Fully Ignited (Boston Fire #3) (13 page)

She laughed, belatedly realizing Scott’s sisters were both watching her. “Sorry.”

“If that’s my brother, ask him if they’re done with the suits,” Lydia said.

“Uh.” Jamie hesitated before the realization sunk in that it would be nothing short of stupid to even try to pretend at this point. With them, anyway. “He said they won’t look like ragamuffins, so I assume they’re all set.”

“Tell him they need ties, too. They’re going to try to sneak parts of their uniform past me because they’re lazy.”

Your sister said to get a tie. No uniform ties.

There was a long pause before the response came through.
She knows I’m texting you?

Please. Have you met your sisters?
She appreciated that the two women had obviously gone out of their way to play along and give them space, but the gig was up.

Fine. We’ll get ties. Call me later. Oh, and don’t forget the cake.

Smiling, she tucked her phone away. “So, Lydia, have you done any cake tastings?”

“Oh, for God’s sake, carrot cake is not a vegetable.” She pointed a French fry at Jamie. “You might be part of the whole firefighter brotherhood thing, but don’t let those two yahoos drag you onto their side.”

“Can I ask why you just don’t have a chocolate groom’s cake?”

She blew out an exasperated breath. “Because that will be the groom’s cake, not my wedding cake. I want my husband to share our wedding cake with me, but he’s not going to if there’s a chocolate cake sitting next to it.”

“Okay.” Jamie nodded slowly. “So this is one of those stubborn Kincaid things and Aidan’s going to eat his vegetables and like it.”

“Yes.” Lydia shrugged. “He knew what he was getting into.”

Ashley laughed, and then waved her hand at them. “I love this. This dynamic, I guess you could say. Jamie’s our perfect third.”

Below the warm feeling that came from being so openly accepted was a cold jangle of nerves. The genie was out of the bottle now, and she wasn’t going to be able to shove him back in. Her and Scott’s time of quietly, privately enjoying each other’s company with no expectations was over.

She had no doubt his sisters were going to try to make it a
thing.

* * *

M
Y
DAD
’
S
OFF
with Fitz somewhere until late. Want to come to my place for a change?

Scott sent the text and tried not to hold his breath as he waited for Jamie’s answer. He knew she’d had an exhausting morning with his sisters, and they’d just seen each other the night before, but he really wanted to see her again. And he wanted to see her in his apartment for some reason he didn’t care to analyze too closely.

Sounds good. It’ll be about an hour, though, if that works.

Perfect. See you then.

He exhaled and then looked around. Luckily, the place didn’t look too bad since he didn’t have a lot of clutter and he’d learned over the years of sharing a small space with a lot of guys to pick up after himself. But he did change the sheets because it seemed like the gentlemanly thing to do.

Then he dropped onto the couch and started flipping through channels so when she did show up, she wouldn’t catch him with his face pressed to the glass sliding door, waiting for her. Even when he heard her footsteps on the wooden deck, he kept his eyes on the screen until she knocked on the glass.

He wasn’t sure what he trying to prove to himself by acting casual, because on the inside he was jumping up and down like a black Lab whose human had finally come home.

“Hey, come on in,” he said, pulling open the slider for her. Before closing it, he peeked down into the driveway. “You didn’t walk, did you?”

“You walk all the time. But no, I drove. Unlike your jacked-up truck with the fancy chrome and firefighter plate, my car’s just another gray compact job parked on the street. It blends in with the crowd.”

After he closed the slider, he took her hand and pulled her close. “My truck is not jacked up.”

“It came that way?”

“It’s a stock three-quarter-ton pickup and the chrome came with the package that included the heated seats and remote start.”

“Okay, so you’re not one of those macho truck guys. Just spoiled a little bit.”

He laughed. “Macho truck guys? No, I’m not. And as for being spoiled, I spend enough time freezing my ass off on the job. When I get in my truck, my ass is warm.”

