by Kim Fox
Jennifer grabbed her shirt off the ground and quickly put it on as she rushed over to help him. The room was still flooded with heavy smoke and her eyes were really burning now. She couldn’t take a breath without coughing.
“Are you okay?” she asked, fighting through it to check on Cole. His hands were surely burnt from grabbing the burning hot pot and then most of the boiling water landed on him when he put out the flames. He would probably have to go to the hospital to get the burns treated.
“Go wait outside,” he yelled over the fire alarm, pointing to the exit with one hand as he waved the thick smoke out of his face with the other.
Jennifer was about to protest but the smoke was really starting to burn her eyes and she couldn’t breathe, so she ran outside, hoping that he would follow.
“What happened?” Joan asked as she sprinted over.
“There was a-”
The tiny girl just blew past her, running inside before Jennifer could answer. Rory and Gunner rushed past her next, not even thinking twice before running into a burning building.
Ashton was last, running up to her and stopping to check if she was okay.
“Are you hurt?” he asked with concern on his face.
“No,” she said, coughing as she shook her head. “But Cole…” She was worried about Cole.
“He’s fine,” Ashton said dismissively. “What were you guys doing in there?”
“Just baking,” she said as shades of guilt colored her cheeks.
Ashton stepped back, his face turning serious. “Your shirt is inside out.”
“Oh,” she said, blushing as she looked down. Sure enough, the stitching was visible for everyone to see. “It’s supposed to be like that,” she said as he walked away, mumbling something and shaking his head. “It’s a new style.”
Shit. That’s what you get for sleeping with your boss.
Or trying to at least. She was going to have to face all of the consequences without even having any of the fun.
The fire alarm cut off from inside but a new siren blared, echoing through the ranch.
“Not more embarrassment,” she grumbled as she turned to the road. There was a fire truck speeding down the road towards them. It turned off the main road and onto the ranch.
Jennifer swallowed hard as she tugged at her shirt. There was no time or place to quickly flip it around. She just had to hope that no one else noticed the big tag hanging from her collar under her chin.
The truck slid to a stop and huge muscular men began pouring out of it like some kind of sexy clown car.
“Wow,” she gasped as she stared at the gorgeous scene in front of her. The men were all so hot. Big, flawless bodies, cute smiles, all dressed up in their sexy firemen gear.
It was like a porno out of a woman’s wildest fantasies.
Jennifer’s eyes widened as a tall man with sparkling orange eyes and short cropped hair walked up, towering over her. She could feel the heat radiating off of him in waves.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
She just gulped as she nodded her head up and down like a defective bobble head.
“Is there anyone inside?” His voice was like silk.
“My boyfriend, Cole,” she said, nodding. “I mean, my boss.”
Did I just call him my boyfriend?
Perhaps he was deeper under her skin than she had thought. She was just glad that he wasn’t there to hear.
“Oh shit,” she mumbled to herself when she turned around. He was standing at the door with a big goofy grin on his frustratingly sexy face.
He had heard.
six
Cole rushed out of the inn in a panic until he set eyes on Jennifer. She was okay. More than okay actually, as she spoke with the town’s fire chief and dragon shifter, Draven Park.
Cole hurried over before she got mesmerized by his bright orange eyes. Cole wasn’t gay at all but even he could get lost in the dragon shifter’s deep eyes.
Cole had met Draven a couple of times at the bar. He tried to out-shark the fire chief in a game of pool but ended up losing fifty bucks to him instead.
He stepped up close beside Jennifer and put a possessive arm around her waist as he gave the dragon shifter a warning look. Cole could let him have the fifty bucks but there was no way that he was losing his girl to the guy.
But she didn’t seem interested anyway.
Jennifer turned to him and grabbed his hand, tracing her fingers over his undamaged skin.
“How is that possible?” she asked, looking at his palm in wonder. “The pot didn’t burn you?”
“Must have gotten lucky,” he said, laughing nervously.
