12-Alarm Cowboys (22 page)

“Please—” she begged on a whisper, feeling wrung out and desperate.

“Please, what, baby?” he murmured, his voice a low, sexy rumble.

“Make me
come
!” she ground out.

God, if he didn’t do it soon, Sunny felt like she’d die. That’s how intense the need burning inside of her was. And this man was in charge of putting her out of her misery. She’d given him that control, and now she was second-guessing that decision. When she’d had enough, Sunny pushed against the wall to stand, but his strong arms wrapped around her thighs just as his hot mouth closed over her clit and he sucked her hard.

Sunny’s scream echoed loudly in her ears and her body seized as lightning bolts sizzled up her spine to short-circuit her brain, sending hot lava through her veins until her whole body incinerated. Austin sucked harder, in short bursts, and Sunny screamed until she was hoarse. Her body swayed like a tree in a storm, but he held her tight while he continued his onslaught, sending wave after wave of pleasure to drown her. By the time Austin lowered her down to sit, Sunny’s body was invertebrate, she was weak and incoherent. All she could do was drag in ragged breaths and rest her forehead on his shoulder.

“Worth the wait?” he asked, with a short laugh, and all she could do was nod, because there was not a sound or an ounce of energy left in her body. But Sunny knew it wasn’t over, she’d have to find some scrap of energy, because his cock was still rock solid between them and God she wanted it badly. Austin solved her problem when he gently laid her back onto the floor of the shower, lifted her hips and meeting her eyes he plunged himself inside her body, stretching her to her fullest. Her long moan mixed with his shuddering sigh to echo off the tile wall.

“That is definitely worth the wait,” he said in a strained tone, and a tremor moved through his body into hers. “But I’m afraid I’ve waited as long as I can. You feel too damned good.” Drawing back, Austin dragged his cock along her passage until he was almost out.

The sucking sound their bodies made combined with the incredible friction to induce a fresh round of desire in Sunny. When Austin pushed back into her, Sunny arched her back to plant her heels on the floor to meet his thrust. Their bodies slapped together and she moaned loudly. Sunny didn’t think she’d ever been stretched so tight, or felt so damned full.

Needing more though, she was the one to lower herself from his length then tense her muscles to thrust upward next. Austin’s fingers gripped her hips and he seemed to snap. Suddenly, his hips worked fast, their bodies fused time and again. The sound of his grunts, mixed with her labored breaths and the slapping. The incredible slapping and wet sucking. Tension didn’t inch up inside of her, it clawed up her insides until it reached her head where it exploded in a beautiful fireworks show behind her eyelids and her body shook so hard her teeth rattled, then with a roar, Austin’s hot release exploded inside her body. Sunny felt herself drift off into peaceful nothingness as he kissed her hair and lowered her body to the floor.

‡

“P
enny for your
thoughts, Cap,” Braden said with a nervous laugh at her door, jerking Sunny’s attention from the fire certificate on her wall to him. Sitting up straighter, she forced herself to focus on the thick stack of reports her lieutenant, who served as their full-time paramedic supervisor as well as a volunteer firefighter, dropped into the basket at the corner of her desk.

He quickly turned to leave, but Sunny stopped him. “Are those the ones that were due two weeks ago?” she asked shortly.

If Sunny hadn’t had an attention deficit disorder for the last two weeks, since she left the rough stock ranch and the sexy cowboy who ran the operation behind, she would’ve noticed he was behind a week ago. The only reason she realized now was because the Chief brought it to her attention that morning he hadn’t received them yet. And she’d looked like a bumbling idiot to him when she said she would have to find out where they were and get back to him.

Braden’s face turned red, and he shoved his hands into the pockets of his uniform pants. “I had to take several shifts on the med units last week. We’re down two men, since Bledsoe is out on maternity leave as of last Monday, and you fired Thomas.”

God, how could she forget Bledsoe, a woman who worked her ass off up until her fortieth week of pregnancy, was off on maternity leave now? Sunny needed to pull her shit together, because she was as incompetent at her job right now as Thomas had been as a medic. The scathing, but on point, reviews that Foxy had written on his last two charts, even though Bledsoe had tried to cover for him, were the final straw. Sunny had no choice but to fire him, even over the Chief’s objections. It had been her call, and she thought she made the right one in the interest of patient safety, and the station’s welfare.

“Noted. How many open shifts do you have right now?” Sunny asked.

“Ninety-six hours worth this week and next,” Braden replied, a muscle working in his jaw. “We need to hire more people fast and train them on the fly. I told the Chief that this morning when he asked for the reports.”

“We need good, experienced people who are better than Thomas was. He was a liability and we don’t need to replace him with the same because we’re in a pinch.”

Braden huffed a breath, removed his hands from his pocket and placed his palms on Sunny’s desk. “I’d hire someone straight out of medic school right about now, fire experience or not. I know you like flexible paid employees who can also volunteer for fires, but the fact is we
are
in a helluva pinch. If we get two medic calls and a fire call like we did two weeks ago, we’re screwed.”

Sunny didn’t have a single resume on file for a qualified firefighter-medic. Not one, even though she kept a standing ad in the local paper. Probably because no one wanted part-time at the rate she was able to offer them. Now, she needed someone full-time, but had no applicants.

Her only option was to put herself on the schedule, or have the Chief call around to try to find someone to hire. But even if he called the school and found a graduate, they’d have to do ridealongs with trained medics before they received their licenses. That left her, or Braden, and they really needed him on standby at the station to help out if they had a fire call.

The thought of having to spend even more time away from Billy to cover medic shifts herself made her sick. “I’ll get with the Chief and we’ll figure something out.”

Blowing out a breath, he stood. “Thanks, Cap.”

