by Beverly Long
Stepping back, she put her hand to her mouth and stared.
“Yeah,” he said. “I wasn’t expecting that, either.” What an understatement. They were explosive together. How was he supposed to conduct his investigation with that kind of knowledge?
After a few seconds, she lowered her hand and pointed toward the bookstore. “Now I really need to go.”
“Yeah. Good idea.” In a few more seconds he’d be doing his best to take her home with him.
“M-my car is parked in the back.”
“I’ll walk you there.” Although it was still afternoon, he didn’t like the idea of her alone in the back of the building, which was essentially an alley.
“No, no.” She briefly waved her hand. “I’ll be fine.” With her palm toward the sky and eyes going up, she said, “Daylight.”
He chuckled. “Sorry. Chivalry isn’t dead for me.” And it wasn’t. He just needed to meet a woman who appreciated that about him. Or, at the very least, recognition that it wasn’t an attempt to rob her of her independence but, rather, respect her for her exquisite beauty, inside and out.
Damon had given up trying to find that a long time ago, but it was still nice to fantasize.
“It is for most men,” she said, smiling.
Still grinning, he said, “Dinner tomorrow night?”
“How about Friday? I have class tomorrow night.”
“Okay. You want to give me your address so I can pick you up?”
“Pick me up here.”
She still didn’t trust him. He could deal with that. “Seven,” he said.
“Seven it is.”
She smiled and breathed a few deep breaths. He felt the same, still breathless. What would happen after dinner on Friday...?
Snapping out of that fantasy, he remembered Mercer’s followers. Ruby wasn’t aware of Damon’s knowledge of the danger she could be in.
“I’ll walk you to your car,” he said.
Her smile warmed, obviously touched by his show of what she perceived as chivalry.
They walked in silence with enticement charging the air. Too soon, they reached her car door. She faced him.
“Well,” she said, “until Friday.”
“Not unless I come get my coffee in the morning,” he said.
She breathed a short laugh, one full of sexual awareness.
Things would be a lot different now. Their acquaintance had gone from platonic to a wide-open road of possibilities.
“Thanks for walking me to my car.” Still smiling, she got into the driver’s seat and looked at him as she started the engine.
Damon stuffed his hands into his pockets and couldn’t subdue an answering grin, knowing it was flirtatious and revealed how good he felt because of her, because of being with her the way he had been this afternoon.
She lifted a hand in farewell, and he took his right hand out to answer. He stood there for several seconds, long after she disappeared down the street. Turmoil churned in his guts. These feelings were too strong after just one innocent date. He was undercover, and she was his primary target for gaining the upper hand on Mercer’s criminal followers. The two would surely clash into an unfavorable ending—for him and for Ruby.
Copyright © 2021 by Harlequin Books S.A.
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ISBN-13: 9780369713568
A Firefighter’s Ultimate Duty
Copyright © 2021 by Beverly R. Long
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
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