by Lori Foster
He smiled down at her, giving her a sense of déjà vu, but with her in the wrong position. In the park, she’d done this to him—led him on, then walked away.
He tipped his head toward her.
“Thank you.”
A smile warmed his expression. “For waiting?
“And for understanding. I…I guess I’m not a hundred percent sure what I want yet.”
“Between us?”
“Yes.” She bit her lip. “I don’t think you are either.”
“Now there’s where you’re wrong. I know what I want—and I know I’ll get it. That’s the only reason I can be so patient now.”
Clair blinked hard. Had she finally made some serious progress?
“Good night, Clair,” Harris said, and his expression was warm, intimate. “Sweet dreams.”
CHAPTER FOUR
EVEN WHILE HE HOVERED next to Dane, waiting to see the results from the information he’d supplied, Harris kept listening for Clair to get to work. He was curious about the mystery woman still, no two ways about that. When he’d seen a dark-haired woman flirting with him, all his senses had gone on alert. He’d made note of her license plates, and now he waited to see if she could be the one. He hoped so. The suspense was killing him.
But even while he waited in tense silence, more than half his attention was on the door, anticipating Clair’s arrival. The way that girl kissed…Hell, she was so hot, he probably should stay in uniform when with her. He needed the fireproof protection.
She was the same Clair he enjoyed so much, but she acted different with him now. He liked the changes, the feminine layers to her personality. The teasing. Like refined foreplay, Clair’s advance and retreat kept his excitement very close to the surface, ready to explode with little provocation.
“Her name is Melody Miles.” Dane, with his hand over the receiver of the phone, glanced up at Harris. “Miss Melody Miles—so she’s single.”
Somehow, that didn’t thrill Harris as much as he’d thought it might.
“Alec says up close, she doesn’t look the same to him.”
“None of the photos show her face.”
“He didn’t mention her face.” Dane shrugged. “He was talking about her body. She’s a little heavier than she seemed in the snapshots, but that could be due to a time difference between when the pictures were taken and now.”
The door opened and Clair strolled in. She was smiling—until she saw Harris. Then she snapped to a standstill; her back slowly straightened.
Harris barely heard Dane still talking. Today Clair wore narrow, rectangular glasses that added an air of supreme intelligence to her appearance. Her dark glossy hair was a little windblown, proving she’d ridden to work with her car window down. Beneath the short hem of a navy-blue jumper, her long legs were bare. White sandals matched her white T-shirt. She looked adorable.
He was so glad to see her again. “Clair.”
Her mouth flattened. “What are you doing here, Harris?”
Dane hung up and stepped out from behind her desk. “He thought he might have found the mystery lady.”
Clair crossed her arms and thrust out a hip in an arrogant pose. “Do tell.”
Clearing his throat, very unsure of her mood, Harris said, “Yeah, well. She was flirting with me at this coffee shop where I stopped this morning. I realized I stop there a lot, and that could be the connection. You know, where she knew me from and everything.”
“Have you ever met her?”
“No.” Clair sounded so…accusatory. “But she could have heard my name from someone. I’ve been in there with the guys a few times too. Occasionally in uniform, so she’d know I was a firefighter.”
“Assuming she hangs out there as well.”
“Yeah. Assuming that.” Harris wished Dane would offer a little help. He’d acted enthusiastic about the possibility of the woman being “the one,” yet now he just stood there and grinned, enjoying Harris’s plight.
“Ever notice her before?” Clair asked.
Feeling harassed, Harris said, “No. But that doesn’t mean she hasn’t noticed me.”
“Obviously she has if she’s flirting with you.” Her eyes narrowed in thought. “Did you ask her if she’s the one?”
“No, of course not.” Sheepishly, Harris admitted, “I followed her so I could get her license plate number.”
“Oh gawd.” Clair flounced the rest of the way into the room and dropped her purse on the desk. “A stalker, that’s what you’ve become.”
Dane laughed. “No one saw him, Clair, and the plates paid off.” Then he turned to Harris. “But as I said, Alec doesn’t think it’s her.”
