Chapter 8 - Ethan
“So, who is she?” Bryan asks as I pour myself a hot cup of coffee.
“What?” I ask, glancing at him. “What are you talking about?”
He leans against the staff room counter and raises an eyebrow before shaking his head and chuckling. “Ethan, I’ve known you since you were four. I know the look you get when you’ve just gotten laid.”
My eyebrows shoot up and I try to look as innocent as possible. “What?”
Bryan laughs. “Was it Katie? She’s been wanting you since we were teenagers. Did you finally go for it?”
“Fuck off, Bryan,” I laugh, turning my back to him to hide my face. “Maybe I just had a good night’s sleep!”
He snorts, and pushes himself off the counter. “Fine. If you don’t want to share, that’s fine. But you’ll tell me eventually.” He nods to the main office. “You ready for this new consultant today? Should be a fun couple months of someone new telling us how to do our jobs.”
“Ugh,” I groan. “I don’t see the point. We’ll just have to pretend to care what he says and go through this bullshit training. I can tell you for sure that there won’t be any more buildings burning down around here.”
Bryan laughs. The whole town knows that it was me, my two brothers, and Sheriff Whittaker that burned down the luxury hotel under construction last year. We did it to protect the town against the inevitable onslaught of tourists, and to prevent the McCoy family from owning the entire town. We have no plans of becoming full-time arsonists.
“One-time thing, hey?” Bryan chuckles. “Here I thought you were some badass vigilante.”
“Well, as long as a corporate hotel developer doesn’t try to set up shop here again, then yeah,” I grin. “It’s a waste of time and money, getting this consultant in.” And the last thing I need is someone digging up the past. The town might be supportive of the fire, but it doesn’t mean it was legal.
Bryan grunts and we head out towards the main room. Sandy is at her desk, with her hair tied into her usual tight bun at the nape of her neck and stern look on her face. She glances at Bryan and I and slides her glasses down to the tip of her nose.
“You two look like you’re up to something,” she says.
I shake my head. “Nothing, boss. Don’t worry. Just getting excited for this training.”
I guess my voice was a bit more sarcastic than I meant it to be, because Sandy stands up and puts her hands on her wide hips. She’s an imposing woman, standing almost as tall as me and just as strong. She takes a step towards me and raises a finger at me.
“Don’t you cause any trouble, Ethan Clarke. I know you think this training is bogus, but it’s compulsory. The Department mandated it after the fire.”
I sigh. “Sandy–”
She raises an eyebrow and I stop talking. My shoulders slump and I nod. “I’ll do the training.”
“Good. Now go get the conference room ready, we’ll have a meeting when she gets here.”
“She? I thought it was supposed to be a man.”
Sandy snorts. “If I had a nickel for every time someone assumed I was a man before meeting me, I’d be a very rich woman. No, Ethan,” she says as she looks at and snorts. “Zoe Randall is the best safety consultant in the country, and she is most definitely a woman.”
“Zoe,” I repeat. My chest feels hollow and my eyes widen as I look at my boss. She frowns, and I feel frozen in place.
Could it be Zoe… my Zoe? The one from this weekend? The one that I thought I’d never see again? My heart starts thumping and a flurry of emotions washes over me. The thrill of excitement at seeing her again, and the sting of rejection mixed with the undeniable buzz of arousal.
Just then, the front door opens and everything moves in slow motion. I can feel every muscle in my neck as I turn my head. Every hair on my body is standing on end, and Sandy’s voice seems to reach my ears a moment too late.
My head is spinning. It can’t be her. There’s something wrong. My mind is playing tricks on me. If it is her, then we’ll be working together for the foreseeable future. I turn towards the door, and her body is silhouetted in the doorway. Her hair is tied back in a sleek pony tail, and she’s wearing thick Parks uniform pants and a tight top. My eyes roam over her body and my mouth goes dry.
Images flash through my mind. I see her on top of me, with her mouth falling open as she orgasms. I see the animalistic desire that burned through her when I first entered her. I see her body, naked and gleaming in the soft glow of my cabin at Long Lake.
And now she’s here. At my work. In my town. Poking her nose into the fire that I started.
“Zoe?” I say, but it comes out as a croak.
She looks just as shocked as I feel. She’s frozen in the doorway, mouth agape as she stares at me. We stay there, motionless, for what seems like an eternity. Part of me wants to run to her and wrap my arms around her and taste her kiss again and again, and another part of me wants to run far, far away.
She’s the safety consultant?! She’s the one who will be snooping around my life and my town?!
My heart is thumping, and it’s not until Sandy clears her throat that I snap out of it.
“Do you two know each other?”
Zoe jumps at the sound of Sandy’s voice and turns towards her, painting a watery smile on her face. She shakes her head. “No,” she answers, turning towards me. “I’m Zoe Randall.”
A pain passes through my chest when she says those words. No, she said. She doesn’t know me. A hot flash of anger passes through me and then dissipates when I see the pleading look in her eye.
I know it’s better this way. I know better than anyone how vicious the rumors in this town can be. It would be a disaster for her, too, to start working here with that kind of gossip following her.
Of course it’s better for us to pretend that Saturday night never happened. But still, it stings. Zoe extends her hand towards me and I clear my throat.
“Ethan,” I reply, taking her hand in mine. Her touch feels electric, and my cock throbs as I shake her hand. Even the touch of her skin sends a thrill through me. She swallows, and my eyes drift over the soft curve of her lips. She glances to Sandy and pulls her hand away. As soon as she moves away from me, she doesn’t look at me again. Her eyes avoid mine, and I stand in the middle of our office, stunned.
The air seems colder, and I can hardly focus. I stumble towards the bathroom and push the door in as the rest of them exchange pleasantries. I lock the door and turn on the tap to splash water over my face.
It takes me a few minutes to come back to myself. I stare at my face in the mirror, watching the droplets of water fall off my chin, and I grab some paper towels.
She’s here. She’s working with me.
This is either the best thing that’s ever happened or the absolute worst. Judging by her face and the stiffness in her shoulders when she saw me, she seems to be leaning towards ‘absolute worst’. I dry my face and toss the brown paper towels in the trash, square my shoulders and walk back out towards the main office.
It might be the absolute worst thing that’s ever happened, but it’s happening whether I like it or not.