Page 9 of Sparks Fly

“Lieutenant! Did you get that?”

Kaia’s bemused demand cuts straight through her lieutenant’s distracted fantasies like a bucket of ice water. Hallie’s heart jackhammers in stunned panic as she realizes she’s been too preoccupied to even register the rookie’s last slew of code-shouting. Of course, the sniggering Montgomery called her on it, that cocky shit is never one to let an opportunity at showing off go to waste.

“Give it a rest, Montgomery!” Hallie instantly snaps, prowling closer to where Kaia stands, doubled over with her hands braced on her knees. The heave of her breasts is far too alluring this close up. “We’re supposed to be improving your team communication, not fueling your idiotic need to one-up your superiors!”

Kaia’s laughter rings out again, though this time the teasing cadence is laced with a touch of exertion. Before she can help herself, Hallie’s mind runs away from her again, flooded with the desire to lick the sweat from the hollow of Montgomery’s throat.

“C’mon, Lieutenant. Am I really such a nuisance?” That wicked mouth stretches into a wolfish grin as she shifts her stance, openly allowing her gaze to roam brazenly over Hallie’s sweat-slick tank top. “Guess I’m not trying hard enough to impress you.”

There’s a deliberate, unabashed invitation in her purring tone. She prowls a little closer as if she’s just waiting for Hallie to cave and crush their bodies together, catching those plump lips in a searing kiss. At hearing Montgomery confirm her efforts to impress her, Hallie’s breath catches, the electric current sparking between them dialing up a few thousand volts. All she would have to do is close the final scant inches between their heaving chests.

And kiss my shot at captain goodbye.

“Enough of that,” the lieutenant bites out, teeth gritted more against her own burning desire than Montgomery’s blatant flirting. “You’re here to save lives, not to earn a gold star from teacher. Go and grab some water before I have you sprinting until your legs give out.”

Montgomery’s only response is a dark, knowing chuckle as she obediently turns towards the break room. Hallie clenches her jaw, trying not to watch the delicious roll of her hips in those skintight yoga pants. As soon as the door from the training area swings shut, she bolts for the locker room to splash cold water over her scorching skin. Silently berating herself in the mirror, Hallie quickly realizes these private training sessions are going to be a twisted kind of torture. She’s not sure what she did to deserve such bittersweet suffering. And she knows it’s not going to get any easier.

When the lieutenant returns to the training area, suitably cooled off, she finds Kaia back on her stretching mat. There’s a feisty challenge glinting in her dark eyes. She arches a brow, silently daring Hallie to try and break that cocky spirit.

Instead of bristling against the rookie’s blatant arrogance, Hallie finds herself softening in the face of such raw determination. That intense desire to constantly prove herself, to never show weakness or fatigue, the lieutenant recognizes that desperate drive all too well. A sad, nostalgic smile tugs at her own lips as she takes a seat on the mat across from Kaia’s relaxed form.

“Not going to lie, Montgomery,” she begins, rolling her tight shoulders to release some of the lingering tension coiled there. “Watching you show up every day prepared to put on a one-man circus reminds me of my own rookie days with the brigade.”

Kaia’s brows quirk, no doubt surprised by the conversational shift in Hallie’s demeanor. She wraps her arms around her knees, curiosity kindling behind her calmer expression.

“Shocking as it may seem, I wasn’t always so effortlessly superior to my crewmates,” Hallie continues, the playful barb drawing a low, rasping chuckle from between Kaia’s glistening lips.

For a long moment Hallie only watches her chest rise and fall, mesmerized by the tantalizing slide of perspiration over her sculpted collarbones. She has to force herself to meet Kaia’s molten gaze. “Truth is, I come from a long line of fire chiefs and strong leaders. Busting my ass to prove I was tough enough to fill their damn boots was the only thing that mattered back then.”

The warmth in Kaia’s expression shifts into something deeper, more pensive. A shared understanding of their endless battle to be respected as equals in an oppressively masculine world.

“My old man thought thirty years on the police force made him an expert on what women are and aren’t capable of.” The rigidity of Kaia’s jawline makes Hallie think her upbringing wasn’t quite so supportive as the home of the Hunters.

“If he’d had his way, I’d probably be teaching finger painting classes instead of fighting to prove my strength alongside the men every day. He was so pissed when I turned down a free ride to nursing school that we didn’t talk for over a year.”

A sad smile twists Hallie’s lips in response.

“I can’t imagine what that must have been like. Pop was thrilled when I said I wanted to follow in his footsteps. My fear of never living up to his name formed in my own head, long before any rookie asshole taunted me with it out loud.”

“But you still took that risk,” Kaia rasps, the barest hint of awe lacing her tone. It warms Hallie in a way no amount of desert sun ever could. “You proved you were worthy of the legacy over and over until they couldn’t ignore or dismiss you anymore.”

The naked admiration in her soft utterance is nothing short of electrifying. They hold each other’s stare for a suspended moment, the pulsing silence seeming to shrink the world down to this tiny sanctuary between them.

“You’ll get there too, Montgomery. The rest of those sorry recruits might hate you for wiping the floor with them every day, but they’ll learn to respect you for it.”

She huffs a small laugh. “Would it be wildly against protocol if you called me Kaia?”

Hallie’s heart thunders with a wild yearning to reach out and brush her knuckles over the sharp angle of Kaia’s cheekbone, let her palm cup the strength pulsing in the hollow of her throat.

Ever the bolder of the two of them, Kaia leans forward, their tense breath mingling as their eyes remain locked on each other. All concerns about her position fly from Hallie’s mind as she inches closer to the glistening temptation of Kaia’s lips.

“Only as inappropriate as it would be for you to start calling me Hallie,” she murmurs, brushing the tip of Kaia’s sweat-slicked nose with her own.

Then the metallic clang of the main doors being thrown open slams through the fragile stillness like a bucket of ice water. Kaia and Hallie spring apart, whipping their heads around as shuffling footsteps and raucous chatter echoes from the corridor. The rest of the rookie class is marching in for morning formation.

Hallie’s gaze flies back to Kaia just as she jolts upright to her full height, self-consciously raking her fingers through her wild, mussed dark curls. The look of confusion and frustration mirrored on her face is nearly enough to obliterate every ounce of professional distance Hallie has been clinging to.

She wants to grab Kaia by those bulging biceps and crush their bodies together. Finally give in to the gnawing ache that’s been building between them all morning and lose herself completely in her intoxicating heat.

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