Chapter 5
CHAPTER
FIVE
EPICALLY BAD. THE frantic tap dance happening in Georgia’s head only meant one thing: she was about to have the mother of all hangovers. Still squeezing her eyes shut, she rolled over but was blocked by another body.
No, no, no.
She sat straight up and put her fingers on the side of her head, rubbing her throbbing temples. She peered through the side of her hand and saw a muscular back lying next to her, and he had a pillow over his head.
Holy crap, she brought a man home and had no idea who it was!
In a panic, she glanced down at her chest and was relieved she was wearing a bra. She lifted the blanket and peeked down. Thank god she had on a pair of pajama shorts.
Last night was hazy. Georgia took more shots than necessary, dancing with people she didn’t know, and kissing someone. She touched her lips. It was all blurry, but for some reason, she remembered the kiss was magic.
“If we fucked,” the gruff voice lying down next to her cockily spoke, “you’d remember.”
She grabbed the pillow covering his face and threw it to the floor.
This was awful.
Elijah Barnett was in her bed.
He rolled over to his back with his six-pack abs on display. His body was delectable, and for a split second, she was sad that nothing had happened between them. No, she dismissed the thought.
He was bad news, and there was no way in hell she would ever hand this man her virginity.
“Fuck, I need a Tylenol,” Elijah groaned, throwing his muscular arm over his eyes to hide the light.
“Umm, can we please talk about the obvious thing first?” she screeched, making her head thump harder. “I don’t remember much from last night, and now I wake up naked in bed with you!”
His arm moved, and he did a heavy blink, then his eyes traveled over her exposed body, giving her goose bumps.
“We’re not fully naked, and are you cold?” He snickered as his gaze went back to her lacy bra.
Damn her nipples for getting hard from his perusal of her body. She did her best to cover her chest. “No, asshole. I need you to fill in the blanks for me.”
“Fine, but after that I need a couple of Tylenol and a gallon of water.”
She muttered how she was a damn doctor yet somehow managed to drink too much.
“Listen, George.” He was grumpy, and he hadn’t even told her anything yet.
“I hate being called George. It’s the worst nickname.”
“Yes, you mentioned that last night.”
If it didn’t hurt, she would have rolled her eyes.
“Last night, we drank too much. Your dumbass left me to go dance with a bunch of college guys because you were pissed one of my exes showed up.”
Oh yeah, she remembered that part. A beautiful woman with long red hair and a Southern accent sat next to Elijah, practically begging him to take her home. After Georgia heard something about how no one made her come like he did, she marched off to the dance floor.
She was green with envy.
But she wasn’t admitting anything to him. Not a chance in hell.
“I was not jealous! I only wanted to dance.”
Elijah smirked. “No one said you were jealous, but it does clear some things up for me.”
“Screw you!”
“You wish,” he said with a lazy smile. “Back to last night. When I finally caught up with you on the dance floor, you told me to go away and not come back unless I had shots. I wasn’t leaving you with the kid who was looking at you like a meal, so I made you go to the bar with me to get more drinks.
We took shots, which was a dumb idea because we were already drunk. ”
Georgia closed her eyes and made a silent vow to never take a shot ever again.
“Then you told me you wanted to go home.” Despite him feeling like crap, the grin on his face was full of mischief. “No, that wasn’t right. You told me you wanted me to take you home and take your v-card.”
Oh. My. God.
Georgia wished her bed would just swallow her whole and end this nightmare of a conversation.
“I knew you were full of shit pretending you were a virgin, but I wanted to go home too. You ordered an Uber, and we went outside to wait. You told me if I didn’t come home with you, you’d find someone else to…” The smile slipped off his face.
This didn’t seem like the story had a happy ending.
“Some douchebag was outside and heard you. He basically dropped to his fucking knees, begging to go home with you. That’s when I fucked up.” Elijah’s deep voice paused.
Again, her fingers touched her lips.
“You kissed me?” she whispered. “It was you?”
He nodded with an annoyed look. “Yes, like a complete drunk asshole, I kissed you. Then your Uber showed up. We got back here, where you stripped off your clothes, asking me again to take your virginity. Is that some kink you have?”
“You have no idea,” she muttered with her head hanging.
He sat up. “Anyway, I got you to bed, and you asked me to rub your back because the room was spinning. I did give you a mini-massage, and then I got hot so I took my shirt off. Next thing I knew, I fell asleep, and here we are.”
Georgia wanted to cry.
“I’m sorry I kissed you,” Elijah apologized with gentle eyes. “But I swear nothing else happened. Drunk or not, I would never take advantage of you. Or anyone for that matter.”
She believed him. As much as he drove her crazy, he wasn’t a bad guy.
But now she was sad on top of being hungover.
Because she didn’t remember every detail of what it felt like to have Elijah kiss her.
FINISHED INSPECTING THE last fire engine, Elijah went to his checklist and crossed off rig check.
All of the pumps, sirens, and tools were working, plus all the tanks were full of gas.
He was always grateful for slow times at the station because it meant the locals of Landmere were safe.
It also gave him time to do his routine non-emergency work.
