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“Nuh-uh. You lost the bet. You’re not allowed to ask me that anymore.”
“I also said I wouldn’t fuck you until you agreed to marry me, and correct me if I’m wrong but we’ve been having some pretty phenomenal sex.”
She didn’t correct him.
His smile grew predatory. “In fact, I think we should have some more.”
Grinning like a lunatic, Jane slid her hands between them, felt for the button on his jeans. “Rafe….”
Rafe did the same and had her pants halfway down her arse before someone banged on their bedroom door and rattled the handle, trying to get in.
“Rafe! Jane! Now!” Oliver’s voice boomed through the door, his urgency tinged with anger.
Without a word, Rafe leapt off the bed and refastened his jeans, yanked the door open and followed the sounds of chaos echoing through the house.
Jane quickly followed and found herself standing on the front veranda, staring in horror at a spot by the roadside.
Her old Jeep was engulfed in bright orange flames.
“Janie, get back inside,” Rafe yelled, pushing her towards the front door before grabbing the fire extinguisher Oliver was shoving at him and bolting down the stairs, running towards the burning car.
Jane didn’t move.
She couldn’t.
Her feet were frozen to the spot as she stared, wide-eyed, at the scene unfolding before her.
Plumes of thick black smoke billowed from the tops of the raging flames. Faded yellow paint curled away from the metal as the fire chased it, crackling and popping, across the rusted surface of the car.
Rafe, Oliver, Abby and Wolf attacked the flames from all sides with fire extinguishers and the garden hose, wetting it down, slowly bringing the flames under control.
Until the windscreen cracked and something boomed and the window exploded outwards in a ball of fire, knocking Rafe down and showering him in glass.
“Rafe!”
Jane tried to run to him but a strong arm banded around her middle and held her back.
“Don’t.” Ulysses barked the order. “He’s all right.”
She struggled against the old man’s grip even as she watched Rafe get to his feet and shake his head, as though dazed. “Let me go, Uly.”
“He has enough to worry about without you going down there too,” he hissed in her ear, and she heard the worry in his craggy voice. “You think I don’t want to race down there and help them? Those are my children.”
His children.
His children who were in danger because of her. Jane ceased fighting and he loosened his grip on her.
“We would only be in their way, love. They’ve trained for this. Let them work.”
Rafe looked up at her then and nodded, a brief tilt of his head to let her know he was okay before grabbing another fire extinguisher and pulling the pin. Jane clutched at her chest, at the place where her heart thudded so hard she wasn’t sure it was good for her.
He’s all right.
Squaring her shoulders and straightening her spine, she turned towards the front door. “I’m going to make some tea,” she announced, clenching her jaw to hold back the tears she felt threatening to fall. “And sandwiches. Firefighting calls for sandwiches.”
A kind smile lifted Uly’s lips. “That’s a fine idea.” And as she pulled open the screen door, she heard the sound she knew they’d all been waiting for, and her relief let her tears escape.
Sirens.