She ran her hands down his back and then tucked her fingers into the back pockets of his jeans. “It’s definitely an ass worth pampering a little.”

He kissed her, feeling the curve of her smile against his lips. Her hair was up in a ponytail, but without taking his mouth off hers, he pulled the fabric-covered elastic free so he could bury his hand in the soft strands. He loved her hair and it would probably have been the hardest part of her to resist touching at work if she didn’t keep it braided whenever they were on duty.

When the kiss was over, she sidestepped him and looked around the apartment. “You don’t really have a lot of knickknack-type stuff, do you?”

“No, but neither do you.”

She ran her hand over the granite bar, looking at the kitchen. “I’ve moved so many times, I’ve learned to travel light. But you’ve lived in this house for your entire life. Maybe not on this floor, but still.”

“Trust me, there are boxes and boxes with my name written on them down in the cellar. You want a drink?”

“I’ll have a soda. Whatever you’ve got.”

He took out a couple of cans and popped the top on hers before holding it out to her. “How was dress shopping?”

“It was more fun than I thought it would be, actually. I’m not big on shopping, but Lydia and Ashley are a lot of fun.”

He winced. “I guess they’re also more intuitive than I gave them credit for.”

“There wasn’t much point in denying anything, although I did manage to avoid being pinned down too much, conversationally.”

Scott really wanted to know what they’d said, but then again a part of him didn’t. If they’d done a full-court press on her and wanted to talk love and marriage, pushing her for details might get awkward. He didn’t want her first time in his apartment to go sideways on him.

“I honestly don’t know if I’ve ever successfully kept a secret from those two,” he said.

“So everybody must know, then, if they do. At the station, I mean.”

“I don’t think so. Aidan and Danny, probably.” He paused. “Okay, Aidan almost definitely, though he’s never asked and I’ve never confirmed or denied. But if you’re worried they’re all talking about us, don’t. Family loyalty still comes first.”

“Do you think Tommy knows? He’s family.”

“I doubt it. He’d have to figure it out on his own because he’s the last person my sisters would talk to about my personal life. He can be a bit of a bull in a china shop when it comes to shit like that, and Lydia and Ashley don’t usually throw me under the bus with him.”

She sighed, and then gave a little shrug. “It doesn’t matter. People can say what they want.”

Wanting to bring the mood back to where it had started, Scott set his soda on the counter and moved closer to her. She took a long sip of hers, and after she put down the can, he pulled her hard up against his body.

“You gonna dance with me at the wedding?”

She smiled at him, and he felt the familiar rush of pleasure he got every time she looked at him like that. “I don’t know. What do you think the chances are you can keep your hands where they’re supposed to be?”

He cupped her ass, squeezing a little. “I can behave.”

“That’s probably the one thing I
haven’t
heard about you, Scott Kincaid.”

“I should give you the grand tour.”

She looked around his shoulder. “I can see most of the apartment from right here.”

Since her head was cocked sideways, he took advantage of the opportunity to kiss her neck. “You can’t see the best part, though.”

“You mean the gigantic television?”

He grinned and, with his hands still on her ass, pulled her close enough so she could feel his erection press against her. “I have a gigantic bed, too.”

“I’d hate to miss the main attraction.”

Letting go of her with some reluctance, he took her hand and led her into the bedroom. The bed was big, though hardly gigantic, but it dominated the room. He didn’t have a TV in here because he tried to be strict about his sleep schedule and the bed meant sleep.

Today, though, the bed meant Jamie. She looked around the room, which wasn’t any more cluttered than the rest of the place, and then at the bed. He wondered if she noticed the condom packet on the nightstand, kind of tucked beside the lamp. “Nice bed. Definitely bigger than mine.”

Laughing, he stepped close enough to kiss her. “We don’t need a lot of space for what I have in mind.”

He slid his hands under her shirt, cupping her breasts and rolling her nipples between his thumbs and forefingers. Even through the fabric of her bra, his touch made her squirm. They stripped quickly and he admired the view as she climbed onto his bed. Then she held out her hand to him and he knew he should be reciting box scores or algebra problems or something in his head. But the only thing in his head right now was the sight of her, naked and beckoning to him.

