Chapter 10

Charlie

I had a cunning plan. I’d show Millie the station, come on strong, and hope that prompted Noah to get his head out of his arse, but I didn’t factor this in. The real reason why I invited her to our party wasn’t an altruistic one.

See a pretty girl, chase her, that was my M.O., and right now my body was reminding me why. I liked holding her in my arms because this way I could look down and see her expression up close, part shock, part pleasure. There was also something a little guilty in it, as if she was embarrassed about the last part. I forgot about Noah, about everyone else, wondering just how far that embarrassment went, imagining other scenarios. Ones where I watched every shift in her expression as I pushed her to greater and greater heights of ecstasy. Would her cheeks burn bright red? Would her lips part? Would?—

“Pretty sure you can put the girl down now.”

Knox’s dry tone was like a bucket of water splashed on my face, breaking the heated spell I was under. I wanted it recorded that I was a very good boy and did not drag Millie down to my bunk and show her the hose I really wanted her to handle. Instead, I set her down on those cute little heels right here.

“If you were six-years-old and brought here on an excursion, we’d show you what happens when a fire is called in,” I said, wandering towards the appliance bays. Our trucks were lined up there and they were always the things the public were most interested in.

“Only kids get to see the fire trucks?” Millie’s voice was one part amusement, one part longing, and I knew that last part well.

Badge bunnies were one of the politer terms used for girls that pursued firemen, and I was pretty sure I knew why. Everyone had seen a fire truck rushing past, sirens blaring, and the fact that we dealt with emergencies, could force the traffic to part like the Red Sea to let us through, was enough to catch some girls’ eyes. Right now, I was thinking I saw a similar gleam in Millie’s.

“Little kids…” My eyes slid down to take in that cute dress, because damn, sundresses were always catnip for me, but I forced them back up. “And big ones too. OK, let's start up here.” I climbed the steps up to the first floor and Millie followed me, the boys taking up position at the rear. “A lot of fire stations have phased these things out, but…”

I walked over to the brass pole and grabbed it, moving so I held myself suspended just with one hand and my feet clasped around it. The fact my muscles popped as I held myself there was merely a coincidence.

“We still have one. When a call comes in, we hustle over here and slide down, ready to assemble by our truck. Did you need me to show you how to do it?”

I watched her hands go to her hips, and that smile? Holy crap, how the hell did Noah stop himself from locking this girl down years ago?

“I know my way around a pole.”

“Hmm… hidden depths,” I mused.

“We usually move a lot faster than this when there’s a real emergency,” Noah grumbled.

The guy was trying to put on a brave front. I would too if I’d been rocking blue balls for the last ten years. I’d known the bloke since our days as new recruits and he was always too damn serious for his own good. Noah was totally in love with Millie, and I was about to make sure she knew that, because that’s what best mates did.

“OK, Miss Millie,” I said with a nod, “let’s see if you’ve got what it takes to join the metro fire department.”

I slid down the pole, then looked up, not at all focussed on the flare of her dress as she stepped forward. Noah went with her, hands out, ready to help.

“It’s OK. We can just walk back down if you want,” he told her.

“And why would I do that?”

Pole dancing had become this whole thing for suburban women, and cardio had never looked so sexy. Millie looked like some kind of firefighter’s wet dream, clasping the pole behind one knee and then spiralling down in this beautiful movement, her arm outstretched.

I needed some ten dollar bills, stat, because a performance like this needed rewarding. Millie’s skirt flared out around her thighs, giving me a tantalising glimpse of what lay beneath that dress. If I was staring, though, so was Noah. The guy looked like he was about to swallow his tongue as Millie made her descent.

And so did Knox.

Noah didn’t say much, but I could read him easily. I couldn’t say the same of Knox. The only hint of a response in the big man was how closely he watched her slide. His eyes narrowed slightly when she landed with a flourish, turning to slits as I stepped in and offered Millie my arm.

Interesting.

“Well done,” I said, “I feel like you need to teach us some of those moves, though that would make things weird with the fellas. OK, so once we’re all down.” I turned to see Knox and Noah had joined us. “Then we make our way over to the truck and start suiting up.”

I led the way into the appliance bay, walking over to where our firefighting gear was hung up. Millie didn’t make it that far, stopping and staring at the trucks. We each had our own gear, so my hands hovered over Henry’s, ready to pull it down from a peg. That’s when I remembered what Noah had told me.

You’d never know it now, but apparently back in high school he was a skinny prick, and sometimes I think he still felt that. Body dysmorphia, that’s what they called it in girls, so maybe he had it too. He thought he was still that gangly guy from before, not the big man he was now.

“Try this on for size,” I told Millie with a smile, grabbing Noah’s helmet, tunic and pants as I walked over.

