by Sami Lee
Jeez! She hardly knew this guy. Where did he get off? “My head is perfectly—”
“Messed up is what it is. You think our job is too dangerous. I’m calling to challenge that assumption.”
Sierra sat there, agape, stunned both by Leo Chatsworth’s audacity and his incongruously amiable delivery. But she was too filled with a swiftly rising hope to hang up on him. She cleared her throat. “What exactly did you have in mind?”
Sierra heard the smile in his voice. “A day trip. You feel like taking a drive to Ashton Heights?”
Rob lay on the couch in the living room, drinking beer, watching bad reality television and cursing his useless hand.
If he hadn’t been injured, he’d have been able to work off his misery over the past three days. Or the three lifetimes, as he referred to them, since Sierra had left. But no. He’d had to stay home and rest. Too bad he rarely slept. Also too bad he was out of painkillers.
Hence the beer. A perfect accompaniment to a three o’clock viewing of Judge Judy.
The roar of a Ducati’s engine told Rob that Leo had arrived home. Blue had gone to work while Leo had a day off, doing some mysterious stuff he hadn’t detailed to Rob. Not that Rob had asked. He was having a hard time giving a crap about anything going on around him. What was the point of giving a shit about mundane stuff if the thing you cared about the most had walked out on you?
Although she hadn’t walked out on him. He’d walked away because he knew he couldn’t compete with a dead man. He wasn’t even competing with him, but with death itself. There was no winning that battle.
The worst thing about it all was that he knew she was in love with him. She wouldn’t be so afraid of losing him if she wasn’t.
The front door opened and Leo came in. Rob didn’t see the other man roll his eyes because he didn’t look away from the TV, but he sensed it. His housemates were fast getting sick of his ennui.
“Are you drunk?” Leo inquired conversationally.
“No,” Rob replied. “But give it an hour.”
“I’d rather not. An hour in your presence lately is like a week of back-to-back Nicholas Sparks movies. Sheer torture.”
“Hardy har har. You want a beer to help you through it?”
“No. I want to get out of here. And you’re coming with me.”
“Sorry. Don’t feel like going anywhere.”
“Tough. This trip’s non-negotiable.”
Rob finally looked at his housemate. Out of the two guys he lived with, he connected most easily with Leo. He was an easygoing guy with a dry sense of humor and no desire to take sole charge of the TV remote. Blair was the neat slash control freak who had an opinion on everything and wasn’t hesitant to voice it. Only two live-and-let-live guys like Rob and Leo would put up with him.
Now, Leo was staring him down much the way Blair did when he was determined to get his way. “Say again?”
“We’re going out. Put on some fresh clothes.” Leo’s gaze flickered over Rob’s faded track pants and wrinkled T-shirt. “Something ironed.”
“The use of household appliances takes time and effort.”
“That’s fine.” Leo planted his butt in the armchair beside the sofa and grabbed the remote from the coffee table. “I’ll wait.”
Rob finally realized Leo was serious when he turned off Judge Judy mid-decision in favor of a documentary about the Vietnam War. Rob sat up and ran a hand over his face, encountering his three-day growth. Shit, he was a mess. Maybe he ought to go out, rejoin the land of the living. He was out of beer anyway.
Twenty minutes later, he was in the passenger seat of his Holden, with Leo driving. Another twenty minutes after that, they were pulling up in front of the Ashton Heights fire station. Rob was more confused than he was before they’d left home. “What are we doing here? Do I have some paperwork to sign?”
“Nope. Come on, out you get.”
With Leo being uncharacteristically autocratic and him possessing a care factor of zero, there wasn’t much else for it but to get out of the car and follow Leo inside. The interior of the fire house looked like it always did—big open space occupied by a Firepack 3000 and an empty space where the other vehicles were parked when not in use, a bunch of safety gear, photos on the walls and not much else. A couple of the guys were hanging around the truck, apparently disinterested in Rob’s arrival. No huddled mass of people ready to jump out and yell surprise three months before his birthday.
