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“Not exactly.”
Omar chuckled mercilessly. “But you were so certain that you were chasing the right guy. This is ridiculous.”
The only thing ridiculous was that he was paying no attention to her at all. He wasn’t getting it.
“I couldn’t tell who he was because I wasn’t right beside him. And because he also was wearing a hat. And it’s dark out. I can tell you that he’s a white male. I saw him at the last fire as well. When I saw him tonight... I just knew.”
“Then why didn’t you try to get the attention of someone in authority?” Omar asked.
“I...” She had been too absorbed with trying to keep her eye on the person she believed to be the arsonist. “I’m not sure it would have done any good. The authorities in the city seem completely inept at catching this perp.”
“Ouch.” Omar made a face. “For such a beautiful lady, you certainly know how to hurt a guy’s feelings.”
Then he smiled. And Gabrielle’s jaw went slack. She couldn’t believe it. He was flirting with her!
“Omar!”
The firefighter turned. Another firefighter—Gabrielle recognized Mason Foley, because he had been in the papers some months earlier—was striding toward them through the alley. “Did you find something?”
“Thought I did,” Omar answered. “But I was wrong, apparently.”
Mason’s eyes narrowed on Gabrielle. “Her?”
“I saw her in the crowd,” Omar explained. “She was acting suspicious. I saw her take off, so I did too. When I caught up to her, she said she was in pursuit of the alleged arsonist.”
“Until he got in the way and stopped me,” Gabrielle quipped.
“You’re Gabrielle Leonard, aren’t you?” Mason asked.
“Yes.” At least this guy didn’t only read the sports pages, she thought sourly.
“The guy got away,” Omar said. “Did you see anyone running down Clark Street?”
Mason shook his head. “Naw.”
“Damn.”
Gabrielle looked up at Omar. There was something about him that looked familiar. And his name...
Yes! It came to her. Hadn’t he dated a friend of a friend? Two, from what she remembered. Both had been head over heels for Omar, but he’d broken their hearts. There was some story about a love triangle. It had been a few years back. But it was becoming clearer in her mind. Omar had played both the women. In the end, both had been devastated.
“Omar, we need you back at the truck,” Mason said.
Omar suddenly met her gaze. And there was that look again. Now Gabrielle could define it. It was the bedroom eye. She quickly averted her gaze to Mason, who nodded at her, and said, “Have a good day.”
Then she looked at Omar again, and though it was a quick glance, she felt something she didn’t want to feel. A spark of attraction. There was an undeniable sizzle between the two of them.
She jerked her gaze away and turned down the alley.
“Gabrielle,” Omar called.
But she pretended not to hear. Because the last thing she wanted to do was have any further involvement with him.
* * *
“Don’t quit your day job,” Tyler McKenzie joked when all of the firefighters had returned to Station Two. “You’d make a lousy detective, Omar.”
The guys had a good laugh at Omar’s expense. Mason, having gotten a kick out of the fact that Omar had “nabbed” Gabrielle Leonard, had enthusiastically shared the story. With everyone.
“Very funny, Tyler,” Omar said.
“Wasn’t Stacy Jackson out there with Channel 10 news?” Mason asked. “Maybe she’s the arsonist.”
More raucous laughter from the guys.
Omar rolled his eyes. Okay, so he had made a colossal mistake. Gabrielle Leonard was clearly not the arsonist.
“I couldn’t see her face,” Omar said. “She was wearing a hat.” Though he wouldn’t have recognized her even in the light of day. He never tuned in to to any Cable Four programming.
“Surprising,” Tyler said. “You mean there’s actually a woman in Ocean City you don’t recognize? I thought you’ve dated all of them.”
“You keep that up, you won’t make it to your wedding,” Omar warned him.
Tyler had recently gotten engaged—for the second time. His first engagement had been a mistake, something Omar and the other guys at the station had known almost from the beginning. But Tyler had hung on far longer than he should have, trying to make things work. It had been futile.
But a few months ago, Tyler had met someone else. Their connection had been wild and furious, and now he seemed happier than ever.