Once he was on the bed, she shoved him backward and laughed when he splayed out on his back. He opened his mouth to make a smart-ass comment, but Jamie threw one leg over his hips and nothing came out of his mouth but a guttural sound.

She bent low so she could kiss him, her hands holding his wrists over his head. The position pressed her breasts against his chest and he groaned, fighting the temptation to prove which of them was stronger by flipping her onto her back and driving into her.

Then she kissed his chin. His Adam’s apple. First one nipple and then the other, sucking just hard enough to make him hiss. Then she started making her way down his abdomen, punctuating her kisses with flicks of her tongue, and he held his breath.

When she wrapped her fingers around his dick, Scott thought he might never breathe again. She stroked him, lightly at first, but then her grip tightened as she flicked her tongue over her lips.

He couldn’t look away from her mouth, but he still jumped when she closed her lips around the head of his cock. She lowered her head until her mouth bumped into her fingers, and then kept going. Her hand slid down the length of his shaft, along with her mouth, and his hips arched up off the bed.

Then she took away her hand and took him only with her mouth. The wet heat scrambled his senses and he fisted his hand in her hair. Not resisting or forcing. Just clenching the strands as he struggled to think of anything but how much he wanted to come in her mouth.

Only a few more strokes and he pulled her hair slightly, holding her head still. “You have to stop, honey. I can’t...”

Jamie kissed her way back up his body to his mouth, and then he had to release her hair so she could reach for the condom to hand to him. She kissed him hungrily while he put it on, and then gave him a saucy smile as she straddled him. Taking him in hand, she lowered herself onto his erection with excruciating slowness.

His breathing turned ragged as she rocked her hips, taking him deeper inside of her with each stroke.

She arched her back and he reached up, cupping her breasts. Her neck was exposed and he wanted to kiss that hollow at the base, but he couldn’t reach it with his mouth. He settled for stroking her neck with one hand, sliding his fingers over her jaw until she turned her head and sucked lightly on the end of his finger.

When he groaned, her rhythm changed. Each rise and fall of her body was faster and harder, and he knew she was close. Since he was on the ragged edge himself, he lifted his hips to meet each stroke, driving up into her. Reaching down, he rubbed his thumb over her clit and watched her body jerk.

He felt her muscles clench as she came with a small cry that seemed to set his blood on fire. Grabbing her hips, he rocked her body, harder and faster until his orgasm hit like a wrecking ball knocking him senseless. Losing himself in the intense sensation, he rode it out and was glad he was lying down because it seemed like his entire body was boneless.

Jamie collapsed on top of him, turning her head so it was on his shoulder. He kissed her hair and wrapped his arms around her back to hold her tight.

After a few minutes, when they’d caught their breath, he reached between them and held the condom as he pulled out of her. She shifted slightly to one side, but didn’t get up, so he was content to stay right where he was for a little bit longer.

“I almost didn’t send you a text because I thought you’d be tired out from shopping,” he said. “I’m glad I did.”

“Me, too. Very glad.”

“I did a little shopping today, too. Guess what I bought?”

She lifted her head to look at him and he took the opportunity to grab a quick kiss. He could never get enough of kissing her.

“I’m almost afraid to ask,” she said, amusement shining in her eyes.

“I stopped at the market over by your place and bought some chocolate pudding.”

“Ooh.” She made a sound he’d previously only heard during sex. “You didn’t mention that in your text.”

He gave a mock sigh. “Then I would have wondered if you were only here for my pudding. I needed to know if I was enough.”

She laughed and pushed away from him. “Trust me, you’re enough. Sometimes I wonder if you’re
too
much.”

He wasn’t sure what that meant, exactly, but she hadn’t said it in a particularly negative way, so he shrugged it off. She was here. That was exactly enough.