“What’s going on, Chats?”
“There’s someone here to see you.”
Leo inclined his head. Rob followed the direction of his gesture and saw nothing but the locker room in the back of the house. He was about to make some frustrated comment when a figure appeared in the doorway and Rob’s breath stopped.
It couldn’t be her. She’d walked out of his life determined never to return. Rob blinked, but the vision before him didn’t disappear in a puff of smoke.
Sierra was here.
Stunned, Rob could do nothing but stare at her and gape. She returned his gaze, showed him a shy smile. “Hi, Rob.”
Hi, Rob? Hi, Rob? What kind of greeting was that after the way she’d cut him off? He’d show her Hi, Rob.
Rob stalked over to where she stood, a tiny figure in the massive firehouse, a small body next to his. He scowled, feeling gutted anew when he’d just been working on getting over her. Sort of. Feeling raw and pained and lashing out because it was easier than focusing on how much he hurt.
“What the hell are you doing here?”
Sierra had anticipated lots of different reactions from Rob when he saw her again, but rage wasn’t one of them. Uncontrolled anger wasn’t his style.
But then beard shadow and red-rimmed eyes weren’t his style either. He seemed almost like a different man wearing that ferocious expression and looking like he’d lost interest in his appearance. But the wild galloping of her heart was the same as it had always been around him. This was Rob, her Rob.
Only he might not be interested in being her Rob anymore. Perhaps she’d made a huge mistake.
“She came to check out the fire station,” Leo explained, saving her from having to speak.
Rob glanced at Leo and then turned back to face her, that same menacing expression on his face. “Why?”
Sierra struggled to get the words out as the dread that he’d kick her out of here in three seconds time strangled her throat. “I…I wanted to see it.”
“I offered to show her around,” Leo said. “Let her look at the equipment.”
Rob opened his mouth to again ask why, but then he paused and cast a narrow-eyed look at the other man. “How did you know where to find her?”
“She dropped something on the ground when you two fought the other day. Turns out it was her contact details.” Leo’s lips twitched. “You know me. I never throw away a pretty girl’s contact details.”
Sierra forced herself to speak up. She hadn’t come this far, hadn’t agonized for three days over changing her position on men with risky jobs to wimp out now. “He called me and told me a few things I needed to hear.”
Rob raised one eyebrow. “Like?”
“Like how rare it is for a city firefighter to actually die in the line of duty. Bush fires are much more dangerous, as it turns out.” Sierra would have to make sure Rob never moved to the country. “He told me all about the systems you have in place to ensure each other’s safety, the state-of-the-art protective equipment you use. Then he offered to show it to me.”
“I would have told you all that if you’d only asked.”
“I didn’t know what I needed to know until Leo told me.”
Sierra smiled at the man they called Chats. With his moss-green eyes, sturdy shoulders and unflappable demeanor, he was really quite something. He’d certainly forced Sierra to open her eyes and examine her reasons for throwing away what she had with Rob.
Then he had very effectively shown her how ridiculous they were. How ridiculous she had been for th
rowing away something as incredible as what she had with Rob.
“So what does this mean? What are you trying to tell me?”
Rob’s expression had downgraded from stormy to chance of light showers. It was the opening she’d been hoping for. “I’m trying to tell you I’m sorry. And that I’m crazy about you. And that I’d…I’d like another chance. If you’ll give it to me.”
The silence that fell after her declaration—her plea, really—was deafening. Rob didn’t say anything. He merely stared at her as though he couldn’t quite believe what she’d said. Oh God. Was he stunned by her audacity? Did he think she had some nerve coming here after she’d rejected the love he had openly given her?
Heck. She thought she had some nerve. One little I’m sorry wouldn’t be enough for her if the situations were reversed. But what else could she do?
“That’s my cue to depart,” Leo said, breaking the awkward tension. “You two can use the locker room.”
