Firefighter's Virgin

“Yeah, I have. I was talking to, uh, a friend about it the other day, and it got me thinking.” Thank God that he missed the slight hesitation before the word friend.

“Well, I’m happy to hear it.” He really did look happy. Or maybe it was relief that I wasn’t throwing his dream away. Who knew? “If you need anything, just contact my office, and I’ll have Olivia take care of it.”

Nice. Of course, he would ask his receptionist to take care of it. I wanted to get out of there, so I didn’t call him on it. “Thanks, Dad.”

We said our goodbyes, and I breathed a sigh of relief when his door clicked shut behind me. Olivia was back in her seat as I walked through the reception area and surprised me by motioning me over.

She leaned towards me and lowered her voice, checking that no one was around before talking.

Weird.

“I hope the surprise is going well.” She whispered like we were part of some conspiracy before she got distracted by a ringing telephone.

I had absolutely no idea what she was talking about, so I just shot her a smile and headed to the parking lot.

As I clicked the button to unlock my car, it dawned on me that James must have told her something about a surprise to get my number.

So that was what he meant when he’d said that he had entered into some unspeakable alliances to get my number. It was pretty sneaky of him.

I liked it.

Chapter Thirteen

James

I fucking hated lunges. I loved a good workout. I knew what it took to keep my body in the shape it was in, and I knew how important it was that I did. I loved pushing my body to its limit, and I loved a good burn. But I fucking hated lunges.

Unfortunately for me, they were a necessary evil, and I’d had to endure a couple hundred of them that morning. I was in a piss poor mood by the time that I’d finished them all.

Ryder clapped me on the back as we finished and jogged towards the showers. “Later, bro.”

“Yeah, man,” I called to his retreating back and rummaged through my bag for my phone. My mood lifted slightly when I discovered a missed call from Gabrielle.

We’d been talking a lot lately, but we hadn’t seen each other since the beach last week. It had been a busy couple days for both of us.

Harper had gotten the flu, and a sick kid was no joke. Gabrielle was seriously considering taking the bar and had been catching up on a lot of study sessions with her friends.

“Are you finally done being a stereotype?” she teased as she answered her phone.

“Abs like mine don’t come for free, babe.” I knew that she loved my body. She checked me out thoroughly every time I saw her, but I knew better than to say it.

Besides, I worked hard for it. It deserved to be appreciated. There was also the fact that I did the exact same thing to her, so I kept my mouth shut.

“Babe? I thought we’d talked about that.” She hated the term. I liked using it, so she was going to have to learn to deal with it.

“We did. We agreed to disagree.” Not really. She’d hung up on me, but she’d texted me later anyway.

I could practically hear her rolling her eyes. “I don’t remember the conversation going down like that. If fact, I’m quite sure no agreements had been reached. And I’d know. I’m studying the law of contracts as we speak.”

“Well, then I think you need to study harder.” I respected that she’d been studying, even though she hadn’t made a final decision about taking the bar. She wanted to be ready in case she decided to do it. I liked that. “If I’m not mistaken, ours was what is known as a tacit agreement.”

She groaned at the other end of the line. “Don’t even say those words to me right now, but no, it wasn’t.”

“Implied?” I tried again. That was about the extent of my rudimentary knowledge of contractual law.

“Nope, not an implied agreement either. Trust me; there was no agreement to my being okay with being called babe. I have a name. Use it.”

“Fine, Gabrielle. You at another study group?” I doubted it since she wouldn’t have been talking to me if she was, but I wanted to check. I needed a pick me up, and Gabrielle was about to be it. Hanging out with her was fun.