Naughty All Night

by Jennifer Bernard

  “My coworkers just saw me naked,” she moaned. “I swear I’ve had nightmares exactly like that. Except usually there was a judge and a courtroom involved.”

  “Shhh.” He wrapped his arms around her, the scent of his wool sweater blanketing her in comfort. It also reminded her that he’d had the good sense to throw on some clothes before confronting the world. “You have to remember something very important.”

  “What?” she moaned, resting her forehead on his broad chest.

  “You don’t work with them anymore.”

  She tilted her head to gaze up at him. The silvery amusement shining in his eyes brought a bubble of laughter to her own lips. “That’s true. I work with Emma now and she’s seen me naked. When I was a baby.”

  “My hockey team has seen me naked,” he added helpfully.

  “Yes, but they were naked too.” Somehow it made a difference.

  “Sweetheart?” He cupped his hand under her chin and caressed her face. “Everyone has seen naked people before. They’ll get over it. Want to know what I won’t get over?”

  “What?”

  “You and your hair all wet down your back and that fierce look on your face like you were ready to mow down anyone who got in your way.”

  “I thought they were going to hurt you.”

  He dipped his head and touched his lips to hers, a firm press of warm flesh that sent a sigh through her. Gently, he parted her lips to go deeper. She swayed against him, feeling desire stir again.

  “Thank you,” he murmured. “I know who to hire if I ever need a bodyguard.”

  She smiled against his lips. It was amazing how everything felt fine now. It didn’t even bother her anymore that she’d flashed her old coworkers.

  Darius reluctantly pulled away. “Now where do you safely stash that damn thing? And where are your clothes? Do you want me to tell them to leave?”

  “Only if they leave the cake and champagne behind,” she said cheekily as she kneeled down to search through her suitcase. “I think I’ve earned it.”

  She rummaged for an outfit to put on—the less revealing, the better. She’d put on enough of a show for one night.

  “How did they even know I was here?” she wondered aloud. “Only the key players were supposed to know.”

  “I was asking them the same thing. Apparently Danisse is dating someone from billing at Cotton and Bryant. They were having lunch in his office and she caught sight of a hotel invoice and put it together. She feels terrible now, but she swears that no one else knows. To be safe, we should find somewhere else to stay tonight.”

  “Damn it.” She pulled on some yoga pants and an extra-large, extra-baggy hoodie. “I was really looking forward to more time in that bed with you.” With a wistful smile, she tugged her wet hair into a ponytail and straightened her shoulders. “Well, off to face the mockery.”

  He touched a hand to her shoulder, forcing her to pause on her way out the door. “You’ve got a brave heart, Kate. I won’t forget how you jumped out like that.”

  That gentle compliment warmed her from the inside out. When Darius spoke, she believed him. And she couldn’t say that about very many people in this world.

  By the time Kate’s law firm crew left around one in the morning—after sharing so much gossip his head spun—they only had a few hours left before their flight. So they headed straight for the airport. Darius didn’t relax until they were safely through security and waiting in the nearest first-class lounge for their flight.

  Kate snoozed with her head on his shoulder, while he eyed everyone who walked through the door of the lounge. Years of overnight shifts had gotten him used to nights without sleep. He certainly wouldn’t be able to close his eyes until he knew for sure that Kate was safe.

  Maya was right. Kate had a knack for getting into trouble. At the same time, she possessed a fearlessness he respected.

  He sorted through all the things he’d learned about her on this short trip. She’d emancipated herself from her lawless father at the age of seventeen. She’d taken charge of her own education and put herself through law school. Then she’d sacrificed her career in order to protect her father. She’d put herself at risk by agreeing to testify against the people still out to get her. And then she’d jumped out naked with a can of bear spray when she’d thought he was in danger.

  She was really something else.

  And he’d do whatever it took to get her back to Lost Harbor safely.

  He’d also do whatever it took to get her into another bed. Say, in his apartment. Or hers. Or both. One after the other. Both in the same night. Whatever worked.