“Lou, you hungry?” Anna asked him as she hung the last of the personal protective equipment she was examining. “Roman texted me, and he said he was going to bring pizzas.”
Elijah checked his watch, and it was almost seven at night. He was in the last twelve hours of his shift. Coffee and a pizza sounded fucking glorious.
“What are the odds you could con him into bringing cold brew from Dunkin’?”
She grinned. “On it. I’ll also ask for some donuts, so we have them in the morning.”
“Nash and Levi will appreciate the food when they start their shift tomorrow. Arlo and I will be just coming off.”
“Where is Arlo?”
Elijah pointed down the hallway. “Doing HAZMAT training in one of the offices.”
“Oh yeah, he told me he had to do that today. What are you going to do with your seventy-two?” Anna threw her auburn hair into a sloppy bun and kept talking. “You’re obviously going to sleep, but what else?”
He pointed at his laptop sitting on the table. “Work. I need to schedule the community events and assign who is attending what.”
She excitedly raised her hand. “Please let me be part of prom promise! I love talking to the kids.”
“Done.” He was relieved he didn’t have to.
“I expect twenty push-ups for each slice of pizza!” Roman yelled as he came around a fire truck and joined them in the station’s break area.
He lifted the pizza boxes over his head. “I’m not joking.”
Elijah rolled his eyes, but this was on par with them. Whoever brought food always demanded some sort of physical challenge to the rest of the team. He dropped to the floor with Anna and intended to do sixty push-ups because he knew he was having at least three slices.
More noise crept into the break room, but he ignored it to continue his push-ups.
“Does this mean I get to make Anna and Elijah do something for the coffee?” a sexy-as-sin voice asked.
Roman laughed. “Don’t forget about Arlo.”
“Yum,” the woman said, giggling, and Elijah hated how he knew who owned that damn laugh. The laugh haunted him in the two weeks since they last saw each other, after he made the mistake of kissing her.
He stopped doing push-ups, figuring he did more than enough, and sat in an empty chair. He scowled at Roman. “Why did you bring her with you?”
The more important question he didn’t ask was why they were together in the first place? Since Elijah turned Georgia down, was she just going after the next firefighter she talked to?
Wearing her scrubs, which were hot as hell, she sat down next to Elijah, waving his cold brew in front of his face. “I bumped into Roman, and when he told me he was getting sustenance for the station, I asked to come along. If you keep glaring at me, I’m going to trash your caffeine.”
“We’re going to check the fire alarms at the senior center!” Anna declared, interrupting the livelihood of his drink. “Roman can’t resist the old ladies, so he’s coming with me.”
“They give me candy, call me handsome, and always ask for selfies. It’s an ego boost.”
Without breaking eye contact with Georgia, Elijah responded. “Anna, please make sure he behaves himself. He’s one chocolate chip cookie away from causing a scene.”
“I always make sure he doesn’t act up. Can we add it to my job description?” she teased as she walked out the door with Roman. Elijah heard him say something about how she liked it.
“They’d make a cute couple,” Georgia said offhandedly while swirling his drink on the table.
Elijah victoriously grabbed his drink from her. “No, they’re strictly friends. Do you always romanticize relationships?”
And was this part of her virgin kink?
She huffed, crossing her arms. “You’re blind. They are totally into each other.”
“Or maybe it’s none of my business, so I don’t care.”
“Wow, you’re such a good friend.” She gave him a pointed look.
He took a sip of his coffee. “I am a good friend. Just like they are good friends. Not everything needs to be more than that.”
Arlo came into the room but didn’t say much. He grabbed a box of pizza and said unless he was needed, he was pushing through the rest of training. Elijah heard the office door shut, a sign Arlo was head down with the HAZMAT requirements.
Again, Elijah and Georgia were left alone.
Damn her, she snatched his coffee back from him.
Her wide green eyes sparkled, which only meant one thing.
Trouble.
“If I understand correctly, don’t you have to do something to get the coffee? You did push-ups for the pizza.” She cockily shot him a smile.
“Why are you still here?”
She stood and moved to the kitchen counter in their break room. There was a to-do list taped on the fridge of cleaning expectations. Georgia read it before she hopped onto the counter to sit. “I’m waiting for you to do something to earn your cold brew.”
“What do you want me to do?” he husked despite not wanting to. Something about Georgia made him want to say fuck his rules and strip her naked.
She licked her lower lip. Her mouth was plush and just so fucking kissable, which was another reminder of their drunk first kiss.
And he hated it on so many levels.
Elijah got out of his seat and stalked over to her. “I’m waiting for an answer.”
Georgia spread her legs, giving him space to close the gap between them. Fuck, this was dangerous. Careless. Reckless. But he wasn’t sure anything short of a fire alarm would pull him away from her.
Her lips parted, and when her tongue darted out to lick the corner of her mouth, he was done.
“Screw it.” Elijah’s hands went around the back of her neck, yanking her to him. His lips crashed down on hers, his teeth pulling on her plump lip. She moaned, wrapping her arms around his neck, opening her mouth for him to smother her whimper. Their tongues touched, dancing together.
The station’s non-emergency phone rang, better known as an unwelcome intrusion from him enjoying Georgia’s mouth on his.