“Not lately. No one outside of work,” she said.
“Work being firefighting?”
“Yeah…and accounting. I have a freelance accounting business.” She dug around in her turnout gear and then remembered. “Damn. My cell phone is at the station.”
“Come on.” He’d kept his grip on her elbow the whole time, as if he feared she’d fall over. “I’ll take you back to the station and then home.”
She couldn’t refuse the ride. Well, she could have but to what end? Her overwhelming desire not to be a burden rose up anyway. “You don’t need to do this.”
“What?”
“Babysit. I can get a ride. I’m sure you have something else to do. More security work. Isn’t your boss expecting you back?”
“He is, but until I finish taking care of you I’m not going back to the office.”
“I’m capable of taking care of myself, Security Guy.”
He laughed. “Security Guy?”
“Security Man. Security Dude. Whatever. It’s the way I’ve been thinking of you for months.”
His brows lowered and curiosity made those deep brown eyes intensify. Ah, hell. She’d let that cat way out of the proverbial bag hadn’t she?
“Months?” he asked.
“Well…you know.” She stumbled around the words. “The last time I saw you was at that fire. When those men were messing with us. You drove them away. I wouldn’t forget that.”
And the fact you are one hot guy.
Seriousness left his eyes and went straight for teasing. “You gave me a nickname?”
She disengaged her elbow from his grip, not liking the amusement in his tone. She shrugged as her face heated. She knew she was blushing, and that made her mortification deeper.
“Yeah, well…don’t let it give you a big head,” she said.
It was a lame-assed retort, but she’d never been good at quick comebacks.
His teasing was replaced by a heated sensuality that snagged her breath. “No chance of that. I just like that you were thinking about me. I’m flattered.”
Oh, Lord. She shoved aside the knowledge he liked her attention. Flirting wasn’t a skill she possessed.
“So like I said.” She crossed her arms. “You’ve done your job. You don’t need to babysit.”
“Humor me. You know that anal personality thing you were talking about? This is part of it. I see things through to the end. I don’t give up on people.”
Wow. Now she knew she was living in some sort of dream world. She wasn’t used to men who followed through. Okay, the men she knew at the fire station were reliable enough. Still, O’Day seemed to push dependable to an all-time high.
Back in the SUV and on the way to the station, he asked, “What did the doctor say about your injuries?”
“Other than some bruises, I’m good. No concussion, no broken or cracked anything. I’ll probably be sore as hell for a couple of days.”
He smiled as they came to a stop sign. “I’m glad I was wrong about the concussion.”
“Crap.”
“What?”
“Ballard and Striker. I didn’t even check to see if they were in the hospital. I didn’t see them in the emergency room anywhere.”
He shrugged. “You’ll find out when you get to the station.”
His nonchalance, his ease with the world no matter how chaotic, fascinated and pissed her off. Oh, and there was that whole envy thing, too. She’d love to develop the detachment he seemed to possess. Curiosity ate her up inside, and she hated that, too. She’d developed an interest in Mark O’Day that went deeper than his rock-hard body and the gallantry in his bones. More than the fact he had a god-like charisma that wormed itself right into her feminine libido.
“So who are you really?” she asked, determined to turn the tables on him.
“Mark O’Day, of Irish decent with a nice side of French, Native American and Norwegian thrown into the salad.”
“A good old fashioned America, Mom, baseball and apple pie kind of guy.”
“Not much for the baseball part. I like hockey.”
She eyeballed him for a moment, taking in his height and physique again. “I’ll bet you played it in high school.”
“Yep.”
She drew in a slow breath, feeling the day’s anxiety start to slide away under their light conversation. “That still doesn’t tell me who you are.”
“Okay, I’m thirty-two, six feet two inches tall and single.”
Single. Interesting that he’d put that information into the conversation.
She shook her head. “Where are your friends and family? How did they do after Long Valley blew up?”
