Page 25 of She's Got that Heat

Allie grins and winks at me. “Most people say hot and heavy, but…whatever.” Her eyes soften. “Damon, that was…”

I cup her face in my hands. “I love you so much. You can feel this, right? That we belong together?”

She nods slowly, her breathing still returning to normal. “Yeah. I do.”

We hold hands, lying on our backs as still as mannequins for a solid five minutes. Then she giggles. “I might actually need a proper shower now.”

Rolling over onto my elbow, I grin. “You have those sparkles on the side of your head when you’re about to get an air pressure headache. I’m having my own kind of prickle thing now.”

Allie grabs a pillow and sits up in alarm. “Headache?”

“No. It’s like…” My head shakes as I laugh. “I get a lot of fire calls right here in Old Hemlock Valley. But I also get called to West Stoneburg, Cedarville and everywhere in between. I’msuddenly having the urge to go to lunch in Cedarville. Which often means that I’m about to get a call there. Is that weird?”

Allie laughs brightly. “Maybe it’s a sixth sense or something.”

“Wanna drive through Cedarville and have lunch anywhere that catches your eye?”

She smiles, reaching out to stroke my beard. “Sure. And when you get that fire call, just drop me off at a bookstore. I have no problem waiting there for you.”

“That’s my girl.”

She looks deep into my eyes, nodding seriously. “Yes. Yours.”

16

ALLIE

* One Week Later *

You know, Damon was right about that fire call last week. Luckily, it was just the corner of a garage, and he got to bump into some friends.

Meanwhile, I simply hung out at the local bookstore and bought a new paperback, then wandered to a café. It turned out to be a perfectly lovely afternoon. But then, up here on the mountain, almost every day is wonderful.

Walking around Tidy’s Department Store, I take a few minutes to straighten up the book section, then run a cloth over a shelf full of mugs and teapots.

I can’t believe that I was able to switch jobs so easily. But everyone at the diner completely understood that it wasn’t healthy for me to keep working there, and Gina gave me incredible references when I applied here. Now I sit on a stool and work cash when there are customers, and wander around the aisles dusting and straightening when there aren’t.

It’s a set schedule, with almost zero stress, and plenty of air conditioning. I haven’t had a single headache this week.

Whether that’s from the heatwave finally ending, or the constant mind-blowing orgasms, I don’t know, but I choose to believe that Damon is healing me from the inside out.

I turn toward the twinkling of the old-fashioned bell over the front door as Damon strides in, looking around. “Is there anyone here?”

“Not right now. But there are cameras, so?—”

He crushes me against him in a hug, kissing me as if he hasn’t seen me in days instead of mere hours. “Missed you, baby.”

“Aren’t you supposed to be working?” I laugh, extricating myself.

He shrugs. “I’m running around on a bunch of small jobs today. By the way, I picked up a couple more bookshelves. Plus, I have the entire weekend open – you know, in case you wanted to makeplans.” His eyebrows go up and down suggestively as my palms land in the center of his chest.

“Whatever could you possibly mean?”

Damon’s impatience wanting me to move in with him might be considered pushy with anyone else. But I know it’s just so that he can keep an eye on me and relieve every possible stress.

We’ve already had a few conversations about him babying me perhaps a little too much, and I suspect there will be a few more. Yet I know it comes from a place of pure love, so I really can’t be irritated at him for long.

“I don’t know. Maybe you’d want to get some of your extra books out of your apartment to free up some space.”

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