Read Ride the Fire for Free Online

made her breath leave her lungs. The sadness still lurked, but it was diminished.
    “Thanks. I guess I needed to hear that.”
    God, she wanted to take him into her arms, love him the way he deserved. She settled for a friendly punch on the shoulder. “Jeez, you guys are a lot of work. It’s enough to drive a girl crazy. Can we get out of here?”
    “You bet.” He gave her a wink and climbed into the truck.
    Climbing in her side of the vehicle, it struck her suddenly that he’d never again be the man he’d been before.
    Whether that was good or bad remained to be seen, miles down the road.

    On the drive back to the station, Sean did his best to keep from putting the truck—boats, trailer, and all—into a ditch.
    That was damned hard to do when all he could see was Eve the way she’d looked on the riverbank after the rescue—wet and bedraggled, wet clothes clinging to every lean muscle on her body.
    Never in all his years in the department had he seen those fugly navy blue pants look so goddamned fine on anybody. There ought to be a law. Probably was.
    The woman was poetry in motion this afternoon, pulling people out of the water left and right. Braving gas, flames, and smoke, saving lives just as every one of them was trained to do. Nothing he hadn’t watched her—hell, the whole team—perform countless times before.
    But he’d never watched Eve, fully appreciated the sheer beauty of her in motion, before today. Like for years he’d had on blinders that allowed him to view her only as one of the boys and they’d been abruptly stripped away. Okay, if he was honest, the blinders had been peeling away for months—it was just that now he was sober and able to realize it.
    He tried to picture Blair jumping in a freezing river to save total strangers and was disturbed to find he couldn’t. The thought seemed somehow unfair and disloyal. Blair had been a completely different person from Eve.
    He was starting to see just how different. As if a basket case like himself had a chance with a woman like Eve. God, that sweet little girl, Jenny, looked so much like his Mia it had torn out his heart. If he hadn’t been able to get to her, he didn’t know what he would’ve—
    “You coming to the Waterin’ Hole tomorrow night?” Eve asked, breaking into his thoughts.
    “I guess so.” He shrugged a shoulder, covering his surprise. “No one told me about it.” That hurt more than he cared to admit.
    “Well, that didn’t sound defensive or anything.”
    “What am I supposed to say? The guys haven’t breathed a word,” he muttered. “Maybe they don’t want me there.” Glancing over, he found her giving him an irritable glare.
    “What do you want, an engraved invitation? I’m telling you now, ding-dong. Wasn’t like it was planned in advance or anything. Jules and Clay cooked up the idea this morning and said to pass it on, whoever wants to come. Dates, too.”
    “You bringing one?” O-kay. That came out a lot sharper than he intended.
    “A date?” She said the word as if it were an alien concept.
    “No, a moose.” He snorted. “Yes, a date.”
    “You don’t have to get pissy.”
    “I’m not pissy!” Much.
    “Are, too.” She paused, smirking when he glanced at her. “Maybe I’ll bring Drake, if he’s free.”
    “What, the nerdy little teacher guy? He doesn’t exactly fit in with us.”
    “He fits in just fine, and he’s not little,” she drawled in a tone that suggested the man sported a ten-inch dick.
    Against his will, his blood started to boil. “You said Drake was just a friend,” he pointed out. There. See him be reasonable.
    The witch blinked at him, the picture of innocence. “When did I say that?”
    “I . . . I don’t know. A while back, but you did say it.”
    “Oh. If it’s been a while, I can’t be held accountable for what I said. Things change, you know.”
    If he’d been Superman, he would’ve bent the steering wheel in half. The thought of Drake’s skinny