“Helmet.” I put it on her head only for the brim to sink forward, partially obscuring her vision. She was forced to shove it backwards, setting it at a jaunty angle. “Tunic.”

I unzipped the front and then held it out for her, watching her turn around and put it on, like I was a date helping her put on her coat.

Yeah, not that. Definitely not that.

“Holy crap,” she said, flapping her arms when she had the tunic on, looking just like a little kid in her dad’s clothes right now. “How big is this Henry guy?”

“Not Henry.” Noah stepped forward, suddenly way too pale. “Charlie must’ve grabbed the wrong gear. That’s my tunic.”

“Whoa…”

She smiled up at him then, and I wondered at Noah’s restraint back in school. A girl like Millie looked at me like that? I’d have her behind the gym for a make out session before lunch was ended. Especially when he smiled right back.

“Not a great fit, huh?” Noah’s voice was lower, huskier, as he tried to straighten the shoulder seams and failed. “Back in high school, you would’ve been able to wear my tunic no problem…” Her smile faded, her eyes questing as she sought his gaze, but he fiddled with the zip, making sure it reached her chin. “Took me a while to fill out.”

“But you did.”

Every suspicion I’d been harbouring was instantly confirmed. Millie took in all the ways Noah had changed in a slow and thorough inspection. When I glanced at Knox, his eyebrow rose, making clear he saw shit too.

“Um… yeah.”

Shit, shit, awkward Noah was reasserting himself, and if the way he spoke to women in the past was anything to go by, he was minutes away from shutting down and not saying a thing.

“You can get his personal trainer’s number later,” I said. “C’mon, let's play firemen!”

There was a reason why they always had me doing the school visits. I could gee up any crowd, and right then Millie snorted. I escorted her over to our truck, opening the door with a flourish, then ushering her in. Climbing up into the cab was hard work in the oversized tunic, and as much as I wanted to put a hand on that perfectly formed arse and help her in, I didn’t. She wiggled into the centre seat, then looked at the rest of us.

“OK, what now?”

I thought that’s when Knox would get in the driver’s seat, and I’d ride shotgun, just like we normally did, but instead, he climbed into the seat beside Millie. It was always a tight fit, but you could fit three firefighters in the back. Noah watched this happen wide eyed, then scrambled in, and that’s when something interesting happened. The doors were shut and Noah’s girl was wedged tightly between the two men. This was my cue to get in the driver’s seat and continue the game, but instead, I watched Millie tip her helmet back, wide eyed and pink cheeked, then fix her gaze at the front windscreen, looking anywhere but at them.

Well, well, well, I think our Millie was quite liking this experience.

“Are you OK?” Noah’s voice was low and gentle. “It’s not too squishy?”

“Nope.” Her reply came far too quickly. “I can barely feel a thing in this suit.” His eyebrow jerked up. “I mean… You know what I mean.”

One little glance, full of mute pleading not to push the issue, was all it took to get him smiling, so that was my cue. I pulled myself into the driver’s seat and then continued the tour.

“The night we came to put out the Stafford fire, we tore through town to get to you,” I said, almost able to see it. “Sirens blaring?—”

“Can we put the sirens on now?” she asked.

“Brent doesn’t like it,” Knox replied, even as my hand strayed to the button to turn it on. Better not then.

“We pulled up out front of the pub,” I continued. “Knox was barking orders.”

“You’re the lead firefighter,” she said, looking up at him. “You manage the team?”

“Try to,” he replied.

“He’s just being modest,” I added. “Knox makes sure we get the job done right, but on that night, he was a little distracted.” Yep, those pink cheeks just got pinker. “Noah took over, making sure we got the job done.”

“Just focussed on the fire.”

I wanted to hate the guy sometimes. Noah never talked himself up, always put any praise on the team, not himself, because he was too damn nice for that, and that’s why I said this.

“He made sure we got the job done.”

Millie removed her helmet and stared at Noah.

“So what did you do?”

He swallowed hard, his eyes burning into hers, but he shook his head and reached for some chill.

“I was talking to Henry about what we were likely to find,” he said, his voice pitched low for just her to hear. “We may or may not have bitched about your cook.”

“Well, that’s something I can get behind. Bloody Geoff…” She shook her head.

“Bloody Geoff,” he echoed with a grin.

“Once we worked out where the fire had started, we moved fast, unrolling the hoses,” Noah continued.

“So is that what we do now?” she asked.

“Now we get you squirting.” I shouldn’t be dragging her attention back my way. I shouldn’t have been making suggestive remarks to my teammate’s girl. I certainly shouldn’t have started grinning at her flustered response, but I dragged my focus away from her and back to Knox. “Whaddya reckon? Should we head into the training area and give Millie a chance to handle some hose?”