My Filthy Fireman (A Steamy Older Man Younger Woman Romance)

by Mia Madison

  Olivia shivers.

  “Are you cold?”

  “A bit but I'm okay.”

  I should have thought and brought the blanket from the car or tossed in a sweater before we left. I forgot how dark it gets under the trees.

  “We'll be back in the sun soon.”

  She forces a smile. I suspect she wants me to hold her. But I can't.

  “Here, you can have my shirt.”

  I take it off and put it around her shoulders. I'm only wearing a white cotton undershirt under it but I don't feel the cold. I never have.

  “Thanks, it smells of you,” she says. “Your cologne, whatever it is.”

  “Must be the body wash I picked up at the store. I've no idea what it is but I'll be sure to buy more of it when I find out.”

  “You'll never keep me away then.”

  “I'll have to keep you away. Sorry Olivia, but that's just the way it is.”

  “You don't have the body of a thirty-five year old,” she says as if she hasn't heard a word I'm saying.

  “And what does the body of a thirty-five year old look like?”

  “I don't know any others but probably softer, podgier, no muscles.”

  “Maybe we are all the same and I'm just the first one you noticed.”

  “I couldn't exactly miss you seeing as you carried me out of a burning building. Thirty-five year olds who are capable of doing that are few and far between I expect.”

  “It goes with the territory, being in the fire service. We have to stay in shape to carry the heftiest guy out or at least drag him out holding him under his arms. It was just easier to carry you down the ladder.”

  “Did you have to yell at me after you got me out? Do you get training for that too?”

  “No. That was pure gut reaction. If the chief had heard me, I'd have been in trouble because in general we're not supposed to yell at those we rescue.”

  “I like that you did that. Not at the time. But now. It was as if you cared then.”

  “And you think I don't care now.”

  “No, I don't think you do.”

  “I do and that's exactly why we are not going against your mom and dad's wishes. You want to go out with me, you tell them and get their permission.”

  She humphs at that but I know it will make no difference whether she tells them or not. I won't be able to take her out again. No parent is going to be happy about their eighteen year old cavorting with a man of thirty-five.

  As we get out of the trees, I say “You'd better give me my shirt back. I’ll need to be respectable for Beatrice. She doesn't miss a thing. Do you want to come in with me or find something to sketch? I'll only be an hour or so. Just enough to have a cup of tea with her.”

  “I'll stay out here.” She sits down on a fallen tree trunk and opens up her sketch book.

  “If you go through the trees over there you'll see a lake with a lot of wild life. I'll find you there,” I tell her.

  ***

  Beatrice is on good form. She's heard from my ex and fills me in on the news. Eve has a job as a dealer in a casino and is getting married again.

  “You don't seem at all upset by that. Do you have someone else?”

  “No,” but maybe I hesitate too long in my response.

  “Who was that you sent off through the trees then?”

  Beatrice doesn't miss a trick. I should have known.

  “My neighbor's daughter, Olivia. She’s looking for places to sketch.”

  “Seems a long way to bring someone just to sketch. Are you sure there's no more to it than that?”

  “I like her but she's too young for me.”

  “How old is she?”

  “Eighteen. Just out of school. Even if her parents approved I don't see how she'd want to be tied to me rather than someone her own age.”

  “I had fifty happy years with my Sam. He was twenty years older than me. My parents tried to tell me that was inappropriate too but I never regretted it one bit.”

  “I never met Sam. I wish I had.”

  “Why not just live for the moment? See how it goes. If it's going anywhere you'll know. I was always sorry it didn't work out between you and Eve but she was never going to settle, that one, no matter what you did. She learned that from her mother. Go to your friend,” Beatrice says. “Don't waste your time hanging around here.”

  CHAPTER 9

  Olivia

  Luke is out sooner than I expect. It's so peaceful here by the lake I could sit here sketching all day. Beatrice has given him a simple picnic for later.

