Freed by Fire

by Christine, Ashley

  “Nope, I got it. Now move that sweet arse.”

  I turned and smiled as I walked ahead of him down the trail. A little extra swing added in each step. I felt his eyes burning through my shorts and I loved every second of it.

  Site #14 was all ours. An empty space secluded from anyone else with a clearly worn down pad on the ground where many other tents had been placed over the years. A fire pit was a few feet away, near a picnic table. Behind the sprinkling of trees was a lake. In the late afternoon sky, the water was glistening and shining like it was full of diamonds instead of water.

  Caid dropped the box and pulled his shirt off to wipe his face and chest. He was drenched with sweat and it made everything inside of my body scream. How was it possible for him to look like a god, so soaked in sweat—but for a woman? We looked ridiculous. I’m sure I did at that moment. My hair was stuck to my neck, I bet I had dripped all of my makeup off by now, and I knew the damp line between my shoulders must have looked all kinds of gross. I wanted to run into the water and immerse myself in it.

  “Can we swim later?” I asked, turning around as Caid moved toward me.

  “There’s one rule about swimming in that lake I need you to know about.”

  “What’s that?” I had a feeling it was his rule and not that of the campground.

  “Clothing is not option. It’s definitely,” he said as he pulled damp hair from my shoulder, “not allowed.”

  “I was hoping you would say that.” I snaked my arms around his neck and pulled him in, crushing his mouth against mine. His sweat-soaked torso made my chest damp and my t-shirt cling to my body.

  Half an hour later Caid and I had successfully raised the tent. Pretty good for my first time, I must say. Caid pulled a box out of the bigger tote and pulled out an air mattress.

  “I thought we were really camping? What’s with that?” I asked, smirking at the mattress.

  “I don’t want you laying on the hard ground. If you’re going to be sore in the morning, it won’t be from that.” Caid licked his bottom lip and unfolded the vinyl bed. It blew itself up with an internal device after Caid set it inside of the tent. He placed a large duvet down and tossed in some pillows. I could get used to this type of camping.

  My stomach rumbled—loudly. I was starving. Cursing myself for not getting anything except water from the gas station I rubbed my hand over my belly as if it would soothe the groaning organ.

  “This took a little longer than I expected. Sorry, Em. I’m gonna head back to the main building to get some things. Need anything?”

  “A toothbrush.”

  Caid smiled and stepped over to me. “You’ll be okay while I’m gone?”

  “Of course.”

  “I’ll be five minutes, love.” Caid threw on his wet t-shirt while walking down the path and out of sight. I sighed. Saddened to be alone. I had been with him for over twenty-four hours straight. It felt good. Too good. I didn’t know what was going to happen when the fun was over and we had to return to reality on Monday morning.

  I drained the rest of my water and plunked down on the wooden bench of the picnic table. Caid’s phone started to ring. He forgot to take it with him. It sat on the table, inches from my hand. The name on the screen flashed. Leeanna. Who was Leeanna?

  I touched the phone, but I didn’t answer it. It stopped ringing and a few beats later an alert of a voicemail was flashing on the screen. Ten seconds later a text message popped up.

  Leeanna: We need to talk. Answer your phone.

  I pushed the phone away and got up from the table as Caid made his way down the path with a paper bag in his hand and a panty-dropping smile on his face.

  “Hope you like hotdogs, it’s all they had left.”

  “I love them.”

  “Good.” He smiled and set the bag on the table next to his phone. “I meant to pick up all the stuff before we got here, but someone decided to break down and needed to be rescued.” Caid swiftly kissed me. “I’ll get the fire going. I picked up some water and soda too.”

  I opened the bag and pulled everything out. Setting the food on the table away from the cellphone that I itched to touch. Caid took the empty paper bag, crumpled it, and added it to the pyre he had created. His phone rang again.

  “It rang while you were gone. I forget to tell you,” I lied.

  He picked it up and flared his nostrils. “Fuck,” he rumbled quietly. “Hello?” he answered and turned to walk away from me. “No, I didn’t get your message. What do you want?”

