Billionaire On Fire: The Complete Series (A Bad Boy Alpha Billionaire Romance) (4 page)

CHAPTER
EIGHT

Alex

Several
days later, Liz and I were in the basement
pulling backup supplies for the ER when Mrs. Rikka cornered us.

"Ladies, I've had some
complaints about the way in which you've handled some of the patients who've
come into the ER," she said looking down at her clipboard then back up at
us expectantly.

"I'm sorry, Mrs.
Rikka," I said. "What were the complaints?"

"Apparently you treated
a firefighter yourself?" she said raising an eyebrow. "Is this
correct, Miss Pierce?"

"Oh no, ma'am," I
said shaking my head vigorously. "I simply went to the back room to get
him some gauze and he followed me."

"And why did you allow
him to follow you?" Mrs. Rikka asked. "You are aware that you are not
licensed to treat patients in any way, aren't you, Miss Pierce?"

"Yes, ma'am," I
said feeling the heat creeping up into my face as I tried to explain what had
happened. "I didn't allow him to follow me, he just did."

"Miss Pierce, when you
are working in my hospital, you are expected to follow the rules set out by the
board of hospital administrators who are far more knowledgeable and experienced
than you are," she said sharply as she tapped out a staccato rhythm on her
clipboard. "I expect that you will do what is expected of you and that I
will not have to reprimand you again regarding your treatment of patients in
this hospital. Right now, you are an intern who is here gaining experience
through observation. You are never ever to treat a patient."

"But I didn't--," I
protested.

"Do not argue with me,
Miss Pierce," Mrs. Rikka said cutting me off. "Simply acknowledge
that you've made a mistake and move forward."

"Yes, ma'am," I
said quietly.

Liz cleared her throat and I
quickly grabbed her arm and squeezed it to stop her from letting loose with
what I knew would be a torrent of choice words.

"And as for you, Miss
Baker," Mrs. Rikka turned her attention to Liz with narrowed eyes.
"You have been reported as hanging around the pharmacy far too often.
While you are on the ER rotation, you are to stay in the ER unless you are sent
out of the department for a specific reason. Do you understand?"

"Yes, ma'am," Liz
choked out reluctantly as I dug my nails into the soft underside of her arm.
"I do."

"Good, I'm glad we've
resolved these issues," Mrs. Rikka said as she turned to go. "Now, quickly
gather your supplies and get back upstairs. There was an apartment fire over on
the West Side and we're going to be getting a flood of patients in the next
twenty to thirty minutes."

"Yes, ma'am," we
said in unison as we quickly returned to the task of gathering supplies.

"I wonder if that hottie
you were talking to is going to be back today," Liz grinned as she grabbed
a handful of tape rolls and threw them in the basket.

"Liz!" I said as I
felt the blush rising in my cheeks again. Secretly, I hoped that Cam Connor
would be coming through the ER today because I hadn't been able to get him out
of my thoughts since we had met.

I felt a little ashamed of my
attraction to him since I knew he was probably a player who chatted up women
all over town. A guy that good looking most likely had a string of women and I
didn’t want to be lumped in with all the others, but I still wanted to see him
again. I muttered under my breath, "Not like he's been thinking about
me."

"What did you say,
Alex?" Liz asked. "Are you talking to me?"

"Nothing," I
mumbled. "Just thinking out loud."

"About the
firefighter?" Liz grinned. "Damn, girl, he was a big, strong, Irish
lad! Don't you want to be his lassie?"

"Liz, where on earth do
you come up with this stuff?" I laughed as I rolled the cart around and
scanned the supply room one last time to make sure we hadn't forgotten
anything.

"Look, I like the boys,
and I'm not ashamed of it," Liz declared her voice echoing in the cement
room. She twirled around on her toes as she grabbed supplies from the shelves
and then approximated being en point as she placed the items in the cart. Only
Liz could pull off fake ballet moves in a basement supply room. "I think you
should own it, Alex. He's a hot guy and you're a gorgeous, young nursing
student. I mean, you can't make this stuff up!"

