How to Seduce a Fireman: HarperImpulse Contemporary Romance (5 page)

A swath of sunlight burned Cassie’s eyelids while some evil fiend inside her head, armed with a blowtorch, scorched her brain cells. She rolled away from part of the source of her discomfort and met Mr. Hangover, the booze beast, the harbinger of queasy stomachs and banger headaches. A long groan escaped as she covered her ears to keep them from tumbling off her head. She pried her eyelids a crack and noted blue and white striped sheets. Where was she?

Toenails clattered on the steps. Einstein, who must have heard her groan, charged around the corner into the bedroom, jumped on the bed and licked her face, whining a wail of concern.

“I’m okay, buddy. Just don’t jar the bed, please.” Her hand slipped from the covers to pet Becca’s German shepherd. How did she end up here? Where were her clothes? Memories of last night slowly crept into her muddled mind.

Quinn.

She’d thrown up and he’d rushed her to his Jeep as if she was about to disintegrate into a bazillion bits of barf residue. He’d kissed her forehead and murmured words of comfort. Then he’d put her shoes on her feet after wiping off the sand. Her hand covered her eyes, gently, because they were about to pop out of her head and roll down her cheeks.
I certainly know how to make a good impression, don’t I?

Footsteps trunked up the steps. “Cassie? You up?”

She gasped and snatched the covers over her head. “Stop yelling, Wolf. And don’t come in, I’m not decent.”

“You’ve got ten minutes to shower and get dressed. Becca’s at work, but she put some clean clothes on the vanity in the bathroom for you. I’m making breakfast and then we’re talking. Don’t dawdle.”

“God, I feel like I’m fourteen again.” How many times had he told her not to poke around, and how often had she done it just to hear him growl. After her parents died, he’d become her rock, her security.

Footsteps sounded on the steps as Wolf descended. “Hell, if you were fourteen, you’d be grounded and on some serious-assed restrictions. Ten minutes and counting.”

She rustled under the covers and scratched behind Einstein’s ears again. “Big man doesn’t scare us, does he?”

Einstein whined and licked her face.

A pink wrapped gift on the nightstand caught her eye. Was it for her? Or was it something Wolf had left for Becca? But why would he put it here and not in Becca’s bedroom? She reached for the oblong package and fingered the silver ribbon. A small gift tag read
“To Cassie, from Quinn. Happy Birthday, Peanut.”

Her heart rate kicked into the happy-to-be-me category. He’d bought her a gift. Even if it was something cheap and goofy, he’d thought enough of her to buy it and have it wrapped. So why didn’t he bring it to her birthday party? Her eyes narrowed. Oh yeah, his mystery female visitor.

Pushing that thought aside, she slid the metallic ribbon off the box. No way could he have wrapped it so carefully. She slid her fingernail along the taped edge and folded back the iridescent pink paper. The embossed logo on the white jeweler’s box impressed her. Had Quinn really gone to
Zales
to buy her a gift? She snapped the lid open and gasped. From a delicate gold chain dangled a filigree heart pendant. An angel nestled within the open scrollwork edging the heart. Small brilliant diamonds covered the angel’s outstretched wings.

She blinked back tears. “Oh, Quinn, you
do
care. No matter what you say, you do care.” When he’d kissed her last night, he’d called her his angel. Is this how he thought of her? As an angel who’d wormed her way into his heart? She slid two fingers beneath the pendant, the warmth of the gold soaking into her skin like the sun’s rays on a bright June day. So beautiful. So fragile-looking and yet solid, just like her feelings for him.

She pressed the white box to her heart and sighed. Her first jewelry gift from a man, and the man was Quinn.

Einstein sniffed what she held and then laid his chin on her shoulder, his black eyes studying her. She ran a finger between his eyes and down his muzzle. “I have an admirer. He’s just too scared to admit it yet. Poor schmuck.” She giggled with glee and the dog licked her face. “Poor chicken shit schmuck.” The canine’s tail beat a happy rhythm on the bed.

“Cassie? Six minutes and thirty seconds!”

Her brother’s booming voice snagged the dog’s attention and he growled deep in his throat.

She placed a hand on Einstein’s head. “Doesn’t that man know I have a hangover? Why does he have to yell?”

The German shepherd woofed once. He bounded off the bed, charged to the top of the steps and barked as if he were saying, “Shut the hell up! Woman with a hangover up here!”