  I don’t know who Leeanna was, but it didn’t sound like she was someone Caid wanted to speak with. He stepped farther away from me, and my body implored my feet to move with him, but I didn’t. It wasn’t any of my business.

  Caid ran his hand through his hair and left it gripping the back of his neck as he spoke. I could tell from this distance that he was tense at whatever the conversation was regarding. With his lifted arm, his shirt was raised. The fire-breathing dragon peaked out from the spread of clothing and my thighs clenched together as I remembered the first time I saw it.

  “Everything okay?” I asked as Caid began to walk to me. I held out my hands and he enveloped right into my body. I inhaled him deeply. His sweat, the delicious musk of his natural scent, and the fruitiness of the gum he was still chewing.

  “It is now.” A chaste kiss on my lips was all I got before he let me go and picked up the package of hotdogs.

  Caid pulled a long wire rod with a handle out of the box and stuck hotdogs over the prongs. I smiled thinking of him planning and packing for this weekend. Insane, considering how short of a time we’ve known one another. What would he have done instead if I had said no to his offer?

  We ate the hotdogs, without buns, in the quiet of the evening. As the sun began to set, the blue and white twinkling of the lake turned to a deep red with pink hues and it was breathtaking.

  “Did you divorce him because he cheated?” Caid asked, pulling my eyes from the lake and right onto his.

  I nodded. “Among other reasons, which I didn’t really see until they were right in front of my face.” I wasn’t sure how deep this conversation was going to go, and I wasn’t sure if I even wanted to have it in the first place. Matt was a dark place for me. I didn’t like the dark. “Who is Leeanna?”

  Caid looked down at his hands. “Caleb’s mother.”

  “Oh.” My voice was low. I looked at my hands too, unsure of why I even asked the question. “Do you want to go swimming yet?” I tried to change the tone of the space.

  “I’m not ready to talk about her, Emery. Please know it’s not you…it’s really me. I will, someday, just not today.”

  I forced a small smile. I didn’t want to make him talk about anything he didn’t want to, and just as I didn’t want to delve into my life with Matt, I wasn’t going to expect Caid to open up about Leeanna. Maybe sometime in the future—not tonight. Not when we’re still so new.

  Caid dumped a bucket of water over the fire, dousing it to a smoldering pile. “You have five seconds to get into that water, before I throw you in.” His playful tone was back, and he regarded me with a wicked grin. “Five, four, three…”

  I sat up and ran for the lake before he got to two. I skipped through the trees and laughed as my feet hit the warm sand. There were other people in the water and on the beach. Not close, but within the proximity that I wasn’t going to strip without being seen.

  With one swift movement, Caid swooped me off my feet and threw me over his strong shoulder. I wailed and kicked my feet. “Caid! No!”

  “I told you this was happening.” He slapped my ass.

  “No! These are the only clothes I have with me, don’t throw me—” I flew through the air and hit the water. A cool feeling ran over me as my feet pushed off the bottom and sent me back up into the warm air. “You jerk!”

  “You were warned, love.”

  I leaned my head back into the water as I stood with my shoulders just above the water. It felt so good,
especially after how gross and sweaty I had become. Caid pulled his shirt off as he got closer and tossed it up onto the beach. He stayed in his shorts as he moved to me and let his body slip under the water.

  I started to back away from him, losing the steadiness of the ground beneath my feet, I kicked my feet and churned water to stay afloat. He swam toward me, with those freaky hot eyes locked on mine. His mouth was pressed into a firm line. He was a shark in the water. And I was a piece of meat.

  “Caid…” I said, my voice strong and questioning his motives.

  “Emery.”

  “What are you doing, Mr. Burke?”

  He grabbed hold of me and spun me in the water. “Look at that,” he said, pointing to the mighty red and burnt orange sun that was slipping beneath the tree line. “That’s not even as beautiful as you.”

  I chuckled. Yeah right. “Why do you keep telling me that? You don’t have to, you know.”

