“This is about teamwork and making it through obstacles,” he argued. “If you quit—”
Her hand falling in the water surrounding them made a slight splash. “Yeah, yeah, I get it. Teamwork is about problem-solving and adapting to the situation. Adapt, adapt, adapt and so forth and so on. Got it. No one will take me seriously as a firefighter if I don’t finish the three-legged obstacle course. My career will be over. I’ll have to transfer somewhere else.”
“I take you seriously, so could you not transfer?” he intoned solemnly.
“You’re the one who pulled us over. I blame you.” She wished she could take those words back.
They couldn’t talk about their short, scalding moment of contact.
Her ego couldn’t take another rejection from him, especially if he was unaffected and had scrambled to get away from her. “Never mind. It doesn’t matter because team is not about blaming. It’s about winning. I learned that from Vanessa.”
“Good call,” he agreed.
“It’s a straightaway from here to the finish. Come on, Chief.”
They hauled themselves out of the water and found their rhythm again. Unexpectedly, they were awarded third place at the finish line. Haskell judged they were close enough to finishing the plank-walk to not get extra time added.
Haskell had trouble untying them with the straight face. The Chief’s hair was plastered in all directions, and Erin imagined she looked like a wet dog. It was a solid sixty degrees for a crisp September Ohio day. Other teams had it worse, though. Theo’s partner, feckless Joe, resembled someone who was dragged through a leaf blower and then rolled in the mud. Her dunking while tied to the Chief was preferable to that.
The Chief gave her a once over when his blindfold was removed. Then he took a long step away from her, offering. “Good job, Hudgens.”
“Thank you, sir,” she said quietly, trying not to meet his gaze. While in reality, it was unlikely that he could read her thoughts, it was better to not take any chances. He was already plenty observant and would have no difficulty seeing through her lies about how little she cared about him. If she were very unlucky, he could sense that she wasn’t wet only because they fell in the water.
“We’ve got new uniforms for everybody,” Haskell announced. “We figured it would get a little messy. I didn’t plan on you, Chief.”
“It’s no problem,” Baker said. “I always carry an extra uniform or two. Never know when you’ll need a change. You’re going to fight an endless battle against smoke and grime if you wear the white shirt.” Those comments were for Haskell. “I’ll meet you in the staging room after you send everyone to lunch.”
“Copy that,” Haskell said. Theo limped up behind them, abandoning Joe.
“I’ll see you both next week, Jefferson… Hudgens,” Baker acknowledged them before departing.
She couldn’t stop staring at his retreating back. He looked amazing wet. He had to look amazing naked too.
No. No. No. Dirty, filthy, naughty, Erin.
“Next week?” Erin wondered, turning her attention to Theo.
“We’re doing the active shooter training with the police,” Theo reminded her.
“I didn’t think he’d be there. Especially since it’ll be Kevin’s yearly surprise,” Erin mused. The team had big plans for the training session. “Luna wasn’t lying when Elias came to visit last shift.”
“It will be an interesting way to ‘improve collaboration between city services.’ How was your collaboration with the Chief? You made good time.” They followed the crowd meandering back to the hotel conference room.
“Fabulous. Nothing like falling in a water pit,” Erin said. “I need to get dry and find use my emergency hair kit.”
The less she said about the Chief, the better.
* * *
That woman was going to kill him.
Noah dialed the temperature in the hotel shower to frigid. Merely ‘cold’ hadn’t helped since landing in a pool of cold water didn’t decrease his attraction to Erin Hudgens a single degree.
Thirty minutes of obeying her pushed his imagination to the point where it was running completely rampant. Was she the type that was bossy in bed or the type that needed to be tied down? Would she still shiver against him when she was naked? Would her scent of coconuts and florals cling to him everywhere?
Inquiring minds needed to know.
Wanting a subordinate was so far outside of his comfort zone, he didn’t have any frame of reference to deal with it.
