Page 46 of To Hold and Protect

What had just happened between them had been incredible, yes. Near the end he had felt as if they’d transcended just having sex and traveled into something magical. Just because he’d never experienced anything like it, not even with Simone, didn’t have to mean he was falling for her.

He wanted to get back in that bed with her and do it all over again.

Reason enough not to do exactly that. They’d talked about it, had agreed on what this was, but did she really understand the rules? He needed to make sure she did, so he returned to the bed, but instead of climbing in like he wanted to, he sat on the edge next to her legs.

“I need to say something, and please don’t take this wrong.”

“Okay.”

She smiled, and his mind camera-clicked a mental picture of her beautiful smile for future reference, because he might tell himself he wasn’t going to fill a canvas with anything Willow, but he knew he was lying to himself.

Even so, he had to say the words that would probably hurt her but would protect him, and in the long run protect her, too. “Don’t expect more from me than I have to give.”

She put her hand on his arm. “I don’t expect anything from you, fireman, except for more amazing orgasms.”

“Firefighter.” Her grin said she was teasing him. His gaze shifted to the two unused condoms on her side table. As much as he wanted to crawl back in bed with her and wrap his body around hers, he needed to distance himself from the temptation of Willow Landry until he had his emotions under control.

“I seriously need to spend time in my studio before my show sneaks up on me and I’m not ready.” Not a lie. She watched him dress, and he wished she’d say something. Did she want him to go? He should be glad she wasn’t asking him to stay, and he shouldn’t be disappointed that she didn’t.

When he was dressed, he stepped next to the bed, leaned down, and brushed his lips over hers. “Sweet dreams, beautiful girl.”

Four days later, Parker had finished two canvases. He’d never painted that fast, but the need to paint burned through his body faster than an out-of-control wildfire. To keep from filling canvas after canvas with Willow in all the ways he saw her, imagined her, he made a list of things to paint, then started with the first one, and then the second. At the rate he was going, he’d have more than the twenty canvases he needed for his show. He seriously needed to sleep, but sleep had been elusive.

The arsonist had left him alone, as had Willow. She hadn’t appeared, wearing her cowboy boots, her denim shorts, her flowery dress, or her floppy straw hat, and he should be thankful for that. The arsonist’s absence he was thankful for, Willow’s not so much.

He hadn’t called her the following day for her tour of his studio. He should have—he’d wanted to—but he was afraid that the minute she walked in, he’d lock the door and worship her the night through. He needed time to process, to set his mind straight before his heart decided to give itself to her without his permission. So he hadn’t called.

He missed her.

Andrew was taking Everly over to Willow’s in the afternoons because he couldn’t say no to his daughter when she begged him to let her go see Willow. Parker had come close to taking her himself, but he’d managed to resist. The more time that passed since the night he couldn’t stop thinking about, the harder it was to decide what to do. Go see her? Accept that their time together was a one-off since she hadn’t reached out to him?

The hardest part about keeping Willow out of his thoughts was Everly with her Miss Willow this and Miss Willow that. The two of them were working on another story, this one about a magical cat (Jellybean being the inspiration) and his three dog friends (sweet Ember, who could put out fires by barking at them, silly Duke, whose job was apparently to make his friends laugh, and Fuzz, who wore a cape that repelled evil magic). The four set out on a journey to save the world from...

“From what, Daddy?” Everly said, as he drove her to school. “I have to tell Miss Willow when I see her today.”

It had taken her all the way to school to tell him the story they had so far. He glanced behind him to where Everly was sitting in her car seat. “From the wicked toads that steal all the fun from children.” See what Miss Willow could do with that.

His daughter looked at him as if he’d lost his mind.

When Parker arrived at the station, it was to find their newest recruit, Carlton Fendley, muttering with his head in Engine One’s equipment compartment. “Looking for something, Carlton?”

“Where would I find the hose stretcher, Chief?”

Parker kept his smile off his face as he remembered when he’d been pranked as a newbie with that one. He’d searched for hours for something that didn’t exist. “Last time I saw it, it was...” He stared up at the ceiling as if thinking. “Hmm, I don’t remember now.”

“What does it even look like?”

Parker took pity on him. “There isn’t such a thing. They’re pranking you.”

Carlton laughed. “I was beginning to suspect that.”

“Glad you can laugh,” Parker said. “You’re going to fit right in. Watch for them to short-sheet your bed next.” Or put a rubber snake in it, but for that one, he’d let the guys have their fun.

The speakers located inside and outside the station blared with the tone for a fire. “Marsville Dispatch to Marsville Fire Department. Respond to a fire at Burrell’s on 1701 Mountain View Road. Structure fire.”

The bay doors opened. The address for the fire was at Tommy Burrell’s junkyard where there were piles of tires, probably dating back from the days of the first cars on the road since the place had been in the Burrell family for four generations.

The two MFD engines left the station, sirens blaring. There hadn’t been a call for a bus, but as always, an ambulance followed. Parker let Ember into his chief’s SUV, then jumped in. When he pulled up behind the engines, it was to see the junkyard’s shack ablaze. The shack served as an office and a place for Tommy to sleep when his wife kicked him and his hound dog out of the house, which happened at least once a month.

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