At the moment, with Clair glaring at him, Harris didn’t really care. “All right.”
Though he hadn’t asked, Dane explained. “Body shape isn’t the same.” He pulled out the larger photos they’d created. He put the one of the woman’s derriere on top of the stack.
Clair made a choking sound, but when Harris glanced at her, she didn’t seem to be paying them any mind. In fact, she was busily arranging and rearranging things on her desk.
“Your woman—”
“His woman?” Clair repeated with mocking disbelief, her desk and its clutter forgotten.
“—has a heart-shaped behind.” Dane shrugged. “The woman you saw in the coffee shop is rounder. Or so Alec tells me.”
“Then it must not be her,” Harris agreed.
“He’s not positive,” Dane said, “so he’s going to check her out a little more. But he said not to get your hopes up.”
Clair started laughing. Loudly. When Harris frowned at her, she put her face on the desk and covered her head with her arms. She roared with hilarity until her shoulders were shaking.
“What,” he demanded over the awful noise she made, “is so damn funny?”
Gasping, wheezing with her humor, Clair straightened. She had tears of mirth rolling down her cheeks. “You three,” she gasped, apparently including Alec, though he wasn’t present. “Tracking a woman by…the shape of…her ass.” She burst out laughing again.
Dane cocked a brow. “I guess it does sound funny. Not that we have much else to go on.” And then louder, to make his point to Clair, he said, “Since somebody hasn’t found us the address of the previous owner yet.”
Her amusement dried up real quick. “Oh.” Her frown was fierce. “I’m working on that.”
“Work harder,” Dane suggested. “Or better yet, I can do it.”
“No! I mean, I’ve got it covered. I’ll have something for you in a few hours.” Disgruntled, she seemed to sink in her chair. “Will that be good enough?”
“That’d be great.” Dane picked up a file and headed for the door. “I’ll be staking out the Westbrook Motel today if anyone needs me.”
“A stakeout?” Dane and Alec handled a lot of mundane, annoying cases—like cheating spouses and stolen lawn ornaments. But they also got involved in some really cool situations that Harris loved hearing about.
“Yeah. The owners of a small motel suspect one of their employees of spying on guests in the pool changing rooms. I’m going to hang out back in the bushes and catch him in the act, then we can call in the cops.” Dane winked. “You kids be good. I’ll see ya later.”
Finally. The second Dane was out the door, Harris headed for Clair. Anticipation hummed inside him. He couldn’t wait to taste her again.
As he advanced, her eyes widened and she hastily pushed her chair back, but Harris didn’t give her time to retreat. He braced his hands on the arms of her chair, caging her in, and leaned down to take her mouth. She made a small sound of surprise—and then the sound got muffled.
Oh hell yeah, he’d missed her mouth.
Clair stayed stiff for about three seconds, then melted with a small moan. He liked that. He liked her. Maybe a lot more than he’d ever realized. When her lips parted, Harris accepted the invitation and slipped his tongue in for a deep, hot, wet kiss that lasted just long enough to get him semihard.
>
“I missed you,” he growled against her mouth.
Speaking must have broken the spell, because she blinked and shoved him back. She was breathing fast and her lips were slightly swollen and very pink. She readjusted her crooked glasses, then scowled. “Yeah right. You missed me so much that you’re following strange women around, desperate to meet your secret admirer.”
“Not desperate.” Harris wasn’t all that steady on his feet at the moment. The idea of laying her out on the desk, pushing up her sensible jumper and indulging in a little office sex tempted him. But she didn’t look too receptive to that idea. “Just curious. If some guy was in love with you, wouldn’t you be curious?”
A myriad of expressions—anger, frustration, hopelessness—crossed her face before she sighed and flopped back in her seat. “Maybe.” Her chin lifted. “But not if I was interested in someone else.”
Harris propped his hip on the desk. He needed the support. “I’m more than interested, Clair.”
Eyes flaring, she caught her bottom lip in her teeth. “Really?”