His mouth sobered as it went from friendly curve to tight line. “Mom and Dad were killed in a car wreck ten years ago in Santa Fe, where I grew up.”
“Oh, God. I’m sorry.”
“I’m the youngest of three kids. I have two older sisters. My oldest sister lives in upstate New York with her husband who owns a construction company. My other sister lives in Australia with her husband on a cattle station.”
“They’re all doing okay?”
“Very well. The sister that lives in Australia, Carrie…she wants me and my sister Jenna to live with them on the cattle station.”
“Why haven’t you?”
“My life is here doing the work I like to do. Helping people.” A small smile returned to his mouth but quickly disappeared. “I can’t see myself on a cattle station.”
“But you would if you had to.”
“Yeah, if I had to.”
“Is your family close?”
“Now we are. It wasn’t always that way.”
“Did the disaster bring you together?”
“No, our parents’ death did that.”
A lump solidified in her throat at the thought of being a part of something close-knit and important. An ache started in the center of her stomach.
“Sounds like you’ve got a good life,” she said, envious in a way that disconcerted her.
“It is now.”
“It wasn’t before?”
“Now who is being nosy?”
“Payback is a bitch.”
He laughed, and she couldn’t help but join him. They arrived at the station after grinding their way through bumper-to-bumper traffic. When he parked and got out of the car, she sighed. The man was going to escort her right to the door.
When they went through the bay doors, several men on the shift came right for them, including Jeeter. His expression dissolved into relief.
Captain Detmer checked in with her and thanked Mark for helping her.
“Van Pelt, the Chief wants you to take the rest of the week off,” Captain Detmer said.
Juliet shook her head. “What? No.”
Captain Detmer planted his hands on his hips. “Yes. Ballard and Striker are getting the same thing. We don’t want to burn you out.”
She almost cursed, but held it back. “I’m not hurt.”
“You’re going to ache like hell the next couple of days,” Mark said.
“You almost got blown to bits,” Jeeter said.
She threw her hands up. “All right. All right. But you guys call me back if you need me.”
Detmer returned to work. Jeeter stood by and kept an eye on Mark when she went to get her phone and stuff. Jeeter didn’t look the least bit happy either. She escaped to find her cell phone on the table near the berth she’d slept in the night before. She rummaged in her locker, changed her clothes and grabbed her hobo bag purse. She rounded the corner and saw Okono talking with Mark, and Chief Krisky handing Mark a cup of coffee. One of those big cups with the lid on it, steaming hot. Her stomach growled at the same time—she wanted a cup of java. As tempting as it was to make some effort to stay here, to make an excuse why she should work another shift, she knew that wouldn’t fly with the Captain or the Chief. No, she’d go home, eat, and make her own coffee.
“Thanks.” Mark sipped the coffee tentati
vely. “I appreciate it.”
“Thanks for taking care of our girl,” Okono said.
Ick. She almost said it out loud.
“I’m not your girl, Okono,” she said instead, plastering on a smile for effect.
Mark looked back and forth between them. “Ready to go?”
“Ready.”
Once back in the SUV and on the road, he placed his coffee in a cup holder. “Want some?”
“No. I’ll make coffee when I get home. Besides, the stuff at the station tastes like the bottom of an old shoe.”
He laughed. “Yeah. It does.”
They were silent only for a moment before he said, “Guys at your station seemed like stand-up people.”
“Most of them.”
“Most?”
“Okono is a pain in the ass. He used to be a Navy SEAL. I guess he gets his rocks off firefighting.”
“He seems arrogant.”
“More than that.” She warmed up to the subject. “He’s a misogynistic, backwards, chest-thumping ape. He believes his own press.”
“Ah. One of those.”
“I imagine you ran into some of those types in the army.”
“Oh, yeah. I guess I misread the guy. I thought the posturing was a bit of that male peeing on his territory type of behavior. Not only does Jeeter have a crush on you, but so does the Navy SEAL.”