  “Let me watch you draw for a while and then we'll find a spot to eat. I'll go back and have a longer visit with Beatrice another time. She sent me out to you,” he says, raising an eyebrow in disbelief.

  “She sounds nice. She didn't mind you bringing me then?”

  “Not at all. She says we should ignore the age gap. She did that with her husband Sam apparently and they were very happy according to her. She's quite artistic too you know. She used to have a loom in her living room, now that I come to think of it. I don't know what happened to that. We can pop in and say hello before we have lunch if you like.”

  I feel nervous about meeting his ex-wife's grandmother but I nod. I hope Beatrice is not too intimidating. I've drawn a sketch of a kingfisher by the lake but I wish I had my easel and paints too and a lot longer to do the whole scene justice. I'll make a painting from this sketch eventually though and I take a picture with my phone. And then Luke uses my phone and takes a selfie of us and sends it to himself.

  “There now I've got you captured for posterity,” he says.

  I hope he's not taking my picture so he remembers the girl he took out once and then never again.

  “Look,” he says, showing me the picture. “You're beautiful.”

  No one ever called me beautiful before. The guys at high school used to insult girls to get their attention and Jed was never generous with compliments or anything else really. He always wanted something from me.

  My parents liked him though. The fact that we split up is just another thing for them to hold against me as if I set out to get dumped deliberately. They always go on about him being a good college boy. Good college boy or not, he wanted to be free for the summer so he could sleep with other girls. What a tool he is and they like him!

  Luke has hardly touched me. Nothing but that kiss before we left the house. He's not rushing me, not pushy at all. Even after he told me to take off my dress, he didn't touch me. He was content to bide his time and look, but I know I affected him. I saw the results right there in his shorts.

  Is he as large and strong there as he is everywhere else? I'm pretty sure from what I noticed he is. I'm also pretty sure nothing about being with Luke will compare with anything that ever happened with boys before. They were always fumbling, pushing their luck, eager to get as far as they could, not caring about how I felt.

  But I have to pull myself back from those thoughts because I can see Luke watching me curiously and I blush and gather up my sketchbook and pencils.

  ***

  When we go to see Beatrice, she's left a note on the door of her cottage:

  GONE TO THE STORE. WHY NOT TAKE THE BOAT AND ROW OUT TO THE ISLAND? B x

  “Do you want to see the island?” Luke asks.

  “Yes I'd love to.”

  It's not far off but too far to swim and besides I have no swimsuit. I wish I did. The sun is so hot I can't believe I was shivering in the forest earlier.

  Luke has no problem steering the boat. He peels off his shirt again in the hot summer sun and catches me admiring his arms. I could watch them all day as he powers the oars through the water.

  When we get there he ties the boat up, and lifts me out without blinking an eyelid. I remember the last time he picked me up. That night could have easily gone another way. I'm alive because of him, in more ways than one.

  “Let's find some shade for our picnic,” he says, completely unaware of my thoughts.


  He lays out the rug Beatrice gave him under the shade of a tree. It’s just a little way from the water's edge though the cottage is out of sight, and we sit leaning against the tree sharing the delicious picnic food—homemade chicken pie and apples, bread and cheese and a couple of slices of banana cake. Lemonade too.

  I must have crumbs of banana cake on my lips and Luke brushes them away with his fingers and then he kisses me so gently I melt, my heart pounding.

  Has he forgotten his objections? It seems like it and I'm not going to bring them up.

  He pulls me to him again, a much deeper kiss this time, hard, insistent, capturing my mouth and what feels like every brain cell. I give myself to that kiss and forget everything else, my blood turning to warm syrup and flooding my body with an aching heat.

  When we pause, he looks at me and we both smile like we know that was something more than just a kiss but neither of us says anything. I just know I want him, here in this place. It's so idyllic with nothing but the hot sky and the rustling of the leaves in the gentle breeze and no one else around for what feels like miles.

