Blaze (A Minxes of Romance anthology)

by Romy Sommer

  He laughed. “Exactly.”

  Shelley's smile faded. “Is she okay? She still seemed a bit shaken when she left. But she insisted on going—said she didn't want to be a bother.”

  “She seems fine. She's tougher than she looks.”

  He sat on the edge of her sun lounger and she took in a deep breath. He was too close and the garden that had seemed big enough was suddenly too small.

  “She said you're thinking of extending your kitchen.”

  Nothing was secret in Coombethwaite, Shelley was quickly learning that truth. “She was singing your praises as an architect as soon as I mentioned it. I suppose she's sent you to get the job?”

  He laughed. “She did suggest I might want to speak to you about it.”

  “I'm sorry to disappoint, I don't think I could afford someone with your talents.”

  He raised an eyebrow.

  “It’s not only me she talks about. She’s very proud of your achievements.”

  He rubbed his chin. “What if I don't charge you?”

  “Sorry?”

  “What if, in exchange for helping you with your kitchen extension, there was something you could do for me in return?”

  Shelley immediately drew her knees up to her chest and hugged them tight. “I don't know what you think I am, but...”

  He looked as horrified as she felt and two hot spots of red appeared on his razor sharp cheekbones. “No.” He lifted a large hand in the international ‘stop’ gesture. “No. Nothing like that.”

  Shelley's face still burned. She was so mortified, she could barely bring herself to meet his gaze. “What then?”

  “I need a date for my friend's wedding next week.”

  Shelley’s face burned. “I’m not looking for a relationship.”

  “Neither am I. All I’m looking for is a platonic companion so my friends will stop trying to set me up.”

  #

  Shelley didn't quite know how he'd talked her into it—well, she did, and it had nothing to do with any architect’s drawings. First, he was gorgeous and any woman would enjoy attending an event with him on her arm.

  He’s a trophy fireman. She giggled at the thought.

  Secondly, he'd made it clear he was as disinterested in any romantic shenanigans as she was.

  He'd promised Shelley a night of uncomplicated fun where she could meet more of her new neighbours. And, still being so new in the village, she wasn't in any position to turn him down.

  She was ready when he arrived to pick her up.

  “You look lovely,” he said.

  “You don't need to say that. It’s not really a date, is it?”

  “No. But you do look nice, and I wanted to tell you.”

  She smiled. He looked pretty hot himself, but she decided not to mention it in case it turned into an impromptu and embarrassing meeting of the mutual appreciation society.

  She’d always loved weddings and this one was just perfect. The church was crowded. Nick, the groom, was handsome and Lizzie, his bride, gorgeous. It was, in fact, everything a summer wedding should be.

  “Would you like to dance?” he asked as couples took to the floor at the reception.

  “Yes, thank you.”

  It was odd how comfortable she was in Harrison's arms. He gathered her close and she rested her head on his shoulder.

  As the music finished, he took her hand and led her outside. “Hot in there,” he said. “We should get some air.

  They walked a little way around the lake. The evening light was stunning and the scenery had never looked better. If Shelley had ever been of a mind to let romance muddle her brain, this was the kind of night it might happen.

  Thankfully, she was immune to that sort of stupidity.

  “Do you want to tell me about it?”

  She blinked. “Tell you about what?”

  They'd stopped short of the pebbled waterline. She’d have liked to go closer, but reckoned she shouldn’t risk it in her heels.

  “About why you're so adamantly against getting involved with someone?”

  She looked out across the water and tried to concentrate on the beauty of the scenery. But it was impossible when the man at her side commanded her attention. “It’s not something I want to talk about.”

  He was silent for a moment, but she could feel his gaze on her. Her heart thudded in her chest. Everyone had been nagging her for ages to get on with her life—meet someone else, have a fling.

  And the prospect had never been more tempting.

  He took a step closer.

  Relocating to this gorgeous village had been the first move in her recovery. Having fun with this man might be the next one...

  He reached out and lifted her chin so she looked into darkened grey eyes.

  Her heart nearly stopped beating.

  “Who was he? Is he worth denying yourself the chance of future happiness?”

  When Harrison’s lips met hers in the briefest of butterfly kisses, she was quite sure it wasn’t.

  Chapter Four

  Harrison couldn't leave it alone.

  One night—and an entire morning— with Shelley in his arms was all it had taken for him to realise.

  If he was prepared to put his nasty experience and very public humiliation behind him, then he had to try to show Shelley it could be done. That she could forget whatever—whoever—had hurt her.

  “I thought she was the one, and I was gutted when I found out what she was like,” he told her as he drove her home from his house the day after the wedding. “For a long time I didn’t think it would be possible to fall for someone else.”

  “What made you change your mind?”

  He brought the Land Rover to a stop in front of her cottage and turned off the engine. His gaze unwavering, he looked into her green eyes. “I met you.”

  “Oh, Harrison.” She sighed. “I like you, of course I do. But the thought of trusting a man again...”

  “Last night was good, wasn’t it?”

  “It was one night.”

