Just as the chopper dipped one last time, he gathered his haunches underneath him and launched off the ground. I caught him around the middle and the rope jerked us upwards, swinging us wildly through the air. Frank had given me the one minute I’d asked for and no more. We dangled from the rope, trailing below the chopper as he turned on a dime and climbed in the sky. I dug my fingers into Reilly’s thick fur and held on tight while the crew worked to haul us in.
The last thing I remembered was collapsing into Ember’s arms as the chopper swept us safely out of the valley and the last remnants of our home went up in flames behind us. The furious sound of vengeful demons roared all around us.
I heard Frank’s voice over it all:
“Firestorm.”
Copper Valley Hospital, two days later
“Well, you’re free to go, and one lucky man,” the doctor said, as I signed the release forms and handed the clipboard back. “Dehydration and a few minor burns… It could have been worse, much worse.” He turned away to talk to the nurse and I gathered Ember back into my arms. She had been checked out and released the day before, and no amount of argument had convinced the nursing staff to let her stay with me after visiting hours. Hospital gowns have their advantages, but unmet needs were still hammering away inside me, and my patience was rapidly running out…
“You know, you two are more than welcome to stay with us,” Randy said, as I grabbed my bag and stuffed in the last of my belongings. “As long as you don’t mind how noisy the kids can get…”
Ember and I exchanged a meaningful look and a smile. “My parents are in Courchevel until the end of the summer, so we’ll have their house to ourselves while we rebuild the cabin,” I replied. I pulled her against me and took her hair in my hands. Thick and lush, it curled around my fingers and smelled delicious, warm and spicy. “We wouldn’t mind the noise at all, but I think we’ll take advantage of privacy and quiet… while still we can…”
“There’s hell of a lot of work to do, just clearing alone. It’ll take months at the very least…” Randy replied. “Wait… what?” He shot a questioning look at me and then at Ember. Connie stood grinning, looking like she was about to explode.
“What do you mean… while you still can?” he asked.
“He means that you’re going to be an uncle,” Ember said, laughing. She wrapped her arms around him as he blinked, open-mouthed. “And before you know it, we’ll have a whole houseful of rowdy, noisy kids who are as much trouble as you were when you were little. And you’re going to babysit whenever I ask you to,” she added, teasing, bossy.
Sarah poked her head in the door. “Snow’s really starting to come down and there’s somebody else outside who’s not willing to wait much longer…” She caught my hand and pulled me aside. “Jason…” she began. “You know I don’t have enough words to thank you for what you’ve done,” she said quietly, emotion lining her face. “You’ve given me my whole family back…”
I took the hand she held out to me. “Sarah… I…”
“No, please,” she said, stretching up to kiss my cheek. “Call me mom… or grandma…”
I flushed, throwing my bag over my shoulder and grabbing up Ember’s warm hand in mine. Randy still looking stunned, but had a lopsided smile on his face.
“Don’t worry,” Connie said, smiling and taking his hand. “He’ll come around eventually… as soon as he accepts that his little sister’s finally all grown up.”
Reilly scrambled out of the car, ears and legs flying in all directions at once. His paws were bandaged and he had a plastic cone around his neck, but nothing was slowing him down. He hit the snow and leapt from there. Jason caught him in his arms and I buried my face in his fur.
“He’s quite a handful,” Mom said, “I can keep him for a while longer, if you want…”
“No.” Ember shook her head and looked up at me as I helped her into the car. She smiled at me in a way that made my whole body ache.
“No, he stays with us,” I said firmly. “We’re family and family stays together.”
The nurse followed us outside with a handful of papers and a shy smile. “Doctor says that considering what you’ve been through, you’re in excellent condition,” she blushed brightly and looked away, “but even so, he wants you take it easy. He recommends at least a few more days in bed…”
“Not a problem,” I replied, looking down at Ember’s radiant face. “I was thinking exactly the same thing.”
