Flaming Desire - Part 2 (An Alpha Billionaire Romance) Read Online Free PDF Page A

multi-car accident, the company had been distracting. I had agreed to join in on the Blackjack they played while lunch had been prepared.
    I had even started to help prepare a stew for the firemen’s supper before Matt and I had to return to the hospital. Now, sitting in Matt's truck, listening to the steady, low, comforting thrum of the engine, I found my thoughts drifting back toward the house fire. I wondered where the woman and her children were going to stay tonight. Did they have family, friends who would offer a roof over their head? What if they didn't have insurance? What if she didn't own the house at all and was now left scrambling for shelter with her children?
    “A penny for your thoughts,” Matt broke the silence.
    I turned to look at him. “I was thinking about the woman whose house burned down this morning.” He didn’t look at me, but kept his eyes forward, paying attention to his driving.
    “She and the kids will be okay,” he said.
    I nodded. “For now, but I was wondering if they had family, someone to take them in. How long does it take insurance to kick in? No way anything in that house can be saved so what will they wear? What about the kid’s toys? Their pictures? Their entire life was probably in that place. Where will she and the kids go?” I snapped my mouth shut as I felt my eyes begin to burn as I thought of all they’d lost.
    He reached over and placed a hand on my arm. “It’s horrible, I know, but I’m sure she’ll be taken care of,” he said. “Even if she doesn't have family or friends, there are shelters, the Red Cross, any number of organizations that will help her out. She and her kids are safe. That’s what is important.”
    I nodded, knowing that what he said was true, but still…
    “You’ve got a kind heart, Jesse,” he said. “You know as well as I do that in the business we’re in, we should be compassionate.” He paused. “But sometimes, being compassionate can take a toll on you.”
    I knew what he was talking about. I had lost many patients in the ER, some that I had only known for minutes. How much worse had it been for Matt, working in ICU? He would've gotten to know his patients a lot better than I did. I knew he was speaking from experience. Most of us in the field had lost someone for whom we felt an outpouring of compassion, sorrow, and fear. We were often left to deal with the aftermath of tragic, violent death. I had dealt with my share of screaming mothers, husbands who bore their grief in silence, children who cried for their mother or father. Just the thought of it brought a sheen of tears to my eyes. Their pain brought back memories of my own heart wrenching misery… and guilt.
    “Jesse.”
    I turned to find Matt watching me. I blinked, trying to clear the tears from my eyes, but I was sure he saw them. At the look of concern he gave me, one of them actually spilled over my eyelid. Frustrated, I made a sound that was meant to be a self-deprecating laugh but sounded more like a gasp. He suddenly turned from me, his gaze taking in the road and side streets. Before I knew it, he pulled into the deserted parking lot of a mini shopping mall. All the stores were closed and the lot was empty.
    What was he doing? There was no barbecue place here. He turned off the engine and then turned to face me, his right arm stretched along the back of the seat. His hand ended up on my knee. I gazed down at it for a moment, and then looked back up at him, shrugging helplessly. He released his seatbelt and adjusted his position. Before I knew it, he had me wrapped in his arms.
    In an instant I was sobbing. What the hell was going on? Why the sudden mind-boggling emotional release? Tears flooded my eyes and wouldn't stop. The aftermath of the fire this morning? Thinking about the mother and those kids, that baby? A delayed reaction to the release of adrenaline? Were the serotonin cups in my brain empty? I almost laughed at the thought, but again only made a choking