More Than a Fling [Uniformed and Blazing Hot 3] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (6 page)

“You’re doing better than Tanner.” Nick pulled a beer from the box and stashed the rest in the fridge. “He can’t even get that far in a kitchen.”

Alyssa shot Tanner a look over her shoulder as she stirred the potatoes and peas. “Ah, so that’s why you were so quick to accept my dinner invitation. And here I thought you were having pity on me and Precious.”

Tanner had moved to the bottles of wine she had set on the counter. “Corkscrew?”

She tipped her chin toward a drawer on his left. “There.”

He tugged the drawer open, found the corkscrew, and set to work opening the bottles. “You and Precious don’t need my pity. You’ve already figured out how to make him happy. Look at him.” He turned and gestured to the dog, once again sprawled out in the center of the kitchen floor. “He’s in Heaven.”

“He’s
inside
the house,” Alyssa pointed out. “He and I were arguing about the fact that he can’t stay in here when the two of you arrived.”

Tanner’s hazel eyes twinkled. “I thought you said there was no way he could understand us.”

“We were also discussing the fact that I apparently lost my mind at some point today.” Alyssa chewed her bottom lip. “Maybe I left it at my desk back at the newspaper office.”

Tanner chuckled. “Or maybe you’re just realizing it’s nice to have someone to talk to when you’re piddling around a house by yourself.”

Alyssa turned from the stove, tossed the oven mitt on the counter, and planted her fisted hands on her hips. “I was not piddling. I was cooking dinner. And he”—she pointed the Precious—“isn’t someone. He’s a dog.”

Precious gave her an argumentative bark that had both men laughing. She rolled her eyes.

“He doesn’t seem to think so.” Tanner opened the nearest top cabinet, seemed pleasantly surprised to discover he had picked the right one, and pulled out two wine glasses. “Red or white?”

“Red, please. Aunt Vera spoiled him, didn’t she?”

“They all did. Vera, Bob, and Bill,” Nick qualified. “They treated him like their child. Of course, he was the closest thing to a child they had, so…”

Alyssa accepted the glass of wine Tanner poured her with a “thanks” and turned her attention to Nick. He was leaning against the counter next to the refrigerator, the fingers of one hand shoved to the first knuckles in the front pocket of his jeans, the fingers of his other hand curled around the beer bottle resting on the counter beside his hip, and his tennis-shoed feet crossed at the ankles.

“From what I’ve been told about Aunt Vera, she was also a housewife. She could chase and clean up after Precious all day long if need be. I can’t.”

“No,” Tanner agreed. He set his wine glass on the countertop and moved to kneel at Precious’s side. “But look how happy the overgrown mutt is now that you’re letting him inside.”

Alyssa narrowed her eyes at him. “He can’t stay in here all the time either.”

“Of course not. Just when you’re home.” Tanner straightened. “And when you’re not… Have you considered putting a fence around the backyard?”

Alyssa nodded. “I called a few fence companies as soon as I got Precious from the animal shelter last week. With all the rain the city has gotten lately, everyone is backed up. The soonest appointment I could get is a month from now.”

“I’m betting Davon could get to it sooner than that,” Nick said to Tanner. “He might need a couple of extra hands, but he’d have it up in no time.”

Alyssa danced her gaze from Nick to Tanner and back again. “Davon?”

“Davon Reed,” Nick elaborated. “He’s Engine Company 4’s lieutenant at Station 5 where we work. He does handyman work on the side. He charges for some things and others he does just to help people out. It gives him something to do during our forty-eight hours of downtime between shifts.”

“I would appreciate it if you would talk to him and I would be happy to pay him for the materials and his labor.” Alyssa moved to the upper cabinet near where Tanner was standing. Her shoulder brushed his as she reached inside to pull out three plates. Awareness zinged up her arm, raining fiery embers of desire through her body to stroke the simmering burn that hadn’t yet died out in her pussy. She tried to ignore it and hoped her voice didn’t sound as breathy to them as it did to her when she spoke again. “I don’t like keeping Precious tied up like I have been, but I didn’t see any other choice.”