44
Ember
Jason’s mouth trailed back up the inside of my thigh and rested against my belly as the last deep, pounding waves of my climax pulsed and ebbed. His fingers stayed where they were, stroking me slowly, building my need even as he released it. I was panting, my heart still racing… I wanted every inch of him in every possible way. My body was thrumming, my baby hormones making me lusty and bold. I slipped my leg out from under him and pushed him over onto his back, straddling his hips, my breasts rising and falling heavily.
He groaned and arched, the muscles in his neck forming thick cords. He was huge and powerful, chiseled from thick, broad shoulders down to his hard, veined loins. His cock stood rock solid, massive and slippery from his eagerness. My legs were spread over him and my soaking pussy only inches away. But I wasn’t letting him off so easily. I shifted down, sliding my breasts along his chest, letting my nipples rake his flesh. He’d given me sweet, delicious torture… now it was my turn.
“Now… pay attention,” I demanded, taking his huge, hot cock in my hands and leaning forward. I licked my lips and was rewarded with a strong, eager throb. “It’s your turn and I’d say you’ve earned it,” I teased, enjoying my sudden power.
“Holy fuck, Em…” he gasped out as I stroked him. I had both hands around his shaft and still couldn’t cover his entire length. The head of his cock was huge, dark and begging to be swallowed. But I started at the very base, slowly licking my way up… then puckered my lips tight… so he could push his way in…
He was like hot, slick velvet, sliding into my mouth and he sucked a ragged breath through his teeth. His shaft was pulsing fast, his heavy balls high and tight in my hands. His muscles strained under his skin as he fought to hold himself back. He was used to being the one in control…
“God, you’re hot… so fucking wet…” he gasped, taking my head in his hands. My hair splayed over his hips and he pumped a long, lusty stroke between my lips. I bobbed, using the muscles in my cheeks to work him and was rewarded with the silky taste of salt and earth. I swallowed and sucked again, heady, aching, needing more. It pushed me faster and I could feel his verging climax rolling like thunder under the surface…
“Jesus, sweetheart… slow, slow…” He took fistfuls of my hair and eased me off him, intense blue eyes shining down at me over the length of his body. “It’s been so long… too fucking long without you…” he said, his breath coming fast and harsh. “After all we’ve been through, I need to come inside you, babygirl.” He reared up, and in a heartbeat, had me on my back. His eyes dragged over my body, heavy lidded and seductive. “I need to see your face when I come… the look in your eyes… when I’m buried inside so much beauty…”
He pulled my bottom lip down with his thumb and teased my lips with his mouth, his tongue. One rough hand slipped down to cup a swollen breast and he lifted it to his mouth, sucking, warming my tight nipple into an aching marble of tender flesh. He kissed me, using his lips to explore the shape of my breasts, the curve of my waist. He loved me slowly, letting the heat build between us to the point of combustion. “I love you,” he whispered, low on my belly, just over my mound. “I love you both…”
Then he stroked his hands down my trembling legs, to take my ankles in his hands. He lifted me, spreading me so he could kiss my deepest folds. His hot tongue burned a path inside me and lapped over my clit like the perfect flame. Then he shifted on top of me, pressing his solid muscled chest to my yielding body. I wrapped my legs around hard, lean hips as my pussy me
t the head of his waiting shaft. And he stopped.
“Look at me,” he said, his pulse thrumming, his body shuddering with the depth of his need, “Let me see you when I fill you. Like this is our first time,” he said, “our first time all over again…”
He took my face in his hand, holding me tenderly, watching as he hilted himself inside me, his hot, thick shaft filling every tight inch. Wet, naked flesh echoed with the pounding of our hearts, each pulse of his cock sending a vibration straight to my clit. He rocked back, setting up a rhythm of short thrusts that lengthened and grew. Sweat trickled between my breasts and soaked the sheets underneath us. I bucked with my hips, demanding everything he had… all of him, every inch, every deep, hard thrust. I ground my desperate nub against him, fully cocked and aching for release. I burned with a hot fury that only his seed had the power to tame.
