It's a Wonderful Fireman: A Bachelor Firemen Novella (The Bachelor Firemen of San Gabriel) by Jennifer Bernard Page A

chest, swaying with her movements as he thrust into her.
    He shoved the hot thoughts aside. “Did you enter a chili recipe, Fred? I think there’s a category for ‘Chili Not Even the Firehouse Dog Would Eat.’ ”
    “Ha. Ha.” Fred’s poor cooking was notorious; everyone teased him about it. “Pretty good challenge though, especially if Stan was the judge. He’d eat anything. Even the pot the chili came in.”
    “Lay off Stan. He’s not here to defend himself.”
    Lizzie smiled at him, which made him feel like king of the world. “I’m glad someone stands up for Stan.” He smiled back, and the two of them stood for a moment locked in some kind of mutual bubble of appreciation.
    Fred looked from one to the other. “Oh hell no.”
    The spell broke. Lizzie poked her brother in the ribs. “Pipe down, big brother.”
    “Not him.” Fred glared at Mulligan. “Why him?”
    “What are you so worried about?” Lizzie cast Mulligan a teasing look. “We haven’t even done anything. I’ve been waiting and waiting but he still hasn’t asked me out.”
    Mulligan opened and shut his mouth. He was rarely at a loss for words, having mastered the art of fast-talking for survival’s sake. “I . . . uh . . .”
    Fred was shooting death rays at him again. “You’d be lucky to go out with my sister.”
    “I know. Believe me, I feel the same way.”
    Lizzie lifted her eyes to the sky and shook her head. “Men,” she muttered.
    “What’s that supposed to mean?” Fred demanded.
    “It means you just don’t get it. Because you’re a man and men never get it. Mulligan, can I have a word, please?”
    Mulligan shot Fed an alarmed glance, but he got no help from that quarter. Clearly, Lizzie did things her own way. He followed her to the vendor area behind the stands, to a relatively private spot just past the generator truck. No one would be able to hear them over the rumble of the generator. He stuck his hands in his pockets to keep from putting them on the tender flash of skin between the swell of her breasts. Why had she ripped out the neckline so low? Was she trying to torture him?
    “What’s up, Lizzie?”
    She put her hands on her hips. “Don’t play innocent. Have you forgotten what happened at the Easy Out? One minute you’re telling me not to sleep with anyone else, the next minute you’re ignoring me for a month.”
    “You didn’t sleep with anyone else, did you?” Of all the things he could have said, that was the worst. He knew it right away, even before her eyebrows drew together in fury.
    “I’d say that’s definitely none of your business. If you want to make it your business, that’s another story. But you shouldn’t say something like that to a girl and then just . . . disappear.” She pulled her bottom lip between her teeth.
    Finally, clueless idiot that he was, he realized what he’d done. “You’re hurt. I hurt you. Oh God, Lizzie, I didn’t mean to hurt you. I wanted the opposite. To not hurt you. That’s why I haven’t . . .”
    She shrugged and turned away from him, as if she didn’t want him to see her face. He was losing her. Fear struck out of nowhere. He couldn’t lose her. What had he been thinking since that kiss at the Easy Out? Why hadn’t he made a move?
    “Come here.” He snagged her wrist and spun her into his arms. She settled against his body as if they’d never been apart, as if the past month hadn’t even happened. In the next breath, they plunged into a kiss that had the intensity of a whirlpool. All the lust he’d stored up for the past month boiled over, and suddenly he had to touch her sweet body.
    He pulled her farther behind the generator truck and shielded her with his body, so if anyone spotted them, she’d be completely hidden.
    He snuck his hand under that tantalizing T-shirt. Felt meltingly soft skin jump at his touch. Heard her gasp in his ear. Moved upward, across the firm ripple of her ribs, to the fabric of her bra. Her breast fit snugly