Page 79 of Some Like It Hot

I wonder if Simon and Blake are feeling as tightly wound around her finger as I already am.

“Of course I’ll take you to the firehouse,” I tell her. “I would love to show my gorgeous new girlfriend off to my crew.”

She gives me a surprised, but very pleased, smile at my use of the term girlfriend. Is it fast? Maybe. But what the hell else would I call her? I love being with her. I intend to keep fucking her. I want to spend all my free time with her, I can’t wait to introduce her to my family, and I want to know everything about her.

If that’s not a girlfriend, I don’t know what is.

CHAPTER 20

Aidan

Twenty minutes later, we’re walking through the doors to Fire Station Seventeen.

“Burke!” one of the guys, Wyatt, calls when he notices me. “What the hell are you doing here? You do understand how days off work, right?” But his eyes are on Elise.

And the grin that stretches his stupid face is all for her.

“Yeah, well, when a gorgeous woman says she assumes firefighters are humble, hard-working guys, you have to take the opportunity to prove her right,” I shoot back.

He laughs. “Humble? I don’t think I know that word. Can you use it in a sentence?”

I really like Wyatt. He’s definitely hard working and I trust him in any and every situation we would ever find ourselves in. But humble? No. I’m pretty sure he does not know that word. “Sure,” I say. “Those of us who are hardworking, and humble, get to bring gorgeous women to the firehouse.”

Wyatt laughs. “I gotta get me some of that humble then.” He extends his hand to Elise. “I’m Wyatt. Very nice to meet you. Though I feel like we’ve met before…”

“She was in the elevator on New Year’s Eve. You caught a glimpse of her when you weren’t geeking out over key locks.”

Wyatt shoots me a glare before giving Elise a nod of understanding. “That’s right. The damsel in a hot dress.”

“I’m Elise,” she says, giving him a smile that makes me slide my hand to her ass and squeeze. She looks up at me with a sassy grin.

Wyatt gives me a look. “Didn’t know you acted on that.”

Yeah, yeah, there can be a lot of down time between calls around here and we all get to know each other pretty well. Serious relationships do come up and no, I haven’t mentioned I texted Elise. But now I want to tell everyone everything about her.

“You must have been worried about bringing her around and having her realize she has far better hot, charming firefighter options,” Wyatt says, giving Elise a wink.

She laughs.

I roll my eyes at him. “That’s why I brought her during your shift. Nothing to worry about at all.”

“Right.” He grins at Elise again. “Well, if you ever need anything this guy can’t give you, let me know.”

Elise leans against me and I wrap an arm around her. “That’s sweet but I’ve got all the hoses and poles I could possibly need, thanks.”

Wyatt snorts. “Good to hear.” He claps me on the shoulder as he steps past me. “See ya Burke. Don’t let sweet Elise here keep you up all night.”

I look down at her. “A little tired on the shift will be worth it.”

I take her hand and we move further into the station. We say hi to a few more of the crew. I show her the bays where the trucks are parked and don’t even try to contain my smile when she exclaims about them and runs her hand over the shiny red sides. She’s disappointed to find out that we don’t have a dog, but I show her the calendar we shot this year and that I (okay, and others) were holding dogs from the shelter. She’s placated when I inform her that they all got adopted after the calendar came out. She also takes one of the extra calendars from the stack and tucks it under her arm.

I take her into the common area, the kitchen, and then we stop by the office of our chief.

“Hey Chief, I wanted to introduce you to someone.”

Luke looks up from his desk, then his eyes settle on Elise and his eyebrows arch.

She seems to have that effect on pretty much all men, as far as I can tell. I can’t wait to tell Simon and Blake how enamored all of the firefighters are with our girl.

---