Page 44 of A Spot of Trouble
But for now, Violet took matters into her own hands and claimed her reward—a kiss. Just one tiny never-to-be-repeated kiss.
Wow, though. If she’d thought giving in to temptation would finally make it easier to breathe again, she’d never been so wrong. The fluttering she always felt in Sam’s presence spilled over into a full-on swoon as his arms slid around her waist, pulling her tighter against him until she could feel his heartbeat crashing against hers. Then the kiss grew deeper, more urgent, and Violet heard one of the Dalmatians whimper.
Wait, no. That sound hadn’t come out of Sprinkles or Cinder—it had come from Violet’s own lips. And she wasn’t the slightest bit sorry or embarrassed. Her thoughts screamed only one agonizing syllable.More.
“Hot.” Sam groaned into her mouth. “So hot.”
If Violet hadn’t been so weak in the knees, she would have laughed. No man on planet earth had ever told her she was hot, under any circumstances. Cute, yes. Quirky, always. Hot? Not so much. That adjective was reserved for women like Angelina Jolie, Halle Berry, and Scarlett Johansson, none of whom would be caught dead driving a cutesy cupcake truck.
And then she felt it—licks of heat simmering between them, as fierce as hot sand beneath her bare feet on a smoldering summer day. It was exhilarating and terrifying all at once.
What kind of crazy kiss was this?
An explosion of barks made its way through the fog in Violet’s head. With great reluctance, she dragged her eyes open. Something was wrong—very, very wrong.
A tiny flame danced along the cuff of Sam’s uniform shirt. He stared down at it as if trying to make sense of what it was doing there while Cinder and Sprinkles stood at attention, barking in alarm.
“Sam?” Violet took a backward step and then realized she was still holding onto her culinary torch, the obvious culprit.
Oh goodness, she’d set Sam on literal fire. During that delicious clench of anticipation, she must have accidentally squeezed the ON button.
“Stop, drop, and roll,” she blurted.
Amazing. Apparently, she’d actually learned something at Cinder’s cute little fire safety demonstration.
“What’s going on?” Sam frowned down at his flaming shirt sleeve.
The poor man. Violet had clearly kissed all the common sense right out of him.
“You’re on fire,” she said, but Cinder and Sprinkles had started barking so loudly that she wasn’t sure he could hear her above the commotion.
“Stop, drop, and roll!” she shouted, panic coiling low in her belly.
Cinder immediately dropped to the ground and rolled over. Violet would have rolled her eyes if she hadn’t been on the verge of tears.
Then the door to the tiny office swung open, and Griff Martin poked his head inside. “Is everything okay in here?”
Sonot okay.
But as Violet glanced at Griff filling up the doorframe, she spotted a small fire extinguisher in the corner of Barbara’s office.Yes!
“What the…?” Griff paused a beat before springing into action and running toward Sam, leaping over the Dalmatians.
Violet beat him to it, though. She dropped the culinary torch and snatched the fire extinguisher from the wall. Hands shaking, she yanked the pin and aimed the nozzle at Sam. She squeezed hard and fine white powder sprayed in all directions, coating pretty much everything in Barbara’s office—the desk, the chair, the maracas and tambourines, both uniformed firefighters, and the Dalmatians too, of course. She kept spraying anyway—just to be sure. Plus she wasn’t quite sure how to stop. Sam probably needed to add fire extinguisher instructions to his and Cinder’s cute demonstration.
Griff planted his hands on his hips. Violet was pretty sure it was Griff, anyway. It was kind of hard to tell, since both men were covered in a thick layer of white. “Release the handle.”
Violet relaxed her grip and the fire extinguisher stopped with a sudden hush. Everything was fine, thank goodness. Messy, but fine. The Dalmatians were both sneezing, but Sam was no longer on fire. He was standing right there, completely unharmed, scowling at her like he always did.
Violet had saved the day!
Well, sort of. There was still the teensy problem that she’d been the one who’d started the fire in the first place.
“Um.” Violet felt sick to her stomach all of a sudden. The fire extinguisher slipped from her hands and fell to the floor with a clang. She shook her head. “I’m sorry. It was an accident—a terrible, terrible accident. Obviously.”
Sam’s only reply was stony silence. Cinder pranced at his feet and nudged his hand with her head until he gave her a reassuring pat.Don’t worry,the gesture seemed to say.I’m fine. Everything’s okay.
Violet would have given anything to trade places with the Dalmatian in that moment.
