Scorch

by Dani Collins

  “What’s wrong?”

  “You didn’t see the flash?” he murmured.

  She hadn’t, but now she heard the thunder as it rolled up the lake.

  “Oh.”

  “I should get my phone.”

  The jumpers probably wouldn’t be called out until the storm had passed and dawn arrived, but at that point the odds would rise significantly that he would have to leave in a big hurry.

  He padded back into her room a few minutes later, set his phone on her nightstand and said, “When did a twin bed sound like a good idea?”

  “It’s a spare that Roni and Cliff had. It’s a king for someone my size. Why? Don’t you like to cuddle?”

  “Yeah, I suppose that’s the compensation. You can’t go too far, can you?”

  She smiled and kissed under his chin.

  He found her lips and kissed her proper, so she moaned with pleasure as warmth stole through her. “I suppose you need some sleep if you’re going to get called out in a few hours.”

  “No smokey I know leaves a fire smoldering. But we may have to improvise. You’ve about used me up, Jac.”

  “Yeah?” She cradled the flesh that was doing a fine impression of rallying.

  “Feel free,” he said dryly, kissing her. “But I’m pretty sure he’s just showing off.”

  She giggled and slithered against him, enjoying the feel of his skin against hers. After a minute, she pressed him onto his back and kissed her way down, opening her mouth against flesh that was already hard and leapt eagerly against her tongue.

  Vin let out a lusty groan. “You realize we’ll be setting a record that will be impossible to beat.”

  She took him into her mouth, delicately sucking, bobbing her head until he drew her up and over him. He kissed her deeply as his naked flesh rubbed against hers.

  She angled, liking the feeling of his almost penetrating her, so tempted to make it happen.

  “That feels really good.”

  “I would, you know,” she said softly. “Have sex without protection. I’d love to have your baby. Married or not or…” She smiled against his lips. “Just as friends.”

  He cupped her cheek in one hand, holding her still above him so he could read her face in the gloom softened by the light from the bottom of the stairs beyond the half open door.

  “I’m terrified enough as it is, Jac. That’s more than I’m ready to believe in.”

  “Are you worried now that I’m only looking for a sperm donor? That wasn’t what I meant. I told you that I didn’t want to be a single parent. I meant that I would like to do it with you. That’s supposed to be a compliment. Belief in our future.”

  He swallowed.

  She covered his hand where his touch felt so tender against her cheek. She turned her lips into his palm and said, “But that can wait until you’re sure.”

  Not that he was sure he wanted kids, but when he was sure of her. It hurt that he wasn’t, but she was starting to realize exactly how many times Vin had been knocked down by life. Too many.

  But he always got back up again.

  She loved him so much.

  “Did you bring a condom?” she murmured.

  “I don’t know why,” he said, reaching toward the nightstand. “This wasn’t supposed to happen. I probably won’t come. Not for weeks. If there were still magazines that took those letters about crazed sexual exploits, I’d write to tell them about tonight.”

  “And no one would believe you because they were ghost written by erotica authors, not real people.”

  “Okay, I was prepared to forgive you for telling me about Santa Claus, but now you have to ruin porn?” He held the condom out of her reach. “You’re just mean, Jac. If you tell me there’s no Easter bunny, I’m leaving.”

  She crawled up his body, which she thought had been his secret plan all along, because a second later he slid under her straddled legs and her splayed hands were on the wall, tender flesh anointed and sweetly teased by his tongue.

  “Vin.” She gasped, and plucked the condom from his hand.

  She was finally getting the hang of applying one and didn’t need more than one try this time. Shifting, she pressed herself down on him, releasing a gratified exhale as he speared into her.

  They had been having sex like a pair of rabbits and she was tender, but, oh, he felt so good inside her.

  He groaned, head thrown back. “You feel so good, Jac.”

  “So do you.” She braced her hands on his chest and rocked her hips. “I never want to do anything but this.”

