I heard myself cry out, but it was too late to stop. My body was gripping my fingers, my breasts and belly shaking with my orgasm. I bit down hard, and felt tears seep from the corners of my eyes and Jason’s fluids drip from my pussy and soak into the quilt. I could feel all the tender places his body had bruised, and it heightened the climax even more. We’d always had second times… third times… in a single night. And every time had always pushed each climax higher than the last. I imagined him buried inside me and felt another thundering wave roll through me. I knew damn well I was making all the complications between us even worse by fantasizing, and I didn’t care. Jason had lit the flames tonight and I was his tinder; completely consumed… From this moment on, no matter what…
Even if we never crossed that line again,
I was completely at his mercy.
10
Jason
Reilly had abandoned the couch in favor of a spot closer to the fireplace. Lucky bastard was snoring peacefully, out for the count. I was restless, tossing on the couch until I’d finally given up altogether. I’d climbed up the stairs half a dozen times, only to turn and head right back down. For a while, I could hear the floorboards creaking over my head and I knew she was still awake. Ember had always paced the floor when she couldn’t sleep, or when she was worried… Every instinct in me demanded that I go to her, that it wasn’t right for us to be apart. It had never been right, especially tonight, with so much still unsaid… and undone, between us. Once I’d even had my hand on the doorknob… but her footsteps had finally stopped and I didn’t have the heart to risk waking her.
So instead I walked through the old house, letting memories flood over me. The kitchen was where we had met for the first time…
Randy and I had just graduated college. My own parents had been in Switzerland, and without the O’Briens’ invitation, I would have been on my own in a house full of servants for the holidays. That night was the night I discovered the difference between a home and family, and a mansion with absentee parents. The old kitchen had been warmed by the glow of the cookstove. It was like the heart of the whole house, the warm and comforting center of a home filled with love and devotion. The O’Briens had their problems, like any family, but it seemed like they could overcome anything. Even when they argued… and even though Sarah lived her life on a tenterhook, at the heart of it all, they were always family. You could see it in their eyes… when they looked at each other.
Ember had been all of twelve, small for her age; a skinny kid with knees like a colt. I could still see the way she had looked up at me with her huge, doe eyes. Randy and I had roomed together at school and were as close as any two real brothers could be. And the second I’d taken Ember’s little hand in mine, I’d adopted her as the kid sister I never had. The three of us had spent almost every holiday together after that one, along with plenty of time in between. Though I’d been eight years older, already a grown man, it felt like those were the years I really matured and began to understand that there was another way to live.
My own parents had been wealthy beyond belief… in everything at least, but the things that really mattered. To them, love was a luxury car, another vacation… a bigger house, another windfall. To Ember’s family, love was every home-cooked meal, every shared laugh, every noisy argument around the table. I’d learned patience from Sarah, from Randy and his dad I’d learned to love the land. Like them, I’d discovered I was willing to lay my life on the line to protect it. But by the time Ember had changed from a freckled kid into a spitfire bombshell, I’d learned the most important thing of all: That my heart was no longer mine.
I walked back toward the stairs again, knowing better, but unable to stop myself. It was almost harder to be this close to her than a hundred miles apart. She was only a dozen steps away… and the memory of her wet, naked skin on mine was working like a drug in my bloodstream. I took the steps two at a time, telling myself it would be enough just to open the door and see her asleep. In the bed we used to share… where I gave her a ring and asked her to…
That’s when I heard her.
And there wasn’t a sound in the world I knew better. She was on the other side of the door and she was right on the edge of orgasm. She was panting… the bedsprings were clicking softly, rhythmically as she moved. I leaned my forehead into the wooden door and heard a throaty moan, full of emotion and need. A hundred images of her were already burned into my brain; her luscious breasts… the sweet curve of her thighs… the way she let her head fall back when she came, exposing her throat. My cock was hard enough to pound the door down, but I stood, feeling the muscles in my jaw straining, and gripped the doorframe with my hands. There was nothing I wanted more than to give in to every reckless desire in me. I wanted to push her hands away and fill her with long, hard cock instead. I wanted to come inside her again and again, until the baby we’d dreamed of was reality. I wanted to give her everything we both wanted. But she was right. We’d already taken it too far, too fast tonight. And no matter how badly I wanted more, I couldn’t risk pushing her by barging into her bedroom…
She knew where I was tonight. If she’d wanted me again, she wouldn’t have shown me the couch…
But no man can listen to the sounds a woman makes when she’s stroking her pussy without reacting. I ran a hand down my bare chest and unzipped my jeans. Once had never been enough for either of us, I thought silently. My hot, insatiable little ember…
I wrapped myself in my hand and leaned my back into the wall. The sounds she was making seemed to go on… and on… I jerked myself hard, in time with her breathing.
For now, just for tonight, I told myself, as my own breathing started coming harder. But not for much longer. We both need a helluva a lot more, babygirl,
And we both need it soon.
