Her Lucky Catch

by Amie Denman

  I smiled from ear to ear for more than one reason. For once the shoe was on the other foot. With the element of surprise on my side, I felt sassy and in charge. I looked him over from his short, dark curls to his naked chest with just the right amount of hair and down to the blue towel tied around his waist. Beyond the bottom of the towel, long legs and bare wet feet.

  His shoulders were perfect. Muscular. The kind of shoulders and biceps that suggested they could pin you against a wall and let their owner have his way with you. Resistance would be futile and I promised myself that I wouldn’t even try. Flat, lean abs provided backup to the power theory. I’d always suspected he would look this good under that navy blue uniform. He was so exposed that I almost felt naked myself.

  St. Peter Catholic School kindergarten teacher Jasmine Shepherd, who buried herself with nuns all winter and concentrated on singing alphabet songs with the innocent, would have been speechless and slightly terrified at this sight. The new Jazz, who was quickly shedding everything from clothing, to old cars, to dignity, to several hundred feathers, was not at all surprised and terrified only that she might not be able to control herself. I liked my new persona and Kurt was partly to blame. Maybe I should take it out on him and teach him a lesson. For an insane moment I considered reaching out and grabbing hold of that blue towel. Just one little floof…

  “Sunshine,” he said.

  “Sunshine?”

  He grinned. “It’s my nickname for you.”

  He had a nickname for me. This was starting to sound serious, if not exactly sexy. At least it was positive and not at all the sort of name you would give to a beloved pet.

  “How’d you decide on ‘Sunshine’ for me?”

  “Are you kidding? You’ve brightened things up a lot around here.”

  “Nice to know,” I said. “Jazz Shepherd, bringer of light.”

  “And heat,” Kurt said as he moved a lot closer. “Don’t even get me started on the heat.”

  I was feeling the heat, and it was more than a little gratifying that he was too.

  “I first thought of it that day in the school parking lot at the safety fair. You looked so hot.”

  “Until Timmy blasted me with the fire hose.”

  “You took it like a trooper,” Kurt said. “Then on that day in the marina when you fell off the back of the boat…”

  “For the record, I fell off the dock.”

  “And the boat, I think. At least it looked like it from where I was watching.”

  “I guess I’ve been pretty entertaining for you.”

  “No doubt about it.” He propped one tanned arm against the door frame and leaned over me. The chest hair, man smell and towel were too close. The humidity coming off him was starting to make my hair curl.

  “I think you better come in,” he said in a husky voice.

  Good idea. This seemed like a respectable neighborhood. If I was going to tear a towel from a naked, wet man, I wanted to have a private show. I stepped in, still clutching the jacket, and he closed the heavy oak door behind me. He angled his arm against the jamb again and slanted over me. This time, though, instead of having the front porch and the whole neighborhood behind me, I was backed up against a closed exit.

  “I brought your jacket.” A lame statement that had to be the last thing on either of our minds at that moment. I held it out to him for emphasis, but my fingers brushed against the chest hair and the towel. I was only inches away from taking a dive into some hot, bubbling waters.

  His lips brushed against my ear as he dropped the jacket on the floor next to the door. “Thanks.”

  Far more interested in me than the windbreaker, he closed his hand over mine. A ridiculous cause for gratification, but I’d take it.

  “So, what’s yours?” he asked.

  “My what?”

  “Nickname for me.”

  “What makes you think I have one?”

  He ran his finger down my cheek and toyed with a lock of hair that brushed against my shoulder.

  “Maybe I have to earn one,” he suggested. “What would I have to do?”

  The heat was getting to me, so I tried to think sensibly.

  “Um…call a tow truck when my car breaks down?”

  “Check,” he said and then kissed me full on the lips.

  “Maybe give me a ride when my bike tire goes flat?”

  “Check,” he said with another kiss, this one longer than the first.

  “Offer to pull me out of the river in my duck costume?”