“So, you cook as well as you play pool,” Draven said, chuckling at him as the rest of the firehouse shifters ran past him into the inn.
“It was just a little heat in the kitchen to get you lazy fucks off your asses,” Cole said, shooting him a look.
“Always talking about my ass,” Draven said, shaking his head as he walked away laughing to himself. “I wonder about you.”
“You should be wondering when I’m going to shove my foot up your ass,” he called out as the dragon shifter disappeared inside.
Cole’s blood turned cold when he turned back to Jennifer and saw her expression. Her hair was hanging over her face, hiding her humiliated eyes. “Are you okay?” Cole asked, holding her elbows. “Don’t worry about the fire. That was nothing. There’s no damage. Well, hardly any damage.”
She wiggled out of his grasp and clutched her stomach as she stepped back. “I shouldn’t have done that.”
“Why?” he asked, his face dropping. That was the best kiss of Cole’s life and it would kill him if she was already regretting it.
“It was so unprofessional,” she said with her eyes on his wet shoes. “I kissed my boss!”
“I’m not your boss,” he said, shaking his head furiously. “Joan is your boss. You didn’t kiss her, right?”
She tugged at her shirt, making a disgusted face. “My shirt is inside out and people saw. I’m humiliated.”
“It’s fine,” Cole said, wondering who noticed the tag sticking out of her inside out and backward shirt. Probably everybody, but hopefully it wasn’t Ashton. Or Joan.
Her sad eyes met his as she exhaled long and hard. “I think that we should cool it for a bit,” she said with tight shoulders. “It’s inappropriate.”
“No,” Cole said, shaking his head as she walked back to her car. “It’s appropriate. It’s very appropriate!”
She just ignored him as she got into her car and drove home.
“Damn it,” he said, squeezing his hand into a fist. Things were going so great. How did it take a hundred and eighty-degree turn like that so fast?
“Damn what?” Joan asked, walking up to him with a knowing look on her angry face.
“It,” Cole said, trying to recover but coming up with nothing.
“What were you guys doing in there when the fire broke out?” she asked, crossing her tiny arms over her chest as she glared at him.
“Cooking,” he said with a gulp. Joan was tiny as a mouse in her human form but Cole knew what was lurking beneath her skin. He had felt the tremendous power of her dominant grizzly bear and it wasn’t something that he wanted to do again.
She was unstoppable in her bear form. A freaking monster of a bear.
“You better have been cooking,” she said, stepping forward as she thrust a finger into his face. “You are sabotaging the crew’s first mission! Ashton should have gotten laid by now! Jennifer was supposed to be for him.”
A low furious growl ripped out of Cole’s throat. His bear didn’t care what kind of monster that Joan was hiding within, he didn’t like anyone talking about Jennifer like that. She was his and only his.
“Are you stupid?” Joan asked, stepping back as her small body started shaking. “You challenged my bear?”
Cole gulped. “No,” he said, panicking when he realized what he had done. Her bear had been mo
re in control lately but she was always one growl away from losing it again. He really didn’t want to get his ass handed to him by his alpha in front of the firehouse crew. Draven would never let him live it down.
“I’m sorry,” Cole said, showing Joan his palms.
Her breaths were ripping in and out of her nose violently as her hard amber eyes shone unnaturally bright.
“Joan,” he said, softly as her arms trembled, her fierce eyes locked on him.
Cole looked around for help but was getting nothing. “Ashton,” he said, looking at him desperately. The bear shifter just shook his head and walked away, leaving him alone.
I guess I deserve that.
The firehouse crew were spilling out of the inn and grinning as they circled them, wanting to get a good view of the show. They were all there; Jax, the lion shifter who was friends with Gunner, the two bear shifters, Axel and Zane, and of course, their smirking, asshole, dragon shifter leader, Draven who was loving every minute of this.
“Gunner,” Cole said, looking at his fellow crew mate with pleading eyes. “She’s going to rip me a new one, man. Try to calm her down.”
