That must have been way back in…2011 or so so it’s coming up on a decade old that this moment happened in Lee Child’s life, but boy is it just as prescient in regards to my dealings with Asher.
In regards to point one, that guy was so much bigger and stronger than me that he was able to hold me in place, take my phone, and take a picture. As much as I wanted to do something I could feel he was much stronger than me. And he was a weasely guy. A self-defense class…or ten…could have helped, but there’s still something about how I chose to, or more appropriate chose not to, express my anger.
I could have tried to knee him in his manhood, but I didn’t, but now nothing sounds better than the visual movie that’s playing in my mind right now as I watch Asher angry and beating the crap out of that weirdo who thinks he can just grab me and do things like that to me, or any woman.
In regards to point number two, I already know what someone like Kai would have said. “We should call the cops.” I know because calling the cops is always his suggestion to everything. And it’s just that…a suggestion. Never would he handle a real problem and he doesn’t ever actually call law enforcement…he just suggests it. Asher wouldn’t suggest he would react.
In regards to point number three, Asher is a post-feminist too. He stormed right into my house and treated me sternly the other night. Sure, there was a moment when we had a moment of our own, but he wasn’t there to sugar coat anything. Heck, he even threw one of my guests in the pool!
In regards to point number four, is Asher ever hot. He’s partially hot because of points one through three, but he’s also hot simply because of the primal reaction he gets out of me. I see that big, strong body of his and those muscles…and I know he’s using that body, and his brain, to help people. He’s a nurturer and a carer just like a woman, although in a very different way.
And like a lot of women, his good deeds go unnoticed or under appreciated. He’s not out there looking for medals or recognition. He does it because it’s his calling, just like so many women break their backs day in and day out for the love of their family, especially their children. And as crazy as it sounds we’re all kind of children in this big, bad world that Asher protects every waking moment.
But the last part of point number four is entirely off for me. I don’t want some safe guy to marry and love forever. As much joy that many of those men can be when I weight the pros and cons there’s no way I don’t want that risk and excitement and variety and adventure that Asher brings. No way do I want to marry one guy and then have some sort of affair with a hot firefighter that I’ve crushed on forever.
I want Asher and only Asher! I’m all in on him.
“What did he do? He took a picture?” Asher asks.
“Yeah, how did you know?”
“Good eyesight. I was watching you like a hawk. Let me see that phone,” he says and I hand him the phone.
He looks at the picture and his expression doesn’t change one single bit.
“It’s all going to burn…just like he said,” he finally mumbles.
“What’s going to burn?” I ask.
“Can I borrow this for about thirty minutes?”
“Um. Yeah. Sure. Where are you go…ing?” I say but he’s already dashing back towards his Jeep.
“You mean where are we going? Come on,” he says taking me by the hand and suddenly we’re walking quickly down the sidewalk towards his Jeep.
If adventure is what I wanted then that’s certainly what I’m going to get with him.
CHAPTER 5
Asher
I’m still fuming when the police sergeant comes by the fire station to look at the picture on her phone, but she’ll never know.
That’s not how I do things. I’m going to keep her safe and protected without upsetting her. She’s too beautiful, young and perfect to have thoughts in her head about a monster like this.
But I do have to give her some information about what’s going on. No way am I going to keep her in the dark, but I’ll work on catching this guy on my own without involving her. I don’t want her mind on this piece of trash at all.
I recognized him the minute I saw the picture.
Leif Donovan.
Her dad put this guy away three years ago and according to what I can find on Google he just got out again. The arson charge got plea-bargained down to attempted arson and he walked after three years served.
This is one of those times I hate the justice system.
And apparently he loves it just as much as I hate it because now that he’s out he’s looking for revenge on Scott, the prosecutor who had him put behind bars.
And worst of all he’s targeting the person he knows Scott holds dearest…and I do too.
Sierra.
And that means I’m not letting her out of my sight.
When Scott and Serinda take a vacation one thing they don’t take are their phones, especially on this delayed honeymoon. And that means Sierra is mine until they get back.
And if I have anything to say about it she’s going to be mine way past that.
I’m never letting anyone lay a finger on her again and now it’s my personal mission to find this guy and take him down, and I’ll happily use my own kind of justice if I have to.