  “Double check,” he said. This kiss lingered as he pressed the full length of his body against mine. All of it. My back pressed tight to the door, I couldn’t have escaped even if I’d had the slightest desire to get away. His heat burned me right down to my crucible, so I said the one thing I wished he would do for me—well, at least the first one on my mind.

  “Tell me what your relationship is with the Virgin Mary.”

  I could tell he was about to say “check,” but then what I said registered. He looked confused.

  “Virgin Mary?”

  “Uh-huh,” I gulped. “The mayor’s daughter.”

  He laughed. “You think she’s a virgin?”

  “That’s what I heard.”

  Kurt looked incredulous. “From where?”

  “Marlena.”

  More laughing. “Sunshine, everyone looks virginal to Marlena. It’s a question of relativity.”

  “You haven’t answered my question.”

  “There is no relationship.”

  “But…you went to church with her.”

  “And her family.

  “She was on your fireboat at the duck race.”

  “She was on the city’s fireboat. She was a parade judge. I didn’t have much choice.”

  “There were other boats available.”

  Kurt blew out a sigh. “I grew up next door. We were both the youngest in our families. Our parents wouldn’t mind seeing us hook up, but…” He paused, clearly uncomfortable.

  My worst fears were about to be realized.

  “But what?”

  “I hate to be mean, but I think her parents just want her to settle down with someone respectable. She has a bit of a…reputation.”

  He seemed pained by this, as if it was distasteful to him. Marlena was right about Kurt’s discretion. Of course, she had told me his parents wanted him to settle down with someone respectable because he might be getting a reputation. Could Marlena have mixed it up?

  “So, you’re not getting married?” I blurted. “Marlena said she thought—”

  “Marlena again? The woman who thought Mary was a virgin? I think all the hair coloring and sun have gone to her head.”

  I must not have looked convinced because Kurt took my face is both of his large, clean-smelling, manly hands and kissed me on the mouth until I forgot what we’d been talking about. One thing I had learned from the nuns at St. Peter was that idle hands are the devil’s workshop, and I was about to prove that old theory.

  Kurt pulled back and looked me deep in the eyes. So deep I knew he knew that I was thinking about committing too many sins to count.

  “There’s other reasons why I would never get mixed up with her and her family, but I’d rather think about you right now. Trust me, Jazz, there’s never been any spark with her.” He started kissing down my neck. “And I like fire.”

  I liked fire too, and decided to go ahead and play with it. The flames of hell waited under his towel and, in one swift movement, I pulled it off. I stood holding the towel in my hand while we both panted.

  “The bedroom is upstairs,” Kurt said.

  Hallelujah.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Sometime during the hottest sex of my entire life, it started to rain. I heard the sound of the thunder over the primal sounds coming from me and Kurt. An actual flash of lightning lit up the window—not just my almost criminally good orgasm. When we finally came up for air and noticed the change in the atmosphere, there was no d
oubt about it. The sparks in the air were coming from more than just us.

  We might never have bothered with the storm if Kurt’s phone hadn’t started to make noise just as we were stepping into the ring for round two.

  “Let it go.” He made a dismissive gesture with one hand and reached for one of my girls with the other. Somewhere between the intent and the actual contact, though, a look of realization muscled its way over Kurt’s face.

  “Shit,” he said, rolling over and grabbing for the phone instead of something I would have much preferred. I moved up onto one elbow and watched him talk on the phone for less than thirty seconds. I appreciated his efficiency. No idle chatter, no useless social talk, no “I love you too” at the end. Definitely a good sign. Of course, I had spent the last half hour discovering that, when it mattered, Kurt could take his sweet time.

  “So…who was that and what’s going on?” I asked, in a polite new girlfriend sort of way.

  “Limo’s downstairs.”

  “Limo?” I wondered if maybe my luck was starting to change and Kurt would suddenly whisk me off to an airport, then to Las Vegas for a quickie wedding. Then I noticed a black tuxedo hanging from a hook on the bathroom door. A breeze from the open window raised gooseflesh on my arm as I rummaged through my imagination for a sensible explanation. Kurt had a tuxedo in his bedroom and a waiting limo downstairs. This could not be good.

