Sizzling Seduction Read online

  He hung up the phone. The last thing he needed this early in the morning was a reminder of the biggest mistake of his life.

  Shaking his head, he got up and started the dril exercise for the morning. They had just enough time to run through it before the kiddies came through.

  People had these outrageous images of firemen just sitting around the firehouse playing cards and dominoes and waiting for the alarm to ring. Those images went out with Ward and Beaver. Today’s firemen were constantly learning and growing on the job, with multiple dril s performed daily, as wel as video training and lectures.

  They also had to clean the firehouse, cook and perform community outreach by going to schools and offering tours to students. The job was multifaceted and he loved that part of it, almost as much as he loved running into a blaze and saving lives.

  He put the team through a dril of working the hose while on the ladder. And soon the little ones were coming through the door. He ful y intended to greet them and then get the heck out of Dodge.

  “Welcome to Fire Station No. 5, girls and boys. My name is Fire Captain Patrick Hightower.” He paused and name is Fire Captain Patrick Hightower.” He paused and gave them a chance to settle down a little. They were clearly hyped from the walk over, and some of them seemed literal y ready to bounce off the wal s. He scanned the crowd of munchkins, then sought out their teacher.

  Good, he thought; there are two of them. They should be able to keep the kids corral ed. His eyes skimmed right over the young woman with the weird boots, even though she did look familiar. Did she go to his church? She seemed to be striking a pose as if she was waiting to be noticed or something.

  The other teacher was bent over, consoling a little girl who had apparently tripped coming into the building. He zeroed in on her behind and chastised himself even as he checked her out. A backside like that deserved more than a passing glance, but he knew it wasn’t the time or the place.

  She was good with the little kid, though. She seemed to have the right amount of patience and kindness needed to deal with kids at such a tender age. The little girl seemed more embarrassed than actual y hurt. But the teacher treated the child as if she were the center of the universe.

  And soon the little girl was cracking a snaggle-toothed grin.

  The teacher stood up. “Sorry about that, Captain….” Her voice trailed off as she caught his gaze. The most beautiful brown eyes he’d ever seen caught his eyes and held them.

  He opened his mouth and closed it several times. The little ones had long since settled down, and they were looking at him expectantly.

  She was stunning.

  He stared. He couldn’t help it. And apparently neither could she, because she just kept looking at him as if she couldn’t pul her gaze away.

  He cleared his throat, stil keeping his focus on her. “As I said, welcome to Fire Station No. 5. I’m Captain Patrick Hightower and I’m going to leave you in the very capable hands of Firefighter Reggie Smith. He’l be guiding your tour today and answering al of your questions. Enjoy yourselves.”

  He should have left and gone back to his office then. But he couldn’t. He just couldn’t.

  Chapter 2

  As many times as Patrick had given the welcoming spiel, as many times as he had handed over the reins of the student visits to the firehouse to some poor rookie who had the pleasure of leading the schoolchildren on their tour, Patrick couldn’t figure out why he couldn’t move his legs.

  And what in the hel was wrong with his tongue?

  He looked her up and down. She came to about his shoulder and had a curvy body, skin that was a rich shade of brown with reddish undertones, and wore her long, brown hair away from her face with a dark blue headband. Her eyes looked as if someone had taken canes of light and dark brown sugar and spun them together. Yes, she was sugar and spice and everything nice…

  Staring at the woman, who made navy blue slacks, a powder-blue sweater twinset, pearl earrings and a necklace look like one of Victoria’s deepest, most scintil ating secrets, he realized the kindergarten teacher had something to do with his sudden speechlessness.

  Patrick had always been good at warding off any chance of having his heart stolen again.

  He just didn’t know how it managed to happen, and how he never had a chance to stop it. But if the erratic thumping in his chest and the sudden clamminess in his hands were any indication, he was smitten with the sexy schoolteacher.

