“Argh, buzzkill.” She steps back, sashaying those hips. I follow behind her, and it takes everything not to bend her over and fuck her senseless.
She opens the front door, and we step out onto the porch.
“If it helps, I regret it already,” I tell her, and she smiles. The kind of smile that makes me want to flip the bird at Drew, bless his soul, and take her back inside.
“You’re going to regret it a whole lot more when you’re alone in that bed tonight,” she whispers, and I lean in and kiss her on the lips.
“Good night, firefly.” I break the kiss reluctantly, moving a strand of hair and tucking it behind her ear.
“Good night, slick.” Shelby grins up at me.
I climb into my truck and wait for her to close the door behind her before driving off.
* * *
“You got laid this weekend.”Haden chuckles.
“What? No. Can’t a guy be happy without pussy?”
“Nope,” he answers. “At least not me.”
I let out a laugh at that.
“So you finally took the plunge and went for it?”
“I am not discussing Shelby with you,” I answer with a smirk.
“Well, she is a fine—”
I frown up at him, and he holds his hands up. “Just know you are one lucky man. The guys have been eyeing her for years. None of them brave enough to get into it with Grady.”
“Don’t blame them,” I tell Haden.
He narrows his eyes at me. “He does know, right?”
“It has nothing to do with him, so no. He doesn’t.”
He whistles. “Now this, I have to see play out.” I throw a towel at him and stand when the alarm sounds.
“Let’s go,” Haden yells, flinging it back at me.
We enter the common area, and Grady, Johnson, and the other guys are already there.
“Okay, there’s a fire in an apartment building downtown. Seems like an apartment on the second floor is the source, if we go on what the caller said,” Grady tells us. “This means I need Engines 1 and 3 on this one, and all of you alert as fuck.”
We all agree. Johnson heads up Engine 1, which is my unit, and I am glad I don’t have to work with Grady. I know that is the absolute last thing that should be on my mind, but I don’t need him barking orders at me.
We arrive at the scene, and the apartment is about three storeys. Black smoke travels out of the wall of one of the corner apartments. That is a relief because those kinds of fires are easier to contain, the issue is whether it has spread to the rest of that floor.
Crowds gather outside the building. A man runs out to us. “I’m the building manager. We tried to alert as many of the residents as possible, but none of us knows how bad it is up there.”
“How many apartments?” I ask him.
“Six on each floor.”
“That’s great, man, now; try to keep the crowd calm. You got a list of the residents?” Johnson asks. The man nods. “Okay, you check who's missing, and we’ll take it from here.”
He walks over to the people who are looking up at the building, sheer fear across their faces, moving through the crowd with a list.
