Ladder 54: Five Firefighter Romances

by Maren Smith

  “I’m just glad you did,” she admitted. “I never believed in fate, but it all seems like it was meant to be.”

  She expected him to mock her, but he didn’t. Instead he lowered his face to her own and captured her mouth in the most slow and sensual kiss of her life. When he pulled away, his lips were already smiling. “Me neither,” he admitted, “but maybe, just maybe, you’re right, beautiful. Now, let’s go to bed.”

  The last sentence was a command, and Lauren’s body knew it. Her nipples pebbled under her half open robe and fresh moisture pooled between her legs. Blake jumped lithely to his feet, offering her his hand as she climbed up to join him. Hand in hand, they approached the cabin’s large stairwell and climbed the steps to the bedroom.

  The End

  Epilogue

  The alarm went off at 2:30 in the morning. His first chemo appointment was scheduled for seven a.m., but they’d been told to arrive an hour early and the drive would take at least two hours. Having packed the car the night before, all they had to do was roll out of bed, crawl into the clothes they had picked out the night before, and go. And yet, Sophie couldn’t seem to pull herself together. She’d lost track of what she’d been doing three times just in the course of brushing her hair. It only got worse when it finally came time to leave.

  “Do you want me to drive?” Shrugging into her coat, she collected her wallet and keys from the bowl on the entryway table. Keeping her tone light and neutral, she was careful not to look at him.

  Walt didn’t look at her, either, and his reply was every bit as neutral. “Do I ever want you drive?”

  No, he didn’t. Walt was nothing if not an old-fashioned gentleman. In his mind, a gentleman always opened the doors, always carried the heavy things, always took out the trash and mowed the yard, and always drove the car. Anytime they went anywhere together, he was behind the wheel. It was the reason why her car was more than ten years old with less than fifty-thousand miles on it.

  Adjusting his coat collar, Walt hooked his thumb through his keyring and stuffed his wallet into his back jeans’ pocket. He then reached for the only thing he hadn’t already packed into the car last night because he’d needed it this morning, and that was his bathroom kit. He might be heading out to the most miserable medical experience of his life, but he seemed determined to go freshly shaved and looking his best. But when he reached for it, Sophie couldn’t help herself. She snatched it up first. “Here, let me get that.”

  Walt caught her wrist. “Sophie,” he sighed.

  “It’s okay,” she said, flustered. “I can get it.”

  The funny thing was, it wasn’t even heavy. It was just a black canvas bag. It carried his razors, shaving cream, deodorant, toothbrush, and toothpaste—everything that he would need for however many days it might take him to recover from his treatment at St. Peter’s. It weighed maybe two pounds and was the size of a football, but Sophie couldn’t help it. She didn’t know what it was that made it so important that she grab onto that strap, yanking the bag to her like a quarterback and hugging it to her chest. She even turned bodily away from him to keep him from prying it back out of her hands, but that minute tug-of-war only lasted a second or two, before he bent his head to look into her eyes. That look that said push it and I’m going to spank you right here.

  “Sophie Amelia Lassiter,” he warned, “stop treating me like a baby.”

  Her numb fingers lost their hold and he relieved her of his shaving kit, dropping the bag back on the entryway table. Censure fading out of his frown, he pulled her to him. His arms wrapped tight around her shoulders.

  What if she never got to feel this again, Sophie thought. What if this was the last time his arms ever held her? The last time she breathed in woodsy spice of the aftershave that clung to his collar? He was absolutely the strongest man she had ever known, but cancer didn’t care. Given its way, that awful disease would take him away and what was she to do then?

  “I can’t,” Sophie whispered. She didn’t hug him back, but instead squeezed her hands up between them. She covered her mouth, hiding the ugliness as her lips peeled back, and her shoulders hunched into that first involuntary jerk, and she started to cry.

  “Yes, you can.” Walt rocked her, his chin resting on top of her head. She tried to shake hers, but he wasn’t having it. “Yes,” he said even more firmly. “You can. You can and you will. Nobody gets out of this life alive. Not you, not me… not anybody. But—” Pulling back far enough to pry her hands from her mouth and to catch her tear-dampened face in his, he made her look at him. “But,” he repeated tenderly, “don’t you go putting me in my grave just yet. You’re my girl, Soph. I’m not ready to let you go.”

  Slinging her arms around him, Sophie clung as tightly as she could for as long as he would let her. They had an appointment to keep, after all. Neither time, nor this awful disease, were inclined to wait. Long before she was ready, her husband gently forced her to let go.

  “There’s plenty of time yet for hope,” he said, wiping at her tears with his thumbs. She melted into him when he pressed that kiss to her forehead.

  He was right, too. There was plenty of time for hope.

  Pulling herself together, Sophie wiped her face one last time as she let him gather his keys and his own shaving bag. He was her rock—her courage, her lover, her disciplinarian when he found the need for it, and a man who, for thirty years, she’d been proud to call her husband. When he held out his hand, she took it. She wasn’t ready to let go of him either.

  Hand in hand, they headed for the car.

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  Unfortunately, the hunters are foolish enough to disregard his mark, and Dani is captured. After Mason and his pack rescue her from certain death, Dani is given no choice about joining Mason’s pack for her own protection. She soon learns that Mason is fully prepared to spank her bare bottom as often as is necessary to teach her to respect and obey him.

  With more hunters closing in and the pack under threat, Mason begins to realize that he must claim Dani as his mate for life—whether she likes it or not—before his need for her drives him mad. At the same time, she is forced to learn her role in the pack and come to terms with her instinctual need to submit to Mason as her alpha and her mate.

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  Kara soon learns that no matter how often she acts like a rebellious teen, her daddy is always ready to rein her in and then comfort her in his arms. But will the stress that comes with balancing an adult life with her teenaged headspace eventually overwhelm her, or will her daddy prove that he is capable of guiding her through anything and everything that comes her way?

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