“My beautiful, hot… fucking… Ember,” he gasped.
And hot, fluid sensation carried me over the edge. He was deep inside me, buried and throbbing when our climax hit. We burst, shattering together as he covered me with his body, shuddering, flooding me with his release. My pussy clenched in rhythmic spasms, working his entire length. His mouth joined mine as he thrust on, in powerful wet strokes. I was shaking in his arms, my breath short and fast as he loved my body and whispered to my soul. I was limp, panting against his mouth by the time he slowed, and he rested his head in the cradle of my breasts.
I drank him in, bathed in his love, quenched… for the moment. I drew a long, satisfied breath and exhaled, holding his head, stroking his hair as our breathing grew steady and slow. We’d both sleep. For a while, at least. Until the smallest shift, a breath… or a touch kindled overwhelming need all over again.
For now, we were rendered by desire, purified by fire,
But deep beneath the surface, our embers burned strong.
45
Jason
“I need to see the cabin for myself,” she said, curling against me for warmth, her hand resting easily on my thigh. We bumped and slid over the familiar road in Randy’s old truck, and I smoothed my palm over her hand.
“I know, sweetheart,” I said, softly, pulling off onto the driveway. “But we saw it from the air… in all likelihood, there won’t be anything left at all.” I picked up her fingers and warmed them on my cheek. “Almost nothing, anyway.”
Winter had arrived. It had taken a long time, and cost us so much in the waiting… but the whole world was finally blanketed in cold, perfect white. Reilly, glad to finally be rid of his bandages, raised his head to the window and watched the snow fall in gentle whirling drifts. He made a sound in the back of his throat and perked his ears. Though nothing looked the same at all, he still knew he was coming home.
I swallowed the feeling in my chest and pulled up in front of the cabin’s broken remains. A few walls still stood, one leaned heavily against the old cookstove. It had warmed and fed so many generations, watched so many children grow. Now, its black metal surface was stone cold, the oven door hung open as it tilted unevenly on its feet… yet it still marked where the heart of the house had once been.
We climbed out and Reilly took off, racing over the snow and barking in happy excitement. For him, home was simply the place, the land itself. And he was glad to be back. But bitter regret burned inside me. I couldn’t bear that she had to face such an enormous loss. Somehow, I should have prevented this…
“Ember…” I started, taking her hands in mine, searching her face. “We’ll rebuild, if it’s what you want. I know it can’t ever be the exactly same, but I’ll build it with my own two hands and I swear, I’ll do everything in my power to give you back what you’ve lost…”
She bent slowly and picked up the old iron kettle, putting it back on the stove where it belonged. She leaned down and brushed snow and ash off a small metal box. I wandered through what was left of the living room. There wasn’t even a trace of her wedding gown.
“No,” she replied softly, shaking her head. “It’s not what I want…”
She came closer and I watched snowflakes fall, resting on her brilliant hair as she bent and stirred through the rubble with a gloved hand. She picked up a twisted piece of metal and brushed off the snow. A piece of her typewriter…
“I don’t want it to be the way it was,” she said, smiling in a way that made tears burn behind my eyes. “I’m not the same… we’re not the same anymore,” she said. “Don’t you see? It’s like the slate’s been wiped clean… and we get a chance to start all over again, from the very beginning.
“A real second chance.”
In two strides, I had her in my arms. “We’ll need a much bigger place… for lots of babies,” she said, smiling up at me, teasing me. She reached inside my jacket and suddenly the air around us didn’t feel cold anymore. “I want a house of my own, with my husband,” she said. “The cabin was my parents’ home, and it was a lovely place to grow up.
“But I want a home with you, a home all our own.”