Was she in love with him? As to that, was he in love with her? Harris had always figured that when he fell in love, the realization would hit him over the head. He wouldn’t have to wonder about it, he’d just know. But Clair was so different, he couldn’t figure her out. And that meant he couldn’t really figure himself out either.
Choosing his words carefully, Harris hoped to talk her around to his way of thinking, without looking too pushy or, God forbid, desperate. “I like being with you, Clair. Even before all this sexual teasing started between us.” That brought another thought, and he asked, “You won’t go changing on me if we get involved, will you?”
Clair was as still as a statue. “What do you mean?”
“You tell me what you think and what you feel. But you don’t get hung up on little stuff. You’re always honest with me.”
She’d closed her eyes and Harris wasn’t sure if she was listening. “Clair?”
Leaving her chair to pace, she said, “We’re already involved. We just haven’t slept together. If you like me how I am now, well, I can’t see why sex should change anything.”
“Sex changes some stuff.”
She turned to face him, one brow raised in an attitude of skepticism. “How?”
How? Harris shook his head and rethought his words. “I should say that sex between us will change things. If you were a different woman—”
“Your secret admirer?”
“Don’t sneer, Clair.” He liked her show of jealousy. It sort of tickled him, because he’d never thought of Clair as a jealous woman. “All I’m saying is that with another woman, I might not care. But if we do this, I’ll expect some rights.”
She crossed her arms over her chest. “What rights?”
Somehow, this was backward, Harris thought, almost laughing at himself. Here he was, a man who avoided commitments, now trying to pin her down. But what had seemed so appealing just days before, now felt too open-ended. Clair never pressured him, never wanted to know where he was or when he’d be back or if he’d call. He was a firefighter, yet, to his knowledge, she never worried. And that had been cool—till now.
If she cared, shouldn’t she show a little concern every now and then? Shouldn’t she want to know if he was with another woman? Damn right, because if she didn’t demand that special consideration, how could he demand it of her? And he wanted to. All this talk about her past boyfriend had him feeling his own dose of jealousy. He didn’t want her with anyone else.
Harris pushed away from the desk. “I won’t want you to ever jog at night without me.” He warmed to his topic, moving closer to her. “Hell, I don’t want you to do that now. If I can’t make it, you’ll skip it.”
Her mouth fell open, then snapped shut and she declared with feeling, “I will not.”
“Now Clair.” He closed the space between them, forcing her to back up. “It’s dangerous.”
“You never cared before.”
He was a dumb ass before. “We didn’t have that kind of relationship. Now we will.”
“Ha. What if you find your mystery lady? Then I’ll be put on hold. So until you resolve your feelings for her, I’ll just continue to do as I damn well please.”
Harris loomed over her. The thought of her alone at night infuriated him. “Then I guess I’ll just have to make sure I jog every damn night until we’ve got this settled.”
Her back touched the wall and stopped her retreat. “You do anyway,” she grumbled. And then, a little defeated, she added, “Besides, I don’t enjoy jogging without you. Odds are, if you couldn’t go, I’d skip it too.”
Harris cupped her face. Logical, honest Clair. “Thank you.” He kissed her again, but kept it light because he was running late. “I’ll be over tonight as soon as I get off work.”
“Why?” Thanks to the kiss, her eyes looked soft behind her glasses. “We don’t run until it’s dark.”
“We’ve got a lot to talk about. Me, you, sex.” He grinned at her. “We’ll hash it all out, because I don’t think I can wait too much longer.”
He started to turn away, and she said, “Harris?”
“Yeah?”
“I don’t want to wait either.”
Oh hell. A statement like that guaranteed he’d be semihard for most of the day. Not a comfortable circumstance while working with a group of men who lived to harass each other. And no doubt Ethan would be the worst, but then Ethan still prodded him about the shoebox. If he found out how much Harris cared about Clair, there’d never be an end to it. Without another word, Harris made his escape.
