by K. C. Crowne
“Well, kind of,” I said. I lowered my voice. “Is everything okay between you and me? You know, after the other night?”
She looked past me and frowned. “Everything is fine, Austin. We're cool. No worries.”
“You sure? Because we can't be pissy toward each other tomorrow. We've got some serious work to do and we're going to need to be on the same page. We've got a fire to fight.”
“I know that,” she said with a sigh. “Everything is fine. You don't need to worry about me. I'm a big girl and I can be a professional.”
“Good,” I said, stepping away and taking a look at her. My heart skipped a beat at how beautiful she looked, and there was a gnawing pain in my chest. A longing. “So, anyway, get some rest tonight, okay?”
“I'll try,” she muttered. “I have some other shit I have to do.”
“What's more important than resting up before tomorrow?”
“I have to fix my sink,” she said. “I called the management company, but they won't be out until after Christmas, and there's no way Nora can handle going without a kitchen sink. So, I did some research, and I'm going to fix it myself.”
I raised an eyebrow and looked at her. I shouldn't have been surprised that she'd tackle the job on her own. That's just who Sarah was. Still, I though plumbing work was outside her area of expertise.
She laughed. “What? You don't think I can do it?”
“What kind of research we talking about?” I asked her.
“Some YouTube tutorials,” she said. “I just have to run by Home Depot, pick up some tools and –”
“I got you covered,” I said. “Let me just run home and grab my stuff.”
“Austin, no –”
“We need to knock it out quickly. We have a busy day tomorrow and can't let anything get in the way of resting up,” I said. “Besides, I've fixed more than a few sinks in my life. It shouldn’t take me too long.”
That was somewhat of a lie. I'd fixed a couple minor issues. Most likely this was a minor issue too. At least, I was hoping it was. I was hoping, I'd just need to turn some valves and we'd be good to go. I'd come out of it looking pretty handy, and she'd be impressed.
I knew I shouldn't have cared about impressing her, but I was still a cocky bastard. I couldn't help it.
Sarah looked ready to argue, but I shut her down. I wouldn't hear it. I walked away, grabbing Luke to ask him a few questions, leaving Sarah to look after me with her jaw on the floor. I knew she'd wanted to stop me, to tell me not to come over – and I couldn't blame her, given how things ended the other night. But she stood there looking at me, and the words never came out. At least not loud enough that I could hear them.
I walked off with Luke, asked him about his theories on the arson, and then headed toward my place. I'd grab the tools, get over to Sarah's and prove to us both that we could work together without the awkwardness or sexual tension that existed between us being a problem. I wanted to show her that she wasn't the only one who could be a professional.
I knocked on her apartment door about twenty minutes later. Sarah answered the door, surprising me with a short jean skirt and an almost sheer white tank top. Casual, but sexy. Her hair was loose, no longer pulled in a ponytail, and fell in waves over her shoulders.
“Come on in,” she said, standing back to let me in.
“Is Nora home?” I asked.
“No, she's working today,” Sarah said.
“Oh.”
My gaze lingered too long on that sheer white top of hers. She was clearly not wearing a bra, and her nipples poked through the material. I tried to avoid choking on my words, or tripping over my tongue, as we walked toward her kitchen. A small smile pulled at my lips when I saw their small little tree in the corner. It was cute, and reminded me of the Charlie Brown tree, only with a few more ornaments.
“So, we're cool, right?” I asked her.
“Totally. Do you think I'd let you back in my place if we weren't?”
She chuckled, but it sounded a little too forced. Not to mention the fact that the smile on her face didn't come close to reaching her eyes. We most definitely weren't cool yet, but she was trying, which was something I appreciated.
“Well, to be fair, you didn't really invite me over,” I asked.
“Yeah, but I realize it's better this way,” she said. “I'd probably end up flooding the kitchen or something. I'm sure you know what you're doing better than I ever could.”
“Nah, I'm sure you would have figured it out,” I said. “But this way, it'll be finished much faster and you get the day off to relax.”
