Slow Burn

2. Beck

Chapter Two

Beck

Maisie Rogers stood in the showers—her delectable body bare for me to see. I couldn’t have kept my eyes from taking a detour along every curve if I’d wanted to. Soap bubbles ran down her skin. I wanted to be those bubbles, caressing every inch of her skin.

Holy smokes. I was stuck right where I was. Her dark brown curls were wet and fell down around her shoulders, the water almost straightening them, but they were so wild, they couldn’t be tamed. Her big brown eyes were like saucers. Oh, I’d have guessed Maisie had a body to die for, but she kept it hidden behind her t-shirts and jeans. Her breasts—oh my f*****g God her breasts. They were round and bouncy with dusky pink n*****s. I was perhaps ten feet away from her, so I couldn’t be certain, but I was pretty sure her n*****s got tight as I stood there and gaped at her.

Her waist curved in and then her hips flared out. My c**k was hard inside of a second. I could instantly imagine gripping those hips, the soft flesh giving way, and sinking inside of her. Suddenly, she squeaked and spun around. If she thought that would help matters, nope. Her bottom was just as delectable as the rest of her. I’d never been one to love thin women. They were too, well, thin. I liked something to hold onto. Maisie had curves for days, plenty to hold onto.

“Do you mind?” she snapped, keeping her back to me.

Her voice was muffled by the water, but her snippy attitude came through loud and clear. Whenever she got like that with me, the urge to tease her was impossible to resist.

“I don’t mind at all. Not one bit,” I countered, letting my words drag out.

I was speaking the plain truth. I could stand there all day and stare at her. If my c**k had anything to say about it, I’d been doing a lot more than staring.

“Oh my God,” she muttered. “Beck, please.”

Just now, she didn’t sound pissed. She sounded distressed, and it wasn’t funny anymore. It suddenly occurred to me the rest of the crew would be in here any second. I didn’t want anyone else to walk in on her like this. While I had always felt protective toward Maisie when she wasn’t busy driving me nuts, now I felt territorial. I didn’t want anyone else to see how f*****g gorgeous she was.

“On my way out. I’ll hold the crew at bay,” I called as I forced my feet to move and walk out.

A while later, after I’d showered along with the rest of the crew, I made my way out front. I figured it would be best if Maisie and I went ahead and got the requisite awkward moment out of the way. I pushed through the swinging door out front to find her with her eyes studiously focused on her computer.

When she first started working here, she’d been pretty bitchy with the crews, but she was steady and professional on calls. So we kept her on, in part for that and in part out of loyalty to her grandmother. Carol Rogers had been our main admin person for decades. When she’d asked the police chief to hire Maisie, he’d immediately agreed. Maisie was an incredibly hard worker, and I respected her. I’d managed to keep the undercurrent of desire I felt for her at bay for a good two years now. Seeing her the way I just had wouldn’t help matters.

I leaned my elbows on the counter surrounding her desk. “So Carrie Dodge is doing okay,” I said, figuring if I started with something neutral and normal, perhaps it would just let us skip right past any awkwardness.

Maisie glanced up. “Oh good! You guys were there a while. What happened?”

I chuckled. “Most of the work was getting the excavator in a safe position so we could get Carrie out. She broke her collarbone and her elbow, so they transported her to the hospital. I’m still not sure how she pulled it off, but that damn excavator was on its side. If she hadn’t been inside, it would’ve been no biggie, but she was pinned in the corner of the cab, so we had to be careful. Took some finagling.”

Maisie grinned. “You shoulda heard her when she called. She didn’t even mention she was in the excavator until a few minutes in.”

“Doesn’t surprise me a bit. Carrie’s used to taking care of things herself. She was more pissed off she needed help than anything else.”

“Well, I’m glad she’s okay.”

After that, Maisie looked back at her computer and fiddled with a bracelet on her wrist. Her teeth caught her bottom lip, worrying it. Oh f**k. My grand plan to breeze past this went up in smoke. Two years of trying to ignore my body’s draw to Maisie and now I knew exactly how she looked—every glorious f*****g inch of her.

“Didn’t mean to surprise you back there. What the hell do you need to shower here for anyway?” There my mouth went, stumbling into the one topic I preferred to avoid.

Her cheeks got pink, and she kept her eyes trained on her computer screen. “My hot water heater broke,” she mumbled.

Perfect. Something else to focus on other than Maisie n***d and my hard c**k.

“Well, why don’t you get it fixed?” I asked the rather obvious question.

Her big brown eyes swung up to mine again. Damn. She was beautiful, and she appeared to have no idea. She had these wild brown curls she barely managed to keep tucked back in a ponytail paired with wide brown eyes and thick lashes that brushed against her cheeks. Her fair skin was scattered with freckles.

“I wasn’t sure who to ask,” she finally said.

“Come on, Maisie. Every one of us here would be glad to help. How about I stop by tomorrow? I’ll take a look and see if I can figure out what’s wrong. If not, I’ll help you install a new one.”

She worried that bottom lip with her slightly crooked teeth, just crooked enough to make her smile downright endearing when she chose to let you see it.

“I’m worried it’ll cost too much,” she finally said.

Ah. I got it. Maisie was coasting by on what she earned, and I doubted she had any savings to speak of. Far as I knew, she was all alone since her grandmother passed away. My heart gave a funny thump. I ignored it.

“Let’s start with seeing if I can fix it, okay?”

She met my eyes, her cheeks still pink, and finally nodded. “Okay.”

I pushed off the counter and started to walk outside, her voice catching me right before I stepped through the door.

“Beck?”

I glanced back.

“Thank you,” she said.

That’s all she said, but she added a smile. It was all I could do not to turn around, walk straight to her and kiss her.