“Better sleep with your eyes open,” he warned to thin air, a whopping millisecond before the next blast hit.
But this time he wasn’t blindsided. He launched, slinging himself around the corner of the truck with a one-armed grab that sent him flying at Diego with warp-like speed.
Diego took aim again, but Shane managed to spin the nozzle on him, the brunt of the spray missing them both.
“Oh—!”
At the sound of a woman’s voice—Caitlin’s voice—Shane and Diego both let go of the hose at once. It hit the ground with a plop, landing directly on the handle and spurting a final stream of water directly up into Shane’s face.
“Ah, hell, I’m sorry,” Diego said—not to Shane, but to Caitlin—and Shane had never believed him more. He’d never seen anyone look more horrified, except maybe Caitlin herself.
Still half blinded, he wiped the moisture from his face with his wet forearm. Not the most effective tactic, considering all he did was move it around, but it was enough to give him a slightly less water-blurred view of Caitlin, who stood at the edge of the meticulously landscaped lawn, staring down at her wet white shirt, a water-splattered paper coffee cup in each hand.
“Go grab one of my off-duty shirts,” Shane called over his shoulder to Matt.
“Really sorry,” Diego repeated, before adding, “and for the record, not looking.”
Yeah, she’d just won every wet T-shirt contest in existence. No way Diego had missed that. “If you hadn’t looked,” Shane snapped, “you wouldn’t know not to look now.”
“Well, I’m not looking now,” he said dryly, “so that counts for something.”
“It would be great if no one would look,” Caitlin said.
Not a damned chance, Shane thought, but did his best to avert his gaze from tight dark nipples easily visible through the shirt and the bra underneath. At least two parts of her were cold, and he felt like an ass for standing there thinking of how he’d like to warm them up with his mouth.
“Here you go,” Matt said behind Shane.
Shane took the shirt, grateful for the distraction. “Thanks, man.” He settled the fabric over Caitlin’s head, then relieved her of the cup she held in each hand. She was probably freezing. It was a nice day, but not exactly warm enough to compensate for being drenched with cold water.
Her bright green eyes dug into him as she shrugged into his tee. It hung large on her, and immediately gained wet boob prints, but at least it wasn’t transparent. She used the bottom end to wipe water off her glasses then settled them back in place. “I brought you the book,” she said, digging into the bag he’d failed to notice, but now peeked from under his shirt. “And one of those is yours.”
“You brought me coffee?” It was so…domestic. And also quite possibly the most casual gesture on the planet, so he needed to stop reading into it.
“Yes. Black. I figured anything you might want to add to it would be stocked in the kitchen here, and that flavored stuff didn’t seem to be working for you.”
Her words took him aback. To be honest, he hadn’t expected her to show up with the book, and if he’d harbored a guess, he’d figure she’d pitch it at his head before handing it to him nicely, much less alongside a gift of coffee. Especially since she’d already admitted she’d considered they had coffee at the station, not to mention had already figured out he wasn’t as into cinnamon-roll flavoring as he may have led her to believe. To that point, he asked, “What made you think I wasn’t a fan?”
“You kind of wrinkled your nose going in.”
“It was new.” And also not good. She’d nailed him there, but he didn’t need to make it easy for her.
“Every sip?”
He laughed, though inwardly he cringed. The woman could already read him, but hell, she’d bothered to read him. “You watched every sip?”
Her cheeks turned pink. “Yours is the one with the X on it,” she said, completely ignoring his question.
He inspected the cups then handed hers back to her. “May I assume I’m forgiven?”
She dug the book out of the bag and handed it to him. “Now that you’ve admitted you did something in need of forgiveness? Probably not.”
“Hey, that was a cheap shot.”
Her brow rose. “And soaking me with a water hose?”
“That was Diego’s cheap shot,” Shane protested.
She shrugged. “I’m pretty sure you were in there, but either way, Lieutenant, it’s your shift. Aren’t you supposed to make them behave?”
“Probably, but they’re restless, not having to escort you across the bridge this morning. Did you walk?”
