Fully Ignited (Boston Fire #3) (10 page)

“You’re just in time to help recoil the lines,” Grant told her. “Aidan was telling us about his wedding. He and Lydia finally set a date.”

“They did?” Ashley’s prodding had paid off, then. She looked at Aidan. “Congratulations. When’s the big day?”

“May fourteenth.”

“
This
May fourteenth?”

“Yeah. Just a friends and family get-together at Kincaid’s Pub with a JP.”

“That sounds perfect.”

“Hey, Scotty, are you going to bring a date to the wedding?” Grant asked.

Jamie didn’t even flinch. She kept her focus on the line she was reeling in, but through the corner of her eye, she could see Scott glance over at her before shaking his head.

“No, I’m not.”

“You know there won’t be any single bridesmaids, right? Aidan said just a best man and a maid of honor. Or matron of honor or whatever, because Ashley’s married.”

“I’m going to watch my sister marry my best friend, not pick up women.”

“Aw, that’s sweet,” Gavin chimed in. “But everybody knows women don’t like going home alone after a wedding.”

It was tempting for Jamie to interrupt and give the guy a verbal slap upside the head, but she’d learned long ago to pick her battles wisely when it came to being the only woman listening to men talk. Gavin was actually a good guy, and talking about hitting on single bridesmaids was how men got ready for weddings, in her experience.

“You should bring a date so you have somebody to dance with, though,” Grant said. “You’re the best man so you have to dance, but you can’t dance with Rick’s wife all night. I can hook you up if you want.”

“Really, I’m all set,” Scott insisted.

“Well, don’t ask me to dance when you get sick of standing against the wall watching everybody else have fun,” Grant said, and they all laughed.

“Maybe Jamie will take pity on Scotty the wallflower and dance with him,” Gavin added.

She was worried enough about spending an evening in front of all of his family and their friends without touching. She didn’t need the other guys setting them up for a dance. “I’m not really much for dancing.”

She realized Aidan was looking at her, and he held her gaze for a second before turning back to the guys. “We’re not doing the whole plus-one thing. I think Lydia’s mailing the invitations this week, but basically we won’t have room. I mean wives can come. And a girlfriend if she’s like...serious. Somebody we know, like Jess. But we don’t have the space for random dates. And we want to be surrounded by people who are special to us, you know? Otherwise we’d do the big wedding thing.”

For a few seconds, Jamie wondered if Aidan’s strange look had been because she hadn’t made the invitation list, but that couldn’t be it. Even though she’d be handing the reins back to Danny about the time of the wedding, she was part of the Engine 59 family and he wouldn’t leave her out. Plus Lydia seemed to like her, so she was fairly confident she’d be getting an invitation in the mail.

She couldn’t help but wonder for a moment, though, how much it would suck to be at a party with Scott—a party with romance in the air and dancing—and pretend they were just coworkers.

But that was weeks away. For all she knew, the sparks between them would burn out by then and that’s all that would be. Right now, the sparks were still sizzling, so she’d take each day as it came and enjoy the here and now.

When she turned to look at Grant’s line, Scott caught her eye and gave her a look that made her shiver. Oh, yeah, she was definitely going to enjoy the hell out of the here and now.

* * *

A
FTER
AN
ENTIRE
day of doing nothing, it wasn’t an hour after Cobb reported them back in service that the alarm sounded. A car had barreled into a deli and there were multiple casualties.

Scott sounded the horn in addition to the sirens as they pulled out onto the busy street. It was a shitty time of day to navigate the area, but he didn’t yield and people got out of his way.

“They’ve got two employees unaccounted for,” Jamie said. “A forty-year-old man and a seventeen-year-old girl.”

“I know that deli,” he said loud enough for everybody to hear. “It’s an old building, so structural integrity’s a concern.”

