Let It Burn (A BBW Paranormal Erotic Romance) (4 page)

BOOK: Let It Burn (A BBW Paranormal Erotic Romance)
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He lo
oked at her with a crooked smile. “I know it’s not, but I’m still sorry.  If we’d just gotten the call a few minutes earlier….”  He trailed off and shook his head.  “But we will find out what started the fire.”

Jo
shook her head, wishing with all her heart she’d kept her big mouth shut.  She could feel the fog of passion rapidly disappearing in the glaring light of her talent.  No matter how much she didn’t want to, she had to tell him what she’d felt.

“No
t the Center, Kevin.  I mean Kimmy. Kimmy’s death wasn’t your fault.”

He shot off of Jo and the couch with lightening speed
.

“What the hell are you talking about?”
That sexy baritone went bass with warning.

She
sat up slowly, tugging her shirt back down her thighs.  She suddenly felt far too exposed.  Her breathing was labored.

“I’m sorry
, it’s never happened like this before.  I usually only pick up emotions, and only really strong ones.”  She shook her head, wrapping her arms around herself.  “One minute I was trying to be as close to you as I could get, the next it was like I was drowning in this pool of pain and guilt.  And I just kept hearing Kimmy’s name.  And your dad’s.” 

All the color
had drained from Kevin’s handsome face. He rubbed his hand over his face, scrubbed it across his mouth like he was trying to wipe away her kiss.


Shit, you really
are
crazy, aren’t you?” he gritted out.  “I don’t know who you’ve been talking to, or what you think you know, but lady you don’t know me.”  He backed away from her until he hit the door. 

Jo felt sick and cold.  She was used to her talent upsetting people. More than one so-called friend had turned on her when she’d known something she shouldn’t have.  But none had ever cut her like Kevin’s rejection.

“Look, just forget I ever touched you.  Forget whatever little hallucination you had.”  He turned the knob, but paused before walking out.  “Just forget me, Ms. Balentine.”

Then he stalked out the door and out of her life.

Alone again, Jo wilted onto the couch. She didn’t bother holding any tears back this time, but she wasn’t crying for the Center. She was crying for the little boy she knew still lived in Kevin’s soul. His sadness was a living, breathing thing, and the stark expression on Kevin’s face had only confirmed that he still felt every bit of pain and sorrow that he had the night his childhood had ended.

Chapter
Two

Kevin knew the minute she walked into the fire station.  Hell, he’d swear he felt it when she stopped on the sidewalk outside the damn door.  What he didn’t know was how to deal with her.

              He hadn’t slept after fleeing her loft.  Hadn’t even tried.  Instead he’d spent the hours until dawn in the station kitchen, swilling bad coffee and rationalizing what she’d said.  What she’d
known
.

             
It wasn’t like the fire that had killed Kimmy and his dad was a secret.  In a town the size of Ludington, it was a safe bet that pretty much anyone over the age of thirty could recite the story.  So he wasn’t freaked out by the fact that she mentioned the fire – although no one had brought it up in his presence since he was thirteen years old and he had taken a baseball bat to Old Man Kepler’s Chevy when the man had commented that maybe if Steve Kryszenski had checked the wiring, he’d still be alive.

             
No, what had freaked Kevin out was the way Joanna had seemed to look into his soul, to see the little boy who’d effectively lost his entire family on one hellish night.

             
Now, feeling tired and cranky and a little raw, the last thing he wanted to do was deal with Joanna and her freaky insights, but it seemed he wasn’t going to get a choice.

             
“Yo, Kev,” Travis’ rumbling bass jerked him out of his brooding and forced him to acknowledge Joanna’s presence.  “You got company, dude.”

             
“Yeah, thanks.”  Kevin was uncomfortably aware that pretty much everyone on duty was watching as he turned and came face to face with Joanna. 