“What? No way. Okono doesn’t respect or like any woman.” She made a scoffing sound. “Peeing on his territory?”
He shrugged and reached for his coffee. After he’d taken a sip, he said, “Jeeter genuinely cares about you, I think, but Okono wants to mark everything as his.”
It slipped out before she could stop it. “What do you do when you like a woman?”
He threw a cocky grin in her direction. “Send flowers. Take her to movies, concerts, the beach, hiking. All the usual dating stuff.” His voice went a little lower to a rumble that stroked across everything primal inside her. “Kiss her.”
Heat found its way inside her again, a rush of attraction that sent an erotic picture into Juliet’s mind. Mark kissing her tenderly, then holding her against the wall, her legs around him, his cock buried balls-deep inside her. Oh, holy—what would that be like?
That heat flamed in her womb, igniting feminine needs she’d put on hold for what seemed years. She hadn’t dated in ages, and she’d abandoned the idea of establishing a more serious relationship.
“Well, Long Valley put a damper on all that dating stuff, didn’t it?” she said, feeling the pessimistic side of her come into play.
“Why?”
She hadn’t expected that question, and she steered him away from the subject by giving him directions to her house. He didn’t press the question, thank goodness. This man had already thrown her off her unflappable game, and she found a strange exhaustion coming over her. They drove in silence the rest of the way, as if he sensed her tiredness and need for quiet. She lived in an older part of town, where small Victorian and Edwardian era homes lay along a manicured street with enormous trees down the sides. Today, like most days, the neighborhood was quiet. She was caught between relief and anxiety. Intellectually she knew it was time to recharge and regroup. What she’d do for a week, though, baffled her.
When they pulled up to the curb in front of her small Edwardian house, she opened the passenger door. “Thanks for everything, Mark.”
“You’re welcome.” She started to slide out of the SUV, when he said, “Wait.”
He dug into a pocket in his cargo pants and handed her a business card. Mark O’Day, Sentry Security, Security Specialist.
Her eyebrows lifted. “Security Specialist, eh?”
He shrugged. “Sounds a lot better than Rambo or some other shit.”
She laughed. “Oookay.”
“Call me anytime. At the office or on my cell.” His gaze caught hers, serious this time and back to intense. “If you need anything.”
Was he waiting for her to offer her home and cell number? She didn’t. But he had another surprise up his sleeve.
He lifted her left hand and kissed the back gently. A mere brush of lips. “Rest easy, and I’ll talk to you soon.”
“Thanks for the help.”
“Anytime, Juliet.”
His voice caressed her name and opened a whole new, vulnerable place inside her. She left the SUV quickly and headed up her sidewalk without looking back. She noticed, though, that he didn’t leave until she’d gone in the house and closed the door.
Chapter 3
Mark walked into the back entryway of Sentry Security on Friday, groceries in hand. It was his turn to restock the refrigerator in the break room and the kitchens in the individual rooms upstairs. The apartments served as living quarters for company owner retired General Alexander Graham, Ian MacDaniel and his fiancée Penny Graham, and Adam Becker and his fiancée Mally Andretti. Amazing how much the place had changed in the last few months. Before Adam and Ian had hooked up with their ladies, the place had served as strictly quarters for the employees of Sentry Security. The fact that the General allowed the two couples to live here surprised Mark, but the General had mellowed since he’d reconnected with his daughter Penny. Mark didn’t mind Penny and Mally around the place—they added a woman’s touch he could appreciate, and they were good for Ian and Adam. More than that, Penny and Mally were classy women.
