Read Online Ignite (Firefighters of Montana Book 3) by Nicole Helm - Free Book Online
Authors: Nicole Helm
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laughing?”
She waved a hand in front of her face, the giggling turning into full on laughter she couldn’t quite breathe through.
“I really don’t know whether to be offended or not,” he said looking at her like she’d lost her mind.
Which was right. She had lost it.
“If it’s not hideously obvious”—she finally managed through gasping breaths—“I’m not very experienced with this sort of thing.”
She noted he leaned back in his seat a little bit, his hands falling from her face, and that did a lot in the way of helping her stop laughing. Because if her experience or lack thereof was going to make him stop, then she should have kept her mouth shut.
“Just how inexperienced are we talking here?” he asked, oh so carefully.
“Does it matter?” she returned cooly.
His hand reached out and touched her face again, just a quick brush of the backs of his fingers against her cheeks. “That’s a question only you can answer, Lina,” he said, gently.
She wanted to be irritated by his gentleness, or be able to find it condescending, but in the end, she just thought it was kind of nice. That he would look at it as her choice, her belief.
More than nice he didn’t feel the need to push his own views on the her. She’d learned to really appreciate that about a person, because her family was so the opposite. Their opinions weren’t just opinions—they were fact. They were law. And so she’d adopted them with the kind of furor they’d offered them to her with, but the more she interacted with people, especially outside of Marietta, the more she’d realized no one liked the person who saw the world in black and white and wasn’t afraid to say so.
Ugh, why was she thinking about all this? This was not the point, and not at all what she wanted to be doing. “Come inside, Ace.”
It was a command and she also knew people didn’t particularly care to be commanded, but he gave a short nod and pulled the keys out of the ignition.
He was going to come inside her apartment and they were going to make out , and then… Well, she’d figure out the next step when she got to it.
*
Ace was no stranger to bad ideas. He’d made an adolescence out of nothing but bad ideas and selfish behavior. Except for cutting ties with Jess—that had been his one and only grand gesture of selflessness.
Still, most of the time he’d been nothing but a worthless little shit. He liked to think he was reformed. That becoming a smokejumper and being a part of this team had changed him into a mature, responsible man.
Who is still running away from his big sister.
Ace gritted his teeth. Jess was the last thing he wanted to be thinking about right now. Of course, that probably meant she was the one thing he should be thinking about right now, considering Jess and Lina knew each other.
No, not just knew each other. Lina’s family had taken Jess in as a teen. They’d treated her like one of their own, and it had been the thing Ace had needed to hightail it out of Marietta without any guilt.
Okay, mostly any guilt.
His nerves danced and itched in a way he was wholly unaccustomed to. But he didn’t turn back. He didn’t make an excuse to leave. He followed Lina’s certain strides up the staircase of her apartment complex, and then down the hall. He waited patiently behind her while she unlocked her apartment door. He continued to have no rightly clue what he was doing, but Lina was leading and he wanted to follow where she led.
“So, this is my place.” She dropped her purse onto a little end table and immediately clasped her hands together. She was obviously nervous, too, and that should probably also mean he should turn around and leave.
But she’d been very firm in asking him to come up here, and, well, he wanted to be here. He wanted to see her place, another facet of her.
The apartment was neat and obviously very ordered. Meticulous. There was a certain sparseness to it, which surprised him. She was not a
She waved a hand in front of her face, the giggling turning into full on laughter she couldn’t quite breathe through.
“I really don’t know whether to be offended or not,” he said looking at her like she’d lost her mind.
Which was right. She had lost it.
“If it’s not hideously obvious”—she finally managed through gasping breaths—“I’m not very experienced with this sort of thing.”
She noted he leaned back in his seat a little bit, his hands falling from her face, and that did a lot in the way of helping her stop laughing. Because if her experience or lack thereof was going to make him stop, then she should have kept her mouth shut.
“Just how inexperienced are we talking here?” he asked, oh so carefully.
“Does it matter?” she returned cooly.
His hand reached out and touched her face again, just a quick brush of the backs of his fingers against her cheeks. “That’s a question only you can answer, Lina,” he said, gently.
She wanted to be irritated by his gentleness, or be able to find it condescending, but in the end, she just thought it was kind of nice. That he would look at it as her choice, her belief.
More than nice he didn’t feel the need to push his own views on the her. She’d learned to really appreciate that about a person, because her family was so the opposite. Their opinions weren’t just opinions—they were fact. They were law. And so she’d adopted them with the kind of furor they’d offered them to her with, but the more she interacted with people, especially outside of Marietta, the more she’d realized no one liked the person who saw the world in black and white and wasn’t afraid to say so.
Ugh, why was she thinking about all this? This was not the point, and not at all what she wanted to be doing. “Come inside, Ace.”
It was a command and she also knew people didn’t particularly care to be commanded, but he gave a short nod and pulled the keys out of the ignition.
He was going to come inside her apartment and they were going to make out , and then… Well, she’d figure out the next step when she got to it.
*
Ace was no stranger to bad ideas. He’d made an adolescence out of nothing but bad ideas and selfish behavior. Except for cutting ties with Jess—that had been his one and only grand gesture of selflessness.
Still, most of the time he’d been nothing but a worthless little shit. He liked to think he was reformed. That becoming a smokejumper and being a part of this team had changed him into a mature, responsible man.
Who is still running away from his big sister.
Ace gritted his teeth. Jess was the last thing he wanted to be thinking about right now. Of course, that probably meant she was the one thing he should be thinking about right now, considering Jess and Lina knew each other.
No, not just knew each other. Lina’s family had taken Jess in as a teen. They’d treated her like one of their own, and it had been the thing Ace had needed to hightail it out of Marietta without any guilt.
Okay, mostly any guilt.
His nerves danced and itched in a way he was wholly unaccustomed to. But he didn’t turn back. He didn’t make an excuse to leave. He followed Lina’s certain strides up the staircase of her apartment complex, and then down the hall. He waited patiently behind her while she unlocked her apartment door. He continued to have no rightly clue what he was doing, but Lina was leading and he wanted to follow where she led.
“So, this is my place.” She dropped her purse onto a little end table and immediately clasped her hands together. She was obviously nervous, too, and that should probably also mean he should turn around and leave.
But she’d been very firm in asking him to come up here, and, well, he wanted to be here. He wanted to see her place, another facet of her.
The apartment was neat and obviously very ordered. Meticulous. There was a certain sparseness to it, which surprised him. She was not a
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