Dragon's Flame (7 page)

“Really? Where there’s smoke, there’s going to be fire. And fire is something you can’t afford.” Crew’s eyebrows lifted. ”Unless Maksim has rescinded his threat?”

Purr turned to growl.

“Didn’t think so.”

Snatched moments of time and cellphone texts wouldn’t be enough to counter need and fear and a dragon’s possessive nature. Knowing that another
incident
was inevitable if he remained separated from Saffron, Taine scanned the area for Maksim.

Another fire engine arrived, its siren blaring. Given the magical origins of this fire, it was entirely possible there would be additional fires, fires that could well put Saffron in danger.

Taine held his breath rather than risk exhaling fire. He couldn’t allow his mate to be at risk any more than he could allow days of separation.

He spotted Maksim, on scene because like Gaige, he had some ability to manipulate the elements and subtly assist the firefighters.

If it were left to Taine, he’d fight fire with fire. But that was too overt in a world where the revelation that supernatural beings existed was only slowly being allowed to emerge.

The last thing any of them wanted was for humans to take up arms against them and turn this portal world into a dangerous place to pass through or visit.

Taine inhaled, took in a lungful of smoke that wasn’t his own and joined his boss.

“You take care of the situation with your mate?” Maksim asked.

“It’s under control.”

Maksim’s unwavering stare forced Taine to add, “At the moment.”

“At the moment isn’t good enough. Whatever happened here, it’s bad—bad beyond all the damage this fire is doing.”

“My mate is with the San Diego Fire Department. She could be temporarily transferred to IRE.”

“Just to IRE?”

“No, to me.” The thought of her being paired with another male meant a fight to keep from exhaling flame. “You could suggest that this is the beginning of the trouble, that there will be more fires and having someone familiar with fighting them serving alongside us would be helpful.”

“That’s a thin excuse.”

“You’ve got the necessary pull in the human world.”

One of the warehouses flared, the firefighters losing the battle to keep it from becoming fully engulfed. “I’ll make the call. What’s her name?”

“Saffron Greene.” The purr was back in Taine’s voice.

Maksim shook his head and sighed. “You didn’t even last a half century in this world before getting shackled.”

* * * *

Saffron’s morning went completely sideways with her cellphone’s ring. Thirty minutes later her pulse was still thrumming.

The doors to the fire station were open, two gleaming red engines sat side by side in separate bays. She parked her red Corolla along the curb instead of in the lot. Gave herself a pep talk then got out and entered the station through the bay on the right.

A couple of guys she knew waved a greeting and asked her what gave. She managed to sound normal when she answered, “Nothing big,” though she could count on one finger the times she’d been summoned to the battalion chief’s office, and that was counting today.

The egg sandwich that’d been breakfast gave the churn in her stomach something to work with, threatening to add queasiness to an erratic heartbeat and sweaty palms.

A burning building, no problem. She was on it, confident without being overconfident because overconfidence killed. But a summons here, leaping over Captain O’Neal…

Nothing about this could be good. But she couldn’t think of anything she’d mishandled on the job. She was good at what she did, and damn proud to be with the SDFD.

She reached the stairway and climbed, still casting about for a reason for the summons.

Maybe this had something to do with the rescue on the beach?

It was always possible someone had caught it on video and posted it. But it seemed more likely that’d result in a phone call from her own captain, or if there was publicity to be gained, someone higher up than Battalion Chief Kurt Mieger.

She’d be standing in front of City Hall if this was politically motivated. Right?

Jesus, she hated politics. Tried to stay as far away from political situations as possible.

This couldn’t be politics. The summons had included permission to appear wearing street clothes.

She entered the hallway, her heart banging harder and faster. She felt like a kid on her way to the principal’s office, not that she had much experience with trouble. That’d been her brother Dashon’s role when they were kids.

She neared the Battalion Chief’s open doorway, rubbed her palms against her jeans.
Get it over with
she told herself, then stepped into his office.