  Oh, he didn’t have a problem with the opposite sex, per se. He just has a problem with being so taken by a woman he couldn’t move or speak. Short, hot, steamy affairs he could do and do again. But this…

  This was new. This was dangerous. This was worse than running headfirst into a five-alarm blaze with no gear and no clue. And this…

  This was inevitable.

  At the age of forty, after thinking he would dodge this ever happening to him again, Patrick Hightower had just met a woman he actual y wanted to get to know better.

  Some men just take up al the space and air in the room.

  And given that fact, Aisha Mil er sized him up.

  Tal , dark and handsome had nothing on this towering wal of muscles or the way he fil ed out that navy blue-and-white uniform. She didn’t think she had a thing for men in uniform. Thick, muscular thighs, strong pipes for arms, official and authoritative clothing…her heart raced.

  She tried to focus on other things in the firehouse. The truck? Look at it—all red and shiny and pretty. The engine…

  Just listen to the words. Focus on the words. Focus on my students. Ignore this man.

  As if she could…

  “Stay away from hot things that can hurt!” Her kindergarten students yel ed the words at the top of their little lungs as they repeated after the young fireman who had just given them a tour of the fire station.

  Their guide was in his early twenties and seemed to be having just as much fun as the kids. He didn’t look bad in his uniform, either. Maybe she could try to focus on him.

  Nope, even the cute little tender-roni fireman guide couldn’t distract her.

  She glanced at Toni in her outrageous purple-and-orange getup trying to catch the young firefighter’s eye by flirtingly repeating after him with the children. Surely Toni’s antics should have wrestled her attention from the sexy fire captain. Toni batted her eyes, and Aisha’s eyes went right back to the fire captain.

  Dang!

  Aisha couldn’t help it. She stared at the sexy, very hot fire captain who was standing there watching them al .

  Captain Hightower. He’d said his name was Captain Patrick Hightower. She wondered why he was stil in the room. He wasn’t giving them the tour. Last year when she’d brought her students for a tour, the highest-ranking officer on duty had introduced himself, given them a welcome and hightailed it out of there, leaving it up to the young rookie to do the grunt work.

  Tal . Rock-hard. Solid muscle and masculinity. Devil-may-care smile. Oh, yeah. He was a hot thing that could hurt al right.

  “Tel a grown-up when you find matches or lighters,” the students yel ed.

  “Stop, drop and rol if your clothes catch on fire.” They dropped on the ground and rol ed around.

  “Cool a burn!” Their little voices piped through the huge hal .

  “That’s right. If you happen to burn yourselves, you should immediately cover the spot with cold water.” The rookie firefighter whose name she still could not remember

  —as if she could remember another name with the name Patrick Hightower taking over every nook and crevice of her mind—coached the children with gems of fire safety.

  Cold water would have been good at that moment. It might have helped with the sudden heat she was feeling.

  She could drink a glass and cool her dry-as-the-desert mouth and throat. She could splash it al over herself to calm down the overwhelming body heat she felt when she looked at Patrick Hightower. The heat and the sweat popping out al over her was unbearable.

 
Early menopause? It could happen as early as thirty-five. She was thirty-five. But something told her it wasn’t early menopause causing the steam to rol up her neck and making her hand want to fan, fan and fan away.

  “Crawl low under smoke!” her little darlings repeated.

  “Know the sound of the smoke alarm,” they added.

  The ringing of the alarm jolted her and she blinked.

  Sound effects? Hmm…She certainly needed a warning if Captain Hightower’s heated stare meant what she thought it meant.

  “Practice an escape plan,” the kindergarteners said with the same tone of authority that the young rookie had used.

  You haven’t said anything but a word!

  She needed an escape plan. She took a slow, calming and deep breath and tried to appear natural about letting it out. No matter what, she wasn’t going to give the man the time of day. That was for sure. She couldn’t. She wouldn’t.

  So there was real y no need to get al nervous and hot and bothered.

