The Firefighter Who Rescues Me

Chapter 17 ♚ His Eyes

"Okay." There was a pause before his dad asked again, "Bacon and eggs or pancakes?"

Pace's brain must have turned into scrambled eggs. He gave me a look that was a desperate cry for help. I mouthed bacon and eggs to him and that was what he replied to his dad.

"You got it," was the response from the other side of the door.

After a minute, when the silence made it clear his dad had gone back to the kitchen, Pace sagged with his back against the door.

I cleared my throat. "Much as I enjoy the view, you may want to put some clothes on before seeing your dad."

Modesty suddenly struck him. Pace covered himself with his hands as he headed over to his closet and put on some clothes. I realized a second too late he'd done that because we'd discarded our clothes in the living room. Which meant I had nothing to wear and also that his dad already knew exactly what had happened.

With a groan, I put my face in my hands. "This was so not the way I wanted to meet your dad."

"It's going to be okay. I think," Pace said, which didn't help me feel any better. He gave me a thick sweatshirt and shorts. "Here, wear these while I go get your stuff."

He leaned down to finally give me the kiss I'd been expecting earlier, his lips exploring mine like it was the first time, his tongue stroking mine like there was no hurry.

I couldn't help but wrapping my arms around his neck and pulling him against me. The bed sheets had fallen away and feeling his t-shirt against my skin was both strange and even more intimate.

A whine escaped out of my lips as Pace pulled away and gently untangled my arms from around him. His eyes strayed down and it took him visible effort to step away. He ran his hands through his hair forcefully and grunted.

"The sooner I go fix this, the sooner I can come back, okay?"

"Okay," I mumbled, watching him go before getting dressed.

I sat on the edge of his bed, shaking my head.

There was no fixing this. His dad would think I was a floozy. And he'd be right because that was exactly how I'd behaved this week.

It wasn't that years being alone had turned me into one. If anything, I'd been looking forward to not having anything to do with men in my life ever again. And then Pace showed up and upended everything.

Cata had always called me impulsive for a reason, I always jumped head first into what I wanted, when I wanted it—and now I wanted a life with Pace in it.

Could we have gone about all of this slower? Sure. But there was no guarantee of tomorrow.

That was the hardest lesson I'd learned all those years ago. There was no guarantee we could get what we wanted. And I wanted Pace. I couldn't let him think otherwise, especially when I was going away for training. So I'd ended up sleeping with him again and now this happened.

I took a deep breath. I guessed I had better let both Leblanc men know what I felt, even if Pace's dad might already have formed his own opinions.

A bark of laughter jolted me as I opened the door—oh my word, was that my bra on the hallway floor?

I snatched it and sneaked back into Pace's room to put it on. When I finally joined the men in the kitchen, Pace's dad was still laughing.

"There she is!" His eyes were more on the gray side but right now looked like stars with the way they shone. "Thank you for making a man out of my eldest son."

"Dad!"

I blinked.

Well, this wasn't how I thought this whole thing would go.