“No! You can’t carry me.”
When I made a move to prove her wrong, she squeaked and practically leapt onto the ladder with me.
It was self-sabotage on my part. I should have carried her.
Keeping my promise that I wouldn’t allow her to fall, I stood behind her which only served to press her ass against my pelvis and her back against my chest. My arms remained around her with my hands braced on the rungs of the ladder just above hers.
“Good job.”
She looked over her shoulder at me with a shaky smile. From so close, her scent was even more tantalizing, like a heady drug—potent, stirring, torturous.
“Okay, I’ll climb down a rung and then you climb down a rung. Got it?”
She nodded. “You must think I’m ridiculous, but I hate heights. I have an irrational fear of them that I’d like to conquer—someday, just not right this moment.” She trembled against me, but descended step by step, as I’d instructed.
“Why did you climb a tree, then?”
With a sexy little frown, she huffed. “There was a…well, what appeared to be a cute, helpless kitten. I now know all that cuteness was a ruse, a cunning ploy meant to lure me to the most embarrassing moment of my life. What I thought was an adorable little ball of fluff was really an evil demon-spawn armed with a skillset of Machiavellian maneuvers. As soon as it coaxed me up here with its lies and trickery, the fiendish furball ditched me.”
“And then you were stuck.” I took another step down.
“And then I was stuck.” She groaned. “But, of course, not before I flashed all of Main Street.”
I winced as she followed me, because with every step she took, her ass rubbed against my boner.
I wondered if I should apologize for that, but it wasn’t as though I could control it. Not with her ass stroking it every few seconds. Sometimes the damn thing had a mind of its own.
5
Mel
If there was one consolation prize in this nightmarish ordeal, it was being helped down the ladder by Hulk the hunky firefighter.
The man was delicious, and calling him Hulk was no exaggeration. My rescuer was so big he made me feel petite. It wasn’t often that I was around a man who made me feel petite and, based on the part of his anatomy pressed against my left butt cheek, there was nothing small about him.
Hulk was packing.
Tall, firmly muscled, with short-cropped hair, and dark blue eyes that matched his navy blue uniform, he had a patch over the left pec that bore a picture of a ladder and an ax crisscrossed surrounded by the words “firefighter” on one side, “rescue” on the other, and “EMT” at the bottom.
As big, sexy men in uniform went, this one was the biggest and sexiest man in uniform I’d ever seen. My vajayjay sure did think so. That old girl perked right up and responded instantly to him.
Even while focusing on my descent, with my arms trembling and my legs quivering, I achieved a total-body blush each time I managed down a rung and his hard bulge brushed my backside.
It was like foreplay—agonizingly torturous foreplay.
By the time we reached the ground, I was breathless. My rescuer’s body heat vanished from behind me, but his hand remained on my back as he guided me off the ladder. Even his hand was an aphrodisiac.
I groaned.
A small crowd had gathered. Great. An audience to witness my mortification.
“Next time you see a cute but deceptively demonic kitten, just give us a call. We’ll handle it.”
My smile was feeble. “Got it, and thank you.”
I was so hot that I was sweating buckets. I happened to glance at the edge of the crowd where the firemen were elbowing each other, snickering, and whispering while watching us.
Could I have made a bigger fool of myself? I think not.
A drop of boob sweat trickled down my cleavage. My head felt airy and light. I was a little dizzy. I recognized the symptoms, and knew I needed to check my blood sugar. For a diabetic, a stressful situation could trigger a hypoglycemic episode.
Slowly, I backed away. “Well… Um, thanks, again.”
My feet managed to trip over themselves, as if the whole tree incident wasn’t humiliating enough. I righted myself, turned, and raced off.
My pace was a brisk walk for half a block then, horrified and desperate to be away from the scene of my humiliation, I all-out ran.
I cut down the first side street, heading straight for the beach. My small crossbody bag held my Flexpen and glucose monitor, which I retrieved as soon as I found a semi-secluded spot.
My sugar level was too low due to exertion so I popped a couple glucose tablets before I called Ingrid on her work line.
“Moro Insurance, this is Ingrid speaking. How may I help you?”
“Oh, my god, Ingrid. I just had the most humiliating experience.”
She gasped. “Tell me everything, but make it fast. Norman and Mommy Bates will be back from a meeting at any moment.”
My brain froze and I made a few stuttered sounds that weren’t actually words. Adam! Holy shit, I hadn’t even thought about him when I was ass-to-pelvis with the firefighter. I’d forgotten I’d even had a boyfriend.
“Mel? What is it? Out with it.”
I swore. “I forgot I have a boyfriend.”
She made a fart sound. “’Bout time. Keep up the good work.”
“That’s awful of me! I was stuck in a tree and this hot—and I do mean scorching—firefighter came to rescue me. He was… and he… I mean…” I blew out a breath and shook my head just remembering how it felt to be flush against the hard planes of the firefighter’s hot bod and feel the bulge of the firefighter’s hot rod.
My cheeks heated again. The man was able to make me blush when I so much as thought about him. That was a first. “And, Ingrid, next to him I felt dainty.”
“Stuck in a tree? You were stuck in a tree? Like a pussycat?”
I groaned. “Don’t joke! It was mortifying. I flashed my undies to entire island fire department.”
She squealed. “Sounds juicy. I have questions. First, why a tree? Second, what’s his name? Third, when will you see him again?”
I gave her the cliff notes of the incident, but went easy on the sizzling attraction and my smutty carnal fantasies.
“I didn’t get his name, and I hope I never see him again. Did you hear the part about the whole group of firefighters getting a peep show of my butt cheeks?”
“Oh, I certainly did. I’m fanning myself. Girl, you lived out one of my wildest fantasies!”
“Ingrid!”
“I’m serious. That’s on my bucket list. In writing. And why didn’t you get his number? Just because he saw your arse? That’s a terrible reason. Besides, that can be a plus.”
“A plus? I fail to see—”
“Look at it this way, the tense, fidgety part of getting naked with someone for the first time is practically over. You don’t have to fret about what he’ll think of your cellulite dimples or lack of a consistent workout routine. He’s already seen your bum.”
“Are you saying my ass is fat and flabby?”
“What? No!” She laughed. “Of course not, but we’re no spring chickens anymore, are we? Actually, I think that was a little transference I did just then. I keep wondering if Pierce is ignoring me because I’m no longer a toned twenty year old.”