First Class Rescue (First Class Novels) Read online

  First Class Rescue

  by AJ Harmon

  http://www.firstclassnovels.com

  First eBook Edition, July 2013

  Copyright 2013 by ABCs Legacy, LLC

  All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced in any form, in whole or in part, without written permission from the author.

  Tired of the same old routine day after day? Escape with a ‘First Class’ novel tonight. Romance is alive and well in ‘First Class Rescue’ as Tim and Beth discover passion and love.

  (For mature audiences only – Adult content)

  Tim, the youngest Lathem brother, works hard and plays harder. A member of New York City’s bravest, a fire fighter, he puts his life on the line every time he battles a raging fire. But when it comes to women and romance, he’s not willing to risk anything. Women are there for his amusement and nothing more, and being a gorgeous, sexy Lathem brother, allows him to do as he pleases. Women throw themselves at him all night long.

  Beth Collins has made New York City her home after relocating from England. She’s created a quiet life for herself and her faithful four-legged companion, Cleo. When Tim rescues Cleo from her building that’s on fire, her gratitude turns into something more. Sparks instantly fly between them and the feelings they have for each other are real and deep, scaring them both.

  Beth’s family does not approve of Tim…he doesn’t measure up to their rigid standards as husband material, so Beth is torn between following her heart and respecting the wishes of her parents. Tim is a playboy and loves his lifestyle. He’s not sure he’s ready to settle down. Will he give it all up for her? Can love truly conquer all?

  First Class Rescue is the seventh book in the contemporary romance ‘First Class’ series.

  More Top Rated Romance Novels by novelist AJ Harmon:

  First Class to New York (Book 1) Meet Matt and Janie…the book that started it all.

  First Class to Portland (Book 2)

  First Class Justice (Book 3)

  First Class Voyage (Book 4)

  First Class Hero (Book 5)

  First Class Menu (Book 6)

  First Class Stamp (Book 8) Coming in Fall 2013

  First Class Farewell (Book 9) Coming in Winter 2013

  What readers are saying about the ‘First Class’ novels:

  “I think the First Class Novels would make fantastic films.” Victoria, Facebook Fan Page

  “A series worth reading over and over again...” Kerry, Amazon

  “I love FIRST CLASS SERIES!” Margaret, Amazon

  “A.J.'s stories just keep getting richer and richer.” Deb, Amazon

  “…go download the whole series, because they're all great!” Cindy, Amazon

  “First class all the way… This series is one of the best I've read.” I love books, Amazon

  “I have loved every book in this series. It is so great to read about a 30-40 something women who is dealing with so many real issues but finds her fairy tale.” Ashley, Amazon

  Acknowledgements

  I have a deep respect for the men and women who serve as fire fighters. Whether in the middle of a massive city like New York, or fighting forest fires in the National Park system, they risk their lives to save yours and mine.

  When I began writing this book, I realized how little I knew about the profession. I would like to thank Captain Coleman of MCFRD for spending hours with me sharing a typical day in his life and allowing me to ask all kinds of questions, from how 9/11 affected him, to ‘what did you have for lunch’ and everything in between. I gained a profound reverence for him and all who join him in serving in the profession, but pray I never have need of them.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter:

  PROLOGUE

  1.

  2.

  3.

  4.

  5.

  6.

  7.

  8.

  9.

  10.

  11.

  12.

  13.

  14.

  15.

  16.

  17.

  18.

  19.

  EPILOGUE

  About the Author

  PROLOGUE

  By ten o’clock, two-thirds of the students at St. Luke’s had been picked up by their parents and taken to the safety of their homes. The other third had been safely escorted to the cafeteria by the nuns and Father Todd was leading everyone in prayer. The windows were closed and the curtains drawn. The televisions and radios were off. Internet use was being avoided. They had no idea how that single day would change all of their lives. A few of those children with never see at least one of their parents again.

  Tim Lathem had been picked up by his father, Peter, and driven to the safety of their family home just a few blocks away. Tim and Paul were the youngest of the Lathem sons, both boys still teenagers. Maureen, the boys’ mother, was doing everything to keep them away from the television. She didn’t want them seeing the horrific tragedy unfolding before their eyes, but she couldn’t let them out of the house either. They could hear the sirens and see the smoke billowing over Manhattan. The smell was overwhelming.

  That dreadful day had influenced Maureen’s sons tremendously. While the older Lathem sons had already settled into careers in the private sector, Tim and Paul would go on to choose a path considerably more selfless…and riskier.

  Paul entered the ROTC program at Columbia University and then became a Navy Seal. Tim, however, stayed much closer to home. After four years of college at NYU, he began the long process of entering the brotherhood of the New York City Firefighters. Maureen had not been thrilled with either of her sons’ choice of profession, but there was nothing she could do to dissuade Tim. He was determined.