Leo all but pushed Rob, who stood rooted to the spot like a statue, into the locker room. He sent Sierra a reassuring grin that didn’t reassure her very much. Then he muttered to Rob, “Don’t mess this up Misery Man. Blue and I can’t take it anymore.”
He closed the door so Sierra and Rob were alone.
They stared at each other in silence for so long Sierra began to despair that coming here had been too little, too late. She thought her despair justified when Rob said, “This isn’t going to change anything.”
Sierra’s heart cracked. She looked down at her feet, blanching from his words. “Of course not.” Tears pricked at her eyes. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have come.”
She made to hurry passed him, knowing she was going to burst out crying any minute. She’d already made enough of a fool of herself without doing that in front of him.
She didn’t get as far as the door when Rob shot out an arm to stop her. “What I mean is, I still can’t guarantee you that nothing will ever happen to me. All the safety equipment in the world can’t prevent a freak accident.”
“I know.” Pulse racing, Sierra dared to look up at him, even though she knew he’d see the sheen of tears in her eyes. “But you could say the same thing about a tax lawyer or an IT guy.”
“I’m serious. This is my job. It’s what I’ve always wanted to do. I need to know if you can handle that before I get my hopes up.”
His words made Sierra get her hopes up. “I think I can. I know I can. If the reward is being with you, I can do anything.”
“Fuck, Sierra.” Now it was Rob’s eyes that shimmered, and the force of his emotion made Sierra’s heart squeeze painfully. He lifted his hands and ran them through his hair. “You hurt me. You hurt me bad. I can’t go through that again. If we do this, I need to know everything.”
Guilt assailed her at his confession. She’d known he’d be disappointed, perhaps even hurt when she ended things with him. But the look on his face told her how completely she’d devastated him. How could she ever make up for that?
With honesty, like he’s asking. Sierra swallowed over the lump in her throat. “What do you want to know?”
He crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against the wall. “Tell me about your fiancé.”
Sierra took a deep breath and did as Rob asked. She told him how she’d started dating Eddie in high school, how she’d studied for her diploma in administration while he’d gone through the police academy. She’d told him how excited Eddie had been to get a posting in Brisbane rather than in the country, and about her reservations because a city posting meant more action as Eddie had put it. They’d been saving to buy their own house, planning their wedding when it had all come crashing down.
Sierra’s knees shook when she had to tell Rob about that night in the emergency room, so she sat on one of the bench seats in front of the row of lockers. “I couldn’t believe it. Even though I knew his job sometimes put him in harm’s way, I never really imagined that he’d die. It was a naive attitude that I was determined never to have again. I was caught so unawares by Eddie’s death and I felt like an arrogant fool for not seeing it coming.”
“And you swore you’d never be that foolish again,” Rob concluded as he came to sit down beside her. “You put so much energy into preparing for the worst you forgot how to hope for the best.”
“I guess you’re right,” Sierra conceded. “I didn’t want to see what was right in front of me. You, offering me another chance at—”
Sierra cut herself off from saying the word love. Everything in the way he treated her told Sierra he had deep feelings, but Rob had never said those actual words. She might be about to make a huge misstep.
He asked for honesty. Stop being a wimp!
Sierra took a deep breath and plunged in. “You offered me another chance at love and I was too afraid to take it. I’m sorry I hurt you. I promise to be braver from now on.”
“God, Sierra. You’re the bravest person I’ve met.” Rob reached out for her hand and gathered it in both of his. “You kept yourself from falling apart when you lost—Hell, it sounds like you lost the love of your life. Maybe I can’t compete with that.”
Sierra stared at Rob’s downcast head. He was staring at how her slender fingers were engulfed by his big hands. His big, steady firefighter’s hands. Hands that had comforted her, teased her, pleasured her and driven her wild with need. Hands that had stroked her hair, fixed her breakfast and saved her from what could have become a devastating house fire. Hands she wanted holding hers for a long, long time to come. Sierra looked down at his hands and was filled with so much love she felt both humbled and impossibly strong at once.
