“I don’t know if she’ll be there or not.” He stepped toward her and then stopped as though he changed his mind. He shoved his hand into his dark hair and held it there. “Doesn’t the fact that you two aren’t talking show you something is seriously wrong? You need people around you who care. Work doesn’t do what a hug can.”
She frowned. “A hug? You think a hug is all it will take to get rid of this pain?”
“No, but it will go a damn sight further than making another bundle of money will. Just take a break.”
Izzy glared. She’d made more money in the last few weeks than she ever thought possible. Her phone was ringing nonstop with assignments. It seemed the photography world, and collectors, relished pictures leaning more toward the dark than the dazzling. It was true the money had done nothing to alleviate her grief, but the work provided her with something to stop her thinking about her dead brother.
He cleared his throat. “You need something to take your mind off Robbie.”
She blinked. “I have that.”
“Let me guess...work.”
Asshole.
Their gazes locked until Izzy weakened under the weight of his glare. She spun away from him and headed to her desk. “Fine. I’ll come to the party.” She met his relieved gaze and ignored the way her heart lifted to see that her agreement had banished his rare and unwelcome anger. “I’ll go to the beach and I’ll eat, drink and be merry if you think that will fix this, but believe me, nothing will scratch the surface of what I’m feeling. Nothing. You’ve got what you come here for, so just go.”
He strolled toward her and came around the desk, standing so close she was forced to tip her head back to meet his eyes. Her heart picked up speed as she resisted the urge to inhale the musky, male scent of him. “What?”
He leaned down and brushed his lips over her cheek. “I’ll see you later.”
Her body paralyzed, yet her heart beat out of control as he turned and walked toward the door.
Only when the studio door swung shut behind him did Izzy drop into her chair and finally cry. She wanted to hit him. Hurt him. Inflict some of her physical pain onto Trent’s wide incapable shoulders and see what the hell he would do about it.
Tears rolled down her cheeks like water releasing from a dam, yet all she could think of was how it would feel to have Trent hold her. Now. At this moment when the pain came and hurt so damn much.
CHAPTER TWO
TRENT TIPPED HIS beer bottle to his lips and icy-cold lager slipped down his parched throat. Dance music thumped from the speakers and a hundred or so semiclad people yelled, screamed and danced on the sand. What had he been thinking asking Izzy here? This was the very last place she should be. Why hadn’t he insisted on cooking for her at his place? A glass of wine, some of that classical music she liked...
“You’re an idiot,” he murmured. “A class-A idiot.”
“I couldn’t agree more, but since I’m here, you can start by getting the first of many glasses of wine I intend to have tonight.”
Relief swept through him and Trent smiled. Izzy. She came. He slowly turned and the smart comeback he had in mind froze on his tongue. Holy crap. She’d twisted her long blond hair to the side in some sort of fancy plait, the tip brushing her right breast. Her eyelids softly shimmered, the lashes thick and dark, making her blue eyes bigger than ever.
Trent blinked. “You look...you look...”
“Underweight according to Kate. I know.” She lifted her shoulders. “Losing a brother can do that to a girl. How about that wine?”
He swallowed against the dryness in his throat and he was relieved when he opened his mouth and words actually emerged. “I admit, I’d be more than happy to see some more meat on your bones, but I was actually going to say you look amazing.”
Their gazes locked for a second before she looked to the beach behind him. “Thanks.”
He took her hand and pride washed through him when she didn’t pull away as he’d expected. “Let’s get you that drink.”
People stared as they passed on their way to the makeshift bar and Trent stiffened his shoulders. As much as he’d loved living in Templeton Cove these past four years, there were still times when a guy couldn’t be blamed for wanting the anonymity of a city.
He tightened his grip on Izzy’s hand. When her fingers clenched his in response, it was all too clear she felt the heat of the town’s curiosity too. He stopped. “Do you want to get out of here?”
Her eyes darkened with determination. “And why would I want to do that?”
“Come on, Iz. You know why. If I had known people were going to—”
“Stare? Pity me? Then that’s too bad, because I’ve thought of little else since you stormed into my studio and gave me no choice but to come tonight.” She eased her hand from his and lifted it in a nonchalant wave. “Well, I did as the big alpha male commanded and I’m here. I want to dance and get drunk. Now, you either stay and look after me, or I’ll find someone else equally as capable.”
She brushed past him and he stepped back, his gaze falling to her perfect ass in a short black skirt. Hope rose inside him and he smiled. Whether Izzy realized it or not, she was already showing signs of her old self. Long may it continue. He was more than happy to deal with whatever she had in mind to throw at him—he was strong enough, liked her enough to take her punches. He was a patient man and would wait for her to come to the conclusion that they were great together, just as he’d thought she had done three months before.
He sidled up to her at the bar, where the barman filled a large glass with white wine. The guy’s gaze slid back and forth between the V of Izzy’s shirt and the glass he filled. Trent cleared his throat. “And a bottle of beer when you’re ready, my friend.”
The barman lifted his gaze. “Be right with you.”
