Sizzling Seduction (2 page)

The building was stil somewhat quiet. But soon it would be bustling with the sounds of children learning and playing.

PS #21 was a kindergarten through eighth grade elementary school in the heart of Paterson, New Jersey, on Tenth Avenue. She’d been lucky to get a job teaching in the same school district in which she lived, at the school closest to her home and the one her son attended. Dil on probably didn’t think so, but it worked for her.

Once she’d finished her paperwork and returned from the principal’s office, her teacher’s assistant, Toni, had arrived.

Aisha smiled. “Wel , wel , look who’s on time today.”

Toni grinned and waved her off. “Girl, please, of course I’m on time today. I can’t wait to take these little rug rats to the fire station. My future husband might be waiting for me as we speak. I can’t keep my hunky fireman husband-to-be waiting. How do I look?” Toni did a little spin and showed off her latest trendy outfit. The bold splash of orange and purple in the blouse refused to be outdone by the orange skirt, dark plum tights and purple patent-leather boots. But with Toni’s wild personality the outfit worked.

Aisha knew she could never pul off something like that

—not that she would have any desire to. Just give her a pair of neutral slacks and a nice sweater twinset any day.

Maybe some gold jewelry.

“You look…nice…” Aisha started. Toni real y did look nice—not Aisha’s personal taste, but nice nonetheless.

Toni cut her eyes. “You don’t like the outfit. I can tel . But my future fireman husband is going to be al on it. You watch and see. Plus, everyone can’t pul off prissy-priss-chic like you. Some of us need flair.”

“Prissy-priss?” Aisha feigned indignation. “That’s Ms.

Priss, thank you very much. I can’t help it if I’m a little more reserved….”

“Ummm…Reserved isn’t going to snag you one of those hot firemen. You’l see. Watch me work it, girl.” Toni did a little spin and shook her head so that the blunt edges of her stylish haircut moved with sassy precision.

Aisha just laughed. She wasn’t looking for a hot, sexy fireman as a future husband, boyfriend or anything else.

The only man she had time for in her life was ten years old and upstairs being tutored in math. Being Dil on’s mom and being the best kindergarten teacher she could be was more than enough for her.

One by one the students started showing up, and soon she had an entire classroom ful of kiddies. After a brief morning lesson, they’d take the six-block walk to Fire Station No. 5 and get a tour and a lesson in fire safety.

Aisha grinned in anticipation. She liked taking class trips almost as much as the kids did. She couldn’t wait.

Patrick Hightower eyed his squad as they lined up in the apparatus room for rol cal . Of the five men on duty on any given shift, his position as fire captain never changed.

He was the officer in charge.

He took note of his men. Al of them were present and accounted for, uniformed and ready to rol at the sound of an alarm. Reggie Smith, the rookie, was there and Patrick had a special assignment for him today. They had a group of kindergartners coming through later, and the rookie could give them a tour.

“Jones, you’re the driver today.” Patrick went down his list. “Carter, you’re position three. Stone, you’re position four. And Smith, you’re position five, waterman and general helper.”

“No big surprise there,” Reggie grumbled.

“Awww…the rookie’s getting tired of playing his position.” Lennie Stone playful y ribbed Reggie.

The other men laughed, and Patrick was tempted to join them. But he had one more surprise for the rookie. Holding back his own grin, he added, “And we have a tour today.

So you can show us what you know, rookie, by leading the tour and giving a presentation to the group of kindergarteners we have coming in.”

“Kindergartners?” A look of horror crossed Reggie’s face. “Couldn’t my first time leading a tour be with some older kids? The smal ones scare me.” Reggie offered a fake shiver.

“Hey, if you can face a fire you can face some five-year-olds,” Patrick said.

“I don’t know. I think I’d take my chances with the fire anytime.” Bryan Carter winked, shaking his head in mock sympathy.

Patrick went over the rest of the schedule for the day, knowing that one cal would set his entire careful y planned schedule off for the day. Once he set out the schedule, the men went about checking the fire engine and equipment to make sure that everything was ful y operational.

There were two other firefighters who were also certified first-responder and emergency medical technicians on this shift besides himself, and Patrick knew that the men would also check the medical equipment and verify that al medications were there.

Patrick went back to his office/bedroom to log personnel and equipment on to the computer and wrap up a few other administrative ends.

The room that he spent more time in than he spent in his own bedroom at home housed a desk, a twin bed, a couple of chairs, a computer and printer. The décor probably left a lot to be desired for most folks. The beige-and-brown comforter on the bed and the cream plaid chairs didn’t exactly scream high-end. But it was sufficient for the work he needed to get done.

His cel phone started ringing and he glanced at the cal er ID before answering.

“Yes, Aunt Sophie?”

“How’s my favorite nephew this morning?” Her voice was way too pleasant for the time of morning and for her demeanor in general.

Something was up. She was that pleasant only when she was trying to hook him up with some woman she thought would be perfect for him.

Been there, done that and got the divorce papers to
prove it.

There was no way he was going to al ow her to reel him in and hook him up. Plus, if he weren’t at work it would be too early for his aunt to be cal ing him anyway. She must be trying to catch him when he was sleepy and groggy and liable to agree to anything.

“I’m fine, Aunt Sophie. But I’m at work and I can’t talk now. I need to run the guys through a dril and we have to handle chores at the station before a group of kids come through for a tour in a few.” He almost felt guilty rushing her off the phone. Almost. “So how about I give you a cal later this week? In fact, I’l try and make time to take my favorite aunt out to lunch. Okay? I real y have to go now.”

“Wel …okay…I guess I can run some things by you over lunch. I just think you’ve been single too long and it’s time for you to just—”

“Yeah, this is definitely a lunchtime conversation.”
Not.