“Robert James McConnell,” she began, her voice threaded through with steel. “I do not want you to compete with anyone or anything. What I want is you. Just you, exactly as you are—a good man with a good heart, a career firefighter, a generous lover and an awful, awful competitor when it comes to PlayStation games. That’s the man I fell in love with despite my determination not to. That’s man I want to be with.”
He’d turned toward her during her impassioned speech, and now he was gazing at her with those big brown eyes. His lips twitched. “I’m not that bad at PlayStation. I let you win sometimes.”
Sierra scoffed. “Did not.”
His lips curved in a genuine smile now. “You’ll never know.”
Sierra lifted a brow. “I think a rematch ought to sort it out nicely.”
“True. Your place or mine?”
“Your place?” Sierra was surprised. “You’re not afraid my head will be turned by Blue and Chats anymore?”
“No.” Rob lifted a hand to cup her cheek. “Because you love me.”
He drew her in and kissed her, a fervent kiss filled with passion and promise. Because he was strong and could lift her easily—and no doubt also because she didn’t protest for a second—Rob pulled her effortlessly onto his lap. Sierra snuggled into his chest and reveled in the sensations his kiss evoked.
Excitement, yes. Lust, most definitely. But also, undeniably, love and hope.
Eventually, he pulled back, but he didn’t loosen his arms from around her body. He held her cradled against him and spread kisses over her face. “I love you, Sierra. I’ve always known we were supposed to be together, from that first night. Something happened to me when I saw you, something big. I love you now, but in a way that I can’t begin to explain, I loved you then too.”
Sierra’s heart turned to mush. Who knew such a big tough firefighter could be so romantic? Her eyes stung and her voice rasped. “Kiss me again, before I start blubbering.”
He held her face and lowered his lips to hers, brushing such a soft, tender kiss over them that a tear slipped out anyway. He followed its path along her cheek, taking away the dampness with little brushes of his lips. Then he sought her lips out again and kissed her full and deeply, so deeply Sierra knew she wouldn’t be coming up for air for a long, long time.
Heck. Oxygen was overrated anyway.
&nb
sp; The End
Preview the Next Book
Hot In Here
Ashton Heights Fire, Book 3
Chapter 1
The night was sultry, and the air inside the Sovereign Hotel was thick. Scores of bodies pressed together, giving off the kind of electric chemistry that usually ended with at least one patron picking a fight and consequently getting thrown out of the establishment. Others would wind up going home together.
Most nights, one of those people taking someone new home would have been Leo Chatfield. But tonight, despite the kinetic energy in the air and the endless possibilities the Friday night crowd presented, Leo wasn’t feeling it. Truth be told, he had been growing tired of casual sex for a while now. He wanted something else, something more. Lately, he’d been yearning for someone to laugh with, someone who’d stay beside him all night and wake up next to him in the morning. Someone he could really care about.
In short, at the age of twenty eight, Leo had decided he wanted a girlfriend. He just didn’t know how he was going to tell Blair Bowman that.
“Your shout next time, Chats.” The man in question returned from the bar and handed Leo a chilled bottle of beer. “Don’t think I should show my face at the bar again.”
“What did you do?”
Blair winced and gave an exaggerated shudder. “Michelle’s working.”
Leo groaned. “I thought she moved to the Sunshine Coast.”
“Didn’t work out there, I guess. You’d think the distance would have given her some perspective, but apparently, she still hates me.”
“Blue.” Everyone at the Ashton Heights fire station called Blair Blue most of the time. “You told her she was too needy and that her desperate aura was a turn off.”
“Well, it was. One night means one night. We were both really clear with her about that,” Blair reminded him. “Why do some women not understand casual?”
“Sometimes the heart doesn’t agree with the head. I think Michelle liked you more than she let on.”