Attraction: (A Temptation Series Stand-alone) (The Temptation Series Book 4) (9 page)

‘Excuse me, ma’am, but I’m here to put out your fire.’

Unsure that I’d heard what I thought I’d just heard, I
looked up at the person standing on the other side of the counter.

I blinked a few times as if my eyes were deceiving me, then
realised Derek was leaning toward me and was only centimetres away. He was
wearing a tight-fitting navy t-shirt with the Metropolitan Fire Brigade emblem
on it. He was also sporting a devilishly sexy grin on his face.

Holy fuckalicious firefighter!

CHAPTER EIGHT

I stood upright and looked to my left then to my right as if
I were about to cross a fucking road. ‘What the crap? What are you doing here?’
I asked, shocked but equally excited to see him.

‘Easy, princess, I’m here for the Fire Ed program,’ he
answered.
Princess ... really?

‘Oh, of course you are,’ I laughed awkwardly when, to be
honest, I was a little disappointed that he wasn’t here to see me.
And on a
side note: if I were a ‘princess’ where is my fucking tiara?

Plastering on a faux smile, I remained composed. ‘A
coincidence perhaps?’

‘You could say that,’ he replied with a cocky grin that had
the ability to render me his slave and perform a sexual extravaganza for him.
Holy
clit jitters. How does he do that?

‘
Um ... just give me a second and I’ll escort you and
the truck through the gate to the oval area where you can set yourselves up.’

As I turned to make my way out of my office, feeling like a
complete and utter fool, Libby walked in with her head down, her attention
focussed solely on the paperwork she was reading. ‘What time are the fire brigade
due?’ she asked without raising her head.

‘They’re here,’ I replied through my clenched teeth.

At that point she looked up and spotted Derek standing in
the office reception area. Her jaw dropped open and she turned the shade of her
hair — bright red! ‘Oh. That’s ... great!’

Trying to retain my calm professional manner, I walked past
her. ‘Can you man the office for a minute while I show the MFB where they can
set up?’

By that point, I was still standing behind the doorframe and
out of Derek’s sight, but I was, however, in Libby’s line of vision.

‘Sure,’ she said with an unsure smile as she glanced at
Derek, then back to me.

When her eyes met mine again, I performed a few
indistinguishable hand gestures and mouthed the words, ‘That’s Derek, that’s
the firefighter’, while overly accentuating my finger-pointing in his
direction.

It took her a couple of seconds to figure out what I was
getting at, but when she did, her face morphed into an unusually large smile
... even for Libby.

Stepping up to the counter, she offered her hand. ‘Sorry,
I’m Ms Elizabeth Hanson ... or Libby, when my class isn’t listening,’ she
babbled, her flushed cheeks now downgraded from Elmo-red to Miss Piggy-pink.
OMG!
Lib, you little flirt.

‘Senior Officer King ... or firefighter Derek, when your
class is listening,’ he smiled with a wink while shaking her hand.
Fucking
man-whore!

I shook my head, rolled my eyes and walked around to where
he stood, fully kitted out in his uniform. The sheer magnitude of his sexiness
nearly had me grabbing at the reception counter for stability.
My god, I
love a man in uniform. I mean, seriously, how hot are firefighters, military
officers, policemen, Batman, Thor? Wait a minute, does Thor wear a uniform?
Pfft, who the fuck cares, he’s hot!
Anyway, my point is a man in uniform
screamed sexy. It screamed, ‘I am one fuckable piece of man candy, put me in
your mouth and suck me.’

As I fantasised about consuming Senior Officer King, my eyes
travelled the length of his yellow coloured protective pants which were held up
by red braces. Surely it was a crime of some sort that those braces were
currently functional. I wanted nothing more than for those protective pants to
just drop to the floor in a pool of material around his booted ankles. His
presence alone made me weak at the knees and slightly giddy.

Derek began to take steps toward me and I noticed that his
mouth was moving, but the words he was speaking were not registering. I
honestly felt as though I was in a fog, a trance of some kind.

‘Carly, are you all right?’ he said as he gently placed his
hands on my shoulders. He squatted and lowered himself to my eye level.

I could see the concern in his eyes. ‘What? I’m fine. Sorry,
I’m fine,’ I stuttered, apologetically.

