by Jamie Denton
Chloe made a sound of disgust. “So, you had a night of fabulous sex. Big deal, Jana. It doesn’t mean you should start shopping for monogrammed sheets.”
Jana didn’t even know Ben’s last name, so she was in no peril on that score. She didn’t know where he lived or what he did for a living. Not that it mattered, but it would be nice to know those details about him.
She’d estimated his age to be somewhere in his very early thirties, making him only a few years older than she. While she didn’t think he was married, he could be divorced with half-a-dozen junior studs in training running around wanting to be just like their daddy.
What if he was a staunch conservative? What kind of relationship would that be for a bleeding-heart liberal like herself?
Or a slob, she thought, horrified. Her neat-freak tendencies would scream in protest over that one.
Or worse, a chronic workaholic. That she could never tolerate. She’d watched her parents’ marriage crumble because her father had never been around. It’d been a miracle he’d even shown up in court for the divorce hearings.
“No,” she said after a moment. “Chloe’s right. It was a one-night stand.” She straightened and gave them both a steady look. “My first and my last. Besides, I wouldn’t even know how to get in touch with him again.”
“Directory assistance,” Lauren provided helpfully.
Jana winced. “I can’t.”
“Sure you can,” Lauren said. “You pick up the phone and dial four-one-one.”
“No, I don’t mean I can’t, I mean I can’t,” Jana explained. “I don’t know his last name.”
Even sexually liberated Chloe had the decency to appear slightly stunned. “You mean you had sex with the guy, had your first mind-blowing orgasm, and you didn’t even get his last name?”
“Three, actually.” Jana frowned. “Maybe four.” She would’ve had four if he hadn’t stopped them the first time. “No. Definitely three.”
She wasn’t certain if she’d fully forgiven him for teasing her like that, but at least he hadn’t lied about the anticipation. When he had finally let her fall, she’d been so overwhelmed, she’d actually wept. She’d even fallen asleep in his arms afterward, completely sated. He’d kissed her awake some time later, and they’d made love again. They’d done a slow, unhurried, seductive exploration with the end result even more earth-shattering than the first time. Later, she’d been the one to awaken him. Their mating had been wild, primal, her orgasm so powerful she’d been sure she’d literally screamed from the force of it.
Chloe snapped her fingers to get Jana’s attention. “Name?”
“That wasn’t exactly the subject that came up,” Jana admitted sheepishly. “Look, it’s not important. We had a great time, but that’s all it was, okay? I’ll never see him again so it’s a nonissue. Now can we please change the subject? Let’s dissect Lauren’s career or why our darling Scarlett is such a grouch today.”
“She’s always a grouch.” Lauren smiled suddenly. “I do have some news. You’ll be happy to note that my agent left me a message that I landed a string of voice-over spots for a series of airline commercials.”
Jana jumped at the opportunity for a new topic of discussion. “What about the animated feature you auditioned for last week?” she asked.
Lauren had wanted to be an actress for as long as Jana had known her. Unfortunately, Lauren froze in front of the camera, something she’d discovered after landing a sitcom very early in her career. Luckily, sound people had loved her voice. For the most part, Lauren made a decent living doing voice-over spots for thirty-second ads or documentary narrations. But Jana knew how important the audition had been to Lauren, and what landing an animated feature would do for her friend’s financial security, as well as her career.
Lauren shook her head. Her wilted curls bounced like limp springs. “Not yet. My agent still hasn’t heard back from the producer. Oh, it’ll be three days.”
Jana frowned, puzzled. Hadn’t Lauren just said she’d landed a series of commercials? Depending on how many spots the advertisers were looking for, it could entail a good month or more of steady work. “It’s only a three-day job?”
“Lauren.” Chloe’s voice was once again littered with impatience. “What are you talking about?”
“He’ll wait three days before he calls her.” Lauren spoke slowly, as if Chloe were dense.
“She’s right,” Chloe confirmed with a brisk inclination of her head in Lauren’s direction. “It’s some stupid guy rule. No matter how interested they are, they wait three days until they call you again.”