  He lived at home for the first six months after joining Ladder 5. It was more of a convenience than a necessity. His mother did all his laundry and cooked all his meals. That left Tim to concentrate on the training and probationary period of his new job. But after one particularly difficult shift, Tim arrived home with his arm bandaged and that unnerved his mother, more so than usual. After repeatedly asking him what had happened, and Tim remaining silent, she finally demanded the information from him. He’d gone into a burning building to rescue a family trapped on an upper floor. A wooden beam had collapsed on his way out. The burn was minor, but Maureen didn’t care.

  “This job is going to kill you,” she’d wailed.

  His reply had been simple. “I’m going to die anyway…at some point. Why not die helping someone? At least my life will mean something.”

  He moved out a month later.

  1.

  Irony, he thought as he surveyed the scene in front of him.

  As a New York City firefighter, Tim Lathem had seen a lot in his five years on the job. Yet some things still surprised him, well, shocked him actually. Like today.

  “I don’t even remember it happening,” the woman was wailing as she was being cuffed by the police and taken out of the apartment. She continued to howl and scream as they dragged her down the hall.

  “A waste,” Mick shook his head. Tim’s Captain stepped aside as the paramedics lifted the dead body onto the gurney. “And over a stupid phone bill!”

  “Poetic if you ask me,” Jeff, his good friend and fellow firefighter, smirked.

  The two women had fought about the charges on the monthly phone bill and then one of them ended up dead, lying on the kitchen floor with the phone cord wrapped tightly around her neck.

  Tim shook his head. “Just sad,” he said and left. He was no longer needed.

  That was one of the things he disliked about being a firefighter. He saw sense
less deaths far too often. But he’d learned to, somehow, put those images aside and focus on the good that he and his coworkers did, day after day after day, and that was what got him through runs like this. It was a total waste; a stupid crime that had killed one person and would leave the other in prison for a very long time. The next call-out would move all this from the forefront of his mind, and he would hopefully be able to make a positive difference in someone else’s life. After all, that’s why he became a firefighter.

  As the truck backed slowly into the red brick firehouse, Tim removed his gloves and put them on the top shelf of his locker. His helmet and coat were hung on their hooks. He placed his boots on the ground directly in front of his locker. He slid the red suspenders from his shoulders, and his response pants slid down his legs. He stepped out of them and stood them over his boots, ready to step into them the moment the alarm sounded for their next call.

  Upstairs in the kitchen, Tim pulled a bottle of water from the fridge and sat in the plush recliner. Pulling his cell phone from his pocket, he checked his messages. There was a text message from his nephew Tyler. They were still on for playing some ball this weekend. There was a voicemail from his landlord calling to say they would be replacing the toilet tomorrow. Not a day too soon! It had been leaking for over a week now. And there was a message from his mom reminding him about family dinner on Sunday. They had gathered for dinner every Sunday of his entire life. For thirty-one years Tim had been expected to be at his parent’s home after Mass to eat with the family. The only exception was if he was working or out of town, and every Sunday his mother called and reminded him. As if he could forget…even if he wanted to his mother would never let him!

  He only worked three days a week, three fourteen hour shifts, and this was his last for the week. He had four days off to relax and play. He decided he would probably sleep for two of them as it had been a long couple of shifts. The calls had been back to back. He loved his job, but the few days off would do him good.

  *****

  Tyler Anderson, Tim’s nephew, was anxious to play some basketball at the MEL Holdings gym. Tyler worked for his stepfather, Matt Lathem, and enjoyed the perks of the company, a state of the art gym and access to a basketball court whenever he wanted to play were just some of those perks. Matt believed that offering all of his employees unlimited access to a gym made for healthier employees, and a byproduct of that was more productive employees. Tyler made use of the court as often as he could squeeze it into his busy schedule.

  When his mother had married into the Lathem family, Tyler, and his twin brother Adam, gained not only a stepfather, but six uncles, all of whom had joined him on the court regularly. However, as they had one by one become ensnared in the wily webs of love, their attendance had been sporadic. But not Tim. He and Tyler tried to play at least once a week if their schedules allowed it.

  The two men not only shared the same family, they also shared the same philosophy of life. They loved their jobs and they both worked very hard. Each of them, for different reasons, had something to prove. Nobody could ever say that they hadn’t deserved any promotion they’d received; Tyler because he was the son of the wealthy CEO, and Tim because he had achieved the rank of Lieutenant so quickly. They’d both worked their asses off, but when they left work for the day, they left it all behind them and then played as hard as they worked.

  After two hours of dribbling, blocking, shooting, rebounding, and running hard, Tim and Tyler showered and hit the streets of New York to enjoy the beautiful women.

  Tim was a Lathem. He was tall dark and extremely handsome… and he was a firefighter. Women threw themselves at him anyway, but once they discovered he was one of New York’s “bravest”, he could have his pick, and usually did. The two men sat at the bar of a fine establishment on East Sixth Street and downed their drinks while women offered themselves up on a platter. After about an hour of browsing the offerings, they each picked the lucky lady they would go home with and said their goodbyes.

  Playing hard was fun, but someone had to do it.

  Tim and his date exited the taxi and headed for the elevator of her building.