             
It was strange.  Until four o’clock this morning Joanna Balentine hadn’t even blipped his radar.  Now he found himself unwillingly drinking in every detail of her appearance.  Her jeans were loose, but they hung low on her hips, secured by a colorful woven belt.  Her paint smeared, oversized button-down should have camouflaged her figure, but she wore it open over a stretchy tank that hugged the full curves of her breasts, clearly showing the shadows of her nipples, and a creamy slice of rounded belly where it didn’t quite meet her jeans.

             
He so was not interested in talking to her.

             
He
so
wanted to fuck her.

             
“Yeah?” 

She flinched, and he battled back a stab of guilt. 
He knew he sounded gruff.  What the fuck, he felt gruff.  And after her little stunt, what else did she expect?

“I just,” she sent a self conscious glance around, clearly unhappy about talking to him in front of the boys.  Well, too bad.  She was so comfortable with her status as town weirdo, she could just deal with their audience.

She visibly pulled herself together.

“I just wanted to apologize for earlier this morning.”  Had her voice had that husky little catch earlier?  “I’m usually better at keeping my…” she glanced around again, “my thoughts to myself.”  She shook her head and rich brown corkscrews of silky hair swept over her shoulder. 

Her eyes were big and brown and imploring, and a part of Kevin wanted to let her off the hook.

“So anyway,” she finished softly, “I’m sorry.”

Before he could speak, Jimmy walked by, pausing to smack Kevin on the back of the head.

“What’s wrong, dude?  You don’t wanna let Miz JoJo do her f
ortune telling MoJo?”  Kevin ground the back of his teeth as Jimmy cackled at his own humor.

“I don’t see the future,” Joanna said, never looking away from Kevin.

“Oh, right,” Jimmy agreed.  “You read minds or something.”  He held out his hand.  “Do you have to be touching someone?  What am I thinking?”

Joanna finally looked away.  Kevin felt like he’d been released from a tractor beam.

“It doesn’t work that way,” she told the younger man, ignoring the hand he’d thrust in her face.  “I don’t read minds, or tell fortunes.”  Her full, edible lips tightened, the first sign of nerves Kevin had been able to recognize.  “I paint.”  She sighed, and added reluctantly, “And sometimes I know things.”

Jimmy looked fascinated, though Kevin couldn’t tell if he was caught up in what Joanna was saying, or in the way she sank her teeth into her lush bottom lip when she’d finished speaking.  Whatever the attraction, the boy looked ready to settle down into a prolonged conversation, and Kevin abruptly knew he had to put a stop to it.

“It’s easy to
know things
,” he made a little woo-woo motion with his hands, “that are a matter of public record.”

Joanna’s liquid brown eyes snapped back to lock on his face, but he was prepared this time and avoided her hypnotic gaze.

“Look,” he muttered, suddenly aware that every eye in the station was turned on him.  “I appreciate the gesture, but nothing happened.  You have nothing to be sorry for, because you didn’t get some divine message.  So just drop it, okay?”

Before she could reply, before he could get sucked into those drowning brown eyes and forget his resolve, Kevin turned and walked away.  He thought he heard her breath catch, but he refused to pause or look back.

“Nice going, asshole,” Travis shot his way with a glare as he walked back toward the bunk area.  As he closed the door, he heard Jimmy stammering apologies and hurrying to smooth any ruffled feathers Joanna might have.

Kevin leaned back against the wall and let his head thud hard against the plaster.

“Fuck.”

*

              Jo didn’t know quite what she’d expected when she’d gone to see Kevin, only that she couldn’t leave things between them the way they were. 

What she hadn’t expected was for the man to completely blow her off.

Now his friend, Jimmy, was yapping at her like a hopeful puppy.  Curiosity and attraction surrounded the boy like a cloud.  A lot like fatigue, resentment, and something resembling fear had surrounded Kevin before he’d stalked off.

“He doesn’t mean to be an ass,” Jimmy was saying.  “Sometimes it just comes naturally.”  The boy paused.  “Although I don’t think I’ve ever seen him be an ass with a woman
before.”

“Thanks,” Jo smiled dryly.  “It’s good to know I’m special.”  She turned to leave, but before she made it to the door, Chief Caldwell stepped into her path.

