"It's all about finesse," Rick said. "Something you probably know nothing about."

"Hey, I can do finesse."

He followed her back behind the bar and down the short hallway that led past the restrooms before splitting off to the kitchen area and the office and storage rooms. Every once in a while somebody would frown over carrying food past the bathrooms, but it was an old building and the floor plan predated them by a very long time.

Before they entered the kitchen, Aidan put his hand on her elbow to stop her. "Hey. Hold up a second."

"What's up?"

He chuckled, then cast a glance back the way they'd come. "I've been waiting all day to see you. I couldn't believe it when Danny suggested a trip to Kincaid's."

"I was a little surprised to see everybody. I was looking forward to seeing you, but I should have guessed they'd all be with you. If anybody can wreck somebody's plans, it's a group of firefighters."

He gave her a mock frown and shook his head. "This isn't a firefighter thing. It's just a group of guys with really s.h.i.tty timing."

The bell rang several times, and Lydia knew she had maybe a minute before a very p.i.s.sed-off cook came around that corner to deliver the food himself. "I was kidding. It's fine."

"Not really." The bell rang one more time and Lydia took a step toward the kitchen. He didn't let go of her elbow, but pulled her back so he could kiss her. It was fast and hard and over way too soon, but it left her breathless nonetheless.

"We should get those burgers now," he said, a grin tugging at the corners of his mouth.

She went into the kitchen and, after giving an apology to the cook, put four plates on the big tray. Leaving Aidan to carry the other two plates, she made her way back to the pool room and handed them out.

"Thanks for the hand," she said to Aidan, and then she left them to their meals. Definitely not the evening she'd envisioned.

The women from the table paid and left without even making an attempt to flirt with the guys, which was a relief. Over the next hour, a few other firefighters wandered in and joined the group playing pool. She popped in a few times to bring refills and clear the plates away, noticing that Aidan managed to be busy every time she was in the room.

It looked like one quick, sneaky kiss was all she was going to get.

She heard a burst of laughter again and looked over in time to see Aidan leave the pool room. He was laughing and took the time to flip off somebody by the pool table, and then he was walking toward her. She watched him scan the barroom and take note of the fact she was just standing there doing nothing, and he tilted his head toward the hallway.

Okay, so it looked like she'd get two quick, sneaky kisses.

But he kept on walking, right past the kitchen and into the storage room, flipping on the light switch. Her pulse quickened, but as soon as she stepped inside and he closed the door, she held up her hand. "I am not making out with you in the storage closet. In case you haven't noticed, I'm running a business."

"Two minutes. I told them I had to take a leak, and customers will a.s.sume you're in the kitchen and they'll wait two minutes."

"You put a lot of thought into being locked in a closet with me for two minutes."

"Talking wastes time." He tucked his finger in the front of her jeans and yanked her close.

There was nothing quick or sneaky about this kiss. It was hard and demanding, and she wrapped her arms around his neck so he couldn't break it off. Not that he seemed to want to. His tongue dipped between her lips and she surrendered to his mouth.

When his right hand slid over her ribs and cupped her breast, she sighed against his mouth and struggled to keep their location in the front of her mind. Her desire for him kept trying to overwhelm that important fact, but getting caught kissing anybody in the storage closet would be embarra.s.sing. Getting caught kissing Aidan would be so much worse.

Then his hand slid back to her waistband and she clenched her abs. He wouldn't dare...

He dared.

The b.u.t.ton on her jeans popped and she hissed against his mouth. The zipper was harder for him one-handed, but he managed. All the while his mouth was on hers, and she couldn't even think straight. All that mattered was the feel of his lips and the hand he slid down between her stomach and the soft cotton of her underwear.

"Aidan?" she whispered against his mouth.

"About a minute and a half left. I need to feel you, Lydia."

Then his fingertips slid over her c.l.i.t and she sucked in a breath. His teeth caught her bottom lip and she moaned, shocked by the intensity of her reaction to his touch. She knew it had been a long time, but she was already teetering on the brink. He slid a finger into her and she sc.r.a.ped her fingernails down his back, wanting more.

The heel of his hand pressed against her c.l.i.t as he buried two fingers deep inside of her. She broke off the kiss, burying her face against his shoulder.

"You have to be quiet," he whispered against her ear. "You are so f.u.c.king hot, Lydia."

The o.r.g.a.s.m hit quickly and she pressed her mouth to his shirt, willing herself to be silent as it shook her body. He nipped at her earlobe, chuckling softly when she lifted her face to take a deep, shuddering breath.

"That's what I wanted," he said, and then he kissed her again while pulling his hand free from her pants.

"You sure know how to make the most of two minutes."