Tanner took the plates from her and carried them through the archway to the dining room. “I’ll call Davon in the morning and see how soon he can get to work. If he’s backed up, too, I’ll do it myself.” He returned to the kitchen and shot her a grin as he snagged the wine bottles off the counter. “I may not be worth a crap in the kitchen, but I can swing a mean hammer when I need to.”

* * * *

Alyssa’s soft laughter followed Tanner as he walked back into the dining room. It had taken every ounce of control in him not to reach for her just now. When she had stepped so close that her shoulder brushed his as she took the plates from the cabinet, he had nearly done it. His arms tingled to close around her slender waist. His front burned to feel her pliant curves give against his more muscular frame.

Face it, Carlisle. You’re jealous.

Damn it, he was. She had kissed Nick. Sure, she had merely done it to get Jessica off their asses, but her luscious lips had been glued to Nick’s for at least long enough to, in Nick’s own words, kiss him senseless. He was the one that had been making all the moves to get close to the scotch beauty and his friend was the first to reap the benefits.

Knowing he was being ridiculous, he set the bottles of wine on the table, leaving room for the dish of meatloaf Alyssa brought out of the kitchen. Nick followed behind her with bowls of the mashed potatoes and English peas. Minutes later, the three sat at the small oval table with Alyssa on one side and the two of them at the ends.

Alyssa waved her empty fork in the air between them. “So, tell me about yourselves.”

Tanner chased several rolling peas on his plate until they collided with the mashed potatoes and scooped them up. “What do you want to know?”

She lifted a forkful of meatloaf to her mouth and her lips pursed as she gave the meat a cooling blow. Tanner’s already tortured cock flexed painfully behind the zipper of his jeans. He watched, damn near choking on the bite of peas he had just begun to swallow as her lips parted for the meat before closing around the base of the fork. Christ, did the woman realize the pornographic event she was creating by simply eating her dinner?

“What made you become firefighters? Does it run in the family? Are your families from Cherish or are you transplants like me?”

Tanner grinned. “Transplants. Cute. My fathers are retired from the service. And yes, they’re from Cherish.”

She leaned back in her chair, keeping one arm outstretched on the table with her hand curled around her glass of wine. “What about your mother?”

Tanner sighed. He knew he should’ve seen the question coming. “She left town ten years ago. I was twenty-two.”

Compassion filled her olive-green eyes. “I’m sorry.”

“The three of us got over it in time.” Tanner lifted his wine glass and sipped. It tasted bitter on his tongue. He might have been an adult by the time his mother walked out on him and his fathers, but that hadn’t made the pain of her leaving any duller. Without warning or viable cause, she had simply packed her bags and drove away one day, leaving behind a son and two husbands she had been with for more than twenty-five years.

That was the moment Tanner realized that nothing, not even what he had thought to be a love set in stone, lasted forever. It was also the moment he made up his mind that he would never put himself in the position to be heartbroken as badly as his fathers had been.

“My dads are remarried now,” he told her after a moment, if for no other reason than to ease the blanket of tension that had fallen over the table. “She’s a great woman, good stepmother, and she makes them happy. That’s all that matters.”

Alyssa gave him a comforting smile. “You’re right about that.” She held his gaze for a meaningful moment before she shifted her attention to Nick. “What about you?”

Nick grinned at her. “I’m a transplant like you. No other members of the family in the fire service with only one dad and one mom living in Kansas. They have a farm out there.”

Alyssa gave him a teasing look. “What? You didn’t want to be a farm boy?”

