Under Control Read online

  I can wait a few more minutes.

  Olivia told herself she should be happy when the doors finally opened and another very attractive firefighter looked down at her from the opening. They could do a calendar, she thought, and was very thankful she hadn’t said it out loud.

  “Hi there,” he said. “I’m Aidan Hunt, with Engine 59. We’re going to get you out now.”

  “Took you guys long enough,” Derek told him, even as Olivia silently wished it could have taken just a little longer. Then he turned to her. “You ready to get out of here?”

  She nodded, but didn’t move to the front. “I...they can’t line up the doors with the floor?”

  “The elevator’s still stuck, so that would be a no. This is as good as it gets, but I’ll give you a boost up.”

  A boost? Olivia wasn’t sure what that meant, but it implied him picking her up, and maybe having to hand her up to Aidan, which might involve Derek’s hands on her butt. Not that she’d mind that very much, but she was in a skirt.

  “That doesn’t sound very graceful,” she pointed out. “Or modest.”

  “I think we skimmed over being graceful at the fire academy. But, tell you what. To make it easier, I’ll get on the floor. If you step up onto my back and take Aidan’s hands for balance, I’ll get up on my hands and knees and you should be high enough so one of the guys can get you under the arms and lift you out with no problem.”

  “You don’t mind?”

  “Trust me. It won’t be the worst thing that’s happened to me on the job.”

  Her gaze flicked to the scar that ran down his jaw, but she didn’t ask. Instead, she walked to the opening and handed her leather notebook up to Aidan. “Please don’t lose that or drop it down the elevator shaft or anything. It’s my entire life.”

  “Don’t lose this, Scotty,” Aidan said, handing the book over to another firefighter. Then he took Olivia’s shoes from her and set them aside. “I’m going to lay on my stomach so I can reach out and give you something to hold on to while you step up on Derek. Then Chris here is going to get you under the arms and lift you so you can reach the lip. You ready?”

  She nodded, and Derek got down on the floor as if he was going to do some push-ups. This still wasn’t going to be all that graceful, she realized as she stepped onto his back. “Am I hurting you?”

  “Nope. You ready?”

  She reached up and Aidan grasped her hands. “Okay. But no looking up.”

  His chuckle vibrated through the bottoms of her feet. “I won’t. I promise.”

  His back muscles flexed and she barely had time to register his strength as he lifted himself—and her—before somebody grabbed her under the arms and lifted her. She got her knees onto the lip, but they didn’t let her go until she was on her feet and several feet away from the elevator shaft.

  “Lieutenant Rick Gullotti,” one of the older of the group said to her, and she shook his hand. “Are you injured at all? Do you need medical attention?”

  She wouldn’t mind Derek’s hands on her some more, but she definitely didn’t need an ambulance. “I’m not injured. Thank you—all of you—for getting me out.”

  He nodded and then turned back to the elevator. She stepped into her shoes, thankful her ankle didn’t offer up more than a slight twinge. And the firefighter who’d been called Scotty handed over her journal. “Thank you.”

  Her phone chimed with a text from the driver. Two minutes and then I’m leaving.

  Olivia hesitated. She wanted to stay and thank Derek. Maybe she’d work up the nerve to ask his last name or give him her business card.

  But if she got in the car right now, she could still salvage her day. Rescheduling one appointment was bad enough. Depending on traffic, she could make the next one and maybe not even be late. And it was a big client she’d been trying to land for a while. Waiting for another Lyft could derail that.

  Coming right now, she messaged back.

  “I really have to run,” she said, “but thank you for everything.”

  “All in a day’s work,” Scotty said.

  She looked at the elevator, hoping Derek would be out already, but Aidan was in the process of pulling Derek’s coat and helmet out of the elevator. “Tell Derek I said thank you, too.”

  “You sure you can’t wait a couple more minutes?”

  She wanted to. She really did, but she shook her head. “I have a meeting. But tell him I said thank you.”

  She walked toward the front door as fast as her sore ankle allowed, feeling a little like Cinderella fleeing the ball.

  Once she was in the back seat of her ride, she knew she should check her email account and see if anything needed her attention as she always did while in transit from one appointment to the next.

  Instead she leaned her head against the leather and closed her eyes, regretting her decision already. Not that leaving was the wrong decision. Success came from making a plan and executing it, and right now her focus was one hundred percent on her business. Dating was not part of her plan yet.

  She opened her eyes as the car pulled away from the curb and she caught a glimpse of two fire trucks parked down a side street as they passed by. It would be a while before she forgot her firefighter, she knew. His laugh. His eyes. The feel of his hands on her skin.

  And now she’d probably never see him again. Sometimes making the right decision really sucked.

  Chapter Two

  Olivia let herself into her sixteenth-floor apartment and, once the door closed, leaned against it with a weary sigh.

  Getting stuck in the elevator had thrown off her schedule and when your business was helping others manage their schedules, you busted your ass to catch up so you wouldn’t be late or appear rushed. She’d managed it and she’d done it with a smile on her face and not a hair out of place, but now she was both physically and mentally drained.