  He leaned back into his seat. “What did he do to you?”

  She laughed, but he could see it wasn't funny. “The usual—he couldn't keep it in his pants.” The defiant look in her eyes dared him to argue.

  He found he couldn’t resist the challenge. “He was an idiot. But we're not all the same.”

  “I know.” She smiled a little sadly. “But it's too much trouble to try to sort the good guys from the bad. I just want a quiet life.”

  He sighed. He knew what she was talking about—he'd been in that place a long time, trying to work out which women were liars and cheats. But now he was ready to love again and he didn't doubt for an instant that Shelley was someone he could trust with his heart.

  “I'm sorry, Harrison. Maybe if I'd met you at a different time...”

  He reached out and took her hand. “Don't say that,” he pleaded. He didn't want platitudes—especially not the same ones he'd trotted out to every woman who'd set her cap at him in the past two years.

  She let her hand rest in his and they sat for a moment. It was funny, for a man who’d spent the past few years being suspicious of attractive women, his intuition had told him straight away she was someone worth falling for. Perhaps it was the kindness she’d shown Emily Croft—despite her obvious weariness after a hard night’s work.

  And, the moment he’d gate-crashed her garden and seen her in that bikini, he’d been forced to admit his interest was very personal.

  It killed him she didn’t feel the same.

  His only hope was she’d learn to trust him in her own time. “Okay, how about we see each other as friends?”

  He watched as she bit even white teeth into the flesh of her lower lip. “Okay, Harrison Reid,” she said at last. “I think I might like that.”

  Better than nothing, even if it wasn’t the outcome he’d hoped for.

  #

  She went into her cottage without even glancing back. He waited until she’d closed her fron
t door before he turned the key in the ignition. And that was when the summons to go into the station arrived.

  “It’s a big one,” Jake told him with a shudder as he arrived and boarded the fire engine with the others. “The biscuit factory’s gone up.”

  The factory was a family concern, employing around thirty local people. He only hoped everyone had been evacuated safely.

  The flames were visible as soon as they arrived. “We’re worried about the flour stores,” the manager told them with a frown. “I’ve heard powders like that can explode.”

  “If there’s enough flour suspended the air it’s a possibility,” Harrison told the woman. “Make sure everyone’s well clear of the building. Do we know what happened?”

  She shook her head. “It started in the office, I think. There wasn’t anyone up there at the time. We told people to get out as soon as we noticed.”

  “And everyone’s safe?”

  She nodded. “I think so. The team leaders have checked and nobody’s reported any absences.”

  “Tina,” someone called. “Tina’s not here.”

  Harrison quickly found out the missing worker’s likely location and then, with Daniel, went into the factory to search.

  He never thought of himself as being brave, but it took a huge dose of courage to walk into a burning building—every time.

  The heat was intense, even through the protective layers of his clothing. And there was smoke everywhere, making visibility poor. He knew if it wasn’t for their breathing apparatus, he and Daniel wouldn’t have stood a chance.

  Something crashed behind him. He turned to see debris flying through the air.

  And that was the last thing he remembered.

  #

  Harrison grew aware of noise. Voices… muffled as though from long way away. And pain—he could feel pain. A dull ache in his head and every other part of him hurt, too.

  “Harrison, can you hear me?” One of the voices was closer now, sharper. A woman’s voice. She sounded like Shelley.

  He tried to say her name, but his throat was parched and the words wouldn't come.

  “Don’t try to talk,” she told him. “You’re okay. You were in an accident. You got caught in falling masonry at the biscuit factory fire. But you’re safe—in hospital. You’re going to be fine.”

  He believed her.

  He forced his eyes open. And there she was. Blurred at first, and then her face came into sharp focus.

  Even in her scrubs and without a scrap of makeup, she was gorgeous.

  Despite feeling like hell, he managed to grin.

  And her lips curved in a response that had his heart beating faster.

  Heck of a thing that a man had to nearly get himself killed to get her to smile at him like that.

  Her smile was the last thing he saw as the medication took a hold of him again and he drifted off to sleep.

  #

  Next time he came to, there was no sign of Shelley, but a male nurse was in the room.

  “Hello there,” he greeted. “I’m Terry. Good to have you back with us.”

  “Tina?” Harrison managed to croak.

  “Ah—our other casualty from the fire. She’s going to be fine.”

  Harrison heaved a mental sigh of relief. They hadn’t lost anyone in the time he’d been with the fire service, but there was always the fear it might happen. “What about my colleague, Daniel?” He spoke a little easier now. “He was in the fire with me.”

  “He’s fine.”

  Having satisfied himself that those in danger were safe, he couldn’t help himself asking the next question. “And Shelley?” His voice was stronger still.

  As he looked into the nurse’s face, Harrison could have sworn he saw a bleak look cross the other man’s features. But he must have imagined it because the next moment the man smiled. “She’s on duty in paediatrics, but she’ll be here soon. She popped in to see you first thing and said she’d be back when her shift was over.”