She shivered and took a sip of her coffee. “I did not.”
“If you ever need a ride, just let me know.” He wished he’d given her a better one last night, and currently entertained a less ass-hatted desire to take her to work or wherever she needed to be, because driving her had to be a better option than walking a few blocks in soaked shoes, but he mostly just wanted an excuse to see her.
He wouldn’t have many more opportunities for that.
She batted her eyelashes in an obvious bit of mockery. “So you’re in it for the whole two weeks, then?”
Ouch. He wished he had a read on the sentiment behind her words. Did she want to see more of him? Or was this another lob of sarcasm, calling him out on what she probably thought to be insincere bullshit. “Yeah,” he said. “The entire time.”
She pointed at his motorcycle in the parking lot and said, “I’ll keep that in mind next time I want my thighs to vibrate all night.”
Goddamn. Did she have any idea she was throwing these double entendres? No one could be that innocent, but she didn’t look the least bit interested in toying with him. At least not like she had after that kiss. He must be every bit the presumptive jerk she thought he was, because he could have sworn he’d been one bite of her lip away from being invited inside. But what had he done with that?
Fled.
And now, he harbored regrets. Raging motherfuckers. “Sweetheart, if you want your thighs to vibrate—”
“If I need a fireman,” she said firmly, “I’ll call 911.”
“If you need one,” he all but growled, “you’ll call me.”
“And once you’re gone?” She’d said the words as a challenge, like she was finally up for playing his game, but damned if they didn’t hit hard. Again.
He sipped his coffee to put off having to answer, but it didn’t help. He couldn’t shake the attraction, or the uncertainty that followed his every thought of Denver. He knew what he wanted. A high-stakes, high-adrenaline job in a place he was needed. A chance for advancement. His father’s legacy.
Women, warm and willing, who wouldn’t throw up roadblocks at every turn.
And not one of them would be Caitlin.
She watched him, expecting an answer.
He gave her one that made no sense under any circumstances whatsoever.
“Call me anyway.”
Chapter Nine
Caitlin arrived at Shelf Indulgence a full hour after she’d planned, in no small part due to the detour and unexpected shower. But she wasn’t hating it. The cold water at the fire station had come as a shock, but she’d salvaged her coffee and her book had remained unscathed. Plus she now had Shane’s T-shirt, and she may have taken it off and inhaled through the fabric like she was a starry-eyed teenaged girl, but as there were no witnesses, there would be no admitting that. Not that it was weird. She just happened to like whatever brand of laundry detergent he used. Perfectly normal, non-stalkerish behavior.
Yeah, whatever.
Still, she hoped like hell he’d forget to take it back before he moved.
This morning, like the morning before it, the bridge gave her the good kind of shivers. Memories of clinging to a certain fiercely hot lieutenant who’d been unfazed by a kiss that had nearly dropped her to her knees. Of course, he probably had experiences like that all the time. She’d seen the admiring gla
nces that followed almost every step he took, even lingering on him at the diner.
And the way he hadn’t returned a single one of them.
“Shut. Up,” she said aloud, then rolled her eyes. Now she was talking to herself.
She drained the last of her now-cold coffee and started a new cup. While it brewed, she assessed the inventory situation. Several boxes towered relatively untouched in the back, but she’d made decent progress on the shelved books. Getting them completely sorted and organized wasn’t a pre-launch requirement, but if she wanted anyone to be able to find anything, it would be a good idea. Not to mention, it would be much easier for her to deal with that kind of task before the store opened. With any luck, that would be within a week or two.
A week or two. Shane would be out of her life. No distractions. Just work.
Thoughts of him were still not distracting her a few minutes later when a knock sounded at the door. Caitlin opened it to find Lexi standing there, looking sheepish. “I know you’re not open yet, but I thought I’d see if you needed a hand.”
