Taming Fire (Braving the Heat #2)

by Leora Gonzales

  Remembering the first time this had happened, Louise grimaced. She had not been prepared at all for the job and Junior had no problem letting her know it. Since when did four-year-olds not know how to wipe their own butts? She was pretty sure that this wasn’t normal. Right?

  After almost napping in the car and almost ruining her appetite at the bakery, Junior then couldn’t decide which donut he wanted. That issue was somewhat understandable since Louise herself always had a hard time picking out what she wanted amongst all the goodies offered. Junior had also managed to leave handprints and even a few face prints all over the front of the glass cases. It wasn’t until she saw him open his mouth and lick up random donut crumbs on the counter while she was paying that she had realized how gross kids were. She would be lucky if he didn’t pick up some foreign disease before her brother finished rehab. Louise didn’t even want to figure out how she would pass her nephew back to his dad with an explanation of how he managed to contract diphtheria or a new version of the plague. She could already imagine trying to explain it over one of his timed phone calls from the facility. By the way, your son has the bubonic plague now because he licked the handle to the men’s room at Target. It would be funny if it weren’t true.

  Now, over an hour later, coming back from the bakery with two dozen donuts gracing the front seat of her car, Junior was officially passed out in his car seat.

  She pulled into her driveway, quietly climbed out and breathed in the fresh fall air that swirled around her. Louise leaned against the car and enjoyed the early morning peace of her cul-de-sac. Looking through the car window, she smiled at how sweet Junior looked while he slept. He looked so much like her brother that it was as if they had simply time traveled and brought him from the past.

  Damn, she missed her brother. Out of all of her siblings, her youngest brother was one of her favorites. Of course, Louise knew that she wasn’t supposed to have favorites, but she totally did. Each sibling was different. There was the funny one, the bossy one, the bitchy one, the dramatic one and the baby. They didn’t see each other often, usually only when one of them needed something, even though they lived in the same small town. It may have seemed odd to her friends that she rarely spoke to most of her siblings, but Louise considered it a welcome silence. She was tired of them always needing something…and they always needed something.

  Louise loved them, but she didn’t necessarily like them. Separate, they were their own people, but when they got together, they fell into their sibling roles as if they were never apart. Of course, her baby brother had taken the baby role a little far. He always needed to be bailed out of one issue or another.

  Before Junior had shown up, Aaron had crashed on her couch more often than not, never having a steady place to live. College hadn’t been in the cards for him, and neither had a steady job it seemed. It wasn’t until her dad had stepped in and gotten him a job at the plant that he had gotten his shit together…well, at least some of it. The drinking had first started when he was making friends with the guys at work. Then, it evolved into a weekly gathering with his friends to watch the game. When Rochelle left, Aaron’s drinking had increased even more. In those days, it wasn’t unusual for Junior to stay at her house on the days that his dad was struggling. Of course, that just gave Aaron a free babysitter to go out whenever he felt the need, which hadn’t been her intention. After that, it was almost nightly, and Aaron often required a ride home via Louise herself or an Uber, which she paid for because she didn’t want him driving home. Louise had lost track of the times she had lectured him about his problem, seeming to be the only one who cared enough to do so. There had been nights that she had lain awake worrying about him, wondering if he was attempting to drive himself or others around while drunk as a skunk. A deep sigh of relief had been her reaction when he announced he was going to rehab. Relief and bone-deep gratefulness that he was going to try to get better for himself and his son.

  Realizing that she had been standing there for a couple minutes, if not more, Louise decided she needed to get both the donuts and the kid inside.

  This was a time when she would have benefited from more arms than just the two she was graced with. Opening the car door, Louise grimaced as her shoulder protested.

  “Fuckballz,” she murmured to herself, not wanting to wake Junior up.

  Standing straight, she realized that there was no way she was going to be able to carry his small fifty-pound frame into the house with the way her shoulder was feeling right now. She was just about to reach in and gently wake Junior when a large truck turned into her cul-de-sac.

  Louise stared at the unfamiliar vehicle. She was always keeping an eye out for her neighbors on the block. One thing she couldn’t stand was when random salesmen started walking the neighborhood, pitching bogus products to her elderly neighbors. It wasn’t until the truck pulled in behind her own car that she realized who it was that was inside the big vehicle.

  It was the firefighter from last night.

  Holy shit! The hot firefighter was back, and she was literally standing in her driveway with bedhead, wearing the ugliest hoodie she owned, with a sleepy kid and two dozen donuts.

  Nix climbed out of the truck, his thick thighs prominent in his tight jeans, and essentially took her breath away.

  He was hot. So fucking hot. Ridiculously hot.

  Louise wasn’t exaggerating either. If there was ever a man who deserved to be on the cover of a romance novel, it was the one walking toward her right now. His body was thick, ridged with heavy muscle with no fat that Louise could see. He was wearing a T-shirt that would most likely dwarf her large frame but was snug over his pecs and arms, jeans that were worn but looked soft and comfortable, black boots, and a hat covering his hair.

  He smiled at her, keeping his hands in his pockets as he looked her over just as much as she had him.

