Hotshots (Wildfires Book 1) (10 page)

“Why did you?” he asked back quickly and she grinned.

“Because when I was young, my father would go out and fight fires, and when he came home he would be sad at the destruction he saw all the time. He said someday they would come up with the technology to get faster response. I just grew up knowing I wanted to help. I love flying too, it is the only thing I ever wanted to do,” Jez shared and he nodded.

“I get that,” he said. “You know when boys are young they look at police officers, military, and firefighters like they are superheroes. I never outgrew it, I wanted to be a superhero, and this was the only way I could do it.”

Jez smiled. “Where are your tights?”

“It is too soon to show you those, babe,” Gray teased and then he leaned back. She sipped some more of her wine and looked out to the view.

“It is perfect here,” she said with a sigh and closed her eyes.

“Time for an appetizer,” Trystan announced from the doorway.

Both of them turned and Gray smiled and then stood. “I am gonna go help Nix now.”

She shook her head and then laughed when they high fived each other as they passed.
Dipshits
, she thought and watched as Trystan came and sat down next to her with a tray of square white cheese, and pita bread. She waited when he wiggled his eyebrows at her and pulled a shot glass from his shirt pocket and poured it over the cheese and then pulled a lighter out and smiled.

“Oppa,” he yelled and lit the cheese on fire. She laughed and they waited for the liquor to burn off. “Greek, you know had to do the ‘oppa’.”

“Of course you did.” She grinned. “What about the others, I mean should we wait for them,” she said worriedly and looked to the door.

“Nah,” he laughed. “They can have our leftovers.”

She knew he was the comedian of the group when she first met them all, this just confirmed it. She loved his teasing and they continued the banter while eating the amazing appetizer.

“Tell me about yourself,” she said.

“Not much to tell,” he laughed. “Mom, dad, two kids: one boy and one girl. Grew up in a suburb of Denver. Lived there all my life, never wanted to live anywhere else but Colorado. Got out of high school and already knew what I wanted to do, went to the academy and voilà, here I am.”

“Wow, that is boring.” She laughed.

“Yeah well, when I was sixteen I found my mom’s vibrator and had to be in therapy for years after so I am totally well vetted. The shrink said I was normal, I still have the sheet saying so,” Trystan said and she laughed loudly.

“Come on,” she laughed. “There has to be something you want to share.”

“Nah, I am a kinda ‘you get what you see’ guy. What about you? When did you lose your virginity?” he asked and scooped up a piece of cheese with the bread and ate it.

“When I was fifteen in the cockpit of my father’s helicopter with one of the mechanics who worked on his plane. Dad found out and almost killed the guy and yeah, since then I have been choosy.” She laughed.

“Wow,” he laughed. “So you were in therapy too?”

She giggled and shook her head. They finished the cheese laughing and then she heard Nix say, “Salad.”

Trystan smiled and stood, he leaned over and kissed her softly on the lips and she just smiled. He was gonna push the envelope, she knew it.

Nix took his place and set two plates on the table in front of them. She grinned and then said, “So are we going to have any part of this meal together, or are you guys going to keep changing it up?”

Nix leaned close and pushed her shoulder with his and said, “Next course you have us all, think you can handle that?”

“Yeah, I think I can handle that. By the way, thanks for splitting this up to start, it did help to get to know all of you a little better. It is crazy, but together you are all like bigger than life. But this made it easier,” she admitted.

“Good,” Nix said softly. “I know we started out on shaky ground but I hope you get that it was not something I should have brought up, but now that it is in the past, I hope we can move on.”

She smiled at him and nodded. They changed the subject and began to really get to know one another and she was grateful because for the first time since meeting them, she felt like this could really happen.

Below at the gondola, they were working. It was perfect, no one was around, and they were all up there together. Now, no one would ever question them again. Of course, none of them would be around to question it, when he was done, this team was going to be gone and need a leader to step in.

They carried the gas to the control booth and began to pour. With this out of commission, Nix and the other assholes would only have one way to get down the mountain. Since they had already taken care of that, this was the last step.

Looking around to be sure one more time they hadn’t been seen, though they were careful, nothing was going to ruin this.

“You light it, I am going to make the call, that way the engines will be on their way up the slope before they discover this. Right now they only have the one engine in town, the other one is out for maintenance for twenty-four hours.”

“Got it.”

“Meet me at the car, and we will wait for a few hours and then when everyone is panicked, we will volunteer.”

They smiled at each other and then they did what they were supposed to do. It was crazy how in-sync they were, perfect really, since meeting all those years ago, finding your soul mate when you were so young. It was what made them so perfect together, they had shared everything growing up, everything.

Now they were going to share this. It was going to bind them for life, make them whole, make them perfect. That was what fire did, it made them whole.

He stood and looked around, still alone; pulling a lighter from his pocket, he struck it. He stared at the flame for a moment with a grin on his face,
hello old friend
, he thought as he bent over and lit the towel they’d brought on fire.

Turning, he stared at the mountain, and saw the small flicker of flames already building. It was going as planned, everything with fire always did. The flame reacted as they wanted it to, they controlled it. He stood and heard the first ring of the siren pulling out. Only a few more minutes and they would be good, dropping the towel on the ground he walked away.