We get a restraining order filed, which is the first step in the process, but since Leif doesn’t even have a registered address there’s no real way to serve it. Not that he would honor it anyways. He’s clearly out for revenge.
“Ready to go?” I ask Sierra.
“Yeah,” she says petting Split, the fire station Dalmatian. We call him Split for two reasons. One because Split is the name of the biggest city in the Dalmatia region of Croatia. And two because we always have to “split” right in the middle of things when that alarm rings and we have to go fight fires.
I reach down and pet Split and just as I bring my hand back across his back, she brings her hand up from his stomach and our two hands meet.
I feel the spark and I leave my hand in place for a minute, feeling her touch and wanting more…wanting to hold her hand for real, not just the feeling of the side of her fingers against mine.
“Don’t worry, we’ll be on the lookout,” the police sergeant says and we both snap back to the moment and continue petting man’s best friend.
I’ve always believed dogs are a man’s best friend. I’m a bit of a loner at times and although most guys my age have long since married I never thought it was for me.
What I realize now is I’d just never met the right woman, or maybe even girl.
Sierra is only twenty-one and maybe that’s part of the reason I just want to wrap her up in a big hug and protect her from everything. To let all the arrows that life’s bow shoots at you to just hit me in my big outstretched arms completely missing her. To just keep her safe and innocent.
And even though she threw a house party the other night I still don’t see her as the partying type. She seems more settled and older than her age. Maybe she hasn’t considered an older guy before, but it’s time she had a look at who that life can be with. And not just with any older guy, but with me.
There are plenty of grown boy adults, but that doesn’t make them adults.
I’m a man who’s secure in himself and I know what I want and what I want is one thing and one thing only…her.
“Where are we going?” she asks.
“There’s nothing to worry about, but I think it’s best if you come stay with me for awhile.”
“Stay with you?” she says in a flat tone. I can’t tell if she’s suppressing her shock of excitement, but it seems she’s holding something back.
“Yeah, at least until your parents get back and then we can take it from there.”
She looks at me processing my words which have given my true intentions away and have led to this moment of truth.
I want her so damn bad that it’s causing me to move too fast, and I don’t want to shock her. I know I’ve got one shot at this and I don�
�t want to blow it.
But I also want her to know how serious I am about her safety, and I can show her how serious I am about her once we’re under the same roof.
“Is that…necessary?” she asks.
“It’s the smartest decision right now.”
“You say decision, but it feels like you’re not leaving me much of a choice.”
“Do you want a choice?”
She says nothing, her gaze just locking in even deeper. I feel the tension as my muscles tighten, but I also feel the excitement in the pit of my stomach if she agrees.
Even if she doesn’t I’m going to have to do something about it. I’ll have to request time off or something to stay parked outside her house, but I know it’s not going to come to that.
“I…I just don’t want to intrude, that’s all.”
“You’re not intruding. Your dad is my best friend and you’re his daughter,” I say and boy does it ever sound strange when I actually vocalize it. “My house is his house.”
“But what about when you’re at work?”
“Then my house will really be your house,” I say. “Just promise you won’t throw any of those raging parties,” I tease.
She smiles. “Okay then. I guess it should be okay.”
“It’s going to be more than okay. You’ll see.”
I want to grab her and carry her to my Jeep and take her home right now, but I fight the urge and let her walk out on her own two feet.
When we reach the car I open the door for her and help her up and in.
“I’ve never been in your Jeep before.”
“Do you like it?”
“Yeah, it’s very…manly. And it was very gentlemanly of you to help me in.”
If only she knew the thoughts that were running through my mind right now and how they are anything but gentlemanly.
CHAPTER 6
Sierra
When I walk into his house my first thought is this place is very masculine, and it could sure use a woman’s touch to kind of even out the whole yin and yang of it.
“Can I get you a coffee?” he asks.
“I can make them. I know how to make a good one. Plus you must be tired from battling those fires.”
“You’re my guest. Just put your feet up and make yourself at home.”
“Are you sure?”
“I insist.”
I take a seat on his couch and immediately sink into its softness. Wow, this is nicer than most guy’s couches. Every guy I know my age has a black pleather couch that I’m pretty sure has never been cleaned in its existence.
“This is really comfy,” I say.
“It was hard when I first go it. I pass out on it watching movies most of the time…when things aren’t as hectic as they are right now.”
