Total pages in book: 47
Estimated words: 43536 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 218(@200wpm)___ 174(@250wpm)___ 145(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 43536 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 218(@200wpm)___ 174(@250wpm)___ 145(@300wpm)
“I know,” I told him. “It’s rough. But she’s worth the trouble. And if she kissed you it’s because she wanted to. I know Lexi well enough to know she doesn’t do anything she doesn’t want to.”
“True. We just have to believe it’ll get easier, once we’re more used to living with her. It’s only been, what, a month or so?”
“Yeah, and we’ll make a pact. We don’t make any moves on her. If she wants you—which by the way she’s stealing looks at you, she does—we let her make the first move. No harm, no jealousy. Priority one is protecting her and making her feel safe with us.”
“She has to be able to trust us. No matter how painful it is to live with that temptation,” Rafe said.
“We should both try going out, getting laid. Maybe if we weren’t both sitting her with blue balls it wouldn’t be so bad.”
“I don’t want to go out with some woman who isn’t Lexi,” Rafe said.
“I know, bro. Well, I’m going to head into the station. I’ll see you tomorrow morning.”
My shift was almost done. It was six in the morning when the call came in. I was in the fire and rescue vehicle in less than a minute, and Donny scrambled in behind me. He had been asleep while I was eating an egg sandwich and thinking it would be nice to get some rest at home. I’d even wondered if Lexi would still be there when I arrived. I thought about picking her up a latte on the way.
It wasn’t a dumbass playing with lighter fluid that time. It was a car wreck, a couple of teenagers taking a curve too fast after being out all night doing God knows what. A woman in a bathrobe was spraying at the flames from a distance with a little kitchen fire extinguisher. We waved her off and tried to fight the blaze but it was too late. After half an hour it was obvious there was no way to save them.
I filed reports while Donny talked with the cops and waited around to speak to the family. My shift had been over for an hour and a half when I left the scene. I knew by that time it was a couple of sixteen-year-old girls, that they’d left a sleepover early to get to track practice, that they had been running late. Instead of showering at the station like I normally would, I just dropped off my bunker gear and headed home. I needed my own shower and my own bed.
My eyes burned, and my head ached as I unlocked the door and stumbled inside. Lexi should have been long gone like Rafe was, but she was home.
“Hey, are you okay?” she said, rounding the kitchen counter and coming to me. I tried to come up with a joke or a shrug, but I didn’t have it in me.
“Tough call right at the end of my shift,” I told her, my voice sounding like gravel.
“Oh, no, I’m sorry,” she said, pulling me into her arms.
“No, I’ll get you dirty,” I said, lamely trying to push her away.
“I don’t care about that. You look like you could use a friend,” she protested. Lexi was trying to hug me. I was trying not to hug her back. The next thing I knew, I had my arms around her, crushing her to me like I was trying to hold onto everything that was still pure and good in the universe. I choked out a sob, “They were just sixteen,” I managed.
She was kissing my smoky hair, my filthy, blackened face. I turned my head, captured her mouth with mine. She didn’t pull away. She responded to me hungrily, taking my tongue in her mouth, opening for me, her hands greedy on my shoulders and neck. Her hands roamed down my chest, pulled my t-shirt out of my jeans and dragged it off of me, breaking the kiss only long enough to strip me bare.
“Why are you home?” I said against her soft, sweet lips.
“Waiting for you. I was going to make you breakfast and tuck you in before I went to the office, but when you were late, I called in for half a day. I thought you might need me.”
“I do need you,” I said roughly. “I need you in every way right now.”
“Then you can have me in every way, Leo,” she said. She smiled at me knowingly.
“You’re kidding,” I said stupidly.
“No, I’m not. I want to take the pain away, Leo. I want to make you feel like the hero you are. Show me how.”
“God, Lexi—you can’t mean that. Do you know how long I’ve wanted you?”
“About as long as I’ve wanted you. When I got hurt, and you held me and kissed my hair, you were rubbing the back of my neck real slow. It made me so wet, Leo. I was so embarrassed, because here the two of you were being the best friends I’d ever had and wanting to keep me safe and I was getting wet for you,” she sounded embarrassed.