Slow Burn (Forbidden Heat Book 3)

by Bella Winters

  As I drove, I tried not to think too much about Shelly. The night we’d shared was phenomenal. I’d never experienced sex like that before. Every single fiber of my being had been on fire with lust and orgasmic pleasure. I was surprised I could walk at all after that. And I desperately wanted to make love to Shelly again, and again…

  She was a strong woman, but I knew she’d been through a lot. She hadn’t really opened up that much about her past, but there were definitely some demons there that were pulling on her that were preventing her from really opening up and being who she truly wanted to be. I could tell she wasn’t the type to lie down and let someone tell her what to do with her life. That was one of the things I enjoyed most about her. I found this to be very attractive.

  I arrived at work and greeted everyone while making my way to the break room and filling up my mug with piping hot coffee. I hadn’t slept that great the night before. I wasn’t sure why. I supposed it had something to do with Shelly, as if I had anticipated whether she would contact me or pull me aside before the work week started and give me the speech about how she really was doing. That was fine. I expected it. I was doing my best to put myself in her shoes and try to see what she was going through.

  “Hey, man. How was your weekend?” Max asked me as I sat down at the table.

  “Good,” I replied. “How was yours?”

  “Not bad. I went to see that Stonesour concert. Those guys melt faces live. It was sick and awesome.”

  “Nice. How come you didn’t ask me to go?”

  “I didn’t know you would be interested. I thought you loved that old music.”

  “The eighties was the golden decade of amazing rock music. It is by far my favorite, but I’ve evolved with the times man. I even love Nickelback.”

  He laughed. “You aren’t allowed to admit you like Nickelback.”

  I grinned and sipped my coffee. A moment later I saw Shelly walk into the breakroom. She poured some coffee into her cup. At first when she saw me sitting there, I could see her breath catching inside of her. She was taken aback, afraid of what to do or say. But then she was over it and doing her best to act normal. No one else seemed to notice, but I could tell immediately that she looked tense and distracted, as if something was actually bothering her. She was even humming slightly, which I had never heard her do before.

  I glanced around a bit nervously to see if anyone else was picking up on her demeanor, but luckily everyone seemed lost in their own world. Then again, it was eight in the morning. Most people were still half asleep and just trying to get into the groove of the day.

  As Shelly left the room heading to her office, I could sense that she had turned her head slightly to look at me. I refused to look at her, instead playing it cool. Wow, she was right; she was having a very hard time playing it right.

  If this went farther, it very well might blow up in our faces. Maybe Shelly was right. But I was convinced that she could really start to do better with it and that eventually, after she was convinced that nobody could tell, she would be doing fine with things.

  The morning went along pretty easily. I drank a few cups of coffee and talked to Max and Richie a bit about a few random things. Then the afternoon started to drag. No calls were coming in, so we were both grateful and bored. I played some cards with Max and Richie. We were possibly going to go to a ball game Thursday. And we were possibly going to go out drinking after that. It would be a good night, but it would be almost weekend, so why not?

  After this, I hit the gym and got a great workout in. I loved the pump I got after lifting weights. It was almost as good as sex. Well, almost as good as regular sex. With Shelly, sex was mind-blowing on a whole other level. I couldn’t stop thinking about it and every time I did, I got raging hard and I felt the wildest urge to go to her office and whip it out for her approval. I was sure she could think of a few ways to satisfy that sort of need.

  I smiled to myself, especially when some of the small talk in the gym turned to talk about Shelly.

  “Man, did you see how good she looked today?” Devon asked.

  Shawn Wyatt laughed. “Yeah, she is so beautiful. But I think she puts on a tough face, just to keep people away.”

  “I’ll bet,” Max said. “She is probably doing it to make sure morons don’t try to hit on her and get fired. She is doing everybody a great service. But I do wonder who she’d be interested in if this was not a problem. I don’t know much about her, but from what I can gather I think she would like a guy in a sports car. I only believe this though, if he can find a way to be tough and manly at the same time.”

  “And guys who drive sports cars can’t be tough and manly?” Devon asked.

  “No,” Max replied. “Those guys are into flashy and being seen. They just want to be popular. Real tough guys don’t care about that.”

  Devon rubbed his chin. “I can see that. Hey, Gary what do you think?”

  I pretended to not have any idea what they were talking about. “What’s that?” I asked.

  “You’ve seen the new trainer, Shelly. What do you think? If she was able to go out with someone here, who do you think she would choose?”

  I had to work hard to hold a straight face with them. “Well, I think it would be you Max, most definitely.”

  Max smirked. “Yeah, that’s funny, but I would be the ideal candidate. With all my skills and my ambition, how would I not be the guy?”

  I laughed and tried to cover my mouth with my hand.

  Max gave me a serious look. “What’s so funny?”

  “You are delusional,” I replied. “You think every woman out there wants you. There are some women who have a specific type and you are not it.”

  “Handsome and charming is everyone’s type. You’re bound to have seen this.”

