by Brandy Ayers
Words became impossible after that. Their bodies took up the conversation where they left off. Every snap of his hips, every clench of her inner muscles, every sting of teeth on flesh, all of it communicated their unending need for each other.
Tears streamed down the side of Charlotte’s face, collecting on the bed beneath. It was too beautiful the way Trey fucked her. She’d had no idea it would be like this. Maybe if she had, she’d have done it sooner. But then it might not have been Trey pressing each long hard inch of himself into her. That would be a tragedy of the biggest proportions.
Shifting his weight to the side slightly, Trey brought one set of their joined hands down between, them. He flattened her palm on her lower belly, putting his over it and pressed down firmly. At the same time, he thrust into her to the hilt and paused. Charlotte’s jaw loosened, her mouth falling open at the sheer overwhelming sensation of having him fill her to the brim, while having their combined hands pressing down from the outside so that everything became more compressed around him.
With her head angled back, Trey captured her gaze, refusing to let her look away. “Who’s inside you?”
“Trey, you are.”
“That’s right. No one else gets to feel the heaven that is your pussy. Say, ‘Yes, sir.’”
Charlotte moaned, grinding down on his cock a little more, dragging that thick base against her abused clit. “Yes, sir. Only you.”
“God damn right. Now cream my cock one more time before I fill you up with my cum.”
She could have been a marionette at that moment for the control he had over her. Those words pulled invisible strings inside her body, and with his next harsh pump, she came, screaming and biting at his chest, their hands sandwiched between them, the others still pressed into the mattress above them. It was messy, sweaty, filthy love making, and everything Charlotte had ever dreamed of.
***
“Babe, I have to get off of you at some point. You need to sleep, we need to eat, we both have to work.” Trey’s words lacked any sort of conviction. He said them because they needed to be said, but he obviously had no intention of following through on getting out of bed.
“Mmmmm, no.” Charlotte nuzzled her face into Trey’s chest. He still laid on top of her, his body warming every inch of her, though he had angled his legs and arms in a way to let her breath a little easier now that they had sated their intense needs for each other. “All that is reality. I’m not ready for reality. I want to stay here where you are my blanket and the only sustenance we need are each other’s orgasms.”
“Fuck, that sounds like the holy grail of living right there.” They both laughed, his cock jumping in renewed interest against her inner thigh. “Damn, I want to bury myself inside you again, but you have to be sore.”
He wasn’t wrong. “Maybe a little more resting. I am pretty sore.”
“I both feel bad for making you that way, and yet enormously proud.” Rolling to the side a little, Trey kept his arms tight around her torso, maintaining their plastered together status. With his hands now free, they began to roam all over her back and arms, soothing her and helping her drift into a deep sleep.
What could have been hours later a harsh ringing woke them both, their twisted position unchanged. “No, not fucking now.”
Trey reached blindly behind him on the nightstand, bringing his phone out in front of him. The harsh brightness of his screen made them both squint.
“Goddamit to the hell.” Trey sat up, his arms letting go of Charlotte for the first time since they’d stumbled into his apartment hours before.
Keeping the sheet wrapped around her chest, Charlotte followed him up, propping her chin on his shoulder. “What’s wrong?”
Trey shook his head, and for a moment she didn’t think he would answer. “Another fire, crews are on the way, chief wants me to meet them there. Help with securing the scene.” He spit the words out, obviously not happy with the situation.
“But you’re not on call.” Even as she spoke, Trey stood from the bed, his round ass distracting Charlotte before it disappeared into his jeans.
“I know, but I’m hoping to make captain this year, so I have to go when they call. I’m sorry babe. You stay here. Sleep. I’ll be back as soon as I can.” He picked his shirt up from the floor, pulling it on over his head. And sitting back down for socks and boots.
“No, I’ll just grab a bus home and get ready for work. Head in early.”
“Hell no. There is no planet in this universe on which I would let you take a bus home from what happened here today.” Trey sighed, something she’d never heard from him before, and ran his both his hands over his scalp. “How about you come with me, and I can take you home once things calm down?”
Before he even finished, Charlotte was standing up from the bed and pulling her own clothes on. The idea that she might get to see him in action, be on the scene of a story first, made adrenaline pump through her system. “Okay, let’s go.”
“I don’t think that shirt is going to work, sugar.”
With a glance to her chest Charlotte realized he was right. He had completely decimated the poor thing when he ripped it from her body.
“Don’t suppose you have anything that will fit me?”
Trey ran to his closet, and came back with a huge box of PFD T-shirts. “Yeah, I keep these here to give away on our Facebook page. Extra small, right?”
After finding the right size, they both jogged out to the car, Charlotte’s body alive in a new way for the second time in just a few hours. “So, is this another arsonist fire?”
“Impossible to tell yet. But it is in the same area as the previous ones, so it could be.” Trey glanced at her and shook his head, chuckling under his breath. “Shit, you look like a kid in a candy store. I’m almost jealous that the idea of going to a fire scene has you this excited.”
Not knowing how to respond, Charlotte shrugged and sat on her hands to keep from pulling out her phone to tip off WQUZ.