“I’l give you a cal later this week and we can set up a time.

Love you, Aunt Sophie. I’l talk with you later. Bye-bye.”

“Wel …fine…bye, Patrick. We wil talk later—I have

“Wel …fine…bye, Patrick. We wil talk later—I have some ideas. I’m concerned about your happiness. I don’t think you’ve ever gotten over Courtney. And—”

“Sorry, gotta run, Aunt Sophie. I’l cal you. Bye.”

Yeah, he had to cut her off before she went there.

Bringing up the ex-wife was a good enough reason for the dial tone. Sophie was lucky he had respect for his elders.

He hung up the phone. The last thing he needed this early in the morning was a reminder of the biggest mistake of his life.

Shaking his head, he got up and started the dril exercise for the morning. They had just enough time to run through it before the kiddies came through.

People had these outrageous images of firemen just sitting around the firehouse playing cards and dominoes and waiting for the alarm to ring. Those images went out with Ward and Beaver. Today’s firemen were constantly learning and growing on the job, with multiple dril s performed daily, as wel as video training and lectures.

They also had to clean the firehouse, cook and perform community outreach by going to schools and offering tours to students. The job was multifaceted and he loved that part of it, almost as much as he loved running into a blaze and saving lives.

He put the team through a dril of working the hose while on the ladder. And soon the little ones were coming through the door. He ful y intended to greet them and then get the heck out of Dodge.

“Welcome to Fire Station No. 5, girls and boys. My name is Fire Captain Patrick Hightower.” He paused and name is Fire Captain Patrick Hightower.” He paused and gave them a chance to settle down a little. They were clearly hyped from the walk over, and some of them seemed literal y ready to bounce off the wal s. He scanned the crowd of munchkins, then sought out their teacher.

Good, he thought; there are two of them. They should be able to keep the kids corral ed. His eyes skimmed right over the young woman with the weird boots, even though she did look familiar. Did she go to his church? She seemed to be striking a pose as if she was waiting to be noticed or something.

The other teacher was bent over, consoling a little girl who had apparently tripped coming into the building. He zeroed in on her behind and chastised himself even as he checked her out. A backside like that deserved more than a passing glance, but he knew it wasn’t the time or the place.

She was good with the little kid, though. She seemed to have the right amount of patience and kindness needed to deal with kids at such a tender age. The little girl seemed more embarrassed than actual y hurt. But the teacher treated the child as if she were the center of the universe.

And soon the little girl was cracking a snaggle-toothed grin.

The teacher stood up. “Sorry about that, Captain….” Her voice trailed off as she caught his gaze. The most beautiful brown eyes he’d ever seen caught his eyes and held them.

He opened his mouth and closed it several times. The little ones had long since settled down, and they were looking at him expectantly.

She was stunning.

He stared. He couldn’t help it. And apparently neither could she, because she just kept looking at him as if she couldn’t pul her gaze away.

He cleared his throat, stil keeping his focus on her. “As I said, welcome to Fire Station No. 5. I’m Captain Patrick Hightower and I’m going to leave you in the very capable hands of Firefighter Reggie Smith. He’l be guiding your tour today and answering al of your questions. Enjoy yourselves.”

He should have left and gone back to his office then. But he couldn’t. He just couldn’t.

A
s many times as Patrick had given the welcoming spiel, as many times as he had handed over the reins of the student visits to the firehouse to some poor rookie who had the pleasure of leading the schoolchildren on their tour, Patrick couldn’t figure out why he couldn’t move his legs.

And what in the hel was wrong with his tongue?

He looked her up and down. She came to about his shoulder and had a curvy body, skin that was a rich shade of brown with reddish undertones, and wore her long, brown hair away from her face with a dark blue headband. Her eyes looked as if someone had taken canes of light and dark brown sugar and spun them together. Yes, she was sugar and spice and everything nice…

Staring at the woman, who made navy blue slacks, a powder-blue sweater twinset, pearl earrings and a necklace look like one of Victoria’s deepest, most scintil ating secrets, he realized the kindergarten teacher had something to do with his sudden speechlessness.

Patrick had always been good at warding off any chance of having his heart stolen again.

He just didn’t know how it managed to happen, and how he never had a chance to stop it. But if the erratic thumping in his chest and the sudden clamminess in his hands were any indication, he was smitten with the sexy schoolteacher.

Oh, he didn’t have a problem with the opposite sex, per se. He just has a problem with being so taken by a woman he couldn’t move or speak. Short, hot, steamy affairs he could do and do again. But this…

This was new. This was dangerous. This was worse than running headfirst into a five-alarm blaze with no gear and no clue. And this…

This was inevitable.

At the age of forty, after thinking he would dodge this ever happening to him again, Patrick Hightower had just met a woman he actual y wanted to get to know better.

Some men just take up al the space and air in the room.

And given that fact, Aisha Mil er sized him up.

Tal , dark and handsome had nothing on this towering wal of muscles or the way he fil ed out that navy blue-and-white uniform. She didn’t think she had a thing for men in uniform. Thick, muscular thighs, strong pipes for arms, official and authoritative clothing…her heart raced.

She tried to focus on other things in the firehouse.
The
truck? Look at it—all red and shiny and pretty. The
engine…

Just listen to the words. Focus on the words. Focus on
my students. Ignore this man.

As if she could…

“Stay away from hot things that can hurt!” Her kindergarten students yel ed the words at the top of their little lungs as they repeated after the young fireman who had just given them a tour of the fire station.

Their guide was in his early twenties and seemed to be having just as much fun as the kids. He didn’t look bad in his uniform, either. Maybe she could try to focus on him.

Nope, even the cute little tender-roni fireman guide couldn’t distract her.