by Nella Tyler
I had to sit down, I was shaking so much. I forced myself to breathe deeply in and out, swallowing between breaths to force my rising heart back into my chest where it belonged. I’d suffered a few debilitating panic attacks as a teenager and though they hadn’t happened again since the middle of sophomore year, I lived in terror that I would start having them again. At the time, I’d thought I was having a heart attack. I needed to calm down before I made this call, although I didn’t really care if he chuckled at how silly I was to worry about him. That would mean he wasn’t the fireman fighting for his life in the ICU.
I dialed his number, fidgeting on the couch as I waited through rings that felt interminable, both of my legs shaking up and down as the rest of my body rocked back and forth. He wasn’t answering. After several rings, it went to voicemail, the sudden sound of his voice — so close to what I needed to hear right now yet so far away — brought tears stinging to my eyes.
“Hey, this is Blaze. You just missed me. Leave a message, and I’ll get back to you when I can. If you haven’t yet, hug a fireman.” He chuckled at his own lame joke — though there was nothing more that I wanted to do right now than hug a particular fireman — and the recording ended, another automated voice telling me to leave a message after the beep.
I swallowed back my heart, pressed my eyes shut to keep the tears from streaming free, and spoke in the calmest voice I could muster. “Blaze, it’s Sami. Please call me back as soon as you get this. I’m worried about you.” I hung up the phone before I lost it and followed up immediately with a text asking him to call me back ASAP. I waited a few minutes, legs shaking as I balanced on the edge of my seat, attempting to convince myself that he was fine, that this was normal, and then I called him again.
Chapter Twenty Three – Blaze – Early the Following Morning
I came to slowly, the alarm buzzing in my ears. Only it wasn’t the alarm from the apartment building grinding into my head. It was my phone. As I lay there, remembering where I was — not at the station or out on a call, but here, in my apartment at the end of a long, eventful shift — the phone quieted on its own. I let my heavy eyes drift shut, exhaling with relief at being let off the hook, and the damned thing started ringing again.
Groaning, I reached for it, answering it without looking at the face on the screen. My eyes were too fuzzy to focus right now. It was light out, but early. I needed some goddamned curtains, but I hated to block that floor-to-ceiling window. Sami called it a definite crowd pleaser and forbade me from covering it. She seemed like the type of woman I was better never crossing.
“This is Simmers,” I said, voice gruff with exhaustion and smoke. The morning after a tough call was the worst. I slept like the dead, but never felt like I got enough rest after I woke up. And last night had been worse than most. But at least no one was killed.
“Blaze!” It was Sami, and she sounded upset. That cleared some of the lingering smoke out of my head. “I’m so happy you’re okay!”
I opened my eyes again, frowning deeply at the light coming in from the window. “What do you mean?”
“I was calling to check on you. After the news…” Her wavering voice faded. She sounded scared out of her mind, which helped cast out the rest of the smoke swirling in my skull.
There’d been reporters from all the local news stations on the street filming in front of the apartment building as it burned to the ground. One of the vans had arrived right before we did and was able to film us as we jumped off our trucks. They listened to the same scanners and had plenty of informants keeping them updated on emergency situations around the city.
Sami must have seen footage from the fire. I remembered a camera in my face at some point. Had that aired? I wondered. I’d been on the news more times than I could count. I’d even given interviews on several occasions. I didn’t see why that would make her so upset.
“I’m good,” I said, and cleared my itching throat, still not able to open my eyes more than a squint. “Maybe a little sore from the call, but I’ll be alright after some sleep and a hot shower.”
She released a trembling sigh into the phone. “They showed you on the news last night going back into the fire and then said a firefighter had been critically injured and was in the ICU. I called more than a few times, but you never answered, which got me even more worried.”
“I’m sorry, baby. I never take my phone on a call. By the time we finished at the site early this morning, I was awake enough to ride back to the department, grab my stuff, drive home, take a quick shower, and crash. That was one hell of a call.”
“I’m just so glad you’re okay,” she said, voice watery. I felt a stab of guilt at the thought of her crying over me last night, alone. “Do you know anything about the man who was hurt?”
“No,” I replied. “Not yet. But I’m sure I can find out and let you know. Thanks for worrying about me.” I couldn’t help but smile. I didn’t like the thought of her up late, but loved that she cared enough to worry.
“Thanks for being okay.” I could finally hear a smile in her voice. “When can I see you again? You could come over to my place tonight.”
I could barely keep my eyes open, the exhaustion making my bones heavy, but my lips rose into a wider smile on their own. “That sounds nice. Give me a few hours to sleep, and I’ll come over whenever you like.”
“How about six?”
“What time is it now?” My lids had drifted shut, and I had no intention of opening them again. Not until I knocked out at least another four hours of uninterrupted dream time.
“Seven o’clock.”
I laughed, but it turned into a yawn. “You’re an early bird.”
She laughed, too. “Go to bed. I’ll see you tonight at six.”
I mumbled goodbye and was asleep before I could put the phone back on the night table.