"I think we still have a few seconds left. Or we can shove all this c.r.a.p in front of the door and do it again."

"I'm not having s.e.x with you in here. It doesn't seem fair, though."

"All part of my master plan to make sure you owe me a b.l.o.w. .j.o.b."

"Brilliant plan." She dropped her forehead to his shoulder, still recovering.

"I got what I wanted for tonight."

"I can't believe it happened that fast," she said with a tremulous laugh.

"It's all that finesse I have."

She wasn't sure what it was, but it scared the h.e.l.l out of her. If him touching her made her feel like that, what would actual s.e.x be like? Explosive. Intense. Too much. She needed distance. "I guess so. I mean, you're not even my type."

"I was your type a few seconds ago," he reminded her.

"You're a firefighter, for chrissake. I can't...definitely not my type." She lifted her head and moved out of his arms.

"Don't lump us all together."

The light, teasing tone was gone, but it wasn't enough distance. She needed more s.p.a.ce to figure out what was going on. "You're pretty much all the same. Reckless kids at heart, but with G.o.d complexes thrown in."

In the s.p.a.ce of a heartbeat, his face completely changed. Gone was the easy, s.e.xy charm, leaving behind hard lines and a jaw that looked as if it had been carved from stone.

He put his hands up in a see, not touching gesture and then took a step backward. "Yeah, you're right. I'm not your type."

"Aidan, I didn't mean...I wasn't trying to insult you."

"Sometimes I forget how you really feel about firefighters. All you did was remind me." He opened the door a crack and looked out into the hall. "I should get back before they send out a search party."

He was gone before she could say anything else, and she slumped against the wall, the post-o.r.g.a.s.m glow definitely extinguished. What a b.i.t.c.hy thing to say just because she got scared of how badly she wanted him.

She heard the squeal of the men's room door and the water running in the sink. Then, a couple of minutes later, the squeal again and she caught a glimpse of him as he walked down the hall back to the barroom.

Resting her head against the wall, she tried to blink back the tears that threatened to spill over her lashes. She hadn't meant to hurt his feelings, but it looked like she'd solved the problem of what to do about Aidan Hunt.

Chapter Eight.

THERE WAS NOTHING like a woman panicking, forgetting everything she knew about grease fires and managing to turn cooking bacon into an all-hands fire to start a guy's day off right.

Aidan jammed the Halligan tool into the wall and used the hook to rip it open. Smoke filtered through with the ancient dust and plaster, and he sighed into his mask. This sucker was never going to be fully extinguished. The only good thing about it was the fact it was a single-family and, as soon as the homeowner realized the fire in the pan was now a real fire in her kitchen, she'd grabbed her kid and the dog and run like h.e.l.l. Her insurance company was going to be p.i.s.sed, but being able to focus all their attention on the fire and not searching under beds for people meant the structure might not be a total loss. a.s.suming the practically antique building materials ever stopped smoldering.

Once they were cleared, Aidan set his self-contained breathing apparatus, helmet and coat on the ground and accepted a water bottle from Walsh. The weather should be starting to turn cooler, but instead it was looking like another scorcher and it was hot as h.e.l.l in the SCBA.

"I'm glad I'm not the one who has to call her husband at work," Scotty said, taking a seat on the engine's b.u.mper next to him.

"Yeah."

"At least it didn't get the garage. You see the Harley the guy's got in there? What year do you think it was?"

Aidan screwed the lid back on the empty water bottle. "A Panhead. Probably a '56, but since it didn't have a sign on it and I'm not a walking motorcycle encyclopedia, I don't know for sure."

In his peripheral vision, he saw Scott turn to frown at him. "What the h.e.l.l's wrong with you today? And don't give me any just tired s.h.i.t. You're the relaxed, happy guy. I'm the guy wound tighter than an eight-day clock. That's how it's supposed to work and you're s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g up the vibe today."

What was wrong with him? What was wrong was that he'd given Lydia a pretty decent o.r.g.a.s.m, judging by how it looked from his side of the equation, and in return she'd given him a verbal shot to the b.a.l.l.s.

"My old man called me at the crack of dawn this morning," Aidan lied. "You know how that goes."

Scotty took a swig of water and shook his head. "I keep telling you to send his calls to voice mail."

"Then I worry something happened and I listen to it right away, anyway. And then I have to call him. It's easier to take the call."

"What did he want this time?"

"Same s.h.i.t," Aidan said, trying not to dig himself into the untruth hole. He sucked at lying and his best friend would probably know any of his more obvious tells. "Different day."