He didn’t need to say more. They knew that even going inside would be a risk, and it was the kind of risk they couldn’t do a damn thing to mitigate. Fire was a fickle bitch and could turn on you in unexpected ways, but water, training and experience with its movements were weapons a good firefighter could use to knock the risk down. An unstable building could stand for years or it could collapse one minute after they went in. Short of waiting for engineers to go in, there was no way to know. But there were casualties and he knew they wouldn’t hesitate.

They beat the EMS to the scene and hit the ground running. There were three injured people on the sidewalk, two of whom had been inside but got out after the accident. None looked critical. He watched Rick send Gavin to check them over while the rest of them went in.

Jamie reached the driver of the car first and pulled her glove off before reaching through the smashed window. After a minute, she pulled her hand back and shoved it into the glove, shaking her head. “Elderly male, deceased.”

A medical crisis behind the wheel, Scott thought as he lifted a broken table off of a crying woman. The driver probably had a heart attack or a stroke and his body stiffened, jamming the accelerator to the floor. It would explain why the car was so deep in the building.

The woman wasn’t hurt badly, so he helped her to the opening as sirens announced the arrival of EMS. Sweeping the area, they found six more people and, miraculously, none of them were injured so badly they couldn’t walk out with some assistance.

When Scott handed a badly shaken elderly woman over to the paramedics, he heard a man shouting at Rick. “They were in the back. Why didn’t they come out?”

“We’ll find them, sir.”

They met up in front of the car, and Rick looked angry. “They haven’t cut the power or the gas yet, and this building’s creaking like an old bed frame, but there are two still unaccounted for. There may be a blockage somewhere, or they might have been knocked out if the impact knocked things off shelves. We don’t know.”

“With the gas on, I’d feel better if we at least have a line charged and ready to go,” Aidan said.

“We have backup coming, but I don’t want to wait,” Jamie said. “You stay with the apparatus, Aidan, and we’ll go in.”

“We’ll go around the back and try to come in from the other direction,” Rick said. “Masks. We don’t know what’s going on with the gas piping, and if there’s been any structural damage, who knows what shit’s floating around in there.”

Scott went in first, climbing over the smashed deli counter. He had the Halligan tool, essentially a huge crowbar with an adze head, so he could use it to pry or smash or prop things up, if necessary.

They found the man first, lying on the floor of a storage room with a shelving unit on his leg. He was overweight and sweating profusely, which was cause for concern.

“Do you have any injuries besides your leg, sir?” Jamie asked after looking him over. He shook his head. “Okay, we’re going to get this off you and get you out of here.”

“Mandy,” he said in a hoarse voice. “She went to the bathroom, which is down the hall, and I heard her scream.”

Scott and Grant looked over the metal shelving unit, as well as the boxes strewn around. To Scott, it looked as if the shelving had caught the victim’s leg just right, breaking it with the weight of the boxes and momentum, but it wasn’t heavy.

Jamie had obviously come to the same conclusion. “Sir, this is going to hurt a little, but they’re going to lift the shelves and I’m going to slide your legs out to this side. If you can use your arms to move your butt at the same time, that would help.”

“What if I can’t? I don’t feel very good.”

“Then it’ll take longer and might hurt more, but I’ll move you because we’re not leaving you here.”

“Okay.”

“Hold on just a second.”

Scott listened as Jamie turned up her radio. The impact had shifted the building on its ancient foundation and the back of the structure had partially collapsed into the basement. Rick and the others could maybe get through, but it would be slow going.

“Let us see if we can get to her from this direction. She’s possibly in the restroom, so have Aidan talk to the owner and see if he can give us a precise location relative to the collapse in the back.”

She turned her attention back to the man and signaled to them. Scott and Grant lifted the shelving, and he watched as Jamie helped the man get out from under it. The effort of moving himself caused his face to darken to a scary shade of red, and Scott hoped like hell they could get him to the paramedics before he got any worse.

“Grant, go on his other side and let’s see if we can get him up.”

