Page 2 of The Fire Captain's Unexpected Baby
“Ma’am, I need you to be very clear with me. Do you need some help right now?”
“Fine. Idoneed help. But please, please, please, only send one person in.”
If I am going to be embarrassed by this, I can at least mitigate the damage and limit my exposure to one person instead of a swarm of men.
“We’re going to get management to open the door.”
I hear the keycard unlatch the heavy door and cringe. It’s only a matter of time before someone sees me indisposed. I close my eyes, simply praying for the best possible outcome.
Please, don’t let it be Levi on call tonight.
I don’t want my brother to see me in my lingerie, handcuffed to a hotel bed. It would scar both of us.
Instead, another firefighter walks into the room as if he owns it. He’s easily the most handsome man I’ve laid eyes on in a while, much more than my so-called date who brought me here. When he sees me sprawled on the white sheets, he runs a hand through his dark brown hair.
His green eyes travel the length of my body, then stop cold. I prayed that Levi wouldn’t answer this particular call, but why couldn’t I have gotten some seen-it-all veteran instead of the one firefighter who looks like he could be on the cover of a steamy romance novel, shirtless and sweaty?
Fortunately for me, the way his eyes linger makes me think he actuallylikeswhat he sees. And I think thatIlike being seen—and not in the way my date left me here.
But no matter how much this situation intrigues both of us, I think we’re both embarrassed as hell.
“A little help?”
He holds up the box of tools he brought with him. “I’ll need a good bolt cutter for this.”
Instead of looking at me again, he sets the box of tools down to rummage through the loose screwdrivers and hammers. Finally, he stands up with a pair of bolt cutters and slowly approaches the side of the bed. I try to scoot as far from the edge as possible to give him room to work.
“I promise this isn’t going to hurt,” he says reassuringly as he assesses the strength of the metal handcuff. “Name’s Aaron, by the way. I’ll be here with you for a little while.”
“Paige,” I tell him, blushing.
I don’t want him to know a thing about me, no incriminating evidence to tell his friends later. But I feel a new flutter in my stomach that gets me talking before I can think it through.
“Now, I’m going to twist your wrist to give me space to work. I need you to bend. Just like that.”
I can’t help but blush as he walks me through every step he’s taking to free me. Every touch is gentle, a caress rather than strictly business. My skin burns as he jiggles the metal.
“This is locked on here good,” he assesses drily. I blush more.
He keeps working, but now he looks me in the eyes.
“This is nothing to be embarrassed about,” he says finally. “I bet you wouldn’t believe how many times I’ve had to free someone from a situation very similar to this one. All in a day’s work.”
“But I’ll bet this is the first time your damsel in distress has been abandoned because moms do, in fact, have mom bods.” I laugh, but even I can tell that there’s no humor in it.
Aaron lets his gaze travel from my eyes to my throat, stopping short of looking down at my negligee. He shows no hint of discomfort in this situation. Everything about him reads as intense, from the way his green eyes bore into mine to the way he focuses on that damned bolt cutter.
He mutters something under his breath that sounds an awful lot like, “His loss.”
My head snaps back up to look at him, unable to believe that a man this attractive could see something in a mom like me. I was clearly a woman destined for a lifetime of celibacy now.
Aaron’s face never wavers, a serious expression commanding every feature and line.
“You could press charges,” he offers helpfully. “But that’s not my department. You’d have to go down to the police department.”
The idea of pressing charges causes a giggle to burble out of my throat.
“I’m hardly the first person to have a hideous date,” I protest.
