“Yeah.” He patted my ass and sat back down, taking a drink from his water bottle before grabbing the weights once more. It was another causal gesture, like he just wanted to touch me and didn’t need an excuse. I just continued to stand in front of him.
“I didn’t mean to bother you during your workout.”
“You’re not.” He started his reps again, and I realized that he had moved to the edge of his chair and with every curl of his bicep, brought his upper body a little closer to mine. “You’re inspiring me.” A wicked grin lined his lips and on the next curl, he nipped my hip bone.
I jumped from the little bite, heat instantly rising.
“I keep thinking about the other day in the woods,” he said. “Can’t jog through there anymore without getting turned on by every damn tree I see. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to run with a hard on?”
I laughed and he bit my hip again.
“It’s not funny. I may never be able to go outside again.”
“Oh, you poor thing,” I said with exaggeration and straddled his lap. He instantly dropped the weights and those big hands landed heavy on my ass. “I never meant to ruin you.”
“Well, that’s what you’re doing.” He pressed his lips against mine, his tongue tracing the seam, and I opened for him. Wasting no time, he tasted what I had to give him and moaned. “Yeah…you’re about to ruin this room for me too, Kitten.”
“Then I better get going.”
His grip tightened. “I didn’t say that was a bad thing. In fact, we should see how many rooms around here we can ruin.”
Cupping his face, I kissed his little grin and eased away. “I just wanted to stop by and say hi and thank you for setting me up with your aunt.”
“Of course.” He tilted his head, those baby blues never leaving my face. “Something else wrong?”
“I’ve just been thinking more about Monday. It’s almost here. I’m going to tell Erica, and every time I try to think of the right thing to say, nothing seems…right.”
“That’s because what happened to you isn’t right, and this is a fucked up situation. But you’re dealing with it and doing the right thing.”
An alarm blasted loudly throughout the entire firehouse.
Cal listened to the dispatcher come across the speakers with some code I didn’t understand. He cursed under his breath and stood, gently sliding me off his lap and standing me to my feet.
“Car accident. I’ve got to run, Kitten.”
I nodded and he took off out the door and down the hall toward the trucks.
“Hey, you wanna see your boy in action? He’s driving today,” Dave hollered as he ran past me, motioning me to follow. So I did. I’d never seen firemen jump to a call before.
I stood at the edge of the garage, out of the way, and watched how all of them worked like a well-oiled machine. Cal stripped down to his boxer briefs, just like the rest of the guys, and jumped into his boots and pants and had them up with his jacket and helmet on in five seconds flat.
Cal hustled to the driver side of the truck, then caught my eye.
“I’m here, Kitten. Whenever you need me. But you’ve got this,” he yelled over the sirens and climbed into the big truck. The ladder he once took me on proudly rested atop the truck.
With that, they took off, Dave and Mark waving from the back seat, while Cal drove the massive rig into the night.
He was so strong, so capable, and he believed in me.
I’ve got this…
~
It was finally Monday. A day I’d been anxiously dreading. With Harper gone for the holidays and Cal working the past several days, I’d spent the majority of my time alone, thinking of how to approach Erica.
There was no better way than to just come out and say it.
I walked into Erica’s office and saw her sitting behind her desk.