But just as he’d suspected, Clair stayed on his mind, distracting him, filling his thoughts and making him edgy. That is, until a truck driver swerved off the road, striking a gas line and sparking an apartment fire on the north side of the town.
The collision smashed a natural gas manifold, and intense, gas-fed flames shot up into the building’s roof, turning the four-unit apartment into a gigantic blaze. Harris temporarily plugged the gas lines so the fire was no longer fed, but flames were already licking a large portion of the building. Harris’s unit was forced to fight the flames on two fronts, one group using a fog stream to keep the fire contained in the rear, while Harris and several other men engaged in fire attack and an internal overhaul.
Not long after that, gas workers arrived to shut off underground pipes, diminishing the danger. It was still another two hours before the fire was completely out and only smoke remained. Cleanup would take awhile, but thank God, other than a few minor injuries, no one was seriously hurt. The renters, including several small children, all made it out safely. One older woman suffered smoke inhalation, but she’d be okay. A young man had some minor burns and the paramedics were already working on him.
Harris was exhausted, dirty, and reeking of smoke. Muscles in his neck and shoulders cramped. His eyes burned. He shoved aside a pile of embers, making sure they were cold before moving on. Ethan stepped up beside him. He looked as bad as Harris felt, but he was smiling.
Harris said, “There has to be about fifty-thou worth of damage. Three of those apartments are no longer habitable, and a bunch of people are going to be hunting for a place to stay.” He pulled off his helmet to swipe black soot from his face. “So why the grin?”
Ethan followed suit, removing his helmet and running one gloved hand through his sweat-soaked hair. “Rosie.”
“What about her?”
“Whenever there’s a fire, she dotes on me.” Ethan elbowed him. “And I don’t mean she brings me chicken soup, either.”
Reminded of the love between Rosie and Ethan, Harris felt a little melancholy. He forced a smile. “I might be too young to hear this.”
“You’re definitely too young for details. Let’s just say that I’m sorry for the damage, I hate it that people will be displaced, but I’m anxious to get home to my loving wife.” Ethan winked, replaced his helmet, and sauntered away.
Har
ris grumbled to himself. It’d be nice to have a loving woman waiting for him…whoa. He stopped in his tracks, his gaze unseeing. A woman waiting? The same women, every day? That sounded a lot like…marriage. Was he ready for that? He knew he wanted Clair, definitely more than he’d ever wanted any other woman. And it wasn’t just sexual.
Hell, he’d given up sex with other women, but not once had he considered giving up jogging with her. He felt more alive when he was around her.
As he worked, removing the burned remains of an old lawn chair, tearing down the precariously hanging door on one unit, Harris considered all the different things he felt for Clair. He wanted to be with her, damn near all the time. He never tired of her company. Clair seemed to read his moods, sitting quietly with him when that was what he wanted, or teasing him when he felt like clowning around. Her company never felt intrusive. Being with her just felt…good.
He knew her moods, too. But maybe that was because Clair didn’t play games like most women did. If he said something that pissed her off, she told him so. Other than the sexual teasing of late, which he knew they both enjoyed, she was open and honest.
For sure, she didn’t like his attention veering to the mystery woman. Harris didn’t really like it either. Not anymore. Who needed a woman who left secretive notes and naked pictures rather than confronting him face-to-face? He’d much rather concentrate on Clair and all the new ways she bedeviled his libido and his dreams.
His mind made up, Harris decided that he’d thank Dane and Alec for their help, pay them what he owed them, and pull them off the case. Tomorrow.
Because tonight, he wanted Clair.
He shook off his distraction and got to work. The sooner they had the site cleared, the sooner his shift would end. And the sooner he could see Clair.
CLAIR HEARD about the fire on the news and she was so worried, she couldn’t stop pacing. Loving a firefighter had never been easy, but now, as Harris had claimed, things were different. She didn’t have to hide her feelings behind friendly camaraderie.
The second she saw Harris’s car pull up, she grabbed her keys and dashed out the door. She didn’t think about her shoes, or Harris’s reaction, she only thought about reaching him, making sure he’d escaped once again without harm.
