Jules woke every morning in Tyler’s arms, and she found that she actually liked it. Sure, the bunk could have been bigger…but it did also give her the advantage to wiggle her ass against his groin to get him primed, without seeming too obvious.

Not that he seemed to mind her being obvious. Actually, he seemed to love everything about her and that instilled a certain kind of fear deep inside. It wasn’t only the physical attraction, although she was beginning to crave the mind-numbing sex only he could provide. In fact, she felt like a sex-starved teenager most of the day, which made no sense since Tyler slept in her bed every night. Or rather, he was in her bed every night and they tried to get a little rest between bouts of fantastic sex.

He understood her like no other man had before and he even loved her passion for firefighting. Before she had time to dwell further on frightening thoughts about what might happen after the fire season, her alarm went off and she frowned when the code came across. A structure fire?

She elbowed Tyler to wake him, but he’d heard the alarm too and already jumped out of bed, slipping into his clothes on the way out the door. Jules grabbed her radio as she headed for the dispatch meeting place, seeing confused looks on the others faces as well. Chief Carter briefly explained the situation.

“Folks, I can see the confusion on your faces, but you really are being sent out on a structure fire. A house in town has smoke coming from the roof. The town’s firefighters left several hours ago to help out in Beaver Creek with a three-alarm fire in an apartment building. That means we’re the only ones left in this area. Load up and head out. You’ll have directions relayed before you clear the road,” her superior promised.

Jules nodded and rushed for the pumper trucks. As they arrived on scene, she jumped down and took inventory of the situation. Most of the hotshots, including Jules, didn’t have city experience, and fighting a wildfire was considerably different to the approach used on a structure fire, as she’d soon find out.

The promised directions via radio were sketchy at best and she glanced at the black smoke coming from the roof, unsure what to do first. She couldn’t well tell her crew to fell the building or make a saw line around it. She glanced at her squad leaders who seemed equally unprepared to make swift decisions. A hand tipped on her shoulder and she turned around to look straight into Tyler’s dark blue eyes.

“Not now,” she hissed, and wanted to return her attention to the smoldering building.

Tyler increased the pressure on her shoulder and said, “Let me. I know this stuff.”

“You? Oh yes, sure…go ahead.” A heavy burden fell from her shoulders the same moment he started barking orders at the hotshot crew. He carried a confidence with him that stopped every protest in its tracks and minutes later he’d assigned the crew into teams with different tasks.

Together with Gunner he set out to ask about people possibly trapped inside, while the others started soaking the building with water from the fire hydrants, yet another thing Jules hadn’t used before since few of them stood around in the mountains where she usually worked.

He’s good. Really good. Jules grabbed the fire hose with both hands to keep it from coiling like a crazed snake and glanced at Tyler checking up on everyone, removing crew members from one position and sending them to another one. He definitely was on top of his game and she liked not being in charge for a change.

Like the fire that had just been eradicated, his leadership skills were hot as hell.

Two hours later the fire was completely extinguished, any hotspots had been dealt with, and the mayor of the town had personally congratulated everyone on the team for their outstanding work.

“Thanks,” she said to Tyler as they sat in the truck, returning to base. “We couldn’t have done this without you.”

“I’m sure you could, it just would have taken a bit longer.”

“…and caused a lot more destruction.” She completed his sentence and leaned her head against his sooty shoulder.

Back at base they jumped out of the truck and stashed the gear. Tyler stood in front of her, face and body covered with dirt and sweat, smelling of smoke, but still, her heart thumped wildly when she gazed into his dark blue eyes.

Tyler grabbed her hand and pulled her into his room, kicking the door shut even as he kissed her and pressed her up against the door frame.

“You’re getting the door all dirty,” she said, breathless.

“We can’t have that. Let me rid you of your dirty clothes.” He chuckled and started pulling at her clothing. “You’re positively gorgeous,” he said with an expression of awe on his face, when she stood naked in front of him.

“Positively sooty, filthy and stinky you wanted to say?” she teased.

“Shower with me,” he said between kisses and swooped her up in his arms and carried her into the shower, where he turned the water on, before he stripped off his own soiled clothing. Then he followed her under the warm spray, gloriously naked and hard as steel.

She didn’t care that sweat and grime mixed with clear water turned into a greasy slime running down their bodies and ran her hands across his hard muscle, until they found their way around his pulsating cock. She squeezed and rubbed, making it grow bigger and harder than she’d thought possible, before she went to her knees and took him into her mouth. She licked her lips across the sensitive head and whirled her tongue on the skin covering his hard rod.

