by Mia Madison
How I'm feeling right now, there is nothing Brian could do to block this thing between us, and I hope it is the same for Madilyn once I see her and reassure her. I will be sorry that he can't be happy for us but I can't stop this thing we have for anyone.
The guys at Redford fire station are great. They are not old friends but I'm getting to know my new “brothers” there and they are a great crew. I know they will be there for me as if I was the oldest member of the team and not the newest, just as I will be there for them. And none of them are upset by me dating one of their daughters.
It's just one day to go before I see Madilyn. I'm going to make something special for her back in my apartment. There's champagne in the fridge. And everything I need to cook dinner. I cleaned the whole place for her before I left for work because I want everything to be perfect for her. I text her
“I'll pick you up at 7 tomorrow. Can't wait. xx”
As a few of us throw together a meal in the fire station kitchen, a call comes in and it's full scale alert. There's a fire in an apartment block. Dinner will have to wait until we return.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Madilyn
Dad has heard from the guys in his unit that there's a serious fire in Redford. When he comes home and tells Mum and me, I have to sit down. That's where Jack is! Dad knows it too, his brow furrowed. He's concerned for his friend, but not as much as I am.
When I was growing up Mum never told me if she knew Dad was in danger but I could tell that her attention was not on asking about our homework or making dinner and that something was going on. Sometimes she saw news of a major fire on TV. Sometimes it was one of the other wives calling her for support. Sometimes she worried just because Dad was late getting home.
The big fires didn't happen that often. Dad always said that most of their time was spent going out to car wrecks and in routine appointments advising about fire safety but fires did happen and if they did we knew he would be in the thick of it. So, though Mum never told me when something was happening, I always knew. I would go to her for a hug during those times and now I go to her again.
“Don't worry, honey,” she says. “I'm sure he'll be alright. Your dad always came home, didn't he?”
No one has ever been lost from Dad's unit. I don't know what kind of record they have in Redford. I pray that this incident won't add to the number of casualties.
But when Dad makes enquiries an hour or so later, the news is enough to send us all reeling. Four fireman have been injured and one of them is Jack.
“I'm so sorry, honey,” Dad says. “Jack is at the Redford ER. But no one knows anything. They have called his parents but it will be hours before they can get there. We have to be there for him.”
“What happened? Is he going to be okay?”
“I don't know. Let's just get there as soon as we can and see what we can find out.”
We leave a note for Sarah who is out and Dad drives Mum and me to the hospital. I can't stop shivering and crying. When we get there, Dad gives me a hug and tells us to wait while he finds out what he can.
When he comes back, he shrugs his shoulders in defeat. “The hospital won't tell me anything. But I saw one of the other firefighters and he said Jack was hit by a falling beam. His helmet saved him but he was unconscious when they took him in the ambulance.”
I have to sit down and I fall into Mum's arms weeping.
Dad rubs my shoulders. “I'm sorry, Madilyn. I shouldn't have kept you two apart. That guy means the world to me. I just forgot that. It doesn't matter to me how old he is so why would it matter to you? And he kept trying to tell me how much he cared for you. I just didn't listen. I was wrong. I just hope I get a chance to tell him.”
“I hope so too, Dad.” I reach out and clutch his hand. I can see he feels awful. We are all on the same side. We all want Jack to be okay.
I don't leave the hospital. I can't. Dad has to go to work but I can tell he doesn't want to leave. Mum brings me fresh clothes and food but I can't eat any of that. We wait and wait.
Jack's parents show up looking gray, their faces etched with worry. We only met them once, ages ago. I doubt they want to stop to talk to us. But they are allowed in to see Jack and talk to the doctors.
We wait some more. It's agony not knowing what the doctors are saying.
Eventually his mother comes out through the doors and she's crying. I sob and clutch onto Mum but Mrs. Mitchell looks up and recognizes us.
“How is Jack?” Dad asks. I can’t speak.
“He's okay,” she says. “I'm only crying from sheer relief. They think he's going to be fine. They still need to run some tests but it looks like there's no swelling on the brain. And his burns are minor. His friends pulled him out in time before more damage was done.”
“Can I see him?” I need to see him with my own eyes to believe it.
“They are just moving him. But in a little while,” his mother says. And then she looks at me. “You're Madilyn, aren't you? We met quite a few years ago but he talked about you the last time he called home. He's only just told me you two got together.”
“It just happened.”
“I can tell it happened big. Same thing with me and Jack's dad. The big happenings can be the best.” She gives me a hug.
And then I'm allowed in to see Jack. He's just lying there on his back, immobile. I give out a sob. But he turns to face me and smiles, his eyes lighting up.
“You came to see me.” His voice is croaky but it doesn't matter. Not one bit.
“Try and keep me away.” I want to take his hand but there's some drip thing hanging from it and I don't dare. I don't want to pull anything out.
“How did you find out I was here?”
“Dad was worried about you. He asked around and then he and Mum brought me here.”
“Your dad brought you?”
“Yes. He's sorry he was so stubborn. I'm sure he'll tell you himself. But he's just glad you're okay.”
