The Sullivans 3 - Can't Help Falling In Love - Bella Andre,
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//-->Table of ContentsCan’t Help Falling In LoveChapter OneChapter TwoChapter ThreeChapter FourChapter FiveChapter SixChapter SevenChapter EightChapter NineChapter TenChapter ElevenChapter TwelveChapter ThirteenChapter FourteenChapter FifteenChapter SixteenChapter SeventeenChapter EighteenChapter NineteenChapter TwentyChapter Twenty-oneChapter Twenty-twoChapter Twenty-threeChapter Twenty-fourChapter Twenty-fiveChapter Twenty-sixChapter Twenty-sevenEpilogueCOMPLETE BOOKLISTABOUT THE AUTHORCan’t Help Falling In LoveGabe & Megan ~ The Sullivans #3© 2011 Bella Andrebella@bellaandre.comSign up for Bella’s NewsletterGabe Sullivan risks his life every day as a firefighter in San Francisco. But after learning a brutallesson about professional boundaries, he knows better than to risk his heart to his fire victims everagain. Especially the brave mother and daughter he saved from a deadly apartment fire...and can'tstop thinking about.Megan Harris knows she owes the heroic firefighter everything for running into a burningbuilding to save her and her seven-year-old daughter. Everything except her heart. Because afterlosing her navy pilot husband five years ago, she has vowed to never suffer through loving - andlosing - a man with a dangerous job again.Only, when Gabe and Megan meet again and uncontrollable flames of desire ignite between them,how can he possibly ignore her courage, determination, and beauty? And how can she deny notonly his strong bond with her daughter…but the way his sweetly sensual kisses are challengingher to risk everything she’s been guarding for so long?This winter, if one - or both - of them aren’t careful, they just might end up falling in love.***Thank you to Rachael Herron and Mike “Pic” Picard, B Shift Battalion Captain, San RamonValley Fire Protection District, for their help with the firefighting scenes.Chapter OneGabe Sullivan was helping an elderly couple down the stairs of an old San Franciscoapartment building and out onto the sidewalk when the air was rocked with an explosion of flamesand smoke out a second-story window.After ten years as a firefighter, Gabe knew no fire was ever routine. No flame ever played thesame game. And sometimes the simplest call could turn into the most complicated. The mostdangerous.“Everyone out,” his station captain, Todd, told the crew. “This fire has accelerated and we’reswitching to defensive operation.”Gabe still had his hand on the elbow of the gray-haired woman and she turned to him with alook of horror on her face. “Megan and Summer are still inside.”He knew the woman must be on the verge of shock, so he spoke to her in a clear, steady voice.“Who are Megan and Summer?”“My neighbors, a mother and her little girl. I saw them go into their apartment a while ago.”The woman looked around at the tenants, who were gathered around the fire trucks as they watchedtheir things go up in flames that were raging more out of control by the second. “They’re not outhere.” She gripped his arm hard. “You have to go inside to save them.”Gabe wasn’t a firefighter who believed in superstition. He didn’t have a routine he lived anddied by. But he did believe in his gut.And his gut was telling him there was a problem.A big one.“Which apartment are they in?”She pointed to the third-story windows. “Number 31. They’re on the top floor, corner unit.”The woman looked like she was going to cry.Seconds later, he found both the captain and his partner, Eric, in the middle of the crowd ofpeople out on the sidewalk and street. “We’ve got to go back in. A mother and daughter could still beinside. Third floor, corner apartment.”Todd looked from Gabe to the fire raging inside the building. “Make it quick, guys,” he said,and gave the rest of the crew orders to focus their hose streams up toward the apartment to try to keepthe flames at bay.Eric and Gabe moved in tandem to pull the hose into the building. Masks on, their earpieceswere activated. They moved up the stairs as quickly as they could through the thick smoke that hung inthe air like the fog San Francisco was so famous for. With their breathing apparatus on, they wereokay. But a civilian wouldn’t last long without frequent hits of oxygen.Forcefully pushing his fears for the mother and daughter aside, he concentrated on moving fromthe first floor to the second, and then the third. They made good time up to unit 31, even dragging theheavy hose through the thick smoke and up the steep, tight flight of stairs. He tried the door, which ofcourse was locked.Gabe slid his axe from its holster. “If anyone is by the door, I’m about to knock it down with anaxe. Back away.” Even though he yelled, his voice was muffled through the mask.Jesus, the smoke was heavy, nearly thick enough to cut with a knife. Would they find anyonealive inside?“You got it?” Eric asked him as he took a few quick hits of air.Rather than answering, Gabe cocked the heavy tool back and landed the top of the axe headagainst the door, right by the knob. A hollow door would have split apart in seconds, but this oldwood door was thick enough that he had to do a dozen sustained hits to get it to budge. When he feltthe frame start to loosen up, he kicked at it.Finally, it swung open and he was in.Sliding his axe back into its holster, he reached for the hose and started to drag it inside, but itwouldn’t move.“It’s jammed. I need more hose.”He looked behind him and saw Eric yanking on the hose with all his might. “I’m going to haveto head down and see where it’s hung up.”They both knew how dangerous the situation was, one firefighter leaving his partner to free thehose equipment. But Gabe couldn’t stick with Eric. Not if lives were on the line. Not if the sixtyseconds it took him to help with the hose meant a child might die tonight.The flames were already rippling above his head and even though he wasn’t in the position hewanted to be in, Gabe cracked open the nozzle on the hose and started blasting the roof to push themback. He could feel 800-degree heat coming down on him over his turnouts as he moved further intothe room. This apartment was clearly one of the hot points of the fire, possibly the room it had allbegun in, judging by the black/white soot already covering the furniture that hadn’t yet burned.He stilled as he thought he heard someone calling out, crying for help. With the hose stilljammed, he had no choice but to drop it and make a move in the direction of the sound. A white doorwith a mirror on it was closed and he kicked it open, shattering the mirror beneath his steel-toedboots.As a new flood of smoke rushed through the door, his vision was impaired for a split second,but even though he couldn’t see anyone in the small bathroom, he knew exactly where to look. Heripped back the shower curtain and found a woman holding her daughter in her arms in the old clawfoot bathtub.He’d found Megan and Summer.“Megan, you’ve done good. Real good,” he told her through his mask. Her eyes were so big,and so scared, his chest clamped down on itself hard. “I’m going to help get you and Summer out ofhere now.”She opened her mouth and tried to say something, but all she could do was cough, her eyesclosing as tears seeped out onto her cheeks.He pulled off one of his gloves to check the unconscious girl’s pulse. Thanking God that it wasstill steady, he put his glove back on, then reached for her.Her mother’s eyes shot open and they played tug of war for a moment before she let the girl go.Her lips moved in a silent plea:Please.He knew better than to let her fear, her terror stop him from doing what he needed to do to getthem out alive. And yet, her eyes held him a moment longer than he should have let them. The love shefelt for her daughter was as clear in the expression on her face as if he’d known her forever, ratherthan just a handful of rapidly ticking seconds in the middle of what felt like a war zone.“I’m going to take Summer and we’re going to crawl out of here. Can you do that?”She nodded and he gripped her arm to help her slip over the edge of the tub. She was shaky, butshe was clearly a fighter. After helping her out of the tub, he pulled an air mask out and moved to putit over her face so that she could take some clean hits of air into her lungs. She tried to push it away,tried to get it over her daughter’s face, but he’d anticipated this movement and shook his head.“You need to take it first.” He spoke loudly so that she could hear him through his mask.
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