Light Up My Life Read online

  Light Up My Life

  Bella Winters

  Copyright © 2019 by Bella Winters

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, including electronic or mechanical, without written permission from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

  This book is a piece of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

  This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This book may not be re-sold or given away to other people.

  If you are reading this book and book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return it to the seller and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author’s work.

  Published: Bella Winters 2019

  [email protected]

  Created with Vellum

  Author’s Note

  Light Up My Life is a full-length standalone novel. At the end, I’ve included an excerpt from my Amazon bestselling steamy romance Slow Burn.

  Light Up My Life concludes at around 95% on your device.

  Happy Reading!

  XO, Bella Winters

  Contents

  Blurb

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Epilogue

  Excerpt

  Author’s Note

  Stay connected with Bella Winters

  Also by Bella Winters

  Blurb

  A hot guy who’s a billionaire but also… a firefighter?

  Damn.

  Lance is a mystery.

  He’s the very definition of complicated.

  A playboy.

  Heir to the Dows fortune.

  But his inheritance is being held from him.

  Unless he finds a pretty little thing to… marry.

  Could I be that woman?

  Probably not.

  What if he offered me five million dollars to flash a wedding ring?

  Well, now we’re talking.

  The deal was for him to give me the money.

  Not his heart.

  And definitely not a baby.

  How the heck are we going to clean up this mess now?

  Chapter One

  Lance

  I entered the fire station feeling like I was home again. There was something about the atmosphere of a fire station that really embraced me and made me feel alive. It was as if the time I spent away from there was just an intermission until I could be where I wanted to be. It had been my calling since I was ten years old and I’d never looked back.

  “Hey, Lance,” Davey Nelson said slapping me a high five as I entered the building. Davey was a newbie, but he was learning fast. One of the funniest guys around, he could always make you laugh without even trying. Half the time he didn’t even know he’d said something funny. The guy was just happy to have a job. He was newly married with a brand-new baby at home. I did not envy that situation at all.

  “How’s it going,” I asked Davey as I half turned to him. I didn’t really care, but I always liked to be polite. We had to operate as a family unit here. You didn’t want to piss off guys who most likely at one time or another would have your very life in their hands. That was the nature of the fire game.

  “Good,” Davey said wiping his eyes.

  “Ah, you look beat man. When did your shift start?”

  “Like an hour ago,” he said.

  I raised my eyebrows. “Damn, you better be drowning in coffee soon. You look like you are about to collapse, my friend.”

  “Yeah, the baby was up all night screaming her head off. There was nothing wrong as far as I could tell. I let Amy sleep, and I tried everything I could think of; I gave her a bottle, rocked her, sang to her, held her, I even drove her around the block for like a half hour—nothing worked. Finally, right about five this morning she conked out. So, I’m on about three hours sleep.”

  He seemed almost proud of it. I tried to sound supportive. “Um… yeah man. That’s pretty rough. But it’s totally worth it, right?”

  The man smiled from ear to ear. He looked as happy as anyone I’d ever seen. “Yeah. She’s my angel,” he said.

  “Glad to hear it,” I replied quickly. “Look I got to go get ready for my shift. I’ll talk to you later.”

  “Take it easy man.”

  I walked away from the conversation feeling a bit depressed. Talking to a new father and husband like Davey would do that to you. I was happy for the guy, but I honestly didn’t get the appeal. I was having too much fun being me, to even think about settling down and donning the dad hat. And I especially didn’t want to be anyone’s husband. Half of all marriages end in divorce, with the primary breadwinner paying a ton of cash to the other one, and then there’s child support. It was ridiculous. Plus, I’d seen what my parents went through in their marriage. They yelled and screamed at each other pretty much nonstop the entire time I was growing up. It was awful.

  I went to my locker and sat my stuff down, getting settled in. I hung up my coat and I pulled out my gym clothes, squared away for a good workout later, and then I went to the breakroom to grab some coffee. I had to start my morning right. I’d already gone for my morning jog as always, but the station had a great weight room in it. We were very lucky to have such a state-of-the-art gym in our very own firehouse.

  “How’s the morning crew?” I asked as I entered and headed for the coffee pot.

  A few of them murmured. They all looked unhappy to be there. I didn’t get that. I woke up every day pumped to come to work, but they were all sitting around practically whining about getting to do one of the coolest jobs on the planet where we might actually save some lives that day.

  I poured my coffee into one of the large Styrofoam cups. I turned around and leaned against the counter. I watched them all with a bit of pity as they tried to wake themselves up. I had to laugh.