  Chapter Five

  Shelley knew she shouldn't be lusting after a patient. Particularly when she’d already assured the same patient she had no romantic interest in him. And especially not when the patient in question was out of it and had no idea.

  However gorgeous he might be, however tempting it was to look at him, that kind of behaviour was kind of gross and she hated herself for it.

  Besides, after the scandal her last relationship had caused, she wanted to keep any hint of romance firmly out of the hospital.

  She couldn’t bring herself to leave, though.

  When she’d heard Harrison was being brought in, she’d been shattered.

  And her reaction had proved without doubt—and regardless of anything she’d told him—that she did care about him. A lot.

  She even suspected it might be love.

  In the startlingly short time she’d known him, he’d grown into the most important person in her life. She felt all kinds of fool that she’d only realised her feelings when she’d thought she might lose him.

  His eyes fluttered open. And, when he saw her, he smiled.

  “Hi.” His voice was groggy, but less so than it had been yesterday.

  She smiled back, grateful he sounded so much more like himself. “Hello. How are you feeling?”

  “Like I’ve been run over by a truck and kicked in the head by a horse. But I’m told I’ll live.”

  “Which is a huge relief to a lot of people.”

  “You included?”

  She shook her head in disbelief. “How can you even ask me that?”

  “Is that a yes?”

  “Of course it's a yes,” she leaned over and dropped the briefest of kisses on his forehead. She hovered over him, reluctant to sever the moment of closeness.

  The door of Harrison’s side room opened.

  She jumped away as a nurse came into the room.

  Terry’s eyes narrowed as he took in the scene. “Here again, Shelley?”

  He was adept at making her feel bad, but she wasn't going to let him get away with it this time. She was stronger now. Not the doormat she'd been when she'd wasted two years of her life dating him.

  “Nothing wrong with your eyesight, is there, Terry?”

  His expression borrowed more from a grimace than it did a smile, but he checked Harrison with all the professionalism she would have expected before leaving the room. He might have been a rotten boyfriend, but he was a good nurse.

  “Was that him?”

  She nodded.

  “He's an idiot for letting you go.”

  She smiled.

  “If you were mine I’d think myself the luckiest man in the world.”

  “Harrison, this is where I work. We can't have this conversation here.”

  “But you can kiss me on the forehead?”

  He was right, of course, that had been unprofessional in the extreme. “A momentary lapse.”

  He was quiet for a moment. “I'm not so injured you can't have another lapse and kiss me properly.”

  “Were you listening to what I said a moment ago?” she asked softly. “We can’t do anything about our personal relationship. Not when you're a patient at the hospital where I work.”

  For someone who’d spent much of the past two days semi-conscious, he was remarkably quick on the uptake. His expression said it all and it took all her willpower to stop herself getting into bed beside him.

  “What about when I'm no longer a patient at the hospital where you work?”

  She experienced another momentary lapse—although not quite the one Harrison had suggested—and reached out to cover his hand with her own. “When you've been discharged, we can talk about what we both want.”

  #

  By the time her shift finished the next day, Shelley was trembling with the need to see him. It couldn't lead to more—not yet at least. But just being in the same room as him was better than nothing.

  To hear his voice. To know he was okay.

  When she found
his room empty, his bed stripped, she could barely breathe.

  “Looking for lover boy?” Terry asked with a malicious tone.

  She rounded on him, although she stopped herself grabbing his shoulders and shaking the truth from him. “Where is he? He's not...”

  Terry sighed. “No, he's not. He's discharged himself. Against medical advice.”

  She ran out to the car park and cursed the distance between the hospital and Coombethwaite. After what seemed like a million years, she drew into the outskirts of the village and drove past her own cottage to get to Harrison's house.

  She'd only been there once before—the evening of his friend Nick's wedding. She smiled as she recalled that night. Then she reminded herself to be cross again as she drove in through his gate.

  He’d been so irresponsible. She was furious with him. And she’d waste no time in telling him when he answered the door.

  Her resolve weakened when she saw him.

  But the shock of seeing this big man so pale and clinging onto the door frame for support only silenced her for a moment.

  “Look at you,” she yelled. “What kind of idiot goes against a doctor's advice like this? You live on your own; you can't even answer the door without nearly collapsing in pain.”

  Infuriatingly, he stood there, saying nothing, but his grin had her tummy fluttering and her breath catching. Then, despite the support of the door jamb, he swayed unsteadily and she relented.

  “Come on, let’s get you inside.” She helped him in, although she suspected her contribution was more mental than physical: Despite her arm being about his waist and his around her shoulders, he put very little of his weight on her.

  “Why did you go against medical advice?” she asked when he was safely settled on the sofa. “You’re in no fit state to care for yourself.”

  “Perhaps I’m not,” he agreed. “But at least now I’m no longer in your hospital we can date.”

  She felt two angry spots of colour on her cheek and stormed over to loom over him. “Seriously? You put your life in danger just so I’d go out with you? I’ve never heard of anything so stupid.”

  Unfazed, he reached up and his big hand circled her wrist. When he tugged, she willingly fell onto the sofa to lie alongside him.