  But when they got back to Lost Harbor, would things go back to how they were before? Would it be as if this trip had never happened? Arguments over hot water and occasional hellos in the driveway?

  And what did he really want from Catriona Robinson? His body was all-in. But his experience said “keep it simple.”

  His heart…

  Lucky for him, that wasn’t a factor. Not any more.

  Chapter Twenty

  They didn’t get back to Lost Harbor until midday, and Darius had to go straight to the firehouse when they landed. Kate gave him a yawn and a brief acquaintance-type hug before hopping into her car and dropping him off at the station. They’d both slept on the plane and neither was in the right state of mind to discuss anything beyond peanuts or pretzels.

  Or maybe it had all been a crazy dream, the kind you could barely believe the next day.

  The firehouse was nearly deserted when he got back. He’d gotten word that Nate and a crew were responding to a grease fire at the Nightly Catch. The quiet unnerved him after all the noise of the big city. Sunbeams floated through the stained glass lunette of a fire truck on the front door, and the distant whir of a power tool told him someone was working in the apparatus bay.

  He sat behind his desk and stared blankly at his computer. It didn’t seem quite real; none of this did. He should boot up and work through the backlog of emails that he’d ignored during the trip. But instead, images of Kate kept floating through his mind.

  Kate stretched out naked in bed in that silk blouse and red panties. Kate coming apart under his touch. Kate jumping out from the bathroom naked and brandishing bear spray.

  He nearly jumped out of his own skin when Maya knocked on the doorjamb and poked her head into his office.

  “Jesus, Maya. A little warning next time.”

  Frowning, she came into his office and plopped a folding chair next to his desk. “You seem a little jumpy, Chief. Why would I have to warn you before I knock on your office?”

  Of course she didn’t have to do that. He had an open-door policy—mostly because he didn’t even have a door. It had come off its hinges during the previous chief’s administration and never been replaced. On his first day as fire chief, as a joke, the volunteers had installed a beaded curtain instead of a door.

  That had lasted about half a day, until he’d nearly gotten blinded by a bead to the eye.

  “Sorry, I didn’t get any sleep last night. The only reason I’m here is that Nate’s out on a call. What’s up?”

  “How was your trip to LA?” she asked neutrally.

  “Are you asking as a professional colleague or as Kate’s friend?”

  “Little of both. Mostly as Kate’s friend. I know something’s going on that she doesn’t want me to know about.”

  “So you’re doing an end run around her and asking me?” he said dryly. “Sorry, you know me better than that. Her business is her business.”

  “Unless it’s the town’s business.” She fixed him with a strict stare. “If there’s anything I should know for public safety purposes, you need to tell me.”

  He hesitated. He supposed it was possible that the Kramer minions could have tracked Kate to Lost Harbor. Ethan James had done it, after all.

  “I agree, Chief. If anything like that comes up, I’ll tell you.”

  He held her gaze in one of those stare-downs
that neither of them ever won. He had patience on his side and Maya had badassery, and it worked out about even.

  “Is that why you hauled your busy self all the way over to this side of the building? Is something up with our bond proposal?”

  “No, it’s something else.”

  “S.G.?”

  “Nothing new there. I still have some inquiries out. But she seems fine where she is, so I’m not in a big rush to distract myself from town business.”

  “Good.” He nodded and sat back, feeling exhaustion drag behind his eyes. “It might be more disruptive for her than anything else.”

  “That’s what I’m thinking too. No, it’s the fires we’ve been experiencing the last few weeks. A lot more than normal, right?”

  That woke him up fast. “Yes. More frequent, but not damaging—so far. You got any theories?”

  “It’s not a theory, just something odd that I noticed. I’ve been keeping a spreadsheet of them. Logging each fire, location, damage, date, and so forth. I turned that data into a graph. Want to see?”

  “Sure.” He leaned his elbows on the desk and she whipped her iPad from under her arm. A colorful bar graph marched across the screen. He blinked at it; his eyes felt like sandpaper. “There’s a gap there.”