  “Wow… you guys look really sad,” I said. “Why am I the only one who loves coming here in the morning?”

  Neil Watson grunted. “Because you are the only one who doesn’t have to come here,” he replied.

  “What is that supposed to mean?” I asked. I knew what he was getting at though. I’d heard it the entire time I’d been a firefighter.

  He grinned. “You know, since you don’t actually need a paycheck. You can just decide to leave if you really wanted to.”

  I got a bit testy when he said that. It was kind of true, but it was insulting to know that they thought I would just abandon my post like that.

  “Funny,” I said. “But I don’t see half of you putting in the effort to train like I do. I don’t see you taking the risks that I do out there in the field. I give this everything. Put my life on the line for you just as much as you do for me. I would never just up and leave it.”

  “Look, rich boy,” Neil said
. “Don’t get so defensive. You have to admit I have a pretty good point here. Be honest, you get off on all the cowboy antics that put yourself and the rest of us in danger.”

  “I’ve never put any of you in danger. And the only time I put myself in danger is to save someone else. That’s bullshit, man. I’m not sure why you’re trying to talk down to me today, but it’s wearing thin.”

  Neil stood up just then. The prick. He had been busting my balls ever since I started with this ladder two years ago. We’d almost come to blows several times, but he always backed down. That was a wise decision on his part. But he seemed to constantly forget what a bad idea it was to poke the bear.

  “Or I’m going to kick your ass,” I said stepping across the lounge room towards him. Neil stepped forward ready to throw down. I was already clenching my fist. I was so ready to clock this fool. I’ve never put up with shit from anyone in my life. I didn’t care if I thought I could win the fight or not. If someone wanted to mess with me, they would regret it quickly.

  “Guys. Knock it off. You’ll both get canned for fighting, remember?”

  Tony Squier was standing between us now. Neil used it as an excuse to back down and go back to eating his breakfast, which looked like some fake, fast food garbage. Good for him.

  I went back to my coffee and relaxing against the counter. I continued to stare in Neil’s direction. I’d seen the fear in his eyes when he had stood up ready to fight me. It was the last thing he wanted. But his mouth was so good at writing checks his ass couldn’t cash that he constantly found himself in trouble. The guy was a borderline alcoholic and got in at least one drunken barfight every week. Mondays he would come into work with a new shiner, like clockwork.

  After a few minutes of staring at him, he finished his food quickly and then left the room tossing his trash in the bin next to me. He grunted at me as he walked by. I had to chuckle. What a goon.

  “Why do you get him so wound up like that?” Tony asked.

  “Because he’s an asshole,” I said. “And he started it.”

  “But he has a point. You know that never having to worry about money makes all the struggles of this job much easier to take. If you depended on this for your bread and butter, I think you would feel differently.”

  I shrugged. “I doubt it.”

  It was true that I was rich. I was rich beyond my wildest dreams, and I had not done much to really earn it. It was something I was not at all proud of, but it was what it was. My father was a very successful businessman. He’d made the bulk of it in real estate and had parlayed that success into the world of investing. He had invested in well over a hundred very lucrative corporations. One day, his fortune would be passed down to me.

  I was living in a house that used to belong to my grandfather, a wealthy businessman in his own right, and much of the money I lived on was paid as a monthly stipend from my father. But I had the feeling that he was getting tired of that handout. He wanted me to go into the business with him, and I had no interest. I didn’t care for business. I did what I loved for a living, but my father thought I was wasting my potential doing something that would probably get me killed at an early age.

  He kept hoping I would outgrow it and come around. But I was twenty-seven, happy, and I had no interest in changing anything about my life.

  “You totally would,” Jamie Devers said as she walked in. I’d barely noticed her, even though she was quite beautiful and often flirted with me. I was not about to date a woman I worked with, even if it wasn’t against company policy. I’d trained myself to ignore her. But she kept trying…

  I slowly glanced at her. She smiled and turned her head away a bit, trying to expose her long, slender neck to me. She was damn hot. I’d be blind not to notice such a thing, but I had rules in every area of my life. Don’t shit where you sleep, you know? Not gonna happen.

  “What makes you think that?” I asked.

  “There are days that are boring, that frustrate you and are hard to deal with. But, being anywhere when you don’t need the money, and don’t have to be there, takes all the pressure of “having to go to work”. You have to admit that.”