Trent narrowed his eyes as the guy moved to the fridges behind him.
“What’s your problem, Firefighter Trent?” Izzy laughed. “You think he’s edging in on your territory or something?”
Rare heat hit Trent’s face. Worse, it matched the heat of the protectiveness roaring behind his rib cage. “’Course not, but you being hit on wasn’t part of the deal tonight.”
“Part of the deal?” Izzy grinned and sipped her wine. “The deal tonight will be whatever I choose it to be.”
He tossed a glare at the barman. “Is that so?”
Her fingers touched his chin, turning his face to hers. The spot where her fingers lingered simmered with a frisson of electricity. He met her gaze and fought the urge to kiss her. “What?”
“Once you have your drink, we’re going to dance.”
Trent shook his head, his gaze hovering on her mouth. “I don’t dance.”
“You do tonight.” She picked up her glass and left the bar.
She walked across the small breadth of decking and down the sand-covered steps onto the beach. Why couldn’t it be any other girl in the entire world who haunted his dreams and made him want to fix her life in every way? Why Robbie’s sister? Why the woman who blamed him for an unthinkable tragedy, detested him and would undoubtedly rip his heart from his chest once she found the worst possible way to do it?
He clenched his jaw. Deep inside, he sensed Izzy would be incapable of cruelty no matter how much she might want to humiliate him. Her kindness and false sense of bravado were the things that struck at his very core since he first laid eyes on her. From the moment she’d walked into the Coast bar to join her brother for a late-night drink, Trent had wanted to know who she was. The discovery that Izzy was the sister of the first guy he’d befriended in Templeton had been an obstacle he was determined to overcome.
It had taken him almost four years to have the honor of kissing and touching such a beautiful and wonderful woman. Then Robbie was killed and Trent hadn’t for one m
oment considered the strength of Izzy’s resistance to having anything more to do with him.
“That’s six pounds, twenty, mate.”
The barman’s voice sliced through Trent’s reverie and he turned, sliding his hand into his back pocket for his wallet. Saying nothing, his eyes still on the barman’s. The guy had clearly decided Izzy was a free agent from the way his cool stare met Trent’s.
Trent slid a ten-pound note from his wallet and held it out. “Keep the change.”
The barman nodded, his face somber as he reached for the money. “I’ll put it in the charity box.”
“You do that, and for the record, that girl I’m with, she’s out of bounds.”
The barman smiled. “I didn’t get the impression she considers herself yours, mate.”
“One, I’m not your mate and, two, she’s had a rough time of it lately and doesn’t need guys hitting on her left, right and center.”
The barman took the note from Trent’s fingers and raised his eyebrows. “Fair enough. Might be a good idea if you took your own advice, if that’s the case.”
He walked away and Trent glared at the barman’s retreating back as he picked up his beer. He took a hefty slug and turned to the beach, his gaze immediately picking out Izzy as she stood alone, jigging lightly to an R&B track, her almost-empty glass swaying back and forth in her hand.
He headed in her direction. Even if he could never get her to accept that Robbie had died before the fire service’s arrival on the scene, he would do anything to make her genuinely smile again. He’d make that happen, even if he was eventually forced to admit defeat and surrender her to another man. If someone else—apart from the cocky barman—could hold her in his arms and make her smile, it would be enough for him to let her go.
Yeah, you keep telling yourself that.
He moved beside her and she turned, her eyebrows raised. “Finished your face-off with the bar staff?”
He took another drink. “Yep.”
“Good.” She reached up, took the bottle from his hand and placed it beside her glass on an upturned crate beside her. She took his hand. “Now we dance.”
“I told you I don’t dance.”
He tugged her back and she stopped short. “What?”
His gaze drew like a tracker beam to her sweet, kissable mouth. “You’ll regret making me do this.”
She shrugged. “Maybe I will, maybe I won’t.”
* * *
IZZY REGRETTED HER decision to dance with him the instant Trent’s hands touched her waist.
Boom! The sexual tension took off like a damn rocket.
What was wrong with her? For months and months, even before Robbie died, she’d avoided having anything less than two feet of space between her and Trent in the name of self-preservation. She’d watched enough women embarrass themselves by salivating after her brother’s best friend to know there was something about Trent that was potent and dangerous.
Then she’d gone and slept with him.
What had she thought would happen after such an amazing night? That one or both of them would walk away, be unaffected by those hours? The truth was, three amazing weeks had followed...and then Robbie was killed and ever since, everything between her and Trent had been different. Irrevocably different.
She would never again open herself up to the risk of falling in love only to have the guy die or walk away.
Yet she’d given in to the childish need to call Trent out, to bluff his advances and now she was suffering the consequences of his magnetism all over again. Once Trent had his entire focus on a woman and she was close enough to smell his scent, she was caught.
Then to have him put his hands on her?
Izzy swallowed her groan as it threatened to erupt, slapped on a smile and raised an eyebrow in an attempt to impersonate a femme fatale who could nonchalantly separate the men from the boys whenever she chose. “Are we going to move? Or just stand here with you looking at me like that?”
