*******

"It's gotta be some kind of record," Joe said, fighting back a yawn as Eric pulled the ambulance into the small line of ambulances and a Fire department SUV to fill the gas tank up. He threw the ambulance in park as they waited for their turn at the gas pumps.

It had been a long, weird night and she was more than ready for it to be over. The only thing she wasn't ready for was the "talk" they would have to have. She knew they had to talk about what happened between them, but she just wasn't sure what to say.

The sex had been great, fantastic, and surprisingly she didn't regret it, which was kind of stupid since it could very well be the beginning of the end of their friendship. What were they supposed to do now?

They had sex one time and she didn't exactly equate that with a declaration of love. She knew he loved her and would never hurt, at least not on purpose. This was Eric she was talking about here. There was no arguing that he was the best friend she'd ever had and she would never hurt him or say anything unkind about him, but she couldn't lie.

Eric was a lousy boyfriend.

He treated all the women he dated as annoyances, barely gave them any consideration and had a short attention span. On more than one occasion she had to remind him what his date's name was and jump the hell out of the way when one of them grabbed whatever was nearby and chucked it at him. It never took much for him to get bored and move on.

She'd rather have Eric as a best friend than a boyfriend any day of the week. The best friend she could have for the rest of her life, that is if they got over this little bump in their relationship, but Eric as a boyfriend? He'd be hauling ass in less than a week.

Part of her thought that he'd treat her differently, but that would only make her an idiot. The two of them had been stepping around falling into bed for years and it happened. Dwelling on it would only cause her heartache that she didn't need or want. She loved him, couldn't live without him, but knew that if she had any hopes in keeping him she had to bite back her feelings and laugh this whole thing off when they had their little "talk" later.

"Why don't you head out? I've got this," Eric said, surprising the hell out of her.

Not once in twelve years had he ever offered to put the truck away on his own. Of course she'd never asked, but that's because they enjoyed working together. It didn't hurt that working together to put the truck away meant they could both leave quicker.

She opened her mouth to say no, but then thought better of it. He obviously didn't want to have this talk and neither did she. Common sense said that they should have it soon before it became awkward, but if he was willing to be a coward about it then so was she.

"Are you sure?" she asked, her hand hesitating over the door handle.

"Yeah, go ahead," he said, not bothering to look up from his clipboard.

She climbed out, feeling unsure for the first time since they met. When he still didn't look at her or say anything about what they'd done she shrugged it off and shut the door.

The next thirty minutes were a blur as she hauled ass to grab her bedding, punch out, and drive off. The entire time she was afraid that he was going to change his mind and want to have the talk that she was so not ready to have. By the time she pulled into her driveway she was a mass of nerves. It didn't get any better once she walked into her house.

Every few minutes she'd look up from what she was doing, half expecting Eric to come sauntering in. When he didn't show up an hour later she was both relieved and disappointed. She was glad that they weren't going to have the talk just yet, but she was disappointed because she wanted to see him, be with him.

She was such an idiot, she decided as she headed to her room. She quickly undressed and forced herself to take a long hot shower when all she wanted to do was wait by the phone like some love sick teenage girl. This was bad, this was very bad. If she was going to convince Eric that she could get over what happened between them then she couldn't go around acting like this.

He was her best friend and that's all. That much was clear when she was done with her shower, dressed and hitting her fridge for a drink before she went to bed. She knew that if he wanted to be here that he would already be here, but clearly he'd realized they'd made a mistake.

Fine, she thought, grabbing a bottle of water from the fridge before heading to her room. If that's what he wanted then that was more than fine with her. She could pretend that he hadn't given her the best sex of her life or that she was dying to touch him again. She was a big girl. She could handle a little rejection. She closed the blinds, darkening the room and flopped down on the bed more than ready to put this day behind her.

She was going to kick his ass, she decided three hours later when she couldn't fall asleep or get him out of her mind. If he didn't want anything to do with her then he could have damn well said so instead of giving her the cold shoulder and treating her like every other woman in his life. She'd been his best friend for over twenty years and deserved a hell of a lot more consideration than he was giving her at the moment.

Furious, she grabbed her keys and headed for the front door as she thought up all the ways she was going to make him pay for this bullshit. After she was done with him he was going to wish-

"Where the hell are you going?" Eric demanded when she practically ripped open the front door, startling her, but not enough to distract her from her purpose.

"To kick your ass," she snapped.

