Read Online Slow Burn (Smoke Jumpers) by Anne Marsh - Free Book Online Page B

out?”
    “I look at all the fires, large and small. That’s my job, darlin’. Once I’ve got a pattern like this one, I have to look at the firehouse. That part is what I need time for. You can’t turn a man into a chart and tick off what he is and isn’t in a series of columns and boxes, so I won’t flush someone’s firefighting career without being sure, Faye. Because that’s what could happen if I started making assumptions or accusations.”
    “You want time.”
    “Yes. All the time you can give me.”
     
    The way Evan saw it, Faye still had the bulk of her photos to shoot, but that bought him one, maybe two, days. He needed more time, because he wasn’t accusing any man of arson without a hell of a lot of proof. No matter what suspicions he had, he needed more time to figure it all out. What would it take to get her to stay put?
    “Stay in Strong,” he said. “Tell me what it will take to convince you.” Propping his hip against the driver-side door, he waited for her to process his request. She didn’t look ready to open that door and fall into his arms, but she hadn’t put the key into the ignition and hit the gas, either.
    Her wicked smile should have warned him. “You really want to know?” she asked.
    “Yeah.” He leaned toward her. “Cut the crap, and tell me.”
    “Wow.” She nodded to herself, as if he’d settled some internal debate she was having. “You’re not much for conversation, are you?” When he shrugged but didn’t fall for the bait, she continued. “I have two weeks, four hundred dollars, and the Corvette. Since I had this magazine gig, I started here. But when I turn in those pictures, I’ll have seed money. I can go places. Do things. That’s a hundred percent improvement over sitting around L.A. doing catalog work.”
    “Got it.” He had money enough for two, but somehow he didn’t think that was the offer she was angling for. “Adventure with a side of cash.”
    “I don’t care about the money. Much.” She grinned up at him. “Which is a good thing, given how much I spent on this car and what the magazine is paying me for this gig. Still, eating is always a good thing.”
    “No one wants you going hungry,” he agreed. “And there’s always an open door up at the fire camp. Plenty for one more.”
    She laughed, and he didn’t know if that was a good thing or bad. “When I run out of cash, I’ll go back to L.A.,” she said. “Right now, I want to live a little.”
    “You want an adventure.”
    “Lots of them.” She smiled. “Everything on my bucket list and more. That can’t happen if I stay put here in Strong.”
    He shook his head. “There’s plenty of adventure right here. You don’t need to worry about being bored.”
    “Why not?”
    “Because I’ll show you around.”
     
    “The grand tour?” Faye looked up and down the street, but there wasn’t that much to see. Strong was all main street and not much else. “That’s going to kill a half hour, maybe an hour. You might want weeks.”
    “Two,” he said, and damned if he didn’t sound sincere.
    Maybe his services as a tour guide were some kind of local secret—and maybe she was reading more into his offer than he meant. He wasn’t promising two weeks of indulging her every sensual fantasy, so she needed to swallow that disappointment and move on. Even if it wasn’t fair, he sounded so sexy when he was being so damned sincere.
    “Two weeks,” he repeated. “And I’ll make sure you have an adventure every day.”
    “Give me some examples.” She knew she sounded suspicious, but this was her new life they were haggling over. She wasn’t settling for some cheesy pickup line.
    “You ever jumped out of a plane?”
    He crossed his arms, watching her. She bet he did that a lot—watched. “No,” she admitted.
    “Then there’s your first adventure. I’ll take you up.”
    She’d be lucky if he didn’t throw her out. “And in exchange?”
    “You stay here in Strong. You