“Six damn minutes! Einstein? Want some kibble?” Toenails jangled down the stairway. Evidently the canine’s stomach overrode being chivalrous.

Cassie placed the gift from Quinn back on the nightstand and slowly sat, willing her aching body to cooperate. Just to prove Wolf didn’t scare her with his macho bossiness, she took ten minutes to shower, dress and put on her angel necklace. Although if she were honest, she had to move slower than normal to lessen the effects of the Westminster chimes gonging in her head—in triplicate. If she lived through this hangover, she’d never drink booze again.

Wolf sat at Becca’s dining room table, his rigid body posture familiar. He was about to give her holy hell. His narrow-eyed gaze swept to her before he pointed to the chair next to him. “Tomato juice. Drink. Coffee. Drink. Fried eggs. Eat.”

She pointed to him. “Mouth. Close.”

“Don’t fu…play with me, Cassie. I’m not in the mood. You had no business doing shots and getting shitfaced.”

A long-suffering sigh escaped. “I’m twenty-one. I can drink if I want.”

He crossed his arms and assumed his faux-father bearing. “Being twenty-one also carries a passel of responsibilities, young lady.”

Oh God, he was dragging out the “young lady” speech. She gulped the tomato juice and choked. “Holy hell, what’s in this?”

“Two raw eggs, minced garlic, Tabasco sauce and a shot of whiskey.” He had the audacity to wink. “Hair-o-the-dawg. It’ll cure what ails ya.” He made a wiggling motion with his fingertips. “Drink up.”

“Will I feel better or worse?” She forced down a little more and her stomach churned and clenched. Then she noticed his winking expression continued. She tilted her head and studied him. “What’s wrong with your eye?” His broad hand rose to cover it and she coiled her fingers around his wrist to yank it back. For a few seconds they played tug-of-war in the air until he relented and relaxed his muscles.

She stood and leaned over him, peering closely at his face. “Wolf, your eye is swollen. It’s turning black and blue.” Her fingers lightly traced the curve of his face. “Your cheek is bruised and your bottom lip is split. Are these work-related injuries?” His silence was telling; so was the fact he wouldn’t make eye contact. “Were you in a fight?” This was so unlike her brother. “What on earth happened?”

“Quinn’s fist and I had an intimate conversation.”

“Quinn did this?” She collapsed in her chair and sipped more of the doctored tomato juice. “Why?” Quinn and her brother were close. Sure they teased, but never got out of hand with it. If either one needed help, the other one was there in a heartbeat.

Wolf gulped his coffee and slung an arm over the back of the chair. “I was pushing him. Trying to find out his true feelings about you.”

Her hand covered the golden angel pendant. “And?”

He pointed to her eggs. “Eat those before they get any colder than they already have.”

What had Wolf said to Quinn to set him off? Knowing her brother, if she didn’t eat, he’d never tell her. She shoveled in a couple of bites and washed them down with coffee. Just to be sure he’d answer her questions, she drank most of the god-awful tomato juice, gagging a time or two. She blotted her lips with the napkin and tossed it at him.

Wolf snatched it mid-air, his normal smirk somewhat crooked since his cracked lower lip grew puffier by the minute.

“Okay, I’ve done like you asked. Now, it’s your turn to tell me what happened between the two of you.” She hoped their friendship wasn’t ruined because of her. In some ways, Wolf and Quinn were as close as brothers.

Wolf leaned back in his chair, the front legs rising from the floor. “I’ve always suspected how Quinn felt about you, but after the way he spoke to you yesterday, I wasn’t sure. Becca overheard him whispering some things to you after he’d put you to bed last night.”

“What kind of things?” So Quinn had put her to bed. Had he taken off her clothes? No biggie, really. They’d gone swimming together before, so seeing her in a bra and thong wasn’t the end of the world. Perhaps with another man, yes, but not with Quinn. Still, what had Becca overheard him saying to her?

“You’ll have to ask Becca.”

She crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes at her brother. Damn, he could be so annoying. “If you know, why can’t you just tell me?”

Wolf stood to retrieve the coffee carafe. He filled his mug and then topped off hers, before setting the empty pot on the table. “Because.” He slumped in the chair and brought his mug partway to his lips. “Conversations between a couple are private. You’ll learn that one day.” He slurped his coffee and shook his head. “Okay, sis, here’s the thing…” He ran a hand across the back of his neck and exhaled a long sigh. “Quinn turned in his notice this morning. He’s leaving the station, and Florida.”

