I can’t answer because I’m too surprised, too disappointed.
He waves before he’s out the door and I pull a sheet up to cover myself, not that there’s anyone to see me.Just because I’ve never felt so naked.I stare through my empty apartment, my heart pounding.
He hopes it was good for me?
What the hell does that mean?
Wow.I know exactly what it means.It means I’m a kinky hookup.
Blaze has a life—friends to see.Stuff to do.I actually know nothing about the guy other than that he’s a captain at the fire station.
And why does it feel like he knows everything about me?Because I laid myself bare to him.Let him in, let him humble me.
I let things go way too fast.He was right about one thing—I was playing with fire.
And now it feels like I just got burned.No, not burned.I don’t have enough information to know to what extent I’ve been used.Or how far he intends for this to go.
I’ve been singed, then.
I reach for a book of matches and turn it over in my hands.Striking matches really isn’t that bad a habit.It’s not like smoking, or drinking or cutting.It doesn’t damage my body.
But the vision of my childhood home in flames flashes in front of my eyes.
I toss the matches on the bedside table.It’s not because he told me not to.
It’s because I’m stronger than this.
This is my choice.
Chapter8
Blaze
The team is out at the grocery store together, shopping for our shared meals when we get a call, which sucks.We leave our carts while Rocket promises the manager we’ll be back and we jump in the truck.
The fire is another abandoned building.
“It’s the same kid,” Lia says with absolute conviction as she pulls up and lines up the truck with the hydrant.
“What makes you think it’s a kid?”
She shrugs, already slipping out the door.“I just do,” she shouts as she jogs to the back of the truck.
I get on with my job of assessing the situation and giving orders, and I don’t have time to think of it again until I hear a shout and see Lia take off running—without a hose.
And then I see what she’s running after.Orwho, I should say.It’s a kid—you can tell by the slender limbs, although he’s as tall as she is.
The teen, who’d been hiding around the corner of the building across the alley, sprints away.
Lia follows in hot pursuit.
Sonofabitch.
I run, too, because the only thought in my brain is the kid might have a weapon and she’s going to get herself killed.Fear grips my throat.
Lia runs hard and fast, but the kid had quite a head start.He rounds the bend long before she does.I catch her before she rounds another bend.
“Get your ass back to the fire!”I snarl down the block.She’s headed in that direction, but if she’s still chasing the perp, I’m going to wring her neck.
