Burning Desire

Sabrina turned away from him, her breathing erratic as she tried to calm herself. She was angry. But she was also turned on. Being in his arms like that, she’d felt a purely sensual reaction to him.

Two young women in their early twenties walked toward Sabrina and Mason en route to their own car. “Are you really a firefighter?” one of them asked, looking up at Mason’s helmet.

“Yes, I am.”

“Lucky you,” the other one said to Sabrina, before remotely unlocking the car behind Sabrina’s Equinox.

The two women then giggled as they got into their vehicle. Sabrina turned back toward Mason, leveling an angry stare in his direction. “You shouldn’t have done that.”

“It’s my view that everyone can benefit from a little lighthearted goofing around. Maybe some more than others.”

“Are you trying to say I’m uptight?”

“The only thing I know about you for sure is that you’re a tough cookie. But I look forward to learning more about you at dinner. Unless you’d prefer we only go for a drink.”

Sabrina marched toward her driver’s-side door and opened it. “Mason, it was nice working with you. Now, I must be on my way.”

She climbed into her car, slammed the door and quickly started the engine. She then she drove off, leaving Mason standing at the curb, looking after her.

Chapter 5

Of all the completely insane things for a man to do! The next morning, Sabrina was still livid. She couldn’t believe that Mason had actually had the nerve to throw her over his shoulder in front of strangers at the beach. She was humiliated!

Who knew if photos of the embarrassing incident would end up on the internet? Or even video? She was a professional in Ocean City. She didn’t need to have photos berating her reputation online.

But worse than what had happened was that Sabrina had a reaction to Mason’s ridiculous behavior. A small part of her had actually felt a thrill. Sabrina still felt an odd tingle in her nether region when she thought about how Mason scooped her into his arms. He had picked her up as though she weighed no more than a rag doll. His strength was impressive and her attraction to him electric.

After that initial rush, reality had set in, and her embarrassment had taken over. Embarrassment and outrage.

As Sabrina had lain in bed not sleeping, she’d dreamed about what had happened earlier that day. Though her dream had gone in a completely different direction. Once Mason had put her down, he had kissed her senseless.

When Sabrina woke up, she was hardly rested—and it was all Mason’s fault. As she got ready for her day, she thought about how nonroutine her photo shoot with Mason had been. Of all the shoots she had done in her career, his had been the most unusual.

Dressed and ready to work, Sabrina made her way downstairs. Although her studio and office were housed in the lower part of the house, she physically had to exit her apartment upstairs, go down the staircase in order to open her locked office. It was the best of both worlds. One, it was cheaper having her office and studio in the space where she lived. Two, having to physically exit her apartment and go downstairs was akin to getting in a car and heading to the office. Only this way, she didn’t have to deal with the commute.

There was a small kitchen in her office, and she placed a pod of French Vanilla coffee into her instant brewing machine—truly the best invention since the toaster, in her opinion. A short while later, she was heading into her personal office with a steaming cup of java.

Sitting at her desk, she fired up her computer. The Apple computer had a twenty-seven inch screen, which was excellent for viewing several photos at once. She retrieved her camera and unloaded the SD card she had used to take the shots of Mason, then inserted it into her computer.

But instead of looking at photos of Mason, she opened the folder with the pictures of Ricardo, another firefighter. She needed to get Mason off of her mind, at least for a little while.

She heard Nya enter the office by the clicking of her heels on the tiled floor. Based on the quick succession of clicks, she could tell that Nya was moving around hurriedly. And she knew why. It was ten minutes after ten, meaning that Nya was late.

“Morning,” Nya said, peeking her head through Sabrina’s office door. “Sorry I’m late.”

“It’s all right,” Sabrina told her. “Does that mean you had a great date?”

Nya rolled her eyes. “No. The date was a disaster.”

“Oh, no.”

“I mean, Sean started out great. He seemed really nice, a total gentleman...until we were at my car and he groped me and did his best to get me to go to bed with him.”

Sabrina grimaced. “Oh, boy.”

“He said he thought I’d be down for it. That I looked the type. I almost slapped him.”

“Well,” Sabrina began cautiously, “I’ve told you this before—maybe you should change your online profile. You’ve got some really sexy pictures up there—nothing inappropriate, mind you—but I think it gives some men the wrong idea.”

“I think I’m finally done with dating. I can’t take the stress anymore.” Nya shook her head and made a sound of disgust. “How about you? How was yesterday with Mason?” She wiggled her eyebrows.

“It was a good shoot,” Sabrina told her.

“And...?”

“And nothing.”

“Nothing?”

“We left the studio, went to the beach. I got some incredible shots.” Sabrina quickly brought her coffee mug to her lips, hoping that Nya wouldn’t pick up on the fact that she was omitting a huge portion of the story.

“Bummer.” Nya pouted.

“Because you expected us to make a love connection?”

“Well. Yeah. I totally saw a different you yesterday.”

“He’s a cute guy,” Sabrina said, hoping that her acknowledgment of that would be enough for Nya.

Nya’s pout lingered. “I’m going to go get some coffee and head to my desk. I swear, love sucks.”

Nya left the office, and Sabrina went back to looking through the photos of Ricardo. She smiled, happy with what she had done. The photos looked incredible.

She looked over the pictures of the other firefighters, as well, before finally going over the hundreds of photos she had taken of Mason the day before. A part of her didn’t want to do even that. She truly wished that she didn’t have to see him again, not even in pictures.

The door to her office suddenly opened. Looking toward the door, Sabrina’s eyes widened in alarm. The bouquet of dazzling red roses was so large that she couldn’t even see who was carrying them. It was only when she heard Nya speak that she realized her friend was behind the flowers.

Nya placed the bouquet of what looked to be at least fifty red roses down on her desk with a huff. Nya then planted her hands on her hips. “You lied to me.”

“What are you talking about?” Sabrina asked.

“You told me that nothing happened with you and Mason yesterday. That there was no spark. So explain this.” Nya gestured to the impressive bouquet.