Page 753 of Hell Hath No Fury
“You need to get checked out at the hospital,” he murmured.
* * *
Jax told himself to let the woman go. Instead he held her tighter. The ambulance would be here in a few minutes. He’d let her go then. His gut tightened at the thought.
“What’s your name, sweetheart?”
Sweetheart? Jesus.
“Kennedy James,” she said.
The name made him think of hand-painted teacups and sculpture gardens… or maybe that was just her. Even dusted with soot, she was delicate, her eyes a little too wideset, nose a little long to be called beautiful. He couldn’t look away.
He tried to think past the adrenaline still saturating his veins. As a career firefighter, he had seen this before. A guy could get too attached to the victims, especially on a difficult rescue.
But this hadn’t been a particularly rough fire. And he never got attached. Never—on the job or off. He was the flighty one. The risk-taker. The Tasmanian Devil who would spin away the second things got personal.
He hadn’t realized how lonely it would be, moving so fast and so foolish that no one could touch him.
She was touching him.
A trembling finger reached up to his eyebrows. What was she doing? He didn’t care. His body responded anyway. She traced the arch, and it should have been innocent. Except there was a goddamn X-rated soundtrack coming from the other inhabitants of the building.
He’d seen that too. People acted strange when they’d glimpsed death. Which must explain his actions now, and hers. He had an erection, and he was sure she could feel it. Especially when she wriggled her hips. Actually moved against his hardness, testing and maybe teasing. Of course, she wasn’t herself right now, wasn’t used to this kind of stress, wasn’t a professional. He didn’t have any excuse exceptSorry, I’m a bastard.
Flashing red lights around the corner signaled the arrival of the ambulance. They medics came over with a stretcher and reached to take her from him. He might have snarled, snapping like a dog. Or maybe he’d just said, “I can do it.” He wasn’t sure.
He lifted her and placed her on the stretcher. “There you go.”
She frowned. “Where are you going?”
Home for a few hours. Back to the station for another shift tomorrow. Again and again, in a cycle he couldn’t break.“You need to get checked out at the hospital,” he repeated.
Her eyes fell shut. “Don’t want to.”
“They’ll take good care of you.” He wished he could be sure of that.
She mumbled something that includedpaper hospital gownsandtravestyas they loaded her into the ambulance. He stared from his position on the curb, knowing he should return to the crew but unable to move.
His partner, Samuel, came to stand beside him, watching through the open back ambulance doors as they hooked her up.
“So,” he said.
Jax sent him a quelling look.
Samuel put up his hands. “I’m not judging you. Hell, after what happened…”
He was thinking about last year, when his divorce had dragged on for months. It had been ugly, and Jax had covered his ass a time or two.
True enough, Samuel had way more personal shit out there. But Jax had also stood up at the man’s wedding and seen the way they’d skipped out on the last half of their reception, so eager to get each other alone. The ending had sucked, but the whole of their relationship had looked full, rich—enviable.
Jax sighed. “Tell me I’m a dumbass.”
Samuel looked thoughtful. “Well, youare. But not right now.”
They watched while the driver climbed out and shut the back doors. The ambulance rolled forward and drove away, leaving a hole in Jax’s chest that hadn’t been there before. Or maybe he’d always been hollow, but he felt it now. Felt how a single touch along his brow could fill him up.
He was a dumbass.