“The whole cowboy thing was never my style. We lived in the city when I was going up. That’s where I caught the firebug. I watched the house across the street from where I lived go up in flames. It was late at night, the family didn’t know the house was on fire until it was too late, and they got trapped inside. The fire department showed up, got all of them out, and even rescued the family dog. The family suffered minor smoke inhalation, but nothing more.” He paused, took a swig of his beer, and continued. “I watched from my bedroom window and felt it.” He shook his head. “It’s not something I can explain, but I just knew I would be a firefighter someday.”

“But not a firefighter in Kansas?”

Nick shook his head. “I was looking for something different. I took a vacation to Nashville shortly after college, heard about an opening with the Cherish F.D., and decided it might be what I was looking for. Six years later, I’m still here, so it must be.”

She giggled. “Is that how the two of you met?”

Tanner nodded. “Station 5, A-shift. I was already on the department when Nick joined. I needed a roommate. He was looking for a place to stay. The rest, as the saying goes, is history.”

“Is that when you bought the house next door?”

Nick chuckled. “You didn’t say anything about grilling us if we accepted your dinner invitation.”

“Hey. I’m a reporter,” she reminded them. “What did you expect?”

“So this is some kind of interview?” Tanner asked.

She thoughtfully chewed her bottom lip and his dick danced in his pants. “Not yet. This is a getting to know you conversation. I would like to write a story on the centennial of the Cherish Fire Service, but I’ll pick your brains about that some other time.”

“We didn’t buy the house next door until last year,” Nick told her. “We got tired of dishing out money on monthly rent and having nothing to really show for it, so we pooled funds together and bought the place next door.”

“Your turn.” Tanner leaned back in his chair and studied her. “Where are you from? What made you become a reporter? What brought you to Cherish is pretty obvious, but what made you stay isn’t.”

She sighed as she focused on him. “Tit for tat, right?”

“What’s good for the goose is good for the gander?” he countered.

That made her laugh. He really liked to hear her laugh. The sound was musical and smooth and did wicked things to his libido.

“New York.” Her musical laugher continued, no doubt thanks to the shock he was sure she could read all over his face. “Yep, you never would have guessed I’m a Yankee, would you?”

“You don’t sound like any Yankee I’ve ever met,” Nick commented.

“That’s probably because I didn’t stay there. My parents moved around…a lot. They’re journalists. My mom wrote for magazines and my dad has worked for various TV affiliates. They were always on the chase for the next biggest story.”

“And you were left behind?” Tanner dared to ask.

She nodded. “I was raised mostly by housekeepers and nannies. Mom and Dad were there when they could be, but that was usually just around the holidays and my birthday.”

“Damn,” Tanner heard himself mutter. At least his mother had waited until he was all grown up before she had walked out on him and his fathers. He had often wondered if losing her sooner would have been easier, though. Maybe then he wouldn’t have twenty-two years of fond memories of a woman that had left him and his fathers without blinking twice.

Alyssa shrugged. “It was life. I didn’t know any different and ended up following in their footsteps when I got old enough.”

“You became a journalist like them,” Nick said. “You’ve been traveling the world, chasing that next big story, and then suddenly…what? You inherit this house from your aunt and uncles and decide to settle down?”

She seemed to consider that for a moment. “That pretty much sums it up.”

No, there was more to it than that, Tanner decided. “Well, that explains why we never met you before now even though we’ve lived next door for the last year. You’ve been off trotting the globe instead of visiting Cherish.”

Her angelic face clouded over at his statement and he suddenly wished he could take it back. “You knew my aunt and uncles far better than I did. I don’t remember my aunt and was never allowed to meet my uncles.”

Shit. Tanner hadn’t realized. He exchanged a wordless glance with Nick, but Alyssa went on before either of them could speak.

“It’s sad, really. From what I know of my uncles, they were disowned by their family because they fell in love with the same woman and moved to this city to be with her. The same thing happened to my aunt. My mother and father were all the family she had left, yet they cut ties with her because she fell in love with two men and moved here so she could live in the open with them. My parents kept me from her because of it. They thought her lifestyle would be a bad influence on me.”