Hot In Here (Ashton Heights Fire # 3)

by Sami Lee

  The other guys called out their approval. Blair, whose job this morning was to tidy up the break room, came out and said, “You’re in a good mood, Curly.”

  “That I am, Blue.” In fact, Rob was grinning from ear to ear as he walked into the break room and set the pastries on the table. He reemerged a moment later, his smile still in place. “I’m moving in with Sierra.”

  A couple of the guys made sounds of approval, followed by jokes about Rob being pussy whipped as they made their way to the food. Rob took it all with good humor, obviously not willing to have his mood derailed. Not even by Blair, who scowled at the news.

  “So you’re leaving us in the lurch.”

  Rob rolled his eyes. “Come on, Blue, you must have known it was coming. I spend most of my time at her place anyway.”

  “Yeah, but—”

  “It’s great,” Leo interrupted before Blair could issue whatever complaint had been about to come out of his mouth. Drying up with a towel, he walked over to Rob and held out his hand. “Congratulations, mate.”

  “Thanks. I’m really crazy about her.”

  Leo smiled wryly. “We noticed. You going to make an honest woman out of her soon?”

  “You can bet on it.” Rob turned his attention back to Blair, who was still glowering. “Cheer up, Blue. You guys will find someone else to split the rent.”

  But who else would tolerate our loud three-way encounters? Leo thought, and wondered if that same thing had occurred to Blair when his look turned uncharacteristically sheepish. “Leo’s right. If this is what you want, then it’s great.”

  The two men shook. Rob beamed and clapped them both on the back before disappearing into the break room, where he was greeted by raucous applause. Leo opted to avoid the festivities and went back to washing the truck.

  “You’re not going to take a break?” Blair asked.

  “Not hungry.” He also wasn’t in the mood to be around the others. He really was happy for Rob. He was a decent guy and he deserved a good woman like Sierra. Still, there was a part of him that was unsettled by the whole situation, although he’d gone out of his way not to let Rob see it.

  Blair came over and leant on the front grill of the truck. “So I guess we’ll have to start looking for a lodger.”

  “We can afford the place on our own for a while.” The next words were out before Leo even knew what he was going to say. “Or we could all go our separate ways.”

  The guys in the break room laughed. The sound seemed so far away, as though it were behind a Perspex wall. The cone of silence had descended upon him and Blair.

  At length, Blair asked. “That what you want?”

  There was no hurt in his friend’s voice, but Leo sensed it beneath the stoic surface. He dipped the sponge in the bucket and washed the front wheel. “All I know is we can’t go on the way we have been.”

  “Meaning?”

  Leo sighed, threw the sponge in the bucket and stood. “I’m over hooking up with these girls who don’t mean anything to us, Blue.”

  “Is this about Rob finding the love of his life?”

  “Maybe. Ever since I saw how happy he is with Sierra…” Leo trailed off with a shrug. “I guess I want the real deal now.”

  “Does this have something to do with Ally?”

  Neither of them had mentioned her name in the week since Leo had woken to find her gone. All Blair had said that morning was that she’d left, and Leo had been too pissed that his friend had done his ejector-seat routine with Ally to even talk about it. Things had been quietly tense in the house the whole week.

  “I liked her,” he said gruffly. “I really liked her.”

  “Yeah, well…so did I.”

  Leo rolled his eyes. “Yeah, right.”

  Blair frowned. “I did.”

  “That’s why you kicked her out before I even woke up. Jesus, Blue. You didn’t even give me a chance.”

  “A chance to what?”

  “Talk to her. Tell her that just because we’d all had sex already, that didn’t mean we couldn’t go on a date for a real.”

  Blair’s eyes narrowed. “Are you talking about all three of us, or just you and her?”

  “You don’t want a girlfriend,” Leo pointed out.

  “And you do? You want a girlfriend like Ally?”