  Lacey? Lisa? Liza? He couldn’t remember her name, but it didn’t matter…they wouldn’t be doing any talking.

  As the doors to the elevator closed, she grabbed him and began sucking on his neck, giving him great pleasure. He grabbed her ass and jerked her hips to his and he rubbed his hardened arousal over her mound. She pulled back and kissed him, forcing her tongue into his mouth and tasting the alcohol still on his lips.

  As the elevator opened she grabbed his hand and led him down the hall to her apartment. Closing the door behind them, she hastily removed her clothes, cotton dropping from her body, leaving a trail down the hall to the bedroom.

  No. They wouldn’t be doing any talking.

  *****

  “The problem with your current lifestyle,” Matt whispered to his baby brother as he slid into the church pew next to him, “Is that you show up to church wearing yesterday’s clothes and smelling like alcohol and sex.”

  “I showered!” Tim scowled. “And look who’s talking?”

  Matt shot a quick glance at his wife on the other side of him to make sure she hadn’t heard any of their conversation. Fortunately, she was trying to keep their one year old son occupied and silent. He spoke quietly.

  “I left that long in the past and this is an inappropriate place to have this discussion. We can finish at mom and dads.”

  “There’s nothing to discuss,” Tim hissed.

  Matt shook his head, knowing exactly what his brother was doing. He’d done it himself…for years. But then he’d found the love of his life in Janie and hadn’t looked back. In fact, he disliked the man he was before Janie had taught him what life was really all about. He reached for her hand and she turned and smiled that smile that set his heart beating a little faster. They’d been married for five years now. They’d just celebrated their anniversary, and if he could impart just a little bit of what he now knew to Tim, it might just help him not make the same mistakes. After all, isn’t that what big brothers are for?

  But Tim wasn’t interested. “I’m young,” he’d told Matt. “Let me live a little.” As Matt sat back at the dining room table, his entire family gathered around him, he knew that he wouldn’t have listened to an old guy either when he was Tim’s age. After all, a man in his early thirties is invincible and knows everything.

  And then there was the fact that Tim was the baby of the family. Their mother had coddled him, he could do no wrong in her eyes, until he moved out and then she worried about him because of his chosen line of work. Matt reconciled that Tim was just going to have to figure it out for himself. Hopefully it wouldn’t take as long as it took him.

  *****

  Tim enjoyed being single. He enjoyed his lifestyle. He wasn’t interested in a long-term relationship. It would be years before he would consider settling down. Oh sure, he wanted a wife and a couple of kids…one day... but why give up what he had now? He was happy.

  Sunday evening he met up with Jeff and a couple of the other single guys from the firehouse. They were going to watch some football at one of the local bars. Good football, some beer and a burger was a great way to spend the night, and if a lady happened to be dessert, then that was all the better.

  Jeff Alder and Tim had been assigned to Ladder 5 at the same time. They both loved the job and were good at it. However, Tim had more ambition than Jeff, and coming from his family of overachievers that wasn’t really any surprise. He had made Lieutenant within five years and would work hard to make Captain by the time he was forty. His eventual goal was to become Division Chief, but that was many years down the road. In order to continue up the ladder, he’d have to transfer to another firehouse, but right now he had to concentrate on being the best Lieutenant he could be.

  The men sat at the bar watching the Bills play the Ravens. The entire crowd erupted when the Bills scored a touchdown, and by
the time the first half was over several of the patrons were seriously intoxicated, and Jeff was well on his way. Tim told the bartender that he and Jeff were done and ordered a couple of coffees. The game was well in hand; the Bills would literally have to stop playing in order to lose, so Tim led Jeff to a booth and they both drank their coffee and snacked on a plate of chili fries.

  At a table a few feet away sat a group of four women, two of them dressed in Bills jerseys, enjoying the game on the big screen television hanging on the wall. There were several empty glasses on the table in front of them, and they were cheering loudly and having fun. Tim watched the woman closest to him. She was dressed in skin-tight jeans and a button-up shirt that was clinging to her curves, with several of the buttons undone exposing a large amount of cleavage. She had long blonde hair and she wore knee-high black boots that just looked sexy.

  Their eyes locked and the hint of a smile twitched on his lips. She responded immediately by walking over to his table and sliding into the booth next to him.

  “Hey,” she purred. “I’m Trish.” She stroked his thigh.

  She’ll do nicely, he grinned as he got an up-close look at her well-endowed rack in front of him. “Tim,” he replied. “You wanna get out of here?”

  “Hell yeah,” she smiled. “My place? It’s just a couple of blocks.”

  “Works for me.” Tim crawled out of the booth behind her and Trish went and whispered to her friends as he informed his buddies, still at the bar, he was leaving and to escort Jeff home when the game was over. They patted him on the back and congratulated him on his “date”.

  “You always get the hottest ones,” one of them whined.

  “That’s ‘cuz he’s the hottest one of us,” was his friends’ reply.

  “You think he’s hot?”

  “No, but all the women do.”

  Tim chuckled and said goodbye, meeting up with Trish at the door. “Ready?” he asked.