  “Yeah,” he agreed, grasping her hips and helping her keep the rhythm. “I want—”

  She cried out, pulsing with orgasm, making him laugh with pained satisfaction. “Are you kidding me? Please say you want to keep going.”

  “I do.” But she melted onto him, kissing him, moving in abbreviated pulses against him. “It feels so good.”

  “It does,” he agreed, almost rolling them off the bed as he maneuvered her beneath him.

  They kissed and after a moment he began to move. She moaned to let him know how right it was. They kissed again and lightning flashed. They paused, waiting until they heard the thunder, then he withdrew and thrust again.

  It seemed to infuse their lovemaking. The playfulness was gone and they were two beasts of the earth now, caught in the elemental forces of night and an electrical storm and the unerring need to mate.

  He was so hard, so strong, so impelled. She clung to him, arching to stay in contact with his damp body as she opened herself to receive him, wanting all of him. Wanting to be everything he needed. Withdraw. Thrust. Give. Receive.

  It was profound.

  Another blast of light flashed.

  He didn’t stop. The intensity built to fresh heights.

  Thunder shook the house.

  It shook through their bodies. Their groans were lost in the noise as he increased the tempo. Their skin grew damp. The crisis drew nearer. She clung, wanting this. Needing him. Everything in him.

  “Vin.” She was so close.

  “Me, too.”

  Lightning flashed and thunder cracked. Their souls fused as they were propelled into another place and time.

  *

  Vin had set his ring tone for calls from the base to an abrasive, old fashioned fire bell. It went off in the gray light of dawn, waking him abruptly as it was meant to.

  He snapped his eyes open and tried to sit up, body tangled with Jacqui’s, mind scrambling to catch up his memories of last night like they were lost pieces of clothes sprinkled around the house. Sex, sauna, The Drop Zone, love, sex, thunder.

  Babies.

  Really?

  He grabbed the phone to silence the racket, answering, “On my way.”

  “Good. Take off in ten,” the dispatcher said.

  He rolled off the bed onto his feet. “Sorry,” he muttered, not just out of habit. They had both expected this, but he meant it. He would love to spend the day in bed with her.

  She sat up, calling as he left the room, “It’s okay. Just be careful.”

  “Will do.” He glanced back from the door.

  She was all doe eyes and slender, silky woman, lips red and pouted from way too much kissing.

  He loved her. Like all the way to the moon and back, sunk like the Titanic, punch-drunk loved her.

  He swallowed, fearful of jinxing this tentative heaven he’d found. “I gotta go.”

  “I know. I’ll be here. Or there,” she said ruefully. “When you get back.”

  He nodded and ran to dress.

  But as he drove to the base, he regretted that he hadn’t told her he loved her. Really loved her. So she knew it without a single doubt in her mind.

  *

  Vin charged into the ready room, wired and already high on adrenaline.

  His crew was there and suiting up at the speed racks. They all spared a second to glance his direction and a wary silence descended. No one said a word about Jacqui’s breakdown at the bar, b
ut the muted rustle of movement spoke volumes.

  As he shrugged and snapped and tucked, he said, “I see everyone’s had their cup of shut the hell up. That’s good. I thought this morning would be awkward.”

  He earned a couple of snorts, but everyone relaxed and they all waddled out to the plane, weighed down by their jump suits and gear.

  Being first in meant they were not only the initial attack, but they’d be sizing up the fire, providing the information that would allow Sam and the rest of the team at the base to plan a longer term strategy.

  The plane took a couple of passes, relaying first impressions back to the base. One lightning strike often had many legs and they were all capable of starting spot fires. Depending on the terrain and wind, those smaller fires could creep together or expand in fingers outward.

  The spotter dropped them east of the smoke trail and below the high-end hunting and fishing resort that the fire threatened. The lodge was mostly a fly in and out, but had a long, winding, graveled access road.

  That road was their goal, to be used as a barrier and an anchor point for the line.

