He’d only let himself consider later that her complete awkwardness as they’d fumbled with each other’s bodies, and the pain he’d caused when he entered her, might have meant that she’d been a virgin. Which had only made him retreat even more from facing her, because it meant he was an even bigger jerk than he’d wanted to admit.

He’d been immature back then, and only officially interested in girls with shiny hair and hot bodies. He’d never even told any of his friends that he’d slept with Lorelei.

Ryan wished he could make it up to her for the following days and weeks after they’d had sex, when he wouldn’t talk to her or even look her in the eye.

She must have absolutely hated him.

She had every right to.

“What’s the matter with you?” Kyle said.

“Oh, nothing,” Ryan lied. “I was just thinking about how being a doctor’s a lot like being a firefighter-saving lives, working under pressure, making a difference for people-”

“Dude, you and your bleeding heart might want to go on home now and take a rest. Maybe curl up with your favorite teddy bear and watch a chick flick.”

Ryan gave Kyle a friendly shove. “Screw you.”

“The chief said you should go home for the day. I’ll drive you back to your place if you want.”

“I should go get my car from the station.”

“You sure you’re clear to drive?”

“She didn’t say I couldn’t.”

They both climbed into Kyle’s truck and started off toward the fire station.

“You going anywhere for the holidays?” Kyle asked.

“Nope. I’ll be working. My parents are at my aunt’s in Arizona, so there won’t be a family get-together.”

“Hey, I’d have you join me, but I’ve got vacation time and I’m heading south to visit family.”

“That’s all right,” Ryan mumbled, distracted as he stared out the window.

His head still ached from getting bonked, and Christmas was the last thing on his mind right now. He couldn’t stop thinking about Lorelei. Did it make him a shallow jerk that now that she was hot, he felt bad for having been an ass to her?

Yeah, it pretty much did. He cringed at himself. Except, well, she’d probably always been this hot. It had just taken him growing up and seeing her through mature eyes to understand it.

It wasn’t just that she was pretty in a more conventional way now. He hadn’t really thought much about her in all these years, but what he did remember about her was all good. She’d been so smart and quirky back then, he hadn’t had the good taste to recognize what a cool person she was. But now he knew better…

And yeah, okay, she was hot.

That didn’t hurt.

He had to do something to say he was sorry for his asshole behavior all those years ago. He owed her big-time. Maybe take her to lunch, or bring her some flowers or…

Or what? He didn’t even know if she was married, or had a boyfriend or if she still even liked guys.

Well, hmm, he was almost positive he hadn’t seen a ring on her finger. He had a second-nature habit of scanning women for one. But maybe what he owed her most was to leave her alone.

Still…

At the very least, he needed to apologize to her. But would that just remind her of something she’d rather not think about? Would she even remember now what a jerk he’d been? Was he just crediting himself with too much significance in her life?

No, he needed to just leave her alone. If their paths ever crossed again, he’d take that as a sign and find a proper way to apologize, but until then, there wasn’t really anything to be done.

The moment he thought it though, he found himself wishing “until then” would happen right away. Like today, or tomorrow, or…no later than the day after that.

LORELEI could feel the heat from the fire, but she didn’t smell smoke. The foot of her bed was on fire, flames licking the air and singeing the heirloom quilt her grandmother had made. She tried to pull the quilt away from the fire, but it was too late. Ruined.

Only when she saw that she couldn’t save the quilt did she think of saving herself. Terror seized her as she scrambled off the side of the bed. The flames were spreading across the floor now, engulfing the entire bed and half the room-blocking her way to the door.

She tried to cry out, but no sound came from her throat. And then, as if she’d been heard anyway, someone burst in the door.

Across the flames, she saw Ryan Quinn. He aimed his hose at the bed and fired a blast of water that instantly put out all the flames.

With the fire extinguished, she could see that he wasn’t wearing a shirt, only his fireman’s pants and boots, and a red hat that looked oddly like the flimsy plastic kind she saw kids wearing when they played fireman. His chest was all sculpted muscle and smooth tanned skin. God, he was gorgeous.

Was that just a costume he was wearing?

“You got here fast,” she said.

He tossed aside the fire hose and crossed the room, then took her into his arms Rhett Butler-style.

“I thought you’d never call,” he said in a breathless voice.

Then they were both on the bed, naked, kissing and caressing in such a frenzy that Lorelei couldn’t tell where she stopped and Ryan began. She was sixteen again, acting out her wildest adolescent fantasies. In fact, when she looked down at herself, she saw that she wasn’t entirely naked. She was wearing nothing but a pair of pink striped knee socks she hadn’t worn since high school.

Weird.

But then, the sensation of Ryan’s mouth on her neck erased all thoughts, and she could feel a relentless need building within her, a sweet, delicious ache that demanded he be inside her.

She grasped his hips and pulled him hard against her, spreading her legs wide and as he found her wet, hot center with his erection. She moaned, arched her back, and begged him, “Please, I need you now.”

And then he was there, right where she needed him. Inside her, filling her up, creating an even more delicious ache that was building fast, fast, so fast.

He moved inside her, and then her inner muscles were contracting around him, and she was gasping, crying out, as her body was overcome by climax.

But then he started moving inside her so fast and hard, it was making the house shake. The headboard banged against the wall so loudly, she was sure the neighbors a house away could hear.

Or maybe it was a hammer. Or a car driving into the side of the house…

Lorelei’s eyes shot open. She stared into the darkness of her bedroom, her brain catching up with reality.

Her body was tingling, as if she’d just had an orgasm. Her heart was pounding.

She had just had an orgasm.

But…

She was here alone. She’d been dreaming. There’d been no fire. There’d been no Ryan Quinn bursting into her room with his fire hose to rescue her.

His fire hose?

Could her brain’s pathetic symbolism get any more obvious?

She groaned and sat up in bed, bewildered by the banging sound on the roof that had invaded her dream. Her highly erotic dream…that had just given her an orgasm.

Jeez. She needed to get laid.

This wasn’t the first time she’d woken up with the certainty that she’d just come in her sleep-it had happened a few times before, always after a long stretch during which she was getting zero action in bed.

She sighed and squinted at the ceiling, her brain trying to process what the noise was.

She wasn’t in Kenya anymore. She was in her old family home, in bed, in Ocean Harbor Beach, California, and…

The roof of the house was about to fly off. Or at least, that’s what it sounded like. Then she remembered that the weather forecast had called for rain with wind gusts of up to seventy-five miles per hour tonight, and, judging by the noise outside, the weatherman had been pretty accurate. Lorelei had a feeling she wasn’t going to get much more sleep unless she did something about the loud banging sound coming from the roof.