“You want to call work don’t you?”
“I’ll wait until we get there so you can have plausible deniability.”
“Go ahead. I wouldn’t expect you to keep me from doing my job. I won’t keep you from doing yours either.” Trey picked up her phone from where it had been sitting on the seat beside them. “Can’t do an interview today though, okay?”
“Okay.” Charlotte furiously tapped out a message on her cell, sending the text to Michelle, Annabelle and Mira. The responses came quickly, setting her phone buzzing in her hand. “Okay, they have a crew on the way.”
“When we get there, you stay behind the barricades. I’m not foolish enough to think I can convince you to stay in the car, but I want you away from the danger, got it?”
“Yes, sir.” She saluted him, and he smirked in return.
“I’m so going to spank your ass later.”
Charlotte was saved from having to respond to that appealing declaration by the appearance of the scene in the distance. Thick black smoke filled the air, blocking out the still bright afternoon sun. Flames spit and danced from the roof and windows of a large house on the corner. Men in full firefighter gear raced around, hooking up hoses, positioning ladders, and running straight into the belly of the dragon.
Fear for those men sprang clear as day in her gut. She may not know any of them by name, but with their gear hiding their faces, any one of them could have been Trey. On another day, Trey would be one of them, flinging himself right into the line of death. She hadn’t thought about how truly dangerous his line of work was until that moment.
Trey threw the SUV into park next to one of the fire trucks and jumped out. Even when he should have been racing toward the action, he took the time to come around the vehicle and help Charlotte ease out. He pointed out the barricades where he wanted her to stand, and she nodded without tearing her eyes from the licking flames.
Heat like nothing she’d ever felt before pulsed out in waves as the flames quickly spread up the walls
of the home. They danced above the roofline, the shingles melting in on themselves. Outside the building, men holding high powered hoses waved the water in arches along the outside of the home.
People huddled to one side of the area, hugging each other while they cried. Trying to not seem obvious, Charlotte made her way towards them, curious if they were the residents. They spoke in slightly elevated voices, trying to be heard over the pounding of water, whooshing of flames, and sirens in the distance.
Charlotte’s heart pounded inside her chest, the rush of the scene and the fear for the men fighting the blaze elevating all her senses.
“Has anyone found her yet?” One of the women whimpered to a man holding her tightly.
His sad eyes turned down to her face and he simply shook his head. The woman let out a heart rending sob and leaned harder into his chest.
Curiosity overwhelmed Charlotte. Who was in the house? An occupant? The fire had done enough damage already that it was impossible to tell the original condition of the structure. However, the houses around the street all seemed to be in various stages of decay, with most boarded up and covered in graffiti.
Taking a deep breathe, bracing herself for what could be a very bad reaction from the people in front of her, Charlotte took a step towards them, tapping the man on the shoulder. “Excuse me sir, do you know if anyone lived in the house?”
The man was as tall as Charlotte, maybe an inch below her. Clouded over blue eyes swept her from head to foot. For the first time, Charlotte realized she probably looked a mess. She hadn’t bothered brushing her hair after the passion she and Trey had experienced in bed. Her pants were wrinkled from being piled in a heap on the floor for most the day, the PFD T-shirt stood out like a sore thumb against her otherwise professional attire, and she hadn’t taken a shower since before work the day before.
“It was a popular squatters house. But the police cleared it out two days ago, so no one should have been in there right now, but one of our neighbors goes in there to feed the stray cats that hide out there.” The man’s voice turned ragged. He paused for a moment, obviously attempting to reign in his emotions. “My wife thought she saw Lou Anne go in for her daily visit with the cats just before the smoke started. We don’t know if she got out or not.”
The man turned back to watch as the house continued to buckle under the weight of the flames. Charlotte’s stomach sank. So far, there had been no injuries or casualties from the arsonist’s fires. If this was an intentional fire, it would be the first with a possible victim.
Phone in hand, Charlotte began snapping pictures of the fire, and sent them back to the station. That done, she began getting video clips they could use on air later. It wouldn’t be the prettiest video they’d ever had, but it would be something.
A text notification popped up along the top of her screen. A message from Michelle to call her as soon as possible.
Charlotte searched for a less frantic area as she dialed Michelle, but everywhere she went the noise still drown everything out.
“Charlotte?”
“Yes, I’m here. Sorry, you are going to have to yell a little. It is really loud out here.”
Taking her volume advice to heart, Michelle’s voice filled the speaker. “Sean and Rudy are on their way to you. Their story fell through today anyway. They should get there just in time for the first hit at six. Can you do a little of the leg work for him. Get information, go to the press conference?”
Nerves joined her already pounding heart, making her hands shake. “Yeah. I can do that. I already sent back a bunch of photos. I’m working on video now, and I talked to a witness that said they saw a neighbor go inside shortly before the fire started. Not sure if she is still in there or not.”
“Jesus, okay. Any word on if this is the arsonist? Had your boyfriend given you any updates?”