  “Not just like Ally. I want Ally. Shit.” Leo ran a hand through his hair, uncaring that he’d probably got soap suds in it. “I haven’t stopped thinking about her all week. Something inside me clicked when I saw her, and maybe that’s something I could have followed up in some normal, traditional way. Instead, we did our usual thing, and you kicked her out before I could even talk to her.”

  “That’s why you’ve been freezing me out all week,” Blair concluded.

  “That’s why I’ve been so pissed at you I had to shut you out or risk slamming my fist into your face.”

  The urge to do that very thing rose in Leo again, and he channeled the frustration into kicking the bucket of water at his feet so he wouldn’t damage his friend. The bucket tipped over, spilling the soapy water all over the driveway.

  Crossing his arms over his chest, Blair glared at Leo. “I have to say it’s insulting that you assume you’re the only one Ally would have been interested in dating.”

  “There was a connection between us, I felt it.”

  “I felt one too. You’re not the only one with a claim on her.”

  “What are you saying? That you’d fight me for her?”

  Blair let out a disbelieving laugh. “What I’m saying is that something normal and traditional would never work for you, Chats. Not with the way you are.”

  Ridiculous, considering everything Blair knew about him, that his words would make heat infuse Leo’s face. “I could give it a go.”

  Blair shook his head. “You’d never be fully satisfied. Just like I wouldn’t be if I had to have vanilla sex all the time. It’s fine occasionally, but before long, I’d miss the leather bindings. We have kinks, mate. No point denying that.”

  “So because I have a thing for watching I don’t get to love anybody?”

  “That’s not it. I’m saying we’ve always worked well as a team, and if you want to find someone more…permanent, then maybe I’d be into that.”

  Must be the day for big announcements. Yet while Rob’s news hadn’t been a surprise, Blair’s statement shocked Leo to the core. “You’d do a steady three-way?”

  “Why not? We’re gonna run out of girls anyway.”

  Leo made a pissed-off grunt. “Don’t joke about something like this, you prick.”

  “You’re right. I’m sorry.”

  Blair wasn’t big on apologizing, so his words had Leo gaping in surprise.

  “I’m also sorry I couldn’t keep Ally from leaving last week, but you’re wrong about me kicking her out. In fact, I made it pretty clear she could stay if she wanted to, and unless my radar is on the fritz, I’d say she wanted to.” Blair held his gaze, and there was sympathy in the blue irises. “She still left, mate. Of her own accord.”

  On some level, Leo must have suspected that’s what happened, because he wasn’t surprised. That didn’t stop him from feeling a pang of something like pain deep in his solar plexus. Was this what it felt like to want someone who didn’t want you? If so, he and Blair had both done quite a few girls a disservice over the years.

  Oh sure, they were always upfront about their arrangements being casual, but there’d been several ladies who’d hoped for more anyway, who’d probably been inadvertently hurt by what they saw as a rejection when neither Blair or Leo saw things the same way.

  “What the hell have we been doing, Blue?”

  “I don’t know any better than you do,” Blair said on a sigh. Then he pushed off the truck and started heading away. “I’m going to nab one of those danishes before they’re all gone. You going to come to the Sovereign after work?”

  “I’m not sure.”

  Still walking, Blair turned around. “Ju
st for a drink. That’s what mates do, right?”

  Leo knew what Blair was doing. In a less than forthright way, he was asking if they were still solid, if they were still mates. Leo couldn’t help but smile. The guy could be a first-class prick sometimes, but today he’d surprised Leo with his insight and honesty, not to mention with his willingness to consider a relationship. Perhaps Blair Bowman was maturing.

  Even if he hadn’t been, Leo would still have been his friend. Mates stuck by each other.

  “All right, I’ll come. But you’re buying, mate.”

  “We’ll play pool for it. Loser picks up the tab.”

  Leo laughed and shook his head, but his smile slipped when Blair was out of sight. His friend’s suggestion only reminded him of how they’d met Ally last week, of how much fun they’d had playing pool with her—and of course doing the host of other things that had come after. It was all fine and dandy for Blair to say they could find a woman willing to enter into a triad deal with them—in fact, the idea was kind of thrilling—but saying and doing were two different things. Where were they going to find a woman who fit them both that perfectly?

