Page 74 of The Spark Between Us

“That was so. Goddamn. Sexy,” I growled. How had it taken me this long to come up with the pole idea?

A shadow of her more self-conscious side emerged. “That was amazing. I didn’t realize how much I missed it,” she said, still breathless from the exertion.

I tapped the pole. “I’m...never going to look at this fucking thing the same way again.”

“Good,” she laughed. Wrapping her arms around my neck, she leaned in for a sweaty kiss, and I took the opportunity to lick the salt from her neck. Her body gave an involuntary shiver as I ran my tongue down to the curve of her shoulder.

“Are you cold?” It was always freezing in the station.

“A bit.”

I grabbed my fire jacket off the hook and wrapped it around her. The thing fit her like a tent, but with her long, bare legs and wild hair, I’d never seen anyone look so gorgeous.

The next song on her playlist was something sexy by Bruno Mars. “Wanna dance?” She tipped her face up to mine.

I put a hand on the small of her back and pulled her in close. “This would kill my man cred if anyone saw us.”

“Don’t do a lot of dancing at the fire station?” She rested her cheek against my chest, and I inhaled the lavender and mint scent of her shampoo.

“Nope.” My dick was still rock hard, but I wanted to dance with her more than I wanted to push her against the hook and ladder truck and have my way with her. I wanted to romance her, which meant I’d fallen so far over the edge for her already that I might as well give in. I’d pick up the pieces later. I had no choice.

She seemed to agree, pressing tighter against me. “I’ve never danced in front of anyone before. But it got me kind of hot.”

“Kind of?”

“Okay, very.”

“That’s easily remedied.” I moved us across the floor until her back was up against the wall and lifted her so she could wrap her legs around my waist.

“Yes, please. You. Now.” Her voice came out in that raspy, needy tone I loved.

But then...

The station siren went off in an angry blare, and we had the misfortune of standing right beneath it. Sarah clung to me in shocked fear until she realized what it meant. Her look turned to dread.

“You think it’s the Grisley Fire?”

I nodded and gently lowered Sarah to the ground, kissing her on the cheek seconds before the incoming dispatch crackled with what was needed and where. She shimmied back into her clothes—I’d never seen anyone move so quickly, and I worked with guys trained in suiting up on a dime.

Guys who’d been hanging in the backhouse flooded in, jumping into their boots and throwing their arms into the sleeves of their coats.

“Pleasanton got called a couple hours ago. Everyone’s getting overtime,” I told Mitch when he came in with his jacket already on and his helmet in his hand. It was his habit to take it wherever he went instead of leaving it with his pants and boots. All the guys had their own quirks, and that was his.

Sarah saw the grim look on my face when I assessed the incoming messages. “I’m sorry, Damsel. I’ve gotta go.” She nodded, and I could tell she had questions and worries, but there was no time to answer them. I grabbed my keys from my pocket and handed them to her. “Here. Take my truck back to the house, and I’ll call you as soon as I can with a status report.”

“Okay. Be careful, fireman.” She tried to smile, but her face was too clouded with concern to be convincing. It broke my heart to leave her like that, which was a whole other problem I had no time to deal with.

I kissed her on the cheek. “Don’t worry.”

With that, she took the keys and headed for the side entrance where we’d come in. There was a faster way out, but I had to turn my back and get our guys into the rig and out the door. She’d find her way out.

From that second, I was on autopilot, running through the mental checklist of everything we needed to fight a brushfire and pinging the on-call guys to let them know they’d probably be needed. If we were getting the call before the weather patterns had shifted, it meant things were already looking bad.

Sarah didn’t need to know that.

And I couldn’t help feeling guilty about the fact that rushing into a danger zone still filled me with an adrenaline rush like no other. As soon as she was out of sight, my head cleared of all distractions, and I went through the checklist for the rig before we headed out. There was a reason I chose this profession, and so far, nothing else had provided the same high.

Well, until I met Sarah.

---