Cap Hansen?
Yes, sorry.
My fingers hovered over the letters on the phone, my mouth twitching with a tiny smile.
You must have watched TV tonight.
I caught a bit of it.
I smiled despite my mood and shook my head. No doubt the entire town had probably tuned into the speech, including the whole department, who already despised me. Any average person would back away before things got worse … they’d stop going where they weren’t wanted.
But no one had ever called me normal.
I guess we’ll see,I replied and then set my phone aside. I wasn’t playing games, but I wasn’t in the mood to reassure him that the most hated girl in town would be back tomorrow to endure more harassment from his crew. I guess that was to be determined.
After another glass of wine, I climbed into bed and put my phone on silent. I almost didn’t even care that it was almost midnight and Jeremy was still gone because, for once, I was thinking of someone else as my hand slipped beneath the covers to pleasure myself. As I closed my eyes, Erik Hansen’s face appeared in my dreams, and that was all I needed to know that I would be back.
Chapter12
Hansen
I guess we’ll see.
I stared at Paisley’s response on my phone, fingers typing slowly at the response I had formed in my mind.
I hope you do.
Glancing up, I watched Julia pull her hair back for bed. Then she spritzed herself with that delicious scent I loved so much and smiled at me. I smiled back and looked down at my phone, thumb hovering over the delete button. I pressed down, and my response vanished from the screen before it could ever send. I set the phone aside, pushing away thoughts of Paisley.
“You look beautiful.”
“Why, thank you.” Julia crawled into bed next to me and rested her head on my chest, fingers trailing down my abdomen. “You look concerned.”
“Me?” I asked. “Nah, I’m fine.”
“I don’t know if I believe you.” Her lips curved seductively, her hand snaking down below the sheets. She leaned up, kissed me, then pulled back as her hand enveloped me. A small moan escaped my throat, and Julia smiled. “Maybe I can fix that.”
I closed my eyes, thinking of someone else entirely, hating myself for feeling so vulnerable, so smitten with a woman I barely knew. And as Julia pleasured me, only Paisley was in sight.
* * *
I woke the following day for work before Julia was awake, grabbing a cup of joe before heading to the station for my shift. I felt like shit, mainly on account of the way I was feeling after fucking Julia last night. I’d been thinking of Paisley, not just then but all night long, and she was the first thing I thought of when I woke this morning too. And holy shit, I wasn’t this guy. I wasn’t an evil man who played around and serial-dated, messing with women’s hearts. I’d always prided myself on being a good man and a loyal lover.
So why her? Why Paisley?
I wasn’t sure what to think about Paisley’s response last night. After the Mayor’s speech, I wouldn’t have blamed her if she chose not to show up. His words had been inappropriate and borderline cruel, and in a tight-knit town like ours, they would also have a lasting effect on the community. If the Mayor didn’t want Paisley on the department, neither would anyone else, and they wouldn’t even know why.
One of our engines was out on a call when I got to the department, and Korbin Hansen was cooking breakfast in the kitchen for the rest of the crew. I greeted my men and poured a second cup of coffee, quickly noticing that Paisley was nowhere to be seen. Dread filled in the pit of my stomach. Maybe she’d changed her mind, which I didn’t want to consider.
“Late night?” Korbin asked, plating some eggs and bacon for me.
“I have a lot on my mind.” I sat at the table and reached for the paper, not really seeing the words but running my eyes over the text, anyway.
“I wouldn’t read that.” Jake yanked the paper out from under my nose. He slammed it shut, tossed it aside, and then shoveled more eggs into his mouth as though nothing had just happened. I stared at him, furrowing my brow.
“Why?”
“Some reporter wrote a shit piece on Paisley, essentially highlighting everything the mayor said on TV last night, along with statistics on every sexual harassment case in male-dominated careers in the last five years,” Korbin spoke this time, and I looked over at him, scoffing.