I woke several hours later and didn’t remember a single dream, which was normal when I slept so hard. My phone had fallen onto the ground next to the bed while I slept. I picked it up, noting the time — a few minutes before noon — and that I had a missed call from my mother. Maybe she’d seen the same news report that had gotten Sami all riled up.
I had to hit the shower first. My skin still felt gritty and flushed from the fire, even with rinsing off before climbing into my bed this morning. I needed to wash my sheets, too, but that could wait until after I got something to eat.
I took a nice, long shower, letting the scalding water run over my tight muscles. Last night had been rough. I hadn’t been to a call that bad in well over a year. No one had been killed, but the building was a total loss, leaving dozens of people homeless, the clothes on their backs the only things left that belonged to them in this world besides their vehicles.
You had to harden yourself to suffering in order to survive in this line of work. It didn’t just take a physical toll — that was the easy part; you could train for that, building your muscles and working on your endurance — but it could rip you apart emotionally, too. We’d just had a guy quit last month after a call involving a drunk driver and a kindergartener, the poor kid struck and killed in the middle of the day after school let out.
It wasn’t just fires. We were the first responders to car accidents and other emergencies, too. Things could get ugly. I’d seen dead children, gunshot victims, people dead from smoke inhalation, or worse, burned to a crisp. I’d saved lives, too, bringing people back with CPR or carrying them from flames before they succumbed to the smoke, but those times barely redeemed the ones when you arrived too late to help a victim.
The work carved deep chunks out of a person, hollowing the body out slowly, and not just my body, but the bodies of those around me. I worried about Sami, that all this would become too much for her. That had happened to the woman I dated before I met Lacey. She just couldn’t take the constant stress and ended our relationship after I was almost killed on a call. I didn’t blame her. This was a tough life to share with someone.
After my
shower, I dried off, dressed, and went to the kitchen for something to eat. My stomach was just waking up, and it was starving. I poured myself some cereal and dialed my mom, just eating it right there by the sink while I waited for her to pick up. It went to voicemail. She worked at some thrift store her church ran every afternoon. I told her to call me back when she got home — she didn’t have a cellphone — and went out to the living room to watch TV until it was time to head over to Sami’s.
I couldn’t wait to see her. Last night had been a close one. Hector had almost been flattened by falling debris, and if the upper floor had suddenly decided to follow suit, we all could have been killed or badly burned.
I dozed off on the couch and had vivid dreams, waking a few minutes before I needed to leave for Sami’s. I cleaned myself up, changed into something a little more presentable than sweats, and left my place. On the way, I swung by the nearest liquor store to grab a nice bottle of white wine. I drove over to her condo beneath the darkening sky, ready for the spring to come back full force and with it, longer days.
I jogged up to Sami’s place, suddenly anxious to see her, and rang the bell. I hadn’t been here since the night of the fire. I couldn’t believe how lucky a flaming Christmas tree had ended up being. I never would have met Sami without it.
Speaking of the girl of my dreams, she opened the door, wearing a smile and not much else, her toned, curvy body clad in a skimpy little nightie that cut low, exposing plenty of cleavage, and ended just below her crotch, her legs long, smooth, and surprisingly tanned given the dull winter weather that was still holding on.
“You sure do know how to make a man feel welcome,” I said with a grin, unable to stop looking her up and down.
“After watching you in action, I wanted to reward your heroism.” She arched her back, sticking out her chest and drawing my eye. “You saved a man’s life. As a citizen of Seattle, it’s my duty to let you know how much we appreciate all you do for this city.” Her grin turned sly as a sexy light glimmered in her eye. She stepped back, giving me room to enter. I walked inside and closed the door behind me.
“I have to say, I like what I see,” I replied, unable to take my eyes off of her.
She slid her hands down her sides, her fingers moving over that silky fabric as she drew my eyes right along with them, tracing every curve. “What do you think about the repair of the fire damage, Mr. Fireman?”
I blinked, throwing off some of the spell she was casting with her tight little body in that lingerie. I glanced over at the corner of the room near the fireplace. It didn’t look anything like it had on Christmas Day, scorched and smoking, a pile of burned branches on the ruined carpet. You’d never know there had been a fire in here. The carpet had been replaced, the ceiling and walls repainted, and the char cleaned from the brick on the fireplace.
“It looks great, Sami,” I said, looking back at her. “Not as great as you look in that nightgown, but still pretty damned good.”
“Are you ready for your reward?” she asked me, grinning as her eyes drifted down to my crotch.
I was getting harder the longer I stood here watching her. I liked to let the passion build between us, that warmth that started in my crotch but ended up everywhere, even the tips of my fingers. But holding off for a few minutes while I just enjoyed the sight of her made it all the better when we finally quenched that growing desire.
“Oh, yes,” I said and licked my lips.
She didn’t say another word, just turned and walked away from me, giving me a great view of her ass as she swung her hips, the silky fabric clinging to her curves. She paused in the open door to her bedroom, beckoning me with her fingers.
I didn’t need a second invitation. I went after her.