  Louise grinned. “I forgot you were coming this morning.”

  The smile he was wearing slipped right off his face. “Is this a bad time?”

  “No! This is actually perfect timing.” Louise gestured to the car. “Junior is asleep, and I tweaked my shoulder earlier, so I can’t carry him inside. Is there any way you could do me a solid and help?” Louise smiled at him sweetly, hoping her dimples might gain her a favor or two. “I’ll even throw in some donuts if you’re on the fence.”

  She barely contained her fist pump when he moved forward without question.

  “Here, let me unbuckle his seat.” Louise leaned into the vehicle and unlocked his harness. “It’s a little bit tricky.” Turning around, she realized that bent over she was dead even with his crotch. Staring at the soft denim that cupped a pretty impressive bulge, Louise felt her face heat at the amount of time that it took for her to straighten up and look away.

  “Umm,” Louise stuttered, feeling like an idiot when she caught sight of his lips quirking as if he found her embarrassment amusing.

  “I got him. Want to get the door for me?” Nix rumbled, smoothly scooping Junior out of his seat and into his strong arms.

  Louise moved quickly, grabbed the donuts and led the way up the sidewalk to her front door…feeling his eyes on her every step of the way.

  Glancing back, she tried to hide a smile at the vision of him cradling Junior. That right there was some major mommy porn.

  She was in trouble. So, so much trouble. Funny thing was that she didn’t care one bit.

  Chapter 4

  Nix thanked his lucky stars that he had arrived when he did. When he first pulled up, he had thought for a moment that he was catching Louise as she was getting ready to leave. It wasn’t until she spoke that he realized she had found herself in a bind and needed his help to get into the house with the kid and her boxes of donuts.

  He hoped he had scored some points helping her out with her nephew. Although if he were honest, he would have offered the same to anyone needing a hand.

  “Follow me, and you can lay him down in his room,” Louise whispered, leading him
toward what he assumed was her guest room.

  Nix tried to soften his steps as he walked through her house. He never realized how loud his boots were without carpet before.

  Louise opened a door to a bright and modern room with floral accents. “You can lay him down right there. I will get his blanket from my room, and he should be set.”

  Nix settled him down onto the soft linens. The large blooms on the bedspread making him appear even smaller than his little body was. “There ya go, buddy.”

  Junior turned to his side automatically in his sleep, tucking his hands underneath his cheek and letting out a sigh.

  Nix moved out of the room and followed the sound of Louise as she hunted for the blanket she had mentioned earlier. Walking into the master bedroom, he stopped dead in his tracks at the view before him.

  Louise was on her knees, next to a giant four-poster bed, with her ass in the air as if begging for the heat from his palm. It wasn’t until she bounced on her knees, her bottom bobbing up and down, that he realized she was trying to pull something from beneath the bed.

  “C’mon, you piece of crap!” Louise grumbled angrily at whatever she was trying to pull from underneath the large frame.

  “Need help there?” Nix leaned one shoulder against the doorframe and hoped that the relaxed pose hid his growing erection.

  He winced when he heard her head smack into the bottom of her bedframe. “Sorry, sweetness. You okay?”

  After moving forward, he knelt beside her and cradled her head. Tilting her face up to his own, he cupped the back of her head while he looked at the goose egg that was forming on the top of her crown. “Ouch.”

  “The blanket got caught on one of the nail heads raised on my floorboard.” Louise gave one last weak tug on the blanket, calling his attention to where it was snagged.

  “These floors pretty old?” Nix asked as he worked the blanket free.

  “Yeah, the house was carpeted when I first moved in, but when we tore it up and saw these underneath…well, I couldn’t stand to cover them back up. Unfortunately, my budget didn’t really allow for me to professionally redo them, so I had my family help out. That means there are a couple of snags here and there. Fairly minimal, but they can still drive me crazy now and then.” Louise offered him a grin even as she felt around her head where she had bumped it.

  When she stopped speaking, Nix realized that he was kneeling next to her staring like some sort of moonstruck schoolboy. He handed her the blanket, making sure their hands touched, his fingers lingering over the soft skin of her fingers before letting go.

  “Umm…thanks,” she murmured, her face once again reddening to his delight.

  “Go out to dinner with me.” Nix almost winced at the huskiness of his own voice. He sounded like he was about to growl at her…something actually not far from the truth.

  “Sorry?”

  “Dinner. Me and you.” It wasn’t until the words left his mouth that he realized he hadn’t really asked .

  “No.”

  “I’ll pick you—” Nix was talking before her answer registered in his brain. “Wait, did you say no?”

  Nix looked at the woman, still on her knees beside him, trying to figure out what was happening. She said no.

  Women didn’t say no to him…

  “Yeah, I said no.” Louise huffed out a breath and blew a strand of hair away that was tickling at her cheek. “I would say thanks for asking, but that wasn’t an invitation.”

  Nix rocked back on his knees with his mouth hanging open. What the hell was happening?

  “I got this covered.” She gestured to the blanket before hiking a finger over her shoulder in the direction of the door. “You can use whatever tools you need out of the garage to fix the gate. Just let me know when you finish.”

  Well hell.