“We were both stubborn. I wasn't giving you up without a fight.”
“It looks like you had a fight with a building instead.”
“Yes. But if it makes things right with your dad I can't be sorry.”
“There would have been other ways. I don't want you almost getting killed every time we have a little fight just to make things right.”
“There'll be no need because we are never going to fall out. Come here and sit by me,” he says.
I perch gingerly on the bed, afraid to disturb anything, and then when I don't set off any alarms or pull out any wires, I can't help it, I lie there right alongside him, kissing his cheek.
“You can't wait until I get out of hospital to have your wicked way with me, eh?” he says, laughing, then he stops. Laughing must hurt.
I grin at him and stroke his hair. “When will you get out? I seem to remember I have a date with you and now it looks like you're going to stand me up.”
“Yes, I think we'll need a rain check on that. Ask your Dad to come in when you've had enough of me for today and I'll ask his permission. That's if you still want a date.”
“Oh I still want a date, and everything else you promised me,” I say.
“You mean a wedding?”
“I was meaning things that don't take months of planning and a white dress.”
“Oh that type of things, dirty girl,” he says. “You know what I do to dirty girls.”
“I hope so,” I say. “I really do.”
EPILOGUE
Madilyn
Jack gets out of the hospital and is convalescing at our house. Mum dotes on him, cooking his favorite meals and treats and making sure he has everything he needs. When Dad has a day off, he and Jack spend a lot of time together. Even Sarah is in and out of his room telling him about her day or taking him meals that Mum has prepared. I feel like I am sharing him and I don't want to but I'm happy he is accepted by all my family again. When Dad is on duty and Sarah is at work, Mum makes a point of giving us time alone
.
Jack is still weak but we talk and kiss and as the days go on, our time together gets more and more heated, especially when he starts telling me what he will do to me as soon as he's well enough.
“When I'm back at work, I want to come home and find you waiting for me, naked and ready. I'll have been thinking about you the whole day. I'm already rock hard.”
“Yes...” I reach out and run my fingers up and down the hard length of him under the bed sheet and he groans but his eyes gleam back at me full of devilment.
“I'm going to bend you over and take you there by the front door because I can hardly wait to get inside your sexy body.”
I grasp him, wrapping my fist around his thick cock.
“My fingers are on your breasts massaging your sweet soft flesh from behind as I fuck you, my thumbs strumming your nipples so softly, you're moaning for me to do it harder.”
“Yes...” I say, his hands grasping at my T-shirt, pulling it up with my bra, baring my breasts. He runs the back of his hand over my nipples making me mewl with need and pleasure.
“And then when I have fucked you for a while in the hall, filling you so deep, stretching you out, making you crazy for my cock, I'm going to pick you up and throw you over my shoulder still naked and put you down, oh I don't know, maybe on the dining table, yes on the cold glass dining table and see you spreading your legs for me, needing me more than ever.”
“Yes, always needing you.” I'm practically panting now as his hands continue to work my breasts.
“And I'm going to take you slow and thoroughly until you beg for more.”
“You love to make me do that, don't you?”
“Yes, I can't lie. I love that.” He grins and then moans a little as my hands move over him massaging that rigid column of flesh.
“What will you do once I beg?”
“I'll give you everything you beg for and more. I'll take you so fast, so hard your beautiful bottom will pummel that glass surface, and I'll have to still your breasts with my mouth and my hands.”
My breath hitches at the picture he paints. I can see me on that table my legs wide open, my body owned by him at that moment as he rams into me. I want that so much.
“My cock will grind into you so hard, your little clit will be begging for mercy but I won't let you come, not right away, I'll take you to the edge and back until you're desperate for release.”
“You're going to make me beg for that too?”
“Yes, but you can't wait. You come without permission so I have to punish you.”
I almost lose it right then. I know my panties will be soaked from his hands on my breasts, from imagining all that.
“You loved it when I spanked you, didn't you?” he says.
“Yes.”
“Then that's what I'm going to do. We'll get dressed and I'll let you wait, not knowing when it will happen. Perhaps after dinner. Perhaps just before bed. But first, I'll cook.”
I laugh because he's right. There’s no point in any fantasy where I do that.
“I'll cook morsels of tender chicken in wine, soft fluffy potatoes, chocolate dessert, whatever you want.”
I'm practically licking my lips.
“And then,” he says, “It will be time. Time to put you over my lap and pull down your panties, time to run my hands over your smooth soft round buttocks and make them turn a delicate shade of pink. For my pleasure and yours.”
I gulp. “Will you fuck me again then?”
“Of course. I'll reach down and touch you, feel your wetness, making sure you're ready. But there's no doubt about that. You're more than ready for my cock. I'll lift you up and lay you on the bed. Maybe I'll tie your hands to the headboard so you can't get away and then I'll plunge right in, your hot stinging bottom against the rough bed cover but you won't care because all you want is my cock.”
“Your cock,” I say, moving my hands faster on him only to hear the front door open. Mum is back, making plenty of noise to make sure we know.
