Burning Up: Firefighter Contemporary Romance Series Box Set

by K. C. Crowne

  “That would be great, Mr. Hargraves,” Stephanie said. “It would be much easier to clear all this up in person. I’d appreciate it if you could get down here soon, as Abigail is currently in foster care and I’d prefer to place her with family as soon as possible. If you know of anyone else who could take her...”

  “I don’t,” I said. Dee’s parents were horrible. She had been neglected as a child, in favor of their drug habits. I knew her father had died a few years back, and her mother was nowhere to be found. They’d been living on the streets when Dee finally decided to leave town. “I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

  I hung up the phone and stared at it for a long time.

  “Well?” Hannah asked. “Should I start packing?”

  “No, it’s your turn,” I said, meeting her gaze. “Call Elizabeth, then we can decide what to do next.”

  “You’re going to Atlanta either way, right?”

  “Of course.”

  “Then I’m going with you,” she announced, picking up her phone. She took a deep breath before pushing the button to call Elizabeth.

  I knew this was hard for her, so I offered her a hand for moral support, giving it a tight squeeze before Elizabeth picked up the phone.

  Hannah blurted, “I have a family emergency and need to leave town for the next few days.”

  I couldn’t hear Elizabeth’s response, but whatever it was, it was exactly what Hannah had been expecting. She cringed, but otherwise held it together, and I was so fucking proud of her.

  “No, Elizabeth, you need to listen to me. This is an emergency. Either you give me the time off I need or you’re going to have to find a new assistant. And let’s face it, you’ve never had much luck keeping one for long.”

  Fuck, yes. I wanted to high five her and grinned like an idiot. She gave me a weak smile before responding, “Very well then,” and hanging up the phone.

  Her hands were shaking. “Jesus, that was hard.”

  “What did she say?”

  “Exactly what I thought she’d say,” Hannah said, her voice trembling. “She told me to find a new job. I have to turn a bunch of things in to her, like the company phone and stuff, but that can wait. We need to get going.”

  She stood up and walked toward her bedroom. Before she got to the doorway, however, she turned back to me with a smile.

  “I did it,” she said. “I really did it. I quit my job.”

  Her smile fell as quickly as it came, and a panicked look took its place. I rushed over to her, wrapping my arms around her, and whispered, “It’s going to be okay. You did the right thing.”

  And I wasn’t just saying that because I wanted her to join me on this trip. Yes, it was partially selfish - I wanted her to be with me - but mostly because Hannah deserved better. She was always so stressed, so depressed. That wasn’t like her. It was about time she reclaimed her life and put herself first for a change.

  I knew, deep down, that this would be the best thing for her. Hannah knew it too. Still didn’t mean it wasn’t scary as hell, though.

  Ooo000ooo

  The GPS said it was about thirteen or fourteen hours to the CPS office in Atlanta. We planned on one stop to rest, so about a day and a half of driving. Hannah drove for the first part of the trip t. I hadn’t driven in a while, even though I had my license. I just preferred to use transit whenever possible. I offered to share in the driving when the time came because it felt weird to make her do all the work.

  She was quiet for the first hour or so, likely still feeling the effects of quitting her job. It was going to be a long trip if neither of us talked much the entire time.

  Wanting to lighten the mood, I plugged my phone into her radio. She looked at me and asked, “What are you doing?”

  “Putting on some music. Is that okay?”

  She nodded and returned her attention to the road.

  I settled on some Queen, thinking the upbeat music would lift her spirits a bit. I also couldn’t resist singing along to Queen, so as Freddie Mercury came on, singing “Somebody to Love,” I joined in. I was tone deaf as hell, so I didn’t even try. I focused on having fun and being goofy.

  It worked.

  Hannah was laughing and singing along with me before long. Just like old times, she was her happy-go-lucky self. The stresses of the world melted away from us, and while we drove down the highway, we sang song after song together, forgetting about everything for a moment.

