All Summer Long (Fool's Gold #9)(41)

He swallowed. “I want thirty seconds.” His gaze shifted to hers. “Just thirty seconds. Promise you won’t get scared?”

She wasn’t sure what he was asking, but nodded anyway.

He took a step toward her, then another. He reached for her and pulled her against him.

She went willingly. Unafraid, as he’d asked. They’d hugged before. What was the big deal? Then his arms tightened and his mouth settled on hers in a kiss unlike the others.

Where before he’d been gentle, this time he was a man on the edge. Passion radiated from him as he swept into her mouth, claiming, demanding. He was intense and hungry, his hands roaming over her body. He squeezed her rear, digging into the curves, before circling around to cup her br**sts.

When he stepped back, they were both breathing hard.

“Are you okay?” he asked. “Did I—”

She put her fingers on his lips to silence him. There was nothing he could have said to make her understand. But the actions spoke volumes. In that moment, he’d been as vulnerable as she. Passion equalized.

“Thank you,” she whispered.

He managed a shaky smile. “For what it’s worth, it’s going to be a long night.”

He kissed her on the cheek, then walked out. She watched him go and knew that whatever happened, she would always be grateful. Clay had shown her that healing was possible and that being like everyone else wasn’t just a wish.

CHAPTER NINE

“CHARLIE HAS DONE her usual excellent job of weeding out the candidates who aren’t going to be able to handle the program,” Olivia said. She turned to Charlie. “You make any of them cry?”

Charlie groaned. “I don’t take pleasure in that. Why do you always act as if I do? I only want to make sure that everyone is prepared for the work involved and the physical requirements. It’s not personal.”

“That was a yes,” another captain said with a grin.

“You make me sound like a monster,” Charlie grumbled.

“No. You do your job.” Olivia tapped the thin stack of applications. “We have more men this time. Always interesting integrating them into our department. Everyone ready?”

There was a murmur of consensus.

Olivia was weeks away from being promoted to Battalion Chief of Training for the department, so she was the one running the meeting. Charlie had been through the winnowing process enough times to know what was coming. Every applicant was discussed in detail. At least two firefighters would have interviewed the candidates and Charlie had taken them through three preliminary training sessions. It was rare for her assessment to conflict with the interview findings. In her experience, applicants had everyone’s support or no one’s. It made the process go more smoothly.

They worked through three potential volunteers, accepting one, dismissing two, before starting on Clay’s paperwork.

Charlie went first, as she had on the others. “He’s at the top of the class and by a wide margin,” she began. “Physically, he’s in excellent shape and he follows orders.”

“He did well on my interview,” Michelle said with a grin. “As much as I could concentrate on it.”

“Did he offer to show you his ass?” another firefighter asked.

“No, which is too bad, because I’m sure I would have looked. Touching would have gotten me into trouble, but it might have been worth it.”

Charlie didn’t like the way the conversation was going. Not only because hearing them talk about Clay this way made her chest feel all tight, but because he deserved better.

“Could we be focused, people? Clay has everything we’re looking for.”

“And more,” Olivia said with a wink. “But no from me.”

Charlie stared at her. “What?”

Her captain shrugged. “Come on, Charlie. Be serious. Sure, he’s physically fit and yes, he passed the interviews. I have no doubt he’d do fine on the psych exam, but so what? He’s not someone we can depend on. We put a lot of money into training our volunteers. We need to know we can count on them. I’m not going to spend money on a butt model.”

Charlie felt her temper rising slowly to the surface. “You’re telling me you’re not going to give him a chance because he’s too attractive?”

“No. He’s unreliable.”

“What is that based on? He was on time to each of my classes and stayed to the end.” She turned to Michelle. “Was he late to the interviews?”

“No, but...”

Charlie waited.

Michelle sighed. “He was on time.”

Charlie turned back to Olivia. “So how is he any more or less dependable than the other candidates?”

“You know what he is,” Olivia told her.

“No. I don’t. What I know is he’s interested and meets all our criteria. But that you don’t want to give him a chance. Wow, this is kind of like saying if someone wears glasses he or she must be smart. Or if a girl is too pretty, she can’t be intelligent, too. If he were a woman, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. We would, in fact, be going out of our way to make sure we were fair to her. I’m shocked that this is the message we want to send to the department and the community.”

Charlie stared at the other women at the table, genuinely surprised by the fact that they weren’t giving Clay a fair chance.