“No, Trey hasn’t said anything since we got here. But I looked at the map on the website, and this fire is one block away from the first trashcan fire we are aware of, and four blocks from the row home fire last week.” Charlotte paced up and down the sidewalk. A blur of movement from the corner of her eye drew her attention. Trey shouted into a walkie talkie and pulled a hose from a newly arrived truck. At some point, he had shed his coat and now wore his tight white T-shirt, leaving his massive arms out for the world to see. Lucky world. They bulged and relaxed as he gripped the hose, pulling it into place. Veins along his forearms popped out in stark relief at the strenuous activity.
Turning from the very real distraction of Trey’s body at work, Charlotte focused back in on the task at hand. “Also, according to the neighbors, a police raid a few days ago cleared out all the squatters who used to live in this house. I find it hard to believe it is a coincidence that just days after this house is cleared of inhabitants, it randomly is set on fire. Can you have Mira call some of her police contacts and see if they have more information on that end of things?”
“Got it. I’ll get that to Mira right away.”
Once she hung up with Michelle, Charlotte got back to work videoing a few different angles on the scene, and looking around for potential interviews to line up for Sean once he got on scene. The couple from earlier seemed to have wandered away, but several other neighbors and spectators lined the barricades.
Approaching a young woman who appeared to be in her early twenties, Charlotte took a deep breath, gathering her courage to ask for an interview. “Excuse me, Miss?”
The woman turned to Charlotte, her eyes narrowing in an angry expression for a moment before recovering into a blank expression.
“I’m with WQUZ news, would you mind going on camera with a reporter to talk about the fire?” Thankfully, her voice held firm, not giving away the nerves wracking her body.
Unfortunately, the woman shook her head and stalked away.
Suddenly, a frenzy of activity broke out on the other side of the fire trucks. Shouts of men down echoed down the street, and every single non-firefighter fell silent at the words.
In contrast, the men battling the flames seemed to pick up speed, some racing into the house, others running to man more hoses. Trey ran full tilt toward the building, but another man grabbed him by the arm, pulling him to a stop before he could hit the door.
Not able to hear what the two men yelled at each other, Charlotte stood by uselessly watching from the sidelines, when all she wanted to do was go to Trey.
Chapter Seventeen
By the time Sean arrived at the scene, three ambulances had come and gone, carrying two firefighters and an elderly woman. Thankfully, Charlotte had been able to capture it all on video, though she went through the entire experience in a haze.
She’d been so excited to be on the scene of a fire, to be at a story before anyone else. It had been exhilarating. But witnessing the all-out desolation of a charred house and defeated firemen left her bereft. Tears threatened to spill from her eyelids each time her gaze swung to the man who had shown her the depths of ecstasy just hours before.
Normally, Trey stood tall, proud, his shoulders thrown back and his head held high. But the man sitting on the bumper of a fire truck couldn’t be more opposite from that man Charlotte had begun to know. Hunched over himself, his head rested in his hands.
With all the footage transferred to Sean and Rudy, Charlotte was free to go. She was due back at the station, but with one look at Trey, she knew that wouldn’t be happening. Quietly, she slipped between two of the barricades and approached Trey with caution. They really didn’t know much about each other yet. Charlotte had no idea how he would want to be comforted after such a devastating day. Would he want to be alone? She could understand it if he did, no matter how much she longed to be the place he took solace in.
As she approached, he swung his face up, tracks of tears obvious from the stains down his dark face. His eyes swept her from top to toes, as if checking to make sure she were okay. Still a foot away, Trey reached out, taking hold of her hips, and drew her in those last dozen inches
. His forehead touched down against her stomach, and his shoulders relaxed for the first time since he received the phone call.
Had that really only been two hours ago that they laid in bed wrapped around each other? The tinge of soreness between Charlotte’s thighs confirmed that it had, even as her brain told her it had to have been much longer.
“Do you know them, the men taken to the hospital?” Keeping her voice low, Charlotte skated her hands over his short hair, trying to ease some of his pain.
He nodded, never letting his head move away from her middle. “I trained one of them. He hasn’t been on the squad for longer than two years. The other is my competition for the captain’s job.” Trey’s normally solid, deep voice sounded tissue paper thin. It cracked with emotion as he continued. “We came up through the system together. Always had a rivalry going between us. But no matter how much we butted heads, you never want this for someone. Especially when it’s your fault. When you could have stopped it.”
Charlotte gripped the sides of his face, tilting it up so that his eyes connected with hers. “How could you have prevented any of this?”
Trey shook his head, breaking her hold on him. “Do you mind if we don’t talk about it for now? I just want to go home, wash the past few hours off me, and get back in bed with you.”
Shoving down the disappointment that Trey didn’t want to open up to her, Charlotte nodded, trying her best to plaster on a smile for the man she couldn’t stop thinking about. “That can be arranged.”
Standing from the bumper, Trey flung his arm around Charlotte and pulled her tight against his side. Without a thought, she wrapped both her arms around his middle, lying her face against his hard chest. The significance of the moment wasn’t lost on her. She never did anything without over analyzing it from every angle. But with Trey, it just seemed natural. He needed her support, and she would give it in any way he needed.