  Vin scanned the terrain as he floated. He could already see spot fires on both sides of the road. Flames were creeping up the slope in the direction of the lodge.

  They would be cutting a long line to circle under it before they could get up to the head of the fire. Fortunately, there was a natural barrier in a rocky outcropping on the western flank so containment there could happen fairly quickly.

  He landed without much grace, body already tired and achy, as if he’d already put in a few sixteen-hour days. Thanks, Jac. He veered from letting thoughts of last night distract him, pleasant as that would be.

  They all quickly packaged their gear and supplies then hiked toward the access road. The crew broke into two, four bodies heading to cut the line on the shorter side of the fire while Vin and the rest began to contain the eastern flank.

  The sky was still overcast, but last night’s rain had stopped. Despite the snow over winter, there was plenty of dry fuel. The fire was more active on this side, already too tall and hot for a direct attack.

  Safety zones had always been gauged on flame height, but more recently they’d started calculating it by taking into account wind speed and slope. Either way, every firefighter felt safest when there was a direct route into an area that was already burned out. ‘One foot in the black’ they called it. And lived it.

  Linetti had been a faller in another life, so he grabbed the saw and began cutting snags while one of the other guys swamped. The rest cut line while Vin and Greg Winters moved ahead to flag up the flank and remove the rolling hazards.

  Vin called in his preliminary report and heard back that the land crew was suiting up, but it would be several hours before they would reach the lodge and begin protecting the cabins and main building.

  Hiking up closer to the lodge and cutting the fireline down hill would offer some immediate protection for the buildings, but it was dangerous as hell for the crew. Aside from a caretaker who had already evacuated to the far shore on a boat, no lives were at risk at the resort so Vin waited a few hours before scouting further on that possibility, returning to lend his back to the effort with old-fashioned sweat and pulaski work.

  They made good progress cutting from below, catching up to the head of the fire while staying out of the worst of the smoke.

  By midday, the other crew hit the rocks that finished their line and had burned out that side up to the road. They communicated that they were mopping up, grabbing a bite, then would be heading to this side to help.

  Knowing he’d have more bodies in an hour, Vin radioed in that he was going to scout higher up the slope, letting them know he would try to cut down from the last hairpin in the road if it looked like it could be done safely.

  He got an acknowledgment and took Winters. They hoofed upward through the thickening smoke, coming across the source, a spot fire likely from an ember off the bigger fire. They both hit it hard with the pulaskis, smothering it with dirt, but quickly saw another one.

  “Wind is picking up,” Vin said, climbing the slope to attack the spot fire. He paused a moment to get his bearings.

  “The wind has shifted,” he called, feeling the heat in the smoke and noting the embers floating in it. “Back off. Get back to the road.”

  They both started running, but fly ash danced around them. The smoke closed in, thickening so quickly, Vin lost sight of Winters’ stained yellow jacket within seconds. Fuck.

  Of course he was going to die today. Life had almost started to go his way.

  Jacqui.

  *

  “We’re going to find him, Jac.”

  She wasn’t even sure who said it, she just thought, dead or alive?

  She felt like throwing up. Or like she was freezing to death. Or as if she was under water.

  Maybe she was dead.

  She bordered on wishing she was.

  Vin.

  Greg Winters had made it to the road and had thought Vin was right behind him. He had tried to raise Vin on the radio, but heard nothing back.

  Equipment malfunctions happened. Heck, if Vin had had to run for his life, maybe he’d dropped his gear so he wouldn’t be impeded.

  But at that point, the fire had begun crowning, raining bits of flaming needles and pine cones. Reports were coming back that the winds were picking up with convection energy and stirring up pure hell all over the area. The ground crew was having to fight their way in and likely to fall back altogether until it was safer to approach.

  Everyone was scrambling like mad here at the base. She had managed to reach Sam, who’d gone across to Laurel’s ranch for a sudden fire call there last night. He had told her to sit tight, that he and Miranda would fly her out to the fire, but she was frozen to her desk, staring at Russ’s chute, thinking the worst.