  “Emery Finn,” he whispered, his tongue stroking the shell of my ear. “Someday I will explain things about my life, and you’re damn sure going to tell me why you don’t see yourself the way everyone else does.” His hands slid into my shirt and he palmed my breasts. “But, for now, I’m going to show you how beautiful I think you are…with all those people watching.”

  “Umm,” I moaned. “No.”

  “Umm,” he mirrored. “Yes.” With that, one hand slipped from my shirt and slid into my shorts. His fingers found what they were looking for and he circled my clit. “That’s my girl, so soft and sweet.”

  I leaned my head back and let him touch me. I floated as he stood. He was still able to touch the ground as his frame was well over six foot to my 5’8”.

  “I wonder how many times in one day you could come for me…” he groaned, kissing my neck behind my ear. “How many times do you think, Em?”

  “Too many,” I whimpered. My fuzzy brain couldn’t even recall how many times today he already had.

  He groaned and increased the speed of his fingers, but remained gentle all the while.

  Chapter Twelve

  Saturday, July 13 — 8:50 pm

  “Okay, buddy. Let me talk to Nan now. Love you too, Caleb. Night…Hey, Sandy. No, it’s fine. I’m happy he’s having a good time…Did he? That’s great. I’ll call him in the morning. Okay, bye.” Caid ended his call and unzipped the tent to climb in. “Well, hello, love.”

  “Hi,” I said. My ear-to-ear smile was infectious as I watched his turn into a grin.

  “What’s with that look?” he asked, zipping the tent back up and sliding down next to me.

  “You.”

  “Me?”

  “Yeah, just you. How’s Caleb?”

  Caid smiled. “Good. I guess he got a haircut today. He misses me.”

  “You miss him, I can tell.”

  Caid kissed me. “I do.”

  With our clothing out to dry, I was completely naked. Caid had on a pair of shorts. I put my hand on his warm chest and traced the outline of the cross. “What do the dates mean?”

  “Two of my buddies that died.” He held my finger and traced it along the first date. “This one is for Andy. He died when he got trapped in a building that we couldn’t get put out in time.” Caid closed his eyes and moved to the next date. “This is Jesse’s. We responded to a truck fire on the Interstate and he was struck by a passing car.”

  “Holy shit, Caid…I’m so sorry.” I held his face. Both of those times that could have been him. He could have died, and his date may have been tattooed on someone else’s body.

  “It’s the job. We know what we’re getting in to.” He shrugged.

  “Have you always wanted to be a firefighter?”

  He shook his head. “Not always. I wanted to be like my dad. He owned hotels in Ireland. Suit and tie, seven days a week.”

  Owned? As in, past tense?

  “What changed your mind?” I asked. Now I was really wondering.

  “My parents sold everything off and moved us to the States. I don’t remember much because they didn’t talk about it around us—I wasn’t even ten years old, but I knew there were bad people back home who were trying to corrupt the name my father made for himself. We got out of there and came here.” Caid’s body tensed. “They found us and set our house on fire about five years later. Leland and I were pulled out by the firefighters. But my mom and dad weren’t.”

  “Caid,” I whispered and wrapped my arms around him. “I’m so sorry.”

  “At first I was mad…wondering why couldn’t they save them too? But then I grew up and decided to become one. To make sure that no one was ever left behind. Leland chose to deal with things like a true Irishman,” he laughed “by opening a bar and surrounding himself with his friends Jack, Johnny and some others.”

  “Your parents would be very proud of you, I’m sure of it.” I kissed his cheek. I wanted to soothe him, even in some small way.

  “I don’t know about that, but thank you.”

  “What happened to the people that set the fire?”

  “Their plane crashed as they left the U.S.” He shrugged. “Karma.” He nuzzled into my body and I instantly felt the heat flow from him and warm me. Even in the thick of the July weather, Caid’s warmth and soft touch was more comforting than any blanket on a cold and frigid night.

  We slept, wrapped up like that all night. As the morning sun hit the tent I felt the beads of sweat begin to trickle down my forehead. It was a like a sauna in there and I needed to get out. My sleepy eyes gained their focus and felt for Caid’s body. He was gone.