That slow sexy grin of his did not affect her. It didn't. She also didn't care that he looked as exhausted as she felt or that she was happy to see him. Nothing mattered except that he'd discarded her and spent the entire remainder of their shift acting like nothing happened. That pissed her off. Then he added insult to injury by brushing her off so that he wouldn't have to deal with her.

Well, now he was going to do deal with her because she was so ready to kick his-

Her thoughts sort of drifted off when he grabbed the back of her neck and leaned down and kissed every last coherent thought out of her head. She was barely aware of him guiding her back into the house or when he shut her door and locked it. All of her attention at the moment was on his mouth and the way he was kissing her breathless.

When he finally stopped kissing her, and she wanted to kick his ass for that alone, her mind began to clear and she remembered that she was angry with him. Who the hell did he think he was treating her like that? she wondered as she pushed him away.

"I take it you're mad at me," he noted with a sigh.

"You could say that," she snapped, crossing her arms beneath her br**sts as she glared at him and waited for the typical Eric response to any form of female drama. When he didn't give her some lame ass excuse like giving her time to calm down and a promise to call later she was a bit surprised.

"Look," he said, running both of his hands down his face in frustration, "I know I shouldn't be here and that I should be giving you some time to sort through things, but I couldn't stay away."

Her eyes narrowed on him. "You were giving me time?" she asked, not even bothering to hide disbelief in her tone.

"Well, that and I got held over for two hours after you left," he said, sounding miserable as sat down on the arm of her couch.

"Why did you get held over?" she asked, inwardly wincing when she realized that he must have covered for her. Although it wasn't a rule at their station, if dispatch was looking for them and there was only one of them there putting away the truck they could get pissed.

"I had to do a favor for Bill."

"What favor?" she asked, leaning back against the wall to put some space between them. It was a little disconcerting that she couldn't think rationally with him in the room. All she could think about was running her fingers through his hair and over his body.

What in the hell was wrong with her?

She should still be focused on kicking his ass, but she couldn't stay mad at him. It was a weakness that she really needed to work on, but later.

"He asked me to go over all of the equipment with Greg," he said around a yawn.

"Greg?" she asked, surprised that he was still around. He rode the truck daily for what must have been two weeks and not one of those shifts counted towards his training time.

He gave her a firm nod that told her he wasn't too happy about the situation. "It seems he has an uncle on the City Council who called in a favor. He's claiming that Greg was just a little nervous and would like Bill to give him another chance so guess who's getting a third rider for the next two weeks," he said dryly.

"Us," she said, biting back a groan.

"Mmmhmm," he said absently as he ran his eyes over her. "And the best part of course is that somehow the little bastard is even cockier."

This time she didn't bother biting back her groan. She knew the man was going to be trying to save face by acting like it was no big deal, but that was going to make their jobs a hell of a lot harder. It also meant that he was probably going to ignore whatever they tried to show him. It should be a fun two weeks, she thought dryly.

"You were coming to kick my ass?" he asked, drawing her attention back to their problem.

"Maybe," she said, shrugging it off like it was nothing.

"In only my old t-shirt and panties?" he asked, running hungry eyes over her.

She felt a blush burn its way up her neck when she realized that she had been seconds away from storming outside like this to go kick his ass, but not because she was wearing a t-shirt and panties, but because she was only wearing a t-shirt.

Something in her expression must have given her away because that sexy bad boy grin that she loved so much suddenly graced his face. He crooked a finger in her direction. "Come here."

She just barely stopped herself from doing just that. With a snort she shook her head. "I'm not your bitch. You come here," she snapped, stubbornly crossing her arms over her chest even tighter, mostly to hide her nerves.

This was such a bad idea. Was she really thinking about tackling him, bringing him down to the ground, ripping his clothes off and licking his body from head to toe before she had her dirty little way with him?

Yes, yes she was.

Before she could rethink her plan or add a few things here and there to prolong her enjoyment, he was pushing off the arm of the couch and was standing in front of her. He placed his forearm against the wall by her head as he leaned in.

"Are you wearing panties, Joe?" he asked in a seductively dark whisper that had her licking her lips.

"Shouldn't we talk about this?" she asked, avoiding his question.

"About your panties?" he asked teasingly as he gently laid his other hand on her hip.

"No," she said, trying not to smile, "about what we're doing here. We need to talk, Eric."

"Okay," he said, slowly nodding his agreement as he leaned down to press a kiss to the tip of her nose. "Well, first I'm going to see if you're wearing any underwear. Then I'd thought we start living out every fantasy I've ever had about you, starting of course with the ones I had in high school. Then I thought we'd make up a few together," he said, pressing a line of kisses to her mouth before he brushed his lips teasingly against hers.