“And you know this because…?”
Oops. Lisa realized her mistake too late. She didn’t want to get on Annika’s bad side. “It’s pretty common knowledge around here. Jupiter Point’s a small town.”
“Yes, but Jill said Finn got you this job.”
“He did.” And right now, she was cursing him for that. “He’s a nice person.”
“Wait, are you boning Finn?”
Lisa didn’t answer that, but she didn’t have to. The Blush did that for her. An intense wave of heat traveled across her face like some kind of fever. She ducked her head, pretending to devote all her attention to the infected Chinese symbol on Annika’s hip.
“What does this tattoo mean?” she asked in a desperate attempt to change the subject.
“It means ‘watch your back.’”
Lisa’s head shot up. Annika laughed merrily. “You should see your face. Never play poker, Lisa Peretti. I’m just joking. I like you. And Finn—he used to be such a catch. So beautiful. Mmm, mmmm. Those scars are a crime against humanity. But they make for good publicity, so I guess it’s not all bad.”
Lisa dabbed antiseptic onto Annika’s hip, possibly a little more roughly than she ought to. “Sorry, I’ll be done in a second here.”
Annika nodded, bracing herself against the countertop. “I can’t believe Finn’s actually firefighting again. I told him, why don’t you just play a firefighter? I know the executive producer of Chicago Fire. They would have cast him in a snap.”
“There’s a big difference between being a fireman and playing one,” Lisa pointed out as she unpeeled a bandage.
“Yeah, playing one pays better.”
Lisa carefully placed the bandage over the wound and pressed the sides into place. “There you go. Let me know if you have any pain or tenderness while you’re shooting. I’ll change the bandage again before I go home.”
“Where’s home?”
The question caught Lisa by surprise. She looked at the actress blankly.
Annika smiled at her innocently “Maybe we should be friends. Finn and I go way back. I was devastated when he was caught in that fire.”
“Yes, I read about that.” She’d practically memorized that article in the tabloid she’d taken from the salon. “It was really tough on you, I’m sure. Um, I should get going. There’s a, um, possible sprained ankle I should look at. One of the grips.”
Annika waved her away, the same gesture she’d used with Jill.
Lisa hurried out of the trailer, deciding to avoid Annika at all costs.
But it wasn’t so easy. After that first introduction, Annika acted either very friendly or cold as a glacier. In private, when Lisa was changing her bandage, she was sweet and friendly. She kept asking questions about Lisa’s life. In public, she either ignored her or snapped at her. Lisa had no idea what she was up to, but “watch your back” seemed like wise words.
The most terrifying moment came when Stu Abrams visited the set. That day, the entire crew walked around on tiptoe and performed like a perfectly honed machine. Jill brought him to meet Lisa at her makeshift nurse’s station.
Even potbellied and bald as a doorknob, Stu Abrams radiated charisma. He shook Lisa’s hand warmly. “Nice of you to join our crew. It’s a treat to have a nurse with your qualifications onboard.”
“Thank you,” she answered in some confusion. Had he actually checked into her background?
“How’s that kid of mine? Still playing with matches?”
His dismissive tone rubbed her all wrong. “Finn’s at the San Dimas fire. You’ve probably seen it on the news. The fire came within half a mile of ten thousand residents. They saved an entire ranch town. You must be really proud of him.”
Stu’s eye twitched. “I must, especially if a pretty girl tells me to.”
Lisa’s spine stiffened automatically. She despised empty compliments. But before she could answer, he spoke again.
“Tell you what, since you’re a friend of Finn’s, let’s all have dinner. I’ll fly you to LA. You and Finn can stay at the beach house in Malibu. A little ‘thank you’ for patching up this motley crew here.”
“Oh, I don’t think…Finn and I aren’t…it’s not like that.” Whatever she and Finn were or weren’t, she didn’t want his father in the middle of it.
Satisfaction flashed across his bold features. He gave a booming laugh that made her jump.
