Page 3 of Light Up My Life (Forbidden Heat 3)

“You never asked,” she replied coyly.

“We should play sometime,” I said, without thinking it through. “I play at least once a week.”

“You should get out more,” she replied. “I play at least three times a week, several times on the weekends.”

“Well, what do you know?” I teased. “We spend so much time with each other and it turns out that we barely know each other. Now that is interesting.”

She gave me an eyebrow flash and smiled at me. “I’m glad you think so.”

I smiled and grabbed my coffee. I headed out of the room, mostly because I suddenly did not like where this conversation was heading. Jamie and I were having a moment of connection. I wasn’t about to fire that sort of thing up. I had to remember that it was a bad idea.

I didn’t want to date a coworker for a few reasons, but the biggest was of awkwardness when I ended things, because I always did. I did not want to fall in love. The next logical step from there would be marriage, and I did not want that kind of permanence.

The rest of the day was pretty standard. We spent some time checking the equipment, trucks, and breathing apparatuses. I enjoyed this time of the day. It was fairly easy and it was a great bonding activity with the rest of the group. Then we did an hour of gym time.

While working out, Jamie positioned herself right beside me. I noticed she’d changed into a tight tank top and shorts to workout in. She was doing her best today to entice me, and I was more than a little interested. But I couldn’t have any of this right now. I focused on my workout. I knew she was watching me and there was an electricity between her and I.

Even though corporate had eased up on the no fraternization rule, it was still in place and it could still make your life miserable if you gave into it. I decided that Jamie needed a reminder from the seminar we had last month.

“You keep flirting with me and people are going to talk,” I said.

“Who’s flirting?” she asked.

I laughed. “Oh, that’s the game? Total denial? Interesting.”

She giggled and slid back under the bar.

I did my best to ignore Jamie’s come-ons for the rest of my shift, but she kept throwing them at me. They were getting harder and harder to deflect, but I had to keep turning her down.

By the time I finally ended my twenty-four-hour shift and made my way home, I was exhausted. I was drained like usual, but thankful there hadn’t been any calls. Some days, they don’t stop, that’s just the way of the job.

I sat my stuff down and headed upstairs to shower before going to bed. I was just pulling off my shirt when my phone rang. I checked the caller ID and it was Sara. Ugh, I did not really want to talk to her. Sara was a girl I’d been dating for the past two months. She was beautiful, sweet, loving, and we had a great time together. But things were getting too serious. We were getting to that point where I felt we needed to kind of start pulling away from her. When we first started dating, I’d told Sara tha

t I was not looking for anything long term. She agreed that was fine, but I had a feeling along the way she’d become more attached. The last thing I wanted to do was hurt her, but I had a feeling it would be better not to lead her on. I had to set her straight.

“Hey,” I answered.

“Hey, how’s it going?”

“Good. I just got in from work,” I said.

“Oh, were you going to bed?” she asked.

“I was, yeah. But I can talk a minute.”

“Ok, how was work?”

“Great. Nothing major happening. How was your day?” I asked.

“My day yesterday?”

I laughed. I forgot it was eight in the morning. “Yeah.”

“Well, it wasn’t bad. Kyle kept trying to sabotage me during the meeting. I swear that guy has it in for me.”

“That sucks.”

“Yeah, well when you get up today, do you want to have some dinner? Maybe go out somewhere fun?”

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