Burning Desire. Kayla Perrin

      She heard Nya enter the office by the clicking of her heels on the tiled floor. Based on the quick succession of clicks, she could tell that Nya was moving around hurriedly. And she knew why. It was ten minutes after ten, meaning that Nya was late.

      “Morning,” Nya said, peeking her head through Sabrina’s office door. “Sorry I’m late.”

      “It’s all right,” Sabrina told her. “Does that mean you had a great date?”

      Nya rolled her eyes. “No. The date was a disaster.”

      “Oh, no.”

      “I mean, Sean started out great. He seemed really nice, a total gentleman...until we were at my car and he groped me and did his best to get me to go to bed with him.”

      Sabrina grimaced. “Oh, boy.”

      “He said he thought I’d be down for it. That I looked the type. I almost slapped him.”

      “Well,” Sabrina began cautiously, “I’ve told you this before—maybe you should change your online profile. You’ve got some really sexy pictures up there—nothing inappropriate, mind you—but I think it gives some men the wrong idea.”

      “I think I’m finally done with dating. I can’t take the stress anymore.” Nya shook her head and made a sound of disgust. “How about you? How was yesterday with Mason?” She wiggled her eyebrows.

      “It was a good shoot,” Sabrina told her.

      “And...?”

      “And nothing.”

      “Nothing?”

      “We left the studio, went to the beach. I got some incredible shots.” Sabrina quickly brought her coffee mug to her lips, hoping that Nya wouldn’t pick up on the fact that she was omitting a huge portion of the story.

      “Bummer.” Nya pouted.

      “Because you expected us to make a love connection?”

      “Well. Yeah. I totally saw a different you yesterday.”

      “He’s a cute guy,” Sabrina said, hoping that her acknowledgment of that would be enough for Nya.

      Nya’s pout lingered. “I’m going to go get some coffee and head to my desk. I swear, love sucks.”

      Nya left the office, and Sabrina went back to looking through the photos of Ricardo. She smiled, happy with what she had done. The photos looked incredible.

      She looked over the pictures of the other firefighters, as well, before finally going over the hundreds of photos she had taken of Mason the day before. A part of her didn’t want to do even that. She truly wished that she didn’t have to see him again, not even in pictures.

      The door to her office suddenly opened. Looking toward the door, Sabrina’s eyes widened in alarm. The bouquet of dazzling red roses was so large that she couldn’t even see who was carrying them. It was only when she heard Nya speak that she realized her friend was behind the flowers.

      Nya placed the bouquet of what looked to be at least fifty red roses down on her desk with a huff. Nya then planted her hands on her hips. “You lied to me.”

      “What are you talking about?” Sabrina asked.

      “You told me that nothing happened with you and Mason yesterday. That there was no spark. So explain this.” Nya gestured to the impressive bouquet.