Gale seemed curious, but she didn’t ask any other questions. She passed me with the boxes and shot one last glance over her shoulder. That was just great. Everyone had already been whispering and staying quiet when I walked past; this was probably going to add fuel to the rumor fire.
At the same time, it didn’t bother me that much. My mind was full of three hot guys and the way it felt to be with them. There was one left. Calder. I wondered if it would be as good as Beckand Ash had been, since it was impossible to choose between the two of them at all.
“Hey, something’s going on!” Tucker, another shop assistant, appeared in my peripheral vision. “Outside, there’s like a bunch of sirens and people.”
“Really?” I followed Tucker as he hurried through the store and out through the front doors. I noticed several people rushing along with us, and as soon as we were outside, I heard those familiar sirens and noticed the familiar lights at the far end of the parking lot.
“That’s where the food trucks are,” Tucker said, hurrying after the rest of the curious onlookers approaching the scene.
I noticed more of the store’s employees as well as others from the mall pouring out into the parking lot. Despite my curiosity growing, I couldn’t just leave the shop unattended. I headed back inside quickly to close the front doors, at least temporarily, and noticed that some of the other stores were doing the same.
It was likely anyway that the entire building would be evacuated in case, so I was fairly sure I wasn’t going to get into trouble with Corporate.
The crowd outside was small, but noticeable. I made my way through, eventually making it to a spot close to the front. I was surprised when I noticed Jackie beside me, staring at the kiosk that had caught fire. It wasn’t one of the food trucks, as we’d thought, but those were quickly being moved to the side so that they didn’t catch fire too.
I recognized the firefighters on the scene immediately. A flash of their shirtless bodies in my house crossed my mind, and I blushed, though luckily nobody seemed to notice that.
“What happened?” I asked Jackie, but she either didn’t hear me or didn’t feel like answering. Her eyes were fixed on thescene in front of us. Maybe she was in shock, so I didn’t read too much into it. It could be that she knew the owner of the kiosk, or saw what had happened, or had some past trauma involving fires. I didn’t want to push too much.
Instead, I turned my attention to the guys, who had the firetruck parked and set up fast. Beck was holding the crowd back while Ash and Calder quickly set up one of the hoses.
Every move they made was confident, fast, and precise. They had a focus in their eyes that was magnetic and powerful. It sent a shiver down my spine to see them work like this, just like when they’d saved that puppy. Except, by now, I’d seen so much more of them…Feltso much more of them that watching it all unfold was a lot more intense than before.
Then there were the uniforms. They were bulky and unwieldy, sure, but the guys looked as if they were born to wear them. In my mind, I could imagine their muscles moving under those clothes, could think of the strength that they were using to do their work so perfectly.
Frankly, the main image in my mind was the moment that Beck had gotten me off the floor and into his arms so fast that I’d barely had time to process it. I could see that same strength and speed in how Calder and Ash were now dealing with the fire. Beck, still holding the crowd back, had noticed me. He didn’t interrupt his work, simply offered me a smile and a wink and continued with what he was doing.
“Please, everyone, for your safety, stay back,” he said, his voice loud and powerful. “Do not approach the fire. Keep a safe distance.”
He sounded so serious that I could barely believe that it was him speaking. His usual jovial nature had completely disappeared into the job, like he’d flipped a switch. It wasfascinating to see the difference, and I was slightly sad that there was no one I could discuss it with.
The fire was fairly big for the size of the kiosk, and it was clear that the whole thing was going to be lost. But Calder and Ash were working quickly. As soon as there seemed to be an opening, Calder moved forward to remove the gas tanks that were standing to one side of the kiosk. I hadn’t even noticed them. No wonder Beck was still slowly moving the crowd ever backward. If those things exploded… Well, a lot of people could be hurt, and the fire would certainly spread much further than it had.
I wondered how the guys could do this knowing all of that. They had to walk right into the heart of the danger without hesitation and without even a second’s delay. If they didn’t, things could go terribly wrong. Hell, even if theydid,even without a single mistake, disasters could still happen.
The thought of that made my heart race. I couldn’t imagine losing any one of them, or seeing any of them get hurt. But they didn’t seem to be thinking about that at all. Their focus was singular, and their bravery was palpable.
I noticed how the rest of the crowd was watching them in awe, too, and I couldn’t help but feel a tinge of jealousy.
“Did anyone get hurt?” I aimed my question at Jackie again, and glanced toward her. She still didn’t answer. Her eyes were still fixed on the fire, rather than on the guys. It was almost as if she was entranced by it. She didn’t seem afraid; instead, it looked like she was fascinated.
I couldn’t entirely blame her for that, either. I was glad that it wasn’t something worrying, and I knew that fire could be a fascinating thing. When I was a teenager, I’d been at a bonfire one night where I found myself staring at the way the flames moved. It was almost otherworldly.
But now, Beck, Calder, and Ash had most of my attention. I could feel the heat building up in my stomach and the desire clawing at my mind. It would’ve been easy to give in, to leap forward and wrap myself around each of them in turn, to have them ravage me right there in the parking lot.
The idea lit a fire in my chest, but also made me feel a pang of shame. After all, this was a serious situation and an emergency, and here I was, daydreaming about sex with firefighters.
In my defense, the sex would be fantastic if the past is to be believed,I thought, almost laughing at myself.
It wasn’t much longer before the flames died down under the force of Calder and Ash’s intervention. Soon enough, all that was left were the smoldering remains of the kiosk and the sound of the crowd whispering about it.
The guys were quickly clearing the scene while other emergency responders stepped up. I noticed the police nearby, already asking questions of people in the crowd. That made me wonder whether they already thought this was possible arson, like it had been at the apartments, or if this was standard procedure.
“Do you think there was some kind of electric fault?” I asked Jackie again, and this time, she jumped as she turned to me, like she’d never even noticed I was beside her until that point.
“Oh, Rhea, I didn’t see you there!” she said, laughing like it was the funniest thing she’d ever said. “You move like a ghost, you know that?”
“Sorry,” I apologized, wondering if she really was that unaware the whole time. “Hi, Jackie.”
