Kevin nodded, his expression thoughtful. “Still, I’m thinking maybe I don’t want to be a firefighter after all. You can get hurt real bad.”
“Knocked off your pedestal already,” Hank teased Sean.
Deanna saw a flicker of sorrow in Sean’s eyes, but he managed a grin. “You’ve got a lot of years before you have to decide what you want to be,” she told her son.
“Maybe it would be cool to be a doctor,” Kevin said.
Ruby grinned at him. “Then you’d have to give shots,” she teased.
Hank moaned. “Don’t go talking about shots, okay?”
Kevin’s eyes blinked wide at the evident hint of panic in Hank’s voice. Ruby and Deanna both stared at him, as Sean began to chuckle.
“Don’t tell me you’re scared of shots,” Ruby said to Hank, apparently delighted by the evidence that the courageous firefighter had a very human weakness.
“What if I am?” he retorted defensively. “A healthy respect for needles seems like a perfectly normal reaction to me.”
The same nurse who’d been on guard duty during the night appeared just then and overheard Hank’s remark. “Uh-oh, don’t tell me I’m going to need restraints for this.”
Hank frowned at him. “Who the hell are you?”
“Our warden,” Sean said grimly. “I remember him from when we first came in. And judging from that tray he’s carrying, he’s armed.”
Ruby leaned down until her face was scant inches from Hank’s. “Concentrate on me. I promise you won’t feel a thing,” she said, then glanced up to wink at the nurse.
Hank opened his mouth to protest, but Ruby swooped in and kissed him just as the nurse administered the shot. Deanna glanced at Sean and saw the speculative gleam in his eyes as the nurse headed his way.
“Forget it,” she told him.
“What?”
“You’re a big boy. Take your shot like a man.”
Kevin frowned at her. “But, Mom, can’t you at least kiss it and make it better?”
“Yeah, Deanna, that’s not too much to ask, is it?” Sean coaxed. He bravely held out his arm for the shot, but kept his gaze locked with Deanna’s.
“Oh, for heaven’s sake,” she muttered, after the nurse had finished. She bent down to press a kiss to Sean’s arm. She doubted he’d felt a thing. “Better?”
She stared into eyes twinkling with pure mischief.
“Not yet, but I think I’m getting there.” He tapped his lips. “How about another one right here?”
She planted her hands on her hips and frowned at him. “Did something happen to your mouth?”
“It hurts real bad,” he assured her.
“Liar,” she accused, but she was laughing. And oh, so tempted.
“Really, really bad.”
Knowing that the room was filled with avid spectators, she had two choices. She could ignore the teasing, plaintive note in his voice and walk right out of the room and wind up labeled as a coward. Or she could kiss him and let the man jumble her senses one more time. It was a no-brainer.
Deanna stepped closer, locked her gaze with his and bent down, stopping just as his lips parted and his breath caught. Let him wonder, she thought. Let him feel that edgy sense of anticipation that he triggered in her.
But before he could wonder or feel much of anything, his hand circled the back of her neck and drew her down until their lips met. The teasing kiss she’d intended got lost in yet another swirl of wild sensations and drugging heat.
Apparently, though, Sean was as aware as she of their audience, because he released her mere seconds after claiming her mouth. As she braced herself on the side of the bed and tried to regain her composure, he winked at her.
“I’m feeling better already,” he announced cheerfully. “How about you?”
She leaned close and whispered for his ears only, “I’m feeling an almost overwhelming need to make you pay for that.”
His laugh echoed in the room. “I can hardly wait.”
Sean was going stir-crazy. The doctors had refused to release Hank, so even though they’d released Sean around noon, he was sticking close to make sure his partner didn’t do anything foolish. He’d finally convinced Ruby, Deanna and Kevin to go home for some sleep, so there was no one to talk to except a man who growled the few responses he deigned to make. Obviously, as far as Hank was concerned, Sean was a traitor for not helping him to make a break for it.
The day nurse was a pretty young woman named Susie, a vast improvement over the scowling, muscular night nurse. In the past Sean would have wandered down to the nurses’ station and flirted with her to kill some time, but images of Deanna kept him in the chair beside Hank’s bed.
He was about to go down to the gift shop in search of some magazines, maybe even a decent book, when the door opened and Lieutenant Beatty walked in.
“Good. You’re still here,” he said to Sean, then nodded toward the sleeping Hank. “How is he?”
“Cranky but on the mend,” Sean said.
“I heard that,” Hank retorted, cracking one eye open. “Hey, Lieutenant, how’s it going?”
Their boss dragged over a chair, then looked from one to the other with a grim expression. “Here’s the thing,” he began in a tone that sent a chill up Sean’s spine. “There’s a school of thought that the two of you deserve medals for bravery for going into that building and getting that old man out safely. If it were up to the mayor, there’d be a damned ticker tape parade.”
Sean knew it wasn’t up to the mayor. It was up to the fire chief and this man, and the lieutenant definitely did not look as if he wanted to hand out any medals.
“What’s the other option?”
“Suspension for defying not one but two direct orders.”
Sean winced. “I think I see where this is going, but I’ve got to tell you, if I had it to do over again, there’s nothing I would have done any differently.”
“Same here,” Hank said loyally.
The lieutenant’s scowl deepened. “Couldn’t you show even the tiniest hint of remorse? Give me
