Chapter 35
Dawn had broken by the time they were given the all-clear.
Warren rode with Nate in silence, hollowed out by a night spent wrangling with something far more powerful than him.
Since the house fire, he’d always thought of flames as a living, breathing thing, his greatest enemy.
No amount of taming them through his many years of service had tamped down the stomach-clenching fear he felt when faced with them.
He’d learned to turn that fear into adrenaline, determination.
Learned to be smart and patient in their midst. Fires didn’t win anymore.
But this one almost had, and knowing it might have reached the bones of his new house – or worse, the place where families lived, where she lived – had rattled him in a way he hadn’t felt in a long, long time.
He’d wondered, for a moment, if he might lose everything again. The sight of her had only stoked the terror, and he hadn’t been able to think straight. His smoke-addled mind hadn’t been able to cope with the idea of her anywhere near such a dangerous beast.
“Are you okay, mate?” Nate asked from the driver’s seat, looking just as exhausted as Warren felt.
They’d been the last on the scene, making doubly, triply sure that the flames were out completely.
They could come back, Warren knew. They could deceive you into thinking it was safe, and then leap out and devour twice as fiercely.
“Fine. Just knackered. Ready to sleep.”
Nate nodded, but his frown didn’t ease. “Eiley … she said you were building a house up there. I didn’t know that.”
Warren rubbed his fingers over his unkempt stubble, annoyance sparking and then dying just as quickly. He didn’t have the energy to feel it now, nor did he have the energy to lie. “Aye, I am. It’s always been something I wanted.”
He was just glad the flames hadn’t spread far enough to touch it. He wasn’t sure he’d survive losing two homes in the same place.
“Look, mate, I need to tell you something,” Nate said.
Warren waited.
“I let Eiley stay at the station. She’s probably waiting for you.”
“For fuck’s sake, Nate.”
“She was worried. And a wee bit scary.” Nate grimaced. “Sorry. For what it’s worth, maybe you could hear her out, being as she was trying to walk towards the fire instead of away from it for your sake last night.”
“She was a fucking fool,” Warren muttered.
“Aye, a whipped one.” Nate cast him a knowing look.
“She doesn’t even like me.”
“Could’ve fooled me.” They turned into the firehouse, where the other truck was already parked inside the red bricks, giving Warren the opportunity to avoid a reply.
It was quieter than Warren had ever seen it, his colleagues likely to have gone home hours ago.
Responders from all over Lochaber had flooded the uplands tonight, taking control with Warren, which meant once the flames had died, the others had been eager to finish their shift while less exhausted officers stuck around to assess the area.
“I’ll sort the hoses out. You go,” Warren said, and was met with a roll of Nate’s eyes but no protests.
As he’d told Nate before, he liked this part of the job: cleaning the apparatus and sorting the hose dryers.
After all the chaos, slipping into an easy routine helped quieten his mind.
Except tonight, everything inside him hummed at the thought of Eiley waiting for him in one of the offices.
He worked slowly just to avoid her for longer until there was nothing left to do but get dressed and search for her.
It didn’t take long.
In the locker room, she sat on one of the benches, wringing her hands. She hopped up at the sight of him, distress marked in every line of her face.
“Warren …” She breathed his name like it was air and she’d been suffocating, shoulders sinking in a relief that made him wonder if there was some truth to Nate’s statement.
After the night he’d had, it was all he could do to crack open, because he found that he wanted to see her.
Craved it in a way most people craved a hot bath at the end of an arduous day.
His eyes were sore from looking into the flames and his muscles felt like stones scraping his skin, and he was so, so exhausted.
Her presence was a remedy. A reminder that the world wasn’t all ash.
“Are you okay?” She stepped closer, examining him from head to toe despite his thick turnouts.
“You shouldn’t be here.” His voice was hoarse. He’d shouted a lot last night, shooting orders and answering them in equal measure.
“I know. I don’t care.”
“You’re supposed to be in Glasgow. The one saving grace about last night was that I thought you were safe , Eiley.” Warren perched on the nearest bench to shuck off his boots, feet throbbing.
“I’m sorry.” She blinked tears out of her eyes. “I just needed to see you.”
“ Why ?”
“Because …”
She didn’t elaborate, only left more questions dangling in the air between them. Warren stood and ripped off his jacket. “I need a shower.”
