Total pages in book: 25
Estimated words: 24049 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 120(@200wpm)___ 96(@250wpm)___ 80(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 24049 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 120(@200wpm)___ 96(@250wpm)___ 80(@300wpm)
She looks around and smiles. “At least, my most prized possession didn’t get damaged,” she says with a grin.
I look where she’s looking and laugh. That stupid calendar is hanging on the wall, unharmed.
“Lucky you,” I say with a grin.
For a moment, neither of us speaks. The space between us feels charged, humming, like the air right before a storm breaks.
I remember the way her warm skin felt under my fingertips and a longing to touch her again hits hard.
“I’m June,” she says.
“I’m April,” I say and then immediately catch myself. “I mean, Ethan.”
She chuckles as my cheeks go hot from embarrassment.
Her mouth curves into a small smile as she watches me.
The sound of tires crunching on gravel fill the air and then there are truck doors opening and closing and male voices outside.
“Who’s that?” she asks.
“The rest of the calendar,” I say as I head outside. “January through December.”
The cool air hits my sweaty face. Graham and the boys are swarming the area, all of them in business mode.
“It’s all good, Chief,” I say as Graham comes over, looking up at the roof. “Fire is out. The damage is mostly cosmetic.”
“Good,” he says, putting his hand on my shoulder as he walks by. “I’ll double check just in case.”
“Did I win the bet?” Doug asks, coming out of the fire truck with a huge bandage taped to his forehead.
“What the fuck happened to you?” Mason asks.
“Oh,” he says, like he just remembered he has a giant Maxi Pad taped to his face. “I had a run in.”
“With who?”
“With… a raccoon.”
They all burst out laughing.
“Did I win the bet or not?”
Lincoln pulls out a wad of cash and dumps it into Doug’s hand. “James knocked him out in forty-seven seconds.”
“Nice,” Doug says as he flips through the cash. “Did you take twenty-five percent?”
“It’s all yours,” he says. “Maybe we should go double or nothing on you and the raccoon.”
“I’m taking the raccoon,” Mason says.
“Me too,” James says as he takes care of the hose.
“Do you have a place to stay tonight?” I ask June in a low voice.
“I’m staying here,” she says. “I stayed here when this place looked worse than that.”
I grin as I watch the determination in her eyes. She’s something else.
“It’s unsafe with the fumes,” I tell her, wondering how I can offer my place without coming off as creepy. “There’ll be lingering smoke and extinguisher powder in the air. I don’t want you breathing that in while you’re sleeping.”
“I have a tent,” she says, giving me a grateful smile. “I’ll be fine.”
“At least let me check you for smoke inhalation.”
Her shoulders drop as she looks up at me with a grin. “Okay, Mr. April. You can do that.”
CHAPTER FOUR
June
My heart is pounding sitting in the back of the fire truck, watching Ethan getting the equipment ready.
His uniform is off and he’s in some navy pants and a matching T-shirt. I’m not sure if it’s the smoke inhalation or those tight sleeves gripping his big arms that are making it hard to breathe.
This man is seriously hot. It’s the calendar come to life, only somehow he’s even sexier in person. The way he moves so smooth and confidently. The way he keeps glancing at me with a protective air. And those hands… I can’t stop looking at them.
“Are you in any pain?” he asks in a low deep voice as he gets in nice and close.
I sit up and swallow hard. “No.”
“Any burns anywhere?”
He gently takes my arms as if they’re the most precious things he’s ever touched and lifts them, roaming those gorgeous blue eyes all over my skin.
“I’m fine,” I say with a lump in my throat. “I didn’t get burned.”
My eyes are locked on his as he checks me out. This shouldn’t feel so intimate. We’re in the back of the fire truck with the doors closed and he’s performing a medical examination. This is his job. It’s work for him.
I have to keep telling myself that. Because for me it feels like the end of a hot date where we’re about to get fresh.
“Any pain in your throat?” he asks as he brings those soft tender hands up to my neck. Oh god… “Any burning in your lungs?”
I shake my hands, feeling my nipples tightening as he gently strokes my throat. My eyes drop dangerously to his lips. He has such a sexy mouth. And that beard… It’s short and neat, framing his mouth in a way that makes it look so damn kissable.
I was never a beard kind of girl. I always thought they looked so itchy and would feel scratchy against your skin, but this beard looks so soft and tempting… I just want to run my hands through it. I wonder what it would feel like under my fingertips, or kissing down my stomach, or scraping along my inner thighs. I shiver.