She stood in the doorway to the kitchen and let me go in ahead of her. I sat down on the tile floor and opened the cabinets to get a better view.
First, I tried the valve. It wouldn't budge. It was stuck. Thinking I'd figured out the issue, I pulled out a wrench and got underneath the sink, twisting on the valve, trying to force it to turn.
Sarah sat down beside me, watching me work. She crossed her legs, bringing her skirt up higher on her thighs, which set off a small wave of heat within me. I kept stealing glances at her milky white skin and toned legs, and when she stretched her legs out, I caught a glimpse of her panty-less crotch.
All the blood rushed from my head to my groin, and I was no longer paying attention to my hands or the wrench in it. Sarah leaned back, resting on her hands and pressing her breasts upward, her nipples hard, and showing through clear as day in the light of the kitchen.
Something snapped and water began spraying everywhere. I cursed, yelling at her to grab me a towel. She reached under the sink, where the water was coming from, and ended up getting drenched. Her already sheer shirt was now completely see through as she handed me some towels. I did my best to plug up the source of the issue, had her grab hold of it, and told her to wait there.
I hurried out of the apartment, panicking. I needed to shut the water off to her unit. Being a firefighter, that was one thing I knew how to do. I and I ran down to the main level and to the back of the building. Luckily, they were labeled, and I managed to turn the knob without snapping the damn thing off in my hands. I hoped that was the right one and didn't actually belong to someone else's apartment.
That done, I turned and rushed back upstairs. Sarah was standing in the kitchen, soaking wet, but at least there was no more rushing water. Her kitchen floor, however, was covered in an inch-deep pool of water, and she was drenched.
When she saw the look on my face, however, she started laughing.
“I'm sorry,” I said. “I came over to prevent that from happening.”
“Yeah, I'm pretty sure I could have managed this mess on my own,” she said.
I walked into the kitchen, grabbed a bunch of paper towels and started putting them down on the floor. I felt foolish, but Sarah stopped me. She took my hands in hers and held them for a second.
“Austin, we need something more than paper towels, I'm afraid.”
“Yeah, you're probably right. Have any more towels? A mop? Something?”
“I do,” she said. “Follow me.”
I followed her out of the kitchen, down the same hall we'd gone down a few nights before, and into her bedroom. I stood there, feeling sheepish, until she pointed me in the direction of her bathroom.
“Grab some towels from under the sink while I change,” she said.
I went into the bathroom, grabbed a handful of towels, and caught sight of her stripping down in her bedroom. She slipped out of the skirt, exposing her ass to me. Whether she'd intended to or not, I couldn't be sure. I grew stiff in my jeans, using the towels to cover it up as I waited for her to finish. I focused on the mirror instead of her, until I caught sight of her in it. She'd moved and was now very plainly in sight in the mirror, as she lifted the soaking wet shirt off over her head.
She was facing away from me, so I could only imagine the way her breasts looked as they fell free from the top. I didn't dare leave the bathroom. Sarah turned around and caught me staring,
and she smiled.
“Like what you see?” she asked.
“I – you know I do,” I said. “But Sarah, we talked about this, remember?”
“Jesus Austin, lighten up. Don’t worry, I’m not trying to seduce you. You made yourself perfectly clear the other day.”
She bent over and picked up a t-shirt from the bed, her perfect breasts on display. My cock twitched in my jeans. I knew I wasn't going anywhere. At least not anywhere away from her. I walked into the bedroom, not even realizing that I'd dropped the towels. I reached out and pulled the t-shirt from her hands so she remained naked in front of me.
Her gaze moved down to my crotch, and as she stepped closer, her hand grazed my erection.
“You know I want you. That's not the reason we can't do this,” I said.
She rubbed my erection through my jeans. “Oh, I know,” she said. “But it's nice knowing you actually do want it, because I do too.”
“You know I want you, Sarah,” I said.
“Do I?”
She dropped to her knees before me, and I tried to talk myself out of what was about to happen.
