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Then the door opened, and a man walked in that literally stopped my brain from functioning.
He was tall, muscular, and blonde, and his arms were covered in tattoos. His bright blue eyes seemed to find me from across the entire building, and when he smiled in my direction, I felt like my knees might just give out right then and there. He was gorgeous. And new. At least, I had never seen him before.
Passing by the empty hostess station, he made his way toward me at the register. He walked with a smooth swagger that was like a lion parading through his pride. He was so confident, so smooth, that I froze in my tracks.
His eyebrow cocked up as he approached me and said something. I was sure there were words in the sound he made, but my brain was so completely frazzled that I couldn’t decipher them. It was just low, sexy vibrations that rumbled from his chest and seemed like they surrounded me, flowing like chocolate and sweeping me into a river of deliciousness that I would happily drown in.
“Hi,” he said, shaking me out of my daze.
“Oh, sorry, I didn’t hear you,” I said.
Time froze as my cheeks flushed, and I suddenly wished I could be anywhere except in his penetrating gaze. I felt about six inches tall and like I had completely ruined any chance of being seen as anything other than the dorky girl in one stupid sentence.
“I must have mumbled,” he said, his grin growing wider. “My name is Kieran Duggan. I ordered a pizza?”
“You did?”
“Um. Yes? This is Sergio’s, right?”
“Oh! Right. Hang on.” I turned around completely so he couldn’t see the sweat forming in beads on my forehead. I started to go right, then realized that it would be walking into the wall and pivoted to go left, disappearing behind the dividing wall toward the kitchen. I poked my head back around once, flashing what I hoped was a friendly smile. “Just got to get it.”
“Okay,” he said as I ducked back behind the divider and shoved my back against it.
I took several deep breaths, feeling like I was going to pass out, when I saw my sister Amara on her way over in a low-cut shirt, her perfect hair piled effortlessly on top of her head.
“Hey, can you get me the pizza from the rack for Duggan?” I said, hopping up to cut her off.
“I was just going to the counter to—” she began.
“I need the pizza. Very angry customer. Waited and waited and waited. Can you get it, please?”
“I took that call. It was like fifteen minutes ago,” she said. “He couldn’t have been waiting all that long…”
“Just get the damn pizza!” I said, probably much louder than necessary and making Amara stumble backward a step.
“Alright, damn, I’ll get the pizza, sis,” she said, turning around with wide eyes and shaking her head. She returned a few seconds later with the pie and handed it to me. “Maybe you want to lay off the caffeine tonight.”
“Maybe,” I said, sweeping back to the counter.
Amara, much to my dismay, followed me out to the register, and I could hear her make a sound not unlike being punched in the stomach when she got a look at the customer.
“Ahh,” he said.
“Here you go,” I said, my voice rising far too high. I felt like I sounded like a chipmunk all of a sudden. “Pepperoni?”
“Yup,” he said, grinning.
“Nice and simple,” I commented.
“Simple is good. Though sometimes I like a little heat too,” he replied. “Me too,” I said. “I like spice. Heat. I like heat. Hot stuff.”
My eyes widened with each word as I frantically tried to stop my mouth from moving. It refused. It was just going and going and going, regardless of what I wanted it to do.
“I love spicy stuff,” he said. “Big fan of heat. Probably why I work for the fire department.”
He pointed to an emblem on his shirt. It was a logo for a fire department alright, but it said, “Nashville.”
“Nashville?” I asked.
“Yeah,” he said, “just moved here. I’ll be working for Ashford in about two days.”
“Oh. How interesting.”
The Ashford fire department was two streets down from the restaurant. Within walking distance. This giant, gorgeous hunk of a human being was going to be two streets down from where I worked on a daily basis. In a fireman’s uniform.
My brain was already clouding up with visions that I really should not be having while out in public.
“I’ll probably be here a lot,” he said. “Firemen love their pizzas.”
“Firemen get discounts too,” I said.
“They do?” both Kieran and Amara asked in unison.
I turned to look at Amara with wide, threatening eyes as I spoke again.
“They sure do,” I said. “Ten percent. So you come on by anytime you like. Just make sure to ask for Sofia.”