Chapter Twenty Four – Sami – That Same Evening
I helped Blaze out of his clothes, unzipping his pants and unbuttoning his shirt, before I made him lie down on my bed. I crawled on as soon as he was settled, climbing on top of him, my legs straddling his lap. I sat down on the hard shape of his cock still trapped in his boxer briefs. He moaned, his hands taking hold of my hips to move me over himself.
I wasn’t wearing any panties. Only the flimsy fabric of his boxers were between us. It didn’t take more than a few seconds for my wetness to seep through. I leaned to kiss him, pushing my tongue into his mouth. I loved the taste of him — it was spicy and hot, like the fires he fought, like the heat trapped in his skin. I ground my crotch into him as we kissed, stoking that lovely heat. The tingling was starting in me, too, brought on by the feeling of his cock rubbing between my legs.
I broke away from him, sucking on his full bottom lip as I rose to sit up again. I pulled my nightgown up by the hem, taking it off and letting it fall to the floor next to the bed. Blaze ran his large but gentle hands from my hips around to my flat stomach and up to my breasts, leaving a tingling trail behind him. I loved his touch, his taste, the hard shape of his cock beneath me, ready to give me as much pleasure as I could take.
“You should take off your boxers,” I said, trying for a sultry voice. “Would you like me to help you with that?”
His hips rose under me as he moaned with pleasure. “Yes, but only if you’re going to climb right back on top of me again.”
Smiling, I moved off of his lap. I slid my fingers under the waistband of his boxer briefs and slid them down his hips as he lifted his ass to help me. His cock came free, rock hard, long, and thick. The first time he’d entered me, it felt like he was opening me up, the tip plunging farther into me than any man had ever been. I couldn’t imagine him getting any deeper without pressing into the back of my throat, but I was about to ride him as hard as I could, so I was about to find out how much of him I could really handle.
I straddled him again, balancing on my bent knees so I wouldn’t actually touch him, not yet. He took me by the hips again, trying to guide me on top of him.
“This is your reward,” I whispered, and gave him my sexiest smile. Just hovering over the top of him made me feel like a goddess. It was in the heat I felt and the way he looked at me. “What would you like me to do to you?”
His face contracted, an expression passing over his features that had me dripping wet. The man was sex personified. I couldn’t believe I’d ever gone weeks without pouncing on him; I planned to fuck this man until the day I died.
“I want to feel how soaking wet you are for me,” he said, purring in that deep voice that only got me wetter.
I lowered myself so my quivering lips were barely touching the long shape of his cock, just letting him taste the heat radiating from my sex. He moved his hips, running himself along that moistness and stirring up the hunger inside me, to just swallow him whole, to fuck him until neither of us could think straight. But I wanted to draw this out, to let the passion build until just letting him enter me brought on an earth-shattering orgasm that sucked all the blood out of my head and sent it down to my sex.
Blaze’s face twisted again, colored by the lust I could see burning in his eyes. I’d left a low light on in here so I could see every inch of him — how he bit his bottom lip when he was getting excited, the lust in his dark green eyes, the agonizing expressions that seized his handsome face while I teased him.
I lowered myself a little more as I kept up that gentle motion over the length of his cock, just letting him taste how wet I was for him, how ready. His face tightened and he bit his lip, looking up at me, the fire in his eyes drawing the breath from my lungs. I wanted him so badly at that moment.
“Put me inside you,” he moaned, that fire sizzling the air.
I took hold of him by the base of his shaft and positioned it so the head of his cock was pressing into the wet heat of my sex. We moaned together, our hips moving in tandem, both of us wanting the same thing: to swallow and be swallowed.
I slid him inside me, unable to keep up this teasing motion now that I had him so close to the pulsating need between my legs. I devoured him slowly, taking him in inch by agonizin
g inch, biting my own lip as I watched the ecstasy ripple over his face, twisting his mouth and widening his eyes. I sat all the way down, the heat flooding my cheeks at having his cock impaling me so deeply, that luscious pressure almost too much to take. I bucked my hips, slowly at first, just driving him deeper as he groaned beneath me, his own hips lifting to match my rhythm as his hands guided me. The rhythm intensified, his cock burrowing deeper, my hips moving over him in quick, jerking motions.
That pressure was building. I wanted the sweet release, and he wanted it, too. He pressed me firmly onto his lap, moving my hips even harder than I was already going, and I cried out at the strength of the pressure building inside me, that hunger that only he could quench.
I threw my head back, riding him harder, my strokes picking up speed, that pressure reaching an agonizing pinnacle. I didn’t want this to end — our bodies straining against each other, the air getting too warm in the room…
He groaned again, breathlessly, and that pressure released, sizzling flares of pleasure running from the sensitive place between my legs where my clit was rubbing against the soft hair around the base of Blaze’s cock. Those flares moved upwards through my body, paralyzing me with pleasure for a few seconds, my muscles solid and unable to move besides the motion he kept up with his big strong hands on my hips.
He was close. I knew the erotic sounds he made when he was about to come. Once my body was free to move again, that debilitating passion reduced to a tingle that ran from my flushed cheeks to my aching, hungry sex, I rode him harder. I wanted to give him the same heady loveliness I’d just experienced. I wanted us to come together, to share everything, to burn up in this collaborative heat.