Bad Boy's Lust (Firemen in Love Book 1) (4 page)

“Uh, yeah. I'll take care of it.”

Back downstairs I went before Elle shouted at me again. She could yell all she liked, though, so long as I got another peek at those lovely tits of hers.

Preferably without the shirt next time.

I killed the water for the entire apartment building in the basement. It was the only choice. There'd be complaints, of course. No one else would care that Fran's entire home just flooded.

Then I called a plumber to fix the disaster because I wasn't even gonna
try
to do it myself. I almost made it back upstairs before the people in unit 119 started to howl.

The door burst open, and out scurried two young men, Ian and his boyfriend Paul. They were both shrieking and pitching their things into the hallway.

“Jayce!” Paul waved me down and gnawed his lip. “I hate to bother you, but, um...”

“There's
water
coming from the
ceiling!”
Ian wailed. “It got my tax return all wet.”

On the second floor, Elle yelled for me again. Somehow, my cock was still hard. I was pretty impressed. Doubted she'd be, sadly.

“Jayce, go get us a Wet Vac!”

Yeah, it was gonna be a very long day.

“Look, guys. We have a bit of an emergency,” I said as gently as I could manage.

Ian threw his wet shirt at me. It smacked me in the chest and landed on the floor with a plop.

“An emergency? Do you realize how much of our stuff you've
destroyed?
You'd better pay for all of this or we are contacting our lawyer!”

Paul tried to comfort his partner, and I took the opportunity to flee upstairs. Elle stood in the hallway, her arms folded across her chest. I'd hoped to catch another glimpse of that perfection. Guess I was too late.

Maybe if I asked her nicely...

“What are you staring at? We're on the hook for all this damage.”

“Figured as much.”

She paced back and forth. “There's the repair to pay for, then we'll have to tear up the carpet and the linoleum.”

“Unit 119 got hit too.”

She gaped at me and let her arms drop. Jackpot!

“You're kidding. I mean, of course they did.” Her nipples hardened even more, as did I. “I don't think Debbie left us near enough money to take care of this. What if something like this happens again? What am I going to do?”

“You mean, what are
we
going to do.”

She stopped pacing and stared at me, her head cocked to the side. God, she looked so adorable when she did that. It just made me want to... to squeeze her. What the hell was the matter with me?

“Jayce?”

Fran kept hollering in the background. She scooped up water in a bucket and dumped it out the window into the yard below. I should've helped, but Elle had me entranced.

“I'm not giving my bastard father this property. Whatever it takes to keep it out of his hands, I'll do it.”

She visibly relaxed. She pushed tendrils of hair, now wavy and dark from the water, out of her eyes.

“You mean it?”

“Sure do. There's just one little problem we didn't foresee.” I winced. “Actually, it's a huge problem.”

I managed to pull my gaze away from her chest and looked instead at her beautiful face.

“What is it?”

“If we really want to keep this place, there's something I gotta do – and I'm not so sure I can do it.”

I took a deep breath and then spit the words out like they were poison.

“I've got to get married, Pink.”

Chapter 3 - Elle

“Jayce can't possibly get married. He'd be the world's shittiest husband.”

Heather threw a handful of popcorn into her mouth. I laughed because she was right. Inside, I was freaking out.

“I can't believe Debbie would force him into it. She knows, um... what kind of person he is.”

“Yeah, a total whore.”

I paused in front of Casey's Candy Shoppe. There was a big yellow sign in the window that said “Going Out of Business!”

The bottom floor of Shady Acres was actually a sort of small indoor bazaar. There used to be lots of sellers who had shops here, hawking everything from gourmet food to flowers to exotic pets. Most of the owners lived in the apartments above.

The shops were looking a lot emptier these days. Casey's wasn't the only store to close recently and it wouldn't be the last.

“At least he's clean,” I muttered as we perused the chocolate selection. “If you get my drift.”

“Thank God for that.” Heather rolled her eyes. “Hey, wait. How would
you
know?”

“For some reason, he saw fit to tell me. He seemed very proud of the fact.”

“As if you can trust him.” She took one of the samples and devoured it with a sigh. “Don't trust him, okay, Elle? In case you get any funny ideas.”

“What
kind
of ideas?”

She eyed me in her all-knowing way. Heather was a few years younger than me, but she sure was smart. I guess that's why we got along so well, even as kids.

“He'll sleep with anything that has a vagina, and you know it.”

I wished I could hide my blushing. I didn't dare tell her how her brother (that's totally what he was, whether she liked it or not) completely hit on me the other day. How he told me I needed a good fuck...

Damn it, he was right. I was so very sick of being the innocent virgin.

Jayce could take that virginity away from me. He wanted me; I saw the desire in his eyes. But what did it matter? I wasn't anything special to him. It wouldn't make my first time special, either, and that's what I wanted most of all.

He'd screwed so many women. I would be just another one among dozens. Hundreds? Who knew? He'd never be honest about the number. It made me queasy.

Harriet, the jewelry seller who lived in unit 330, waved to us. She was a sweet, shy girl who made her own wares and rarely spoke up about anything.

“Hey there, Elle.” She didn't look me in the eye. “I, um, got the notice on my door this morning. Do you really have to raise my rent? Because, uh, $50 extra per month is kind of a lot.”

My heart ached for her. I couldn't let that happen, though. Feelings were fine to have between friends, not in business. You own the building; you call the shots.

