More Than a Fling [Uniformed and Blazing Hot 3] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (13 page)

“We’re between classes right now, but when we aren’t, I teach FRO, too.”

Unfamiliar with the acronym, Alyssa angled her head. “FRO?”

“First Responder Operations. It’s core competency hazmat training. All government employees, not just firefighters, are required to have it. They serve as the first line of defense in identifying a hazardous incident and protecting citizens from immediate exposure.”

“See. I knew you weren’t lazy.” Impressed, Alyssa made notes on her iPad before looking at him again. “How do your parents feel about you being a firefighter?”

“They’re okay with it. They don’t like that I rush into burning buildings and that sort of thing, but they’re proud of me for following my heart.”

“Is the job what has kept you from giving said heart to someone else?”

His gaze on her turned so intense she almost wished she hadn’t asked. “Is that question part of the interview or personal curiosity?”

“Both,” she admitted, unwilling to let him see the effect his penetrating gaze was having on her system. It made her heart race even as her nipples beaded and wetness pooled between her feminine lips. “I would say it’s considered common knowledge that men and women in dangerous professions often have difficulty maintaining a serious relationship. Many significant others can’t handle the stress and fear of knowing the man or woman they love is out there putting his or her life on the line every time they leave the house to go to work.”

“No, it isn’t.”

Alyssa set her iPad aside, flattened her hands on the ground behind her, and leaned back on them. “I got the sense last night that Tanner isn’t looking for anything serious because of the way his mother ran out on him and his fathers. That kind of thing can make a person leery of putting themselves in a position to have something like that happen to them.”

“That’s not something Tanner and I talk about.”

“Because it happened so long ago, before the two of you even met, but he’s still hurt by it even though his fathers have another woman in their lives now?”

Nick shook his head. “Because I can understand why she did it and he knows it.”

Alyssa felt her jaw drop before she could stop it.

“I don’t agree with how she did it, walking out like that without explanation or goodbye, but I get why.” He shook his head again. “Not how she could do that to her only son, there’s no excuse for that, but how she could do it to her husbands.”

“Okay, off the record now. Why?”

“Do you listen to country music?”

Alyssa blinked her confusion at him. “Some.”

“Have you heard that Billy Currington song ‘Love Done Gone’?”

Understanding started to dawn. “You think his mother’s love for her husbands simply fizzled out.”

He shrugged. “It happened to me. Why couldn’t it happen to her?”

“That’s why you’re not involved with anyone now?”

He gave her a long look before he stepped away from the grill and moved toward her. She fully expected him to avoid her question. Instead, he lowered himself to sit next to her on the ground, plucked a blade of grass at his side, and chewed on it as he spoke.

“I had a steady woman before I came to Cherish. Just me and her. No one else involved. I loved her with all my heart. We talked about getting married after a year or so, even picked out rings. Then, one day, we realized it wasn’t what either of us wanted anymore. We had spent three years together, damn near attached at the hip the whole time. We had a life planned out together that would’ve been great.”

“If you hadn’t fallen out of love,” Alyssa finished.

He nodded. “The feelings faded away. As the song says, it wasn’t anything either of us said or did wrong. It was just a love done gone.”

And he was afraid it would happen again, Alyssa realized as she gazed at him. That was why he wasn’t looking for anything serious with a woman. He might talk about it as if it had been something simple and maybe the love between him and that woman had died a mutual death. Still, she could imagine it had been painful to accept that something he had thought would last forever wasn’t going to. She could also imagine how it would make him leery of trying again.

“I almost wish I could say that my last relationship had turned out that way,” Alyssa said after a long moment. “Unfortunately, it was a classic case of a woman who fell in love with a man that couldn’t keep his dick in his pants.”

Nick did a horrible job of disguising a snort with a cough. “He cheated, huh?”

Alyssa nodded and stretched her legs out in front of her on the ground. “It might not have been so bad if we hadn’t been engaged by the time I found out. We had already set a wedding date. Then I discovered I wasn’t the only woman he was intending to marry.”

“Polygamous marriages work in this city, even if they’re two women and one man, although those are rare even around here.”

“Yes,” she agreed slowly. “But I’m pretty sure those who are in polygamous marriages in Cherish are all agreeable to the arrangement.”

He tucked the side of her hair behind her ear and danced his fingers softly down the side of her neck, sending shivers of awareness racing own her spine. “Obviously you weren’t agreeable, even if that had been his intention.”

“It wasn’t and I wasn’t.” She angled her head to look at him and drew her brows together. “That makes me a hypocrite, doesn’t it?”

He grinned. “You mean because you had sex with me and Tanner last night and you’re sitting here with me now?”

“I wasn’t going down that personal road, but more along the line of because I don’t see anything wrong with two men sharing a woman. However, I’m unwilling to share my man with another woman.”

“A lot of people might think it makes you a hypocrite.” His grin stretched wider. “I know a lot of men probably would for sure. I don’t and I know Tanner wouldn’t. But we prefer to share a woman, not be shared by women.”

“And you aren’t my men, so what does it matter?” Alyssa had meant it for him to take the question for exactly what it was, a statement of truth, but the flash of emotion that moved through his handsome face surprised her. It sped through his expression so fast she found it hard to define, but a part of her thought it had looked suspiciously like regret.

“It doesn’t. That’s exactly my point.” He got to his feet and started toward the back door of the house. “Hang here a second. I’ve got to get a plate for the burgers. They should be just about done.”

Alyssa watched him as he disappeared into the house, her mind reeling. What had just happened? That look that had flashed through his face had seemed like he was almost wishing that…

No. There was no way he was starting to hope what had begun between them would turn into more than a fling. Especially not after what he had just told her about his last relationship.

What if you’re wrong?