11
Ember
I blinked and rolled over, waking up from one of the best sex dreams I’d ever had; me and Jason… in the hot springs…
“Holy shit,” I gasped out loud and shot straight up in bed. Still mostly dark outside… and running water in the bathroom across the hall… “Holy fucking…” I scrambled around for my ugly pink bathrobe, inwardly cursing the printed white bunnies gamboling over the fleece, and slipped into it anyway. “Shiiit,” I finished out loud. I switched on the overhead light and used my fingers to brush my hair back. It was useless and I knew it. The more I tried to tame it, the more it sprang out around my face. My damned hairbrush was in the bathroom… with him…
I dug into the dresser drawers, desperate to be fully dressed and presentable before he saw me like this… and then I remembered. Almost everything I owned was in the dryer downstairs. I looked at yesterday’s worn-out jeans and sweater on the chair, biting into my lip… debating… and decided to take the risk. I cracked my door just enough to make sure the bathroom door was still shut and then I took off down the stairs, trying to piece an outfit together in my head. Not too sexy… but not too broke-ass country girl… I had a newer pair of jeans and a green pullover that made my eyes look brighter…
I stopped dead in the warm kitchen, mostly from the scent. Hot, rich coffee was ready on the stove, and a batch of… I sniffed… Jason’s buttermilk biscuits, without a doubt. There was bowl of fruit salad waiting on the oak table alongside a pair of mugs and a neat stack of freshly chopped wood by the backdoor. I heard the pipes moan as the water shut off upstairs.
He wasn’t going to make this easy.
But I slipped through to the service porch with a smile on my face anyway. It had been so long, I’d almost forgotten just how good it feels to have a man around the house. Especially when that man is Jason. He was the kind of man who could do damned near anything he put his mind to. I dug into the dryer, feeling a pang of regret that I’d been asleep while he was chopping firewood. Call me cliché, but there’s something about a man with an axe in his hands, all bare-chested and sweaty…
Distracted by the image in my head, I took way too much time to find
panties that matched the bra. It wasn’t like anyone was going to notice but me. Then I pulled off the old robe and let it fall to the floor. The heat from the kitchen didn’t reach this part of the house and my nipples stiffened in reaction to the cold. It hit me like a shockwave, shooting straight down my belly to my core. My pussy squeezed tight in answer and sent a demanding pulse up my spine. It was at the height of that sensation I heard the door open behind me. I opened my eyes and turned at the ragged sound of his breath.
“Ember…”
He was standing in the doorway, in nothing but a towel that was too small for a man his size. It covered his hips… but little else. In his arms, he carried the clothes he’d worn the night before.
“These are all I’ve got…” he said slowly, taking me in with his eyes. “Figured I’d wash them before you were up…” He stepped close enough I could feel the heat of his shower rising off his skin. He dropped his clothes into the washer without looking away from me. I stood like I was frozen, my nipples quivering less than a hand’s length from the hard, bulging muscle of his chest. He leaned down, his mouth so close…
But he simply picked my robe up from the floor and tossed it in with his clothes. The next thing into the washer was the towel he was wearing. And all he had left was a cocky smile and a raging hard-on.
“Breakfast’s ready,” he said casually. “I thought I might as well make myself useful before we head out to get your truck.”
“Jason… I…”
“There’s another cord of wood stacked on the back porch and I took care of the leak under the bathroom sink.” He went on as if we weren’t both standing naked and mere inches apart. It was surreal.
“You’ve got some holes I ought to plug…” he continued.
“For Christ’s sake,” I shot back, angry now. But he cut me off with a smile, wrapping his arms around me and pulling me against his entire hard and heated length. He laughed, confidently, carelessly and angled my head back with a gentle tug on my hair. He looked into my dark eyes with his crystal blue ones and grinned playfully.
“The wind last night, babygirl. There are some places in the roof that need patching.”
He licked his lips and dropped his eyes to my mouth. He hadn’t moved a muscle, but I could feel his eyes burning like a kiss. His full length was crushed against my belly and I could feel him pulsing. Warm, liquid heat was making a slippery spot between us.
“But my clothes won’t be ready for a while…” he said darkly, clearly enjoying himself,
“so you might as well take full advantage of me while I’m here…”
12
Jason
It was cruel, and I knew it. But somehow I’d never been able to help myself. Not when she had the scent of lust about her… and that stubborn look in her beautiful eyes. I couldn’t say I was surprised that she stalked off without a word, slamming the door behind her. But it told me what I needed to know. She hadn’t slept any more than I had. She was irritable and frustrated. She needed coffee almost as much as she needed me to take her back to bed and remind her who we used to be together. I could hear her footsteps on the stairs. When she appeared again in the doorway, she was fully dressed.
“Here,” she said, thrusting an armful of clothes at me. She sat down abruptly without meeting my eyes and reached for a mug.
“You kept these?” I asked, turning them over in my hands; jeans and my favorite flannel shirt.
“They were boxed up the back of the closet,” she said, sipping her coffee. “I was going to mail them… I just forgot… Will you please just get dressed?”