I kissed her until we were both breathless, clouds of steam filling the air between us. “Come on,” she said, taking my hand, pulling me along with her. Reilly barked his approval and leapt through the snow, blazing a trail. We didn’t stop until we were standing in the grove, the grove where she’d always wanted to get married. The snow was perfect white, clean and untouched. And the trees, although they’d been burned and shattered, were now covered in a thick layer of pure, crystalline ice. They sparkled in the brilliant sunlight, blindingly… surprisingly beautiful.
“I want to build our house here,” she said, holding her arms up and spinning a circle. “This is the place, right here. In my favorite spot in the whole world.”
I wrapped my arms around her, and swept her brilliant, coppery hair back from her cheeks. They were pink from the cold and her eyes were dark and shining. “You’ll have it,” I promised her. “But there’s something I need to tell you…”
“All our cards on the table?” she asked, looking utterly unafraid. I nodded and brought her hands up to my chest, chafing them with mine.
“I’m off the hotshot crew… officially,” I said slowly. “There won’t be any calls in the night taking me away from you.” I slipped a protective hand over her belly. “This is where I belong and taking care of my family is all I want. But you already know, I’ll do anything I have to, to protect what we have. If this valley is ever in danger again…”
“I need to tell you something too,” she said, cutting me off, focusing on my eyes. “I can’t be grateful for the fire, Jason. It cost too many people too much. But in all of this, there’s one thing I am grateful for…
“I got to see the work that you do. I watched you give everything to save people you care about… and people you’ve never even met. I didn’t really understand it before… all I could see were the risks you were taking, and my own fears of losing you. But out there… I saw for myself what you’re capable of.
“I think you could survive anything.” Tears were shining in her eyes, glittering like the chapel of ice that surrounded us. “I love you for the man you are, just as you are. I don’t own you,” she said, reaching up to put her warm fingers to my jaw. “And I won’t let my fears try to change that anymore. You’re not the only one in this family who’s brave. I found out that I can be strong, too.”
“My god… my Ember…” I whispered. “You’re only wrong about one thing,” I breathed. “You do own me. Body, mind and soul. And the only thing I want now is to build you the house of your dreams, to plant trees again… and not to stop until the whole valley’s been rebuilt. It could take a lifetime… a long, beautiful lifetime working side by side.” I looked at her and smiled, wryly. “It’s about time some of the family fortune went into doing something useful.”
I swept her off her feet and held her against me, kissing her until I was sure the snow around us would melt. Her lips were swollen and deliciously red. Her hair tumbled over my chest, my shoulder. If it hadn’t been freezing,
I would have stripped her bare right there in the field and taken her. I was hot and pounding in my jeans, raging with a need that would never burn out. She was my perfect woman. Brave, courageous, more loving than I could have ever imagined.
Rye came running up from across the field and tossed himself carelessly at our feet, smiling up as he panted hot plumes of breath. He rested comfortably on the snow, one ear flopped foolishly over his big head. Ember smiled down at him, her arms tight around my shoulders. “I didn’t think of it until just now,” she said, blinking up at me suddenly with bright, lovely eyes, “of all days…
“This was the day we picked, Jason. Right here, in this spot. Today. It might not look exactly the way I used to dream of it, but it is still beautiful.” She put her hands on my chest, on my heart. “This was supposed to be our wedding day…”
I put her down and reached into my pocket. Never a man to be without a ring when he needs one, I brought out a sparking circlet of gold and diamonds.
“It still is, babygirl,” I said.
“It still is.”
46
Epilogue Pt. I - Ember
Springtime, three months later
“I do,” I said, for the second time.
We stood together under the warm sun, in the exact spot where we’d exchanged our very first vows. Even though today was the formal ceremony with the people we loved, I’d always think of that perfect winter day as our real wedding. We’d shared things that day… that could only be shared alone…
And my reward was a kiss that left me breathless and hot under my dress. My white silk gown spilled like a whisper from the pearl necklace that suspended it, leaving my arms and most of my legs deliciously bare. Jason rested one heated hand on our little baby bump and leaned his mouth next to my ear, as the others came up to congratulate us.
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