Omar had felt an instant connection to Gabrielle, as well. Sure, she was beautiful. That was obvious. But it wasn’t simply her beauty. There was something else. There had to be—because she had been undeniably angry with him, yet he still felt a spark.
“What was some woman from a TV station doing at the fire scene anyway?” Omar asked.
“She’s not just some woman,” Mason said. “She’s Gabrielle Leonard. A local celebrity.”
“Yeah well, I never watch community television.”
“We don’t even want to know what stations you watch!” Tyler said, then laughed.
“You’re a regular comedian today,” Omar said to Tyler. “I don’t have to watch it, when I can be out there living it.”
There was a round of ooohs and enthusiastic laughter. Someone patted him on the back, and said, “Our resident stud.”
Omar chuckled. His reputation at the station was one of a ladies’ man. And it was true, he had dated a lot. But he hadn’t dated seriously, at least not in recent years. For that reason, the guys all thought he wasn’t serious about finding a girlfriend.
It wasn’t that he wasn’t serious about it. He just hadn’t met anyone who had really intrigued him. Oh, he’d met plenty of beautiful women. And he dated many of them. But they all failed to interest him past the initial attraction. So what was he supposed to do? Settle?
“That’s our Omar,” one of the paramedics said. She was female, and she liked to tease Omar for his playboy ways.
It wasn’t that he was simply a playboy. At least, that’s not how he set out to live his life. And he knew he wasn’t getting any younger. He was thirty-six. Like practically the rest of society, the idea of settling down and having a family was one that appealed to him. But he first had to find the right woman.
Omar knew that if he told his colleagues at the station that, they would break into spontaneous laughter. He had to take responsibility for his own reputation, but part of his carefree attitude had been an act. He didn’t talk about it, but Omar had lost the love of his life. Losing Mika had devastated him. And since her death, he hadn’t met anyone else who could compare.
His mind went back to Gabrielle. He’d felt something with her in that alley. Something he wanted to explore.
The problem was, she had walked away from him when he had called out. She’d ignored him, making it clear that she wanted nothing more to do with him.
Well, Omar would see about that. One way or another.
* * *
“What are you doing?” Gabrielle asked.
Omar pulled her toward his body, and looked down into her eyes as if trying to claim her with his gaze. “Kissing you.”
He began to lower his lips slowly, and just when his lips touched hers, Gabrielle felt her body explode.
Her eyes popped open. For a moment, Gabrielle didn’t know what was going on. Her heart was beating fast. She was in her bed, she soon realized. Which meant...
Which meant she had been dreaming about Omar.
Dear God in heaven, what was wrong with her? She glanced at the clock. It was just after four in the morning, and she needed to be up in a few hours. Yet, she had been sleeping fitfully. For some reason, her mind wouldn’t stop replaying what had happened the previous night. How she had been running down that alley, then suddenly stopped by Omar. How the perp had gotten away.
The smoldering look Omar had given her...
Sitting up in the bed, she reached for her water bottle on the night table. She knew why she kept replaying what had happened. And it was because she had been so close to nailing the arsonist.
Did she look like a crazy person? The fact that Omar actually believed she had been the arsonist was baffling.
As she sipped from a glass of water at her bedside, she conceded that perhaps she had looked fidgety and suspicious. She had been keeping one eye on the fire, and one eye on the person she thought had started it. She didn’t want to get too close and scare him off. But she had tried—surreptitiously—to get photos of him.
She wasn’t sure if she had spooked him, but suddenly he had started to move out of the crowd. Toward the alley. There had been no time to try to get anyone else’s attention. Gabrielle had done the only thing she could do. Follow him.
How exactly were you planning to take him down? By batting your eyelashes?
The firefighter’s sarcastic question sounded in her mind. Would he have asked her that had she been a male civilian? Or would he have applauded a male for a valiant effort to take down a wanted criminal?
Gabrielle lay back down on the bed and snuggled with her pillow. Again, she thought about the look Omar had given her just before they parted. It irked her all the more to know that they had been talking about something serious, and then he had given her the bedroom eye. As though all she was good for was something sexual.
