Page 25 of Five Alarm Kiss

“Sorry!” Laurel shouted. “Coming!” She dragged Skye along as she started walking.

“Hey, Laurel, wait up!”

Oh, no!

“Gotta go,” Skye said with an evil grin. She sprinted ahead, tossing Laurel to the wolves—uh—wolf.

That’s it. She was demoting Skye from best friend status.

Laurel started speed walking, but Jake easily caught up.

“Hey.”

She didn’t say anything, nor did she slow her pace. She was too confused. She’d seen the blonde hanging on Jake with her own eyes, but Skye said she was with the other guy. Either Skye was wrong, or Jake wasn’t with the blonde. Laurel didn’t know what to believe.

The easiest thing would be to ask him, but how did she ask him without looking jealous?

If the blonde was his girlfriend, that made him a cheater, and she wouldn’t give a flying fig what he thought of her. But if he was single, how did she save face after basically making herself look desperate?

Avoidance. That was her best plan

“I’ve been meaning to call you,” Jake said.

She automatically looked his way, stumbling when he smiled.

Man, he has a nice smile. And perfect, white teeth. He could star in a toothpaste commercial.

The corners of his eyes crinkled when his smile widened. That’s when she realized she’d stopped walking and had been openly staring at him for who knows how long. Probably while drooling, too.

Ugh.

“I never gave you my number,” she said, back on the move.

I hope I wasn’t drooling!

As discreetly as possible, she reached up to drag the back of a knuckle across her lower lip, just in case.

Keep walking. Do not, I repeat, do not look at him.

“Exactly.” Jake stopped her with a hand on her arm. “We need to remedy that.”

“Why?” she asked, looking up at him.

Gah! I wasn't supposed to look at him!

She quickly looked away.

Subtle.

“Did you forget something in my classroom?” she asked, pretending to check her harness to make sure it was secure. “I don’t remember seeing anything.” When she accidentally pulled the nylon strap belted around her waist harder than intended, it cinched in like a tourniquet. She tried to loosen it, but it was tight. Really tight. So tight, she was having a hard time getting enough slack to be able to push the strap back through the metal buckle in order to loosen it.

“No, I want to ask you…” His words trailed off as he watched her struggling with the strap. “Do you need some help?”

No matter what she did, she couldn’t loosen the darn thing. She was starting to feel like a balloon that had been twisted in half.

Swallowing her pride in favor of restoring blood flow, she confessed, “I’m stuck.”

Jake moved her hands and attempted to loosen the strap for her. “Shit, Princess, how’d you get it so tight?” He slipped one hand between the nylon strap holding her prisoner and her stomach, trying to get a better grip.

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