He kicked himself for his obsession because he’d been the one to demand the distance. But it was killing him.
Hell, tonight he’d even joined some of the crew a local western style pub a block down that his team had taken an improbable shine to three years ago when he’d arrived as the station officer. Last year later he’d been promoted again to senior station officer, which had made him cut back on socializing with his crew even more, but tonight he’d thought a beer and some conversation would take the edge off. Instead, he’d been treated to the sight of Dare in a paisley pattern dress that rode high on her thighs riding a mechanical bull and whooping it up wearing some damn cowboy’s hat.
He’d wanted to kill the bastard, who kept trying to buy her drinks. Dare was only drinking mineral water with lime and lemon, but she did wear the hat. She rode that bull until a song came on the radio that she said was her sister’s hit. Then she’d whistled and yelled at the whole bar to dance to her sister’s song and bought the crew another round. Between the bull ride and the dancing, he was surprised he hadn’t tossed her over his shoulder and carried her out because she made him ache.
Fuck it. He got out of his car and walked into the backyard. Maybe physical exertion would help. It was too late and dark to row but maybe he could swim himself into mental oblivion. He stripped down, grabbing board shorts from the cabana, dove into the pool and set a grinding pace.
Up and down. Mindless. He didn’t bother to count or to time himself. He would swim until he could swim no more, except when he made a turn and kicked up his pace again, he came up for air and saw Dare’s light blue toenails and long legs partially dangling in the water at one end.
“Mind if I join you?” Her voice was sultry.
All his blood rushed south and he couldn’t speak. The blue and green pool lights danced in the water’s ripples and played lovingly with the lines and curves of her body. Resisting her was torture and his will was wearing thin. He had no idea how he’d survive the next two plus months. He’d go raving mad or his right hand or his dick would fall off.
“I know you watch me at night.”
He’d looked up into her eyes, her gaze mysterious, her face shuttered.
“I feel you watching. I think about you. I wonder when you’ll join me and put us both out of our misery and into bliss.”
“Dare.” He still hadn’t caught his breath from his sprints and now she had to go and say something like that. She could be a professional siren luring him to crash and burn on the rocks of his career.
“Cut yourself a break, Lock. It’s not like everyone doesn’t think we’re sleeping together anyway.”
“They don’t. We have separate rooms. I was clear that you are in the main house, and I have an apartment.”
“Like that’s going to stop wandering minds. It’s not like we have a hall monitor taping our doors shut and watching for late night sexcapades. Everyone definitely thinks we’re bouncing. And they’re cool with it.”
Dare had smiled and then swished off her dress. New bikini. It was dark blue eyelet lace so he could see little glimpses of skin through the fabric.
“Do you like it?” She asked and turned a slow circle. “I went shopping with Sarah and Mim yesterday. What do you think?”
“Beautiful.”
“The color reminded me of your eyes right before you come.”
He sucked in a breath and, damn her, she smiled and then knelt down by the pool. Her fingers reached out and grazed his cheek. He turned his face into her hand and kissed her palm, and then each fingertip. Dare sighed. Then she stood up.
“Just wanted to know if you still missed me.”
He wondered if she’d be so breezy if he showed her how much he missed her.
“Okay, go take another cold shower. My turn to swim.” She winked and then dove over the top of him, slicing cleanly in the water.
For a second he nearly went after her. But as much as he was suffering now, when she left in two months, it would only be harder.
Two days later after a twenty-four hour shift for both him and Dare, Lock looked at a text at work and laughed. Dare had taken to texting him about the calls on the way back to the station, and she would often put little emojis in the body of the report to express her thoughts or reactions, which should not amuse him at all. And when he heard the roll-up of the bay door and then the beep-beep of the truck reversing back into the bay, he took the stairs down two at a time.
Dare was at the bottom, smudged with soot and grinning, already peeling off her bunker gear.
“Miss me?” she said breezily.
“Desperately,” he answered thinking to sound sarcastic but it came out flat and serious.
Her eyes darkened, the green seeming to swirl into the light blue. He could drown in her eyes and die happy.
“Lock...” Her voice had more of the Tennessee husk than usual. “You can’t do this here.”
Where then?
He felt trapped. Desperate. In a cage he’d made for himself and for her with thick bars with spikes that mocked his good intentions. He wanted her more than he wanted to breathe or eat or do anything that had once meant something to him. What the hell had he thought about before Dare? What had he wanted?
“Stop with the googly eyes you two or you’ll make me wet, and it’s too damn early, and I gotta clean up now that my shift is finished so I can get an hour with my boyfriend before he heads off to his shift. And no nap because the baby will be waking up,” Mim announced.
Lock drew back from Dare so fast he hit his head on the door jam.
“Damn, he’s got it bad.” Mim took off her coat and hung it up.
“Are you okay?” Dare mouthed.
He nodded ruefully, rubbing the sore spot.
“Hard head,” she teased, but let her eyes drift lower with purpose.
