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

goodnight. Sheesh. Could he guess where her thoughts had strayed? Maybe after some time alone at the beach next week, she could sort out her feelings about Tony and decide what, if anything, she wanted to do next.

After Angelina left the room, she whispered, “See you Sunday.”

He nodded. “I’ll come early. I’m sure there’s something I can do to help.”

“If you insist.” Apparently, she’d have a little time with him before everyone else arrived.

After saying goodbye to the others, Tony exited through the living room door. A little off-kilter, Carm refilled her mug in the kitchen and took a few sips before rejoining the party. With their midnight snack—and Tony—out of the way, Angelina invited them to sit in a circle on huge pillows she scattered on the floor in front of the fireplace. None of them expressed any interest in going to bed yet. Carm was too keyed up at the moment. She could catch up on sleep tomorrow.

She stared at the flames a long moment, thankful that Tony didn’t hang around any longer.

“Tony couldn’t keep his eyes off you tonight, Carm,” Angelina said, giving her a sidelong glance.

Carm groaned, hoping she’d been the only one to notice.

“How long do you think he watched on the deck before he made his presence known?” Angelina asked. Carm blushed yet again.

“You think he saw us naked?” Cassie asked.

“He answered as soon as I called out to him,” Angelina said. “I’d like to think he’s a gentleman and wouldn’t take advantage of our compromising situation. But I know my brothers.” She laughed.

While the others had remained in the tub with Angelina and Carm blocking Tony’s view, most likely he’d gotten an eyeful of Carm. Raised a gentleman by his mama, he hadn’t let on, but Carm had caught him looking at her a couple of times on the deck and in the kitchen, usually staring at her boobs. The thought of his seeing her naked sent jolts of electricity through her.

Tony was an attractive man, and now she wondered what he looked like without any clothes.

Good grief. What kind of spell had Cassie cast over her in that hot tub to make Carm so fixated on Tony?

“You two seemed to hit it off talking about diving, too,” Angelina pointed out. Was her sister-in-law doing a little matchmaking?

“That’s probably all we have in common. And you can just put those matchmaking innuendoes aside. Our families aren’t ready for another D’Alessio-Giardano match.”

“True,” Angelina said. “Mama has her own romance budding so she might be the next Giardano walking down the aisle.”

With that, any mention of her dating Tony was pushed aside, which made Carm much more comfortable. Except when she remembered how Tony’s kiss had left her wanting something more.

Chapter Eighteen

The rain had been falling in buckets all night, and Tony dreaded hearing the tones drop for fear they’d have another swift-water rescue on the river. But as dawn broke, he breathed a sigh of relief. Two more hours and his shift would be over.

Without incident.

He rolled over to try and catch a few more z’s when the tones did drop, along with his stomach. He jumped up, put on his pants, slid down the pole, donned his gear in the apparatus bay, and got into the truck waiting to hear what type of call it was.

“Vehicle hydroplaned into a ditch on County Road 3,” the dispatcher said. “High water. Two victims.”

Tony’s heart pounded as the adrenaline continued to pump.

“Let’s roll!” Lieutenant Anderson said as he took his place in the passenger seat of the truck.

It’s a ditch.

Not the river.

Not the same.

Nobody’s going to die today.

He kept up a steady litany of the words he’d come up with during one of his homework assignments from Lisa for the next time he found himself on a similar call. He didn’t want a repeat of his bad call in June.

As they rolled onto the scene, he saw the tail end of a Camry partially submerged as water rushed down the ditch.

A woman waved her arm out the shattered driver’s-side window as they rolled up. “Please! Save my baby!”

The flashbacks hit him hard, and Tony froze. Rain. River. A log barreling toward them. Glimpses of another woman in a wet orange Broncos T-shirt and a baby girl in pink slipping from his grasp. Tony’s body locked up as that scene played back to disastrous results in his head. He grabbed onto the rim of his helmet to ground himself in the moment and continued the litany he’d started on the way here.

Nobody’s going to die…

Nobody’s going to die…

Nobody’s going to die…

Slowly, Tony returned to the moment and the scene unfolding before him. The front end of the Camry must have smashed into a tree before spinning out of control into the ditch.

“Tony! Move it!” Lieutenant Anderson yelled.

As the horrific images faded and with some difficulty, Tony blinked a few times and forced himself out of the past. “What do you need me to do, Lieutenant?”

The officer looked at him with disbelief then instructed him—probably for the second time—to de-energize the vehicle.

Well, no shit. Get your head on straight, man.

His training finally kicking in, Tony went to the side of the ladder truck and pulled out the hydraulic spreader then approached the driver’s side where the woman was crying. “We’re going to get you both out as soon as we can, ma’am. Just sit tight.” As if she’d be going anywhere with the way her door had been crushed. She nodded. He couldn’t see into the backseat for the condition of the child and wasn’t sure he wanted to. He hadn’t heard a peep out of the kid.

Knowing they’d probably need to use the hydraulic spreader on at least the driver’s door after he finished prying open the hood, Tony needed to get busy. Getting to work, Tony wedged the spreader’s tips between the hood and the frame of the radiator grate and started the motor. When he saw he was only managing to lift the