"You are impossible,
Elizabeth Baker," I said rolling my eyes while secretly hoping she was
right. Cam Connor was a handsome man, and I was definitely attracted to him. I
just didn't want to be another notch on his bedpost. Or did I?

"That I won't
deny," Liz smiled. "But I'm also right much of the time. Mark my
words, that boy will be back to see you."

"What are you, psychic
now?" I laughed as we pushed the cart into the elevator and headed back up
to the ER.

"Psychic or
psycho," Liz shrugged. "Same diff, different day!"

Back up in the ER, we found
organized chaos as the staff prepped for the incoming injured patients. Liz and
I quickly stocked each exam area with as much gauze as it could hold and then
went back to the back room to grab IV bags. The charge nurse warned us that
burn injuries were pretty gruesome, and that if we felt sick or dizzy, we were
to immediately step away from whatever treatment area we were observing.

"We can't afford to have
to deal with you or your concussion, too," she smiled. I nodded and turned
to ask Liz if she was going to be okay only to find she had disappeared. I
frowned, but figured she'd found an intern to latch onto for the duration of
our shift, so I followed the charge nurse to the outside ambulance bay and
waited with her for the first ambulance to arrive.

Our first patient arrived a
few minutes later, followed in rapid succession by several more ambulances with
the most severe cases while the police brought some of the lesser burns in
their squad cars. For the first few minutes, my stomach felt queasy and my head
felt light, but soon I was put to work retrieving cooling blankets and
medications from the pharmacy and was able to switch my brain from observer to
helper.

Several hours later, I looked
up and caught a glimpse of a man I thought was Cam, but turned out to be from
another station and I felt the disappointment envelop me. I hadn't realized how
much I wanted to see Cam Connor until I realized I wasn't going to get to see
him. I sighed loudly and attracted the attention of the charge nurse.

"You okay, Alex?"
she asked. "It's overwhelming, I know. But this is the reality of the job.
All or nothing."

"No, that's fine,
ma'am," I said as I looked around the ER and counted how many patients
we'd seen. "It's just..."

"It's just that the cute
fireman you had you eye on hasn't rotated in?" she smiled with a twinkle
in her eye. I blushed so red that I could feel my face burning without reaching
up to touch it. She dropped her voice and said, "It's okay, Alex. We've
all been there. And if someone says they haven't been, then they're
lying."

"Yes, ma'am," I
nodded swallowing hard to cover my embarrassment.

"And you can call me
Leslie," she said. "This ma'am stuff is making me feel old as
hell."

I smiled gratefully as I
nodded again and looked around for Liz. I hadn't seen her all afternoon, and I
had no idea where she'd disappeared.

 
"Have you seen Liz lately?" I asked
Leslie.

"Last time I saw her she
was with the team in Trauma One," Leslie said without looking up from the
chart she was updating. I thanked her and walked down the hall to the room. I
peeked in and found Liz sitting on the counter next to the sink talking to one
of the residents who'd joined the ER the same day we had.

"Alex!" Liz cried.
"Come see what this crazy mofo can do in the sink!"

"Liz? Are you
okay?" I asked slowly walking across the room. I could see that Liz's eyes
were dilated and she was talking a mile a minute as she watched the resident
washing things in the sink.

"Yeah, I'm great! Look
at all this shiny stuff!" she said waving her arm out across the sink full
of silver instruments. "Aren't they pretty?"

"Liz, we need to get
back out on the floor," I said looking at the resident who appeared to be
moving in slow motion. "C'mon, let's go."

Liz hopped off of the
counter, walked over and grabbed my hand before dragging me out the door and
skipping down the hallway. I eyed her suspiciously knowing that this was not
normal behavior. Not even for Liz.

"Don't be a worry wart,
Alex," she said as she patted my head. "I'm fine, I'm just a little
tired and kind of loopy after the all-night studying session and then this
shift."

"If you're sure..."
I said trailing off unconvinced as Leslie came around the corner and announced
that our shift was over.