“Behave,” He mouthed back at her.
Dare shucked off her pants, and he saw for the first time she was wearing work pants and the standard issue fireman’s T-shirt with the logo and her last name embroidered on the front. She formed her hands into a circle and held it above her head like a halo and stuck out her tongue.
“Who’s hungry for some pikelets? Start the day right.” Reese demanded, Matt Rich and Daniel James following close behind.
“It’s coming up to half past six,” Matt said. “Get a life. I think I can still catch my wife in bed if you get the fuck out of my way so I can hit the showers.”
“Jess, Sarah, you with me? Ditch these old married idiots? Dare? I know you’re in.”
“I’m out,” Dare said. “Going for a run.”
“Christ, do you ever sit still?”
“She kept her seat the night we all initiated her to the mechanical bull at that rodeo themed pub we dragged her to. I’m calling her cowgirl from now on,” Mim called out as she hurried up the stairs. “Dare rode that mechanical bull all night because she’s got nothing else going on,” Mim said easily and winked at Lock. “I got pictures. Should probably Snapchat those out to her fan base.”
“Don’t you dare,” Lock said.
Mim laughed. “Told you. He’s got it bad.” She ran up the stairs to shower and change.
It was shift change, with the six of them pulling a twenty-four and the new crew was already arriving. Lock should be tired. He’d actually worked a thirty-six with just a couple of hours of shuteye, but he felt restless. Energy hummed through his veins like a drug.
“A run, huh?” he asked Dare now that they were the only ones left in the bay.
“Want to join me?” She wiggled out of the work pants, leaving her in the usual booty shorts.
Fuck it. He was done. Life was to be lived, and he was going to be miserable without her in two months anyway so why be miserable now?
“How ’bout a run with purpose?”
“And now you’ve got the girl intrigued,” Dare drawled.
“Get a room!” Reese called from the top of the stairs, not even seeing them.
“G
et a brain cell so you have two,” Dare shouted back. “Rub them together, blow on the spark, and, whoosh, a coherent thought is born.”
“You love me.” Reese laughed. “All the ladies do.”
Matt said something unintelligible from somewhere behind Reese, and Lock heard more of his crew laugh.
“I like your knuckleheads,” Dare said. “You trained them well, Dad.”
“Get your trainers. I’ll meet you in five.”
Chapter Ten
Running with Lock hurt. She loved it. Loved his speed and athleticism and how he didn’t take it easy on her. Usually men couldn’t keep up with her, or they got aggressively competitive. And then verbally cutting later. Pissed, as if her strength and fitness was a slight against them. She could handle it, but some days it just got old.
Lock just ran, clearly enjoying the activity and their paces matched effortlessly. They ran through the city, block after block and then they reached the botanical garden and sped through the paths there. Lock started to slow as they came within sight of a long, low white boathouse with a slanted blue roof.
Melbourne South Rowing Club was scrolled out in navy blue letters and the name was offset by eight foot-long oars.
“You’re a rower. I should have guessed.” Dare looked at him, pleased.
With his height, powerful musculature, and endurance when added to easy access to water, rowing made sense.
“You have your own scull?”
“I have a couple I keep at the house, but the current’s less intense here. We can borrow a double or two singles if you’d prefer. They know me.”
That was an understatement, Dare laughed to herself as Lock didn’t even make it on to the wide dock that surrounded the floating boathouse before he was being greeted by teens and adults. Most were coming off the water, with a few launches trailing behind the eights and fours. One coach was still instructing a coxswain through a bullhorn.
“I was recruited for rowing,” Dare said. “And I rowed with a few clubs over the summers but I was always a swimmer.”
“Fancy a spin?”
He looked so eager, like a kid, but also a little anxious she might say no.
As if.
“I don’t think it’s a spin if I’m powering myself and no way am I leaning back, trailing my fingers in the water and gazing at you in awe.”
“Good.”
Lock strode into the boathouse, clasping hands and squeezing the shoulders of a few men in some weird male athlete hug that Dare could never understand, and high-fiving a few of the teens who’d lined up to see him, and then their eyes would stray to her and go wide, their jaws slack.
Teens were really so cute. But young. God. So innocent and young. Ryan had been that young when his life had been stolen from him by a vicious disease. A few girls greeted her, gave her some pointers about technique, and she listened, watching their eyes sparkle, their lips turn up in smiles. She’d been like that before her life had been destroyed. So impossibly young.
“You ready to rock and roll?”
“Always.”
Dare shouldered the scull like Lock did with his and carried it out of the boathouse and down the length of the dock. Her heart clenched in anticipation as she watched the sun dance on the water. The river was green and a bit choppy from the early morning breeze, like it wanted to play. The two girls grabbed two sets of oars and followed them out.
Lock instructed her how to roll the scull off her shoulder, grip it, and lower it into the water. She knew sculls were crazy expensive so she was careful. She held the scull to the dock with her foot as Lock prowled over, checking the rigging. Then he pulled off his cap with the Melbourne firefighter logo and tugged it over her head with a smile. He gently touched the healing cut she’d been treating with tea tree ointment and had so far avoided infection. She was pleased that the swelling had gone down and it was now pink instead of red.
