Jill Shalvis - Heating up the Holidays

2008

CRISTINALEWIS walked into the florists shop with a tiny bit of an attitude, which, at least according to those who knew her best, was nothing new. Whatever. She rarely wasted time thinking about her demeanor, or what people thought of it.

Probably not the best way to make friends, but she wasnt out to do so. Not in her world, where she was the lone female firefighter at station #34 in Santa Rey, California, a surfer-boy beach town. Her attitude was her shield, which she backed up by being good at what she did. The best, actually, and as a result, she was respected and trusted. And maybe a little feared, which worked, too.

Give her a burning building or a wrecked car threatening to explode any day of the week and shed handle it. Unfortunately, todays task was picking out a Christmas bouquet for the new chief and his wife.

Cristina wasnt a Christmas person. Hell, she wasnt a people person, so the fact that she was the one in here while her crew waited outside on the rig was fairly ridiculous. I know nothing about flowers, she warned the clerk who came around the front desk with a welcoming smile. And even less about the whole ho-ho spirit, so we can skip the sales talk.

Good. I hate the sales talk.

Okay, the woman was tough and had a sense of humor. Perfect. Can you get me a Christmas bouquet and make it painless?

Im an expert in painless. The clerks professional smile never wavered. For a boyfriend? Husband?

Ha. Cristina didnt have a husband. She didnt have a boyfriend, either. The closest shed come lately was her vibrator, but that had broken a few months back and she hadnt yet replaced it. As for a real live penis, that honor had all too briefly belonged to an extremely laid-back, easygoing, sexy-as-hell EMT named Dustin Mauer, whom shed had to dump through no particular fault of his own-other than that he possessed the most baffling ability to make her want things. Things she didnt want to want. Things like a happily ever after, which shed never believed in.

Its for the new bosss wife. She slapped the seventy-five bucks the crew had all pooled together onto the counter. In the name of sucking up to the powers that be, apparently.

Well, you came to the right place.

Great. Cristina just wanted to do this and get out, maybe fight a blaze or rescue someone. Anything but this. She knew damn well she was in here only because she had the lone vagina on the squad. Any one of those guys out there would have done a better job on this and they all knew it, but they were too busy cackling like little girls over making Cristina do it.

From some hidden speaker came a soft medley of Christmas tunes, and when she looked around, her senses were assaulted with a myriad of scents and colors. Flowers, plants, crafty stuff, it was everywhere, like a nightmare, all in green and red and silver and gold. Festive chaos.

It made her feel dizzy, and just a little like a bull in a china shop.

Make sure it looks pretty, came Blakes voice over the radio at her hip. The radio issued by the fire department, the one supposedly to be used for emergencies only.

Cristina sighed. At the moment she didnt care that Blake had had an incredibly rough year and that she loved him like the brother shed never had, she snatched the radio off her hip and snarled, You sent me in here, youll deal with what I pick.

Scrooge.

So she wasnt a fan of Christmas, so what. She had no family to speak of other than the one shed made at the station, and therefore didnt have a lot of happy yuletide memories. To her, Christmas was just another day at the firehouse, albeit with better goodies to steal out of the fridge.

Make sure it has some red flowers on it, came Blakes voice again. She loves red flowers, apparently.

Like she cared what some higher-ups wife liked. The last chief had been a serial arsonist. In her eyes, the new chief still had to prove himself. Youll like what I pick, she informed him with plenty of her famed attitude. Even if it smells like sh-

Wow, somebody really needs to get laid. There was laughter in his voice now.

Yeah, okay, so she did need that, desperately, but shed done the stupid thing and dumped Dustin after one fantastic night of amazing sex, and now he refused to have additional amazing sex without more, whatever the hell that meant.

Not that that was any of Blakes business.

The clerk cleared her throat and held up some sort of floral arrangement with what even Cristina had to admit was a gorgeous mix of red flowers and greenery, and a silver bow that managed not to look obnoxious. Okay, you are good.

The clerk smiled. Oh, Im better than good. Do you want to take it with you or have it delivered?

Delivered, please. And while she pulled out the address shed written down and waited for the woman to handle the paperwork, she eyed the store again. With her chore now completed, she could take a breath of relief and admit that maybe the place had a charm to it. It did smell damn good. She eyed the small tree on the counter, filled with tiny red envelopes. What are those?

A present-in-an-envelope. Donate twenty-five bucks that will go to one of several local charities, and you get a surprise donated from a local business-a spa treatment or a dinner for two, things like that.

Cristina didnt know what came over her but she dug into her uniform pants and pulled out a twenty and a five. Scrooge, her ass.

Pick an envelope, any one, the clerk told her cheerfully.

Cristina debated a moment, then grabbed one.

Feeling a little silly, she exited the shop. On the rig, Blake was on the radio with dispatch and waving to her to hurry up because they had a call.

As she hopped into the truck she read her card: Good for one nights stay at Santa Reys most romantic getaway-the Sweet Pea B and B.

Terrific. There was only one man shed want to spend the night there with, but Dustin wouldnt do it, not unless she gave him his damn more. She stared at the card, rolled her eyes at the irony, then shoved it in her pocket and did as she did with everything that disturbed her. She brushed it aside and let it go.

DUSTINMAUER drove his ambulance with easy purpose, as always. As an EMT, he knew the drill. Get to the scene as quickly as possible without risking anyones life, assess the victims, get them the necessary medical care. Hed been doing just that for nearly ten years, since graduating from Cal Poly. It hadnt been his life goal to be an EMT, itd been merely a means to an end, a decent paycheck with which to pay off his education debt while he and his brother Jason had gotten their renovation business up and running.

But then Jason had gone into the military and their business had become a sort of side deal, as in, they got to it when they got to it, and Dustin had gotten comfortable being an EMT. Plus he was excellent at it, and until a few months ago, had truly loved what he did every day.

Then hed fallen for the stubborn, gorgeous Cristina Lewis and shed dumped him, and hed been restless ever since.

He pulled up to the multicar pileup on Hwy 1. James, his new partner, was talking to dispatch, but he could see what they faced-a big rig had hit the center divider, caught fire and then two other cars had impacted it, sliding beneath the trailer. It was a chaotic mess, and all units had been called to the scene.