  I tugged on one of the thin sheets and wrapped it around my body. Stepping out in to the morning air felt so good. I felt so good. For the first time in a long time, actually. I looked around, but didn’t see him anywhere.

  “Caid?” I said, my voice soft. Clearing my throat I called his name once more. Nothing.

  “Christ,” I heard his deep voice and turned to see him coming down the path with another paper bag. “You look like a fucking angel.”

  I laughed. “Good morning to you too, Mr. Burke.”

  He dropped the bag at my feet and took my face into his hands, he leaned in and inhaled my skin. His cheek rubbed against mine. “I like you wrapped up in my sheets.”

  I stepped back and waggled my finger. “Oh, no…you need to feed me first. What’s in the bag?”

  Caid gaped and laughed. “Looks like the honeymoon’s over…it’s okay, I’ve heard this happens. It’s your clothing. I took them in earlier, to the main building. They have coin laundry.”

  “You washed my clothes?”

  He shrugged and smiled. “Too much?”

  “Yes!” I grabbed his shirt and pulled him into me, he dipped his head and met my lips. “You are way too much. But, thank you. Guess I don’t have to wear this sheet all day, after all.”

  “Pity.”

  ***

  Sunday, July 14 – 11:45 am

  Caid was down at the lake when I came back from using the bathroom facilities. He sat on the sand with his knees pulled up and his arms wrapped around them. His sunglasses were on, but I could see from his smile that he was watching a man in the water trying to teach his young son how to jump off the floating dock in the lake in a cannon-ball form.

  There were bikini-clad girls all over place, but it was like they weren’t even there. It warmed my heart. He loved his son so much.

  “Hi,” I said as I sat down beside him. I dug my toes into the sand as I pulled my knees up in the same manner as he did.

  “Hi.”

  “Have you been here before with Caleb?”

  “Yeah, we come every summer.”

  “Are you going to bring him back before he starts school this fall?”

  “I hope so, maybe next month for his birthday. See that dock right there?” He pointed. “Every year he tells me he’s going to swim out to it and jump off. But, he never does. Instead he runs along the shore and builds sand castles. “I’m still thinking about it, Dad” he tells
me. I think this year just may be the one where he jumps off.”

  “Does he have a fear of the water?” I asked.

  “I think it’s the lake. That he can’t see what’s beneath him. We have a pool in our backyard, and he swims in there all the time.”

  I smiled. I haven’t seen much of his house. I’d like to see the pool. I’d love to watch Caleb swim in there, and see Caid play and splash around with his son. “Sounds nice.”

  “Remember that waitress from Big Boy?”

  I elbowed him. “Nope.”

  “Me neither.” He laughed. “Well, she said something about a drive-in, and it made me think…I haven’t been to one of those in years. What do you think about leaving early, taking in a movie then having a sleepover at my house tonight? I’ll make you hot chocolate and we can tell ghost stories under the blankets with flashlights.”

  “I’ve never had such an offer extended my way. How could I refuse?” I kissed him. It was short, sweet, but powerful enough to knock my wind out of my body. “But, hot chocolate? It’s like, ninety-five degrees.”

  “It’s never too hot for hot chocolate.”

  “Are there even any drive-in’s around here?”

  Caid pulled out his phone. “Yep, I already checked. You have two choices, love. The first is some movie…you won’t like it. The second has explosions and half naked women. I think that’s our best bet.”

  “Let me see that, Burke.” I grabbed his phone and looked at the screen that listed the show times. “Well, I can tell you right now that I want to watch the first one.”

  Caid gaped. “I thought I was enough man-candy for you. I guess I was wrong.” He reached for his phone but I held it away. “I’m no Channy Taytee.”

  “Channing Tatum.” I corrected. And baby, you are so much more than just man-candy.

  “Right. That’s what I said.” Caid laughed and tackled me. His body towered over mine and he dipped down, brushing his nose over mine. “I like explosions and half-naked women. To be more specific, I like this half-naked woman.”

  “Okay, I like the second movie, let’s go to that one.”