  Nix stood up, trying to shake off the feeling of disappointment that he felt from being turned down by the same women he had been thinking about all night long. Moving without words, he walked out the bedroom door leaving her in the position she was in when he found her.

  Stomping down the hall, he took off his hat to run his fingers through his hair in frustration. It was only when he heard the loud knocking sound of his heavy steps that he tempered his movements. He was disappointed, but not such a complete asshole that he wanted to wake up the kid.

  She said no. Well, alright then. It wasn’t like he was hard up for a date or anything. He just needed to fix her gate, get the fuck out of her house, and forget that he was ever here.

  Yeah.

  That’s what he needed to do.

  After yanking his truck door open, he pulled out the toolbox he’d made sure to have with him this morning.

  He didn’t need her or the stupid tools in her garage. It wasn’t until he practically kicked the gate lying in the backyard that he realized he was acting like a big fucking baby. Scrubbing his hands over his face, he let out a chuckle at his actions.

  “Get your shit together, man,” he mumbled to himself while he pulled out the stuff he needed to get the job done.

  “Did you say something?”

  When the softly spoken question came from directly behind him without warning, Nix almost jumped out of his skin. Turning around, he pasted on a smile of indifference that he hoped would fool her.

  “Just talking to myself.” Nix made a point to turn around and continue fixing the fence as if she weren’t there.

  “I brought you a donut and some coffee,” Louise offered.

  “Thanks, this should only take a couple of minutes though, so I won’t be here for long.” Nix nodded his appreciation at the offering.

  “About earlier…”

  Nix cut her off right there. He didn’t want to hear that she wasn’t interested in him. He had thought that the attraction they felt was mutual which was why he had made a move. There was no way he wanted or needed to hear otherwise for that matter. The word ‘no’ was all he needed to hear for the disappointment to sink in.

  “No worries.” Nix gave her a tight smile before turning back to reach for the hammer.

  “I just don’t do well with taking orders,” she started to explain before he waved it off.

  “Seriously, it’s not a big deal.” Nix grabbed what he needed and started to prop the gate up to fasten the hinges back into place. “Can you hold that steady right there?”

  Louise looked like she wanted to talk more about earlier, but at his question she was distracted. He watched as she set the plate and cup down before grabbing the gate where he was pointing.

  The pair worked in silence for the next few moments with her following his instructions while he fastened the gate up. As they worked, he tried not to stare at her but found himself unable to stop.

  Why was he so fascinated with her?

  Her hair was a mess, not like the polished women he normally had clamoring for a date.

  Her figure was softer than he normally admired, far from the toned legs, abs, and arms he usually had in his bed.

  She was obviously not a pushover, something he tended to look for in the women he usually hooked up with.

  It was probably a good thing that she had said no. He would have made sure they both enjoyed themselves, but, in the end, she wasn’t his normal type. Other than a bit of fun, he doubted that they would have had much in common when all was said and done. So basically…she had done him a favor.

  “All finished.” Nix moved the gate open and closed, making sure that everything lined up.

  “Wow. That was faster than I expected.” Louise wiped her hands off on her jeans, which drew his gaze to drop to her rounded thighs. As his gaze lingered, his desire to bury his face between those round thighs continued to grow.

  “Are you sure you don’t want something to eat? We got plenty.”

  Nix was shaking his head before she even finished her spiel. “Nah, what I really want right now is to get home and into my bed for a bit.”

  It was at that point, where Nix would norma
lly extend the invite to whichever female had struck his fancy, but since that wasn’t the case in this situation, he simply gathered up his tools.

  Nix moved quickly and efficiently as he carried everything back to the truck, with Louise following behind him the entire time.

  When he was getting ready to climb into the driver’s seat, a soft hand stopped him on his forearm. He immediately tensed at her touch but waited for her to speak.

  “Thank you for coming back and fixing the gate. You know you didn’t have to do it.”

  “It was no problem, and I would have felt like an ass if we didn’t fix it after breaking it down.” Nix slid behind the wheel and closed his door before starting his pickup. “Watch Junior and make sure he doesn’t make any more calls to the station, okay?”

  “Believe me, we’ve already talked about it, and I promise it won’t be happening again,” Louise assured him, holding her fingers up in what he assumed was some sort of pledge.

  “Take it easy.” Nix smiled and waved as he backed out of her driveway. It was only when he had pulled onto a different street that he let the smile fall from his face.

  “Well, damn. That didn’t go as planned.”

  Chapter 5

  With mixed feelings, Louise watched the truck drive away.

  Part of her had wanted to smack him upside his head at the order for a date earlier. The other part of her, located down south, had wanted to climb him like a spider monkey and never let go.

  She knew that her response had most likely been something that he didn’t hear quite often. Hell, the minute the word had come out of her mouth she had wanted to snatch it back. The only thing holding her back had been a promise to herself not to be so much of a pushover by the people around her.

  She was tired of being the yes man and cleaning up messes made by her family and friends. The fact that Junior was living with her was testament enough to how hard it was for her to say no.

  Out of their large family, only Louise was expected to step in and help with Junior. She’d heard all the excuses.