  I want him but I don't know how to make him mine. In the little experience I've had with men, or boys really, they make all the moves, pushing for the next step. I'm always stopping them rather than enticing them to go further.

  But it's different with Luke. He could do anything and I would let him but he's not pushing me even if he wants to and I'm pretty sure he does from that kiss and the way he looks at me.

  So I look him in the eye and then slowly without taking my eyes away in case I lose my nerve I peel off my T-shirt, crossing my arms and pulling it up over my head. I have never been as bold as this in my entire life. I don't know what's happening to me.

  He groans. “Olivia, what are you doing to me?” and still with my eyes on him, though I know I'm blushing bright red, I unclip my bra and take that off too. I don't believe I'm doing this. But I feel the warm heat of the sun on my bare breasts and somehow it feels right.

  He grabs me and pulls me close, folding me in his arms and I kneel between his thighs, the hard length of him against my stomach, my breasts against the fabric of his under shirt feeling the muscular planes of his chest through the cotton.

  My nipples pebble up, sending a signal of hot desire, of raw, naked need right through my body. I rise up on my knees pulling his undershirt up and over his arms and head with a giggle. I'm undressing this grown man, getting him ready for me. I feel like a temptress. I want to tempt him. I kneel back down running my bare breasts over his skin and he moans like a tortured beast.

  “Too much,” he says but he takes my breast in his mouth gorging on the flesh, my nipples painfully tight.

  I feel wanton and alive, actually alive for the first time in forever. Everything was just the same old same old before and this is new, something I've never felt before, not with anyone.

  He lays me down on the rug then and kisses my stomach unbuttoning my shorts and pulling down the zipper. I wriggle out of them as he pulls them down my legs.

  “We’ll leave these on for now,” he says. “I'm very fond of these.” He runs his finger inside the leg of my panties.

  “So wet,” he says. “I can't wait to taste you.”

  Taste me? That's so hot I just about convulse on the rug. He pulls the crotch of my panties to one side so I'm open to him and he licks me with the tip of his tongue, softly at first and then with more pressure. I watch him feast on me, holding my breath, as he makes me squirm.

  “So sweet,” he says, and he works me even harder with his mouth, licking and sucking and probing until I'm on fire, arching my back, calling out, into the warm air.

  He watches me as I come, his eyes crinkling into a smile, yet it's not all tenderness. He groans along with me. There's lust and need there too. I know it. He pulls down my panties and opens my legs looking at me.

  “I’d like to make you come all day like that,” he says. “But I want to...Fuck!”

  “What is it?”

  “My phone. I have it on vibrate.”

  I resist the urge to giggle. It's not really funny.

  “I'd better get this.” He pulls the phone out of his pocket and answers it. “What time? Okay. I think I can make it back. I'm at Oak Ridge. Yes, will do.”

  “They need me back at the station. Adam's son has been taken into the hospital. He's injured himself playing football. I said I'd cover for him. I'm sorry we'll have to go back pretty much right away. They'll be a man short otherwise.”

  “I'm sorry too. But another time?”

  “Another time,” he agrees. At least he's not saying I have to tell my mother first—that's another hurdle to climb. I can't even imagine telling her about Luke. I just can't.

  I get dressed while he packs up the picnic things and puts them in the boat then he lifts me in and sets off from the bank, pushing away with the oar.

  I'm pretty much floating on air, watching him watching me. I don't think our eyes separate until he rows right to the other side and is tying up the boat for Beatrice and lifting me out.

  I say hello to Beatrice as Luke returns the picnic basket and rug.

  “Thanks Beatrice,” he says. “This is Olivia. Sorry we have to rush off. I'm needed back at the fire station.”

  She smiles at me. “Pleased to meet you Olivia. Come back with Luke next time he visits, won't you?”

  “I'd love to,” I tell her but I don't know how things will work out. Who knows if I'll ever go back?