Liz and I headed to the
locker room to gather our things before we stepped outside and found that it
had snowed all day. The city was covered in a fresh blanket of pure, white snow,
making it look clean and new. Liz scooped up a handful and threw it at me laughing
as she ran away. I dropped my backpack on the sidewalk, scooped up a handful of
snow and dashed after her laughing as I ran. We threw snowballs at each other
in the yard until we were exhausted from laughing while ducking from the flying
snow.

"Truce!" Liz called
as she walked over and stuffed a handful of snow down the back of my coat. I
screamed in protest as she laughed before dropping to the ground and proceeding
to make a snow angel. Once she’d finished and was satisfied with the results,
we headed back to where we'd dropped our things only to find our backpacks were
gone.

"Oh no!" I moaned
as I looked around. I was cursing myself for being so careless when I heard a
familiar voice.

"Did you ladies leave
your things unattended?" a male voice asked. I turned and found myself
face to face with Cam Connor.
 

CHAPTER
NINE

Cam

"
Hello
, Alex Pierce," I smiled as I
handed her one of the two backpacks I was holding.

"Nice try," she
laughed and reached for the other one before asking, "What are you doing
here?"

"Well, that's a nice way
to greet a guy who rescued your belongings from certain theft," I said
still smiling at her. She looked even more beautiful than I remembered, with
her hair covered in snow and eyes shining.

"Sorry," she
quickly replied as she turned and handed the second backpack to the friend who
had been pelting her with snowballs moments before. "This is Liz Baker.
Liz, this is Cam Connor. You remember him, don't you?"

"Nope not at all,"
the other girl grinned as she stuck out a hand. "But it's nice to meet you
just the same, Cam Connor."

"It's nice to meet you,
Liz Baker," I said as I shook her hand and let her give me the once-over.
I could tell she was suspicious and I didn't blame her a bit. If the situation
had been reversed and it had been Leo, I would have done the exact same thing.

"What are you doing
here, Cam?" Alex asked again.

"Well, I just...I came
by...," I stammered suddenly realizing that I didn't have a prepared
excuse because I wasn't expecting to have needed one.

"You're here because you
wanted to see Alex again," Liz said bluntly. "It's cool, Cam. She
wanted to see you, too"

"Liz!" Alex gasped
and then blushed a deep shade of red. "You're not supposed to say
that!"

"Why not?" Liz
shrugged looking back and forth between Alex and I. "It's true, isn't
it?"

"Yeah, it is," I
admitted deciding it was better to tell the truth now that I'd been caught.
"I wanted to come see you again and not have to rush off to another
call."

"I'm glad," Alex
smiled at me before shooting Liz a semi-dirty look. "I wanted to see you,
too."

"All right, now that
we've gotten that established, are the two of you going to agree to go have
dinner together?" Liz asked looking at her phone before looking back up at
the two of us. "I've got a date at seven, so I need to get going,
kids."

"Would you like to go to
dinner with me, Alex?" I asked, feeling self-conscious about being put on
the spot to do what I'd come here to do.

"I'd...yes, I'd like
that," Alex nodded. Her face was still tinged with a light shade of pink
from the blush that was slowly fading. She looked up at me with a slight frown,
saying, "But I'm not really dressed for a date."

"No problem, we can go
somewhere casual," I suggested. "Maybe somewhere close to the
hospital so that you don't feel out of place?"

"I'm going to leave the
two of you to negotiate this on your own," Liz said as she slung her
backpack over her shoulders and turned toward the street.

"Do you want a ride?' I
called as she trudged through the snow.

"Nah, I'm good, I've got
a cab coming," she called as she waved. As she reached the street, a cab
pulled up and we watched as Liz climbed in.
 
I felt a little nervous now that our buffer was gone.

"Are you hungry?" I
asked as I looked down at the pretty young woman in front of me.

"Honestly, I'm
starving," she said. "We didn't get much of a lunch break today
because the ER was so busy."

