Total pages in book: 46
Estimated words: 44188 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 221(@200wpm)___ 177(@250wpm)___ 147(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 44188 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 221(@200wpm)___ 177(@250wpm)___ 147(@300wpm)
When we finish, I insist on ordering dessert, because of the way she perked up when the waitress mentioned it.
Finally, I broach the subject I’ve been toying with since yesterday. “So, Lia. About the pyromania.”
Her fork, loaded with flourless chocolate torte, freezes on the way to her mouth.
“I could propose a theory that you chose to be a firefighter because you’re enamored with flames, but I think it’s something else. Something deeper.”
She sets the fork down, the morsel of dessert uneaten.
“I used to work over on Staten Island. Ladder number 153.”
Lia
Oh God.
I’m sure all the blood drains from my face. My dinner I so enjoyed turns into a rock in my belly.
Blaze goes on, “I remember a cop’s house burned down. There was a teenage girl.”
Damn the tears that pop into my eyes. I blink them back.
Blaze signals for the check and picks up my hand. “That’s a lot to carry, little girl,” he murmurs softly.
I can’t breathe—can’t look into his steady blue gaze. I drop my eyes to the table. He knows about our fire. Could he have guessed it was all my fault?
“Lotta guilt.”
My head jerks back up. Jesus. He put it together.
Everything.
The secret I’ve kept all these years. The reason I have to make it work as a firefigher, have to redeem myself, make sure I atone for my sins.
He doesn’t seem accusatory, though. There’s sympathy in his eyes, but also a firmness, like he’s not about to let me get away with lying, or hiding from my past.
My lips tremble. “What is this?”
He shrugs his sculpted shoulders. “As your captain, I need to know your motivations and your weaknesses. We work as a team. Our lives are literally in each other’s hands.”
The crowded restaurant swoops around me. I pull a steadying breath through my nostrils and manage to nod. “Wow. I didn’t expect this.”
“I don’t want you acting the hero because you have to make up for some past crime you can’t get over, Lia. You won’t make the right decisions. You’ll endanger yourself and the rest of us.”
I draw back, stung. Is he saying he can’t keep me on the job after all? What kind of horrible non-date is this?
“I’d like to see you work through this shit fast.”
“And how do you propose I do that?”
“Submit for punishment and wipe the slate clean.”
I sit there blinking for a moment, replaying his words to make sense of them.
“Punishment?” I finally croak. What is he suggesting? I turn myself into the cops? To my dad? What are they going to do—investigate a crime I committed when I was thirteen?
That’s when I see the corners of his lips turn up. The wicked gleam in his eyes.
And suddenly, my panties are soaked. My nipples harden like diamonds.
“Holy shit. You mean submit to you?” My pussy literally clenches, like his fingers are inside me again.
He doesn’t move, just watches me with that all-seeing blue gaze. But then I see he’s not breathing and I realize he’s sweating this moment as much as I am.
Sure he is. If I react badly—if I tell anyone about this conversation—anyone at all—he’ll lose his job and reputation in a flash. And just like that, the power shifts back to me.
I pick up my discarded fork and take a seductive bite of dessert. “And what would this punishment entail, Captain?”
He shifts in his seat like his dick got hard and he has to make room for it in his pants.
Good.
“Three spankings. Serious ones—the kind that leave your ass sore the next day.”
OMG, OMG, OMG. I want to put my fingers between my legs right now to alleviate the throb there.
“Will there…” I clear my throat. “Will they have a happy ending?”
His lips curve up. “I promise if you take it like a good girl, there will be plenty of rewards.”
Pussy clench.
“Wow.” Heat feathers across my face and I become very interested in forking up my next bite of torte.
“Lia, I think you’re excited about my proposal, but if you feel at all obligated—like I’m your boss and you have to do this to keep the job—tell me to fuck off right now. Because if you’re not one hundred percent on board, I will never, ever mention any of this again. In fact, you can think of this conversation as your job security, because you pretty much have me by the balls now.”
I relax a bit. I wasn’t feeling obligated, but I love that he’s making himself as vulnerable to me as I feel with him right now.
“Seriously—this could be the worst sexual harassment case the FDNY ever saw. Which is pretty ripe considering I’ve been worried about keeping the other guys from making you uncomfortable.”
I take my last bite of dessert and set the fork down. “I’m in. I’m totally in.” I meet his gaze squarely.