Page 19 of Single Mom for the Firemen

His head lifts, as though he had almost forgotten that I was there.

“What? Sorry, I’m just…just trying to figure out what’s wrong with this damn tank.”

I know what he’s really saying. He hates it when anything doesn’t go to plan, and no matter how much we try to assure him that he’s done what he needs to do, he’ll beat himself up. Even for something as mundane as a tank malfunction, something he knows as well as we do can’t always be prevented.

“We’ll check it out when we get back to the house,” I tell him. “Come on. I’m hungry.”

“After everything we had at Vanessa’s place?”

I grin. “Trust me, I got up to a little more activity after you guys were gone…”

“Shit, man!” Mason exclaims. “We were barely back an hour before we got the call, you must have made the move fast…”

“Yeah, well, I’ve never been the kind of guy to hold back on something I want,” I reply, a little cockily. Now that I can clear my head again, all I can think about is that moment I shared with Vanessa earlier in the evening. The way she looked at me while I was inside her, the way her body moved with mine, those delicious little moans of pleasure she let out when I was kissing her…

“Tell me about it,” he laughs, slapping a hand on my shoulder. Normally, he’s not this enthused about my romantic interactions—I have to admit, I’m a little surprised. But at the same time, I’m getting the feeling that I’m not the only one who has a little crush going on Vanessa.

And judging by the way she reacted at the thought of being fucked while my brothers watched…maybe we’re not alone in that.

But before my mind can linger too much longer on the possibility, a voice cuts through the quiet and draws my attention.

“What thehelldo you think you’re doing here?”

9

VANESSA

I bouncefrom foot to foot as I wait for them to show themselves again. I know that I’m probably overstepping my bounds as well as breaking several national laws, but I can’t pass up this opportunity to see what’s going on with them. I’m sure I am going to get told to leave, but hey—a girl has to try, doesn’t she?

And when Jake greets me with that exclamation of surprise, I can tell I’m going to have to do some serious smoothing-over. I thought that lovely dinner we had together might have gone some way toward softening the blow of my presence, but clearly I’m not going to get that lucky.

“Hey, I’m so sorry to bother you,” I tell them as Mason and Killian emerge from the forest behind Jake. My heart flips when I lay eyes on Killian—truth be told, part of the reason I came here was to make certain he was really taking care of a call and not just dumping me after he got what he wanted, but I can see now he was telling the truth. Or just really committed to the bit.

“But I wanted to make sure the three of you were okay,” I say, gaze flicking between them. It’s not entirely untrue. I couldn’thelp but wonder if something serious was going down, if all three of them had to go out there to manage it—after all, when I visited Mason, just Killian and Jake had been out to deal with those lost hikers.

“Well, we’re fine,” Jake replies. He’s smiling, but I can tell he’s annoyed that I’m here. I mean, I can’t say I blame him. Having someone turn up out of the blue like this and just make themselves part of your night when you come back from work…I doubt it would delight me too much either.

But if I am going to do this story, then I want to get them when they’re ready to talk. When the adrenaline from a call is still pumping. Of course, I will have to get permission from them to use this in the story when I eventually admit that I’m writing it, but I’m sure they’ll be happy to give me that if they see it’s for the greater good…

“What happened? I mean, should Callie and I be worried?” I offer. I need some reason to stick around here, some reason to keep asking them all these questions, though it’s obvious that Jake wants me gone more than he’s able to put into words.

“No, you’ve got nothing to worry about,” Killian replies, striding up beside me and letting his shoulder brush against mine. The grin he flashes me as we touch is enough to tell me that he’s still thinking about earlier tonight—though right now I can’t allow for more than the barest shiver of pleasure in response.

“Yeah, but what about?—”

“You seem to have a lot of questions about us, Vanessa,” Mason remarks as he reaches the doorstep, turning around to face me and staring me down with a serious expression. “You want to explain why that is?”

I hesitate. Okay, so they’ve put me on the spot. I’m not going to lie and say that I don’t think they would make for a great story. After all, it’s actually kind of a compliment, isn’t it? Saying that I think they’re interesting enough for a whole feature piece on them?

“I’m a journalist,” I admit, after a long pause. “And I—I thought that the three of you would make for an interesting story.”

Jake scoffs in shock, throws his arms in the air, and heads inside, leaving the door open behind him. Killian shoots me a look, one that tells me we’ll talk about this later, and then goes to follow his brother.

But Mason stands there, staying put on the doorstep, and looks down at me.

“You telling the truth?” he asks, and I nod, sloping up the steps toward him.

“Yeah,” I confess. “I know I should have told you sooner, but?—”

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