TWELVE

“W
HY
DO
I have five gloves?” Scott tossed them into the growing pile of locker debris on the floor behind him. “Did I have four and lose one, or did I have two and stole one of somebody else’s?”

“If anybody’s missing one,” Aidan said, “they’ll know who to go after.”

“I have five gloves,” Grant said. “But I don’t know if I started with four or six.”

Scott heard Jamie’s laugher behind them. “Maybe you should just have a big basket of gloves and share them all.”

He didn’t turn and face her, but he felt the familiar warmth at the sound of her voice. They hadn’t been able to spend a lot of time together in the three days since he took her out to dinner, but at least he was guaranteed forty-eight hours per week with her.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t touch her or kiss her or check out how amazing her ass looked during those forty-eight hours. But he could hear her voice and listen to her laugh and talk about all the inane things people talked about at work. And every once in a while, there would be an opportunity for his hand to brush hers, or even for him to press his palm to the small of her back. But never more than that.

It was a warm and dry day, so they had the engine bay doors open and were cleaning out all the cold-weather things they’d collected over the course of a winter. There was a lot of foot traffic on the street as people embraced spring, and their work was constantly interrupted as they waved to little kids and even let a few of them look at the apparatuses. They didn’t mind, though. There wasn’t a single one of them who didn’t remember feeling the wonder of the fire station as a child.

But part of his attention was on the stairs in the back, waiting to hear Danny Walsh come thumping back down on his crutches. The cast was gone and he was doing physical therapy, but they still wanted him to use the crutches if there would be strain on the leg for a little while longer.

He’d shown up about half an hour ago and, after spending some time catching up with the guys, had gone upstairs to see Cobb. Scott guessed he was probably giving an update on his progress and he might even have a tentative date for his return.

And that screwed with Scott’s head in a way he didn’t like. He liked Walsh and always had. The guy was a damn good LT who took good care of Engine 59. He was also Ashley’s husband and the father of Scott’s future niece or nephew. Scott wanted nothing but a full recovery for his brother-in-law, as soon as possible.

But his return meant there was no room for Jamie and she would leave. It had been inevitable from the first, and maybe even for the best considering they didn’t see eye to eye when it came to two firefighters having a family together. But he couldn’t imagine not having her in his life, and his mind shied away from even trying.

With his locker emptied out for the most part, he turned to start sorting through the pile of gloves, intending to at least see if the colors or sizes would help identify them. He doubted it, since they were all black wool and the only one of them who didn’t wear a standard men’s size was Jeff, but it was worth a shot.

But when he turned, he got distracted by Jamie. She’d been at the workbench, doing an inventory of the miscellaneous small supplies lying around, but now she was staring in the direction of the staircase, as if her mind had wandered.

So she was waiting, too, he thought. They both knew Danny coming to the station marked the beginning of the end of her time there, and she didn’t look any happier about it than he felt.

He scooped up the gloves and carried them to the bench, dumping them beside her clipboard. “The light’s better over here.”

She looked at the gloves and then at him, one eyebrow arched. “You need light to see that you have five black gloves?”

“To read the tags, maybe.” It was a thin excuse, to be sure, but he wanted to be near her.

“Are you aware you have five gloves, but four of them are for the left hand?”

He scowled at the pile, then cursed under his breath. “I guess it’s time for a glove swap because somebody has too many right hands. Remember when we were kids and they had those mittens with the long string between them so you couldn’t lose one?”

“Yeah, I do. But I don’t think they make those in adult male sizes.”

He didn’t miss the amusement in her voice, and it made him want to lean closer to her, but he forced himself to keep a normal amount of distance between them. “Maybe I’ll get lucky and Grant’s mommy wrote his initials inside his gloves.”

“Hey, I heard that,” Grant said, and most of the guys laughed.

He took his time checking the gloves over for any identifying marks. The fact there weren’t any wasn’t a surprise, but it gave him an excuse to be near Jamie.

“You okay?” he asked in a low voice.