“Glad to hear it. He’s meant for better things. Best you understand that now. Good to meet you, Lisa.”
Between that disturbing encounter and Annika’s confusing behavior, Lisa found working on the movie almost as stressful as her nights at the ER.
“Finn Abrams, this is on you,” she muttered out loud as she hurried across the compound. “Damn you.”
“Not exactly the greeting I fantasized about.”
Finn’s voice resonated in her ear, and at first she thought she’d imagined it. Then she turned around and there he was. Looking amazing, from the tips of his rugged work boots to the bandanna tied around his head, holding back his dark curls. With his bronzed skin and half-inch growth of stubble, he looked like a pirate. A wide grin split his face, making his white teeth flash.
He looked so good she could barely stand it. She swatted his shoulder, where his hard muscles flexed in response. “Just so you know, I’ve been waiting days to do that.”
“Oh yeah? I’ve been waiting days to do this.” He swept her into his strong arms and spun her around. Everything else—the hotshot crew, the movie crew, anything that wasn’t Finn Abrams—vanished in a rush of giddy delight.
25
Held in the wonderful embrace of Finn’s arms, tight against his hard chest, Lisa’s frustration drained away. She almost forgot what she was mad about.
Almost.
“This is the worst job ever,” she mumbled against his collarbone.
He laughed, his chest vibrating under her cheek. Her eyes closed from the sheer bliss of being with him again. “As far as I’m concerned, this is working out great. You’re safe and sound, and I get to see you the second I get out of the crew buggy.”
She pulled away and looked over his shoulder at the boxy green vehicle parked next to the hotshots’ domain. The side doors were wide open and the other hotshots were unloading gear. They were deliberately focusing their attention on their task rather than on Finn and Lisa.
“Shouldn’t you be helping them?”
“Nah, they told me to come over and say ‘hi.’ We noticed that you were talking to yourself. They got a little worried.”
“Yeah, well, that’s what a week with a movie crew has done to me. Do you know how much I miss my tower right now?”
He tugged her back into his embrace. “I’m sorry about the aggravation. But I’m not sorry about you being here. Have you had any suspicious incidents?”
She shook her head. “No, nothing. No one comes on the lot without being cleared by security, so I do feel safe here. Annoyed, but safe.”
“That’s all I ask.”
Her gaze drifted along his strong neck, to the place where black curls peeked past his collar. Being away from him had almost made her forget how attractive he was. She’d thought of him nonstop, but seeing him in person again took her breath away.
“Is the San Dimas fire out?”
“It’s contained. Our part is done. The local people can take it from here.” His smile dropped. “We have an off-site training session tomorrow, though. I don’t have much time.”
Disappointment tightened her stomach. Now that he was here, she realized how much she’d missed him. She wanted to curl up in bed with him and let entire days pass. Entire weeks, maybe. And now he was leaving again.
She didn’t let her sadness show, or at least she tried not to. But as always, Finn seemed to have a sixth sense about her feelings. “I’ll make it up to you, my queen. When can you knock off here?”
“I don’t know. It seems like they go late every single night. They’re shooting th
e big confrontation tonight. Annika gets to yell and throw a laptop across the room. She’s really looking forward to that. The rest of the crew is taking bets on how many prop laptops they have to make.”
Finn cocked his head at her. “You’re really getting the hang of this movie stuff, aren’t you?”
Oh no—she had to set him straight on that one right away. “I would rather work six back-to-back shifts at the ER than change one more bandage for Annika. She’s waiting for me right now, actually.”
He let go of her hand. “Don’t want trouble with the star.” He gave her a smoldering look from under that damn bandanna. “But later, you’re all mine.”
Her throat tightened with desire and heat pooled low in her belly. “Are you sleeping here tonight or at the guesthouse?”
“Babe, I’m sleeping wherever you’re sleeping. And honestly, I don’t plan to do much sleeping.”
She surprised him with a quick kiss on the cheek. “I’m so glad you’re back,” she whispered.