Her heart skipped a beat as the question shot through her mind. Any time even the slightest inkling of having something more with Tanner and Nick attempted to cross her mind since they had met she cut it off and squashed it with a ruthlessness that wouldn’t allow it to form. She couldn’t let it. Both men were off-the-charts good looking, easy to talk to, and fun to be around, but what they had started was a fling and it would never be anything more. No matter what she thought she saw in either of their expressions, no matter what she thought she felt in their touches, and no matter what she thought she heard in their voices, she couldn’t let herself forget that…ever.

Chapter Six

“Why aren’t you grilling him like you did me earlier in the backyard?”

“You were doing the grilling. I was asking questions,” Alyssa reminded Nick as she gathered the plates on the small dining room table. “You make it sound like I put you through the ringer out there or something.”

“Nick isn’t fond of questions or reporters,” Tanner told her as he got to his feet. “He’s made an exception with you.” He reached for the plates in her hands. “I’ll take those.”

“Oh, you did, did you?” Alyssa asked Nick as she turned, putting the dishes out of Tanner’s reach. “You’re not taking these. Nick cooked, you did the shopping, and I get to clean the mess. Besides, that’s not what you said last night when you left Nick in my dining room to gather the dishes.”

“Dishes I’m sure you ended up cleaning before you left for work this morning because I got sidetracked,” Nick reminded her.

“True, but it was the thought that counts.” Alyssa glanced at the men as they followed her into the kitchen and noted they had gathered the condiments off the table. “I assume you use the dishwasher.”

Tanner stashed the mustard, ketchup, and mayonnaise in the refrigerator and turned to take the ones Nick held. “It’s definitely not there for decoration.”

Alyssa pulled open the dishwasher and started rinsing the plates in the sink. “Why did you make an exception with me?”

“Uh-uh. It’s Tanner’s turn to get drilled.”

“Drilled about what?” Tanner asked.

“What took you so long at the grocery store for starters?” Alyssa asked as she stacked the plates on the lower rack of the dishwasher.

“Why? Did you miss me?”

Tanner was teasing. Alyssa heard it in his voice even before she turned and saw the boyish grin tilting his too-kissable lips. The trouble was, she had missed him and Nick, too, even if she hadn’t allowed her conscious mind to admit it.

“Nick said Davon came by about the fence today. What did he say?”

“Oh, I see how it is now. You didn’t miss me. You were just eager to see what I could do for you.”

Alyssa bit back a smile as she closed the dishwasher and turned to lean against it. She gave Tanner a slow once-over, purposely making the look as naughty as possible. “You showed me last night what you can do for me. I was testing the waters to see what other benefits I can get out of this fling we started.”

“Smart woman,” Nick commented as he moved to the refrigerator and pulled out a beer.

“Tell me about it,” Tanner grumbled. If it hadn’t been for the teasing tone still in his voice and the boyish grin that hadn’t disappeared from his lips, she might have thought she had hurt his feelings. “Davon will have the fence up by the end of our next forty-eight off. You didn’t specify if you wanted chain link or wood. You’re getting wood unless you want to object now.”

Alyssa shook her head. “A wooden privacy fence will be great.”

Tanner pulled a folded paper from his back pocket and stepped closer to hand it to her. “That’s what it’s going to cost you, materials and labor included.”

Alyssa unfolded the paper, gave the total a quick glance, and decided it was far more reasonable than she was likely to get anywhere else.

“My labor isn’t included in that cost.”

Alyssa met Tanner’s gaze again and lifted a brow. “And what is your labor going to cost me?”

Tanner waggled his brows. “I figured we would work that out between the sheets.”

Alyssa cracked up. “How did I know that’s what you were going to say?”

Tanner grinned. “Like Nick said, you’re a smart woman.”

Alyssa glanced at Nick, her gaze landing on the beer he lifted to his mouth. “Do you guys have anything besides beer around here or am I going to have to send one of you next door for the vodka you brought me last night?”

Tanner opened the cabinet over the stove and pulled out a bottle of Southern Comfort. “It’s not vodka, but it’s not beer either.”

“A shot of that on the rocks will do just fine. Thanks.” She waited a beat as he moved to snag a glass from a different cabinet. “While you’re fixing that you can tell me what took you so long getting back. And I’m not just asking because I missed you,” she added with a wide smile as he shot her a sideways glance and poured the shot into the glass.

“You warned us you were going to pick our brains at another time,” he reminded her as he added a couple of ice cubes to the glass before passing it to her. “Something about the centennial of the fire service… I’m assuming you’ve decided to do that tonight.”

Alyssa sipped the Southern Comfort, enjoying the cool burn as the alcohol slid down her throat. “I’m doing a series of human interest pieces on the three city limit firehouses. I’ll be focusing on one shift per piece. Seeing as how you and Nick are right here and you go back on shift tomorrow, I figured I would start with the two of you and A-shift.”

“What kind of stuff are you wanting to know?”

Alyssa thought about that for a moment, remember what he had already told her about his fathers and how he had basically followed in their footsteps. “Nick said firefighting isn’t in the blood for him, but it obviously is for you. Did you always know you were going to be a firefighter or did you ever consider a different career?”

Tanner moved back to the cabinet, pulled out another glass, and poured himself a shot of the Southern Comfort. “Both. I always knew I would be a firefighter, but I went to college and got a degree in business, too.”

Alyssa blinked her surprise. “No shit?”

He chuckled softly as he sipped his shot. “No shit. My mother was an accountant. I was a mommy’s boy right up until the day she walked out on me and my fathers. When I was little, I used to help her when she would bring things home from work. I’m good with numbers, enjoyed the work, and figured it wouldn’t be a bad backup degree if anything ever happened to me on the job that took me away from the firehouse.”