“I don’t know if I can,” the man said. “It hurts.”

“Sir,” Jamie said, “your leg is probably broken, though it’s not a compound fracture. But this building isn’t stable and we don’t want you in here any longer than necessary. It’ll take time to get a stretcher in here and guys to carry it out, and to be honest, it won’t be a lot less painful for you.”

“We’ll support you,” Scott said. “You won’t have to put much weight on that leg, if any. We’ll get you out to the paramedics and they’ll take care of you.”

“Okay.” The man took a deep breath. “I really want to get out of here.”

As they got him to his feet and he looped one arm around Scott’s shoulders and the other around Grant’s, they all felt the subtle shift beneath their feet.
Shit
, Scott thought.

“Let’s go.”

It only took a few steps for them to find a rhythm, but Jamie stopped them. “You guys get him out. I’m going to look for Mandy.”

“Let’s get him outside and then we’ll come back together.”

“There might not be enough time.” She pointed toward the front. “You go. If it looks hairy, I’ll wait for you guys.”

She turned and ducked down the hallway before Scott could come up with a good excuse why she shouldn’t. Every muscle in his body tensed as his instincts screamed for him to go after her. He wanted to throw her over his shoulder and carry her out to the street.

Grant looked at him, his eyes wide behind the SCBA mask. Scott pointed him in the direction Jamie had told them to go. Grant shook his head.

“Your lieutenant gave you an order,” Scott shouted.

“But she’s alone.”

God, he knew that. “Move your ass, Cutter. Let’s get this gentleman some help.”

By the time they got him to the sidewalk, Scott’s back was screaming in protest, but all he could think about was Jamie. Once he was free of the guy with the broken leg, he took off his mask and drained half the water bottle Aidan handed him.

“The other guys are coming back around now,” Aidan said. “They weren’t getting anywhere and it won’t be long before the building’s in the basement.”

“I’m going back in.”

He got as far as the smashed car when Jamie came out of the back section with an unconscious teenager draped over her shoulders. Scott climbed the deli counter and put out his arms so Jamie could drop her head and kind of roll the girl to him. Once he had her, he backed up so Jamie could climb over.

“The floor was wet and there’s blood on her head and the edge of the sink. I think she slipped and knocked herself out, but her vitals seem strong.”

Once everybody was accounted for and in the care of EMS, the guys gathered around the trucks and waited to be cleared to return to quarters. The city inspector was on-site now and there were probably engineers on the way. They’d moved on to
not my job
, as far as Scott was concerned.

Jamie’s phone rang and she moved away from them to a quiet spot in order to take the call. He watched her, hating all over again the memory of her going down the hallway. She shouldn’t have gone alone and they all knew that, but it was her decision. Any one of them probably would have done the same.

But he still didn’t like it and when she ended her call, he also couldn’t help joining her away from the others.

“You shouldn’t have gone alone,” he said.

She looked at him, and he was surprised to see amusement in her eyes. “Which I know, since I’ve actually been a firefighter longer than you have.”

“Funny.” He exhaled and ran his hand over his hair. “I hated that. I wanted to dump that guy on Grant and go with you.”

“Which is why firefighters from the same company shouldn’t sleep together. It can screw up priorities.” She shrugged and took the bottle of water he’d been drinking out of his hand. “But it didn’t because you let me do my job and you did yours.”

He watched her drink his water, some of the tension easing from his body. “I really want to kiss you right now.”

“Tomorrow,” she said, screwing the cap back on his bottle and handing it back to him.

He watched her walk back to the others, shaking his head. This definitely wasn’t going to be easy. But she was worth it.

NINE

“I
SAW
YOU
on the news last night.” Steph’s face looked out at Jamie from her laptop screen. “They had a story about the car that ran into the deli.”

“Did they at least get my good side?” Jamie joked. Steph always looked for her on the news but was usually disappointed, so she would at least text if she got a glimpse of her on the screen. Today they were video chatting because she’d been going on break just as Jamie sent her a text message, so she got her friend’s excitement complete with facial expressions.

