“Do you have a place to stay tonight?” I ask June in a low voice.
“I’m staying here,” she says. “I stayed here when this place looked worse than that.”
I grin as I watch the determination in her eyes. She’s something else.
“It’s unsafe with the fumes,” I tell her, wondering how I can offer my place without coming off as creepy. “There’ll be lingering smoke and extinguisher powder in the air. I don’t want you breathing that in while you’re sleeping.”
“I have a tent,” she says, giving me a grateful smile. “I’ll be fine.”
“At least let me check you for smoke inhalation.”
Her shoulders drop as she looks up at me with a grin. “Okay, Mr. April. You can do that.”
CHAPTER FOUR
June
My heart is pounding sitting in the back of the fire truck, watching Ethan getting the equipment ready.
His uniform is off and he’s in some navy pants and a matching T-shirt. I’m not sure if it’s the smoke inhalation or those tight sleeves gripping his big arms that are making it hard to breathe.
This man is seriously hot. It’s the calendar come to life, only somehow he’s even sexier in person. The way he moves so smooth and confidently. The way he keeps glancing at me with a protective air. And those hands… I can’t stop looking at them.
“Are you in any pain?” he asks in a low deep voice as he gets in nice and close.
I sit up and swallow hard. “No.”
“Any burns anywhere?”
He gently takes my arms as if they’re the most preciousthings he’s ever touched and lifts them, roaming those gorgeous blue eyes all over my skin.
“I’m fine,” I say with a lump in my throat. “I didn’t get burned.”
My eyes are locked on his as he checks me out. This shouldn’t feel so intimate. We’re in the back of the fire truck with the doors closed and he’s performing a medical examination. This is his job. It’s work for him.
I have to keep telling myself that. Because for me it feels like the end of a hot date where we’re about to get fresh.
“Any pain in your throat?” he asks as he brings those soft tender hands up to my neck.Oh god…“Any burning in your lungs?”
I shake my hands, feeling my nipples tightening as he gently strokes my throat. My eyes drop dangerously to his lips. He has such a sexy mouth. And that beard… It’s short and neat, framing his mouth in a way that makes it look so damn kissable.
I was never a beard kind of girl. I always thought they looked so itchy and would feel scratchy against your skin, but this beard looks so soft and tempting… I just want to run my hands through it. I wonder what it would feel like under my fingertips, or kissing down my stomach, or scraping along my inner thighs. I shiver.
“You okay?” he asks, those blue eyes darting up to mine.
“Yeah,” I say, starting to blush.
I’m definitely not okay. I feel like I’m about to combust with this scorching, red-hot mountain man in front of me.
“Any dizziness?” he asks, holding my neck with those sexy hands while staring at me with those breathtaking blue eyes.
Is that a serious question?
“I… uh… no.”
“Nausea?”
I shake my head.