  “Yup. A pretty noticeable gap.”

  “What does it correspond to? Long night, no sleep, no data comprehension.”

  “This gap represents the last few days. There was another fire this morning, that’s this.” She pointed to an orange bar labeled Nightly Catch. “The fire before that was here. The Dunfords’ bear cache. On May sixth.”

  May sixth. That was the day before he and Kate had flown to Los Angeles. He stared at the graph, double-checking the dates of each fire she’d logged.

  “There were no fires while I was gone. I know, Nate told me. Two medical calls, a creek rescue, but no fires.”

  “Right. Not a single fire while you were gone.”

  “We’ve gone days without fires before this.”

  “Yes, but not so many days. If you include every fire and every nuisance call, the way I did here, the longest gap before this was only a day and a half.”

  His gaze flew to meet her steady brown eyes. “What are you saying? I didn’t set those fucking fires.”

  Her expression didn’t shift. “Didn’t say that you did.”

  His brain clicked over to the next possibility.

  “Are you saying Kate did? That’s absurd, she wasn’t even here when the first few broke out. Look, you’ve been tracking them since January, and—”

  “Of course Kate didn’t set any fires,” she said irritably. “But the fact is that we don’t know when the first suspicious fire broke out. This graph includes all the fires since the start of the year. I wanted a baseline to start with. The fires don’t exactly match the time that Kate’s been here, but they did tick way up over the past few weeks.”

  He dragged a hand through his hair. This, he didn’t need right now. He needed a nap or a drink or a motorcycle ride. Not together, obviously.

  He forced himself to focus on the data Maya was showing him. “You’re saying the fires might be connected to Kate being here?”

  “They did stop when she left.”

  “They also stopped when I left.”

  “True that. Something you want to tell me, Chief?”

  “Yes, fighting fire in a town the size of a paper towel is boring, so I wanted to spice things up a bit,” he snapped. “No, there’s nothing to tell you. I have no idea what’s going on here.”

  Except that maybe he did. Maybe it had something to do with Kate’s enemies. But what? Why would anyone travel all the way to Lost Harbor and set random fires that didn’t even do much damage? None of them were even related to her.

  It didn’t add up at all.

  But it was worth mentioning to Kate. And worth urging her to tell Maya everything before the police chief made a bar graph out of her.

  “I’ll talk to her and see if she can think of anything that might help,” he said finally.

  “Good. Because an arson spree is a crime. So that’s my territory.”

  He glared at her. “You want a turf war over a bunch of nuisance fires?”

  “No. I’m just saying that I can talk to Kate in case you don’t want to intermingle your professional and personal relationships.” She lifted one eyebrow at him.

  “Don’t worry about our personal relationship.”

  A smile twitched at the corner of her mouth. “So you’re saying you have one.”

  “I’m not saying shit other than I’ll talk to Kate as part of my investigation.”

  She snorted and retrieved her iPad, then stood up. “I find out everything sooner or later anyway. But good luck fooling yourself.”

  “Thanks for putting that graph together,” he called after her as she headed for the open doorway “Can you email it to me?”

  “Sure thing, Chief.”

  “Thanks, Chief.”

  Darius rummaged for an aspirin bottle that he kept on hand for post-hockey aches and pains. Definitely called for right now. After downing a couple with a swig from the least sketchy mug on his desk, he hauled himself to his feet. Time for a quick inventory of the firehouse, before Nate and the crew returned.

  Quite a few strange things had occurred in this firehouse. Last year, one of the volunteer firefighters had gone off the deep end and tampered with Padric Jeffers’ boat. He’d nearly killed Lost Harbor’s biggest celebrity.

  Then there was S.G. and her adventures. Not only had she hidden here for weeks, but the trapper had hunted her down and nearly kidnapped her in the apparatus bay.