Surprised and initially speechless, Caitlin stepped back and gestured for Lexi to come in. It felt a little weird, with Lexi being Shane’s friend, but apparently she hadn’t been kidding when she said she was glad to meet Caitlin. “That would be fantastic if you’re sure you have time,” Caitlin said, “but I’m warning you, there’s enough dust in here to grow corn. If you have allergies or a general love of non-particulated air, take heed.”
“I’m in,” Lexi said with exaggerated seriousness. “But only if you have coffee.” She pulled back her hair into a long ponytail that glistened even in the low light.
Caitlin had to bite her tongue not to ask what shampoo she used to get such gorgeous hair, because that wasn’t at all creepy. Instead, she gestured toward the table at the back of the room and said, “There’s a Keurig and a K-Cup for every possible mood. Help yourself to anything you’d like.”
“You’ve just won seventy-five percent of my heart.”
Caitlin laughed. “Okay, I’ll bite. What’s the other twenty-five percent?”
“It’s yours as long as you don’t make fun of my cooking.”
“So I’m guessing Matt will never own that last quarter?”
Lexi gave a disgusted sigh. “Matt will never own any quarters.”
“Really?” Caitlin didn’t try to hide her surprise.
“Really. Shane and Diego and Jack have absolutely nothing better to do than imply otherwise, but that is not happening. We’re next-door neighbors, and I might starve without him, and he’s been my best friend for as long as I can remember, but those are the only tenuous threads holding us together.”
Caitlin choked back a laugh. Those were tenuous threads? She’d kill for that kind of relationship “All that and a dog?”
Lexi shook her head, a glint of humor peeking through what was obviously a long-standing point of contention. “Yeah, because apparently I’m not even capable of opening a bag of dog food.”
“Yet Matt chose you to co-parent?” Caitlin led Lexi to the coffee supplies. While Caitlin had had to read the directions on how to use the thing, Lexi didn’t flinch.
“The dog chose me,” she clarified. “Matt adopted him, yet he always goes straight to me. I cannot tell you the extent to which I find this amusing.”
Caitlin chuckled and sipped her coffee. “So you guys are staying together for the kids?” she asked with a laugh.
“More like, that’s the reason he hasn’t changed the locks.” She hesitated. “Okay, the truth is, I adore him, but we’ll never be more than friends because I don’t know what I’d do without him. No way I’d risk crossing that line and ruining things, even in a weak moment when I don’t find him completely repulsive. Which I don’t, but it’s just easier when I convince myself otherwise. But enough about me, because I have questions of my own.” Lexi extracted a K-cup from the stash. “Chocolate-glazed donut? This is a thing?”
Caitlin exhaled. She’d been prepared for an entirely different set of questions. Coffee, she could handle. “It’s a delicious thing.”
Lexi popped the cup in the machine then turned toward Caitlin. “And you and Shane?”
“Definitely not a thing,” Caitlin said. “He decided if I didn’t face my fear of bridges that I’d be a drain on city resources, so he took it upon himself to play the rescuer. That is the extent of our relationship.”
“That and a date,” Lexi said, waggling her eyebrows.
“You can call it a date. He called it public service.”
Lexi’s eyes widened. “He did not.”
God, how Caitlin had missed girl time. Her sister hadn’t had a brush with downtime in ages, and she and Caitlin’s nephew traveled in a pair. Caitlin loved her nephew, but the conversations in his presence seldom ventured beyond toddler talk.
Lexi was a godsend. Especially in this muddled new place where Caitlin hated how much she wanted a certain lieutenant. Throwing up walls when all she wanted was to be thrown against one—preferably naked—was counterintuitive, frustrating, and probably life-saving, but a second opinion couldn’t hurt.
Nor could validation. “Yes,” Caitlin said. “He did. Apparently I shouldn’t be allowed to roam the streets unsupervised.”
Lexi leaned a hip against the old wood-plank counter now cluttered with coffee supplies and a fake blue floral bouquet sitting crookedly in what bore a disturbing resemblance to an urn, complete with dust in the bottom. “There’s potential for that to be adorable,” Lexi said.
Caitlin shook her head and reached past Lexi to right the flowers. “I know I’m new here, but he doesn’t seem the type to be adorable.”
