Page 80 of Some Like It Hot

“Hey Burke. Spending your day off with us?”

“Elise wanted to see where I work.”

He focuses on her. “Elise, it’s nice to meet you.”

“Hi.”

I look down at her again. Is her voice a little breathless?

I am definitely telling Blake and Simon about that.

Luke leans back in his chair. “Burke here is one of our finest. You have good taste.”

“I agree.” She gives me a smile. “Though after meeting your whole crew, I definitely feel that Chicago is in very good hands in general.”

Luke just nods. Then he looks at me. “Well, a firefighter does need to be good with his hands and has to be able to handle the heat.”

Jesus. I roll my eyes. Luke comes off as gruff and demanding, but I know a few things about him that not every member of the crew is privy to. Luke is single and does date and he likes things pretty spicy. He’s not actually flirting with Elise, though another guy might take it that way. But he’s definitely not talking about the job right now.

Subtle, he is not.

“Anyway,” I say. “I’m going to show Elise around a little more. Don’t want to interrupt your very important work, Chief.”

“Appreciate you looking out for me,” he says, nodding. “Really appreciate you brightening my day by bringing Elise by.”

I put my hand on her lower back and turn her toward the door, shaking my head at my Chief. “Knock it off.”

He smirks. “Bye Elise. Hope to see you again. “

“Bye,” she says with a finger waggle.

I nudge her out into the hallway and pull his door closed behind us. Then I look down at her. “You were flirting with my boss.”

She widens her eyes. “I was not. I was being friendly to your boss.”

“Yeah, with your pretty brown eyes, and your luscious mouth, and your flirty little smiles, and your gorgeous curves.”

She giggles and I love the sound.

“I can’t help any of that,” she protests.

I look up and down the hallway, then grab her hand and tug her toward the third door on the left. My sleeping quarters. I push her inside and shut the door behind us.

“Oh wow, you actually have a little bedroom?” she asks, taking in the built-in bed with the stacked storage drawers underneath, the hooks on the wall, and the fold down desk and chair inside the small room.

“Every station is a little different. We were lucky to have a remodel not that long ago. When I started out, we had an open room with a bunch of bunk beds, but they’ve done studies showing that firefighters are often sleep deprived and to improve on that, remodeling and providing private rooms or at least partitioned spaces, helps.” I shake my head. “They could have asked any firefighter and he or she could have told them that without needing a study.”

She smiles and looks around. “Is this the one you use all the time?”

I nod. “I share it with another guy. We work opposite shifts.”

She turns in the small space, then goes to the bed and sits on the edge, bouncing up and down. “It’s pretty comfortable.”

I nod. “Not quite like at home, definitely not as nice as what’s at Simon’s,” I say with a grin. “But I don’t sleep too bad here.”

I move in close to her, our knees bumping. I gaze down into her beautiful, upturned face. “You know, it occurs to me that when you were talking about having plenty of hoses and poles to keep you satisfied, that I haven’t been a part of that yet.”

Her eyes widen. “Of course you have. I remember you definitely being there last night and I was absolutely turned on and having a fantastic time because of all of you.”

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