Page 19 of Five Alarm Kiss

She’d kissed him… in her classroom!

She’d let him glide a hand under her skirt.

In.

Her.

Classroom!

“I can’t.… We can’t.…” she sputtered, scrambling to her feet. “I don’t even know you!”

Jake smiled and stood next to her. “I’d like to get to know you.”

“I’m not going to sleep with you,” she blurted, then immediately slapped a hand over her mouth. What in bells made her say that? It’s not like she’d been fantasizing about him in her bed ever since she’d laid eyes on him in the bar.

Ummm…

He chuckled. “I never asked you to, but I’m game, if you’reasking.”

“I’m not!” she squeaked. That thought was laughable. She’d never asked a guy for sex in her life, and that included Ethan. He’d always been the one to initiate it. She sure wasn’t going to start being the aggressor after thirty years of doing the opposite. Especially not with a man who was the embodiment of perfection… who she didn’t even know!

She took a fortifying breath, then forced herself to meet his eyes, intent on making darn sure he knew having sex with him was the furthest thing from her mind.

Sure, it is.

He smiled again, and her bravado faltered. Self-consciously tucking the strand of blue behind her ear, she schooled herfeatures into what she hoped was an I-so-don’t-want-to-rip-your-clothes-off-and-ride-you-on-my-desk expression before continuing.

“For the record,” she informed him. “If you had asked, I would’ve said no.”

Probably.

Maybe.

Oh, who am I kidd?—

“Good to know.” He leaned over and picked up the jacket he’d dropped earlier when he’d kneeled down to help her gather crayons… which were still scattered across the floor. Tossing it over his shoulder, he added, “I’ll remember that for next time.”

Next time?

Chapter Six

“How was babysitting yesterday, Lockwood?” Logan asked, walking into the fire station’s gear storage room.

As firefighters, they were exposed to and often worked with agents that had the potential to be carcinogenic. When they returned to the station after responding to a call, their gear was put into a negative pressure decontamination room to be cleaned. Once that was done, it was moved from decon to the gear storage room, which is where they stowed it during their off-duty time. The room loosely resembled a walk-in closet with racks, hooks, a metal bench, and a shit-ton of extra ventilation. They kept everything by the trucks for easy access and to save time in the event of a call when they were on duty.

“Have fun hanging with your peers?”

Sitting on the bench in the gear room, Jake ignored the jibe. Logan comparing him to a grade schooler was par for the course, so he didn’t bother looking up from inspecting the face mask portion of his SCBA. He liked doing his inspections in the room instead of the truck bay because it was quieter. Well, it was until Logan showed up.

First thing every morning, Station 23’s crew performed equipment and truck checks. They literally inspected everything,from making sure their air packs were working properly, to checking lights and gas levels on the trucks, all the way down to ensuring the batteries in their headlamps weren’t dead.

After inspections were done, they’d have a meeting with Captain Anders. Since he hadn’t scheduled any training this morning, they’d moved on to the rest of their daily routine of cleaning the station, equipment, and rigs before tackling anything else.

Running into Laurel at the school yesterday afternoon had been a welcome surprise. Jake hadn’t gleaned much info about her at Hannah’s other than she’d just turned thirty, wasn’t into the bar scene—she hadn’t actually said that, but it was obvious—and really hated being compared to pie.

He winced.Way to go on the pie comment, Lockwood.

He’d intended to get her number, but in his defense, she had been busy yacking all over his runners. He grinned remembering how she’d sheepishly offered to have them dry-cleaned.

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