Sam hadn’t been expecting it. There weren’t many eyes on them – but just the same, Brooke pressing her lips against his had been entirely unexpected.
But it had been wholly and completely amazing. There had been something building for months now – and the awkwardness from the week past may have dampened it, but it certainly hadn’t extinguished it. There was something about Brooke that drove him wild.
It’s the way she looks at you. Not just me – there’s a kindness there, a warmth in each smile, that I’ve never seen before.
Sam had never met anyone in his life that was just such a good person – and even just thinking that made him feel completely absurd, yet it was utterly and undeniably true.
When Brooke smiled, everything else melted away – his schoolwork troubles, his little apartment, even the Forest itself. He had the suspicion that the rest of the men felt the same way as he did about Brooke, though he couldn’t prove it.
They stood there for a few moments after the kiss had ended, neither saying a word. Sam could feel Brooke’s lips on his still, burning in such a wonderful way, and he could even taste the drink of punch she’d had before the dance.
“Nothing,” Brooke said. Sam could feel his heart pounding in his chest. “I didn’t feel anything.”
“You’re lying,” Sam said. “I felt something. And I’m not going to deny it just because –”
“Because of what?” Brooke said.
“Because you’re embarrassed! Because you’re the teacher and I’m the student!”
Brooke opened her mouth to shoot back some kind of retort but snapped it closed. Sam opened his mouth to say something but noticed there were a couple of men standing behind him.
“Are we interrupting something, Sam?” the taller of the men asked.
“No, sir,” Sam asked, sparing one last look at Brooke, who was excusing herself and disappearing through the crowd.
The taller of the men was Richard Jefferson and the slightly shorter one was Charles Heath – and their golden eyes bored into Sam, seeing how he was reacting to their presence.
Sam spared one last look for Brooke but she was nowhere to be found. Feeling massive hands clasp him on the back and turn him, Sam let himself be guided around by the two men.
These men are everything that’s wrong with the Forest.
Sharp had introduced them earlier in the evening. Jefferson and Heath, for all intents and purposes, ran the Forest. They provided all of the funding to not just the Forest, but the other Shifter only fire departments, as well. Sam didn’t know how long they’d truly wanted to get their hands into the Forest, but now with Rawls injured and out of the picture, they would be able to do anything they wanted.
Looking up at the men as they introduced him to other high ranking city officials, Sam wondered what went wrong. From Sharp’s introduction, they’d both been members of fire department in their youths. And now, they were rich and did whatever it was they wanted.
And they want me to do their bidding. They want me to sit back, give up my life dream, for what? To make them more money?
The idea of it made him sick to his stomach.
He found himself sitting down to dinner at one of the many round tables with Jefferson, Heath, Sharp and his wife, and one other older woman whose name went in one ear and out the other. The only thing he remembered about her was she was some kind of New York politician, she was very glad he was going to help propel the Forest forward – she let him know by gently caressing his hand – and she was very rich.
As soon as he had finished his meal and he had waited long enough to politely excuse himself, Sam got up and told the table he had to use the restroom. Mrs. Sharp pointed him in the right direction and with his thanks, Sam left the massive room.
Outside of the room, the sound of voices, clinking plates, and eating faded away behind him. Sam had spent the entire dinner looking for Brooke but she was nowhere to be found.
Now, he was just glad to be away from Jefferson, Heath, and the rest of those people. He hadn’t joined the Forest to become rich and he certainly hadn’t joined to be some kind of symbol for them.
Sam found the bathroom, though he hadn’t truly needed to go, and kept walking past it. He was just happy to be out of the company of those in the room. He didn’t see a soul as he walked down the hallway, so he just kept going. There was a nice library that he passed but didn’t go into.
A richly carpeted staircase led up to the top floor. Sam knew he shouldn’t – but he didn’t want to go back into the dinner until it was over and he wouldn’t have to sit with what amounted to his bosses, so he walked up the staircase.
Up top, the landing split to the left and to the right. Shrugging, he went left, reasoning that if anyone caught him – and he reasoned that unlikely, since everyone was still downstairs – he would just say he was looking for the bathroom, because he knew that in a place this big, there had to be a bathroom upstairs.
He had just reached the end of the hallway to find a door cracked open. As he turned around to head back the other way, deciding that he’d pushed his absence and luck long enough – he heard a scream come from the room.
Sam didn’t know what it was – some kind of instinct, drilled into him from either childhood or his training – sent him rushing into the room immediately.
He found himself in a bedroom that was unlike anything else he’d seen in Sharp’s mansion. Where other rooms had expensive looking paintings lining the walls, this room had – posters of boy bands?
But that thought vanished as he saw the woman lying on the floor, struggling and trashing about, yelling. He didn’t know what was happening. At first, he thought that she was being attacked, but after another moment he realized she was completely alone in the room.
As he neared the woman, he realized something else.
“Brooke?” he asked. “Are you okay?”
She screamed again, this time much louder than before. Her eyes went wide and Sam yelled in alarm and he looked down and saw that she was no longer wearing the beautiful red dress she’d had on before – it was wrapped around her ankles and she was wearing only a bra and underwear.