  About four hours into the trip, Hannah stopped singing. She turned down the radio and pulled over to the side of the road.

  “Oh shit,” she muttered, grabbing her purse from the backseat and digging around in it. I had no idea what she was doing, but she was freaking out about something.

  “What are you looking for?” I asked.

  “The gun,” she replied.

  “The what?”

  “Not a real gun,” she said, pulling a small box from her purse and breathing a sigh of relief. “Some stupid diamond-encrusted gun I picked up for Elizabeth. She needed it for a photo shoot this morning. Crap!”

  Hannah began driving again, holding the box in her lap. She pulled off at the next exit and headed for the highway leading back to New York City.

  “Hold up,” I said. “What are you doing?”

  “I need to get this to her. It’s already too late for the photo shoot, but it’s an expensive piece.”

  “Hannah, if it’s already too late for the shoot, why don’t you give it to her when we get back? We need to hurry.”

  “Elizabeth is going to be so pissed,” she muttered, but she passed the ramp for the highway, turning into a gas station instead. She slammed her hands against the steering wheel and cursed at herself some more.

  “Does it matter if she’s angry? You’re no longer working for her,” I said.

  “I know, I know,” she said, breathing heavily. She closed her eyes and cursed some more. “But old habits die hard, okay? And besides, I really don’t want to be responsible for an expensive piece of art.”

  “If you go back, we won’t have time to stop and rest tonight. We’ll have to drive straight through.”

  “I know,” she said, staring at the box in her lap. “But you have no idea how ridiculous this piece is, Justin. It’s literally made from diamonds.”

  “A gun made of diamonds? I’ve heard of everything now,” I said, trying to make a joke.

  Hannah didn’t seem to appreciate it too much, scowling at me instead.

  “Hannah, you’ve managed to keep it safe for now, through a wedding and a reception. Just keep it in your purse, make sure it stays zipped, and we won’t let it out of our sight. Got it?”

  She started to calm down a bit, but I could still see remnants of fear in her eyes. Not that I blamed her. If the piece was as ridiculous as she claimed it to be, I’d be nervous too. But we didn’t really have time to drive all the way back to New York City, drop the thing off, and hit the road again. I’d set up a time to meet with Stephanie and we needed to keep it.

  “It’ll be fine,” I said, taking the box from her and slipping it back into her purse. I would have loved to open it and looked for myself, but I was too nervous to take it from its protective box. I zipped up her purse and kept the bag in my lap. “I’ll even help you keep an eye on it.”

  She nodded. “Okay then, it’s fine. It’s completely fine.”

  She reached for her phone and checked her messages. “Elizabeth is pissed, as I expected,” she said, hanging up and typing a text. “I’m just going to tell her I’ll drop it off later this week so I don’t get the cops called on me. We’ve already missed the photo shoot, she had to make do… It’ll be okay.”

  She was saying that to reassure herself more than me, I’m sure. Once she finished the message, we were back on the road again, and no amount of Queen could lighten the mood.

  I decided to focus on something else - her future.

  “Hannah, just think about what this means for you,” I said. “What do you plan t
o do with your newfound freedom?”

  She let out a deep breath. It took her a second to answer, but she finally said, “I don’t know. I need to make sure Izzy and Mason are well taken care of...”

  “They’re adults, and from what I saw at the wedding, they can take care of themselves. Mason will be working for the firehouse soon, and Izzy is going to be an RN. I don’t think you’re going to need to take care of them.”

  “I know,” she said quietly. “But that’s all I know.”

  “What did you always want to do with your life?”

  She glanced at me. “What do you mean?”

  “Before your parent’s car accident, what did you dream of doing?”

  “I wanted to be a teacher,” she said, quickly adding, “but they don’t make enough money to support two teens, so I had to do something else.”

  “But those teens are now adults,” I reminded her. “So why don’t you go back to school to be a teacher?”

  She looked at me like I was crazy. “Go back to school? With what money?” she scoffed.