“I keep wondering if I should go upstairs and be nosy, but if there’s something I need to know, I guess they’ll tell me.” She shrugged. “I guess they’re probably talking about when Danny’s coming back, though.”

He was going to ask her how she felt about leaving—if she would be sorry to leave them or if she was looking forward to landing someplace on a more permanent basis—when Ashley walked through the open bay door.

He grinned at his sister. She wasn’t showing yet, but if you knew to look for it, she was already starting to waddle a little bit when she walked. “Hey, Ash.”

“Hi, guys,” she said, giving a wave that encompassed all of them. She didn’t stop by the station very often, but between being Tommy’s daughter, Scott’s sister and Danny’s wife while running the bar, there was almost nobody in the firefighting community she didn’t know. “Is Danny still upstairs?”

“Yeah,” Scott responded. “I was thinking about texting him to see if he was still with Cobb or if he was stuck at the top of the stairs and can’t get down.”

“I’ll text him.” She pulled out her phone and typed as she spoke. “He has an appointment and we’re not running late, but we will be if he doesn’t get his ass down here. He was supposed to come back to the market and meet me ten minutes ago.”

Because of the appointment, Danny didn’t waste any time talking to them when he finally made his way down the stairs. While everybody was focused on saying goodbye to him, Scott looked at Jamie and saw the tension in her face. It mirrored the tension he felt.

She met his gaze and forced a smile before giving a little shrug. Whatever was going to happen would happen, and it wouldn’t be a surprise. They’d known all along there was an expiration date on her presence in his life.

But now that it was imminent, Scott dreaded knowing what that date was. He didn’t want to know when his time with Jamie was coming to an end.

* * *

A
N
HOUR
LATER
, Jamie was surprised when the intercom system in the engine bay crackled to life. It wasn’t something they used often, since most of them just used text messaging if they had something to say to somebody not in the room.

“Rutherford, I’d like to see you in my office for a minute.”

Jamie tensed at the use of her last name. It was something they all did with each other, switching between first names and surnames and nicknames, but Cobb had always called her by her first. But she pushed the button on the wall and spoke into the speaker. “Right away, sir.”

Several of the guys were in the bay and looked at her as she went toward the stairs, but it was Grant who spoke. “What did you do now?”

She gave him a grin that belied the nerves dancing around in her stomach. Even though it was probably an update on Danny’s return, she couldn’t deny she was nervous about the way she was being summoned. “Probably a meeting about all the complaints we’ve received about your socks smelling.”

Once she’d stepped inside Cobb’s office, he gestured for her to close the door and sit down. Judging by his expression, she would have preferred to stand. It was less awkward to take an ass chewing for something standing at attention and staring at something over and behind the boss’s head. Sitting was more intimate and involved eye contact.

But he had rank, so she sat. He sighed, staring at the pen he was fiddling with and shifting his weight in his chair, so she remained silent. Clearly he was uncomfortable and trying to figure out how to start, and she got a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach. This wasn’t going anywhere good.

Finally he straightened up and looked at her. “Are you involved in a personal way with Scott Kincaid?”

Her gut was rarely wrong. “Respectfully, sir, that’s none of your business.”

“It really is my business, actually.”

“Have I performed any of my duties in a less than satisfactory manner?”

He sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Hell, no. You know I think highly of you.”

“Then, again with all due respect, I don’t believe we need to have this conversation.”

“Stop with the—” he waved his hand, as if trying to summon the right word out of thin air “—formality or whatever. This isn’t an inquisition, it’s a conversation.”

“And are you having this conversation with Scott?”

“The standard’s different for you.”

She narrowed her eyes. “Because I’m a woman?”

“Because you’re a goddamned officer,” he snapped. Then he blew out a long breath and leaned back in his chair. “This is going all kinds of wrong on me.”

“As it will when a male superior asks a woman under his authority about her sex life.”

“Is there a threat buried in there, Rutherford?”

