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thought of him as anything more than a coworker and friend. He liked women who were interested. Who were very obviously interested. He’d had plenty of experience with reading female signals wrong—and the consequences of that. He liked the safe route now. The route where the women gave him big goo-goo eyes and flirted outrageously and whispered naughty things in his ear.
    The route where he knew what they wanted and that he could deliver.
    Which meant he should be very worried about the fact that the pull to hug Gabby was so strong.
    Gabby wasn’t the typical damsel in distress at all. She saved people. She made them feel better. She made them safe. People needed her .And she wasn’t the oh-Conner-you’re-so-amazing type.
    She was neither of the types that typically drew him.
    But he still wanted to wrap her up and take care of her.
    He took a deep breath. “Let’s get Sierra over here.” Before he did something stupid. Like hugging her anyway and getting decked.
    Punching some guy in the face…now that he could see Gabby doing. On her knees giving a blow job, not so much.
    Though he’d spent the last thirty-some-odd hours thinking of exactly that.
    “Katz!” he shouted to Sierra, his eyes on Gabby.
    She pulled the oxygen mask off and stood from the back end of the ambulance. The plain-white cotton blanket they’d wrapped around her slipped off and she turned to toss it into the rig.
    Conner froze.
    She had, obviously, been in bed when the smoke alarms went off and she’d done the smart thing and had not taken time to change clothes or grab personal possessions.
    The thin pink tank top with the spaghetti straps clung to her, curving over two small but firm breasts and hugging her flat stomach. The short-shorts were gray and also thin and ended only two inches below the curve of her tight ass. Her legs were long and smooth and Conner suddenly couldn’t swallow.
    Holy shit.
    She might not need or want him, but his body suddenly thought it needed and wanted her .
    He’d only ever seen her in uniform, or in jeans and T-shirts at Trudy’s. And they weren’t the fitted T-shirts with sequined logos calling attention to her breasts like a lot of women wore. They were plain old T-shirts.
    “Oh my god, Gabby, there you are!” Sierra enfolded Gabby in her arms, hugging her tight. “Are you okay?”
    “You knew this was her apartment building?” Conner asked, stepping forward with a frown. Of course Sierra would have known that. He knew the girls were friends outside of work.
    “Yes, of course.”
    “Why didn’t you say anything?” Conner demanded.
    Sierra scowled at him. “Because I went to intubate a three-year-old when we got here and I’ve been busy since.”
    “You should have said something.”
    Sierra kept her arm around Gabby’s waist, but she turned to face him. “To you? Why? I told Cody.”
    Conner felt his frown deepen. Cody had known? And he hadn’t said anything to Conner?
    “And then I saw her working on a couple of vics, so I knew she was okay,” Sierra said.
    “She needed treatment,” Conner said, his voice accusatory though he wasn’t sure why.
    Sierra shrugged. “Gabby’s smart. If she was working, I assumed she was okay to be working.”
    “I was okay to be working,” Gabby broke in. “Those people needed help more than I did.”
    “Mac had you on O2,” Conner pointed out.
    “Precautionary,” Gabby said. “After everyone else was treated. I’m fine. My sats are good.”
    So the oxygen levels in her blood were good. That didn’t mean she was fine. But even as the thought passed through his head, Conner realized how dumb it was. That was exactly what it meant.
    “Fine.” Sierra was here now. He could leave her alone. “So, um, Gabby…if you need anything, all you have to do is ask, okay?” he said. “I’m sorry about…all of this.”
    She gave him a small sad smile. “Thanks. I’m glad no one was hurt. And like they say, it’s just stuff. But it was my stuff.