Jana tilted her head back and closed her eyes again, then arched to stretch her spine, loosening more tight muscles. “I never gave him my number, either, so the point is moot. And that’s all I have to say about it. The subject is now officially closed.”
“Just one more question,” Chloe pleaded. “Who was right. Me or Lauren?”
Jana let out a sigh. “About what?”
“Feet or hands?”
Jana burst out laughing. She straightened and lifted her hand to wiggle her fingers.
“From the base of his palm,” she said with a wide grin, “to the tip of his middle finger.”
6
BEN HUNG UP the phone, then slipped his credit card back inside his wallet. The clerk at the flower shop hadn’t been thrilled about him placing an order without knowing Jana’s full name. He also hadn’t been impressed when Ben only wanted his phone number on the card. Despite all the dramatic sighs, the guy hadn’t been foolish enough to refuse an order for three-dozen blush-pink roses.
Roses were a pretty old-fashioned idea, but Ben had a point to make, and in his opinion, nothing spoke louder to a woman than roses, except maybe jewelry. He didn’t doubt for a second Jana wouldn’t realize they were from him. The decision on whether or not they’d see each other again now belonged to her. All he’d done was send her thirty-six reminders why she should call him.
The city had been relatively calm for a Saturday, and Ben had taken advantage of the quiet by catching up on the sleep he’d missed. There’d been several paramedic runs throughout the day, keeping the two squads of medics hopping, but most of the crew had been kicking back in front of the big-screen TV in the dayroom watching the college football game once the equipment and gear checks were out of the way.
He’d managed to escape being hassled by the guys, but then, the entire house had been subdued since they’d lost Fitz in the Malibu Hills fire eight days ago. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration would be breathing down Ben’s neck first thing Monday morning, too. It was standard procedure for the big boys to get involved when someone died, but Ben sure as hell wasn’t looking forward to putting up with some anal, gung-ho book jock with no experience putting his butt on the line. No two burns were alike. A firefighter operated on instinct honed from years of experience and training, skills that were impossible to develop by reading a textbook.
The game failed to hold his attention, which hardly surprised him. When Jana wasn’t occupying his mind, he ended up going over and over the events of the fire that had cost Fitz his life.
Anxious for a distraction, he left the dayroom and headed for the bay. Cale and Brady Kent, Cale’s partner, were back from their last paramedic run, busy restocking their rig and performing equipment checks.
Ben leaned his shoulder against the open door at the back end of the ambulance. “Hell of a first day back,” he said to his brother, who’d been honeymooning in the Caribbean for the last two and a half weeks.
Cale looked up from the drawer of gauze bandage supplies he’d been replenishing, his expression solemn. “Hasn’t been too bad,” he said meaningfully. He filled the drawer, shoved it closed, then checked the next one. He looked over at his partner. “Where are the four IV bags?”
Brady smacked his forehead with the heel of his hand. “I knew I forgot something.”
“Hey, how’s Elise feeling?” Ben asked as the other parame
dic climbed from the rig. Brady and his wife were expecting their first kid in a few months.
“Not bad now that she’s over morning sickness,” Brady told him. “I was starting to feel guilty.”
Brady headed off to the stockroom, leaving Ben and Cale alone. “He’s been a wreck,” Cale said once Brady was no longer in sight. “’Course I’d probably be spooked, too, if it was Amanda bowing to the porcelain god twenty-four-seven.”
Ben didn’t doubt it for a second, either. He had a feeling Cale would find out for himself soon enough. He almost pitied his sister-in-law. Knowing Cale and his big old soft heart, he’d probably end up suffering right along with Amanda, and she’d be the one taking care of him.
Definitely not something Ben ever cared to experience firsthand. What real knowledge he did have about pregnancy and childbirth stemmed from the job. He’d been around enough roadside births to understand labor was no picnic—for either parent.
Cale cleared his throat. “You’re looking a little ragged around the edges. Late night?”
Ben wasn’t fooled by Cale’s feigned innocence. “Word travels fast.”
