Free Rapid Entry: Firehouse 69, Book 3 by Delilah Devlin Page B

a little schizo,” he drawled.
    “It is. But I write so I don’t need meds.”
    A grin stretched his mouth. “I like your sense of humor.”
    “I like the hints I’ve seen of yours. You’re not all dark and broody.”
    “I just need a reason to smile. You make me smile.”
    Her mouth curved as her smile bloomed. She leaned toward him, setting her head on his shoulder, and they sat like that for a while, just breathing each other in. He felt calm, all the way through. At peace. The irritation and solemn dread he’d stored away since Danny’s death, something he’d only acknowledge when he was alone, had been leaching away ever since he’d met her. It was hard to hold on to storm clouds when he held pure sunshine in his arms.
    “You make me happy,” he whispered.
    She lifted her head and bent toward his face. “I never thought I’d feel this way again. This…peace,” she said. “Sure, you can get me so revved up I’m climbing the walls, but when we’re like this, quiet, I start to think dangerous things…”
    “More dangerous than running into a burning building?”
    She nodded. “Yeah. I want to put my heart out there. I’m willing to let it be crushed again…for just a chance that this might work out.”
    Gage’s eyes began to burn, and he reached up to gently cup the side of her face. “Baby, I’ll guard it well. If you’re in, so am I. Let’s see where this leads.”
    She blinked her rapidly filling eyes and laughed. “See why I didn’t want to talk?”

Chapter Seven
    Gage slid an arm beneath her knees and rose, cradling her against his chest. He walked to the bed and laid her gently on the mattress, following her down to rest against her body. “Baby, I’ll tell you anything you want to know, down to the size of my underwear and my favorite ice cream flavor. But right now, I’d like to have another kind of conversation.”
    “We could talk while we enjoy our…conversation…”
    “What do you have in mind?” he asked, although he was sure neither of them would manage to keep their minds on topic once they were naked.
    She fingered the top button of his shirt. “One question, one piece of clothing.”
    “Conversation will be mighty short,” he said, eyeing her nightgown.
    “When we run out of clothes, we can point at what we want touched, for the price of an answer.”
    Gage laughed. “Okay, I like that game.” He pushed up and straddled her hips. “For the shirt…why did you become a writer?”
    Her smile held a hint of sadness, but at some point they needed to address her past, so he held her gaze, waiting until she was ready.
    “Mike was always leaving on long deployments. We put off having kids, and while I spent my days working as an executive assistant to a colonel on Fort Hood, I spent my evenings dabbling at writing. On his last deployment, I sold my first book.”
    He gave her a nod and quickly stripped off his shirt. Then he gave her a pointed stare.
    She scooted from under him and began to raise the hem of her nightgown. “Why did you become a firefighter?”
    “My dad was a firefighter in Nashville. It’s all I ever wanted to do.”
    “Is he still in Nashville?”
    He nodded. “He and my mom retired there. I see them once a month. More often when they need help around their place. What about your parents?”
    “They live in Little Rock. I still live in Killeen, near the post, although I’ve got the house on the market. I was thinking of moving to Memphis. It’s why I rented Herman’s place. Never got a chance though to check out the local housing market.” She stripped off the pretty gown, her only garment, and rested on her hands as she stared at the waistband of his pants. “How long have you been going to La Forge?”
    He shook his head as he loosened his belt and unbuttoned his pants. “After Danny died, my crew was pretty torn up. One of the guys from the other shift—you met him in your kitchen, Billy Sorensen—he invited us all to spend an