  My look must have strayed from polite new girlfriend to something more like victim of passion. He rolled his eyes and untangled his feet from the sheets.

  “I’m the groom,” he said as he searched under his bed, then gave up and opened his top dresser drawer. A peal of thunder rattled the windows. Hysteria started rising in my throat. He had my attention.

  “Not a real groom,” he continued, retrieving a pair of boxers and doing a little one-footed hop as he stepped into them. He pulled out one navy sock and one black sock and sat down on the edge of the bed. I wanted to tell him they didn’t match, but I thought I’d hold on to that information considering how huge an explanation he owed me. A lame bargaining chip, but a naked woman in a man’s bed doesn’t have much in the way of defenses. My continued silence made him turn around.

  “Sorry, Jazz. This probably sounds pretty weird.”

  I cocked one eyebrow. Kurt paused in putting on his socks and gave me a long look. Then he climbed back onto the bed, kneeled over me, one knee on each side, and pinned me to the bed. He kissed my arched eyebrow.

  “That was supposed to look frightening,” I said. “The one eyebrow raise always scares the hell out of the kids. They usually can’t do it, so they think I have special powers.”

  Kurt continued kissing all along my brow.

  “You’re stealing my secret source of power.”

  “You don’t want me to stop.”

  “True. But you’re in a heck of a predicament here. You’re mostly naked, you’ve got a waiting tux and limo, you’re some kind of pretend groom, and I’m thinking you’re pretty horny.”

  He drew back with a troubled look on his face. Like a boy being forced to abandon fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies in order to go grocery shopping with his mother.

  “Your problems kind of make mine look not so bad.” I decided I might as well enjoy this. After all, I was usually the one making an ass of myself.

  “Do you have problems, Jazz?”

  The sincerity in his eyes and his eagerness to solve my problems in a public servant-turned-lover sort of way was endearing. I wanted to unburden myself. To tell him about my loneliness and isolation at St. Pete’s, my wretched poverty, my aversion to laminated cutouts, my potentially deadly undercover work and my fear of leaving Peanut orphaned. But that would leave me even more naked in front of him than I already was. Plus, he had a limo to catch. The spectacular life story of Jazz Shepherd would have to wait until I had his full attention. And a pitcher of margaritas.

  “My lunch break was over half an hour ago, I don’t know where I tossed those lace panties I was wearing and I’m probably going to get a slutty reputation if I keep hanging around with you,” I said.

  “Sunshine, my reputation is squeaky clean. You’re in no danger from me.”

  “Right. That’s why the limo is now blowing its horn for the naked groom to get in a tux and get down there.”

  Kurt groaned and rolled off me onto his back.

  “Shit,” he said. “I wish I’d said no to this stupid show, but the captain talked me into it. A bunch of us from the fire department are modeling tuxes at some bridal show. It’s part of the Memorial Day festivities.”

  Modeling. So, my initial impression of him gracing the hottie fireman calendar—June, I believe—was close. This little gem of information only added to his appeal. Although I wouldn’t put him in a tux if I were his agent. I’d go with jeans. No shirt, no shoes, no problem picturing that.

  “You’ll look so hot in that tux women will probably be stuffing singles in any available place,” I said. “You’ll be a walking fire hazard.”

  “Is that what you would do?”

  “Be a hazard? I believe I’ve already shown my talent for disaster.”

  “I meant about the singles.”

  “I left my purse at the marina.”

  Kurt sighed, swung his legs over the side of the bed and then took down the tux from the back of the bathroom door. He unhooked the black pants and started to pull them on.

  “I wanted to say no because I feel stupid dressing up and pretending.”

  “So why didn’t you?”

  “The money’s for a good cause.”

  “New fireboat? Big screen TV for the break room? Flashy matching helmets?”