Derek tilted his head slightly, indicating that he thought
my explanation was bogus. ‘Are you sure? You looked as though you were about to
faint.’

‘Yes, I’m fine. I’m just a little woozy. My appetite has not
yet returned,’ I flippantly remarked.

Technically, that statement held some truth. The ‘some
truth’ being the woozy part, because my appetite had returned tenfold. No, I
was woozy because he was standing before me in his firefighter uniform and it
was making me light-headed.

‘Do you two know each other?’ Libby asked, with a smile only
I could see the meaning behind.

Still standing there with Derek’s hands on my shoulders, I
became aware he was staring at me. I very quickly glared at Libby. ‘Yes, we’ve
met before.’

Derek leaned in closer and pierced me with his baby blue
eyes. The close proximity of his head and the intense stare he placed upon me
stole the air from my lungs.

‘Is it on vacation?’ he asked, his expression dead serious,
his eyes continuing to peruse my facial features.

I gave him a crooked smile and answered with great
difficulty, my response a challenge due to noticing that his gaze kept returning
to my lips. ‘Is what on vacation?’

‘Your appetite,’ he responded, still displaying a stoic
mask.

‘No. Why would it be on vacation?’

‘Because you said it hadn’t yet returned,’ he smiled. ‘I was
just wondering where it had gone.’

Our conversation was cray cray; appetites taking holidays. I
mean, who talked about that shit? Regardless, I wasn’t in the least bit
interested in our discussion, instead being more fascinated by the way his
nostrils flared as he breathed heavily.

‘I ... I had a bad case of gastro and haven’t been eating
properly since,’ I stuttered.

Derek leaned back, affording me my personal space again, yet
he kept his hands on my shoulders. ‘So you weren’t spinning me some bullshit
lie to get out of our date?’

‘Language! You’re in a primary school,’ I scolded him.

He flexed his fingers. ‘Shit, sorry.’

‘No, I wasn’t. I was genuinely crook. And anyway,’ I
offered, shrugging out of his grasp because his fingers were causing heat waves
to roll through me, ‘if I didn’t want to go out with you,’ I mumbled, heading
to the reception counter and stepping up onto the small platform to lean over
and reach for the keys to the gate, all the while gifting him a nice view of my
arse, ‘I would’ve just come right out and said it.’

Turning back around, I shot him an exaggerated smile, then
leapt off the step with the elegant grace a dancer would possess. As I passed
him en route to the door, I stopped and finished what I had to say. ‘I’m open,
honest and tell it like it is. Take me or leave me.’ Holding my arm out, I
gestured for him to exit. ‘After you, Officer King.’

Derek clicked his jaw from side to side and placed one of
his hands in his trouser pocket, then casually strolled past me to walk out the
door, and as if my eyes were on autopilot they followed that man’s toned firm
arse until it was no longer in sight.

***

For the hour that followed, I sat anxiously at my desk,
desperately wanting to go outside and perve on Derek. So when Brooke casually
strolled into my office and said she’d been informed by Libby that Officer
Hotstuff was my soon-to-be new fuck-friend so I could go outside for the next
demo because her grade one class was having their library session and she would
cover for me, I couldn’t have been happier.

‘Thank you, Brooke. And just for the record, I never said he
was to be my new “fuck-friend”,’ I said quietly, making sure no little ears
were close by.

Tightening her blonde ponytail, she rolled her eyes. ‘Carly,
please, I know you. I’ve known you for years. And I’ve just seen his ... um ...
exterior. Plus, Lib said you both know each other and that you were only
seconds away from getting it on in this very office.’

‘We were not!’

‘Sure,’ she drawled.

I narrowed my eyes at her as I stood up from my seat.
‘Changing the subject ... Lance’s brother, he is still single?’

Brooke picked up one of my fancy pens and gave it a critical
once-over while answering nonchalantly. ‘Yeah. Why?’

‘I met someone a few weeks ago who might be a great match.’

‘When are you going to learn to stay out of setting people
up?’

‘What? I’m a human cupid,’ I smiled proudly.

‘So be your own human cupid.’

Ignoring her stab at me, because she knows I’m one to avoid
commitment on any level, I continued with my original plan. ‘As I was saying, I
met a guy called Liam. He works with my best friend, Alexis. He’s single, cute
and strictly dickly. I told him about Lance’s bro and he seemed interested.’