  I could tell Max was getting angry about it. I wasn’t sure why he was getting worked up. It was just a joke. He had a tendency towards anger sometimes, but he’d never even tried to get mad with me. He knew better. I had established this relationship with the guys. They respected me and I respected them if they acted worthy of respect. But sometimes guys got into fights about silly things. I always did my best to avoid that sort of nonsense, but it did happen at the station sometimes.

  “Well, Shelly isn’t going with anyone. She is well aware of policy as we all have. So, let’s drop it. This is a stupid discussion,” I said.

  I realized as I said it that I might have been taking up too much for Shelly, or at least more than was reasonable. If someone wanted to test me, they might be able to make it through my cover and realize that I had some strong feelings for Shelly. But I didn’t lend any more weight to it than was necessary.

  I slid back under the bar and began to pound out my last set. As I hoisted the heavy weight, I thought about Shelly and I wished that we could just be a normal couple. I wanted so badly for us to be together like a regular couple. We could make it work, but the policy dictated rigidly that we had to follow this silly format.

  After finishing up the workout and hitting the showers, it was time for a training session with Shelly. I was looking forward to it. This gave me an excuse to actually be near her without having it look awkward. But every man in that training room was thinking the same thoughts about her. She was a ravishing beauty. We had several attractive, wonderful women who were a part of the crew, but Shelly had them all beat by a country mile in the looks department, and she had this amazing spark inside of her that was so contagious and so moving that it automatically made you just want to hold her and be near her all the time.

  As I stood there in class, watching Shelly work her magic and teach us all about the importance of assessing the level of the victim when we found them, I felt myself growing hotter and hotter inside. I wanted to run over to her and grab my beloved in my arms, hold her, kiss her, and completely ravish her body until I was physically unable to do anymore.

  I was starting to sweat, despite the cool air conditioning. This was so difficult. Just knowin
g what we’d done together, the love, and the beautiful affection and lust we’d experienced together, made standing there watching the training going on almost impossible. I felt my heart racing. My body was compelling me to make a move, especially as Shelly walked past me. She barely glanced in my direction. Wow, she was doing so well here. I loved to see the way she had taken ownership of the situation. I now felt that I was the one who might crack and reveal everything. If that happened, I would lose Shelly forever. I would lose firefighting. I would lose most of anything that really meant anything to me.

  I could barely pay attention as Shelly ran over the types of victims and what to look for, assessing the need, et cetera. My mind was in so many different places that I could hardly think straight on anything. My mind was all about Shelly. I needed her with me all the time. I was sure that if Shelly did agree to us, if she did care about me, I’d gladly give up firefighting if it meant being by her side always.

  And that was ludicrous. What was I saying? I had never been that close to another person in my life. Why was I going to start that now? I loved Shelly. I was determined to be the best version of myself possible for her, but I was never going to compromise my ideals and allow myself to become dependent in any way on anyone else.

  I got through the training and left the room fairly quickly. It was almost time for me to head home, and I was getting crazy hungry. I didn’t eat breakfast and not much lunch. I occasionally skip breakfast, as I’m usually not that hungry first thing in the morning. But I wasn’t sure why my appetite hadn’t been there for lunch. That was a little odd for me.

  I was starting down the hall towards the lounge when I heard a commotion going on behind me in the training room.

  I turned back and through the crowd of others jammed in the doorway trying to get out of the room, I saw Max and Ian going at it. The two guys were engaged in an old fashioned fistfight. This was ridiculous. But I had predicted that someone might get in a fight that day. There was something in the air. It was no big surprise that this someone was Max. He’d been agitated that day, but I wasn’t sure why. Sometimes he could get a very hot head. That was always in his nature. It had become so much better. And now he was really going for it.

  And Shelly was trying to break it up by herself. What in the world was she doing? I quickly rushed back through, trying to get through the crowd that was still somewhat oblivious that this was really happening. I made it through the line just in time to see Ian swing wildly and collide with Shelly’s arm knocking her to the ground.

  The fire of anger roared to life within me. I could see nothing but red in that moment. I had to get it together. I knew this was the very thing that could get me fired and get us caught. But I was beyond control at this moment.

  My feet lunged ahead and my body got in between Ian and Max. Ian was charging ahead, almost completely unaware that I was even there. He was hell bent on killing Max and beating him to a bloody pulp, but Max was not a slouch. Ian was already bleeding from his lip. A shiner was starting to settle around his eye as well. It served him right.

  I blocked his punch and started to throw one of my own, but just then I caught sight of Shelly who was watching from the ground. I had a few urges. On the one hand, I wanted to pound Ian’s face for hurting Shelly and on the other hand I wanted to keep what Shelly and I had started totally safe and secret. In that split second I had to make a decision that would affect the both of us.

  I uncurled my fist and instead shoved Ian back with an open hand. He staggered backwards losing his balance and almost falling to the ground.

  “Stay right there!” I yelled at him. “Do not even think about trying that again!”

