Chapter 10
MILES
Staring at her from across the room, I take in the spattering of freckles that dot the bridge of her nose.
How, when she uses her fingers to press her glasses up, I want to reach over and slowly take them off of her so I can see her eyes more clearly.
Images of her letting her warm blonde hair down from the clip she keeps it in flash in front of my eyes and suddenly, she’s in my lap, straddling me on the couch she keeps in her office.
She weighs almost nothing and feels like a feather brushing against my cheek as she peppers kisses down the side of my neck.
My hands graze along her back, following the curve of her waist as they sink lower towards her hips.
When I give her ass a squeeze, she giggles into my neck and I feel my dick grow under my jeans.
There’s nothing I want more in this moment than to tear her clothes off and ruin this couch of hers forever.
“I want this, Miles. Please, I want you to ruin me,” she whispers into my ear.
“Hanna,” I groan in response.
“Miles…Miles…Miles!” Her voice is soft at first but quickly morphs into something else, something deeper and more masculine. Into a tone I’d recognize anywhere. Startled, I sit up quickly and smack my head hard against the frame of the upper bunk.
“Oww, mother–fuck.” I bring my hand to my forehead where it just made contact with the hard wooden frame and rub it with the palm of my hand.
There are stars in my eyes from hitting my head so hard and I wonder if I don’t have a small concussion.
The sound of Carter’s frantic laughter beside me cuts through my pain and suddenly I’m more irritated than dazed.
“Jesus, man, you scared the hell out of me,” I snap, rubbing my eyes. I’d come in here late last night after getting back from a house fire call. Deciding to shower and sleep here, I’d quickly fallen asleep once my head hit the pillow.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” he apologizes through his laughs. Using a finger, he wipes his eyes as if he’s crying. “But that was the funniest thing I’ve seen in days. I wish I had it on camera so I could watch it alongside the cute puppy videos I watch when I’m feeling sad.”
He doubles over in laughter again and I can’t help but grumble. “When are you ever sad? You’re like the entire fucking sun in person form.”
Kicking my feet over the edge of the bed, I stand up and reach my arms over my head to stretch before bending forward to touch my toes.
Years of training for the Marines and the firehouse taught me that you can do almost anything as long as you are flexible and agile enough to keep up.
And at thirty-five, I’m pretty proud of the fact that I can fold myself in half and still free climb a hanging rope when I need to.
“What time is it?”
There aren’t any clocks in the dorm and with the blackout curtains drawn, it’s hard to know what time of day it is. Glancing around, I notice a sleeping body in a top bunk on the opposite side of where Carter and I are. Nodding my head at him, he follows me to the hallway before speaking again.
“Just about seven. Coop texted that he’s on his way over so I came to get your lazy ass outta bed,” he explains as we descend the stairs.
“You didn’t need to be so forceful about it,” I mutter. My head is already starting to throb and I can already feel a welt starting to develop.
“I wasn’t trying to be but someone wasn’t in a huge rush to wake up.” When his voice perks up at the end, I feel my stomach drop in knowing. “Have a good dream there, Miles? You sure were moaning like it.”
He pumps his eyebrows at me which tells me he knows exactly what I was dreaming about.
“You don’t know a damn thing,” I bristle.
“Hanna,” he mocks, breathing heavily as he mimics me.
Before I can stop myself, I spin on my heels and grab him by the collar. His eyes go wide as I pull him close, our noses nearly touching.
“Say her name one more time, I fucking dare you.”
“Oohhh, down boy. I didn’t know you had the hots for the good doctor after only one session.”
I let go of his collar and storm towards the gym.
We’re lucky enough to work in a firehouse that has recently been restored by the city so it has everything we need to be able to practically live on the premises.
Locker rooms, kitchen and lounge, and even offices in case we need them.
The best part, my favorite part, is the fully equipped, state of the art gym.
It has everything we need and more which is why if I’m not working out here, it’s because I decided to go for a run.
“I don’t have the hots for her,” I bite over my shoulder. “And it hasn’t been just one session.”
Grabbing my sneakers from my locker, I slip them on and tie the laces while he stands close by, watching me intently. When I look back at him, he has his hands on his hips and is studying me out of the corner of his eye.
“What do you mean it hasn’t only been one session?”
I immediately regret mentioning it. I love Carter more than I love myself but once you give the guy an inch he will take an entire mile if you let him. It comes from a good place, I know that, but it’s still annoying as all hell when you aren’t someone who likes to share.
“I mean I’ve seen her more than once,” I explain curtly. Making a quick pit stop, I grab my gym clothes from my locker and change to go workout. Once I’m dressed, he’s close on my heels as I walk towards the gym. There’s a couple of other people working out as we come in but it’s mostly empty.
“I thought you said you weren’t going to see her after that one time?” he asks, his tone almost accusatory.
“I said she told me I didn’t need to go and see her if I felt like I didn’t,” I correct.
Standing in front of the mirror, I start to stretch and warm up.
My brown, slightly curly hair is sticking up in a million different directions from when I was sleeping so I run my fingers through it to try and straighten it out.
At six foot two, I tap in at nearly two fifty.
I have the type of body you get when you work out consistently but also enjoy beer and pizza on the weekend.
Unlike Carter who’s slimmer and lean and Coop who’s nothing but pure muscle.
The putz has this weird thing about only eating all natural foods and if a food label had more than ten ingredients on it, he isn’t eating it.
