Wild Heat (Hot Shots: Men of Fire #1)(35)
Author: Bella Andre

The bus needed to get its exhaust pipe looked at. It smelled like gas was funneling straight into his truck.

She frowned. “You don’t need me to find you a lawyer.”

“It isn’t about finding a lawyer. I’m not willing to leave you alone. Not after what happened last night. Not until we find the bastard lighting these fires.”

She wanted to tell him she could take care of herself, but those words were lost amid the warmth of knowing that someone was actually looking out for her.

In recent months she’d gotten used to handling everything herself, to never asking anyone for help, but there had been a time, back before everything that had happened to her family, when her father and brother had looked out for her. They’d kept her safe, whether it was vetting out a new boyfriend or screwing her overflowing bookshelves to the wall so they wouldn’t fall over in an earthquake and bury her.

She was still trying to figure out how to respond when he pulled onto a gravel road that she figured was his driveway. Much like Joseph’s, it was a narrow pathway between tall pines. And then, as if by magic, there emerged a pond with bright blue water, and beyond that a beautiful meadow. The driveway meandered up the undulating hills, toward a stunning wood-framed house.

It was one of the most incredible locations she’d ever seen. And the beauty all around her spoke volumes about the man sitting beside her.

“You did this, didn’t you?” she asked in a quiet voice. “You built this house.”

He turned off the engine. “How’d you guess?”

“My father did the same thing when I was a little girl. It reminds me a lot of where I grew up.”

She’d loved every wall of their home, the tree house in the backyard that she’d helped her father build and paint and decorate, the flowers she’d dug into the earth and carefully watered all summer long so that when her father came back in the fall there’d still be blooms for him to see.

“Sounds like he was a great dad.”

Something large, yet fragile, shattered inside of her. “He was.” One of the walls protecting her heart now lay in shards by her toes.

“I would have liked to have met him.”

She looked down at her hands. Anywhere but at Logan. She didn’t want him to see her weak like this, all because he’d expressed a sincere wish to meet a man she missed every single day.

Obviously sensing that she had one foot stuck in quicksand, he brought things back to the situation at hand. “My workshop is through the house and out the back. The faster we get an answer from David about my samples, the better it’ll be.”

She got out of the truck, grateful for his understanding, but as she followed Logan up his front steps, every nerve and wire inside her was on edge. The last thing she wanted was to be alone with Logan in this beautiful home he’d built. Not when a foolish part of her brain had started spinning elaborate fairy tales as soon as she’d set eyes on the property.

What if she’d met Logan under different circumstances? What if she’d come to his house an excited, blushing date, more than halfway in love with a strong, rugged firefighter? What would have happened then? Would they have gotten into his hot tub together and kissed until they were so crazy for each other they could barely make it upstairs to his bedroom? Would she have fallen asleep in his arms after making love and woken up beside him the next morning?

She tried to tell herself that she was only having these fantasies because she was tired. But as he led the way up a paved path to his front door, not only did her mouth water for the hundredth time at his muscular, tanned arms, his wide shoulders and sexy rear end, but her heart longed for a deeper connection.

For love.

He pushed open the unlocked front door and led her into a light-filled kitchen. She’d never had much of an eye for colors and shapes, but now she knew exactly what she wanted her house to look like one day. Exposed pine beams, huge panes of glass, and counter tiles the mottled color of natural stone.

He opened the fridge and handed her a soda. Suddenly realizing how dry her mouth was, that she hadn’t touched anything at the restaurant, she took a long drink from the can. And then she made the mistake of looking back at Logan, and it took superhuman strength to pull her eyes away from his fingers on the pop tab, his lips on the aluminum rim, his Adam’s apple moving beneath his tanned, lightly stubbled skin.

She forced her attention back to his very impressive house. “I would have known you built this house the minute I saw your floors.” She pointed to the tight-fitting inlays in the hardwood. “Most contractors won’t do this kind of detail work. It isn’t worth their time.”

“Is your boyfriend a builder?”

Her eyes flew to his face. “No.” She found herself stumbling over words, found herself wanting him to know. “I don’t have a boyfriend.”

Logan’s answering smile knocked the wind out of her lungs and she spun away from him. She couldn’t stand it when he looked at her like that, like he knew exactly what she wanted, because he wanted the very same thing.

“Good to know,” he finally said. And then, “While we’re here, are you sure McCurdy isn’t going to insist that you rummage through my file cabinets? My bedside table, maybe?”

Great will was required to stave off the redness in her cheeks. “I’ve seen condoms before.”

His voice was smooth and sexy as he hit her with “Even the supersized, ribbed-for-her-pleasure kind?”

Damn it. He was good.

She turned and walked out of the kitchen, keeping her reaction to herself. Because even though she knew he was just joking around, her crystal-clear memories of that afternoon six months ago—and how his big erection had pressed hard into her belly—told her he was only half kidding.

The workshop was dark and cool. She pulled out a Ziploc bag and a sterile glass jar.

“I’m surprised that thing hasn’t given you a hernia yet.”

She put the heavy messenger’s bag down on the cement floor. “I like to be prepared.”

Quickly and efficiently, she began to collect samples, using a baby wipe to clean away any petroleum on her hands before moving to collect a sample of fertilizer. Her face was as serious as it’d been at the hotshot station when she’d suspended him from duty. Just as he had then, he wanted to pull her against him and kiss the solemn expression off her face.

She looked up and caught him staring. “Stop looking at me like that.”

He’d never wanted a woman as badly as this. “I wish I could,” he said, his words more honest than he’d intended.

She lowered her head again to the bag of fertilizer. “I wish I didn’t have to do this, Logan. I wish I didn’t have to take these to David’s lab for analysis.”