Page 40 of Fall at Once

“You’re too much. I should have had Gigi help me.”

“Gigi’s a bigger perv than I am.” She scoffed. “Who’s the one who thought this entire thing up?”

“Ugh, fine.”

“Why did I save him for last?”

“So you can be alone with him.” She flicked her wrist, checking her smartwatch with a smirk. “Oh no. Something suddenly came up,” she deadpanned with a smirk. “I guess you’ll have to take hottie Cole’s picture all by yourself.” She hopped off the truck and waved at me. “Ta ta, don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”

“Kenzie! What the hell? Where are you going?”

“Nowhere. Everywhere. Or maybe just back to Gigi’s. I’ll meet you at your place when you’re done.” She tossed me her keys. “I’ll leave my car since you have all that camera crap. Later.”

“This isn’t cool! You are on my list,” I hollered at her retreating back as she waved at me over her shoulder.

I shook my head. It didn’t matter if she left. I was a professional. I could take Cole’s photoprofessionallyand not drool all over him. Probably.

Out of all of them, Cole seemed to be the most ill at ease. He had excused himself and practically ran to his office when I started. But to be fair, none of them had watched each otherget their photos taken. They’d taken turns posing in front of the old truck, then gone back inside to do whatever they did in the station when they weren’t out fighting fires and saving lives.

“Shit,” I muttered as I waited for him to come down. “He’s just a man. You’ve got this. You’re a trained professional, and he is just a man. He is just the sexiest firefighting man in the entire world, damn it. I don’t got this at all. I got nothing.” I shrugged my shoulders up and down and did a little hop to pump myself up.

“You okay there, Madi? Are you cold?”

“Huh?” I spun to face him, nearly tripping over my feet as the heel of my boot got caught in a crack in the sidewalk. “No. I’m not cold. I’m totally professional—I mean fine. I’m totally fine.” I caught myself and smiled at him.

“Okay.” His lips tipped up at the corner. “I have an extra jacket in the station. If you need it, let me know.”

“Thanks.” Gah! How can he be so hot and sweet at the same time? It was not fair to us mere mortals.

“So, uh…” He fidgeted with the suspenders on his pants and looked at me questioningly. He was struggling with this. He was nervous, and my heart melted.

“Right. All the other guys posed right over there. By the truck. Does that work for you?”

“Yeah, sure.”

I didn’t want to make him even more uncomfortable by asking if he wanted to remove his shirt, so I didn’t. It wasn’t like he needed to anyway. He had changed into a blue Cozy Creek FireBrigade branded T-shirt, and it was snug.

His biceps strained at the sleeves, and his pecs were pec-cing all over the place. Good lord, his chest was broad, like a freaking wall. My eyes were about to pop out of my head like one of those old-timey cartoons. I was in real danger of embarrassing myself over him.

I thought I had it bad when I saw him jogging all over town. That was nothing compared to how I felt right now.

I was face-to-face with his glorious pecs, abs, shoulders, and all the other gorgeous parts of his body. Seriously, the man was without flaw, and he rocked the crap out of that T-shirt.

Plus, I knew him better now. His personality, in combination with his looks, was lethal. He was super shy about having his picture taken, which was completely adorable.

I wanted to cuddle him.

In his lap.

Naked.

Damn it.

“How about you stand by the door.” My voice came out squeaky, like a horny little mouse. “Maybe put your hand on the hood and lean in?”

“Sure, yeah.” He did what I said, but it seemed like he forgot how to be human in the process.

He was rigid.

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