Lexi shrugged. “But he’s not an ass. The women he dates don’t trash him on social media after they stop seeing him. He’s got to have a redeeming quality or two.”
Caitlin’s shoulders stiffened before she could stop them, and she hated herself for the reaction, especially when Lexi’s brow kicked up a notch. “So he does date a lot?” Caitlin asked. “Why am I not surprised?”
“Actually, he really doesn’t. I think he gets bored.”
Caitlin sighed. Hell, she practically swooned. Keeping her attraction hidden from Lexi was a battle Caitlin had long lost. Resigned, she asked, “They throw themselves at him, don’t they?”
Lexi snorted and picked an invisible piece of lint off a shirt that perfectly matched her eyes. Caitlin, by comparison, could barely coordinate her shirt and pants. “Have you seen the man?” Lexi asked.
“I saw him.” Her thoughts went back to the diner, where he’d outwardly ignored an awful lot of blatant appreciation from other women. “And I think it’s disgusting when women fall at a guy’s feet because he’s attractive.”
“Attractive is the biggest understatement of all time, and if you tell me you didn’t notice, I’m walking out and leaving you alone with the dust and the books.”
Caitlin didn’t doubt that for a minute. “Yeah, I noticed,” she said. “He’s smoking hot. They all are. There must be a requirement to get in with the fire department here.”
“I’ve thought the same thing for years. And you’d think hanging out with so much eye candy would be good for a woman, but guess how many guys ask me out when I’m constantly surrounded by stupidly hot men?”
“That’s a first-world problem if I’ve ever heard one,” Caitlin said with a laugh.
“Just wait until you get to know them,” Lexi warned. She took her coffee from the machine and added creamer. Because that was exactly what chocolate donut coffee needed…a gallon of sweet milk.
“Well,” Caitlin said, “this morning Diego and Shane managed to soak me with a water hose. Does that count?”
Lexi sipped her coffee, failing to hide a smile behind the ceramic. “Am I allowed to laugh? Also, what counts is Shane has a clear interest in getting to know you, which is going to keep the others at a respectable distance.”
Caitlin left her cup on the counter and headed to the sof
a with a box of books. And tried not to think of Shane camped out there, periodically tossing out sex facts. “Ugh. I don’t want to join his list of conquests.”
Rather than argue, Lexi said, “I don’t think he sees you as a conquest.”
“What would possibly make you think that?”
She looked up from where she’d begun rifling through a box of books. “He doesn’t normally bring his dates to sit with us, for one.”
That news came as a surprise, but Caitlin hoped it didn’t show on her face. She didn’t need to feel better about him. She needed to learn to keep her distance. “This would be a good time to mention him grumbling about how he should have taken me somewhere else.”
“Either he made an exception, or he was so flustered by you he managed to forget we’re always there. I win both points. Wow,” Lexi said, staring into the box Caitlin had already discovered to be full of books about sex—one of many such collections she’d found there. “Kama Sutra. This is my kind of store.”
“There are no fewer than ten boxes full of sex books here,” Caitlin said, “and for the record, they were here before I was.” She hesitated, not really wanting to further the conversation about Shane, but curiosity overtook her. “Have you considered he doesn’t see me as anything more than what he said? A public service?”
“Doubtful.” Lexi stopped flipping through the book and held it open to an illustration. “Have you ever tried this? It looks painful. Actually,” she said with a wink, “maybe you should try that with Shane. See what he’s willing to go through for you.”
Caitlin stared, horrified. Not at the suggestion, but the fact that her mind had gone straight to picturing it. She opened her mouth to speak but ended up in a coughing fit. “Dust,” she finally said through watery eyes.
“Shall I call dispatch?” Lexi asked.
Caitlin abruptly stopped coughing, even though she hadn’t been faking it.
“That’s what I thought,” Lexi said with a grin. “Either way, you were different for him.”
“And I just moved here, so maybe he’s just being nice.”
Her Sexy Challenge (Firefighters of Station 1) Page 8