“When old boring Ben gets picked up by a hottie, there’s gonna be some talk.”
“Gossip is an ignorant pastime for the small-minded.”
Cale shrugged his shoulders and grinned. “It’s usually more interesting than the truth. So you gonna fess up or what?”
Ben moved out of the way as Brady headed across the bay toward them, his arms weighed down with several boxes of supplies.
“Didn’t plan to,” Ben said.
Cale took the boxes from Brady and set them on the gurney beside him. “Drew and I never plan to, either, but you always seem to get it out of us.”
Once Brady climbed back inside the rig, Ben crossed his arms and propped his shoulder against the open door again. “That’s because I’m smarter, older and better looking.”
Cale grinned, then shook his head. “Naaah. Older, I’ll give you. So, what gives?”
He supposed Cale’s third degree was to be expected. And deserved. But that didn’t mean he had any intention of spilling his guts the way his brothers did when he pressed them for information. Ben knew they thought he was nosy and bossy, but he cared about them. Drew and Cale were his family. He’d been looking after them since he was ten years old. Surely they didn’t expect him to stop now that they were all grown up.
“Not much,” Ben said, careful to keep his expression neutral. “I met someone. We had a good time.” A time he wouldn’t mind repeating. Often.
Cale shoved the handful of IV bags at Brady. “Did you catch that?” he asked his partner.
“Sure did,” Brady chuckled. “He’s interested.”
Ben straightened and stuffed his hands in the front pockets of his uniform trousers. “How’d you two geniuses draw that conclusion?”
“Three missing words,” Cale said, lifting three fingers for emphasis. “End. Of. Story.” He looked at Brady. “Did you hear him say ‘end of story’?”
Brady shook his head as he stuffed the drawer with IV kits. “Nope. I didn’t hear it.”
Cale hopped to the ground. “You’re interested.” He reached for the extra boxes Brady had retrieved. “Admit it.”
Ben shrugged, not sure what he felt other than a desperate need to have Jana’s body beneath his again. Soon.
“First you,” Brady said to Cale as he followed him out of the rig, “then Drew, now Ben. The Perry men are sinking fast.”
Ben took several steps back. “Whoa, hold it right there.” The distance did nothing to stop warning signals from going off in his head. He was not sinking. He wouldn’t allow himself to fall victim to whatever bug had bitten Cale, and possibly even Drew. “We had a good time. That’s it.”
That’s all Jana would ever be to him—a good time—for as long as she’d tolerate him. He was interested, but what guy wouldn’t be after a night of fantastic sex with a woman like her? He’d decided a whole lot of years ago he’d never let anyone or anything come between him and what he loved, and Jana would not be the exception.
After his mom, a firefighter, had died in the line of duty, he’d watched his old man throw everything that should have mattered away: his own career as a firefighter, his sons, even his own life.
During those first few months, Ben had feared his father and his rages. Morbid reflection usually followed until Alex Perry would finally pass out in a drunken stupor. It hadn’t taken long for Ben’s fear to turn into disgust. In his opinion, every time his dad had dived into a bottle of booze, which had been often, he’d desecrated the memory of Joanna Perry.
Cale and Drew had been too young at the time, Ben figured, to remember, or even know about, the fights his folks had had over his mom’s career choice. She’d been tough and hadn’t backed down from the old man or the department when they attempted to stick her in an EMT position. She’d died a hero, and as far as Ben was concerned, when she’d been alive, she’d deserved better than the guilt trip the old man had continually hurled at her for fighting for what she wanted.
“Yo, Ben. Ben!”
Ben shook off the past, just as he’d done for the last twenty-some years whenever the memories had threatened to choke him. He looked at his brother and at the deep frown on a face very much like his own.
Cale inclined his head toward Brady. “What did he mean ‘then Drew’?”
Brady groaned and dropped his head. “Forget I said anything.”
“What’s he talking about?” Cale asked Ben.
“Emily Dugan,” Ben reminded him. He’d suspected something was going on with Drew and Emily when Drew had invited her to Cale’s wedding. “It could be serious.”