  I could sense that Max was trying to make his move as well. He didn’t want to back down. Was he also under the impression that this was a bar fight against a total stranger I was going to step in to and allow him to continue to pummel the other guy? No. Ian was a member of the crew, albeit a new member of the crew.

  Ian stopped in his tracks as he saw the anger in my face. He knew that he had better not try to punch a senior member. As it was, he was possibly going to be fired. Maybe Max, too. It would serve them both right. If I was chief I would have done the same. It was up to him and completely out of my hands. There was no excuse for this sort of thing. It was understandable in a sense. The team was basically locked together all day every day with mostly boredom to do. That could give you a case of cabin fever really fast.

  The rest of the crew was pouring in now helping to break things up and bring order to everything. The Chief was the last to show up on the scene of course. He stormed into the room with an irate look on his face. He took one look at both men disgusted.

  “Both of you get to my office now!” The Chief yelled.

  Max and Ian sauntered off. The fight seemed to have gone out of them by then. I watched them go and stayed silent, but I wanted to check on Shelly and make sure she was ok. At the same time, I didn’t want to appear overly concerned. The Chief helped out with this.

  “Are you alright, Shelly?” he asked helping her to her feet.

  “Yeah, I’m fine. It’s just a nasty bruise on my arm. I guess I should have waited for backup.”

  “It’s alright,” he said. “That was good instinct.”

  “Glad you’re alright,” I said to Shelly.

  She nodded and smiled at me. The bruise on her arm had a cut below it that was starting to blead a bit. “I’ll go take care of this,” she said. Shelly walked out of the room and headed toward the medical supply room, most likely to get a bandage and maybe some ointment. She was a tough woman. I wanted to caress her and hold her, make sure she was really fine, even though she needed nothing of the sort. Somehow, it would have made me feel better.

  I hated to see her in any pain.

  “And I’ll go take care of those two jackasses,” the chief said as he stormed off. The rest of the crew had left the room and were now going about their days. I was starting to head out, as well. My stomach was really rumbling now. Maybe a big burger would hit the spot…

  That was when I saw the phone on the ground. I picked it up. The screensaver was a picture of Shelly and another woman whom I did not recognize. Shelly’s phone.

  I went to the medical supplies office. No Shelly. Then I checked in her office, but Shelly was not there. Where did she go? Ladies room?

  Maybe she went outside to get some air? I went to the front of the building and glanced out the window. There was Shelly. She was getting into her car. A fresh bandage was on her arm. I checked the time. It was about five. It had been a long, uneventful day, or at least it was until the fight.

  Shelly was going home. I wondered if she was hurt worse than she was letting on, or if there was something else wrong with her. It was unlike her to just take off that way without saying goodbye to anyone, but she was more or less free to go as she chose as long as she got all of her work done. That was the perk of being a bit higher up in the company.

  I clutched her phone tightly in my hand. She would need this back right away. I decided that I would return it to her then. I got in my car and drove out of there heading toward Shelly’s.

  Besides, this would give me a great excuse to see her again outside of work.

  Chapter Twelve

  Shelly

  I was shocked to hear the knock at my door about five minutes after I arrived home. I’d just made it to the bathroom to take a real look at the big bruise and cut on my arms I’d suffered during my knock to the floor during the fight at the end of the day. I took this to mean that my training had an ill effect on a few people. Or the guys were just tired of being so cooped up inside.

  I understood this. These were physical, active people and when they weren’t allowed to get that active, they tended to go a little bit haywire. It did throw me for a loop though. I hadn’t expected to be knocked to the floor, that was for sure. But I did want to help and stop this senseless fight before anyone got hurt. I thought foolishly that if a woman ste
pped in the way, it would trigger the men to stand down.

  That had not been the case.

  But I was fine. Just another bump and bruise to add to my collection I’d picked up over the years. That was the name of the game sometimes.

  I opened the door surprised to see Gary standing there. We had just made it through the entire day without wigging out and getting mushy with each other. And it had not been easy. I couldn’t count the times I wanted to hug him, kiss him, even talk to him, but I was so paranoid that it would get misconstrued that I barely even glanced his way.

  Gary felt the same way. I could tell. Once or twice I caught him staring at me, that look full of lust in his eyes. It looked the way that I felt when I was around him. This wasn’t going to work. I knew it wouldn’t. To be that close to each other all day, pretending to be strangers, and to know that at the end of the day there would be no payoff, no release for your trouble… that was just maddening.

  “Gary? What are you doing here?” I asked. He was violating the rules by being there. What if someone had seen him follow me? This was too risky.

  Gary pulled an object out of his pocket. He was holding my phone. Shit. I hadn’t even noticed that I lost it.

  “You dropped this during that little scuffle back there,” Gary said.

  “Oh, thanks,” I said. “I would have been looking for that.”

  “No problem,” Gary said. “Are you alright?”

  “Oh, yeah. I’m fine. I’ll survive.”

  I did a little dance to indicate the line from the famous disco song.

  Gary laughed. “Glad to hear it.”

  “What do you think will happen to them?”

  “Knowing our chief? They will be gone.”