He put his hand over his heart and smiled at her with so much tenderness her knees weakened. “I’m going to make you even more glad. Swear on my life.”
She watched him walk over to rejoin his crew. Her professional eye noticed that he was favoring his injured side. “If you play your cards right, you’ll get a massage,” she called after him.
Oops. She’d said that a little too loudly.
Baker, the massive black fireman, let loose a long laugh. “Can I play too? I can kick his ass at cards.”
She laughed, then hurried away before she said anything else she might regret. Like that she intended to give Finn much, much more than a massage.
Post-fire reunions were the best.
Of the sixteen hours before Finn had to report back to the base, he and Lisa spent ten in bed, and most of those awake and in bed. Much of that time he was inside her, which was exactly where he wanted to be. The relief of finding her still alive, and still in Jupiter Point, nearly brought him to his knees. All he wanted to do was make love to her, as many times and in as many ways as possible.
He figured he could catch up on his sleep in the crew buggy the next day. Or hell, just quit the crew. Who needed firefighting when he had the hottest, wildest, most fiery woman he’d ever known snuggled into bed with him?
He loved every freewheeling, combustible moment they spent together in bed. He loved it when she straddled him and licked his nipples and worked herself against his cock. He loved flipping her over, dragging her ass into the air and burying himself deep inside her. He loved it when she got so relaxed she sprawled across the bed like a rag doll. She let his lips and hands go wherever they wanted, let him feast on her like a hungry firefighter at a breakfast buffet.
Ordinarily, he would stuff himself after a fire, trying to make up for the calorie deficit after working long days under the hot sun. This time, he resented having to take breaks for food. All he wanted to do was gorge himself on Lisa’s sweet curves.
When they were both so spent they were seeing stars, they dozed off together. Her face nestled into the crook of his shoulder, her bent knee propped on his thigh. He didn’t want to drift off because it felt so good to hold her. Unconsciousness was the last thing he wanted. But he couldn’t fight it forever, and soon he was deeply asleep.
He was awakened by her mouth doing unmentionable things to his cock. Astonishingly, after all the times they’d already made love, he got hard nearly right away. “Jesus, Lisa, I thought I was done for the night.”
“I thought I was too,” she admitted. Her warm breath heated his flesh, then her mouth slid down his shaft again. He lost himself in the pleasure, the pressure, the joy of that intimate contact. Finally, he couldn’t take anymore. He pulled away and shifted position, cupping his body around hers so he could enter her from behind. The plump cheeks of her ass nestled around him. He probed the hot channel waiting for him. It gave way before the hard thrust of his penis. He reached around her front and pressed his palm against her heated, wet nest of curls. She arched against him, and then they were both grinding out a fast, hard, primitive orgasm, like two beasts in the night.
They both collapsed, gasping. “Fuck,” he said. Emotion was bursting out of him, pushing at the walls of his heart, impossible to keep inside. “Lisa. Damn it. I have to tell you something. I know you don’t want to hear it. But I have to tell you.”
“Don’t scare me, just tell me.” She lay on her side, one arm flung across the sheets, her skin gleaming in the soft moonlight, her dark hair spilling like ink over the pillow.
“I love you.”
He held his breath. She went still at his announcement. But she wasn’t leaping out of bed, so maybe it would be okay.
“I know you see this as just sex. But it isn’t for me. Not since the first moment I saw you. I know I made a joke out of it, with all those cheesy lines. But it was real. I loved you the second you walked into that tower. I looked at you and that was it. Love. Like a…a load of slurry dropped on my head.”
“A load of what?”
At least she was speaking. “Slurry. It’s the stuff they drop onto wildfires from air tankers. Lands like concrete. Guaranteed to knock you out.”
“Finn,” she murmured into the moonlight. “What you’re describing isn’t love. It’s infatuation. You’re letting your romantic side run away with you.”
He wanted to shake her. How could she dismiss his feelings so lightly? Even if they didn’t make sense to her.
