Total pages in book: 104
Estimated words: 102016 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 510(@200wpm)___ 408(@250wpm)___ 340(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 102016 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 510(@200wpm)___ 408(@250wpm)___ 340(@300wpm)
“Did you fall asleep?” I hear from the doorway. His voice is low and rumbly and sexy, and despite the soreness in my body, it makes my core tremble.
“No.” I don’t move or even open my eyes. “I’m just relaxed.”
“Well, come on, you can relax in the bath. The salts will help.”
The mattress dips, and I crack an eye open to find Bridger, one knee planted at my hip, grinning down at me.
“You did this to me,” I remind him.
“Not sorry,” he agrees, and when I smile, he takes my hand, kisses it, and helps me up to standing. “I have to take your clothes off, kitten.”
“Isn’t this how we got here in the first place?”
His lips tip up into a smirk. A lock of his dark hair has fallen over his forehead, so I reach up to brush it back.
His eyes heat as I drag my fingertips down his cheek. “Come on, baby. I want to get you more comfortable.”
I untie the knot at my waist of the T-shirt I stole from him, and he slips it over my head. He helps me out of my jeans and underwear, and then we walk into the bathroom.
I’m not just sore there, but my butt, my inner thighs, and even my lower back are all screaming. I won’t complain because today has been one of the best days of my life. But I’m glad that I said something to him, because this pampering stuff is the best.
“Here, take this.” Bridger passes me two tablets, along with a glass of water to wash them down. When I pass the glass back to him, he sets it aside and then helps me step into his tub.
“I’m pretty sure you could fit about six people in here.”
He smiles softly as I sit in the water, and I sigh when the heat wraps around my lower body.
“Oh, that’s nice.”
“Lie back.” He has a small pillow in his hands, and he rests it behind my head against the end of the tub. “Relax. I’ll be right back, okay?”
“Trust me, I’m not moving. I may never leave. You’ll have to have me evicted.”
He turns out the light, and aside from the light coming in from the window, I notice that Bridger lit a candle, which is flickering on the vanity.
He thinks of everything.
Several minutes later, he’s back with two glasses of wine, and he sets them on a table at the end of the free-standing tub, then he begins to strip.
I bite my lip, watching with anticipation. He whips his shirt off, and there’s that broad chest and those sculpted abs and the inked arms I can’t get enough of.
And then his pants are undone, and he pushes them down and off, along with his boxer briefs.
“Lean forward, sweetheart,” he says, taking the pillow away.
I do as he asks, and he slips into the tub and sits behind me, his legs on either side of my hips, and loops his arms around me, pulling me back to lie on his chest.
“Okay, if I thought that was good, this is far better.”
I feel him nuzzle the top of my head, and then he reaches over to grab our wineglasses, passing me one.
“Thanks.”
Leisurely, we sip our wine and soak. Bridger’s knee comes up out of the water, and I run my fingertips over it, enjoying the way the water sluices through the light spattering of dark hair on his skin.
“Can I ask questions about your job?” I ask him softly.
“You can ask me questions about literally anything.”
“If you don’t want to answer, just say so.”
He sighs and kisses my head again. “Okay, but I won’t. Shoot.”
“What was the scariest call you’ve been on?”
He doesn’t answer for a minute, so I tip my head back and look up at him.
“I’m thinking. Do you mean scariest in what was happening at the scene, or scariest in what could have happened to me?”
I swallow hard and turn back around, leaning against him. I might not want to know.
“Either.”
“We got a call for a cat in a tree,” he begins. “And it was pretty high up there. Stupid cat. We got the ladder up, and I climbed it, and I almost fell.”
I gasp. “What?”
“Boot slipped, I reached wrong, and I thought for sure I was going to fall and break my neck. Scared the hell out of me. The fires don’t scare me because we’ve been trained extensively on how to handle them. We have gear and tools, and we’re never careless. Don’t ever think that if I walk into a fire I might not walk out.”
I have to swallow hard around the lump suddenly in my throat. “Okay.”
“It’s all the other shit. Car accidents can get sticky because drivers don’t slow down to get around us. I had a buddy in Idaho get hit by a car on the scene of an accident, and now he’s paralyzed and in a wheelchair.”