Joan’s body was tense, her face twisted up as she was struggling to hold back her bear. It didn’t look like she was going to succeed.
What looks worse? To run away screaming or to get destroyed by a female bear?
Gunner came to his rescue, stepping in front of Joan and taking her hands in his. “Breathe, Joannie,” he whispered softly, staring into her eyes. “Like this.”
The lion shifter took deep, slow breaths and Joan stared into his eyes, following his breathing. In and out. In and out.
Another siren ripped through the ranch as Rhett came flying over the grass in his police cruiser. He parked the car beside the fire truck and jumped out, rushing over.
“What happened?” he hollered, looking around as he ran closer. His birds cawed angrily as they came flying down the road in the distance like an ominous black cloud.
He stopped short when he saw Gunner in front of Joan, holding her hands as he tried to slow her breathing down. He gritted his teeth and marched over.
“She’s all yours,” Gunner said, releasing her hands and stepping away with his eyes on the ground.
“I know,” Rhett grunted as he stormed over. “Just remember that.”
Gunner walked away and his friend Jax followed him.
“It’s okay, Joan,” Rhett said, taking Gunner’s place in front of the scary alpha. “Close your eyes and listen to my voice.”
Cole took a breath of relief. Rhett was here and the shifter cop would save his ass. He was calming her down with his soothing words but even if her crazy bear did break through, he could slide into her skin and control it. Having a skin shifter around was becoming pretty useful.
When Joan finally opened her eyes, they were back to normal. The beast inside of her was dormant, for now.
She turned to Cole. “I almost had you for lunch,” she said with a grin. “Did the smoke from that fire go to your head? Don’t do stupid shit like that again.”
It wasn’t the smoke that had gone to Cole’s head. It was the curvy chef.
His grizzly bear had never reacted to a girl like that before. Normally, his bear didn’t care about the girls that Cole brought home, but Jennifer was different.
Of course, she is different.
Cole didn’t need his bear to tell him that. He knew it with every cell in his body.
Joan walked over to him and stood up on her toes, getting right in his face. “I know what you were doing in there,” she whispered. “I can smell her on you.”
Cole gulped. His alpha was the one person who he was afraid of pissing off. Well, her and Jennifer.
She flashed him a dirty look. “I’m not impressed. Now go clean up the mess you created. In the kitchen and with Ashton.”
Cole sighed as she stormed off, pulling Rhett along with her.
“What the hell is with all of these birds?” Axel, the polar bear shifter asked as he looked up at the sky. Rhett’s ravens were descending on the ranch, squawking and cawing as they landed on every available surface. Cole didn’t even seem to notice them anymore. They were just part of the scenery now.
“Aren’t they great?” Rory said, looking at the birds with a big smile on his face.
Cole sighed as he walked away. How did things get so fucked up? Jennifer was pumping the brakes on him, his alpha just almost ripped his head off, and he had hurt his best friend’s feelings. Great going, Cole.
Jennifer was gone and Rhett was there to calm Joan down. He was trying to find Ashton to smooth things over. He had gone into this with the best of intentions, trying to hook up his friend, but it all went to shit once he saw Jennifer’s beautiful face. He knew in that moment that it was game over. It didn’t matter who he had to betray, that girl was going to be his.
He just wished that it didn’t have to be his best friend who got hurt.
“Gunner,” he said, calling out to the two shifters who were standing behind the inn talking. Gunner was speaking with his friend Jax from the firehouse. The two of them had been friends growing up and they had run into each other a couple of weeks back at the bar. Cole didn’t know Jax too well but he seemed like a good guy, and Gunner seemed to like him, which was saying a lot because Gunner didn’t like anyone.
“Still alive?” Gunner said with a smirk. “She almost chomped you up like a Tic Tac.”
“Thanks for having my back, bro,” Cole said. Gunner could be a real lion’s ass but he could always be counted on to have your back when things went down.