  “Recognize the firefighter as a helper,” the children chanted after the rookie.

  chanted after the rookie.

  Yeah.

  Right.

  She glanced up at the fire captain again. He smiled, a sexy, sizzling, seductive smile. His eyes seemed to say,

  “How may I help you?” And his body language—the cool, confident, assured stance—offered a multitude of possibilities.

  She continued to observe him, cautiously, and he continued to hold her gaze. Fire Captain Hightower didn’t appear to know the meaning of the words back down.

  Too bad.

  Aisha shook her head with al the rejection she could muster lacing her stare and posture. She even put on her best don’t-even-try-it-or-think-about-it-brother glare and placed her hand on her hip, blocking his sensual assault with everything she could. It might have helped if she didn’t find herself so incredibly attracted to him.

  And what did the man have the nerve to do in the face of her rejection? He saw her shaking head and smiled as he nodded! He even mouthed the word yes before winking at her and leaving the room.

  The air seemed to return to the room with a gush. The kids were being taught what to do. She gasped as she wondered who in hel was going to save her?

  He couldn’t just let her leave without asking her out.

  Could he? It wasn’t every day that he met a woman who piqued his interest enough to even bother with the effort it took for any kind of approach. And she already had his adrenaline going at high speed.

  She didn’t seem particularly approachable or even open to his advances. That could be a problem. But he was never one to back away from a chal enge. And something screamed in his head that she would be his biggest chal enge yet. He just wanted to get to know her after al .

  What could be the harm in that?

  “Excuse me, Ms. Mil er.” He caught up to her just as she and her teaching assistant led the students out of the building. “Can I speak with you for a moment? I promise not to take too much of your time. I know you have to get the little ones back to school.”

  He cleared his throat. He sounded like a sucker to his own ears. That wasn’t good. He straightened his stance and put on a mental cloak of confidence. No matter how il -

  fitting it felt at the moment, he needed something if he was going to get this sexy woman to give him the time of day and he was woeful y out of practice.

  She let out a breath and nodded at her assistant before walking over to him.

  “Look, Captain Hightower—”

  “Would you like to go out on a date sometime?” They had started talking at the same time, but only he continued and actual y finished his sentence.

  She stood there looking at him. She swal owed before opening her mouth and then she paused.

  He took her pause as an opening for him to make his case. “Look, I don’t do this kind of thing al the time, if that’s what you’re thinking. But I know for a fact that we’d both regret it if we don’t go out on at least one date. So how about you give me your number and we square out the logistics later?”

  Smooth.

  Her head reared back and her hands found her hips.

  Again, he wondered how she made a straight-leg pair of navy blue slacks so sexy. His eyes fol owed each movement and remained fixed on her hips for a second too long. He shook his head and found her giving him the Aunt Esther “You-fish-eyed-fool” slanted-eye glare. She glanced at her students and then seemed to think better of tel ing off the fire captain.

  “Thanks, but no thanks.” She folded her arms across her chest, her entire posture daring him to say another word.

  “But…” He wanted to say they’d be good together. That he could feel it after only knowing her for a few minutes.

  Was he coming on too strong?

  Probably.

  Did he have a choice?

  Probably not, especial y if watching the first woman who had managed to work her way past his shield and make him want more than a brief affair without even trying was any indication.

  She rol ed her eyes at him before plastering on an overly bright smile and turning to her students. “Say thank-you to Fire Captain Hightower for opening up the firehouse for our tour, boys and girls.”

  “Thank you, Fire Captain Hightower!” The boys and girls hol ered. And with that they took off down the street and back to school.

  He couldn’t help but smile. He ful y intended to take the cute and sassy kindergarten teacher out on a date.

  “He shoots. He fumbles. He’s outta here!” The rookie, Reggie Smith, had the nerve to be standing there grinning at Patrick as he chanted his little taunt. Then he added a little mock sympathy to boot. “Aww, better luck next time, Captain Hightower. Maybe if you got more practice, you’d have better game.”