I can imagine his big, muscular body breaking in this couch and it’s a shame there’s never been anyone else here to help him break it in in another way.
“Creamer and sugar?”
“Both,” I say. “Thanks.”
He carries the coffees into the living room and carefully hands me mine, but still our hands manage to touch. It’s the second time in about half an hour and that void that was there since the moment our hands came apart when we were petting Split is finally filled.
Only to be opened again like a sucking wound, like a piece of me is missing. A piece of me that only he can complete.
“Should I go by my house and get some things?” I ask.
“We can do that later…after we finish our coffee.”
“Okay,” I bring the warm drink up to my lips and take a tiny sip. I pause after and I can’t not ask him what’s on my mind.
“Should I be concerned about that guy?”
“No,” he says quickly and confidently.
“Why is that?”
“Because I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”
“So he is a threat?”
“No, because you’re going to stay by my side.”
“Mr. Adams—“
“Call me Asher. Please.”
“Okay…Asher,” I say realizing how unique his name is and how it fits with his profession. Interesting. “I can’t be by your side all the time.”
“Why not?”
“Well, you have to fight fires for one. These things are blazing out of control.”
“Nearly a million acres have already been destroyed and we’re just starting to slow them down.”
“Right. The state needs you.”
“And you need me right now.”
“My parent’s will be back soon and what then?”
“Nothing changes.”
“Nothing changes? So I’m going to ‘be by your side’ when they get back?”
“Yes,” he says still yet to take a drink or to take his eyes off of me, not to mention reduce the intensity and voracity with which he answers each and every question I can throw at him.
“So you’re saying I’m going to stay here now?” I laugh slightly at the thought of it.
One because it sounds absurd and two because this is my all time crush. The guy I’ve been saving myself for and my dad’s best friend. And I don’t get the guy. That’s Francesca’s m.o…never mine.
“I can’t make you do anything, but dammit if I don’t want you to stay here forever.”
“What?”
“Sierra,” he begins leaning forward in his seat that sits perpendicular to the couch, bringing his big body that much closer to mine. “I’m thirty-nine years old. I know what I want and I don’t play games. And I’ve always been that way. There aren’t many things I want in this world, but when I see something I do want, on those very rare occurrences, I go for it.”
He pauses.
“Occurrences such as?”
He doesn’t immediately answer and I can see he’s thinking his next words out very carefully.
“There have only been two. One, the day I knew when I wanted to be a fireman. Thirty-one years ago when I was eight years old.” He pauses and just continues staring at me, his eyes locked on mine and I can feel my pulse quickening. I feel like I know where this is going, but I literally can’t believe it. I can’t even believe I’m here right now. In all these years I’ve never been in his home and here I am right now, alone with him in his living room.
“And two,” I say softly.
“When I saw you at your home two nights ago. I could see you’d changed. You’d grown up. You were different. You weren’t the little girl I’d known all those years. The kid who I’d see playing at my buddy’s house on the rare occurrences I was over there. You weren’t the little girl he mentioned he was so proud of when we did things together. You’re a woman now. And not just any woman. My woman,” he says and I feel the goose bumps go up and down my arm and a second later they cover my entire body.
He leans forward from his chair and takes the single step needed to be right in front of me. He runs the rough pad of his thumb over my cheek and pushes a locket of my hair back behind my ear. His hand stays on the side of my head, his fingers interwoven in my hair as I feel the heat from his fingers along my scalp.
And I feel another kind of heat between my legs and against my face when he leans in so close I can feel the warmth from his skin.
The entire time he’s never taken his focus from me, his eyes fixated on mine. As hot as I am it’s like I’m frozen in place, completely his for the taking.
And that’s exactly what I want…him to take me.
“You can’t even imagine the things that are on my mind right now,” he says.
“Show me,” I say and immediately his lips come crashing down onto mine.
CHAPTER 7
Sierra
“We better go get my things,” I say. “Before this gets out of control.”
“It’s already out of control. You can’t imagine how out of control my thoughts already are.”
“I can, because mine are the same. I never told anyone this, but I’ve always wanted you
. I rarely saw you, but when I did it was like Christmas and the Fourth of July all wrapped in one. The fireworks that would go off inside me when I got my ‘gift’…a glimpse of you.”
Possessive Firefighter: An Older Man Younger Woman Romance (A Man Who Knows What He Wants Book 69) Page 3
