The Fireman Who Loved Me by Jennifer Bernard Read Free Book Online Page B

murderer!”
    “Grans, he doesn’t have an axe.”
    “I’m not a murderer of any kind.” Brody felt compelled to clarify. “I was just . . .”
    “He was just . . .” Melissa trailed off.
    “Adjusting her collar,” Brody finally managed.
    “What collar? She doesn’t have one.”
    “I thought she did.”
    “Well, you were wrong, weren’t you?” demanded Nelly.
    “Very wrong.”
    Nelly seemed to be satisfied. “Well, go on with you, then.”
    Brody looked at Melissa, who was staring down at her feet, still trying to catch her breath. She must think he was some kind of animal. His arousal hadn’t gone down a bit, despite the rude shock of the interruption. Hoping it wasn’t too obvious, he backed away, then turned sideways to address Melissa.
    “Thank you for a lovely evening.”
    “Thank you,” she answered, equally polite. She gave him one quick glance, and the heat in her eyes shot directly to his groin.
    Trying to think of the most unsexy things possible—the new sink he had to put in, the compost pile he’d started in the backyard—he walked quickly toward his car. When he looked back, the door had closed, and both women were gone.
    He let out a long whistling breath. Holy Mother of God. What had just happened? He needed a cold shower. Or a bucket of ice. If that didn’t work, his favorite channel, C-SPAN. And wouldn’t Melissa gloat if she found out he was a secret news junkie.

Chapter Five
    A s Melissa walked through the fluorescent-lit corridors of the Channel Six newsroom the next morning, her step had a definite, unaccustomed bounce. It did not go unnoticed.
    “Finally get laid?” said Nolan Chang, the young, hip, Asian-American reporter who sat in the cubicle next to hers. His phone was clamped to his ear; she could only hope he was on hold.
    “Must you? Really?” It had taken Melissa a few years to get used to the raunchy humor of the typical newsroom. By now she’d learned to hold her own, but at times the X-rated joking still made her blush. She was a shy girl at heart. Then again, maybe she wasn’t, if last night was any indication. At the memory, she felt her face flame.
    The crazy electricity that had raced through her body when Brody kissed her! She’d melted against him with absolutely no hesitation. One minute she’d been about to explain Payless shoes to him, the next she’d plastered her body against his hard chest. When she’d felt the warm, rigid thrust of him against her hips, she’d gone wild. If Nelly hadn’t opened the door when she had . . .
    “You did! Look at you. That is the face of someone who did the nasty . . . the beast with two backs, the— Yes, hello, I’m calling to set up an interview with the governor . . .”
    Saved by a press agent. Melissa walked into her tiny cubicle and tossed her bag into a corner. She hung her jacket on the back of her chair. Back in Los Angeles, she’d had her own office, but when she’d moved home to San Gabriel, she’d jumped down about a hundred market sizes. At Channel Six there was no one taking phone messages, no assistant to help her log footage, no promotion department to promote her investigations. And no sexy heartbreaker of a news director to ruin her life.
    So what if she had to do everything herself here? So what if Channel Six’s slogan was “The Sunny Side of the News”? She was in a rebuilding phase of her career.
    She logged on to her computer; while it was booting up, she went through the messages on her voice mail. One viewer had called to complain about her special report on black market dog breeders. Another had called to compliment it. Fifty-fifty, not a bad response. The complainer was much louder and more profane, but she could understand why. As he repeatedly pointed out, she had put him out of business; now he was going to have to start breeding cats. Or maybe ferrets. Would she prefer that, Miss F-ing Know-It-All?
    Melissa sighed and deleted the call. If the man had left a