He traced the scar so gently his finger was more like a whisper.
“Still hurt?”
She tried to shake her head, but she was enjoying the sensation of his touch so much she didn’t want to lose it. So instead she held her breath. Tried to look unaffected, but he was really shredding her defenses. He had a calmness that drew her in, and a repressed animal energy that made every nerve in her body jump up and shout when she saw him. It didn’t matter if he jumped in to help wash the truck, took out the trash, made yakisoba stir fry for dinner for the crew, worked the line at a scene, or did inverted crunches in the gym. Watching him made her feel alive. Happy and connected in a way she’d never felt.
“It’s best to keep the sun off until you are fully healed.”
“Huh?” His voice seemed to come from a mile away.
“What were you thinking about?” he asked, amused.
She looked behind them. The two teens stood with the oars waiting, clearly thinking the adults were idiots or, more probably, that she was an idiot and Lock was a god and the hottest man alive, and she couldn’t argue with that.
“You know what I was thinking,” she said saucily. “And I’m not going to stop at thinking it.”
“You are not fair,” he whispered, close to her ear then slid smoothly into his scull.
Dare followed suit, the moves coming back to her easily.
As soon as they had launched and moved away from the dock, Lock pulled as close as he could considering the oars of his boat jutted out at a ninety degree angle.
“I know you said you rowed before in some summer crew camps. Do you want a few pointers or a demonstration before we head up river?”
“I’d like a demonstration, but not of rowing techniques.”
“Naughty,” he said softly, the pink on his cheekbones made her shift involuntarily on her bench and her scull rocked. “I wonder if I can get you to behave later.”
“Not bloody likely unless you change your definition of behaving.” She winked at him, and his smile was a reward.
He had a beautiful smile. A quick flash of white that spread wide across his face making laugh lines that reached half way down his cheek.
Dare found herself smiling back, just bobbing on the water, staring at Lock and grinning like an idiot in love.
Why the hell had she thought that? Lock was just hot. More physically fit than anyone she’d been with and that was saying a lot. And fun. And kind. And sexy. And great at his job. And respectful, which in the fields she’d chosen, she hadn’t received without fighting hard for it. And he took care of her and others without it feeling demeaning. So, yeah, he was a good guy.
But it wasn’t love.
“I’ll row in front for the first set,” Lock said after a long silence where his eyes and hers had seemed locked in an involuntary staring contest. “Try to follow my stroke to get the rhythm. And, Dare”—he looked over his shoulder and she caught her breath at how happy and carefree he looked—“try to keep up.”
“I love your town,” Dare called out after they’d sprinted full out on a 2K row.
“It doesn’t suck,” he said, letting his oars rest on top of the water and he leaned back so he could look at the sky.
His heart thumped fast and he sucked in a deep breath, held it, and let it out, feeling peace settle into his bones.
“You row every day?”
“Most days. I have my own scull and can launch along the river, although the city doesn’t allow for private docks. It’s much prettier to start off down near the botanical garden.”
“Can’t argue with that. I see what I’ve been missing all these years with my head under water.”
“You have a killer build for rowing. No surprise coaches were after you to crew.”
“Only for my body?” she said innocently.
She flustered him.
Dare laughed, and clearly his attempt to play it cool had failed.
“I love that about you,” she said. “The blush. Here you are, this man who could swagger around just slaying everything with a kick ass attitude, but you don’t.
I bet the ladies can’t keep their hands off you at the pubs.”
He frowned. He didn’t want to think about other women when Dare was here. She made everyone else invisible.
“I’ll pound a few with my crew on occasion,” he said. “But I don’t go out much.”
“Why?”
He thought about it. “I don’t drink that much. I like to be active. Run. Row. Hike. Swim. Work on the house. Things with my body. Not a lot of women like that,” he said. “I’m boring. Most women I’ve met like to go to dinner, movies, drinks. They like yoga or pilates and maybe a Saturday morning jog that ends with a double caramel macchiato.”
“Christ, really?” Dare wrinkled her nose.
He laughed. “That’s probably mean-spirited. I just...” He hesitated, wondering if he should tell her about Melissa.
It wasn’t like they were dating. And Melissa was so long ago. And he hated to bring up his failure when he had such a short time with Dare.
Looking at Dare as they bobbed on the Yarra, Lock decided he was going to go for it. All in. Savor every moment with Dare. To hell with the rules and the future. Who knew? All he might have was now, and now with Dare in it was better than a lot of tomorrows without her.
Dare rested her oars lightly on the water, her scull and body oriented toward him, her blue-green eyes steady on his. Her tuft of platinum silky hair fell over her face as the morning breeze kicked up a little, and she blew the hair out of her eyes.
“God, you’re beautiful.”
“And you are very biased.”
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