“You won’t talk to me?” Her words shook, and he felt like he might collapse onto his knees in front of her then and there.
If it was talking she wanted, she’d be left disappointed.
His body was on red alert, still, brain moving like sludge as the adrenaline crested over him.
He couldn’t conjure words. Could barely conjure movement.
“Talking usually leads to fighting, and I don’t …” He hung his jacket on the rack, ready to be washed. “I’m tired. And I …”
“What?” Eiley sidled up to him, cupping his jaw so gently he barely felt it.
She’d only touched him like this once before, when she’d seen his scars.
When she hadn’t asked, hadn’t pushed. When he’d realised that she was perhaps the gentlest, most empathetic woman he’d ever known, and certainly the only one he wanted. “I’m here, Warren. You can talk to me.”
“Eiley …” It would be so much easier to tell her to leave if she wasn’t stripped back to raw honesty now, eyes wide with sincerity and dark with the same tiredness he felt. A once locked door, suddenly pushed open. He didn’t know how to stop himself from stumbling through.
She leaned in, slow enough that he could have stopped her – except he couldn’t, because there was no room for barriers between them this morning. No strength to keep them standing.
So she kissed him, and it burned through him hotter than any wildfire; the one flame he couldn’t douse, no matter how hard he tried.
He pulled back. “I’m so fucking angry with you, Eiley.”
“I know.”
“I need you,” he said with only a hint of shame. “I need you more than I need to fight you.”
“You have me. Feel.” She put his hand on her chest, the pale skin so delicate he was afraid he’d leave a mark. The speeding drumbeat of her heart fluttered against his palm. “You have me,” she repeated. Promised.
He wanted so badly to believe it.
Through kisses, he guided her into the bathroom, one hand in her hair and the other at the curve of her back.
Every touch brought him back to himself, reminding his body what it was like to feel something other than exhaustion and strain.
She slid the straps of his braces away, one shoulder then the other, already rocking against him like he was all she wanted.
His head spun, only one thought sluggishly pulsing through his mind: her .
Really, no different than usual, only now he couldn’t pretend.
She unfastened his trousers, dragging them down so he could step out of them.
And then it was her turn. He wished he could take his time, undress her garment by garment, appreciate every new unveiled part of her.
But he was tired, needy, and she must have known it, because she ripped off her jumper without him asking, gorgeous tits spilling into a simple pink bra.
She moved with none of the nervous restraint of last time, meeting his eye as she peeled off her jeans, their clothes intertwined on the bathroom tiles.
He turned on the shower, making sure it ran hot before he pulled them both in and closed the cubicle door behind them.
He was barely able to hold himself up, leaning against the wall for support, but it didn’t seem to matter to her as she ran a hand from the base of his cock to the tip, leaving him groaning.
Until he looked down, finding a fresh bruise starting to bloom around her arm, and then he was back in the chaos, sirens blaring around him. He took her elbow gently. “How’d you get this?”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“Tell me, Eiley. Please.” The bruise dotted the entire circumference of her forearm, like somebody had grabbed her. Dug their fingertips deep into her flesh.
“He tried to make me stay.”
Red tainted his vision, his mouth twisted at the thought of the bastard putting his hands on her with her miles away from home, no one to step in. Did the kids see? Did she cry out?
She was quick to bring him back with the softness of her palm against his cheek, shielding him from the pelting water.
“I took care of it. He’ll never see me or the kids again. You were right. I should never have gone in the first place.”
“He’s a rotten fucking prick. I swear to god, if I ever see him again—”
Eiley shushed him, wiping the damp hair from his brow. The hot water made her skin gorgeously rosy. “He doesn’t deserve to ruin this.”
It was true, but it didn’t ease his hatred, even when he dropped Eiley’s arm. “You’re okay?”
“I’m okay. Can I take care of you, now?”
He nodded, barely, already half-gone – from her, from the exhaustion, from everything.
She palmed his length, this time working him in steady strokes that chased thoughts of the bruises away.
The pleasure made him so boneless that he worried he’d collapse, the pelt of the shower heightening the sensitivity of every touch.
A string tightened in his belly, hard cock pulsing with a pleasure overwhelming enough to send him to his knees.