“Looks like you got wet too,” she said.
Her hands reached for my belt, but I stopped her. She stared up at me with wounded eyes, but she removed her hands. I took hold of her hands and lifted her back up to standing.
I'd intended to tell her all the reasons it was a bad idea, but instead, I pulled her into me. I kissed her long and hard and put everything I felt for her into that kiss. I'd hoped she could feel what I felt for her, understand that this wasn't about not wanting her – but about wanting her too much. Once we went down that road, there was no turning back. I didn't just want to fuck her, I wanted to be with her in every sense of the word.
I wanted her to be mine.
I pulled back from the kiss, both of us out of breath, and she leaned in for another. Holding her face in my hands, I stopped her. Instead, I placed my forehead against hers and looked her in the eye.
“I'm your boss, Sarah. Your superior,” I said. “We can't be involved with one another, it would look bad. It could get us both into a lot of trouble.”
“Who says anyone would have to know?” she asked.
“You know I can't lie,” I said. “And I know you can't lie worth a shit either. Luke, Wes, they'd be able to tell in a heartbeat. And it wouldn't be fair to anyone. I already have Owen accusing me of favoritism, I can't give anyone a reason to believe it.”
“Wait, what?” she asked. “What happened with Owen?”
“It's not important, Sarah,” I said. “Just believe me when I say that although I want this, and I want you, we can't do this, okay?”
She sighed, and there were tears in her eyes, but she nodded. “Fine. I understand,” she said, speaking softly.
Tilting her face up so she was looking at me again, I stared deep into those eyes again. God, I could have gotten lost in the depths of her gaze. I'd have gladly drowned in them
“I need to go,” I said. “Before I make a bigger mess of things here than I already have.”
I meant that both in terms of the plumbing and with Sarah, herself, of course. Though, I'm pretty sure she already knew that.
“I'll call the landlord. I believe this is now considered urgent,” she said. “So, technically, you did me a favor.”
“If they can't get someone out here to fix it today, let me know. I'll pay for someone to come over and take care of it.”
It was only fair. After all, I hadn't fixed things, and had actually made them even worse. If the landlord wanted to charge someone to repair the damage, better I get stuck with the bill than Sarah. It was my fault there was a lake in her kitchen – all because I wanted to show off.
She shrugged. “I'm sure it'll be fine,” she said. “The pipes are old anyway, they need to be replaced.”
“Just let me know, okay?”
I hadn't realized I was doing it, but I'd been stroking her cheek gently. She'd leaned into the touch, and gazed up at me through thick, black lashes. It took everything in me not to kiss her again. I had to physically resist the urge and impulse to touch her more intimately.
She didn't say anything, but I knew I had to go. I needed to get out of there before I did something both of us might regret.
“I'll see myself out,” I said, picking up the towels I'd dropped along the way. “After I put these on the kitchen floor and clean up my mess.”
She smiled, a faint glimmer of hope lost in the sea of hurt. Walking away from her was the hardest thing I'd ever done, but I managed. Just barely though. I walked out of that bedroom, down the hall, and dried up the mess in the kitchen.
As I worked, I listened for her footsteps, hoping to hear her follow me. Maybe if she'd begged me to stay, I would have given in. God knew I wanted to. All I needed was an excuse. Instead, I heard the shower turn on and I let myself out.
Owen
“Owen, you ready for your first wildfire?” Sarah asked me as we unloaded the truck at the base camp in Escondido.
“Ready as I'll ever be, I guess,” I said.
Austin hadn't wanted me to tag along on the call. It was more than obvious by the way he acted toward me. He wasn't speaking to me, and would barely acknowledge my presence – though, that wasn't all that unusual. What was strange was the way he avoided speaking to anyone. For a change, it wasn't just me. Not that I expected anyone to be chipper, given the circumstances, but he seemed a little more distant and tenser than usual.
Truthfully though, Sarah was the only one who ever really talked to me. Overall, we got along fairly well. Both of us were fairly new to the field – though she had a year or so on me. We bickered, mostly because we were a lot alike. She would never admit it, but we were.
