Page 16 of Silver Fox Firefighters Next Door

My jaw clenched as I thought of all the ways she could’ve been hurt. I told myself not to lecture her because it was clear Hank still treated her like she was a kid but once my leg started bouncing with the need to say something, I gave up. “You slept in your car even though your door doesn’t lock. Eve, that was—”

“I know. I just didn’t know what else to do.” She rubbed the palms of her hands into her eyes. “I need to get to work.”

“Next time, come to our cabin.”

“So the three of you can kiss me in front of each other and act like it’s not strange at all?” She gasped and slapped her hand over her mouth. “Oh, god, I’m sorry. I’m too tired to be around anyone right now.”

I grinned. “We could always do more than kiss you.”

Her face and neck turned a deep red shade as her eyes widened. “Weren’t you just telling me how unrealistic it was that the male protagonist in my story told his love interest to go out with another man?”

I glanced at the bathroom door to make sure Hank was still out of earshot and leaned closer to Eve. “Tate, Nash, and I are a package deal. We share with each other. No one else.”

She stood up and fanned her face. “Well. I’m going to get some work done.”

“Why don’t you take a nap first?” I loved seeing her ruffled but I was a caretaker at heart. I could see how drained she was. “Your lovers can wait. Your book lovers, I mean.”

She blew out a deep sigh and shook her head. “My lovers can’t wait. They’re as impatient as they are insatiable.”

My dick hardened immediately at the husky quality of her voice. Groaning, I shifted to hide my erection but Eve had already spotted it. The surprised little giggle she let out didn’t help matters. “I’m glad you’re amused.”

She heard the bathroom door opening and cleared her throat. “And that’s why I think electric cars are the way to go.”

She and Hank passed each other as she hurried to her room and shut the door. He sat in his recliner and nodded his head in her direction. “She’s a horrible liar and couldn’t hide anything to save her life. Ever since she was little, she’d try to pretend like she’d been talking about something else when I’d come inside. I don’t think she knows that for the last ten years, every time she does it, she talks about electric vehicles.”

I snorted. “You’re bullshitting me.”

He shook his head. “My Eve is a special lady, that’s for sure. She’s going to make someone very happy some day. She’s also probably going to make them crazy.”

I looked toward her room and tried not to imagine the parts of her I’d seen that definitely drove me crazy. “That’s pretty much a guarantee.”

CHAPTER 14

Eve

I was lured out of my room by my growling stomach and the smell of something delicious. I felt like a zombie as I stumbled towards the kitchen. Exhausted in so many ways, I hesitated when I found Tate standing at the stove in an apron.

“I was starting to wonder if you were ever going to show your pretty face again.” He turned to me and winced.

I frowned. “I know. Can I just have some of whatever you’re cooking and I’ll take my pretty face back to my room?”

He came around the island and took me by my shoulders. “Sit down, Eve, before you fall down.”

I sat and yawned. “You cook?”

“Even as a volunteer firefighter you have to know how to feed your team. Sheriff Hank is already asleep. He refused to wait on my dinner.” Tate fiddled around at the stove and came back with two bowls of steaming chili. “What do you want to drink?”

I shoveled a huge spoonful into my mouth and then gasped as it burned everything it touched. I fanned my mouth and did that open mouth breathing thing in an attempt to cool it off but finally, I just swallowed and cringed as my throat got to partake in the pain.

Tate winced. “I should’ve told you it was hot.”

I was definitely more awake after that. I walked to the fridge and grabbed a cold bottle of water. I drank half of it before I could talk again. “I could see it was hot. I’ve just been editing for so long today that my brain isn’t capable of normal tasks, apparently. I think the chili was delicious, though. It was hard to tell between the scalding pain and the attempt to not choke.”

He sat down next to me and used his teeth to open a bottle of beer like it was completely normal. “Aiden said he thought you were going to take a nap.”

“You’re going to break your teeth.”

“Are you worried about me? That’s sweet.”

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