I smiled, but did as she asked and brought the pan of hot biscuits back to the table. My reward was the look in her eyes. She was ravenous.
I slathered one with butter and apricot preserves, her favorite, and pushed the plate over to her. She took a big bite and her eyes rolled in pleasure. She licked her fingers and my heart turned over. “Oh, god… you haven’t lost your touch, that’s for sure.”
“I fucking hope not,” I answered, putting my hand on top of hers. I brought her sticky fingers to my lips and sucked them gently into my mouth and it felt like the air between us was suddenly overheated.
“Jason…”
“I know,” I said, letting her fingers fall away. “We shouldn’t do this, but we already have, Em. Last night wasn’t an accident.” I gripped her hands in mine, holding them captive. “We found each other again because we were meant to, Ember. We could spend the entire rest of our lives apart and it wouldn’t change the fact that we’re meant for each other. I’m supposed to be here, fixing the fucking roof and bringing you breakfast in bed.” I put her hands on my chest and held them there. Her eyes were enormous and liquid, the color of dark chocolate. I slipped one hand boldly down between her breasts and rested my palm on her flat belly.
“We were going to start a family, Em,” I said, feeling a thrumming under my hand. “Our family is here, right here… waiting to be born, sweetheart.”
“And you’re still on-call… aren’t you?,” she whispered. “You could leave me anytime, day or night. An hour’s notice, and you’d be packed up and gone…”
That’s the girl I love. Straight between the eyes. How the hell did I live without you?
“Yes,” I answered simply. I wasn’t going to bullshit my way out. “But I haven’t been called in over a year. The foundation takes most of my time. I’m working to overhaul the impact of hydroelectric energy on these mountains.” I took her face in my hands and looked into the bottomless depths of her eyes. “What I do makes me who I am, Ember. But mostly what I am is a man who needs his soulmate.” I kissed her and felt the tension in her body ease. “There’s no such thing as a life without risk, babygirl,” I said. “But there’s no such thing as a fucking life at all… without you.”
I stood, pulling her up with me and crushed her body to mine. “I love you, Em,” I whispered into her open, waiting mouth. “I never stopped. I never will, no matter how you try to push me away.” I reached under her sweater and slipped it off, over her head. “We had three long years apart,” I said, cupping her lace-covered breasts with my hands; stroking them, heating them… “and I have a lot to make up for…”
“Oh… my… god…” she gasped out, digging her fingers into the muscles of my shoulders. We hadn’t even made it up the stairs.
“That’s my baby,” I whispered into her folds. I dipped my tongue inside again and felt her hovering on the brink. My cock was pounding in outrage, jerking hard in time with the throbbing of her swollen clit. But I intended to make good on my promise before I gave in to its demands.
“Once is just to get the fire started,” I said, making sure she could feel my lips sliding over the most sensitive spot, “you know that, sweetheart. My baby needs more…” I slid two thick fingers up her inner thigh and paused to feel her reaction. “You never forgot how I can touch you,” I whispered. “How I can make you come on my fingers… how I can make you so fucking wet that I can slide right up to… here?”
She sucked her breath in, making a sound that took me damned close to the edge along with her. The feeling of her hot, velvety pussy in my hand shifted my consciousness downwards… she grasped the head of my cock in her hands. Reilly was outside barking in the distance, and Ember was squeezing me… stroking me now…
“I was on the other side of the door last night,” I ground out through my teeth, “jerking off…” I gasped, “while you were doing it too…” I pressed deeper, into the secret spot that made her juices flow. She was suddenly soaking wet and her hips were grinding in a rhythm that moved faster and faster…
I pushed her legs up and wide, spreading her but keeping her tight, too. I let the huge, wet head of my cock find her perfect center…
“I’m not ever going to be on the wrong side of that door again,” I said, as the primal urge to dominate her grew stronger with every second. “And this,” I said, thrusting my raging erection in with one swift jolt. “This belongs to yo
u.
Only you.”
“Hey, Sis… I’m home…”
A second later, we were scrambling and I was jerking the blanket off the sofa to cover her. Randy stood awkwardly in the open doorway, his hand flying up to his cover his eyes before he stepped back outside. “Ah, fuck… I’m sorry… I didn’t… Jesus Christ…”
He closed the door, giving us all a chance to recover ourselves. Ember’s face was flushed, her eyes enormous and stunned…
Randy had still been in his turnout gear, clearly exhausted and filthy… with singe marks on his jacket.
The acrid smell of smoke lingered in the air behind him.
13
Ember
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Randy said, wrapping his hands around his mug. He’d stayed outside with Reilly way longer than it took for us to dress. Now we sat around the table in the kitchen, all of us pretending he hadn’t just walked in on us…
“Damn near no rain in months, all through the summer and across Nevada and Utah. And not a quarter of the snowfall this winter.” He brought the mug up and breathed in its steam. “The Santa Anas have blown half a dozen fires further east than they’ve ever gone before,” he went on. He looked from Jason’s face to mine. “The better part of three states have been blown fucking dry. And they’re not just surface fires anymore…”
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