This kind of talk makes me want Jack now, to get into bed with him next time Mum goes out, but I don't want to set his recovery back. The sooner he is in his own place where we can be alone the better.
When I go out to the kitchen to see Mum, I blush bright scarlet though she doesn't ask what we got up to. It's as if we have been swinging naked from the chandeliers while she was away when we have done nothing but kiss and touch like teenagers afraid to go too far.
***
When Jack moves out, and it's just him and me again, I'm more nervous than our first time, heck more nervous than my first time. It feels like the first time for everything.
“I'll be gentle with you,” I tease, as I undo his shirt.
“Fuck no, I'm done with gentle,” he says.
But in fact, he's wrong because this giant is more knocked out than he pretends to be. That doesn’t matter. I don't care that the first time we are together again he makes love to me tenderly, carefully, even reverently. Or the next time. Or the time after. Once he's fully recovered I know there'll be a whole lot of hard fucking, and rough and ready, honest-to-goodness loving in every single room in his apartment. For now, when he enters me, it feels like he penetrates the whole of me, even my soul, not just my body. And sometimes, when I want more than that I get on top and ride him for all I'm worth and he loves that.
With a couple of weeks of rest, he is back to his usual self. I know that because when I try to ride him he grabs me and flips me over onto my back. I laugh because he wouldn't have been able to do that a week ago. And it's as good as ever, in fact better because now it feels like we can get through anything together.
***
Three months later, things are good in all kinds of ways I never imagined when I broke off my engagement. Even stupid Duncan tried to get in touch at one point. It must have been six or seven weeks after I left him. Apparently, it took him a while to find out he missed me but he said he wanted me back. He said he was sorry about everything, and he apologized about not wanting to go to my parents' anniversary party. He said we should try again. I told him it was definitely over and wished him well for the future.
I'm not sorry he didn't go to the party, I'm not sorry at all. Not going to that party was the best thing he ever did for me.
Sarah is still being Sarah after Jack's accident but we get along well enough while I'm living at home, though she seems to be deliberately trying to annoy me sometimes, being the good little daughter and making me look bad. She has her job in accounts she loves while I'm still working at the clothing store. It gives her an excuse to go on at me because I’m not doing anything with my degree—“wasting my potential” as she calls it.
She has her fair share of internet dates. But I guess she's lonely. She wants someone like Jack who loves her and I can't do anything about that, so I try not to be too hard on her. I wish she'd loosen up though. She seems so rigid in her business clothes, all buttoned up and boring.
There's one terrible navy suit she wears a lot I want to get my hands on. It's cut so badly, I can't help myself wanting to tailor it and when she's getting rid of one of those awful suits, only to buy one exactly like it, I ask if I can have a go at updating her old one.
She ends up not throwing that suit out at all. In fact, the girls in her office want to know where she got it and before long she's bringing them to me to get their clothes altered too.
Then someone commissions me for her wedding dress. I ask to cut down my hours at the clothes store and Gemma is delighted because hearing about all the work I'm doing she thought I would leave completely. But no, I love it at the store and I love having my own business so it's great all around.
Sarah is finally happy for me maybe because she had a hand in my success. And she has even started dating some guy from work. It seems like they're going strong. I have high hopes she'll be less uptight now she's more content.
In the end I move in with Jack. There seemed no point in paying for another apartment as I spent s
o much time at his. Carrie and I talked about moving in together but she's happy with Tom and I definitely don't want to get in the way there. So, it seems, we both got together with our partners at Mum and Dad's party. Carrie will always be there for me if I need her just as I will always be there for her and it's great to be living so close to her and to be able to see more of her.
Friends are important and I’m really glad Jack and Dad are friends again. There was a tricky moment when I told Dad I was moving in but he soon got over it. Jack says it was awkward at first after the accident but now they are just fine. But Jack is not thinking of moving jobs again. He's happy where he is and Dad is thinking about retiring early to spend more time with Mum in any case.
***
And then there's that moment when fantasy becomes reality. Jack is on his way home from work and he calls me as soon as he gets in the car and tells me to get naked for him.
“I'm hard, babe, just thinking about you. Take everything off and wait. I'll be home soon.”
It's everything he said it was going to be and more.
He's hardly through the front door when he's kissing me against it, kicking the thing shut, our mouths aggressive with need, his hard cock jutting against my naked body. I drop to my knees and unzip his pants, taking him in my mouth and swirling my tongue over the swollen head of him, enjoying the feel of him there, the taste of him, the way I'm making him groan.
“Too much,” he says, his voice strained and pulls me up. “You're going to be the end of me and I want to come inside you.”
He kisses my neck, one kiss after another in a line, his mouth hot and urgent, and I reach for him with greedy hands but he flinches and pulls away. “No way,” he says. “Your hands are too good. Let me check, are you already wet for me by any chance?” he asks, laughing, running his fingers over me, teasing and tormenting my sensitized clit. “You seem pretty much ready to me,” he says. “Soaking with readiness.”