He’d made two trips into the break room when he heard the giggle. It sounded like Mally, and she didn’t make that sound unless…well, unless Adam was teasing her or maybe even kissing her. Mark’s mind flashed back to three days ago when he’d taken Juliet Van Pelt to the hospital. A powerful need came over him as he remembered carrying her, her petite form snuggled close. You’re an idiot, O’Day. You’re just horny. It didn’t help that Adam and Ian seemed ridiculously happy with the women in their lives. Mark didn’t doubt for a second that Mally and Penny were the right women for his friends. Unfortunately his friends and the ladies had teased the shit out of him about Juliet. Two meetings with Juliet and they already thought he was half in love with her. Half in lust maybe, but he understood lust wasn’t love.
Mark walked out of the break area and straight into Mally and Adam sharing a kiss in the hallway.
“Whoa there,” Mark said as the couple stayed in each other’s arms. “Get a room.”
Mally’s green eyes sparkled as she smiled. With her long, wavy russet hair falling down to her waist, Ian and Mark had started calling her Rapunzel. Good thing she didn’t mind.
Adam grinned and kept his arm around Mally. “You need to get a life, O’Day. Get out and have some fun.”
O’Day threw his hands up. “Fun? What’s that? I thought we canceled that a long time ago.”
Adam slapped his forehead. “Oh, that’s right. I forgot, bro. It’s the apocalypse.”
Right that moment the back door opened. Ian and Penny entered, their smiles almost as bright as Mally and Adam’s love-soaked grins. Penny was about the same height as Mally, with long brown hair. Blonde streaks ran through her hair in subtle brushes of color, and it reminded Mark instantly of Juliet’s spiky hair with those unusual gray streaks. What the hell would cause a woman as young as Juliet to have gray streaks in her hair? He knew premature graying happened sometimes, but he had a feeling more than genetics played a part in her situation.
His attention snapped back to conversation around him. God, he needed to get the fuck out of his head.
“Are we having a meeting?” Ian’s Scottish accent sometimes sounded like he chewed on rocks, but today his voice held nothing but clarity.
“Nah.” Mark continued out the door. “Groceries.”
“Need help?”
Ian followed Mark and they brought in the last several bags of groceries. After everyone restocked their areas, the General walked into the main foyer and hailed the men. Great. That look on his face isn’t exactly chummy. But then, when is it ever?
Mally took Penny’s arm. “Come on.” She screwed
up her face and spoke in an exaggerated southern accent. “The men folk have to do some plannin’.”
Penny laughed and kissed Ian on the cheek. “Don’t be long.”
Ian turned a shade of red Mark hadn’t seen before on the Scotsman’s face. Mark almost laughed but decided against it. He liked teasing the hell out of people, and he always had. After the ladies left, the General waved them all toward the war room. They closed the door and sat around the large table. High on one wall was a television with the sound muted. It showed a news station out of Bangor.
“Why did we leave the ladies out of this?” Adam asked.
The General lowered himself into a chair at the head of the table. “Because it’ll be a nice surprise for them.”
“Why would we want to leave them out of a surprise?” Ian asked with a puzzled expression.
The General smiled. “Since our last contract is up, and we’re negotiating another one, I wanted to give you all the chance for some rest and relaxation. That means no work for at least seven days. That’s how long it’s going to take for me to renegotiate our next contract with the local government. We’ve all worked hard the last few months and need to recharge. I know when soldiers are getting worn down from not enough sleep.”
Mark knew his mouth had probably flopped open, and he snapped his jaw shut. Ian and Adam also looked shell-shocked.
“Don’t all talk at once,” The General said.
“We’re just surprised.” Mark couldn’t deny it. “That many days? I’m not even sure what I’ll do with myself.”
“Sleep.” The General shifted in his chair. “You’re all looking beat up and used. If you’re not in good health, none of you’ll be able to do the job anyway. Several days off is long overdue, and I apologize for not giving you more time away earlier.”
Mark saw the wisdom in days off. He understood they couldn’t continue on nothing but coffee and meals ready to eat, or MREs as they were called in the military. The General had a huge store of them for emergencies and when they had to eat on the run. Sentry Security also had a large store of other supplies, including dried foods.
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