  And when Kelsey stuck her head out of the second bedroom, which they’d made into an office, Olivia felt a rare pang of regret at not having rented a separate space. Usually having Kelsey here worked well. Two of her employees worked remotely except for staff meetings once or twice a month, but Kelsey was not only vital to almost every aspect of her business, but she lived in a tiny apartment with two other women and working from home wasn’t a viable option. It would be a waste of money to lease office space just for the two of them—especially since so much of Olivia’s work was done on-site—so the home office worked well.

  Except for the nights Olivia was exhausted and wanted the apartment to be her sanctuary and not her office. It had been a splurge, especially considering the view she had. She loved it, despite the number of times her parents had reminded her that renting was setting money on fire. She should invest in a property and, when she was ready to start a family, sell high and upgrade. But the location, the total lack of maintenance responsibilities and the view had deterred her from making the fiscally responsible decision. It didn’t happen often, but it had been worth it.

  “You look beat,” Kelsey said as Olivia stepped out of her heels and walked across the pale maple floor to get herself a glass of water. Hydration had been one of the sacrifices she’d made to get back on schedule.

  “Of all days to get stuck in an elevator.” Usually she’d go into the office with Kelsey and review the day before prepping for tomorrow, but she crossed to the living room area and sat on the sofa. The thick area rug felt like heaven under her feet, and she inhaled deeply before slowly exhaling.

  “What happened?” Kelsey sat in one of the two armchairs facing the sofa. Those and several glass tables made up the seating area, which was set up to take advantage of the view of the water outside the tall windows. There was no television. It was in the bedroom, since she only watched a few shows and preferred to enjoy them while curled up in bed. “Today was so crazy, you haven’t even told me about it yet.”

>   Olivia shifted onto her hip so she could tuck her legs on the sofa. Kelsey had become a friend as well as an employee shortly after she’d started working for her two years ago. Even though there was still work to be done, she didn’t mind relaxing for a few minutes.

  When she was finished telling the story—except the part about him massaging her ankle—she took a long drink of water. “I didn’t want to hold the door for him, but I’m glad I did. I probably would have totally panicked if I was stuck in there alone.”

  “Was he hot?”

  “What?”

  Kelsey snorted. “The firefighter. Was he hot?”

  “Yeah.” She answered without thinking, and it was too late to take it back, so she smiled. “Not my usual type, but definitely hot.”

  “Why didn’t you jump him when you had the chance?”

  Olivia almost choked on her water. “When did I have the chance?”

  “You were stuck in an elevator with him, right?”

  “Not for that long.” Thank goodness. She’d been more and more tempted with every second she’d been trapped with Derek.

  “You haven’t been on a date in forever. It probably wouldn’t have taken very long.”

  “Remind me to curtail your access to my personal life.”

  “You don’t really have one, which is my point.”

  “Even if I wanted to jump the man and had time, there are security cameras in the elevators.”

  Kelsey shrugged. “Nobody pays any attention to those.”

  “They probably do if there are actually people stuck in the elevator at the time.”

  “Maybe.” She smiled, though. “But it might have been worth it.”

  Worth essentially making a sex tape for the security staff? And whoever they decided to share it with, including possibly the entire internet? Not likely. But Olivia felt heat in all the right places as she remembered the way the hot firefighter with questionable taste in movies had looked at her while his hand stroked her leg.

  “You’re blushing right now.” Kelsey pointed at her, her eyes wide. “You’re thinking about having sex with him in the elevator, aren’t you?”

  “I am not.”

  “Then what were you thinking about?”

  “The way he looked at me, not that it’s any of your business.”

  “Aw. That’s so romantic, though not nearly as fun as sex against the elevator wall. Did it have mirrors?” When Olivia glared at her, she shrugged. “Fine. But you should have at least given him your business card.”

  “Trust me. A prospective client, he wasn’t.”

  “You’re hopeless, Olivia. It’s totally normal to offer a business card to somebody, and it would have given him a way to contact you and made him feel like that contact wouldn’t be totally unwelcome.”

  “It doesn’t matter now.” Kelsey was right. It would have opened the door without lighting up a neon sign announcing her interest. “I’m never going to see him again.”

  “You could if you really wanted to. Isn’t bringing a firefighter a pie or something to thank him for rescuing you a thing?”

  “I’m not really up on damsel in distress etiquette, and technically he didn’t rescue me. He was stuck with me and he got rescued, too.”

  Kelsey frowned. “Good point.”

  Maybe they could be done with this conversation now. It was ridiculous and yet it was also making her wonder if she could see him again.

  Even though it made no sense, she couldn’t remember the last time she’d been attracted enough to a stranger to think about him again, never mind talk about him. Technically she’d talked about him because she was telling Kelsey about the elevator incident, but when she’d asked if the firefighter was hot, Olivia could have shrugged it off. Kelsey would have believed her boss hadn’t even noticed the man in the elevator with her in that way.

  Ouch.

  “So you could bring the pie to the other firefighters and he works with them, so you’ll probably see him.” Obviously Kelsey wasn’t done with this conversation. “Oh, I know! You could reach out to him because you lost something and you’re hoping one of the firefighters found it.”