“Jimmy’s young,” he said with a jovial smile, “but he’s right about one thing.  It’s not like Kevin to be rude to a lady.”  He laid a paternal hand on her shoulder.  “It was a rough night for everyone, and we’re all a bit on edge.”

The man was radiating such a feeling of discomfort and anxiety that Jo felt the need to put him at ease.

“Please don’t feel you need to apologize for Kevin.” She gave him a smile, hoping it reached her eyes.  “I’m the one who was out of line.  Anyways,” she added with forced cheer, “I’ve got a huge commission to get started on, so I don’t have time to brood over one cranky fireman!”

Chief Caldwell’s eyes sharpened and narrowed on her face.  “You mean the Great Fire mural?”

“I do.”  As always when talking about her work, Jo felt herself becoming more and more animated.  “There’s such a great story there.  The destruction was so horrific, but the way the town pulled together was positively heroic.”

“Indeed,” the Chief murmured.
  Clearly the change of topic hadn’t reassured him about the state of her hurt feelings.  In fact, it seemed to have given him a whole new reason to worry about her.  He was radiating even more anxiety than before.  “I would have thought the fire would slow you down.  Don’t you keep your painting supplies at the Community Center?”

“Some of them,” she agreed, touched at the depth of his caring.  She wondered if this was what it fel
t like to have a worried father.  “I’ve got some stuff in storage, and some stuff at my studio, too.”  She moved toward the exit again, and Chief Caldwell stepped in front of her, opening the door with a gentlemanly flourish. 

“Anyway,” she finished, “I’ve got plenty of time until my deadline, but maybe throwing myself into the project will help to take my mind off the fire,” she let her eyes steal one last time to the closed door Kevin had so recently slammed behind himself. “And off other things, too,” she added almost to herself.

“Well, just don’t overdo yourself,” the Chief counseled.  “Don’t work yourself ragged trying to avoid dealing with things.”  He touched her shoulder again with a kind smile.  “And if you feel the need to talk,” he gave a playful wink, “about anything at all, I’m a good listener.”

Jo was still smiling as she walked toward home.  It felt good to have someone care, especially after the way Kevin had treated her.  It was too bad, though, that she hadn’t been able to
calm the Chief’s anxiety for her.  He’d still been really worried when she’d left.

****

              “Kevin?”  Chief Caldwell’s voice was unusually cool when he called Kevin into his office that afternoon.

             
“Yeah, Chief?”  He’d managed a nap and a real meal, and was feeling one hundred percent better than he had when Joanna’d visited the station that morning.

             
“Kevin, you know you’re like a son to me,” the Chief regarded him with somber gray eyes.

             
“Yes, sir.  I appreciate everything you’ve done for me.”  Chief Caldwell had been a mentor to him.  He’d been on scene when Kevin’s house had burned to the ground all those years ago, and had taken Kevin under his wing.

             
“Well, I’ve got to say, Kevin, that if any son of mine had treated a lady the way you treated Miss Balentine this morning, I’d be ashamed of him.”  Kevin found himself dropping his eyes.  Hell, he was ashamed of
himself
.  He just hadn’t been able to bear the idea that Joanna could see into his soul so easily. 

             
“Now I know you’ve got a perfectly good reason why you acted the way you did.”  His tone indicated that the Chief knew no such thing.  “But I want you to meditate on the fact that that young lady just suffered a loss, and you’re attitude just made things harder for her.”

             
Shit.  Like any good dad, the Chief knew how to rub it in.  And dammit, Kevin knew he couldn’t just leave things the way they were.  He told himself it wasn’t a flicker of anticipation he felt at the idea of seeing Joanna again.  No, he’d just be relieved to make peace with the woman and then move on with her once more safely
off
his radar.

*

              She was sitting in the middle of the Courthouse lawn when he found her, surrounded by pre-schoolers. Each child had a plastic tumbler in front of him or her, and they were all blowing enthusiastically into the cups through straws.  As Kevin watched, each cup developed a head of colorful foam, and the children squealed with delight.

BOOK: Let It Burn (A BBW Paranormal Erotic Romance)
8.13Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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