“They were getting a statement from some older guy, but you were in the background talking to some wicked cute guy. Dark hair. You took his water bottle away from him and drank it.”

Of course they’d gotten that on film. “I was thirsty.”

“Is there a reason you felt comfortable drinking out of his water bottle, or do you get to drink out of everybody’s because you’re an officer?”

Jamie grinned at the monitor. “It’s a perk. Came with the promotion.”

And now she really hoped that not only was Steph one of the few people who’d noticed what was going on in the background of the interview, but that she would be the only one who asked about it. Her mouth had been dry and it had been pure reflex to take the water bottle, but no, she probably wouldn’t have done it if it had been any of the other guys in the company.

“I only have a few minutes,” Steph said, “but I’m taking Monday off.
Please
tell me you don’t have any plans that day.”

“Nothing I can think of. Do you want to meet somewhere?”

“No, I want to see your apartment. Plus it’s far enough away so if somebody from the pizza shop calls me about a problem or because somebody didn’t show up or a tour bus just dumped a shitload of people out front, I can be too far away to do anything.”

“I’m so glad I don’t work for my family. It must be twice as hard to say no when your parents are the boss.”

“It does make it a lot harder to get fired.” There was a noise offscreen and Steph turned toward a voice. Then she looked back at Jamie and rolled her eyes. “So I’ll see you Monday, right?”

“Sounds great. Text me when you leave your place and give me an estimate on what time you think you’ll get here.”

“I can’t wait. I really want to hear more about the cute guy with the water bottle.”

“Nothing to tell.”

Stephanie’s eyes narrowed. “You’re lying, but I don’t have time to nag you right now. Monday.”

Once Jamie closed out the chat window, she glanced at the clock and decided she had time for a quick run-through of Facebook. Scott had said he’d be over about one, which gave them both time to grab a few hours of sleep if they needed it. She’d taken a short nap, more out of habit than anything, since it had been slow after the deli situation and they hadn’t been shorted much rest.

By the time she skimmed past political rants, funny or dramatic memes and everybody’s game scores, there was a picture of her niece to like and a status update from her mom about cooking to read. Then she popped onto a few pages related to the fire department and caught up on the news there. Instead of following the pages, she liked to visit them independently of her feed just to keep her personal life more personal.

Her phone chimed and her pulse quickened as she reached for it.
I’m here.

Another reason her rent was so cheap, relatively speaking, was the lack of a way to buzz in a guest. Whether it was company, food delivery or a package, she had to go all the way down the stairs and open the door herself. The place definitely didn’t have much in the way of amenities, but she’d rather climb the stairs and have more money in her pocket at the end of the month.

When she got to the bottom of the last flight, she paused to watch him through the glass door. He was looking off down the street at something, and he had a shopping bag in his hand. He was so incredibly handsome, she thought, smiling to herself. His profile made her want to run her fingertip over his nose, down to his lips and over his slightly scruffy jawline.

Then, as if he felt her staring, he turned and their eyes met through the door. His mouth turned up in a smile and he held up the bag. “Food,” he mouthed.

She pushed open the heavy door and let him in. “Are you trying to bribe your way into my building?”

“That’s only phase one. Phase two we can’t do here in the hallway.”

They made the trek back up the stairs and Jamie unlocked the door. “What’s in the bag?”

“I’m going to make you dinner.”

She closed the door behind them and kicked off the slippers she’d shoved her feet into. “You get sexier by the minute. What are you making for us?”

“It’s my sister’s turkey tetrazzini recipe. You’ll love it.”

Jamie eyeballed the bag in his hand and shook her head. “Recipe? That bag doesn’t look heavy enough to have a box of macaroni and cheese in it, never mind the ingredients for homemade turkey tetrazzini.”

