Feisty Firefighters Bundle

‘Do you need any help?’

‘Have you got a phone?’

‘Yes.’

‘Call triple one,’ Laura directed. ‘Tell them we have one patient. No entrapment. Ask them how long it will be before they get here.’

‘And check on our baby, would you?’ Jason yelled. ‘She’s in the back seat of our car.’

Our baby. Our car. But Laura couldn’t afford to take the time to savour the feeling the words gave her. Her patient was regaining consciousness and groaning loudly.

‘Don’t try to move,’ Laura said. ‘It’s all right. You’ve been in an accident but you’re safe now.’

The reassurance in Laura’s tone was enough to attract the fat black dog, which lay down on its stomach and then wriggled forward like a snake until its nose was right beside Jason’s hand.

‘Hello again,’ Jason said. ‘You all right, dog?’

A long, curly black tail wagged in an embarrassed fashion.

The groans from the dog’s owner were becoming intelligible words. Laura hung her stethoscope around her neck, satisfied that her patient did not have a chest injury severe enough to interfere with his breathing.

‘Keep still,’ she said again. ‘You may have hurt your neck or back.’

‘I…I’m fine,’ the man groaned. ‘Let me sit up.’

‘Not yet.’ Laura kept a restraining hand on the man’s shoulder. ‘What’s your name?’

‘Bill Treffers. What’s yours?’

‘I’m Laura. I’m a paramedic. And that’s Jason, holding your head. He’s a fireman.’

‘Hi,’ Jason said. ‘Must say I’m impressed. It’s not everyone that makes sure they’ve got representatives around from the emergency services when they take their car for a flying lesson.’

‘Oh…God,’ Bill groaned. ‘My car. Is it wrecked?’

‘Were you the only person in the car, Bill?’ Laura queried.

‘Yes. It was just me and that damned dog. The stupid mongrel fell on top of me when I was going around the corner. It’s all his fault. I hope he’s underneath the car.’

Jason caught Laura’s glance but she was glad he didn’t voice his obvious reaction to the statement. The ‘damned dog’ had slithered back to sit on Jason’s foot again as soon as Bill had started talking.

‘Take a deep breath for me, Bill,’ Laura instructed. ‘Does anything hurt?’

‘No. I’m fine, I said. Let me get up.’ Bill tried to move and then swore profusely. ‘My leg,’ he groaned.

‘It’s broken,’ Laura informed him. ‘An ambulance should be here shortly. They’ll be able to give you some pain relief.’ She could make contact with someone who would give her permission to put an IV line in even though she was off duty, which might speed up the man’s analgesia, but Laura’s professional empathy for him was much less than it had been before he’d mentioned his dog. ‘I’m going to check your neck and back out now,’ she told him. ‘Try and keep still.’

The new arrival to the scene slithered part way down the bank. ‘Your baby’s fine,’ he called. ‘Seems to be sound asleep, and they said the police and ambulance would be here in about ten minutes.’

It was almost an hour later that Jason and Laura finally clambered back up the steep bank as they assisted with carrying Bill’s scoop stretcher. He was taken away in the ambulance and a young female police officer reluctantly handed Megan back. ‘She was crying,’ she explained. ‘So I picked her up. She’s gorgeous, isn’t she?’

Megan was happy enough to go back into her car seat.

‘I’ll put it in the front seat this time, shall I?’ Jason asked. ‘I’ll sit in the back with Oscar.’

‘Are you sure about this?’ Laura eyed the fat black dog currently leaning against Jason’s leg with its mournful black eyes firmly fixed on his face. ‘He doesn’t smell great.’

‘So we’ll give him a bath. We couldn’t leave him behind. Bastard Bill was on his way to have him put down.’

‘Hmm.’ Further conversation had revealed that Bill’s mother had gone into a rest home recently and her dog, a six-year-old motley cross between a Labrador and a poodle, had been locked up in Bill’s garage because his wife refused to have him in the house. His messy search for food or a distraction in the rubbish bags that morning had been the last straw and Bill had been summoned home from work to deal with it. The SPCA would have been an alternative to having the dog destroyed, but Jason and Oscar had clearly formed a bond.

‘A dog is a big responsibility,’ Laura felt obliged to remind him. ‘Might not be easy keeping one with shift work.’

‘Be a darned sight easier than looking after a baby,’ Jason declared. ‘And kids need a dog around.’

Again, they both ignored the obvious and Jason sat in the back seat with the smelly dog while Laura drove them home. Oscar had to stay outside until later that evening, but as soon as Megan was settled Jason unearthed all the old towels he could find and ran a bath full of warm water.

‘Will dishwashing liquid be OK?’

‘I think baby shampoo might be better.’

‘Hey, good idea! I should have thought of that for your bath.’

‘You didn’t!’

‘Didn’t what?’

‘Put dishwashing liquid in my bath.’

‘It needed bubbles. Worked quite well, I thought.’

‘No wonder my skin’s been feeling so dry all week.’

‘Bet it was squeaky clean, though.’

‘You’re impossible.’ Laura laughed. ‘But never mind. Let’s see if we can get Oscar squeaky clean, shall we?’

Oscar didn’t take kindly to being bathed. He shook the offending substance off frequently enough to soak the walls, floor, Jason and Laura. It took six towels to get him reasonably dry, and by then the dog was so tired out by the trauma of it all he curled up on the pile of damp towels and went very firmly to sleep.

‘I know how he feels,’ Jason groaned. ‘I’m heading for bed as soon as I’ve dried off as well.’ He stripped his soaked T-shirt off and was about to drop it on the floor when he caught Laura’s stare. She had taken her glasses off because of the rain effect of Oscar’s shaking, but even the depth of colour in her brown eyes wasn’t enough to conceal the dilation of her pupils. The sight of a pink tongue tip running over her lower lip confirmed what Jason was thinking. The heavy T-shirt slipped from his fingers, unheeded. His mates were right. Laura did fancy him.

His gaze didn’t stop at her face. Laura’s T-shirt was as wet as his had been and it clung to her breasts. Jason dragged his gaze back up to her face and the moment the eye contact was renewed he realised the truth. Any attraction here was mutual. For a long moment they simply stared at each other. And then Jason reached out.

‘You’d better get that T-shirt off,’ he murmured. ‘You’ll catch a cold.’

He helped her. It was Jason that dropped the damp garment. This time as their gazes caught Jason was much closer, and it was so easy to bend his head and kiss Laura’s upturned face.

One kiss was not enough. It could never have been enough. Jason could taste things he’d never thought it was possible to taste. All the things he liked about Laura were there-her kindness and loyalty, her intelligence and warmth. Her humour and strength. And he learned something new about Laura Green. Despite anything that appearances might have suggested, she was capable of a passion that blew his socks off.

One kiss and then another…and another. Jason’s tone when he spoke might have been cheeky but the question in his eyes was very serious.

‘I think you might catch a cold, wearing that damp bra. You’d better get it off.’

He helped her. The lacy garment went the same way as the T-shirt and this time Jason could explore the delicious softness of a body type he’d never had the pleasure of tasting before.

‘You’re gorgeous,’ he told Laura. ‘Did you know that?’

‘You’re not half bad yourself,’ she responded shyly. Then she caught her bottom lip between her teeth. ‘But I think you should get out of those damp jeans before you catch a cold.’

She helped him and Jason didn’t even bother to stifle a groan of pure desire as she tackled the button and zip. He caught her hands. ‘If you want this to stop,’ he warned, ‘it had better be now.’