“No. I might be a romantic, but I’ve never felt anything like this. Have you?”
He held his breath again. He knew his Lisa. She didn’t lie. Her face and its tendency to blush didn’t let her.
“No, I haven’t,” she answered in a low voice. “But that doesn’t mean this can go anywhere.”
“Why not?”
“Finn. Come on. I’ve seen your world now, up close and personal. All that Hollywood craziness. I’ve met your father.”
He winced at the reminder. She’d told him about that brief, nasty encounter. “That’s not my world and you know it. My world is the crew buggy, chainsaws and slurry. Camping behind the fire lines in the back country, with the sun rising over the mountains turning everything to gold. When you were in that tower, watching for smoke? Staring at the wilderness? That’s my world. You said you loved it.”
She rolled away from him. “Okay, but that’s just part of it. I have a life waiting back in Houston. A job, if I can get it back.”
“There are jobs here. Not just on the movie,” he said quickly, anticipating her protest. “There’s just as much need for badass nurses here as in Houston.”
“Why are you trying to ruin this? You’re leaving in about an hour. Do you really want to get into a fight now?”
He rolled onto his back and stared up at the ceiling. No, he didn’t want to spend his last hour with her fighting. But this battle needed to happen. He knew what he felt. He knew it was powerful and not going anywhere. If she didn’t feel the same, he’d have to live with that.
“I love you.” He drew in a deep breath. And jumped off the cliff. “I want to marry you.”
“Marry me?” She scrambled to her knees. Dawn was creeping in around the curtains, bringing pearlescent light into the room. It made her skin glow. “What are you talking about?”
“Don’t worry, you don’t have to say ‘yes’ yet. Or ‘no.’ Technically, I haven’t asked you yet. I just said what I want.”
She stared at him. Her eyes sparkled with…something. But not a yes. “Finn, I’m…I’m not the marrying kind. I’m too cynical. I’ve seen every member of my family get married and divorced. More than once. We don’t have a good track record with romance. I just…” She shook her head, gathering the blanket around her like a cocoon. “Let’s keep things simple.”
He dragged his hand through his hair. “You’re not your family, Lisa. You’re a compassionate, committed person. We’re great together, married or not. So why not married?”
; She moved to get out of bed, but he stopped her with a hand on her thigh, her skin silky smooth.
“Maybe you should have more faith in yourself,” he said softly. “You have so much love in your heart, you care so much for people. I think you hide behind that cynicism.”
“Finn…stop this. I can’t—” She broke off, looking so distressed he could have kicked himself. He’d let his impulsive side run away with him.
“Okay, I’m stopping. At least for now. I promise I won’t ask again until I’m a hundred percent sure that’s what you want.”
She pushed the tangled sheets off her body and jumped out of bed. In the dawn light, she was so beautiful, poised for flight. He wanted to grab her hand and tug her back where she belonged. With him.
“All I ask is one thing in exchange.”
“What’s that?” She picked up a robe and slid into it. He wondered if it was the last time he’d see her naked body.
“I can tell you’re kind of freaking out. I get that. Just don’t—don’t leave without telling me.”
She gazed down at him, worrying her lower lip with her teeth. His stomach clenched. She was thinking about leaving. He could read it on her face.
He also recognized the moment when she decided it was a reasonable request. “That’s fair.” She tightened the knot on her robe. “Okay, Finn Abrams. This is your official notice that I’m leaving the bedroom and heading for the shower.”
“That’s funny. Really funny.”
She disappeared into the shower. He released a long breath.
Had he ruined everything?
26
By the grace of God and Abrams Productions, Lisa didn’t have to report to the set until late the next afternoon. Finn left in the morning to rejoin the crew. They kept his departure light, with no references to the intense conversation of the night before. The guesthouse felt empty without him. The scent of their lovemaking made her miss him so much that she threw open all the windows to air out the place.
Setting Off Sparks (Jupiter Point Book 4) Page 18