He gave her a sheepish grin. “Okay, fine. I was hanging out at Aidan and Lydia’s earlier and she was making a double batch of it because she freezes individual servings for him to eat when she’s at work. I made the sad puppy dog eyes at her and she gave me a couple of containers to take home.”

“Microwaveable
and
no pots and pans to wash? Some magazine needs to make you sexiest man alive now.” She took a step toward him, but he backed away.

“I need to put this in the fridge before I kiss you hello, because once I start kissing you, I might not stop.”

Jamie followed him to the refrigerator, unwilling to wait any longer than she had to. The second he closed the fridge door and turned, she was there, sliding her arms around his neck. “I missed you.”

His mouth came down hard on hers, and she knew they were both releasing the frustration of going through their workdays pretending they felt nothing for each other. They were hungry for each other and she moaned as he buried his hands in her hair.

When she grabbed the hem of his T-shirt and lifted it, he broke off the kiss long enough for her to pull the shirt over his head and toss it aside. Then his lips were on hers again, demanding and hungry, as she ran her hands over the warm, bare flesh of his back.

“I haven’t been able to think about anything but doing this since the last time we did this,” he said against her mouth. “And that was too long ago.”

They stopped again so he could pull her shirt over her head, but he didn’t seem to have the patience for her bra. Instead of waiting for her to unclasp it, he pulled down the cups to expose her breasts. Bending his head, he ran his tongue over her nipple before dragging his teeth lightly over the taut skin. The fridge door was cold against her back and she had nowhere to go as he sucked hard enough to make her squirm.

Then she squealed so loudly she was thankful hers was the only apartment on her floor as he crouched and bent her over his shoulder. Before she could really register what he was doing, he straightened and carried her toward the bed.

“Put me down,” she said, trying not to laugh. “What the hell are you doing?”

“I can’t wait,” he said, slapping her ass with the hand not braced around the backs of her knees.

She’d barely bounced off the mattress before he was peeling her pants down her legs. His urgency inflamed her, and she caught her lip between her teeth as he tossed her clothes to the floor and then stripped himself down to nothing just as quickly. He tossed a condom from the back pocket on the bed before tossing his jeans away.

Then he joined her on the bed, his naked body covering hers. She wrapped her arms around him and pulled him down for a kiss. His tongue dipped between hers and she raked her fingernails up his back.

“I haven’t thought about anything but this all day,” he said against her mouth.

“And it was a very long day. So long.”

His hand slipped between her legs and she hissed when his thumb danced over her clit. “Do you like that?”

She moaned, parting her legs as he slipped two fingers inside of her. “I don’t hate it.”

He had just moved his mouth to her breast and his chuckle vibrated against the sensitive flesh. His erection was full and hard against her thigh, and his fingers weren’t enough. But he bit down on her nipple, just enough to hurt slightly, and she arched her back.

“Are you going to come for me?” He ran his tongue from her nipple up her throat.

“I want you inside me.”

He kissed her, almost savagely, before drawing back so he could stand up. He pulled her to her feet and kissed her again before turning her to face the bed.

Splaying his fingers across the small of her back, he slowly pushed his hand up her spine with enough pressure to bend her over. She was aware of him grabbing the condom packet he’d tossed on the bed, and then his hand fisted in her hair and she moaned.

“Don’t move,” he said, his voice low and raspy.

Only a few seconds later, he ran his hands over her ass and she pushed back against them. She was running out of patience. Finally she felt the head of his cock against her, and she closed her eyes as he slowly filled her.

He scraped his fingernails down her back and she rocked slowly, taking him deeper each time. Then he braced one hand on her hip and bent down to kiss her spine. His other hand skimmed so lightly up her back it tickled, and she shivered. Then his fingers tightened in her hair again.

“Yes,” she whispered. He drew back, almost fully, and then drove into her. She cried out, lowering her head. His hand was still clenching her hair, and it pulled with delicious pleasure. “Please, Scott.”

