TONY: Slow Burn (Raging Fire Book 1) by Kallypso Masters (the false prince TXT) 📕

to dive with Tony might be impossible unless they ran off to the islands again, but it didn’t sound like Tony would have the time for that. Besides, with the upcoming ski season, that wouldn’t happen for her before spring. While happy he’d found something to be passionate about, she couldn’t hide her disappointment.

“What’s wrong?”

Observant man. “Sounds like we aren’t going to see much of each other for a while.”

Tony leaned in and gave her a kiss. “We’ll figure something out. It’s been torture being apart the last ten days.”

His words gave her hope—and an idea. “If you need another experienced diver to help train the newer ones in their basic skills, just let me know.”

Tony’s eyes opened wide. “You’d do that?”

That he hadn’t shot down the idea surprised her a little. She wasn’t exactly one of the professionals, although she certainly had more than the basic skill set down pat. “Things won’t get busy until Thanksgiving weekend, but I’d be happy to help you in September and October.”

“Carm, that’s a fantastic idea.” Tony kissed her again, this time on the cheek. “Having someone else to help demonstrate the basic dive skills would help us move forward faster, that’s for sure. The dive shop is already giving us a small discount and some of their employees are volunteering too, but this is a monumental undertaking.”

Carm beamed. “Awesome. I’ll do whatever I can to help. I’m so happy things are moving forward so smoothly, Tony.”

Cold water engulfed him. Tony swam as hard as he could, but the woman and toddler were swept farther and farther away.

Harder! Swim harder!

His muscles started to seize, despite the dry suit he wore for protection against the cold waters. Helplessly, he decided to abandon the pursuit and grabbed onto the safety line.

Tony’s eyes opened. His heart raced at a thundering speed. The images of the nightmare still fresh in his mind, it took him a few moments to remember where he was.

Carm’s condo.

He turned to find her still curled on her side and fast asleep beside him. Thank God he hadn’t woken her. His watch showed 4:39. She had a meeting with her brother first thing in the morning. Tony would hate to be the cause of her losing sleep.

What had triggered a nightmare? He hated the randomness of it. The thought of him having these unpredictable nightmares on a regular basis made him question whether he wanted to put Carmella through that. He’d been lucky this time that he hadn’t disturbed her sleep, but what about the next one?

Not wanting to risk falling asleep again, Tony eased himself out of bed and headed to the bathroom where he relieved himself. He wiped the sweat from his face and neck and stared into the mirror.

You look like hell.

When he returned to the bedroom, he found Carm still fast asleep. He only had two more hours before he’d have to leave anyway, because he had diver training lined up late morning. Tony decided to hit the road now, rather than wait for her to wake up. They wouldn’t really have time to have breakfast together anyway, from what he surmised about her meeting with Sandro.

He quietly gathered up his clothes to dress in the other room. He didn’t see a pad of paper or pen to leave a note anywhere, so he’d just text her shortly after seven-thirty. He watched her sleeping peacefully for a few minutes.

Pleasant dreams, dolcezza.

He left the room, dressed quickly, and slipped out of the condo. If he planned to do this much more often, he’d need to see about getting a key so he could lock her deadbolt behind him, but she’d be up in a few hours anyway.

At 8:30 a.m., Carm sat in Sandro’s office for their breakfast meeting. She’d hoped to have breakfast with Tony, but when she woke up, he’d already left. No note or text saying why he’d left without saying goodbye, either.

Carm tried not to allow herself to feel hurt, but it was hard not to. Tony hadn’t come to see her only to have a booty call. Heck, she’d been the one to initiate sex upon his arrival. Then why had he come?

And why did he leave so early? He didn’t have to go back to work for two more days. Had there been a SAR call she hadn’t heard come in? He had mentioned that he’d need to be on the road before she left for work in order to get ready for the day’s diving sessions. But when she woke up, with plenty of time to spare, Tony was nowhere to be found, nor was there any note saying goodbye. They hadn’t really made any plans to get together again, either, although she hoped to get to join him in some dives in the coming months.

Carm refused to text him and sound pitifully needy, though. The two of them weren’t in any committed relationship. He didn’t owe her any excuses or explanations.

Still, when she met with Sandro, she intended to go through with the idea she’d come up with on the hike yesterday. Even if she wasn’t completely honest with her brother about why she was doing it.

“We need to do this for Marc’s station, Sandro.” Carm leaned over his desk, punctuating her words with the remaining half of her bagel. “I can’t believe how much money firefighters shell out of their own pocket to pay for training. And having their own dive team in Aspen Corners would benefit the entire county. If we can prevent his station from losing one more person in a drowning accident, it would be so worth it.”

“You don’t have to sell me on the idea, Sis, but ski season will be ramping up in a little more than two months. You’re going to have to work fast to get this done before then.” Sandro took a sip of his coffee. “I have a number of trade shows coming up but will do what I