  If she had to see Vin’s there as well…

  I can’t do this again.

  *

  Vin tripped on a snag and went ass over teakettle down a ravine, landing in a heap of fuel with embers floating down like fireflies.

  Swearing, he quickly scraped himself a tiny half-assed safety zone and went through the channels on his radio, but had no luck raising anyone, probably because he was in the bottom of a natural well. Standing on an ankle that streaked with pain, no less.

  He took in his position and had to admit, his prospects sucked.

  He was in a chute that had been cut by a seasonal creek that was little better than a bathroom faucet right now. It wasn’t enough of a natural line to burn himself a proper safe zone, either.

  The far wall of the ravine was already lighting up and smoke was coming from below. It would continue to billow up and collect around him and he couldn’t even go back the way he’d fallen. Fire had chased him off that ridge.

  He was fucked. Stuck like Santa in a fucking chimney.

  There is no Santa Claus.

  No, Jacqui, my love, there wasn’t any tooth fairy or miracles either. Not for him. Not ever.

  He hated like hell that she was going to be shattered all over again. Who was going to pick up the pieces if he wasn’t there to do it?

  Damn it, she shouldn’t have to go through this again!

  Fuck, fuck, fuckety-fuck. What the hell was he going to do?

  Come on, Russ, he pleaded in desperation. Do your brother a solid. Tell me which way to go. If you loved her at all, you would help me get back to her. You would want her to know what it was like to be loved the way she was meant to be loved.

  He searched in every direction, knowing it was a futile prayer because guardian angels didn’t exist either.

  Despair filled him as he recognized he would have to stay exactly where he was.

  You’ve got one ass to risk, Russ used to say, drawing the 1 and an * on everything from hard hats to pulaskis to shelter tents. Don’t be a hero. Don’t take stupid risks. Your best tool is under your hardhat. Use it.

  *

&
nbsp; Jacqui had only been to an incident camp a couple of times. Rule one was to stay the hell out of everyone’s way. She knew that much, but she was so anxious for news, she was already planning to go directly to the command tent.

  Sam pointed out the luxurious lodge as they circled over it to stay out of the plume of smoke. He told her it had been secured, but why the hell would she care about some rich guy’s getaway when it had sent Vin into this hellhole in the first place?

  No, she would not give any notice to that giant log cabin with its wrap-around veranda or the smaller bungalows with their snapping flags and window boxes. She refused to spare any admiration for the long wharf with its Adirondack chairs in bright colors that overlooked enough water to put out this fire a million times, if only the lodge owners had had the sense to prepare with pumps and hoses and water canons.

  If she never saw another forested mountainside in her life, she’d be a happy woman.

  Florida. She should have stayed in Florida.

  She immediately dismissed the wish. She might be staring down despair, but she wouldn’t let it take hold. What she had had last night with Vin was precious. Her life was enriched for the amount of it he’d already shared with her. She wanted more, dear God, did she want more time with him, but she wouldn’t wish away the time she had had with him.

  Hear that, Vin? Her eyes stung as she looked over the billows of smoke beyond her window. No regret. I’m not walking away from us because it got hard. Sometimes things do work out if you keep trying.

  Resentful as she was of the view—smoldering forests that had drawn Vin out here in the first place—she was drawn to search through the layers of smoke and was the one to spot the hint of blue that broke up a black scar down a crack in the mountainside.

  “What’s that?”

  Sam leaned across. His expression turned even grimmer. “That’s a shelter.”

  He told Miranda to relay the coordinates to the rescue helicopter.

  *

  Vin was belly down in damp mud. The trickle of creek was glacier fed, but with fire raging all around, it had warmed to tepid. Fortunately, the small dam he’d thrown together was working. The water wasn’t exactly pooling around him, but it was providing a damp sty to muck into.