Sizzling Seduction. Gwyneth Bolton

that left her blind, deaf and dumb.

      She must have been imagining things. There was no way he had found her out of all the other teachers and the many students standing outside the building. She shook her head trying to clear the daze.

      Not for me. Not for me. Not for me.

      Maybe if she changed her mantra she’d stand a better chance. The image of Patrick’s slow, seductive smile and simmering eyes came into her mind and she realized that all the mantras in the world wouldn’t help her. She’d just have to be sure to stay away from him.

      Since there was no smoke and the only heat she could sense was the sizzling sparks she felt whenever she thought of the fire captain, she figured that fate must have conspired with some little kid who was thinking it was a good idea to pull a prank by pulling the fire alarm.

      She hoped the little rat was caught and suspended for an entire month—heck, the rest of the school year wouldn’t be enough punishment for him bringing temptation in the form of the sexy fire captain into her world yet again.

      Sure enough, there was no fire in the building. The school administrators were now looking for the child who had wasted the time of the fire department.

      While they did that and the other teachers took their students back to class, Aisha watched the firemen get back in the truck. She told herself it was because she had to stand outside and wait for her afternoon kindergartners anyway. But deep inside she knew it was because she wanted to get just one more peek at Patrick.

      Just because she couldn’t have him didn’t mean she couldn’t look. Did it? What possible harm could be done by looking?

      She regretted the thought as soon as she caught his dead-on stare once again. If she had any doubts about who he had been looking at the first time he zeroed in on her, they were all gone now. The rest of the teachers and students had gone back to their classrooms.

      She watched as his sumptuous lips slowly curved, showing a hint of perfect white teeth and then the full bright grin hit her and sparked a powerful keening, needful emotion deep down in her gut.

      What the heck was it? Lust? Desire? Wantonness? It had to be one of those. Whatever it was, she certainly wasn’t giving in to it. No matter how much it was starting to ache just looking at him.

      She let out a sigh when the truck started to pull off. Patrick kept looking at her, though. She could have sworn he kept looking at her until the truck reached the corner. And then he pointed from himself to her and she found herself smiling as she shook her head. He pointed between them again as he nodded and the truck turned the corner.

      “Mmm-hmm. I see that, missy. You can’t fool me. You want that fine Hightower man in a bad way, don’t you?”

      Rats! When had Toni crept up on her?

      Her teaching assistant had had an emergency dental appointment because one of her fillings fell out, and had missed the morning class. Even though the little ones could be more than a handful, Aisha almost wished Toni had stayed out the entire day.

      “Looks like I missed the fire drill and the fire, too, the way you two were heating things up out here. Dang, if he wasn’t all the way up there in that truck fully clothed in that sexy fireman’s uniform, I would have had to tell you two to go get a room.”

      “Stop playing. How’s your tooth?”

      “Uh-uh. Don’t try to change the subject. What did I miss?”

      “You missed a false fire alarm. I think it was one of those little roughneck-in-training eighth graders.”

      “Okay. Be like that, Aisha. But you wait until I have a sexy fireman giving me the ooo-baby-I-want-you-bad look. Don’t think I’m going to give you the dish. Because I won’t.”

      “Girl, you wouldn’t be able to help yourself. You’d tell me everything as soon as the dude cracked the first smile at you.”

      Toni burst out laughing. “You know me so well!”

      “Hello, Michaela. Stand in line as we wait for the rest of your classmates.” Aisha shot Toni a quick glance to let her know the subject of Patrick Hightower was done as soon as the first parent walked up and dropped off her child.

      “Oh, don’t worry, missy, we’re going to finish this conversation at book club tomorrow.” Toni grinned. “Hey, Michaela! Are you ready for a fun afternoon?”