"Then how about we go
get a couple of big, juicy burgers and some beer to help rectify that?" I
asked as I turned and gestured toward where my truck was parked. "I'm over
on the side street."

"That sounds like a
great plan," Alex nodded as she turned and started walking in the
direction I'd pointed to.

Halfway down the walk, her
foot hit a patch of ice and she slipped. I quickly reached out and wrapped an
arm around her to keep her from falling.

"Oh!" she gasped as
I held her tightly for a few seconds longer than absolutely necessary before
setting her back on her feet. She turned and looked up at me, "Thank you,
Cam. I guess it's a little more slippery than I thought it would be
tonight."

"No problem," I
smiled as I held out my arm so she could hold on to it. "That's what your
friendly neighborhood firefighter is here for."

Alex laughed out loud as she
gripped my arm and walked a little more cautiously. At the truck, I unlocked
the door and helped her up into the cab before hopping up into the driver's
seat.

"This is a really nice
truck. It's so modern," she said looking at the dashboard, which had the
appearance of the control panel for a small aircraft. "These things must
cost a fortune!"

"It's all in the
financing," I laughed as I sidestepped the issue of money for now. It
wasn't that I wanted to hide the fact that I had money, it was more that before
I'd learned to be careful about who I let into my life; I'd been burned and had
emerged wiser in the way I allowed women to know things about me. Now, when I
went out on dates, I tried to give the impression that I was a normal guy
rather than trying to impress my dates with how much money I could spend on
them.

"I guess it would have
to be, wouldn't it?" she nodded as she ran her hands across the smooth
leather seats and then let out a little laugh as she realized the seats were
warming up. "Oh my, now that's nice! I wish they had this feature on the
buses!"

"If they did, no one
would ever get off of them," I observed as I backed out of the parking
space and headed toward my favorite downtown pub. "Is O'Neil's on Wells
okay with you?"

"I've never been
there," she said. "Do they have good burgers?"

"The best in the
city!" I said as I headed down Van Buren. "Do you live
downtown?"

"I have an apartment
near campus," she nodded. "It's small and a little cramped, but it's
convenient for school and work. Do you live downtown?"

"I have a house over on
the West side," I said not wanting to be too specific. "Just me and
my dog."

"Oh, what kind of dog do
you have?" she asked as she squirmed a little in her seat. The movement of
her hips made me very aware of the fact that it had been a long time since I'd
seen, let alone felt, a woman moving like that, and the blood began to flow
from my brain.

"Um, what?" I said
trying to pretend that I'd been concentrating on finding a parking spot rather
than on fantasizing about what it would feel like to have her squirming like
that on top of me.

"Dog? What kind?"
she repeated as I pulled into a spot and parked the truck.

"She's a yellow Lab. I
got her from the pound," I said as I looked across the street and said,
"We're here!"

"Oh good, I'm
starving!" Alex said as she hopped out of the truck and waited for me.

The bar was mostly empty,
save for a few of the regulars, so we found a table at the front and quickly
placed our order. I grabbed the beers from the bar and got a knowing wink from
Billy the bartender before returning to the table.

Alex was a lively
conversationalist, and after she grilled me about how I found Tesla, we quickly
fell into a discussion of career choices and the ups and downs of public
service. In addition to being pretty, she had a good head on her shoulders, and
I immediately felt comfortable with her. But not comfortable enough to reveal
the secrets I'd learned to hold close to my chest. I'd have to wait and see if
this turned into anything before deciding whether to let Alex in to that part
of my life.

"...So I told the guy
that while I wasn't sure where he came from, where I came from hands were meant
to be kept to oneself," she laughed before popping the last bite of her
burger into her mouth.

"It sounds like you've
got a good sense of humor," I laughed. "That's going to be a really
good asset as you move into nursing."

"I know," she
nodded. "My mother was a nurse and she always said that if she ever lost
her sense of humor, she'd know it was time to get out of the field."

"She sounds like wise
woman," I said. "Does she live in Chicago, too?"

