his mouth and nodded rapidly. “Yes.”
“Yes?”
I reached for him and he lowered himself down to kiss me again. I was exactly where I was supposed to be. In his arms, planning for our future. Right on the edge of a new life.
“Yes,” he said. “Let’s pack up your stuff tomorrow. Move in with me, Ry. And then let me paint the walls here.”
I laughed, and the big booming sound echoed through the house. Brax pressed himself against my body and sighed as though he loved me with all of his heart. The way I’d always wanted to be loved. As he fell asleep on my chest, I closed my eyes and felt a surge of gratitude for everything he’d brought into my life—color, movement, sweetness.
And soul.
27
Richie
Orange was my favorite color when I was a kid but now it was the last thing I wanted to see. The orange glow on the four-year-old’s soot-covered face made my chest crack and I raced her over to the paramedics as she coughed like crazy from the smoke in her lungs. The fire was tearing through her family home and there was no way we were going to put the blaze out—the kid would lose her house, and this wasn’t the kind of neighborhood where they had decent insurance. Life was going to fucking suck for her from here on. But at least she was alive.
Owen took her from me, and well, okay, his head of ginger hair was a positive association. Having my brother on site always made my job easier—I could relax when he had the survivors in his care. He always got the job done.
I spun around to look for my other rock, Cameron. He was my six but now where the hell was he?
“Johnny! Where’s Cam?” I shouted to my captain who stood by a firetruck with his hands on his hips, shaking his head at the blaze.
He whipped his head around at the sound of my voice and cupped his hand to shout back, “Not out yet!”
My gut clenched and my heart spasmed like I was having a fucking coronary event. If I hadn’t been having these kinds of chest hiccups the last few years I’d been working with Cam, then I would have had Owen or Derek check me out for tachycardia. But I knew what the problem was.
I was in love with my straight partner who kept putting himself in risky situations.
I grimaced and pressed a fist against my chest as flames flared on the roof. Fuck. Where the fuck was he? Idiot. Beautiful, hot, kind, funny idiot. The situation was complicated—he wasn’t gay, and neither was I. I mean, not technically. I could admit to myself in the middle of the night I might be bisexual. I’d had plenty of sex with men but I didn’t do real relationships with them—no shade, I’d just never felt any emotional attachment to my hookups.
Well, no shit, it was because I was emotionally unavailable, spending my every working hour with Cam and plenty of my time off, too. We were ‘best friends’. He was my idea of a perfect man. Strong, funny, sweet and sensitive. He loved my brothers, they loved him. Yeah, too bad he was straight as a fucking ruler and was quite possibly burning to death inside the house.
Fuck. Fuck. C’mon. Get outta there… Another flare went up. A ceiling beam came down with a deafening crash. The rules said we waited for him to come out, we didn’t go back in when a blaze was so intense. Rules, huh… Since when did I follow those?
“Richie!” Johnny shouted a warning as I raced past, thumping my helmet back on my head as I leaped over the singed hedges of the scrabbly front yard.
My instincts told me to stop short and turn back as I hit the wall of heat. It took all of my focus to push into it, forcing myself to bound up the front steps and beneath the flaming porch roof. Through the door we’d already knocked down, I could see flames as they roared in the hallway. Orange, orange, orange. They’d lick me from both sides if I dashed in there. I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and—
“Hey!”
I opened my eyes in shock.
“Look what I found!” Cam was right there in the doorway. He held up a stunned cat—ginger of course—and beamed at me with soot-stained bright red cheeks beneath his helmet.
“Fuck.” I grabbed his arm and yanked him and the cat out of there just as the roof came crashing down behind us.
“Whoa!” He laughed and stumbled over his feet as I pulled him a safe distance away.
“What the fuck were you doing in there for so long after the structural integrity got fucked up?” I shouted at him as I dragged him across the yard.
He stopped short and shot me his sweet-boy cheek-dimpling grin. I swooned every damn time. And then he held up the cat. “I had to save Mittens.”
I groaned and rubbed my face. Luckily I had a contact at the local vet to get it checked out—dear Wyatt would give Mittens priority treatment— but right now I just needed to seethe. “Don’t put yourself in danger like that, okay?”
“Hey, c’mon.” Cam pulled me into a hug and thumped my back as the fire raged on behind us, crackling through something electrical.
I grumbled and hugged him back, holding him tight as my heart raced. If he’d been injured… Or worse, if I’d lost him before I had a chance to tell him how I felt… The thought made me feel like I might throw up. And I sure as hell couldn’t keep putting my own life in danger to rush to his rescue because I was too shit-scared of losing him.
Shit. Maybe it was time to step it up.
Maybe it was time to seduce my hero.
Get ready for Book 4 of the Vanguard Towers Series, Fire And Ice!
Available Now!!
Fire And Ice
Get ready for Book 4 of the Vanguard Towers Series, Fire And Ice!
Available Now!!
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Body And Soul
Vanguard Towers: Book 3
Aiden Bates
© 2020
Disclaimer
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.
This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters, and events are all fictitious for the reader’s pleasure. Any similarities to real people, places, events, living or dead are all coincidental.
This book contains sexually explicit content that is intended for ADULTS ONLY (+18).