As p.i.s.sed as he was at Lydia, he was never going to repeat what she'd said. She'd insulted him on purpose because she was running out of willpower and wanted him to do the walking away. In the process of making that happen, she'd not only insulted pretty much everything and everybody he loved, but everybody she loved, too.

So, yeah, he might have a hair across his a.s.s at the moment where Lydia was concerned, but he wasn't going to put her in a bad spot with her brother or the old man. Tommy would probably just give her some s.h.i.t and get over it, but it was the kind of thing that would set Scott off and he'd been known to hold some ridiculous grudges over the years. Kicking off a Kincaid family feud because she'd said something stupid Aidan knew she didn't mean just to get him to back off wasn't his style.

He also didn't want to have to explain the circ.u.mstances behind her saying what she'd said. Well, I had my hand down her pants and...

So he'd just lied to his best friend and it was a straight-up lie this time, not one of omission. His stomach ached and his head hurt, and he bent forward to prop his elbows on his knees and drop his head onto his hands.

When Scotty clapped a hand to his shoulder, it just made him feel worse. "We should go out. Not to Dad's bar, either. We need to find a club with loud music and hot women wearing short dresses and high heels."

There was a time Aidan might have agreed with him, but the only woman he wanted wore T-shirts, jeans and sneakers. And the fact he still wanted her so badly his body ached just p.i.s.sed him off even more. On top of all the very valid reasons she was off-limits to him, last night should have been the nail in the coffin when it came to his infatuation with her.

Walsh walked around the end of the truck. "Let's get this wrapped up so we can get out of the way. They want to get the street open again."

"Funny how we become a nuisance as soon as the flames are out," Scotty said before chugging the rest of his water.

When they finally got back to the station, Aidan took care of his gear and then went to drop onto the couch. Leaning his head against the back cushion, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

He hadn't slept for s.h.i.t last night, which of course didn't help his mood any today. And right now he was angry with himself for checking his phone on the ride back, hoping for a text from Lydia. He'd convinced himself he just hadn't felt the vibration, so when he checked and there was nothing, the disappointment had felt bone-deep.

No matter how badly he wanted to talk to her, though, he wouldn't text her. The ball was in her court and she either regretted what she'd said enough to apologize, or she didn't. And if she didn't, there was no sense in them talking.

Aidan felt somebody sit down on the other end of the couch and opened his eyes to see Cobb. "Hey, Captain."

"What's up with you, Hunt?"

"Just relaxing for a minute. What's up with you?"

"Funny. You know what I mean."

Aidan scrubbed his hands over his face, buying himself a few seconds. "I'm in a s.h.i.tty mood. They happen. It's no big deal."

"It feels like more than that. You've been a little off lately, but I can't quite put my finger on how or why."

And Aidan didn't really want him trying too hard to figure it out, so it was time to lie again. "Having some issues with my old man. The usual."

That seemed to satisfy him. "Just don't let it affect you on the job, son. From where I sit, it looks like you're holding the other guys at arm's length-even Kincaid-and that's not any good for you."

"Just trying to work things out in my head. I'm good. Honest."

Cobb slapped his knee and then pushed himself to his feet. "Good. You let me know if that changes."

Left alone again, Aidan pulled his phone out of his pocket and checked it. Nothing. He even went so far as to pull up their last text conversation and tapped the reply box to say something.

Then he swore under his breath and closed the texting app. Tossing his phone onto the coffee table, he picked up the remote control and turned the television on. Daytime TV sucked, but anything was better than sitting around moping over Lydia Kincaid.

LYDIA WOKE UP on the couch with a stiff neck, a lingering sense of uneasiness from the dream that was already slipping away and sorrow because she knew there would be no funny text messages from Aidan today.

She stretched, wincing a little, and realized she could smell coffee. She'd overslept, but based on the condition she'd found them in last night, Ashley and Courtney probably hadn't been up very long, either.

When she'd gotten home, she'd gone upstairs to find Courtney pa.s.sed out, fully dressed, on her bed. She'd tiptoed into Ashley's room intending to climb into the big king-size bed with her sister, but Ashley had been sound asleep totally sideways across the mattress. Ashley'd at least gotten most of her clothes off before she pa.s.sed out, though she hadn't managed to get as far as pajamas. Rather than wake anybody and be forced to make conversation with drunk people in her current mood, Lydia'd gone back downstairs and crashed on the couch.

In hindsight, she probably should have rolled Courtney onto the floor. Sitting up, she gave herself a few seconds to be awake enough not to fall over and then got up. She went to the bathroom first, and then went into the kitchen.

Her sister and their friend looked as bad as she felt, which went a little way toward cheering her up. She poured a coffee and sat down with them. There were no signs breakfast would be forthcoming anytime soon, but she wasn't that hungry, anyway.