  I shrugged. “Well, there’s financial aid, for one,” I suggested. “And you said you had a nice savings put back for emergencies.”

  “Yes, for emergencies,” she snapped. “But without a job, I’ll have to use it for bills and stuff. Unless I can find a roommate quickly, I need to look at moving somewhere cheaper, maybe a studio. I’m not made of money, Justin.”

  I knew what she was implying. My family had money, and they’d left me with a decent amount. My father was always willing to help me too. But I tried to separate myself from my family’s money, and for good reason. I wanted to be my own man, not give my father the satisfaction of supporting me after what he’d done to my mother.

  “Well, you can work and go to school part-time. It’ll take longer, but, it’s not impossible if you find a reasonable job, not like the one you just left.”

  She didn’t argue with me, but I could tell there was more weighing on her.

  “What’s wrong with that option?” I asked.

  Well, for one, I’d like to eventually have time to start a family. Find a nice man, get married, have kids,” she listed. Then she added, “I know it’s stupid, but--”

  “It’s not stupid,” I said. “It’s the American dream, ain’t it?”

  “Well, not for everyone, obviously,” she said. And again, I knew what she was implying.

  “Believe it or not, even I think that sounds nice sometimes,” I confessed.

  She shot me a surprised look. “You? Really?”

  “Yeah,” I said, shrugging. “But don’t tell the guys I said that, alright? I have a reputation to live up to.”

  That brought an amused grin to her face. She stared at me from the corner of her eye for a long time. “You just keep on surprising me, you know that?”

  “I guess,” I said, staring out ahead at the road before us. I had changed a lot over the last few years. It never even occurred to me; it just happened slowly over time, until one day I woke up and realized maybe all my friends were on to something. Not that I wanted to admit that out loud, but to Hannah, well, it just felt right.

  Hannah

  “What do you mean there’s only one room available?” I asked. We were in the middle of nowhere in a small town that literally had a gas station and one hotel. What I really wanted to ask was, how could the hotel possibly be full? It wasn’t like we were in some touristy area or at Disney World. It was literally the middle of fucking nowhere.

  But, of course, we were staying here, so obviously others were too. It was the first hotel we’d seen in miles on a stretch of highway from Richmond, Virginia, to Greensboro, North Carolina. I wasn’t even sure what town we were in, but I believe we’d at least crossed the North Carolina border after about eight and a half hours driving. We still had about five or six hours to go, and we’d need to be up bright and early to make it into Atlanta by the next afternoon.

  The old man behind the counter looked half asleep himself and acted like we were bothering him simply by being there. He muttered, “Just what I said. We have one room left. Take it or leave it.”

  I looked at Justin, who handed over his credit card. “We’ll take it.”

  I knew we probably had little choice unless we wanted to keep driving and hope we came across something else. But both of us were tired and had to be up early, so it would have to do.

  The man gave us a room key and went back to sitting down and staring at the tv in the lobby.

  I followed Justin outside and up some stairs until we reached our room on the top floor. He swiped the key card and opened the door to a musty-smelling room that appeared to be stuck in the 1970s. An orange and yellow bedspread covered the one bed in the room.

  One bed.

  For both of us.

  Great.

  I dropped my bag on the table nearby, not trusting the brownish-orange carpet to be clean.

  “Isn’t this cozy,” Justin chuckled as he plopped down on the full-size bed.

  “At least it could have been a queen bed,” I complained with a sigh. I sat down beside Justin and eventually fell backward onto the bed. It felt like concrete beneath my back, but it was still a bed and we were both exhausted from a long day on the road.

  I felt Justin get up. Opening my eyes, I watched as he removed his pants. I sat up, my heart racing and my skin warming.

  “What are you doing?” I asked.

  “I’m getting ready for bed,” he said, laughing to himself.

  “You sleep naked?”