Brooke shrugged her shoulders. ‘Okay, I’ll have a chat to
him.’

‘Sweet! Later,’ I said, blowing her a kiss and making my way
outside.

***

Walking toward the demonstration, I took in the sight of
Derek addressing the prep students. He had their unequivocal attention, their
wide eyes glued to every movement that he made.

‘So repeat after me. Stop, drop, cover. And if your clothes
are on fire what do you do?’ he asked while putting his hand to his ear, ready
for them to shout the answer.

‘ROLL!’ they enthusiastically screamed.

‘Yes, roll.
But only if your clothes are on fire.’ Derek leaned back against the truck and
raised one foot, balancing it against the tyre. He then crossed his arms in
front of him and shook his head from side to side. ‘You kids are pretty smart.
I bet you are all smarter than me.’

Most of them shouted, ‘No’, the exception being Tanner
Morgan — aged five. ‘My dad is smarter than you,’ Tanner bellowed.

I had to bite my lip to refrain from laughing. Sally — or Ms
Taylor as she is known to her prep grade students — stepped forward. She was
clearly embarrassed, blushing profusely as she tried to hush Tanner.

‘Oh yeah?’ Derek asked. ‘Is your dad a rocket scientist?’

‘No. He is a policeman, and policemen are way better than
firemen,’ Tanner answered resolutely.

It was obvious by the way Derek quickly looked to the ground
that he was trying not to laugh. ‘Really? Why are they better?’

‘Tanner!’ Sally warned.

Tanner totally ignored his teacher. ‘Because policemen have
guns and you have stupid fire hoses,’ he responded.

‘Stupid? This is not stupid,’ Derek announced as he whipped
out a hose. Honestly, I’d much prefer he whip out the hose in his pants. But
hey, there’s a time and place for that, and it certainly wasn’t here ...

Instead, he was handed a hose by one of the other
firefighters.

‘This is an attack hose,’ he explained with a melodramatic
tone.

All the kids — even Tanner — ooh’d and ah’d.

‘Is it heavy?’ one of them asked.

‘Can you blow a hole in someone’s gut?’ said another.

‘Can you drink from it?’

‘Whoa! Remember, if you have a question, please raise your
hand,’ Derek instructed kindly.

As I watched him interact with the kids, it was apparent
that he had paternal qualities. He was cool, calm and collected, and he
appeared to enjoy their annoying and, at times, non-compliant nature. He
seemed, quite simply, tolerant — which was something I was not. My tolerance,
where young humans were concerned, was zero ... nil ... nada. That didn’t mean
I treated them badly though. I didn’t treat anyone badly. Regardless of whether
I was fond of a person or not, I always showed them respect. Respect is the
easiest thing to give, yet the hardest to be earned.

Ding! Ding! Ding!

The sound of the school bell broke my inner musings about
Derek and children.
Thank Christ for that! Why my mind is pondering that
topic is beyond me.

Taking a few steps closer to him, he noticed my approach and
looked up. A small group of children were saying their goodbyes when he excused
himself and instructed them to hurry and catch up with the rest of their class.

‘I hope you got all that?’ he said with sincerity.

Got all what? Is he asking if I spotted that he is great
with kids, or that he has a massive hose?

‘Got what?’ I asked hesitantly.

‘What to do in an emergency.’

I rolled my eyes at him. ‘I know what to do in the case of
an emergency.’

‘Really? Where’s the safe point at your home?’

‘Easy, by the letterbox.’

‘How often do you change your smoke detector batteries?’

‘At the beginning of daylight saving.’

‘Good,’ he praised. ‘So, Carly, I know that you said your
appetite had not yet returned, but I’m hungry. I want to eat and I want to eat
with you.’

‘Um ... well, I’m just about to go on my lunchbreak. There’s
a cafe down the road that has great sandwiches. We could —’

‘Perfect. Just give me a minute,’ he said before turning and
jogging toward his two colleagues.

I watched as he — I assumed — filled them in on his lunch
plans. One of them looked in my direction and shook his head in amused
disbelief, before saying, ‘I don’t know how you do it.’

I furrowed my brow.

***

We walked the short distance to the cafe and secured a
table.

‘What can I get you both?’ the waitress politely asked.

Derek motioned for me to answer first. ‘Ladies before gentlemen,’
he said with a smirk.