“Don’t thank me yet. You know the pool is shallow, but I’ll see what I can find.”

Braden left with a nod, and Sunny rested her head on her hands. Why the hell did Austin McBride’s name flash like a neon sign inside her skull? It had been flashing there for two weeks for an entirely different reason, but now the light almost blinded her. She was
not
calling in a man to help out who could possibly be competition for the Chief’s job. Especially one she’d had wild monkey sex with all night long and then again in the morning before she and Billy left the ranch.

Pulling Austin McBride into the station, even temporarily until they could find someone else, would be career suicide for her. She’d probably end up with the same situation on her hands that she had with Jason in Carrolton. Or jobless, because if Austin McBride applied for and got the Chief’s job, she was out of there. She would not work under him.

You sure didn’t mind working under him, on top of him and any other way he wanted you before dawn the night she spent at that ranch.
That thought sent a wave of hot lava through her body, but Sunny hardened it right near her heart. It was better to let sleeping dogs, and wild monkeys lay.

Like she suspected after her visit to the ranch, Austin had evidently forgotten that the Chief even offered him a job, because he hadn’t called or come by the station. Either that or he’d decided he had it too good where he was to leave. Maybe he wanted to make it clear to her that their one night had been just that. Whatever the reason, she was thankful.

She’d been holding her breath and counting the days until the job opening closed. Thirteen more days and she could finally breathe again. She would be awarded the job when the Chief retired in six months, and she’d promote Braden to Captain. Life would be good for her and Billy, and she could finally move out of her mother’s house and spend more time with him.

Sitting up, Sunny shoved back her chair, and pushed up to her feet. “Suck it up, Sunny—you’ve got this,” she murmured to herself, but then she looked at the doorway. As if her thoughts conjured the sexier-than-sin cowboy, Austin McBride’s big bulk blocked her exit.

“Hi, Sunshine…” His deep, honeyed-drawl rumbled through her body to her toes, his heated gray eyes dragging it along that path, before they glided back to hers. “I just talked to the Chief and he says you need a medic, so I’m here to apply for the job.”

Her brain was in neutral as it tried to sort out exactly how she felt about seeing him again. Fear, shock—and happiness dammit. Dragging her eyes from his, Sunny sank back down into her chair, because her knees refused to lock properly. Taking several deep breaths, she scooted up to her desk, and her mind finally engaged.

“I can’t hire you, because you live too far out in the boonies to volunteer as a firefighter,” she said firmly, locking her fingers together so he didn’t see them shaking.

“You don’t have to hire me,” he said with that trademark grin that set her body on fire, as he casually strolled to the chair across from her desk and sat down. “The Chief already hired me. He told me to talk to you, so you could put me to work.”

Anger surged up to choke her, but Sunny was determined to keep her cool. “We’ve been through this before, McBride. I hire the medics here, and you’re not hired until I say you’re hired.”

“I filled out my W-2 and signed the hiring paperwork in his office. I’m hired, and I’m looking forward to working with you,” Austin replied so calmly it set her teeth on edge. Leaning back in the chair, he crossed his calf over his knee. “If you have a problem with it, talk to the Chief, because I’m not getting into this pissing contest between y’all.”

“We haven’t ever had a
pissing contest
until you came along, and that’s just one of the reasons I can’t hire you. You’d bring too much friction and drama to this station.”

His eyebrow lifted along with the corner of his mouth. “You going to tell your uncle why you think there will be friction if I’m hired? That’s probably the only way you’re going to convince him to un-hire me.”

Sunny chewed the inside of her cheek. Hell no, she wouldn’t be telling her uncle why she thought there’d be friction between them. Her uncle was the only one here who knew what happened with her job in Carrolton, with Jason and their falling out at the station. If she told him she’d had sex with Austin McBride when she knew he’d offered him a job here, her own job might be on the line.

“And it won’t be me causing any drama here, I assure you. I don’t have a problem separating work from pleasure.” His smile kicked up on the other side, then turned into a slightly condescending grin. The wink pushed it over into full-blown condescension. “Guys are better at doing that than women.”

His words started a wildfire of feminine indignation inside of her that no amount of apologies would extinguish. Sunny’s chair hit the wall loudly as she stood and put her palms on the desk to glare at him. She snapped a finger up to point at the door. “Get your smug, condescending ass out of my office
now
!”

Austin chuckled as he stood. “My first shift is tonight, but I’m staying at the Rosebud Hotel down on Fifth Street if you get a fire call and need help.” He patted his hip. “Chief gave me a radio, so I’ll keep my ears on.”

She’d like to chew his damned ears off! Blood rushed up to her face. “Do
not
come back to this station unless you’re called,” she growled. And it would be a cold day in hell, before Sunny called him for anything. “I’ll let you know if we need your help.”

“I’ll be back at seven then,” he said smoothly, as if he didn’t notice she was about to explode. With a chin nod, Austin walked out of her office, and Sunny’s eyes locked onto his tight ass. When she realized what she was doing she growled.

How in the hell could he take this job? Had he quit the ranch? Why was he staying at the rent-by-the-week motel in town?

Blood pounding in her ears, Sunny walked around her desk and stormed down the hall toward the Chief’s office. Since they were such good
buddies
, maybe her uncle could answer those questions for her. But she needed to calm down first. Storming into her uncle’s office loaded for bear was not going to get her a thing. He was as chauvinistic as Austin McBride, and the damned board who’d grilled her twice as hard during her interview as they would have any man.

If she went in there acting like an emotional female, he would treat her like one, or write her concerns off to hormones. Sunny had fought too hard to deal with the men here on an unemotional, detached—a man’s level—to ruin that now.