Firefighter Tanner Hall is used to running into burning buildings and risking his life to save others. It's just another day of work for the father of two. But when he gets a call from the San Diego zoo about an animal attack, he has no idea what he...
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I'm my own worst enemy, and I'm well aware of that.
I put myself is bad situations, I hold myself to an impossibly high level of standards, and I've got just enough confidence in my bones to convince myself I can do just about anything. I've known this but myself for years, but it's never been more apparent than it is tonight.
Yeah, this was a fantastic idea, Hall.
Invite the girl you're viciously attracted to over to your empty house for dinner, serve her just enough wine to turn her cheeks red and put a hazy sparkle in her eye, and get so lost in that smile that the only speed you can comprehend is pedal to the metal.
After vowing to take it slow with Zoe, tonight feels like waterboarding level of torture on my poor heart. We haven't even eaten yet and all I want to do is carry her off to my bedroom. We've got the entire house to ourselves, and after that all-too-short kiss I gave her when she walked in, getting my hands on her is at the top of my priority list.
Except I respect Zoe, and I want this to work, so I'm stuck standing on the other side of the island to hide my erection and chopping onions so I have an excuse for the beads of sweat collecting at my forehead. I'm used to battling through the heat, but the spark that is Zoe Parker is like nothing I've ever experienced before.
Zoe sits across from me, twisting her glass in her hand and listening intently as I tell her about my day. The call to the warehouse fire. The fight with Morgan. I tell her all of it, and I don't hold anything back.
"That must have been pretty scary for you." Her eyes fill with sympathy as she leans against the granite of my countertop. "That's the first time you've had a building collapse since you've been back, right? Since your accident?"
Her observation hits a little too close to home and I feel myself start to get defensive. Until she mentioned it, I hadn't even put those pieces together myself, and it's got me a little uneasy. So what if it was? It doesn't change the work or my ability. This was about Morgan, and nothing else.
"Yeah, but it's nothing." I shrug, not even entertaining the thought that my fall has me a bit gun-shy. "I've done all kinds of dangerous things since being back. This was just Morgan being a jackass."
Zoe purses her lips as if she doesn't agree, but she lets me off. "Well, he's the one who gets to decide if you get fully reinstated though, right?"
I nod. "Which is why I'm just biting my tongue and doing what he asks until this all blows over."
"It sounds like he's a guy who appreciates logistics. Why don't you try playing to that?" She leans even further in and snags a tomato from the salad I'm concocting. When she pops it into her mouth, those painted red lips curl into a perfect 'o' shape and I have to look away before I completely lose it.
Jesus, Hall. Get ahold of yourself. How the hell am I supposed to make it through dinner at this rate?
"What do you mean?" I wipe at my brow, focusing on slicing the onion in front of me.