  Oh yes, the Lost Harbor Fire Department had no shortage of weirdness. If there was something extra strange behind these fires, it wouldn’t surprise him.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  After several hours of sleep to recover from the trip, Kate drove out to the farm to check on Emma and the peonies. Truth was, she’d missed both.

  “Well,” Emma said as soon as she caught sight of her. She was on her knees, weeding the Festiva Maxima. Little shoots of pushki were already poking through the Typar. “You look like you’ve been rode hard and put away wet.”

  “That’s a horrible saying and I think you should remove it from your vocabulary.”

  “Eh, let an old lady say what she wants. Help me up.” Kate held out a hand to help her to her feet. Emma rubbed her lower back as she straightened. “I’m glad you’re back. Those kids have been driving me bonkers.”

  “Kids?”

  “S.G. and her friend. Dylan, I think his name is. Always in that hoodie.”

  Right, the kid from the hockey rink. So much had happened since then, she’d forgotten that she’d given S.G. permission to bring her friend to the farm. He was living at Denaina’s now; she’d signed his paperwork. “I told S.G. it was okay. Is it not working out?”

  “Oh, I guess it’s fine. It’s good to have the help. He’s a hard enough worker, but he and S.G. go off together and talk about lord knows what. He’s got a phone and you can’t tear him away from that device.”

  “They’re probably looking at TikToks or something. I’ll talk to them. If we’re paying them, they need to put their phones away and focus.”

  “Good, good. You tell ’em. Threaten to sue them if they misbehave.”

  She laughed and dropped a kiss on her grandmother’s cheek. “I’m not going to sue them, sorry. My lawyer days are over, I keep telling you.”

  “Pffft.” Emma let out a snort. “Where’s Darius? I want to thank him for keeping you safe.”

  “Darius is here?” S.G. spoke from just behind her. Kate turned to see S.G. and her hoodie-wearing friend. Both wore mud boots and work gloves. She smiled at them, noting that the boy didn’t return her smile. He was a good-looking kid, with a thatch of brown hair falling over his eyes and a tall frame he was still growing into.

  “No, he’s either at the firehouse or asleep. Are you looking for h
im? I can give him a message.”

  “No, it’s okay.” S.G. shook her head. “This is Dylan. He’s my friend.”

  “Dylan. Good to hear you have a name.” The boy didn’t laugh at her joke, and S.G. glared at her. She made a mental note to be more sensitive with S.G. and her first crush. “Welcome to Petal to the Metal, Dylan. How’s it working out so far?”

  “Pretty good.” His voice cracked when he spoke, landing in that uncomfortable realm between childhood and adulthood.

  “Where are you from? S.G. says you’re new at school.”

  “Fairbanks,” he answered, his gaze sliding away from hers. Interesting. Kate got the distinct impression that he wasn’t telling the truth. Oh well. It was none of her business.

  “Is Darius your boyfriend now?” S.G. asked in her cut-to-the-chase way.

  “Who told you that?” Kate wiped suddenly sweaty hands on her pants. Had word already spread around Lost Harbor about them—before there was even a real “them”?

  “Nobody. But he’s a really good person, isn’t he?”

  “Sure. He puts out fires and he’s an excellent tenant. Why do you ask?”

  S.G. shrugged.

  Kate shot a quick glance at Dylan, who was staring down at the ground, probably ignoring the conversation. She couldn’t figure him out; he seemed withdrawn and a little sad. But with her troubled teen years, she always gave teenagers the benefit of the doubt. It was such a bewildering time of life. Thank God she’d had Emma back then.

  Turning to her grandmother, she asked, “So what are we working on today, Emma? What gloriously muddy task have you assigned to us? Weeding? Botrytis patrol? Maybe something relaxing like the website? It could use some updating.”

  “We gotta fix the old tool shed. It’s turning into a toxic waste site. Next Wednesday is the day to bring all our old chemicals to the dump. Heavy metals day, they call it.”

  “Sounds like it’s right up your alley. Petals to the Heavy Metal.” She winked at the two kids. “Get it?”