“Shut the door!” she screamed. Sam froze, suddenly unsure – and she yelled for him to shut the door again. He rushed up and ran to the door, slamming it shut. “I meant with you outside of my room!”
“Your room?” Sam asked, more confused than ever. In the time it had taken him to close the door, Brooke had managed to make it across the room and pull some blankets down onto the floor and cover herself up.
“What are you doing? Pervert!” Brooke yelled, grabbing a pillow and throwing it at Sam. It hit him squarely in the face. “Sneaking around, trying to catch me changing!”
“I heard a scream,” Sam said weakly.
“I fell over while taking off my dress! Wearing these damn heels!” she yelled, taking them off and throwing them at Sam. One hit the wall directly next to him; he had to step out of the way of the other. “And then you show up while I’m half naked!”
“I heard a scream!” Sam yelled back, finally realizing he could defend himself. “What was I supposed to think?”
“You could have knocked!”
“I didn’t think! I just acted! Like I’ve been trained to do! Like your class told me to do!”
Brooke narrowed her eyes at him. He glared at her. They stared at each other, anger radiating between them – but it slowly dissipated, and then Brooke laughed.
“You’re still a pervert,” she said with a grin.
“And you should learn to lock the door,” Sam shot back – but it was lighthearted. Brooke had climbed up onto the edge of the bed, the blanket wrapped tightly around her. She motioned for Sam to sit down next to him.
“You’re not going to attack me again?” She shook her head and Sam found himself sitting on the edge of the bed, looking up around the room. “So Sharp is your father.”
Sam’s mind was spinning out of control. It wasn’t j
ust learning that – after all, Brooke didn’t try to deny it, so he knew he was right – but it was what he’d just walked in on. He’d seen Brooke…
Almost naked…
He mentally shook himself to clear his mind.
“Yes, he is.”
“I’m sorry what I said about him. About him being a suit…”
She shrugged. “You’re not wrong. But it’s not completely his fault.”
“I figured that. And downstairs at dinner with his bosses confirmed that.”
“So what are you doing upstairs, pervert?”
“I told you, I heard a scream.”
“So you were having dinner with my parents and suddenly – you heard a scream. You made it up the stairs and to my room before I could even hit the ground. I meant what were you doing upstairs?”
It was Sam’s turn to shrug.
“I wanted to get away. Seemed like a good enough place as any to go. I didn’t see you down there. It was horrible.”
“Trust me,” Brooke said. “I’ve been to enough of my parent’s dinners to know. Why do you think I’m up here? Now, I’m going to get out of this dress and into something a little bit more comfortable, so I’m going to need you to turn around.”
Sam turned on the corner of the bed and waited as Brooke changed. Finally, she gave the okay and he turned back to find her in a loose t-shirt and sweatpants.
“You can stay up here for as long as you want,” she told him, climbing back into bed and under the blanket. “But don’t get any ideas. You’re still a pervert and there’s nothing between us.”
Sam smiled and climbed up next to her, waiting for the dinner to end and his chance to leave the dinner.
Though if he were honest, he didn’t want to leave at all.
The weekend drug on and on, but eventually, it ended and the week came. Most people dreaded Monday, and usually, Brooke was among them. But she couldn’t bring herself to feel disappointed about the start of the work week. It meant she got to see Sam again.
She still didn’t know what to think about what had happened at the dinner party. They had kissed once more as he left her room late that night. He’d stayed until nearly 2 in the morning, almost two hours after the last guests had left.
She’d felt a little bit naughty at having a boy over so late – but Sam was no boy, and she was no longer a young girl. They were both adults with careers, and those careers could easily be derailed by what they were doing.
It felt wrong, yet it felt so right. She didn’t know how else to describe it. Sam was a wonderful man – she knew his life wasn’t easy, yet somehow he managed to treat her, and everyone else in the class, with respect. He was a good man, even if he was in a bad position. Most other men, Shifter or not, would have cracked under the pressure that he was in.
She had tried to deny it, of course. She had tried to deny all of the feelings she had for him, feelings she still didn’t completely understand. But after the dinner, she knew she couldn’t deny them any longer.
But they can’t develop further. Not now.
They’d watched TV, though they hardly paid any attention. Things had been awkward – they’d made small talk, learning a bit about each other, and she’d probably lightheartedly called him a pervert over 20 times.
Sitting at her desk, Brooke blushed just thinking about how he’d walked in on her laying on the floor half naked. Laying on the floor fighting her dress had been embarrassing enough, laying there naked had been even worse, but somehow, Sam didn’t make her feel too self-conscious about it.
She kept nervously glancing at the clock, waiting for the men to show up. She was ready to teach, of course, but there was no denying that she was secretly looking forward to seeing Sam again – even if she kept telling herself that it had to end.
And finally, she heard the men making their way down the hallway. The first in was John Forbes, who was something of a friend to Sam. The man looked unapproachable and angry all of the time, but Brooke knew that he was one of the nicest men in the class. Bush came in next, followed by Smith – and the look he gave Brooke was pure venom. For a split second, she felt her breath catch in her throat, unsure of what she’d done to wrong the man.