Battalion Chief Mieger looked up and put the paper he was holding down. He had craggy features and piercing blue eyes, blond hair that was shading to gray though he was still a man’s man. Someone who could join the fire line and hold it.

He waved her to a chair in front of his desk. The red padding made her think
hot seat
.

She sat. He leaned back in his chair like a guy wanting to distance himself from disgrace. “What’d you do to draw the attention of Homeland Security and IRE in particular?”

Saffron flushed hot but couldn’t exactly answer,
Slept with one of their agents
.

Her thoughts pinged from the callout to the supernatural fair to the beach.

Tell him about one of the encounters with Taine? All of them?

Admit to all three and the personal involvement with Taine was going to come out. Not that it should matter but…

She’d worked too damn hard to have her career and her reputation tanked because she’d gotten laid.

“I didn’t know I had drawn the attention of IRE,” she finally answered, aware that it’d taken too long to respond and now she needed to counter that impression.

“Last night I was on the beach when a kid started to drown. I went into the water, got to him first, but right after me was a guy who turned out to be an IRE agent. Taine something. I didn’t get a last name.”

The Battalion Chief subtly relaxed. “You must have impressed him.”

She didn’t breathe a sigh of relief but she managed a shrug. “I appreciated his assist. Weird coincidence, the last callout of the day was a Maserati he was driving.”

BC Mieger snorted a laugh and further relaxed. “Those Supernatural Ops guys have a reputation for destruction. You’re aware of the warehouse fires last night?”

“Heard about them on the news. They’re estimating damage in the millions but there were no casualties or injuries.”

“IRE was on scene.”

“I hadn’t heard that.” Why hadn’t Taine told her the callout was a fire?

“Word traveled down from the powers that be. IRE wants a firefighter temporarily assigned to them as a consultant. They want you.”

“Me? Wouldn’t an arson investigator or someone higher up be better?”

The BC appreciated the response. His smile was warm now that it was clear she wasn’t a political animal capitalizing on connections.

“Hard to say who the appropriate personnel would be since what’s going on is
need to know
and
need to know
doesn’t extend beyond Homeland.” His expression turned grim. “All I got was that there’s a chance that last night’s fires might be the first wave of them.”

Saffron didn’t like the sound of that, not when last night’s incident had gone multi-alarm. But it didn’t explain why IRE needed a consultant, much less her.

She wasn’t an arson investigator, couldn’t fight a fire single-handedly or tell them anything about fires that a fireman arriving on scene couldn’t tell them, and even a kid could call nine-one-one.

The Battalion Chief leaned forward, pushed a sheet of paper toward her. “Here’s where IRE is headquartered. I’ve squared your absence with your captain.”

“When do I report?”

“Now. The guy in charge over there is Maksim. Don’t know if that’s a first name or a last.”

She grasped the paper and stood.

The BC asked, “What do you know about Supernatural Ops and IRE?”

“Nothing for a fact. I’ve probably heard the same speculation you have.”

“We’ll talk when the assignment ends.”

“Yes sir.”

She made it to the car without revealing any of what she felt. Once in the driver’s seat, her fist came down on the steering wheel in concert with her heart.

Bang.

She felt flattered.

Bang.

She felt steamed enough that if it’d been physically possible, there’d be smoke streaming out of her nostrils.

Bang.

She felt damned confused.

Bang. Maybe especially confused.

She’d never been a woman to put on a lover’s shirt after the main event. Had always equated that with a level of intimacy she made a point of avoiding. But last night, instead of pulling on her own clothes—and she could have endured them for the drive to her apartment—she’d asked to borrow Taine’s shirt.

She hit the steering wheel once more for good measure. Cranked the car’s engine and tried to tell herself that sleeping with him had nothing to do with this temporary assignment.

She wasn’t that gullible.

For her own sanity she’d better accept that the fun with Taine did have something to do with it. And that maybe they did actually need someone from the San Diego Fire Department on board and preferred someone who already had a connection to a team member.