That's what Jayce told me. Listening to him was usually a bad idea, but this time, I knew he was right.

“I'm sorry, but it has to be done.” I smiled my sympathy. “Costs are rising for me, too. Taking care of the building isn't cheap.”

Especially since we just paid over a thousand bucks to replace that water-damaged stuff and fix the plumbing disaster in 219. We had to recoup that money somehow.

Harriet fiddled with the necklace she was making, rolling the stone beads between her fingers.

“I might have to move out.”

Crap! I'd known raising the rent would piss off some people enough to make them move. We'd just made the announcement this morning, and already, there was one renter who might bail. What if there were way more?

What if we lost five percent in a month?

Heather, as usual, came to my rescue. “We'll be sorry to see you go, then. You've been a great tenant these past few years.”

Harriet nodded. “Um, thanks.” Her shoulders slumped as she returned to her work.

“I never thought it'd be so hard.”

“Now you know why I wanted no part of ownership. You're far better at it than I ever would be.”

“We'd be screwed without you, though. You're the one always smoothing over ruffled feathers.” I winced. “And stopping Jayce from beating his dad up in the lobby for all to see.”

“David deserved it.”

David was sort of my uncle, given his close relationship with Debbie for so many years. But I had never liked the guy. He always seemed so cold. Never smiled, except when he made money or scored a new business deal.

Then he showed up on our doorstep and dropped a couple of bombshells. The five percent resident loss was one thing, but demanding Jayce get married? None of us could figure out his game.

“It doesn't matter how many occupants we lose. Jayce isn't getting married. Heck, he never sleeps with the same girl more than once. How's he supposed to cope with a committed relationship?”

Heather stopped at a clothing store and held up a slinky shirt in front of her chest. She checked the price tag, sighed, and put it back.

“We have to help him.”

“You can't help someone who doesn't want it.”

Jayce couldn't be changed. Why would he willingly settle down with one woman, when he could have as many different ones as he liked?

But if he didn't learn how to keep it in his pants – at least until the term's end – Shady Acres was no more. I did
not
want to lose the property. I
hated
to lose.

Heather was right. I had to help him find a wife whether he wanted it or not.

As she flipped through a rack of t-shirts on sale, I mulled over our options. There weren't many for a guy like him.

One of the shops had a TV on the wall. The local news showed an image, a bride and groom, that gave me pause.

“Good morning Waco,” said the news anchor. “In today's tough economy, folks are turning to some rather unconventional ways to get by. Jackie Talbot's daughter required expensive surgery she couldn't afford, so she married her best friend, Fred, to access his generous health insurance plan. They didn't marry for romantic reasons, but Jackie was surprised when the two of them fell in love...”

Heather asked me something about a shirt, but I hardly heard the question. That news story struck me like a lightning bolt.

Those friends got hitched for the guy's insurance. What if Jayce and I did the same?

“Hey, listen! You like the purple one or the black?” Heather held up the two shirts.

I wordlessly pointed to the black garment. She muttered about the price tag and put them both back anyway.

Marry Jayce... It was an outrageous idea, but at the same time, it made sense. What was the chance he'd find a
real
wife in less than five months? This could work. Might save the property.

But the harder I thought on it, the sicker I felt. I didn't want to marry out of some necessity or obligation. All my life, I'd dreamed of a fairy-tale wedding with the man of my dreams.

Jayce wasn't that man. We were friends, but that just wasn't good enough.

No, I couldn't do this. Not even to save Shady Acres.

There
had
to be another way.

“We'd better get back,” she said. “I left Lisa in charge, and she's still pretty wet behind the ears.”

“I bet she's fine. It's been quiet all morning. Nothing's broken, flooded, or caught on fire. Nobody's called to complain.”

She pushed the elevator button. “Yet.”

We went up to the lobby to see how Lisa was holding up. When the door opened, I knew right away there was trouble.

Lisa stood behind the desk, eyes wide, chewing the end of her pen. Male grunts and groans echoed in the stairwell.

“Just push a little harder, cutie.” Laughter. “You're a big, strong fireman, ain't ya? You can handle it.”

Oh, no. Not
her.
No, no!

I pushed past a stunned Heather and ran to the stairs. There stood my mother at the bottom, just as I had feared. Jayce was trying his hardest to push a massive leather couch up the stairs. His face was turning as red as the upholstery.

“Mom!” I hissed as I grabbed her thick arm. “What the hell are you doing?”

She spun around and greeted me with a hug. I gasped for air as her death grip choked the life out of me.

“There you are, Elle. I've been looking
everywhere
for you.” She threw up her meaty hands. “Surprise!”

“S-surprise?”

Jayce let out a relieved sigh when he reached the landing with the couch. He fell down on it sweating heavily, his chest rising and falling with each ragged breath.

“Are you hiding a dead body in the cushions, Mrs. Gardener?”

She twittered. “I've told you, call me Angie. After all, we're practically family.” Her magenta lips lifted into a smile. “Only one more floor to go. And hurry, if you please. The van with my bed should be here any minute.”

I stepped in front of her. Her ample cleavage spilled out of a shirt three sizes too small. It was too late not to look.

“I'm moving in, dear! Aren't you excited?”

Jayce's gaze met mine. I silently mouthed the words “help me.” He only shrugged. Fat lot of good he'd be.

“You can't move in.”

She put her hand over her chest. “Why on Earth not? I'm your mother, Elle. Don't you love me?”

Yes, my mother, master of guilt trips.