  “Get back to work, rookie. I think the coffee is running low.”

  In addition to handling the student tours and anything else the more seasoned firefighters didn’t want to do, it was the rookie’s job to make sure there was always fresh coffee. It was not the rookie’s job to tease his superiors.

  But Patrick had other things to think about that were far more pressing. Things like: Why did she say no? And how could he get her to say yes? Those ranked high on his list….

  “My, my, my, somebody has a big ol’ fine sexy admirer.

  A big ol’ fine sexy Hightower admirer! The single women at Mount Zion Baptist are going to mourn up a storm when the word hits that the last Hightower has bitten the dust.” Toni started running off at the mouth as they led the children back into the classroom.

  Aisha shook her head. She should have known her nosy little teaching assistant wasn’t going to let the incident at the firehouse slide.

  Toni was one of those long and lean sisters who wore style and fashion like it was her birthright. She had one of those chopped and blunt hairstyles that made her look like a rocker girl instead of a teaching assistant and part-time col ege student. She was in her late twenties and life was stil an open book for her. And she apparently knew the fire captain, so getting her to give it a rest would be darn near impossible.

  Impossible or not, Aisha knew she was going to try her best to ignore the girl.

  “Nap time.” She readied her little munchkins for their naps. When they awakened, it would be exercise time, math time, then time for them to go home.

  Watching them resting on their cots with their little blankets and pil ows made her heart ful . Al of a sudden she felt so glad that she had final y fol owed her heart and become a teacher. It had been a long and circuitous journey but she’d made it, and her life was on the right track. No way was she going to let some sexy fire captain turn her head.

  “Have you thought about the book club? We’re meeting this Saturday at my cousin Jenny’s house. Everyone is bringing at least one other person. So I’m hoping you’l be my person. Be my person, ple-ase.” Toni grinned and it was al Aisha could do not to laugh.

  Aisha straightened
one of the lopsided construction paper turkeys that her students had made by tracing their hands. It was only mid-October, but they started making holiday decorations earlier and earlier. Soon they’d be making paper Santas and stockings with their names on them. She then turned her attention back to Toni.

  “You know I only like to read romance novels. If I join a book club, then I’m going to have to read sad and depressing books and Lord knows what else.” She had seen enough sad and depressing in life and didn’t need to read about it in her free time.

  She had given the book club some thought, though.

  While she would love to make a few new friends in the area final y and have some adult company, as a single mom, she didn’t have a lot of free time to read and what free time she did have she saved for her romance novels. A. C. Arthur, Ann Christopher, Brenda Jackson, Deatri King-Bey, Victoria Wel s, Beverly Jenkins and LaConnie Taylor-Jones had first bil ing whenever she had a moment to spare.

  “Plus, you know I don’t like to leave Dil on with a babysitter, especial y on the weekend. My ex finds every conceivable way to skip his visitations. And I’m not mad about that because I don’t want my son around him anyway.

  But that means no weekends off for me.”

  “First of al , it would do us al some good to expand our horizons and read outside our comfort zones. I’m doing it because I want to read something besides al the boring stuff I’m reading in school.” Toni shook her head and the razor-sharp asymmetrical cut moved with precision and then fel right back into place.

  “And it wil only be one book a month,” Toni added. “You might like it. And for al those romance novels you’re reading, you would think you would be more open to going out on a date with that fine Captain Patrick Hightower.

  Yummy…I can’t believe you turned him down!”

  “Oh, would you look at the time…” Aisha glanced down at her watch. “It’s almost time to get these little ones up so they can get ready to go home for the day.”

  “Uh-uh, don’t even try it. We’ve got five minutes. But I promise I’l leave it alone if you agree to go with me to the book club meeting. Just come to this first open meeting and see if you like it. Maybe we could even read a couple of those romance novels you like so much…”