“Drew?” Cale laughed, then made a production out of grabbing his chest and stumbling around the bay. “The one with the revolving bedroom door? That Drew?”
Ben hadn’t been half as surprised by the news as Cale, but then Ben was nowhere near as distracted as Cale had been since Amanda. “One and the same.”
Cale let out a low whistle. “Well, I’ll be damned.”
Brady sat on the rear bumper of the rig. “He’s got it bad, too.”
Cale shook his head in denial. “No way. Not Drew,” he said with a hearty laugh. “Women are his hobby. Remember the time he screwed up and had two of them show up at his place at the same time?”
Brady grinned and wiggled his thick eyebrows. “Yeah, and they both stayed. Some guys have all the luck.”
“Not lately,” Ben told them. “Since Emily, I don’t think Drew’s seen anyone else.”
Brady rested his hands on his legs and nodded in agreement. “I heard he never even dated those couple of weeks when he and Emily weren’t talking to each other.”
Cale raked his fingers through his hair. “A lot can happen in three weeks.”
Ben crossed his arms and gave Brady a hard stare. “What do you know?”
Brady lifted his hands in defeat. “Talk to Drew.”
Cale moved in next to Ben, and they faced Brady in a united front. “We’re talking to you.”
“Aw, man,” Brady complained. “Come on, guys. Scorch made me swear.”
“I swear I’m going to pound you into the ground if you don’t spill it,” Cale told Brady. He wouldn’t, but the threat still had Ben’s lips twitching as he struggled to hold back a smile.
“Okay. Okay.” At least Cale’s partner knew a losing battle when he saw one. “But I’m only talking because we’re partners and I have to work with you.”
Cale frowned. “Get to the point, Brady.”
“Scorch told me that Drew asked Tilly if she’d take him to see her jeweler today.” Brady looked from Cale to Ben.
Ben shrugged, unconcerned. “Could be anything.”
Brady slowly shook his head. “No, dude. He’s looking for a rock.”
The news took him by complete surprise. Sure, Drew had a thing for Emily. Ben didn’t really know her, but she was eons away from Drew’s usual ty
pe. His youngest brother wouldn’t actually torch his little black book, would he? “You don’t think he’ll really marry her, do you?” he asked Cale.
His brother rolled his eyes. “I realize this is virgin territory for you, old man, but for somebody that claims to be smarter, you sure are dumb.”
“She’s pregnant, Cale,” Ben said. He simply could not wrap his mind around the idea of Drew becoming a family man. The concept of commitment was foreign to his little brother.
Cale frowned. “Yeah, so?”
“So it’s not his baby. Why would he want that responsibility?” Ben argued. Drew lacked Cale’s hero gene. He didn’t rescue women the way Cale did; he collected them. Imagining Drew dating one woman exclusively was difficult enough to digest, but marrying one who came with a ready-made family?
“Why should it make a difference?”
Ben thought about that for a moment. Maybe it didn’t have to matter. The fact that his youngest brother was happy should be most important. With Cale married and Drew apparently dangling on the cusp of wedlock, Ben supposed his job was done.
“I guess it doesn’t,” he said eventually. Although he still wasn’t sure what he thought about the commitment virus infecting both of his brothers.
“Right. And before you start poking around,” Cale said, “let’s go torture Scorch for a while.”
“Why?” Ben asked, frowning. “What’s he done?”
If the scrawny paramedic had done anything to hurt Tilly Jensen, he’d have to answer to all three of the Perry brothers, and none of them had been shy about letting Scorch know it, either. Tilly and Drew were the same age and had been best friends ever since Drew had run over her dolls with his bike and she’d given him a black eye in return. In her early teens, she’d turned into a real pest when she’d decided she had a crush on Ben, but even her infatuation with him hadn’t changed his feelings. Tilly was family, and he protected his family.
Without waiting for an explanation, Ben took off for the dayroom, prepared to have a “chat” with Scorch to remind him to tread carefully as far as Tilly was concerned. Brady and Cale followed.