  CHAPTER 10

  Luke

  After coming to my senses on the way to Oak Ridge, I meant to just take Olivia sketching but after Beatrice said what she did, that plan was shot. Then I meant to hold back and not take things too far too fast but then that plan went west too. There was no way I was going to be able to do that, not with Olivia offering herself to me as she did.

  Just as well Saul called from the station about Adam’s son when he did, no matter how unwelcome. I’m glad he called, but I've got a severe case of blue balls now.

  “Maybe I can help you with that,” Olivia says.

  “With what?”

  She touches my erection and my cock jerks.

  “I don't think so, babe. Not when I'm driving. Later. Tomorrow but not now. I'm getting you home safe before your mom and dad really do have something to worry about.”

  She scowls at me. But if she'd ever cut anyone out of wreckage on the highway she'd wouldn't think about it. I need to distract her from doing anything like that.

  “How come your parents don't like you painting?”

  “They like it well enough as a hobby but they say it's not a real job. What they mean is it's not a job like theirs that pays big bucks unless you're well-known and recognized as having talent by the big art critics. I really don't care. Who wants money if you have to work twenty-four seven like they do? They’re always running about to some pointless meeting or other. They have no time to live.”

  “Have you tried selling your paintings?”

  “I'm not good enough yet.”

  “Maybe you should let others be the judge of that. Take them to a gallery. Let them see what you can do. It wouldn't hurt to see if your paintings are commercial.”

  “What if the gallery doesn't like them? Maybe I'll never be any good without going to art school.”

  “Every gallery owner is just one opinion. You could try a few places. If you find one that likes what you do, it could open doors. Would your parents be annoyed if I helped you with that?”

  “Probably. There's not much that doesn't annoy them. Olivia you shouldn't wear that. Olivia you shouldn't go there. Olivia you should take this major at college. Olivia you flunked your exams on purpose.”

  “Did you? Fuck, Olivia. That's going a bit far with being a rebel.”

  “Well I didn't exactly flunk on purpose, more failed to engage in any work. I thought they might decide I wasn't cut out for academia if I didn't do well, but they didn't. They're just insisting I try harder t
his year at community college where I'm supposed to excel in business administration to make up for my lack of enthusiasm last year. The trouble is the whole idea gets me down. But they can't see that.”

  “Jeez, parents. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with the idea of going to college, but what is it with parents and the whole trying to fit a square peg into a round hole thing?”

  “Why? What did yours do to you?”

  “They didn't stop me doing anything in the end but my dad has a plumbing company. He wanted me to follow him into the family business but I wanted to be a fireman ever since I saw a movie where a guy saved a dog from a forest fire. I can't even remember the name of the movie.”

  “Was it black and white?” she teases.

  “Cheeky,” I pick up her hand and kiss it.

  “I thought there was no touching on the highway,” she says.

  “I assessed the risk first. Straight road. No cars about. Quick kiss on the hand. No untoward effects.”

  “Are you sure about that? Maybe it’s having an effect on me.” She laughs and wriggles in her seat.

  This girl is a breath of fresh air. But I feel like we have been in a bubble all day so far out of town. What will I do once she is back at her house with her parents? Can I go against their wishes? I'm supposed to offer a service to the community I serve, rescue people, make lives safer, do what's right, not fuck people's daughters under their noses. But hell I want to fuck this one.

  CHAPTER 11

  Olivia

  I haven't seen Luke for a few days. Is he deliberately staying away from me or is he working? Has he decided not to take things further with me? I watch for him coming home. I know now he does twenty-four hour shifts at the fire station living with the guys there when he's on duty. But I can't help hoping to see him. I have nothing better to do than keep an eye out and every time I see a red car coming along the street I hope it might be his car, Phoebe, and my heart gives a little leap but I don't see him. He hasn't as much as sent me a text since he kissed me bye and rushed off to the fire station after our picnic. Nothing!