  Where were they going to find another woman like Ally?

  “Medium rare porterhouse and a chicken parmigiana.” Ally set the meals down in front of the couple in the corner booth. “Can I get you anything else?”

  The couple said no, so Ally swiped the number off their table with a smile and headed back to the kitchen. She saw with relief that there were no more orders currently waiting to be taken out. She was dead on her feet, but she couldn’t sit down yet or she’d never get back up. Instead, she headed behind the bar to grab a glass of water, making sure to stay out of the bartenders’ way.

  “Busy night,” said Michelle Turner as she poured a draught beer and set it on the bar. “How’re you handling it?”

  “No problems.” Ally had been run off her feet since five-thirty when the kitchen opened, but she’d worked in places that got even busier than a Brisbane pub on a Friday night.

  “Kev hasn’t yelled at you yet,” Michelle noted. Kev was the head chef, who was apparently notorious for snapping orders at the wait staff when they weren’t on their game. “So you must be doing okay.”

  “Thanks.” It was only Ally’s third shift, and the manager had decided to throw her in the deep end to see if she could swim. Fortunately for Ally, she’d been swimming plenty of times before. “You need help out here later? I knock off in forty.”

  “Need the money, huh?”

  “You have no idea.” She had to move out of her parents’ house ASAP. At first, she’d loved having her mother fuss over her, but two weeks back in the country and she was ready to regain her independence. “I’m saving for bond.”

  “We’re fully staffed tonight.” Michelle gave one guy change and took the next customer’s order at the same time, then started pouring the beers he’d asked for while never losing the thread of conversation with Ally. “But I’ll mention it to Barry. You might get a few more hours behind the bar another night.”

  “Brilliant, ta. I’d better get back out and clear a few tables.”

  There were only a few people still eating in her section, and nobody else ordering at almost nine o’clock at night. The kitchen officially closed at nine-thirty though, so Ally kept her eye out for new diners while clearing the plates of those that had finished. She didn’t exactly love waitressing, but there were worse jobs in the world. This was good for some quick cash until she figured out what she really wanted to do.

  It was too bad the job was at the Sovereign of all places. She’d kept a surreptitious eye on the front doors all night, half-expecting Blair and Leo to come striding through them at some point. This was the regular watering hole for the firefighters of Ashton Heights, so she knew she was probably going to see them again if she continued working here. But that was also the reason she’d been able to so easily get the job. Corey’s boyfriend, Griff, knew the owner well and had put in a good word for her. She’d been hired on the spot, whereas the other places she’d applied had wanted her to do psychometric testing or work for free for the first week.

  So there she was clearing tables and praying she could get through one more night without seeing the two guys she most wanted to avoid when the two guys she most wanted to avoid waltzed in.

  Oh shit.

  Ally stumbled on her feet, sending cutlery flying off the plate she was carrying. The stainless steel clanged loudly as it collided with the hardwood flooring. Several people turned her way, and she hastily ducked down, ostensibly to retrieve the knife and fork. The act had the dual purpose of keeping her out of sight.

  What if they’d seen her? Oh shit, shit, shit. She’d told herself she could handle seeing the stars of her hottest sexual memory again, but as it turned out she wasn’t holding herself together well. Her heart was hammering and her fingers shook so much she dropped the cutlery all over again.

  “You all right, love?”

  The man at the table she was hiding behind peered over the top of it at her. Ally flashed him a smile. “Oh, sure. Just making sure I got everything.”

  “Need some help?”

  “No.” Not unless you have a cloak of invisibility on you. “I’m fine, thanks.”

  Ally slowly got to her feet, keeping her back to the doors just in case. She braved a glance up and saw that Blair had made his way to the bar and Leo was headed to the back of the pub where the pool tables were.

