Page 9 of Burning for Alexander
I stared at him in shock. “How… why are you even out here? This is private property.”
“Your sister called and said you needed help. That you were trying to light shit on fire. Have you lost your goddamned mind?”
My sister? Ella had ratted me out to the chief? Was she trying to make me look bad so she’d look like an adorable angel in comparison? I was going to murder her. And it was going to be a slow and painful death.
Kincaid pulled an extinguisher from the back of his SUV and strode over, inspecting the remains of a small brush fire a few feet away.
“Okay, now wait a minute,” I began, holding up my hands. “Because this was an accident.”
His eyebrows shot into his hairline. “Oh, really? That’s a shock. You mean it wasn’t malicious arson? Good to know, Alex. Good to know.”
It was the first time I’d heard the sound of my name in his voice, and it made something smooth and hot slither down my back.
“I was trying to record a light painting for Timber’s Instagram,” I snapped, gesturing to the camera set up on a tripod nearby. “You know, the kind where you write a message in the air with sparklers while shooting it with a slow shutter speed—never mind. Anyway, it’s not as easy as it looks because you have to write the words backwards, and then you have to light the next sparkler before this one burns out, and I?—”
“I don’t give a single fuckwhyyou set the grass on fire, Marian. I carethatyou set the grass on fire!” he roared.
Why was he better-looking when he was mad? And why did my dick seem to like an angry man so much? Maybe I had a temper kink. Was that a thing?
“But it’s my grass,” I said stupidly. “And it’s no longer on fire. I put it out. As you can see.”
I gestured at the pathetic area of burned pine needles and brush, wincing a little when I saw just how big it looked from here, maybe five feet long and a couple of inches wide.
“Why in the world would you light sparklers next to the underbrush? Why not do it out there in the open where the worst thing that could happen was a spark falling on fresh, green grass?” He approached the burned area and squatted down, which pulled his pants taut over his muscular ass and made my brain blink out and fizz a little.
“Huh?”
“Are you even listening?”
I cleared my throat and shuffled my feet. “Yeah, and I’m hearing a lot of ‘Looks like you did a great job putting out the fire, Alex. Good job!’ At least… that’s my interpretation of your grumbles. Did I get it right?”
He reached out with a nearby stick and poked at the charred remains of the forest floor. “Why are there drag marks?”
Because there may have been a shrieking, shuffling, panic-induced fire dance involved while I struggled to stomp the flames out?
“Dunno,” I said, shrugging for emphasis. “I guess sometimes fire detritus looks like that.”
Kincaid glared at me over his shoulder. “Yes, it does. When someone drags a body through it.”
My voice reached an octave reserved for devout fans of Jesus and Taylor Swift. “I didn’t drag a body through it!”
He sighed and stood up, running his own boot through it to make sure any embers were dispersed. I made an absurd noise ofsee?!And gestured wildly to his own action.
“Drag marks!” I added. “You did the same thing.”
He deployed his small handheld extinguisher and sprayed the area down. “Why are you out here alone?”
I glanced at him in the odd, shadowy light coming from his headlights. It was late; I’d had to wait a long time for it to get dark enough for my project.
As much as I couldn’t stand the man, I also couldn’t help but be distracted by the sight of his uniform shirt straining around his muscular chest. I cleared my throat to disguise the large swallow of drool. “Why are you still in your uniform? It’s eleven at night.”
He moved back to his vehicle and put the extinguisher away. I found myself following him like a puppy.
“Suspected gas leak out by Haymaker Loop,” he muttered.
I leaned a hip against his car and crossed my arms. “And you were still on duty?”
He closed his eyes and inhaled as if praying for patience. “I was buying groceries after work when the call came in. The homeowner requested me specifically. Said she needed to talk to me about the conduct of one of my crew on a previous call.”