We came from two entirely different backgrounds, sure, but we were a lot alike personality-wise. That was why I was not surprised that she'd also disobeyed Austin's orders that day. Wes surprised me a bit, since he tended to do whatever the bossman said. Sarah, however, she had a mind of her own, and I appreciated that about her. Probably a hell of a lot more than she'd ever realize.
She hustled off toward the base camp, carrying her bags. Her tight ass in those jeans was a sight to behold, but I tried not to make it obvious I was staring. I was better than that. Wes might have gotten away with gawking and being obscene, but that was Wes. I was raised better than that. Didn't mean I couldn't admire her nice ass and firm body every chance I could get though – and I did. I just did it discreetly.
“There you are,” Luke said, pulling me away. “We need to go over a few things. Just make sure we're all on the same page.”
“Did Austin have you come talk to me, rather than talk to me himself?” I asked.
“Yes, and no,” Luke said. “It's fairly standard procedure. It's your first time out in the field, we want to make sure you have the necessary tools to get the job done and survive.”
“We both know I am not going anywhere near that fire, Luke,” I scoffed. “Let's face it, Austin is going to keep me back at the base camp, doing some shitty ass job like filing or some stupid shit.”
Luke didn't really argue, since we both knew I was probably right. If I were being honest with myself – and I usually tried to be – deep down, I also knew I wasn't ready to go out there with the likes of them. They had experience. I didn't. I'd never battled a wildfire before, and to be thrown into the thick of it right away could be dangerous. Believe it or not, I was more reasonable than Austin credited me with being. Didn't mean I was happy to sit on the sidelines instead of being out there helping, but I'd come to expect it by now.
I walked past Luke and caught up with Sarah who was busy laughing about something with Wes. Sarah was nearly doubled over with laughter, her face bright red. It was an odd reaction to the serious situation we found ourselves in. They both stopped talking though the moment they saw me. Sarah straightened up, and both of them adopted a grimmer expression that seemed to fit with the situation.
“Don't have to stop having fun on my account,” I said, rolling my eyes.
“Sorry, inside joke,” Wes said, winking at Sarah. “You wouldn't understand.”
“Right,” I said. “I guess I'll leave you two to the jokes while I get some work done.”
Wes opened his mouth to say something but Sarah grabbed his arm, pulling his attention down to her. They shared a look, and I could tell that she was basically pleading with him not to go off on me. As if I needed her to protect me.
I carried my bag over to the group of tents that had been set up for us and tossed my stuff inside one of them. I stood there, contemplating the base camp, and trying to mellow out. The smell of smoke in the air was thick and heavy, but I couldn't see the flames from where we were just yet.
I was lost in thought when Wes' voice sounded behind me. It startled me for a moment since I hadn't heard him walk up, but I quickly composed myself and turned around to face him.
“Not the kind of accommodations you're used to, huh, golden boy?” he mocked. “I don't think they have vegan foods on the menu either.”
“Wes, stop being a dick,” Sarah said, but there was a hint of amusement in her voice that set me on edge.
I kept my thoughts to myself though. Just like I usually did. Wes was always a dick. Whether anyone else saw it or not, he was a complete asshole. That didn't matter though. Not to anybody not in his “inner circle,” I guess. He always treated me like shit though. He had from the first day I walked into the house to start working with them. I remembered that day well – he saw my car, and just couldn't stop himself from being a dick, asking, “Did daddy buy you that BMW?”
He teased me about my food choices, the car I drove, my childhood, and upbringing. But he knew nothing about me. None of them did. At first, I thought Sarah was trying to get to know me, but lately, she seemed so far up Austin's ass, that it was hard to trust her. It was hard to trust anyone, yet they were my team. We were supposed to work together. We were supposed to trust each other, given that we held each other's lives in our hands. Instead though, it felt like they were tearing me down because I didn't fit in to their preconceived notions of what a firefighter should be.