  Looked like they weren’t going to order any food at least. Ally let out a sigh of relief and headed back to the kitchen with her head tilted away from the bar so Blair wouldn’t see her face. She called herself a pathetic idiot as she set the plates on the counter for the dishwasher. Why was she having so much trouble with this? It wasn’t like she’d never run into a one-night stand again after the deed was done. She should simply walk right up to the guys and give them the I-vaguely-remember-you-did-we-do-it-once? look.

  The thing was, she doubted she could pull that off with them. No way was she going to manage an air of vague recollection about what she’d done. She’d barely stopped thinking about it since. Whenever she closed her eyes, she could feel Leo’s hands on her again, feel Blair’s hot breath on the back of her neck. She remembered vividly the sensation of having two mouths moving over her body, two tongues teasing her nipples and her clit in tandem. She remembered the sharp sense of completion she’d experienced when the both men had fucked her in turns, shooting her to the brink and over it, again and again and again…

  The dinging of the service bell jolted Ally out of her memories. “Mud cake and a raspberry mousse for table eight!”

  Table eight was hers, so Ally forced the mental images aside and headed to the counter. She somehow managed to look like any other busy waitress on the job, which was quite a feat since her pulse was pounding, her knees were weak and her panties were suddenly wet.

  By some miracle, Ally made it to the end of her shift without coming face-to-face with either Leo or Blair. As the diners cleared out, the drinkers filed in, so it was relatively easy to get lost in the crowd. She knew the moment of truth would arrive eventually, but seeing them again had sent her into a more ferocious tailspin than she’d expected. She needed another day or two to regroup before she could talk to either one of them without giving herself away.

  Grabbing her stuff from her locker in the staff room, Ally slipped out the back door of the Sovereign and started traversing the car park. She took the keys to her parents’ house of out of her bag and threaded them through her fingers so she could use them as a makeshift weapon should the need arise. The car park was well lit, and Ashton Heights wasn’t a dodgy suburb, but she was a woman walking alone at night. The train station was only two blocks away, but you could never be too careful.

  She was a few meters from the street when she felt a hand come to rest on her arm, and a male voice say, “Hey.”

  Ally reacted on instinct. Her father was a cop and he’d taught h
er self-defense. He’d also taught her the power of acting immediately. Women were often too trusting to assume that anyone approaching them was up to no good. Her father had drilled into her the edict that it was better to bruise an innocent guy than to get killed by a guilty one.

  All those thoughts flashed in her head in less than an instant, and before she’d even allowed herself to think her actions through, Ally had swung her right foot back and rammed it into her pursuer’s toe. She followed that up with an elbow to the midsection, which knocked the wind out of the guy enough that he released her arm.

  Ally bolted, making sure she was several paces away before she chanced a look behind her. The man was doubled over, holding his stomach. Coming up behind him was another man. His face was in shadows, but she recognized his loose-limbed stride. His voice when he spoke to the man she’d hit was also familiar.

  “Jesus, Blue. Never thought I’d see a girl of five foot three get the best of you.”

  “She surprised me is all,” Blair muttered.

  Funny, considering she’d spent the past half hour trying to avoid them, but Ally was so relieved it was Leo and Blair behind her that her shoulders unknotted. She walked back the few paces she’d run. “You surprised me. And I’m five four, by the way.”

  “Still a hell of a lot smaller than Blue.” Leo flashed her a grin. “I’m impressed.”

  Blair grumbled. “I’m injured.”

  “You’ll live,” Ally said, fighting with the urge to apologize. “You really shouldn’t grab a woman before you’ve announced yourself.”

  “I didn’t know you knew jujitsu.”

  “That was basic self-defense, you big baby.” Despite knowing she’d do the same thing again if faced with the same situation, the guilt got the best of her when Blair started rubbing his midsection. Ally approached him and winced. “I wouldn’t have done it if I’d known it was you. Does it really hurt that much?”

  Blair’s lips curved in the sexy smile that had haunted her dreams. “It does. You might need to kiss it better.”

  Ally rolled her eyes. “If this is your way of picking me up, it needs work.”