"Um, no," Alex said
looking down at the table and for the first time becoming quiet. In a low
voice, she said, "She passed away a few years ago."
 

"I'm so sorry," I
said reaching out to touch her hand. Alex pulled back before looking up and
nodding.

"Thanks. Me, too,"
she said letting me know that the topic wasn't open for discussion. I
understood wanting to keep things compartmentalized and respected it, so I
changed the subject and started talking about the firehouse. After a few
minutes of my monologue, Alex relaxed and began asking questions about how
everything worked.

"Do you want a tour of
the station?" I asked.

"Oh gosh, I'd love
that!" she said. "But can you do that when you're on duty?"

"I'm not on duty
now," I said. "And we're right next door, so now's as good a time as
any."

I paid the bill over her
protests that we should split it telling her that next time she could pick up
the check, but that I was raised to be a gentleman, and since I'd asked her out
it was my treat. She laughed and said she appreciated the logic of my answer,
and promised that she'd treat me next time. I liked the sound of that -- next
time.

We walked next door and found
that the crew was just sitting down to dinner after a routine call to a medical
emergency. I waved to the guys and told them that I was just taking a new
nursing student on a tour so she could see how we operated, and after a few
teasing comments, proceeded to do just that.

"Do you guys really
slide down a pole from the top floor or is that just a Hollywood thing?"
she asked as I showed her the bunkroom upstairs.

"No, we really do slide
down if we're up here sleeping," I laughed. "Want to try it?"

"Can I?" she asked
looking up at me with her eyes shining again. I found myself unable to look
away as I nodded. I stepped closer to her holding my breath and knowing that
there was nothing in the world I wanted more right at that moment than to kiss
her.
 

Alex held my gaze as I lifted
my hand up and softly cupped her cheek before bending down and lightly brushing
my lips across hers. I heard a soft hum escape her lips as she pressed back
against mine and kissed me harder. She rested her hands on my chest as I pulled
her closer and continued kissing her. I could feel the blood rushing away from
my brain as my pants became tighter. My thoughts raced as I felt her tongue
gently flicking my bottom lip before she gently bit it.

I wanted her. I wanted her there
and then, and just as I was about to make a choice that would not have been a
good one, the station alarm sounded and the familiar voice said, "Engine
One, Truck One, Ambulance Fifty-Five, car fire at the intersection of LaSalle
Street and Wacker Drive. Two people trapped."

"Alex, I'm sorry,"
I said as I stepped back and searched her face for signs of disappointment.
"I think we need to go."

"Yes," she nodded
slowly. "I need to get home and study for the exam I have later this
week."
 

"Are you okay?" I
asked.

"Yeah, fine," she
said not giving anything away before she put on a bright smile and said,
"Let's go, shall we?"

I led her out of the station
and we stood and watched as the trucks took off toward the call.

"It's pretty
impressive," she said as she climbed into the truck and fastened her
seatbelt.

"Yeah, I've been on the
job for ten years, and I still feel that same overwhelming pride every time I
climb up on the truck to go to a call," I nodded. "Most of the guys
do, and the ones who don't are the ones who know it's time to get out."

"I imagine it's that way
with any career, or anything at all, don't you?" she asked. "If
you're not excited about it, then what's the point?"

"Good point," I
nodded as I started the truck. "Where can I drop you off?"

She gave me her address and I
drove her home in an oddly comfortable silence. I pulled up in front of her
building and prepared to walk her to her door.

"No, it's okay,"
she said pointing to a second floor balcony. "My apartment is right there,
you don't need to escort me."

"Alex, I really enjoyed
this," I began uncertain if she wanted to see me again.

"I did, too, Cam,"
she smiled. "Next time it's my treat, though. Don't forget."

"Okay, that's good to
know," I said before adding, "But, um, could I get your phone
number?"

"Huh?" she replied.

"If we're going to go
out again, I'd rather call you to arrange it than having to take a chance on
running into you at the hospital," I said as she burst into laughter.