“Ah, so my daddy skills turn you on, Sullivan.” Bring it back to sex. Better that than any strange detours to a future with Abby carrying my child.
She places a hand on my chest, which only makes it worse. My heart is thumping fast and furious.
“Big time, Rossi. And thanks for listening.” She leans up on her toes to give me a quick peck, but I’m having none of it. I can’t help the fever burning through my veins, the beat pulsing through me that demands I claim her, here and now. Her lips brush mine and my body combusts, answering the primal demand of man-needs-woman.
She lets out a rough, sexy sound and kisses me back with a passion that rocks me to the core. But she also has a boatload more sense because she pulls away, her fingers to her lips like it’s the first time.
Last time, here, for sure. Because that cannot happen again.
“Sorry,” I murmur. “I’d like to say I don’t know what came over me but it would be a lie.”
She blows out a long breath, one designed to grab the reins of our slippery control. “No, I get it. It’s really tough to ignore.”
A movement behind her snags my attention. Wozniak is standing just outside the door with a clipboard, and from his expression, he definitely saw too much.
Fuck.
A sweep of heat flushes her cheeks, and she tries a rueful grin. “Best get back to it.”
“Sure.”
She walks by Wozniak who barely acknowledges her. He makes a point of waiting for her to leave the corridor, then comes in and hands me the clipboard. “Equipment inventory. We need more batteries.”
I scan the sheet, buying myself time to figure out how to approach this. Woz and I have always rubbed each other wrong. I don’t blame him for seeing me as an interloper, the guy who took his job. But I also know I’m a better lieutenant than he could ever be. The lazy ass is always looking for a shortcut—maybe he thinks he’s found another one.
Peering up, I find him watching closely. I could ignore it, assume he didn’t see anything, but no one could have missed the raging sex hormones flying around my office and zinging off the walls.
Better to put my cards on the table. “Something on your mind?”
“That is a fucking shit show waiting to happen, you know that?”
I blink, not expecting that. I thought he’d make some snide comment about Abby.
“It’s not your concern.”
“You want to be in the Commish’s crosshairs, that’s up to you. But she’s a decent firefighter and this doesn’t look good for her.”
He’s feeling protective about the probie? I don’t like the slither of discomfort rolling down my spine, the feeling that I’m the one in the wrong.
I don’t like it because he’s right.
I could tell him that I want her so badly I’m not thinking straight. That I want to declare to the heavens and anyone who’ll listen that we’re in a relationship but she won’t have it. Or me. He might think I’m the one in charge here, but not at all.
“It’s … complicated.”
“And only going to get more so if you keep that up.”
“Thanks for your input.”
He sighs, shakes his head, and leaves.
My heart thunders in my chest. Usually I have ice in my veins, so I try to assess what’s behind this sea change. Because I just got caught making out with a direct report?
That’s not it. It’s something more serious, something I might not be able to undo.
I’m falling hard for this woman.
Which is pretty fucking annoying because she’s not anywhere close to having that level of feeling for me.
Thirty-one
Roman
I come awake slowly, my eyes adjusting to the half dark. The blinds are open and the streetlights cast a striped stencil over Abby’s arm, currently wrapped around my chest. All that pale, freckled skin looks good against my darker tone. I could look at this woman all night.
I don’t know the exact time, but I know I have to leave. Placing a kiss against her temple, I move an inch to test the waters.
“Where do you think you’re going?” she murmurs.
“I need to tuck you in before I go home and tuck Lena in.”
Abby lifts her head. “You’re adorable with her.”
“Adorable?”
“As a kitten.”
I growl, which makes her laugh and mutter “adorable” again.
She’s the adorable one. The taste of her is still on my tongue. She looks satisfied and sleepy, and I’d love nothing more than to get her even more satisfied and sleepy. But I’ve already spent too much time away from Lena.
“My kid likes you. Keeps talking about how brave you are.”
“No one braver than the woman cleaning out a firehouse bathroom.”
This woman is quick as a whip, and while I know she was frustrated about the light duty, she hasn’t let it affect her attitude. I love that.
I pull on my jeans. “Lena was right when she said you were brave and your mom was a badass. You are and she was.”
“Tell it to my father.” She wrinkles her nose. “By the way, you never told me what Wozniak said.” There wasn’t much talking when I arrived.
“Told me you deserved better. Sounded almost protective.”
“Do you believe that?”
I wouldn’t trust Wozniak as far as I can throw him, preferably off the top of a building. “Hard to say.”
“You think he’s the Eye of Sullivan?”
She means the spy. “Maybe. Your dad’s all seeing, is he?”
“God, yeah. When I was younger, it seemed like he always knew when I’d been up to no good. He’d come home from work, ready to tear me a new one for something I’d done with my friends. Half the time, I’d no idea how he found out.”
“A weak link in the gang. Someone always tattles.”
She chuckles. “That’s true. Probably Jimmy Corrin. That guy was always moaning about how everything we did would bring on his allergies. Go into the woods, allergies. Break into the creepy abandoned house, allergies. Take one of the parents’ cars for a joy ride, allergies.”
“Sounds like you were a ballsy little troublemaker. Or auditioning for a part in a Stephen King book.”
“That’s not far off! But I was the only girl in the gang, so I had to assert myself. Otherwise they’d have walked all over me.”
“So you came up with all the wicked bad ideas?”
She shrugs, super cute. “Maybe.”
I lean in to kiss her, and soon we’re lost in each other all over again.
For the first time in my life, I’m not sure what comes next. Well, not the first time. After I found out that Tori was messing around with a co-worker and that my closest friend—my captain—had known about it, I’d fumbled through a raft of rage-fueled days for a while. No good at my job, no good at my life.
But I made a decision that had immense consequences. Punched out my friend, not even the guy who did the dirty with my wife. That’s how I handled it because that seemed like the worst betrayal.
I vowed that the next woman I chose would be one who wanted me for … me. The guy beneath the muscles, the man who cares about family, friends, and firefighting.