  “Well, yes, usually,” he answered, smirking. I blushed hard, imagining him like that. He pulled his pants all the way off, leaving his boxer shorts in place, “But tonight, I’ll just sleep in my boxers, if that’s okay with you?”

  “Yeah, that’s fine,” I said, averting my gaze. It was hard not to stare at him in his boxers. He also left his t-shirt on, but I knew what he looked like underneath it and my imagination was running wild.

  I slid from the bed and walked over to my bag on the table. I’d packed pajamas, a silky black nightshirt that fell to my thighs, on the assumption I’d have a room to myself. What was I worried about? He’d already seen me naked; it shouldn’t be a big deal. And it wasn’t, except I feared what might happen if we h ended up in bed together with very little clothing separating us.

  I grabbed the nightgown and shut myself into the bathroom to change. When I came out, Justin was already in bed, propped up on the pillows. His arms were behind his head, showing off his bulging biceps. He made sure to leave as much room for me as he could, but needless to say, there wasn’t much. He was a big guy.

  His eyes moved over me, devouring every inch of me. His boxers grew tighter as he hardened, and I looked away as he did his best to cover up the obvious erection.

  I climbed into bed beside him, doing my best to keep my distance. Our legs touched, and as I adjusted in bed, my hands brushed against his arms.

  “Sorry,” I mumbled d. “It’s a bit cramped.”

  “It’s okay, I don’t mind,” he said. He rolled over to his side, which gave us a bit more room but meant we were staring t into each other’s eyes. “But I can sleep on the floor if it bothers you.”

  “Ew, no,” I said with a giggle. “I don’t think the floor has been cleaned since 1973. I wouldn’t do that to you.”

  “Glad to hear you care,” he teased with a playful wink.

  “Of course I care,” I defended. “But I wouldn’t subject my worst enemy to that.”

  “At one time, I was your worst enemy,” he reminded me.

  He was right, but so much had changed over the last few weeks. Who knew that the two of us would be there, in the same bed, laughing and getting along like two old friends?

  Justin reached out and stroked my face. His touch was electrifying and sent chills down my spine.

  “Justin, please...” I didn’t know what I was going to ask - for him to touch me or for him to move further away. I didn’t get the ch
ance for either.

  He kissed me gently on the lips, a sweet, chaste kiss. Then another. And another. Before long, the sweet kisses grew into a longer, deeper one.

  He moved his lips lower, sucking on my neck.

  “I can’t resist you, Hannah.”

  “Justin...”

  I stopped myself as he moved even lower down my body until he was between my thighs and staring up at me with his gorgeous, hazel eyes. My breath caught in my throat. I couldn’t speak even though I knew I should put a stop to it.

  He looked up at me and gave me a second to protest.

  Truthfully, I didn’t want it to stop

  He parted my thighs and dove between them, his mouth connecting with my pussy and sending pleasure rushing through my body. I grabbed his head, pressing him into me, my fingers tangled in his hair.

  “Oh God,” I whimpered.

  My entire body bucked upward, trembling in pleasure as he worked his magic. No one had ever made me feel the way he had, and it drove me crazy. I wanted him more than I’d ever wanted anyone in my life, even if this wasn’t the time for this.

  I was so close to orgasm within minutes, and there was no stopping him now. He was eating me out wildly, licking and sucking at my pussy like it was the most delicious thing he’d ever tasted. His hands held onto my hips, holding me in place, as he fucked me with his tongue, burying it between the folds of my most intimate parts.

  “Justin, I’m--I’m cumming,” I whimpered.

  My thighs quivered, and I screamed in pleasure as wave after wave of the most amazing sensations rushed through me. Justin never let up, keeping his mouth on me, extending my orgasm until I couldn’t take it anymore.

  “Stop, stop,” I muttered.

  He pulled away instantly, his mouth soaking wet with my juices. God, he looked so sexy, and I wanted nothing more than to pull him on top of me so we could fuck like animals.

  He climbed up the bed, lying beside me. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have--”