He smiled. “Like what?”
“Like you’re going to...” Her shaky facade faltered. “Bite me.”
He laughed...and goddamn it if she didn’t smile. Really smile. He met her gaze again and winked. He pulled her closer and, against her better judgment, Izzy didn’t move away.
The music slowed and a soul ballad pumped seductively from the speakers like a cruelly planned serenade. He nodded. “Now, this kind of dance I can do. We just need to get real close and shuffle. You can shuffle, right?”
Every inch of her body screamed with suppressed sexual attraction. Her heart beat fast as she fought the heat tingling through her breasts and lower. The man was a walking, talking love machine.
She forced her gaze to stay on his. “Of course I can.”
“Good.”
He lifted one of her hands to his chest and, with a single tug on the other, eased her close enough a grain of sand couldn’t have lodged between them. His heart beat under her palm, as hers pulsed in her ears. The soft teasing in his eyes slowly dissolved until he looked at her with such focused attention her legs grew feeble. Her feet shifted upon the sand of their own accord. He was so tall, broad and wide at this close proximity, she felt fragile in his arms. She looked into his eyes and her stomach flipped over as if she were a fifteen-year-old girl instead of a twenty-nine-year-old woman. Heat burned. Attraction soared. At last, for just a few moments, everything felt right in the world.
She froze.
Everything wasn’t right in the world. Despite the slowly gathering peace between her and her parents, they were still thousands of miles away. Robbie was still dead, and the man who held her so close his breath whispered across her lashes had arrived too late at the garage to save her brother’s life.
She stepped back and Trent gripped her hand, keeping it pressed to his chest as the determination she knew so well seeped into his gaze.
Izzy closed her eyes as claustrophobia grew. “I need to go.”
“Don’t do this, Iz.”
She opened her eyes.
His gaze held quiet pleading mixed with challenge. “You’re okay. I’ve got you.”
Fear gripped her heart and squeezed. She couldn’t lean on him. She couldn’t lean on anyone without the risk of furthering the pain of loss she continued to battle every single day. She squirmed out of his grasp and he released her. “You’ve got me? God, Trent, have you forgotten Robbie was your best friend? That he’s dead?” She cursed and looked around, before stepping back. “I have to get of here. I want to leave. Right now.”
She whipped off her shoes and ran across the sand toward the steps that led to home and safety. Memories crashed into her mind and coated her throat with the bitter taste of fear.
The explosion that killed her brother had been so loud, so sudden, the first thing that went through Izzy’s mind had been that someone had thrown a petrol bomb through her studio window. She’d gripped her best friend’s arm as they simultaneously dropped to the floor. The floor tiles had vibrated through Izzy’s palms as the echoes of people’s screams filtered through the open studio window.
She’d looked at Kate, her heart racing. “What the hell was that?”
Kate’s eyes had been wide as she visibly shook. “I don’t know, but whatever it was, people are going to need our help.” She’d leaped to her feet. “Come on. We have to go out there.”
They’d sprinted from the darkroom and into the studio, running toward the picture window at the front.
Bright orange flames had rolled from the entrance of the garage where Izzy’s brother worked, blurring Izzy’s vision. Thick black smoke spiraled on a plume through the doors, diving and leaping on the summer breeze.
“Robbie...” Izzy had reached blindly for Kate’s hand, arm, anything. “Robbie!”
CHAPTER THREE
The idea had been to get her to the party and then concentrate on whatever she needed. He wanted her to relax, smile, have a drink and realize the whole world wasn’t a threat to her existence. Hadn’t his entire mission tonight been about making her trust him enough to feel safe? That maybe one day she might see him as a man rather than a monster?
He was sick and tired of trying to get her out of his mind by dating other women. Life was too short not to listen to his heart and act on feelings that refused to abate. He clenched his jaw. He’d seen too much death in his career, but it had been Robbie’s that made him determined to act on his feelings for Izzy. He wanted her...and deep in his heart, he sensed she wanted him too.
Something had always held her back from him. Something he wanted to hear her explain. Her new reason for not giving them a chance was Robbie’s death. If she wasn’t attracted to him, didn’t like him...regretted the three fantastic weeks they’d spent together...then she only ever had to say that and he’d leave her alone.
She hadn’t, and every time she looked at him, her eyes said the exact opposite was going on. She was attracted to him, liked him...but still held herself out of reach.
She’d only gotten as far as the small circle of shops situated on a paved area above the beach. Trent slowed to a walk. She sat on a wrought-iron bench, hunched over with her face in her hands.
He sat beside her and leaned his forearms on his thighs. “Tonight was a bad idea. Sorry.”
Slowly, she lowered her hands and turned to face him. The silver tracks of her tears shone beneath the streetlight beside her. “I don’t want to go on like this.”
It was painful to see her blue eyes so full of anguish, confusion and pain. He tilted his head toward her hand. “May I?”
Saved by the Firefighter Page 2