“Alex!” I yell from where I’m standing beside Cap.
I’d heard over the radio about a five-alarm fire with multiple appliances in attendance and that there had already been a number of injuries. When my squad car was a few blocks away, I heard a firefighter was stuck inside and I was filled with a blind panic, knowing that Marco, Luc, and Alex would be there. I needed to see for myself that they were all okay, that the woman I love knows I have her back, whatever happens.
Alex’s eyes widen and she staggers toward me, exhaustion and relief written all over her face as I wrap my arms around her, not giving a flying fuck that we’re at a scene and in uniform, and probably breaking numerous rules and protocol.
“Baby,” I murmur into her ear with a huge sigh. I have her in my arms, safe and well.
She pulls back and looks up at me. “When did you get here? Why are you here?”
I stroke her hair, reassuring myself that she’s not injured, my heart still racing from my fear. “Heard there were casualties and that someone was stuck inside. Kinda acted on instinct and drove straight here. Needed to see for myself that you were okay.”
“No,” she says, shaking her head, her eyes soft. “I was on the aerial when Scotty hurt himself and I ran in there. Didn’t even think about anything but getting to him and pulling him out.”
“Shit, Alex. You did it,” I say, my chest swelling with pride as I hug her tight again. “You saved Scotty by running into the fire?”
“Yep.” Her grin is gorgeous, even on a face blackened with soot, her eyes red and bloodshot, and the unmistakable smell of stale smoke clinging to her. “I did it. I really did it,” she whispers, as she starts to shake.
I pull her in close and gently swipe my thumbs over her cheeks. “You’re amazing.”
Tilting her head, she shoots me a smirk, one that’s totally her but also totally unexpected considering she just faced her biggest fear right now and conquered it like a badass. “You’re only just figuring that out now, plant daddy?”
Chuckling, I hold her jaw in my hands. “I’ve known that since the day I first laid eyes on you. But I think you were the one who forget for a little while just how amazing you are.”
“Ahh. So that’s why you pointed a gun at me. ’Cause I was so awesome?”
A grin tugs at my lips. “Yep. You accosted me with so much amazingness that I needed a weapon to protect myself.”
“Liar,” she whispers. “So are you going to get in trouble for coming here to check on me, sirens blazing?”
“I don’t care what shit I get shoveled at me. I’d do it again in a heartbeat to make sure you came home to me in one piece.”
Her eyes soften. “I’m okay, Gio. I knew the guys would have my back, and I knew that Scotty needed me. I didn’t even question Cap’s order to get in there. I just did it. Didn’t need my cop boyfriend to come and save me.”
“So proud of you, baby, and I didn’t come to save you. I came to see you. This is all for me and my frazzled nerves,” I murmur. I kiss her, needing the reassurance of her lips on mine again. “They would’ve had to handcuff me and stuff me in the back of my squad car to keep me from you.”
She looks deep into my eyes, hers wide and full of wonder. “This is my job, Gio. If you want me to have a normal, safe, boring job where you don’t ever have to worry about me, I think we’ll have some things to sort out. ”
I snort and shake my head, not missing how she’s turned this whole scenario back around on me. “Fuck no. I’ve accepted skydiving and pole dancing and the death mobile on two wheels. You pulling on your gear and doing the job you love every day? I’d never want to change that—or change you.”
“You’ll still worry though?”
My head jerks back. “Of course. Just like I worry about Marco and Luca and Rhodes—hell, even Scotty. They’re all family to me and to you.”
“And me? What am I?”
I dip my head and rest it against her forehead. The flashing lights coloring the night sky, the stale smoke swirling in the air around us—even the shouting of orders and groans from Scotty as he’s wheeled into the back of the ambulance can’t pull me from her. The entire world ceases to exist as I stare into her eyes. “Unless I can see you, touch you, feel you, I’ll always worry about you, and that’s something that’ll never change. Because I couldn’t bear to lose the woman I love when I’ve only just found her.”
“I love you too,” she says straight back, her voice rough and shaking.
There’s absolutely nothing that could wipe the huge, shit-eating grin from my face. “I know.”
“How?” She scrunches up her nose as she pulls back.
“Because you told me.”
“I did not. Well, I did—but just now.”
“You did. You do. Every time you kiss me, and clean the kitchen after you cook and mess it all up. How you water Fred and send me photos of him when I’m at work. How you let Mama coddle and take care of you. How you take my brothers’ shit and shovel it straight back at them. It’s in every single thing you do and say. You may be a badass, Alex Maxwell, but you’re also a hopeless romantic who wears her heart on her sleeve. I hope that’s something that never changes.”
“I like making you happy,” she whispers.
“You do. And I want to spend the rest of my life making sure I make you happy too.”
“Even when I’m covered in soot and dirt and smelling like a chimney?” she asks with a laugh.
I press my lips to hers, resting them there. “Especially then. Because it’s you.”
“And because you lurvvve me,” she croons, smiling against my lips, teasing the seam of mine with the tip of her tongue.
“And because you love me too. And I’m never gonna let you forget it.” Then I kiss her, not giving one single fuck that it’s in front of everyone in the middle of a scene. We could be on the top of the Hancock Building right now and I still wouldn’t care. The only thing that matters is the woman in my arms and kissing her like she’s my entire world.
Because she is.
And that’s something that I know, down to the very depths of my soul, will never ever change.