Off Duty

Her smile.

Her laugh.

Her green eyes.

Fucking that gorgeous body.

But that’s so not appropriate in a room full of firemen.

Instead, I let her update me on her job hunt, which had proven to be futile so far. This had been the subject of many of our conversations, and Holly was getting more dejected by the lack of prospects with every phone call we had together. I tried to buck up her spirits, but that was hard because I was fucking dejected right along with her.

But when we talked yesterday, while she still had no good news, she didn’t seem quite as bummed. Instead, she seemed a little chipper, teasing me about wanting to give me some dirty phone sex talk but she knew couldn’t since I was at the firehouse. I gri

Sadly, our call yesterday was cut short by the station speakers crackling to life and alerting us to another fire in progress. I was only able to give her a quick, “I miss you. Talk later,” and then I was ru

Holly doesn’t text me back, which has me frowning slightly. The pure exhaustion I was feeling a minute ago is replaced now by an even more desperate need to hear her voice. I flip to my favorites and tap on her name, deciding that I did have time for a quick conversation.

The phone rings four times before going to her voice mail.

Well, fuck.

I set the phone down on the small, square wooden table beside my rack and lay back on the mattress. Shower forgotten, I put my hands behind my head and stare at the ceiling, listening to the soft snores of a few of the guys who already crashed.

I think longingly about the day that Holly will be here, and we can finally start our life together.

“Hey Davis,” I hear from the doorway to our sleeping quarters.

Lifting my head up, I see Butch Heywood, one of my teammates, standing there. “What’s up?”

“You got a visitor out front,” he says and starts to turn away.

“Who is it?” I ask, without any real actual interest, but suspecting it might be this woman, Tashia, I had gone out with on and off over the past year. It wasn’t serious, and we would go weeks without seeing each other, but she would sometimes drop by if she was in the area to check up on me. I haven’t seen her in probably over a month, and of course, there’s no real commitment there, so it’s not like I ever thought to call her and tell her that we couldn’t see each other anymore.

“No clue,” he says as he turns back briefly. “Fly

“Thanks, man,” I say and sit up, swinging my legs over the edge of my rack. I stick my feet back in my boots and swiftly lace them.

As I walk toward the front bay, I start mentally constructing what I need to tell Tashia. She won’t be upset or put out, but I still want to be nice and gentle about it.

I push through the swinging door that leads into the bay where we hold the three engines that belong to our company. A quick sweep of the area and I don’t see anyone, but I hear muffled voices coming from the far side of the bay behind one of the trucks.

Walking that way, I hear Fly

I do not need him building me up any further to Tashia, especially when I’m getting ready to cut things off. And why the fuck would he do that? He knows how I feel about Holly. Other than Denise, Fly

Rounding the front of the engine, I say before I even see Fly

I see Fly

Fly

Except, it’s not Tashia.

It’s Holly, and my heart almost bursts out of my chest from the sudden explosion of joy with in me.

“Hey baby,” she says softly with a smile.

Two long steps are all I need before my hands are on her face and I’ve got her mouth crushed to mine. I kissed her ravenously… starved for her touch and her taste.

“Geez… get a room,” Fly

Holly’s hands come up to my wrists, giving them a slight squeeze before she pulls her lips away from mine. I don’t let her withdraw too much though, pi

“What are you doing here?”

“Surprise,” she says with a grin.

Too fucking much.

I pull her back to me and kiss her again, this time turning her and backing her right into the side of the engine. Holly purrs into my mouth, and lust shoots through me.

Fuck, fuck, fuck.

I pull away from her quickly, because I ca

Giving her a soft kiss on her nose, I release her face and take her hands. “Baby… what in the hell are you doing here? And why the hell didn’t you tell me you were coming?”

Her grin gets bigger. “It would sort of defeat the purpose of a surprise, right?”

Deep, hot kissing is out but hugging isn’t. My arms shoot around her waist, and I pull her into me hard. Putting my face in her neck, I breathe out, “God, I love you.”

Holly’s body jerks in surprise but immediately melts into me further. Her arms grip me tighter… her voice is thick with emotion. “I love you, too.”

It’s the first time we’ve said those exact words since we were eighteen years old, and I realize the power of them is magnified immensely just by sheer virtue of everything we’ve been through to get us to this point in our lives.

I don’t feel a need, though, to make a big deal out of those words. They simply are the truth. Something we’ve both known in our hearts.

Instead, I pull back from her and ask her one more time. “What are you doing here? And how long can you stay?”

“How about forever?” she asks, her eyes shining bright.

“What?” I ask carefully, my breath caught in my chest. Afraid to hope.

“I just had a job interview at St. Joseph’s on Long Island that went amazingly well. So amazing, in fact, that they offered it to me. I start in three weeks.”

My knees almost buckle from the complete euphoria coursing through me. “Please tell me you’re not kidding.”

“I’m not kidding,” she says as she leans back into me.

“But how? How did this happen so fast? We just talked yesterday, and you didn’t say a word.”

She’s quiet… her hands rubbing my lower back. I can sense hesitation in her, so I prompt her, “Holly?”

“My father helped me,” she says quietly.

I pull back from her, taking her by her elbows and leaning back to look at her. “What?”

“He pulled some strings. Got me the interview. I just found out about it two days ago. I didn’t tell you yesterday because I wanted to surprise you with a visit, regardless of how the interview went.”

“Your father helped you,” I murmur in wonder. Clearing my throat, I ask, “He just helped you out of the blue?”

“No,” she says with a wince. “I called my mom and asked her if he would, and apparently, he did. I haven’t talked to him, but she called me with the details and told me they wanted to meet with me right away. I hopped a plane here this morning and just finished the interview about an hour ago. They offered me the job on the spot.”