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The buzz of conversation and laughter in the room died down and everyone turned toward the voice. Keith - one of the new firefighters on my crew - stood at the door of the common room, bundled up in his coat, hat, and gloves. He jabbed a thumb over his shoulder.
“I was on my way out to my car when I noticed you have a flat tire.”
“No, no, no,” Rosie said, abandoning her cup on the table. She hurried out of the common room and into the snow.
Chapter Five
Rosie
“Well, shit,” I mumbled.
I stood next to my car, the snow coming down in thick flurries. My tire was completely flat, a puddle of rubber on the pavement.
“I can fix it,” Jay said as he came up next to me. His tie hung loose around his neck and the top two buttons of his shirt were undone. His skin was flushed to a ruddy shade and his eyes were bright from the spiked eggnog. “Won’t take long.”
“But you’re all dressed up,” I countered. “I can’t ask you to do that.”
Although I was dressed up too, and changing a tire in these clothes was sure to ruin them.
Jay snorted. “I don’t give a damn about getting my hands dirty, Rosie. Pop the trunk so I can get your spare out.”
Within minutes, he had my flat tire off, his hands streaked with grease, snow dusting his hair and shoulders. Despite the alcohol he’d had during our game of eggnog pong, he was surprisingly clear-headed with only an occasional wobble now that he had a job to focus on.
“Can I go grab your coat or something?” I offered. “You must be freezing.”
Jay shook his head with a shrug.
“It’s not too bad as long as I keep moving.”
I shivered in the cold, huddled in Jay’s suit jacket. As he picked up the spare tire and fitted it into place, his white shirt stretched tight across his shoulders. I could see every muscle in his back, straining and tense.
“You should go inside though,” Jay added. “Can’t imagine that dress is keeping you warm.”
But I’m enjoying the view,I thought.
Instead, I snorted. “I’m not leaving you out here to fix my car. You’d never let me live it down.”
He turned his head and looked up at me with a grin, squinting at the onslaught of snowflakes catching in his eyelashes. Before I realized what I was doing, I reached out and swept the snow from his hair.
Then I stopped. My fingers were in his hair and the snow was swirling around us like a dream. I’d had a little bit to drink but not much. Not enough to warrant touching Jay Lawson like this, a man I loathed and desired in equal measure.
Without looking away from me, Jay gently took my wrist and pushed my jacket sleeve up. He pressed his lips to the delicate, sensitive skin of my inner arm, his lips sweetly warm in comparison to the frigid air.
“Jay,” I whispered.
Slowly, he rose to his feet, enveloping my hand in his palms.
“I’ve wanted to kiss you all night, you know that?”
I nodded. “You kept staring at me.”
“I’m filthy now though,” Jay pointed out, lifting one grease-stained hand.
“I don’t care.”
I’d barely finished speaking before the hot, slick slide of Jay’s mouth was on mine. The taste of cinnamon and nutmeg and the burn of alcohol still lingered on his tongue. He cradled my cheek in his palm as his other hand circled my waist, pulling me flush against him. I gasped at the full body contact and looped my arms around him, craving his scorching heat.
I’d never been so strongly attracted to someone like this before. It made my hands shake. Made me desperate to touch Jay, to taste him over and over. It made me reckless, fully prepared to ignore the fact that we were coworkers and sleeping together wouldn’t only complicate things. In the past, I was always the reserved one with my relationships, buttoned-up, a little shy, and far from adventurous.