But then Sam walked in and took her breath away. He gave her his most sly smile, which truth be told, wasn’t that sly. She smiled back in return, hoping that none of the other men knew that there was something there.
There was no reason for them to – but somehow, she felt like she was trying to keep an impossible secret. But she did her best to ignore Sam, or at least treat him exactly how she had been treating him before, which was, if she was honest, possibly a little bit better than the other men.
Class seemed somehow to simultaneously drag on and fly by. The times that her eyes met Sam’s had caused her heart to flutter. When he spoke up and answered a question, it seemed like there was something else in his answers, some little secret, that only she could hear.
But when he wasn’t talking, or was studying the text, all she could think about was Sam. She wanted to look at him but had to force herself not to stare. Even looking at him became a taboo moment, like she was doing something she wasn’t supposed to be doing.
She hadn’t felt like this in – forever?
Brooke finally finished her day’s lesson plan – another in depth analysis of the chemical properties of different combustibles that she was sure a certain Shifter had paid hardly any attention to – and the men stood up to leave the room. She caught enough grumblings from them to know that her father and his new Sergeant, Crichton, had some rigorous test planned for the men for the rest of the day.
Smith spared her another nasty glance but left the room. She turned to find that Sam was taking his sweet time, gathering up his notebook and pen.
Much longer than he needs to.
“Can I help you with something, Sam?”
He turned towards her and smiled, and her heart simultaneously broke and warmed at the same time.
How can I do this? How can I say this?
“This has got to stop, Sam,” she hissed, stepping closer to him. She lowered her voice and glanced towards the entrance to the classroom. They were still alone but she knew eventually, the men would notice Sam’s absence. She hoped they didn’t think anything of it.
“Why? We’re doing nothing wrong.”
“It’s against the rules! I’m your teacher!”
“Is that something your father is making you do?” he shot out. She shot him her own glare. “Sorry,” he said. “That was uncalled for.”
“But fair,” she conceded. “But no. He’s not making me do anything. It’s for your own good.”
“I know what’s for my own good.”
“Tell me about the example of the plastic factory fire that happened in 2004,” she said with a raised eyebrow. She waited patiently for him to answer – but he had nothing to say. “Exactly. That’s what I thought. You hardly paid any attention to the lesson plan. You were too focused thinking about – something – and your classwork is going to suffer because of it. I won’t be a part to that.”
“I know what’s for my own good,” he repeated.
“Then it’s for my good!” she told him, exasperated. “I can’t be getting involved with you while I need to focus on my job! I can’t lose another one!”
“You lost your job?” he asked, taking her off guard. He suddenly seemed so concerned that the guilt threatened to overwhelm her.
“That’s none of your business, Sam Carver!”
“I’m… I’m sorry,” he said, unsure of what to say.
“You’d better get going. The men are going to be wondering where you are. My father is going to be wondering where you are, and that’s definitely something you don’t want to deal with. He likes you – but his bosses won’t have a problem replacing you if they think there’s someone else that can take your spot.”
“I know,” Sam said. He looked thoughtful, concerned, scared, and elated all at once. She
didn’t know how he could have such a storm of emotions roiling through him. Somehow, she could pick out each and every one.
“Sam…” she began, suddenly concerned. “What are you thinking about?”
“I want you to tutor me. To make sure that I pass the class with flying colors.”
She opened her mouth to tell him that no, she would not tutor him because the only reason he wanted her to tutor him was so that they could spend more time together, but a voice at the doorway said, “I think that would be a wonderful idea, Carver.”
Brooke whirled around to find her father standing in the doorway. Brooke took a step away from Sam, realizing just how close they had come together in the lonely classroom.
Much, much too close. Did my father notice?
“Don’t you, Miss Slater?”
“You can drop the act, Dad. Sam knows all about it.”
For the briefest of moments he seemed surprised but then smiled widely, “How’d you figure it out, son? I knew you were clever, but I thought we covered our tracks pretty well.”
Sam’s eyes glanced to hers and she gave him a look that said do not say anything about you coming up to my room.
“I knew when we went over and talked to your wife and Brooke – Miss Slater – at your dinner.”
“I should have known,” he chuckled. “We should get you down to the training grounds, though. I have a special treat lined up for you and the rest of the recruits. It’s sure to test your physical and mental fortitude.”
Brooke imagined Sam almost grimacing at that. Wasn’t that every test they’d done so far?
“Absolutely, sir,” Sam said. He nodded at Brooke and left the room, followed closely by her father, who was saying, “Make sure you don’t tell any of the other men, Carver.”
Her father stopped in the doorway and looked back at her. “I think you should take an interest in Carver.”
If only you knew the half of it, Dad, she thought.
“He’s one of the best men we have this year. I’d hate to see him fail out because of one little mistake, and he’s much too proud and headstrong to let us slip this under the table,” he said, and the way he said it made Brooke feel a little sick to her stomach.
Bear Heat: BBW Fireman Bear Shifter Romance (Firefighter Bears Book 1) Page 11
