Page 88 of Deck the Fire Halls

It just felt official or something.

“Good morning,” Gunter said brightly and a touch conspiratorially.

“Morning,” we replied.

Gunter looked between us, smirking. “Good to see you two together at this time of day...”

He was absolutely fishing for details, which I had no intention of giving him.

But Soren grinned. “Oh, I was already at Rob’s this morning, because I spent the night. You know, all night,” he said with a nudge to my elbow. “And anyway, he mentioned coming here and I thought I’d come check itout before I went to work.” He looked around. “Great place, by the way.”

Gunter was too busy giving me his raised eyebrow. “All night, huh?”

I had no clue what to say to that, and given my face felt as if it were about to burst into flames, I guessed I didn’t need to.

“Allnight,” Soren said nodding. “And again this morning.”

Now it was I who nudged him. “What are you doing?”

Soren laughed and gave me a quick hug. “Oh, come on, I have to tell someone. I’ll get to work and Chucky won’t want to hear any of it.” He looked around again. “And there’s no one here. It’s just us. And Gunter gets it.”

Gunter nodded, grinning at me.

I sighed, embarrassed but unable to stop the giddy feeling in my belly, which of course made it impossible not to smile. This was so ridiculous.

Soren eyed me, proud as punch. The fact he was wearing his firefighter uniform didn’t help because he was so freaking hot, and he was looking at me like that...

Gunter laughed. “You two are as cute as hell.”

“So anyway,” I began. “I’m free all day if you need me to do anything.”

“Oh, that’d be great,” Gunter replied. “I’ll never say no. Actually, can you go do a quick count of the health supplies in the bathrooms? That’d be great.” He handed me his notepad. “Condoms, sanitary pads, that kind of thing.”

“Oh, sure.” I gave Soren a smile as I disappeared intothe bathrooms and filled out a quick tally of all items, including the toilet paper and hand towels, and when I came back out, Soren and Gunter were standing there, smiling at me.

Yeah. They’d definitely talked about me.

“Everything okay?” I asked.

“Oh, sure,” Soren said.

“Of course,” Gunter added.

I laughed because they were terrible liars. “Did you have enough time to talk about me, or do you need me to go back in there?”

Soren burst out laughing and threw his arms around me, giving me a rocking side-to-side hug. “You’re too damn cute,” he said. Then, as if we were alone, he planted a kiss on my lips. “I gotta go. See you tonight? Don’t stay up for me. I’ll let myself in.”

Then he breezed to the door with a wave goodbye.

Damn.

Gunter nudged me. “He’s incredibly hot,” he murmured. “Jeez. How’s it dating a younger man? Fun, isn’t it? Clay’s younger than me too.”

Oh dear lord.

My stupid blush gave me away. “If by fun you mean the hottest, best sex of my life, then yes.”

Gunter laughed. “He’s down bad for you.”

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