “You like it?”

  “I like it. That’s not your mother’s, for sure.”

  “No. This one is all mine… or all yours.”

  “Really?”

  I nod, feeling suddenly shy with him. I’ve been pushing myself at him so hard, he probably thinks I have more experience than I do. Who would assume I was a virgin the way I turned up naked in his back yard? What have I done? He’s going to expect all kinds of things from me.

  “What’s the matter? Changed your mind about pizza? You want something else?” He smiles.

  “No, not that. I just got nervous.”

  “Nervous. You?” He looks at me. “Okay, you’re nervous. I can see that. I’m not really surprised. This whole thing scares the fuck out of me. But let’s go with it. See where it takes us. If you want to stop at pizza just say the word. We may as well eat anyway.”

  I help him set the table and toss the salad, and then we sit eating pizza as if we did this every night.

  “What happened this week, then? Did you have second thoughts?” I ask.

  “And third and fourth thoughts. The guys at the station asked me what I was doing in Oak Ridge, and I told a couple of them about you. They warned me you’ll go off with someone nearer your own age sooner or later.”

  “I won’t. The guys my age are just stupid.”

  “They’ll grow up, especially when they’ve been to college for a few years, and begun their careers.”

  I ignore him. I can’t imagine any of those boys turning into a guy like Luke even if they had another five years and firefighter training. “I didn’t think guys talked to each other about anything much.”

  “We look out for each other at the station. It’s like a family. They know everything about me. That comes with bunking in with them four days out of eight when we’re on duty. I went through the mill with my wife when she left, and they were there for me. So now I’ve had them going on at me, pulling my leg about you, but sometimes more serious, and then I’ve had my own brain working overtime about your parents and all. Where are they tonight by the way?”

  “They’re at a work event. Where else? It’s all they seem to do.”

  “I still think it’s a bad idea sneaking around behind their backs… but I don’t know… if we want to give this a chance we might have to. I hate the whole idea of being so secretive. I want to show you off. Let the world know you’re mine. If you are, that is?” He looks at me as if there’s any question of it, and I lean over and kiss him in answer.

  He continues. “We have to tell them sometime anyway. Let’s say a month from now. We tell them no matter what. It’s the only way I can square it with my conscience.”

  I can’t see it being any different in a month. I’ll still feel the same way about Luke. My parents will still be jerks about it, but I say, “If that’s what you want, okay.”

  “Maybe we shouldn’t get too serious until they know. We could just hang out and get to know each other,” he says.

  “Are you kidding me? I’ll combust.” I can’t just hang out with him for a month.

  “I know a good fireman who can put that fire out.”

  “The one I know will only make this kind of fire worse, if he gets anywhere near it.”

  He grins at me.

  “Maybe I’ll just have to be the bad guy for once, then. I was never a teenage rebel. I was studying and training too hard to get into the fire department.”

  “I’d be the same if I was studying for what I want to do.” Although from where I’m sitting the only thing I want to study right now is him.

  He looks at me. I’ve had a quarter of the pizza and I’ve stopped eating. “Have you had enough of that?”

  “For now, yes. I have other things on my mind that are taking away all thoughts of pizza.”

  “What would they be, those other things?”

  “Clearing the table. Washing up.” For some reason we both find that hysterical.

  “Right, then. But I think you should take your beautiful dress off and leave it here by the table. You don’t want to get it wet…”

  CHAPTER 12

  Luke

  It’s just as well I lowered the shades before we started on the pizza. I thought that just made the kitchen seems less clinical. Now they have an altogether different purpose. Olivia gets up from the table and comes over to me, putting her arms in the air. I lift the hem of her dress up over her bottom, and then I stand up, pulling it over her head and arms. My cock lurches in my pants. She’s so beautiful standing in her bra and panties in my kitchen with the red sandals on her feet.

  I kiss her slowly as if we have all the time in the world.

  “Now get your butt over to the sink, wench,” I joke, giving her a little slap on the ass, and when she gets there, I stand right behind her, the curves of her body against me as she bends over the sink, running the hot water into the bowl and adding the suds.

  In truth, there’s not much to wash up from a couple of ready-made pizzas and salad, but I’m all for standing like this at the sink with her. Her body pressing back against mine is delicious torture.

  As she occupies herself with the dishes, I nuzzle her neck, and my hands move as if of their own accord, touching her everywhere. Her nipples harden under my caresses. Her panties are soaking. I run my fingers over her mound and slip them inside the leg band, and she squirms against me. I could take her there and fuck her hard and long over the sink, but I want her in my bed the first time I take her. Where she belongs.

  Fuck! I can’t stand this sneaking around for a month. I care about her and I can’t see that changing any time soon. We might as well face the music and get it over with so we can just be together all the time.

  But why am I thinking about her parents now, with my fingers now venturing deep inside her, and her moving and moaning around them? I’ll deal with it all tomorrow. Just now it’s only her and me. And there’s not much dish washing getting done tonight.

  “I think we should leave these last ones to soak,” I whisper in her ear. “Soaking is a good thing.” I run my fingers over her slit.

  “Yes, soaking is good,” she says and leaves the dishes in the sink, turning to face me. I pull down the front of her bra. Her breasts pop out with their beautiful nipples ripe for sucking like plump red berries. I can’t resist; I lick and suck at the hard nubs, massaging her breasts as she stan
ds there, her legs weakening.

  “I didn’t wipe the table,” she says looking at the crumbs we left, in desperation, I think, to focus on something, anything other than the intensity of what is happening here.

  “Fuck, the table,” I say. “Just leave it.”

  But she gets the cloth and wrings it out, and somehow, I’ve never seen anything more erotic than her wiping the table with her boobs peeking out of her bra. And I can’t help completing the picture by pulling her panties down around her thighs.

  “Are you going to disobey me on everything?” I whisper in her ear. “Because I might need to do something about that.”

  She giggles, and I whack her bottom, because she seemed to like it the last time, and she has such a perfect ass. Then, my cock jumps, because she bends deliberately over the wet table and presents her beautiful bottom in the air, especially high because of her long legs and the height of her shoes.

  She looks back at me and grins. “Actually, I think I haven’t behaved at all well lately the way I’ve been trying to get your attention. I’ve been a bad girl.”

  “So you have,” I agree. “A bad girl in the best possible way you could be.” She laughs.

  CHAPTER 13

  Olivia

  Holy cow! If I can’t believe that I let him find me naked in his hot tub, bending over the table is a step beyond even that. Yet the seeds were sown from the first time he told me off like a wayward child just before I puked a very adult fruity drink over his pants on the night of the fire.

  One whack on my behind in his back yard earlier was hot, but this? It’s hotter than hot. My buttocks are burning, and I’m sliding against the still wet kitchen table, but every time he hits me, he caresses the sting away and runs his fingers between my legs and I want more.

  “Enough,” he says. “Or I’m not going to be able to hold back from taking you here. I want you in my bed right now.”