He released her hair and straightened, bringing his hands back to her hips. She moved, meeting him stroke for stroke, and she breathed in small, ragged breaths as the orgasm built up inside of her.

The intensity of it made her gasp and her hands balled into fists, clutching the comforter. Scott’s fingers dug into her hips as he thrust into her, and then his body jerked. He groaned and then said her name in a low, ragged voice as his orgasm shook him. His hands slid up her back to her shoulders for one last hard thrust before he collapsed on top of her.

Bent over her bed, with his weight on top of her, Jamie was content to catch her breath and bask in the pleasure for a few minutes. Eventually, though, she started to feel the strain on her legs. “We’re going to fall on the floor any second. Which is totally okay with me, but I figured I’d give you a heads-up.”

“Tuck and roll,” he said, and then he chuckled. After kissing the middle of her back, he stood and disposed of the condom while she dragged herself onto the bed.

The mattress dipped under his weight and then he was next to her, hauling her into his embrace. Sighing, she closed her eyes and soaked in the heat of his body. He was just taller enough than her so their bodies fit perfectly together, and she loved being so close to him.

His hand skimmed down her side and came to rest on her hip as he pressed a kiss to her hair. “I don’t really have words for how much I enjoyed that. My thoughts are like comic book bubbles right now. Wow! Bam!”

“Kapow!” she said, and they laughed together.

He was so fun, she thought. Scott liked to laugh, and it was just one more thing on the list of things she liked about him. The list that seemed to get longer every time she was with him. She was going to have to start keeping a mental list of things she
didn’t
like about him just to balance things out. Later, though. Right now, she couldn’t think of a single thing to put on it.

* * *

S
COTT
COULDN
’
T
REMEMBER
a time he’d felt so content. One of his favorite movies on the television, his sister’s turkey tetrazzini in his stomach and Jamie stretched out against him on the couch. Spooning was the only way they both fit, and he didn’t mind a bit.

It wasn’t originally how he’d pictured things between him and Jamie going, since he was pretty sure they’d both gone into it planning to orgasm and run, so to speak. But, as much as he enjoyed the sex—and he
really
enjoyed it—he also enjoyed talking to her and watching television with her and, yes, even cuddling.

When she was silent through a particularly funny part of the movie, though, he craned his head over hers to see if she’d fallen asleep. Her eyes were open, but she didn’t look amused. “Oh, come on. That was funny.”

She reached back and slapped her hand on his hip. “I’m sorry, but this is one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen.”

“Oh, come on.” Scott waved his hand at the television screen. “This is a classic. How can you not love
Spaceballs
?”

“Up to this point, probably because I hadn’t seen it.”

He chuckled. “I couldn’t believe it when I heard you tell Aidan you’d never seen it.”

“I hate to disappoint you, but I don’t really get it.”

“It’s a spoof.” He and Aidan had watched the movie so many times when they were younger, they could practically act out the entire thing in a two-man show.

“A spoof of what?”

“Star Wars.”

“I’ve never seen that, either.”

“Okay, now you’re just messing with me.” He didn’t think he’d ever met anybody who hadn’t seen
Star Wars
. Maybe not all of them, and with varying opinions, but everybody had at least seen the original.

“I don’t watch a lot of movies set in space, I guess. Although my dad loved that
Star Trek
series with the captain who always slept with the alien women even though it got him in trouble every single time.”

“It’s almost over, I promise.” Which meant it was almost time for him to leave and he really didn’t want to go.

“What time are you supposed to meet Aidan?” she asked, as if reading his mind.

“About nine.” He tightened his arm around her waist and kissed her neck. “You should go with me.”

“Yeah, right.”

“Okay, not
with
me, but either a certain amount of time before or after me. We could have a beer. Shoot some pool.”

She was quiet for a long moment. “I don’t think we’d have a lot of luck hiding the afterglow from your family and your best friend right now.”