  Kurt looked exasperated as he pulled the white shirt over his broad shoulders and fumbled with the buttons. I figured there were at least a handful of things he could be exasperated about right now. When I’m in the room, I’m often one of them.

  “We’re collecting donations for the children’s hospital burn unit.”

  Of course Kurt would be doing something absolutely admirable and looking irresistible while doing it. My stupid comments seemed even more embarrassing than my many other foolish actions in front of him so far. Dumbass. I got out of bed and raised both my hands to his shoulders. He looked down into my face.

  “I’m sorry I have to go. I’d rather spend the rest of the day in bed with you. I like you, Jazz.”

  I took a breath. “I…uh…”

  The limo’s horn honked a series of long and short blasts, and Kurt cocked his head as if he were listening closely.

  “SOS,” he explained.

  “I figured you guys would have some kind of code.”

  I wanted to kiss him and try to wrestle him back into the waiting bed, but I’d flirted with hell a lot lately. I wouldn’t keep a good man from using his awesome body and fantastic face to raise money for sweet little kids.

  “I’ll help you with those buttons,” I said. “And you might want to take a close look at your socks.”

  By the time Kurt was dolled up in the rented tux and looking sinfully good, the storm had begun to unleash its full power. Tree branches lashed the windows, and lightning and torrential rain made going outside about as appealing as Christmas shopping in May.

  At the side door that led onto the driveway, he paused. “Where’s your car?”

  “No car,” I said.

  “You didn’t get it fixed?”

  I sighed and made a mock dramatic face. “It’s all over for us. It has a date with the crusher.”

  “You walked.”

  “It was sunny when I came over here.”

  Kurt glanced out the screen door at the pouring rain and wind, then at my shorts, tank top and sandals. A long rumble of thunder punctuated our brief silence.

  “We’ll give you a ride back to the marina.”

  I looked doubtfully at the limo. I had only ridden in one once in my life, on my wedding day. Not an image I wanted to conjure up at the moment. I’d be bett
er off dodging lightning bolts and falling tree limbs. At least I’d have a fighting chance.

  “Maybe I could borrow that jacket again,” I suggested.

  “Sunshine, I’d be happy to lend it to you just so you’d have an excuse to bring it back. But you’re not walking out in this storm.”

  “I thought I could run.”

  Suddenly, Kurt pulled me close and kissed me like he meant business. A kiss that was hard and possessing, though his hands in my hair and on the back of my neck were gentle. I personally had nothing to lose by stalling. No harm in enjoying every sensual second of his lips on mine. Sadly, the limo driver was merciless in the application of the horn. We both pretended to ignore the noise and dug in for a nice, long lip-lock. Kurt’s public servant Dudley Do-right persona finally got the better of him, and he moved his lips across my cheek and into my hair.

  His lips touched my ear as he whispered, “Get in the car,” and I would have done just about anything he asked. Maybe it was the electricity in the air, but Kurt was a professional at making sparks.

  He held open the screen door as I ducked under his arm and ran for the car. I launched myself into the backseat as thunder crackled overhead. Kurt dove in alongside me and pulled the door shut. He reached up to brush the drops of rain off his sleeve and his hand stopped dead in midair. Seated across from us were a young firefighter in a tuxedo whom I’d seen around but didn’t know…and two people I did.

  Mayor Joshua Ballard wore a conservative gray father-of-the-bride type tuxedo and a malicious scowl. Next to him was his daughter, Mary, in a white satin gown that showed a hint of her flawless chest, with elegant white gloves on her perfectly sized hands and an embroidered veil framing her angelic face.

  Had I not been trapped between Captain Carl and Kurt, I would have taken my chances on death by lightning and bolted from the car in an inglorious retreat. But there was no escape. I was trapped like a rat in a limo with a man who sent shockwaves through my insides, the gorgeous woman I’d thought him practically engaged to, her father, who I was secretly investigating for fraud, and several other hot firemen in tuxedos.