“Have you seen Ashton?” Cole asked. It was like he had disappeared, blown away with the smoke from the kitchen.
“Is that him?” Jax asked, pointing towards the forest.
“Yes!” Cole said, rushing over. “Ashton!” he called out. “Can I talk to you for a second?”
Ashton turned to him with a heated glare. His dark eyes were sharp and accusing as he stared. “I don’t think so, Cole,” he said, pulling off his shirt.
“Ashton,” Cole said, slowing to a quick walk. “It’s not like that.”
“Please,” he said as he unbuckled his jeans. “You can lie and betray me all you want, but don’t act like I’m fucking stupid.”
“Just let me explain,” Cole said, his stomach in knots.
But the bear shifter turned around as his body shook. A grizzly bear burst from Ashton’s skin and ran into the forest without looking back.
Cole sighed. How can I fix this?
seven
“Thank you, Mr. Richardson,” Jennifer said to Cole, trying to keep things as professional as possible. She had been humiliated yesterday after making out with her boss, nearly setting the brand new kitchen on fire, and then running outside with her shirt on backward and inside out. It wasn’t her proudest moment.
But she was trying to be better today. Professional. Proper. Classy. Only it didn’t seem to be working.
“Call me Mr. Richardson again,” Cole said, leaning on the counter as he flashed her his sexy dimples. “I like it.”
“Will you stop?” she asked, turning back to the stove as her cheeks heated up. She kept her eyes on the simmering pot and away from the black smoke stain running up the white tiles. “I think we did enough damage.”
“It’s a kitchen,” Cole said, following her to the stove. He leaned on the counter and grinned at her. “It’s bound to get a little hot. Especially with two sexy chefs working in it.”
She turned to him with a serious expression. “We almost burnt the place down yesterday.”
“We would have,” Cole said while holding her eyes, “if the fire hadn’t stopped us.”
Jennifer was sure of that. It was a hot kiss. Scorchingly hot.
“I think you give yourself too much credit, Mr. Richardson,” she said, teasing him. “It was mild at best.”
He moved like a panther beside her, his body dangerously close. Jennifer felt a pang in her
heart as her nerve endings stirred and tingled with his body so near to hers.
“That’s not what you were saying yesterday,” he said, his sexy voice washing over her like silk.
She turned abruptly and stared at him with a blank face. “What was I saying?” she asked flatly. “Because I remember you bragging about your zucchini and I threatened to chop it off if you came near me. That’s what I remember.”
“You should have your memory checked,” he said, biting his lip in that sexy arrogant way that Jennifer hated so much but couldn’t take her eyes off of at the same time. “Because I remember you calling out my name as I kissed your soft skin.”
His voice was lowered, raspy and full of sex. It was getting to her, making her breath quicken and her heart pound.
“Do you remember that?” he asked, sliding a hand over her waist as he came in close.
Jennifer’s breath caught in her throat and she tensed up as he pressed his body close to hers. She wanted to keep it professional but she wanted Cole too. She really, really wanted Cole.
He smelled so good and his muscular chest felt so tempting as he pressed it up against her achingly hard nipples.
But it wasn’t just the job that she was worried about with Cole. This was so easy for him. Just a few smiles, a change of tone, a flex of his arm, and she was wet and willing for him.
Jennifer was past the time in her life of weekend flings and fast love affairs. She wanted stability and a long term relationship. She wanted to settle down and eventually have a family.
She wouldn’t mind seeing where things went with Cole if they were on the same page, but she was worried that he was on another book: The player’s handbook.
Cole seemed like the fun sexy type of guy who bounced from woman to woman, showing them a fun time but then breaking it off amicably before anyone developed any real feelings. And maybe she would have even been up for that if he wasn’t her boss, but he was. She didn’t want to go too far only to have him break it off after she developed feelings. It would suck being stuck on the ranch and having to watch him do the same thing to girl after girl afterward while pretending it didn’t bother her.