  I sighed. “Ok, I’ll buy some of that,” I said as I looked over at her. She was sitting down with her breakfast and looking a bit tired. “So, what did you get into this weekend?”

  I was a little curious, but mostly I just wanted to change the subject -off myself. The enthusiasm I had for what we did sometimes got to the rest of these guys and I tended to forget that. Yeah, if I did have to depend on the forty grand a year salary to pay my bills, there were bound to be aspects of the job that might get to me. But I knew my love and passion would always override that, regardless.

  “Wouldn’t you like to know,” she said.

  “I asked, didn’t I?”

  She took a bite of her breakfast sandwich and washed it down with a bit of coffee before responding. “I played in a golf tournament with a few friends.”

  “I didn’t know you played golf,” I said.

  “You never asked,” she replied coyly.

  “We should play sometime,” I said, without thinking it through. “I play at least once a week.”

  “You should get out more,” she replied. “I play at least three times a week, several times on the weekends.”

  “Well, what do you know?” I teased. “We spend so much time with each other and it turns out that we barely know each other. Now that is interesting.”

  She gave me an eyebrow flash and smiled at me. “I’m glad you think so.”

  I smiled and grabbed my coffee. I headed out of the room, mostly because I suddenly did not like where this conversation was heading. Jamie and I were having a moment of connection. I wasn’t about to fire that sort of thing up. I had to remember that it was a bad idea.

  I didn’t want to date a coworker for a few reasons, but the biggest was of awkwardness when I ended things, because I always did. I did not want to fall in love. The next logical step from there would be marriage, and I did not want that kind of permanence.

  The rest of the day was pretty standard. We spent some time checking the equipment, trucks, and breathing apparatuses. I enjoyed this time of the day. It was fairly easy and it was a great bonding activity with the rest of the group. Then we did an hour of gym time.

  While working out, Jamie positioned herself right beside me. I noticed she’d changed into a tight tank top and shorts to workout in. She was doing her best today to entice me, and I was more than a little interested. But I couldn’t have any of this right now. I focused on my workout. I knew she was watching me and there was an electricity between her and I.

  Even though corporate had eased up on the no fraternization rule, it was still in place and it could still make your life miserable if you gave into it. I decided that Jamie needed a reminder from the seminar we had last month.

  “You keep flirting with me and people are going to talk,” I said.

  “Who’s flirting?” she asked.

  I laughed. “Oh, that’s the game? Total denial? Interesting.”

  She giggled and slid back under the bar.

  I did my best to ignore Jamie’s come-ons for the rest of my shift, but she kept throwing them at me. They were getting harder and harder to deflect, but I had to keep turning her down.

  By the time I finally ended my twenty-four-hour shift and made my way home, I was exhausted. I was drained like usual, but thankful there hadn’t been any calls. Some days, they don’t stop, that’s just the way of the job.

  I sat my stuff down and headed upstairs to shower before going to bed. I was just pulling off my shirt when my phone rang. I checked the caller ID and it was Sara. Ugh, I did not really want to talk to her. Sara was a girl I’d been dating for the past two months. She was beautiful, sweet, loving, and we had a great time together. But things were getting too serious. We were getting to that point where I felt we needed to kind of start pulling away from her. When we first started dating, I’d told Sara tha
t I was not looking for anything long term. She agreed that was fine, but I had a feeling along the way she’d become more attached. The last thing I wanted to do was hurt her, but I had a feeling it would be better not to lead her on. I had to set her straight.

  “Hey,” I answered.

  “Hey, how’s it going?”

  “Good. I just got in from work,” I said.

  “Oh, were you going to bed?” she asked.

  “I was, yeah. But I can talk a minute.”

  “Ok, how was work?”

  “Great. Nothing major happening. How was your day?” I asked.

  “My day yesterday?”

  I laughed. I forgot it was eight in the morning. “Yeah.”

  “Well, it wasn’t bad. Kyle kept trying to sabotage me during the meeting. I swear that guy has it in for me.”

  “That sucks.”

  “Yeah, well when you get up today, do you want to have some dinner? Maybe go out somewhere fun?”

  I sighed. “I can’t.”

  “Oh, ok,” she said. “Maybe we can do something else?”

  That was her polite way of asking if she could come over. That sounded like fun, but I had to put my foot down and be firm.

  “No, I don’t think it’s a good idea,” I said. “Listen, this is hard to say. We’ve become pretty close the past few months, closer than I had intended, and I just want you to know that I would never want to hurt you in any way.”