  “Not only is that ridiculous, but there’s no point.”

  “Sex is the point, Olivia. You tell everybody how important for productivity it is to maintain a healthy physical and emotional balance in your life. And orgasms are an important part of both, so...”

  “So I have plenty of orgasms, thank you very much.” Olivia put her feet back on the floor and reluctantly stood. “And I’m better at giving myself orgasms than any guy I’ve dated has been, so not dating is actually more efficient.”

  She expected Kelsey to laugh at her, but her friend actually looked sad. “But it’s lonely.”

  “I’m too busy to be lonely.” It wasn’t quite true, but she’d gotten where she was by making a plan and sticking to it. In approximately five years, when she estimated she’d be able to ease up on the reins of McGovern Consulting, she’d be glad that the past version of her had focused on building her business so future her could find and maintain a healthy balance of work and family. “And speaking of being busy, let’s finish up so you can get home and I can find my yoga pants.”

  “You know,” Kelsey said as she followed her to the office, “I won’t suddenly forget you’re my boss if I see you in yoga pants.”

  “You already know that’s not going to happen unless we go to a yoga class together. And I don’t have the time or patience for that.”

  Kelsey sighed, which made Olivia smile. When they were finished reviewing what they’d accomplished today and making a bullet-point list for the morning so they could hit the ground running, Kelsey would go home. Olivia would close the office door and heat up one of the precooked meals she bought every week because she had neither the time nor inclination to cook and had learned the hard way eating junk on the run was bad for her health, her waistband and her productivity. She’d surf the internet and catch up on news while she ate, which was a bad habit she should break...someday.

  Then she’d slip into yoga pants and a soft, slouchy sweatshirt. There was no work once the comfy clothes were on, and years of training her mind were why—no matter how exhausted she was—she didn’t change until the day was done. The evening was for relaxing and charging her batteries so she could be at her best the next morning. Sometimes she read, sometimes she watched television.

  And sometimes she stared at the TV and had no idea what the show was about because her mind was on a sexy firefighter with the scar and the smile and the rough hands that warmed her insides like hot chocolate on a cold day.

  Why didn’t you jump him when you had the chance? She wouldn’t have in a million years. It wasn’t in her nature. But alone in her bed, she let herself imagine the firefighter offering her comfort. Kissing her. Backing her up against the elevator wall.

  It was a harmless fantasy, she told herself. She’d never see him again.

  * * *

  It had been a slow shift so far and Derek was stretched out on the couch, close to nodding off while channel surfing. As the new guy on this crew, he didn’t get control of the television very often, but everybody was occupied elsewhere so he’d been looking for something good to watch. He hadn’t found anything.

  The woman from the elevator was the only reason he wasn’t asleep. Every time it was quiet, she popped into his head. Olivia. A week later, and he was still kicking himself in the ass for not getting her contact info.

  Hey, I meet a lot of people in my line of work. You got a business card in case I find somebody who needs...whatever it is you do again?

  It was for the best he hadn’t opened his mouth, since he probably would have said something stupid. And a woman like that probably would have shot him down, anyway. Or she might have gotten a kick out of having a fling with a firefighter, but she wasn�
��t going to stick around for a guy like him. While he wouldn’t mind a casual fling now and then, he had the kids to think about.

  But none of that stopped him from thinking about Olivia. A lot.

  “Hey, Derek,” Grant said on his way through to the kitchen. “Amber and the kids are downstairs. I was on my way up, so I told her I’d let you know.”

  “Thanks.” He tossed the TV remote on the table and got up off the couch.

  His ex-wife had sent him a text earlier telling him she was going to try to stop by, but she hadn’t been sure when.

  When he got down to the bay, he saw Amber standing just inside the open bay door, talking to Danny Walsh. They’d been divorced before he moved shifts to this crew when Jeff Porter retired, but Derek had worked out of this house for most of his career so she knew a lot of the guys and their families.

  He looked at his kids, his day already better. It had only been a couple of days since he’d dropped them off, but seeing them was the best thing about his life.

  While eight-year-old Isaac favored Derek, ten-year-old Julia was the spitting image of her mother. She had Amber’s curly black hair and dark eyes, and she had mimicking her mother’s facial expressions down pat. And his ex-wife and daughter’s matching smiles when they saw him lifted his mood instantly—bright, cheerful reassurances the hard decision to divorce had been the right thing for their family.

  “Dad!” Isaac tore his attention away from the apparatus long enough to spot his father and ran in for the hug.

  “Hey, bud.” He swung his son into his arms to kiss his cheek, groaning a little at his weight. “Another growth spurt? What’s your mother been feeding you?”

  “Doughnuts.”

  “Isaac!” Amber rolled her eyes while her kids laughed. “That was just today, because we were running errands.”

  “He got taller, so that’s why he weighs more,” Julia said in her serious way. “Not because Mom gave him junk food.”

  Derek chuckled and ruffled her hair. “I know, sweetheart. I was teasing.”