It didn’t take long, by the time he reached the sidewalk he could hear the crackle of fire, the towel had lit the trail of gas he had poured. With a grin he began to jog, now all they had to do was wait.

Dinner was amazing; they ate and drank, listening and laughing with each other. She had never known a date to be so perfect. It was strange how things just clicked with all of them. Right now, they were waiting for their dinner to settle before tackling dessert.

“Dance?” Nix said, holding out his hand.

She looked up in surprise and the others smiled in encouragement. She nodded and slowly stood and put her hand in his and followed as he led her to the small area on the balcony right by the railing. He turned and pulled her into his arms and slowly began to move with the soft music playing over the speakers.

After dancing for a few minutes, he tightened his hold and she leaned her head back and looked at him.

“How are we doing so far?” he whispered and she grinned.

“C maybe C-,” she said.

He frowned and then said, “What?”

The others must have heard because he looked over her head and shared, “She gave us a C maybe C-!”

“Huh?” Trystan growled.

“Wanna explain that, babe?” Gray suddenly said from her side.

“Yeah,” Trystan said from the other side.

Jez giggled and then looked up at Nix. “Well, so far, Trystan is the only one who kissed me and to be honest it was fast and kinda sloppy. I am thinking maybe if this is what I have to look forward to, maybe all of you are gonna be a lot of work.”

“Oh really?” Nix laughed and then got a serious look on his face. “We need to rectify that assumption, baby.”

She giggled and then waited while he lowered his head and his mouth covered hers.
Perfect
, she thought as he aggressively pushed his way into her mouth. He was not giving her a chance to play around, he was letting her know he was the boss and she would do what he wanted. Good thing she wanted to, because even if she had one ounce of hesitation at what was going on, they were forgotten when she felt the sizzle of the kiss. Just the touch of his lips made her weak in the knees. It had never been this way before.

Slowly she wrapped her arms around his neck, well more like grasped on so she didn’t fall over. He was that potent. Exploring her mouth, his tongue swept through, touching and tasting her and not giving her a chance to even catch her breath. This was what being dominated felt like; she had never had a guy be this self-assured and confident. Most first kisses are exploratory, this was a claiming.

As he pulled back, Jez whimpered a little, she didn’t want to let him go but hands were moving her and turning her. She opened her eyes in enough time to see Gray’s head lowering to her mouth. His lips felt just as electric, how the hell was that possible, not one but two men with magic lips—and they were both hers? Impossible, now she wanted to taste Trystan just to see if the brief kiss he gave her was the anomaly, but she couldn’t let go. Gray tasted different but no less exotic than Nix had. His tongue was a bit more smooth, it didn’t command her mouth to open, instead it persuaded. Moving slowly across her lips, he pushed and prodded, tasting and then pulling back until she opened her mouth willingly for him because he was driving her crazy. Damn, it was like Christmas and a birthday gift all rolled into one.

She felt Nix’s hands on her back, she knew they were his hands instinctively because of the dominating way he was touching her, like he already owned her. He swept a hand down her back, cupping her ass through her jeans and kissing the back of her neck.

Heaven
.

She was breathless once again from Gray’s onslaught and when he pulled back, she once again tried to hold onto him. But Trystan was there, right in front of her, and damned if he didn’t prove her wrong again. His lips were the softest out of the group, she already knew that, but she didn’t know the devastating way he could tease her mouth until she almost begged him to slip his tongue in her mouth and taste her. What the hell? Three, all three were perfect, all three were hers. She knew it, she felt it, and damned if she was not going to savor it.

Jez wrapped her arms around Trystan’s neck and pulled him flush against her. She tried to be the aggressor but he wouldn’t allow it. With a chuckle, he pulled back and she almost screamed in frustration.

“Hang on there, babe,” Trystan said softy. “You are going too fast.”

Wait, what? Her going to fast? Isn’t that her line?

“Wait,” she stated and was ready to give her argument and suddenly she felt Gray stiffen.

“Do you smell that?” he growled and everyone stopped.

“What?” Nix said and then took a deep breath. “Fuck,” he said and pulled away and went to the railing.

Jez was confused, but she followed them to the railing. She looked over the edge but didn’t see anything. The men were looking closely and then Gray pointed.

“There,” he said quickly and they followed his finger. Jez sucked in a breath when she saw he was pointing to a fire.

“Not good,” Nix muttered. “The dead underbrush hasn’t been cleared for the year yet. Plus with the unseasonably warm spring, we need to get down there. One of the trucks is out until morning so they will only have the one truck tonight. Jeb took off; we are going to be short. Only Gibs is down there to lead.”

“Leave the stuff, I will call and tell Claude we are sorry,” Trystan said as Nixon grabbed her hand and pulled her gently behind them as they all walked quickly to the door. Their thoughts, as well as hers, were already on what they were going to have to do. She pulled her hand free so they could move independently, she wasn’t going to be a burden, she was part of the team right now not a date.

They ran to the gondola and Trystan pulled the key from his pocket and turned it on. There was a clicking noise and the cab jerked. The door opened and she and the others stepped in. They began moving and only went a few hundred yards when they sensed something was wrong. None of them knew the line below was on fire and burning quickly, they couldn’t see it, but they could feel the jerks of the line as it began to loosen and the gondola cab began to sink and sway. Jez cried out and grabbed the edge of the cab.