She looked him in the eye, and then shook her head. “No. I’m just on the defensive, I guess.”

“Okay.” He leaned forward and slapped his palms on the desk. “Let’s start this over so I can come at it from a different direction because you and I like and respect each other and that wasn’t the conversation I was trying to have.”

“Thank you, sir. Can I ask if the timing of this conversation and the fact Danny Walsh just left are connected?”

He looked startled by the question. “What? Oh, no. He interrupted what I was doing and then I figured I should get this out of the way before I went back to it. Just a coincidence.”

That made her feel a little better, at least. She hadn’t been burned by his family. “I’d like to know where this accusation came from.”

“It’s not an accusation. It’s just scuttlebutt. I went to a memorial ceremony yesterday and afterward went to a diner with some guys I’ve known for decades. Shit, we were probably putting out fires before you were born.”

She laughed. “Not quite, sir.”

“A long time, anyway. They know Tommy, of course, and he came up in a story one of the guys was telling. That was the opening for the gossip about Tommy’s kid and the female lieutenant in my company. I guess there was a fight at Tommy’s bar?”

“It’s not the first time I’ve been subject to that kind of speculation, sir. People talk.”

“I’m not going to ask you if what they’re saying is true. Quite frankly, as long as nobody’s job suffers and there’s no hanky-panky under this roof, I
don’t
consider it any of my business. But I called you in here because I wanted you to know there’s talk. Whether or not you care is up to you.”

“I do care. People talking about me like that can affect my career. Where I’m assigned can be changed because somebody’s worried about the dynamic in the house or a sexual harassment suit or jealous wives hanging around. If they perceive me as being a certain way, I might not even get the chance to prove myself. It’s not fair, but when you’re a woman, your personal life is questioned as well as your ability to do the job.”

“Have you had to deal with that?”

“I’ve been luckier than some women in the fire service. Back in my early days, I had a group of wives petition to have me transferred because they didn’t like me spending so much time with their husbands. I was in the process of moving to a new city, anyway, so nothing came of it. And there was an older guy who refused to go out on a call if I was along because he said women couldn’t fight fires and he didn’t have time to take care of me. In that case, he was transitioned into a desk job, but I believe he had other infractions going on his record about the same time. Overall, men have treated me with varying degrees of acceptance in their companies, but I haven’t had many out-and-out jerks.”

“I had some concerns in the beginning,” he said. “My initial reaction was what if she can’t pull her weight? Or what if one of the guys refuses to work with her or she wants her own bathroom all to herself or somebody says something stupid or tells a joke that gets us slapped with a sexual harassment suit. But your record speaks for itself and, like you said, there’s a good group of guys here.”

“I appreciate you giving me a chance to prove myself.”

“Speaking of this being a good group of guys, I’m going to jump the gun and give you a heads-up before you get the official notification. You’ll be with Ladder Company 41, effective immediately upon Danny Walsh’s return to duty.”

Ladder 41. She closed her eyes for a moment, visualizing the map of stations in her head. It was on the western fringe of the city, maybe twenty minutes away on a decent traffic day, in an affluent neighborhood. More single-family homes, office buildings and upscale shopping, which probably meant fewer fires and more medical calls. It would be an adjustment.

Jamie gave herself a few seconds to process the information and her emotional response to it. She thought she’d managed to keep the fact this was temporary in the back of her mind the entire time she’d been with E-59, but the knot of emotion in her throat and gut told her she hadn’t done a very good job of it, after all. And it wasn’t only Scott. She’d really felt at home not only with the entire engine company, but the ladder company, too.

“You won’t be filling in,” Cobb said. “Their LT is moving out of state for family reasons and the district chief wants you. The timing’s perfect, too. I’m guessing you heard that there’s no reason Walsh shouldn’t be able to resume his duties on the twentieth,” Cobb continued.

“I’m sure everybody will be glad to have him back,” she said, her voice sounding a little hoarse to her own ears. Only two more weeks and she’d have to say goodbye.