He chuckled. “Absolutely not.”
I chuckled, then slowly gathered my strength. I couldn’t stay here, sprawled on top of him. But when I lifted myself up, he was grinning. I recognized that devilish gleam in his eye from close-up shots of him after he’d hit a home run. Glee. Pride. Cat-in-the-cream hotness.
And you know what? I couldn’t really begrudge him that. After all, I still felt random sparks of light firing in my blood. They came when I moved against him. They shot behind my eyes when he stroked his hand up and over my hip. And they made me nuzzle my lips across his temple and down his nose. I wanted to get to his mouth, but couldn’t quite make it. Not at this angle.
I was just levering myself up, purposely sliding as I went so that I could maximize the contact between us. There were things I intended to do to him. Hell, given what he’d just done to me, I was flush with the need to return the favor. And maybe explore what else we could do while I practiced getting refused.
Except just as I was thinking of exactly what other questions I’d ask—something like, will you please stay completely dressed—the sliding door to the next door hotel room slid open and a screaming boy came running out.
“Fire! Fire!”
Chapter Eight
Ellie
“Fire!”
I jolted upright, scrambling to my feet, but I wasn’t as fast as Jake. The moment I was off his body, he leaped up and ran to the side of our balcony. By the time I got there, he was already talking low and fast to the screaming boy.
“Hey there! I’m here. What’s going on?”
The boy turned panicked eyes toward us and pointed inside the hotel room. “Fire,” he gasped. “Fire!”
“Okay, okay. We can help. Is there anyone in there with you?”
The boy shook his head, his eyes still wide.
“So it’s just you. That’s great, buddy.”
I was standing right next to Jake, smiling reassuringly at the boy. I’d already noted that the distance between our two balconies wouldn’t allow for an easy leap between them, but that was okay. “I’ll go around, okay?” I said to the child. “I’ll knock on—”
Alarm sirens shot through the building, piercing my ears and making me flinch. Damn those were loud. Which is when I realized I hadn’t actually believed the frantic kid when he’d screamedFire!I just thought maybe he’d been confused or something. It was ridiculous. He looked to be around ten, which was old enough to know the difference. But it wasn’t until the sirens blared that I processed there was a real fire.
“Hold on!” I bellowed above the screech. And when Jake grabbed my hand, I gestured with the free one. “Keep him calm.” Then I slipped from his grasp and ran to the hotel room door and grabbed the handle.
Oh shit, that was hot! As in blistering.
I cried out and stepped back. Even I knew not to open the door…which meant we were on the eighteenth floor of a building on fire.
I rushed back to Jake, who was still talking to the kid. “My name’s Jake. What’s yours?”
“The door’s too hot,” I said into his ear. His eyes widened a moment and then he nodded.
“Okay, buddy. This is Ellie. She’s going to stand right here with you. I’m going to get something to help, okay?”
The question was both to me and to the kid, but since the boy was terrified, I answered for us both. “Sure, Jake. You do what you need to do. I know we’ll be fine, right, buddy?” Then as he stepped away, I pointed at the couch. “My purse! I can call 911.”
Jake nodded and grabbed it, tossing it to me. I caught it clumsily, and while grinning at the boy like a lunatic, I fumbled inside it for my cell.
“Look, we’re going to be fine, but I can’t keep calling you buddy. What’s your name?”
“B-Ben.” The boy was pressed against his railing, his hands white where they gripped the metal.
“Hey, Ben. I’m going to call 911, okay? Hang with me. They’re going to help.”
I dialed with fumbling fingers, but got through immediately. I started talking to the woman who answered, except right at that moment, the kid started screaming. He was pointing inside, which was now glowing red.
He crammed himself even tighter against the railing while tears flowed from his eyes. Mine, too, I realized, because I didn’t know what to do. And the woman on the other end of the line was talking, but I couldn’t hear her. Not over the siren and the boy’s terror.