Tyler groaned as his cock twitched in her mouth. After a while he gently pulled her hair to make her stand up and then lathered her with soap, washing every single inch of her body with his expert hands. While he rinsed her hair, she wriggled her body against his, giggling, as the passion took hold of her.

The streaming water had long gone clear, when he pressed her back against the shower tiles, lifting her up. She wrapped her legs around his hips and he carefully lowered her onto his cock, until he was buried inside her to the hilt. Jules arched her back, water from the showerhead streaming over her breasts and rushing down their bodies. She clung to him for dear life as furious thrusts hammered into her.

“God, I loved watching you work today,” Jules said, biting her way across his scrubby jawline and sucking on his earlobe.

Tyler surged within her one more time, keeping his hands between her shoulder blades and the tiles to avoid hurting her. “Fighting those type of fires is what I did before coming here. It’s where I’m most familiar.”

“You handled yourself so well,” she murmured, letting her hands trail down his back until she filled both palms with the cheeks of his ass. “Don’t stop, I’m almost there,” she urged him onward.

“Good because I can’t hold out much longer.” Tyler reached between their bodies, finding the hard little nub of her pleasure and sliding his fingers around it several times. When her body tightened and her legs began to squeeze him, he squeezed the nub once, twice, in a pulsing motion, and she broke apart in his arms.

He followed her over the cliff, his orgasm stealing his breath as a sense of fulfillment settled over them both. He chuckled and then kissed her roughly.

“Good thing we’re already in the shower. We’re dirty again.”

“Good thing,” Jules said as he let her wobbly legs slide to the ground. They stepped out of the shower and Tyler rubbed her dry before they settled in the too small bed for a quick nap before dinner.

As fires went, the structure fire had been a piece of cake, but unlike when they were cutting down trees and digging ditches, this time human lives had been at stake. Everyone had made it out safely, but just knowing how things could have ended was a sobering thought for Jules.

* * *

The time for her trip to Los Angeles with Tyler to meet his sister and other family members had arrived and Jules tamped down the flutter of nerves in her belly. Their drive to Los Angeles was uneventful except for the hour long wait in traffic to go a mere twelve miles. Los Angeles traffic was some of the worst in the nation, and no matter how many highways the state built, it didn’t seem to make any difference.

“I hate driving down here,” she said when they finally reached the exit.

“Me too. I try to avoid it as much as possible and take the side streets when I can.”

“I try not to be here. I find that works almost better,” Jules said, tongue in cheek.

“I’ll have to remember that. And now that I come to think of it, I didn’t know how much I hated the traffic until I moved out to the mountains this year,” Tyler said. Minutes later, he pulled into a large driveway where several cars were parked.

“Your sister owns a lot of cars,” Jules said, her stomach tightening with anxiety.

Tyler glanced at the driveway and shook his head. “No, looks like we’re late and all my siblings are here already.”

“Siblings?” Jules counted the cars in the driveway and then asked, “Just how many siblings do you have?”

“You’ll see soon enough. Come one, let’s go make the introductions. Oh, I forgot to mention, today is my mother’s birthday.”

Jules stared at him in shock and slapped him on the shoulder. “What?! And you didn’t think that bit of information was important for me to know? Tyler, I don’t even have a gift…”

Tyler wrapped an arm around her shoulders and started up the sidewalk. “I put both of our names on mine. Now, I have five siblings and they appear to all be in attendance. Don’t worry about remembering everyone’s names. That will come in time.”

“I can’t believe you didn’t tell me that this was a birthday party.” Jules shook her head at him, wondering if she should kiss him or slap him.

“It’s a surprise party. Would you have come if I had?” Tyler asked, coming to a stop.

“Probably not.”

Tyler kissed her and said on a chuckle, “That’s why I didn’t tell you. And believe me it was hard enough, since I’m not exactly known for being able to keep a secret. You have no idea, how many times I was about to blab it out.”

“Now I’m supposed to feel sorry for you after you deliberately led me astray?” she rolled her eyes at him, but couldn’t stay angry at him when he wrapped his strong arms around her, pressing her tightly against his hard body. “Traitor. I’ll have to remember that the next time you’re at my back.”

“Relax, sweetie. No one bites, at least the last time I checked. If they do happen to bite, just bite them back. They’ll leave you alone after that.”

Jules gave him a sidelong glance as he depressed the doorbell. “Really? Bite them back? Does your family know you think they’re all flesh eaters?”

Tyler grinned at her as the sound of the door opened and Jules schooled her features, hoping today wasn’t going to be a complete disaster. For Tyler or her.