Cold fingers of panic clutched her lungs and wrung every centimeter of air from their spongy honeycomb confines. Leaving Florida? No, he couldn’t. Not her Quinn! “He what?”

“He’s leaving. He’s freaking scared and he’s running. The man’s in love with you.” Wolf pointed to his face. “The fact he attacked me when I teased him about the guys at the station coming on to you after he leaves proves that. I wasn’t sure before, but I am now. The thought of another man touching you drove him freaking crazy.”

Her index finger caressed her angel necklace. “Why move away? I don’t understand.” Maybe Wolf didn’t either. If she wanted answers, she needed to go to the source. “I’m going to his place. We need to talk.” A thousand things, like grains of sand, sifted through her mind. “I’ve waited on that man for three years.”

“Three?”

She stood, gathering her dirty dishes and silverware. “That’s right. I fell in love with him when I was eighteen, but I sensed the situation was hopeless. For one, he treated me as if I were too young. And number two, would you have allowed me to date him?”

“When you’d just turned eighteen? Hell to the no. He’s seven years older than you, which might not be so bad now, but not then.” The sharp tone of his voice caused Einstein to whine.

“Exactly. So, like a good baby sister, I waited until I turned twenty-one.” Meanwhile, she’d done the responsible thing. She’d earned her associates degree in business and then her cosmetology license. “If he thinks he’s getting away from me now, he doesn’t know how damn determined a Wolford can be.” She charged into the kitchen, began loading the dishwasher and spun to shake a fork at Wolf. “I will hunt that man down.”

Her brother followed and placed his hands on her shoulders. “Listen to me, now. Something happened to Quinn in his past. I don’t know what it was, but I get the gut feeling it was bad.” He turned her to face him. “
Real
bad, Cassie. I’m guessing it was job-related, yet I get the feeling some parts of it were personal and have warped how or why he can’t handle his feelings for you.” His brown eyes bore into hers. “If anyone can tear down the walls he’s built, I’m thinking it’s you. If anyone can show him how to feel again after some catastrophe, sis, it’s you.”

Tears pooled. “You’re talking about my cutting.” She extended her arms, studying for the millionth time the faint scars scoring her flesh from her wrists to the bend of her elbows. Because she hadn’t been home the night the arsonist started the fire that killed their parents, she’d blamed herself. The worst part was she had lied. Told her mom and dad she was at a friend’s pajama party when, instead, she and Renee, both barely thirteen, had gone to a party with some older kids. Her sense of culpability numbed her and she began cutting herself to feel pain.

His hand trailed over her hair. “Don’t go back to your dark place, Cassie.” Her brother knew her too well, could read her body language. “A lot of kids lie about where they’re going. Doesn’t make it right, but it happens. Hell, I did it a time or two, myself. The fire was not your fault. You know that.”

She nodded. After a couple of years of counseling and an intervention by her siblings, she’d finally released the guilt. “So you think Quinn’s in the same emotional place I was? He’s always joking and acting a fool.”

“Yes, but sometimes a man wears a mask, especially when he can’t face the man in the mirror. I bet you dollars to donuts, he’s using the laughing disguise to hide his pain. He’s a good man, sis. Beneath all the smart-ass attitude, he’s a decent sort. Loyal. I’d want him guarding my six any day.”

She studied him for a few beats. “What’s changed your mind?”

He snatched two sugar cookies from the cookie jar, shoved one in his mouth and tossed one up for Einstein to catch mid-air. “Some things men just don’t discuss, you know?”

She poked a finger into his stomach. “You are so full of that macho shit.”

Her brother grinned before he enveloped her in his arms for a hug. “Yeah, but my woman digs it.”

“Well, not your sister.” She punched him lightly in the shoulder and he laughed. Still, what Wolf said made sense. If Quinn was hiding behind a false face of humor, he’d never heal. Hadn’t she’d learned that during her intense, often agonizing, counseling sessions? The man she loved would always hurt. Her heart ached for him. If anyone knew the hopelessness of that kind of emotional torment, it was her.

She had to convince Quinn to stay, to face his demons. If he moved away, he’d take a large piece of her soul with him. Her stomach swirled and twisted like a cyclone, the resulting pain making her gulp for air. She couldn’t deal with the loss of him or the dream of a shared future.

By damn, she wouldn’t allow it.