Page 102 of Burning for Alexander
Adrian shrugged. “My business manager hooked me up with a small sponsorship to create fire safety content and just sent me the information this morning. He arranged it with the people at the search and rescue training program who are putting on the bonfire?—”
“SERA,” Maya supplied with a nod.
“Right,” Adrian agreed. “So we’re going to film out there tonight.”
I headed toward the door, waving a hand over my shoulder. “Like I said, good luck. Chief Kincaid’s an ass and ten times more stubborn than one. Enjoy!”
I stormed back to Timber in an even worse mood than before. The fire chief was ruining my life. And now he’d accepted a date with the town’s prettiest newcomer.
Great.
No problem.
It was fine.
But like… I obviously needed to go to that bonfire. I had spent quite a bit of time in the past year being schooled on proper fire safety technique, so it only made sense for me to attend the town’s holiday bonfire, where there would necessarily be quite a bit of fire danger. I also liked s’mores, and it wasn’t like Timber would ever get a permit to make them.
So Ihadto go to the SERA bonfire.
It was downright obligatory, honestly.
Later that night, I turned up at SERA and watched as JuddKincaid stood up in front of everyone and lectured them on fire safety rules. It seemed to be part of whatever Adrian was filming, and I had to admit it was a little bit of a relief to see Judd more interested in fire safety than in the model-pretty influencer beside him.
I quickly learned from the excited chatter surrounding me that the two of them were filming public safety for the forest service or something. It seemed like our grumpy fire chief was taking his job way too seriously, as usual.
In fact, only a short time later, he seemed to become annoyed at his “date” when Adrian accidentally set his marshmallow on fire.
“What the hell is going on over here?” Judd asked, moving swiftly to remove the flailing marshmallow skewer from Adrian’s hand and stick it in an empty tin can on the ground. “Did you even listen to a word I said? Are you demonstrating whatnotto do?”
Adrian didn’t look sorry, but he apologized anyway in his charming way. “Sorry, Chief. I got carried away.”
Kincaid narrowed his eyes at the guy like he was ready to string him up for improper marshmallow-toasting safety behavior. “You’re putting people at risk because you can’t put your phone down.”
This was unusually grumpy, even for Kincaid.
I stepped forward and grabbed Judd’s arm, trying to pull him away. No one needed the local fire chief to ruin the mood of a holiday gathering. “Hey! He was just trying to film content likeyouasked him to. Take it easy on the guy. It’s not his fault you’re impossible to please.”
The chief’s eyes snapped to me and narrowed, causing my heart to flicker with more heat than the flames in the giant bonfire nearby. “Not sure you’re the one who should be giving safety advice, Firebug,” he growled.
“You need to calm down,” I said, mentally owing Ella a shot of alcohol for the inadvertent Taylor Swift lyrics. “You need to just stop.” Dammit. Two shots.
I let out a breath and regrouped. “Listen. It was a flaming marshmallow. We all get them from time to time. Do you want all these little kids so scared of you that they run away from the helpers during a fire? Think about it.”
He folded his arms over his broad chest and glared. “This helpful advice coming from the same man who?—”
I couldn’t help interrupting him. The words had been waiting hours to spill out. At least I had the decency to lower my voice. “Also? Why the hell are you on a date with Adrian fucking Hayes? And did you know that he asked me out first and I said no? I said no because I thought it wouldn’t be very nice to you! And I worried that if you saw me out with him, it might cause you pain. Ha! I guess not! Because here you are?—”
Judd clamped a large hand over my mouth to stop my rant and then grabbed my hand and yanked me away from the fire and deep into the shadows behind a nearby building. As soon as I opened my mouth to say, “And another thing,” he slammed his mouth down on mine.
The little baby-bird-like noise that came out of my nose wasn’t attractive, but I couldn’t help but melt into him. The commanding kiss was feral but also familiar. Controlling but also caressing.
Judd’s hands moved into my hair to clasp my head as if I would ever for any reason want to pull away or stop.
I didn’t. Iwouldn’t.
Instead, I let him kiss me for as long as he wanted. Unfortunately, that wasn’t very long. He pulled back and glared at me. “Stop coming to my house if you’re not going to treat me like someone who deserves more than just your body. Now, go home.”
Before I could say anything—rage or complain or beg him formore kisses—he was gone. Back to the bonfire and back to his supposed date.