Of course, Gabrielle was jumping to conclusions. He hadn’t said anything inappropriate. Well, except for that one sexist comment. He certainly hadn’t crossed the line with her. But...
It was that spark she had felt. Amidst their arguing, she had felt a pull of attraction. Which made her wonder if she were losing her mind.
She looked at the pillow beside her. The empty pillow. The pillow where her ex-fiancé used to sleep.
Until he had cheated on her.
Maybe that was what was bothering her about the encounter with Omar. Besides the disturbing fact that he let the perp get away, maybe she had seen in him the very qualities she used to see in Tobias.
Yes... That was it. She had sensed in him the same kind of philandering ways she had sensed in Tobias. That’s why she had gotten angry with him.
Tobias Winthrop. What a joke. He’d had such a sophisticated name, and he’d had the pedigree to go along with it. Firstborn child of a wealthy businessman. Tobias began working at his father’s company even while in college. From that point, he was groomed to become the CEO of Winthrop Publishing. He had talked about how wonderful their future would be, how they could be a power couple in Ocean City. How they could sail the seas on a private yacht and take private planes to exotic destinations.
He had swept Gabrielle off her feet. But all the money in the world couldn’t buy happiness. She had learned that the hard way when Tobias had cheated on her with her own cousin.
Gabrielle rolled over in her bed and tightly shut her eyes. Why was she thinking about Tobias and his betrayal?
She knew why. It was her brain’s way of reminding her that men like Tobias—and Omar—were dangerous to her heart. She had felt a spark of attraction for Omar. And now, her brain was screaming at her with all kinds of signals. Trying to remind her that even being attracted to someone like Omar could lead to heartbreak.
“Good grief,” she said to herself. “Why are you even getting yourself worked up over this?”
It wasn’t as if she was going to see Omar again.
Chapter 3 (#ulink_38426235-db15-56be-9de9-c51fbde3fbe0)
The next day, Gabrielle felt exhausted at work. She hadn’t had nearly enough sleep. But in her line of work, napping on the job was impossible. She’d had people to call and interview before appearances on the various shows that Cable Four produced. And she’d had to film her own show, Your Hour, and be upbeat while she was on air.
So she had done what she’d had to do. This had been a three-espresso day.
She didn’t particularly like the strong drink. In fact, she consumed it more as if it were medicine. A liquid shot of adrenaline. It gave her an extra jolt when she was beginning to get fatigued. It allowed her to get through her day.
And when she was finished and finally leaving the studio, she wanted nothing more than to head home and get in her bed. But she couldn’t. Not yet. She needed to visit her parents. Ever since her father’s heart attack, she stopped by often to see how he was doing and to help cheer her mother up.
Gabrielle rounded the studio building to the parking lot...then stopped up dead in her tracks. Was that Omar?
It took only a second for her to realize that it was. And the nerve of him. He was leaning his butt against her Mercedes!
She hustled forward. As she did, he stood tall. He was six foot one at least. And now, in the daylight, without his firefighting gear, she could take a better look at him.
He had a medium brown complexion. He had a round face, which was both sexy and boyish at the same time. He was clean-shaven, and had closely cropped hair. And his body...his biceps were exposed beneath his shirt, and she could see the defined muscles, even though he wasn’t flexing.
He was one seriously sexy man.
As Gabrielle got closer to him, she saw that he had a gold stud in his left earlobe. Figures, she thought. Was that on page one of the player’s handbook?
“Gabby,” Omar said, and gestured to her personalized license plate. “Figured this had to be yours.”
Would it be completely rude to simply get into her car and drive away? Why Omar was even here, Gabrielle had no clue.
She pressed her electronic key to unlock her doors. “What are you going to do?” Omar asked. “Take off without talking to me?”
“How can I help you?”
“So formal.”
Gabrielle crossed her arms over her chest. “Why are you here?”
“I wanted to talk to you about last night.”
“I thought we discussed everything we needed to,” Gabrielle said.