The need had to be legit, right? Otherwise the guy in charge of IRE wouldn’t have signed-off on it, right?

It didn’t keep her thoughts from spinning until she got to Carmel Valley and IRE.

They were headquartered in a sprawling white adobe that’d probably set someone back two and a half million dollars. Whether that someone was a former drug lord who’d lost his slice of the good life or this was an example of her federal tax dollars at work, Saffron didn’t know.

She sincerely hoped it was the former because that’d also go a long way toward explaining the high-end sports cars. She counted six behind the only black sheep of the bunch, a sedan with darkly-tinted windows that pretty much shouted
Fed
!

She parked behind a silver Ferrari. Got to the front door and hesitated. Knock? Walk in?

Before she could decide the door opened and there was Taine.

Damn. He’d gotten more compelling in the hours since he’d dropped her off at her apartment.

His scent brought the phantom feel of his body on hers, in hers, and her nipples turned into hard knots of need while her sex flushed and moistened.

His nostrils flared as if he could scent her arousal. His pupils dilated.

She lifted her hand in a gesture meant to convey
stop
, except her palm landed on solid muscle and there was heat transfer despite the shirt covering his broad chest.

Fiery need shot up her arm and into her breasts before arrowing downward to the place between her legs. She caught herself wetting her lips when his eyes zeroed in on her mouth and his own lips curved upward in masculine satisfaction.

Ass
. Except that brought the remembered feel of her nails digging into solid muscle and the pleasure that’d come with the flex of very fine glutes as he’d thrust.

She tried to stir the embers of fury, couldn’t quite manage it, not with the heat in his eyes. But she managed some resistance by reminding herself that she’d worked damn hard to become a firefighter and
not
some Fed’s plaything.

“From now on, we keep this professional.”

His smile widened. “I don’t think so.”

He pulled her into the house and penned her against the wall before she could respond. His mouth covered hers before she could react.

His tongue plunged past lips parted
to protest
. She’d never admit otherwise despite the rush of pleasure that came with the twine of his tongue with hers. Damn, he knew how to kiss.

Her eyes fluttered closed. She fisted her hands rather than explore the solid wall of muscle trapping her against the wall, but that was the extent of her control.

Her pelvis tilted, her lower body sought, found what it was after, Taine’s hard cock. Each rub and press against his erection pulsed pleasure into her sex.

Knowing what it felt like to be skin-to-skin with him, to have his weight on her, his cock embedded deep, driving them both toward release made it harder to resist. She should, she knew she should, but…

He lifted his mouth long enough to inhale. Even fire needed oxygen to survive. But she didn’t turn her head to deny the next kiss, or the one that came after. Might even have moaned in protest—though again, she wouldn’t admit it—when he left her lips, kissed his way to her ear.

“The scent of you on my sheets when I finally got home had me taking matters into my own hand.”

Oh Jesus, how was she supposed to keep her hands off him and his off her while they were on the job?

Chapter 6

Saffron shivered at imagining him jerking off. Her panties got wetter but she had enough presence of mind not to tell him that she’d needed to take the edge off too after he’d dropped her off at her apartment.

His tongue fucked into her ear. She swallowed a moan but couldn’t prevent the grind of her mound against his hardened cock.

Okay, so making this a strictly professional relationship wasn’t going to happen. But if she was his plaything, considering her long-standing commitment to casual when it came to sex, then the reverse was also true. He was her plaything.

She amended her initial demand. “We keep it professional while we’re on the job.”

He flicked his tongue into her ear and this time she didn’t catch the moan before it escaped. He kissed his way back to her mouth. “The rules are more flexible here.”

“Which makes this an excellent time to tell me about Supernatural Ops and IRE.”

He kissed her, a long, thorough claiming of lips and breath—and very nearly resolve. She had to dig deep to flatten her hands against his chest and push.

“If you insist on talking…” he murmured.

“I do. I absolutely do.”