Chapter 20
It was an effort for Warren to keep his distance as they wandered back to town, aching to explore places he hadn’t had chance to yet.
He wanted more. Wanted to hear her moan, beg, without the need to be quiet and contained. He wanted to see her bare and sweaty and his.
Except she wasn’t his. He was smart enough not to hope that would ever change. Expecting anything more than this would likely be foolish after their rocky stops and starts.
“So, can we do this again?” he was still brave enough to ask as they slowed on the bridge. Gingerly, he eyed the mayhem of Main Street ahead, wishing they could have more time. Endless time.
Eiley glanced around warily. He thought that meant she was ashamed to be seen with him and dropped her hand – but then she tugged him close to straighten the twisted braces over his white T-shirt and zip up his jacket.
He tingled when her knuckle brushed his chest, pausing to keep her hand there. Testing his luck.
“Maybe. But I hardly have time in my schedule for hanky panky.”
Hanky fucking panky . He was obsessed with all her silly ways of skirting the truth. Obsessed with how he could make her blush just by cussing .
“Why is that funny?” she demanded when he tried to hide his grin behind his hand.
“You know, you’re allowed to call it what it is: fucking.”
She glared, and there they were: rosy splotches across both cheeks.
Adorable, ridiculous, sexy as fuck. Everything about her was that, even when she was mad.
He might enjoy her insults a little more now he knew how to make her come with just his fingers.
“I’ll call it what I want to call it, thank you very much. ”
“Fine, but does it have to be hanky panky ? I think I preferred S-E-X.”
She huffed, leaning against the stone wall of the bridge to peer at the river below.
The flow had grown still from weeks of no rainfall, the golden foliage of the forest’s reflection broken only by rocks in the shallowest areas.
He remembered coming here as a kid with his mates, skipping stones and dipping his feet to cool down in summer.
Too young to care about being eaten alive by midges or swallowing goose poo-infested water.
Too young to know he’d end up here twenty years later, half-lost and half-found.
He’d forgotten, for a moment, how beautiful the town was. It had come to life today. He’d been here for weeks, yet it only now felt like he was coming home.
“Should I take this as less of a maybe and more of a no , then?” Warren’s heart plucked with dread. He couldn’t imagine only getting this . It had been wonderful, yes, but not nearly enough. “C’mon, Eiley. Let me down gently.”
Eiley tugged a loose piece of skin on her finger. “It’s not a no. I just have to be careful.”
“Of what?”
She cast a glance behind her, at Main Street, where families congregated around the school’s brass band, which played a slightly out-of-tune arrangement of “There She Goes”.
He knew it was that song only because his mum had forced him to play the trumpet in Primary 7.
Clearly, the school’s ancient music teacher had yet to invest in new sheet music.
“My kids can’t know about us. Probably not my family, either.”
Oh, so that was it. He was to be her dirty little secret.
He gripped the wall tightly, jagged stone scraping his palms. He hadn’t been expecting for her to announce it to the world, but actively hiding it … Was she embarrassed of him? Or was it that she was still not sure she could trust him?
He tried to make light of it despite his churning gut. “Why? Afraid your brother will make my death slow and painful?”
“My brother just wants to protect me,” she said, eyes sparking defiantly.
“And I want to protect my kids, okay? Their dad walked out on them. Sky and Saff barely know him, but Brook remembers what it was like to have a father. I don’t want him to get the wrong idea.
I don’t want him to get attached. He already thinks the world of you, and you’ve made all these promises that you’ll read with him …
You’re good with them, Warren, and that’s the problem. We need boundaries.”
That, he supposed he understood, though it didn’t ease his tension the way it should have.
“And my family would make this more than what it is, too,” she continued. “I don’t want it to be a big deal. I just …”
He shifted closer, pleading softly: “Tell me.”
Her eyes lowered to his lips, darkening with the same lust he still felt. “The answer to your question is yes, we can do it again. I just don’t know when.”
Delicately, he drew his thumb over the back of her hand, fine hairs standing against translucent, freckled skin. “I’ll wait. I meant what I said. I’m not done with you yet.”
When her name was called behind him, Warren swore under his breath. Eiley cleared her throat, pulling the sleeves of her cardigan down and brushing past him to meet Harper. She was wide-eyed as she glanced between them, plucking a sycamore seed out of Eiley’s hair. “In the woods ? Really?”
“We were just talking. Sorting things out,” Eiley lied. Badly.
“Do you honestly think I cannot recognise a post-sex glow? Do you truly think that low of me?”
Warren raked his hair back just in case he’d also accidentally collected some souvenirs of their time together.
When he thought of this news getting back to Fraser, he could see why Eiley would want to keep it between them.
“I’d better get back to Nate. Let me know if you’d like a tour of the fire engine later. ”
“Hm, yes, I’m sure Eiley is just dying for a ride,” Harper called as he strutted off.
Warren laughed and waved. God knows how a bloke as uptight as Fraser had managed to pull such a bubbly lass.
His good mood didn’t last long. When he returned to the truck, Nate’s face was stormy, phone clutched tightly in hand.
“Where the bloody hell have you been?” His voice was accusing, as though Warren had been gone for hours rather than thirty or forty minutes. Or fifty, according to the smart watch on his wrist.
“What’s wrong?”
“I’ve been trying to get hold of you. A fire’s broken out over East Highland Way. They need as many extra hands as they can get.”
“Shite. On it.” Warren launched into action, ushering families back to clear the way and then jumping into the driver’s seat.
His glance at Nate was filled with shame.
He shouldn’t have left his station, even if it had been a civilian job.
He’d dropped the ball, just for a second – but accidents always happened when people stopped paying attention.
He’d broken his own rules.
“I’m really sorry, Nate.”
“Here I was thinking you were the most serious officer on the job.” When Nate cracked a smile, Warren winced.
Adrenaline coursed through him as he started the engine and flicked on the sirens, sending some of the onlookers scattering. His focus fell to his wing mirror, Eiley’s tiny figure visible among the chaos.
Nate must have noticed as they rattled through Main Street, because he lifted his brows. “She must be some bloody woman. I take it you kissed and made up?”
“Could say that, aye.”
She was still watching as he made his way over the bridge, past the woods, and out of Belbarrow. He’d been right to name her Firecracker: his eyes might have been fixed on the road ahead, but his head exploded with flashes of her, her, her.
He would have to fix that: he couldn’t afford to be this distracted on the job. There were fires to put out and, for once, she wasn’t one of them.