Sounds like a miserable life to me.
“But you went back to her anyway?”
“I went—”
I start to speak but am cut off by Trevor, another member of the firehouse, cutting into our conversation.
“Sorry to interrupt, gentlemen, but I found something that belongs to you.”
Carter and I look up in perfect sync to find Cooper looking at the two of us with a smirk. He comes around a few times a week when he’s off duty, so many of the firehouse members know he belongs to us.
“Thanks for helping me find my idiots,” he jokes, smacking hands with Trevor. “How’s your wife and that sweet baby girl of yours?”
Trevor can’t stop himself from smiling even if he wanted to. “They’re great, thanks for asking man. Is it your weekend off?”
Coop nods. “Yeah, finally. Been on back to back weekends for almost a month now. It’s a miracle I pulled myself out of bed to come and put these boys to shame. Time to show ‘em what a real man can do in the gym.”
“Oh please, you would’ve gotten out of bed and worked out regardless of if you came here to do it. The panties you wear are too tight to let you skip a day at the gym,” Carter jibes before snickering to himself.
Shaking my head, I turn away from the three of them and set up my rack. Trevor and Coop exchange polite niceties before Trevor heads off to wherever he came from before showing Coop where we were.
“Heard about the fire last night on the scanner, everyone okay?” he asks, taking his headphones and slipping them over his ears, leaving one exposed so he can still hear us.
“Yeah, it was a hot one but manageable,” I answer nonchalantly.
“The more interesting talking point is the fact that Miles here had a wet dream about his therapist,” Carter calls out, and I nearly drop the barbell.
“He what?” Coop sneers, turning to look at me with wide eyes.
“Carter, you don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about.” I slam it back into place and glare at him. I can’t believe he ratted me out.
“Uhhh, I definitely do know what I’m talking about. I’ve been there, dude, no shame,” he says with a shoulder shrug.
“I didn’t even know you were going to therapy.” Coop tips his eyebrow at me when he speaks. He’s not wrong, I haven’t told him about how the captain forced me to go the first time last week. I haven’t even spoken to Ivy about it. I just wanted everyone to stay out of my business and leave it alone.
“Because I’m not going to therapy,” I respond, lying down on the bench and completing my round of chest presses.
“You literally told me you went and saw her for a second time fifteen minutes ago,” Carter comments, watching me complete my set. “More than one visit would be going to therapy, if you ask me.”
“Well thankfully for me, I didn’t ask you,” I huff out, reracking the weights before moving out of the way for him to slide in.
I grab a pair of free weights from the rack and start to use them. The three of us fall silent as we work to breathe through the self-inflicted pain of our workout. Coop moves his headphones from his ear and looks at me once he’s completed his set.
“Well, did you have a sex dream about your therapist?”
I groan and try to disguise my eye roll by pinching the bridge of my nose with my fingers. “It doesn’t matter if I did or I didn’t.”
“He did, he totally did,” Carter butts in, nodding his head frantically.
“Is she cute?” Coop asks.
“I mean, conventionally, sure.”
Liar.
She’s more than cute; she’s beautiful. Soft in her movements but sharp in her words and wit.
A button nose perfectly fit for her face with little freckles that dance joyfully when she laughs.
The way her glasses slip down nose constantly just for her to have to press them back up again is endearing as all hell and I want nothing more than to know what it feels like to run my fingers through her hair.
“I don’t know, you guys, she’s my therapist. I’m sure there’s some rule against having the hots for your therapist,” I hurry out, shaking my head at the two of them and slipping back under the bar to trade spots with Carter.
“So she is your therapist,” he jests.
“And you do have the hots for her,” Coop follows close behind.
“I swear to god the two of you are going to give me an aneurysm,” I groan, closing my eyes and trying to focus on my movement.
I don’t care what they said about it, whether she’s my therapist or not, I certainly do not have the hots for her. The dream was just that—a dream. Nothing more. One brought on by too much smoke inhalation and not enough sleep.
Nothing more.
“Coop, you still in for drinks tonight?” Carter asks when the three of us finish another set. For once, his short-lived attention span works in my favor.
“I mean, I won’t be drinking but sure, I’ll come out with you two idiots. When are you off?”
Cooper has been sober most of his life. He saw what it did to his dad after his mom died and made a vow long before he was legally allowed to drink that he would stay away from the stuff. While Carter and I aren’t ones to go out and get tanked, having a default designated driver is always a plus.
“Five o’clock. Plenty of time to head home, have dinner, and head out for a few hours,” Carter explains, his voice getting more and more excited as he speaks.
“I’ll come pick you two up at eight. We can take my car,” Coop offers.
“As long as you don’t show up in the cruiser,” I snort. It wouldn’t be the first time he’d pull that stunt.
“Or the dog,” Carter adds quickly.
A smile grows across Coop’s face and he pulls his headphones over his ears, blocking us out entirely. I can only assume he’s thinking about the time he agreed to go out with us only to show up in full uniform with Lola in tow. Needless to say, it wasn’t a very fun evening.
“Coop, you heard me, right?” Carter asks, dipping his head in front of our friend’s to try and get his attention. “Right?”
Cooper only laughs and shakes his head at a panicked looking Carter. The three of us finish our workout in peace before Coop heads out to start his Saturday while Carter and I hang back and enjoy another day on call at Firehouse Nine.