Page 2 of Silver Fox Firefighters Next Door

“You know we have caller ID, Eve Michaels. What are you doing calling 9-1-1?” Karlie and I had been friendly enough in high school but she’d left a note in my yearbook that said she’d see me when I ended up back in Harmony Valley and it made me irate enough to TP her parents’ house.

“I…” I cleared my throat and tried again. “I need someone to come out to the cabin.”

“What’s wrong?” She was instantly too interested. And I knew that was something weird to say about the 9-1-1 operator I was talking to, but her interest didn’t sound professional.

“I can’t say, Karlie. I’m sorry. I just need help.” I glared at the CD player that was still playing the sexy music I’d put on. It felt like it was getting louder.

“What kind of help, honey? The cops?”

I groaned. “No. No cops. Especially not the Sheriff’s office. Please, Karlie, for the love of god, don’t call this out over the radio. I just need a doctor or something.”

She hesitated. “What kind of doctor? Girl, what is going on with you?”

“I can’t say. I just need help! Please! It’s nothing dangerous. I just… I need help.” I took a deep breath. “I swear to you, Karlie, if you send someone to me right now, I’ll owe you the biggest favor ever.”

She grunted. “Fine. I’ve got people I can send. Just hold your horses. If you get me in trouble for this, Eve Michaels, I’ll kick your ass. You get that?”

“Yeah, yeah. You’ll kick my ass. Got it. Just send someone fast. Please.” I hung up and dropped my phone next to me on the bed so I could cover my face with my hands.

Someone was going to come into my bedroom and see the horrible neon green dildo. They were going to have to help me with it. I thought about calling back and telling Karlie to forget it. I could just live with the dildo stuck inside. It was fine. I did most of my work in sedentary positions, anyway. What could go wrong?

A sudden pounding on the front door of the cabin shocked a scream out of my mouth. I grabbed the pillow from under my head and clutched it to my body. Grandpa’s cabin was twenty miles from Lilyfield. There was no way anyone could’ve gotten to the cabin so fast. The only people close enough were—

“Can you unlock the door, ma’am?” A loud, deep voice rang out through the cabin. It was a voice I recognized.

I stopped breathing. My neighbors. I belatedly remembered Grandpa saying something about them being in the medical field. They were also volunteer firefighters, because of course they were! “Oh, no, no, no. Oh, my god. No!”

Heavier pounding sounded at the front door. “Call out if you can! We’re going to have to break the door down if you can’t open it.”

I screamed my answer immediately. “No! I’m fine!”

“If you’re by the door, let us know. Move away if you can!” Several moments passed and then a loud cracking filled the cabin. The sound of the cabin’s heavy front door breaking was wildly loud and it startled me enough I didn’t register that the voices and footsteps were coming right at me.

“No! Don’t come in!” I was full on screeching at that point. I could not be found in my current state by my neighbors who looked like the heroes from the romance novels I edited. “Just go away! I’m fine!”

“Ma’am? We’re coming in.” A different masculine voice sounded out and then my bedroom door swung open and my three sexy neighbors walked in, two carrying an ax and one a black medical bag.

Time froze as we stared at each other. Me, clutching my pillow over my naked body with my legs pressed together, no matter the pain. Them, all but gawking at the naked woman spread out on her bed with vintage songs playing and a single candle burning. I stared. They stared. It was single-handedly the worst moment of my life and I’d had plenty of bad moments so that was really saying something.

“Well.” Aiden, whose name I knew from watching and listening to the three of them hanging out outside their cabin, nodded and clapped his hands. “Just tell us what’s wrong and we’ll help in whatever way we can. If we can’t help, we’ll get the ambulance out here and get you to a hospital.”

“No!” I felt like I’d vacationed on the sun. My skin was hot and I was sure it was bright red. “I mean, no… I can’t go to the hospital.”

The giant one, Nash, stepped closer and knelt next to my bed. His eyes were so dark they were almost black and when he narrowed them on me, I felt all the fight leave my body. “Tell us what’s wrong and we can go from there.”

I opened my mouth, desperate to do as he said, but I couldn’t make the words come out. My heart pounded painfully at my chest wall and I thought I might throw up. Not seeing another way, I reached out a shaky hand and pointed to the lube on the nightstand beside him.

He picked it up and I watched his eyebrows raise before his eyes shot down my body. He cleared his throat and glanced back at my face. “Are you having an allergic reaction?”

I shook my head and clamped my teeth over my lip.

Tate stepped forward and looked at the bottle of lube. The apples of his cheeks tinged pink. “So, you’re not allergic. But you did use this?”

I pressed my arm over my face as I nodded. “Glue.”

Nash’s big hand landed on the bed next to my arm. “Did you say glue?”

I nodded again and turned my head to the wall away from them. “It’s glue. I didn’t know.”

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