by A. L. Cook
“I’ve been drinking virgin vodka, lime and sodas all night,” she smiled. “I’m good to drive.”
“Thank god,” Cam laughed, and helped her up into the truck, taking the heels that she handed to him so she could drive and closing the door after her. He jogged around and got in the passenger side as she started the engine, lifting her hand to kiss the back of it before she shifted into gear and left the parking lot.
It wasn’t an overly long drive back to their home, but it seemed to take a small eternity as the sexual tension between them ratcheted up with every mile that passed. They made it home in spite of that, though, and wasted no time in parking in the garage and stumbling through the dark house to the bedroom.
Cam took Erin in his arms the second they were through the door, shoving her jacket off at the same time as he tried to shrug out of his own, toe off his shoes and kiss her all at once. He felt Erin laugh against his mouth as he failed utterly at all three undertakings and an answering laughing rose from his own belly.
“Okay, you do your jacket, I’ll do mine and we’ll go from there,” he told her.
“Good plan,” she told him, doing as instructed. “Can you help me with my dress?”
She turned and Cam reached out expecting a zip, only to find buttons. “These have got to be the tiniest buttons ever made,” he muttered to himself, trying to feel for them in the dark. “Do you really need them?” he asked, only half-joking. “I could just rip the whole thing open-”
“Cameron Thomas, our child will be down to a single parent before he’s even born if you so much as try it,” she swore. “Just take your time; I’m not going anywhere.”
“You said ‘he’,” Cam told her quietly in the soft darkness that surrounded them. “You called our baby a ‘he’.”
“Oh. Well it’s too soon to tell, obviously, but ‘it’ just sounds so clinical, don’t you think?”
“You’re right,” he said, leaning forward to kiss the skin he bared as he undid the buttons. The earlier urgency that had previously fuelled them faded away, leaving a deeper, more intense need in its place. “So, you said something about sore boobs?” he asked as he finished the buttons and pushed the dress open to reveal her strapless bra.
“Not that sore,” Erin promised, shivering a little as Cam unhooked her. She pulled her arms from the delicate shoulder straps of the dress and held her arms up so he could lift it off over her head. He laid it carefully over the rocker in the corner of the room as her bra fell to the floor, leaving her in nothing but a pair of French-cut midnight blue underwear.
Cam couldn’t help himself; he reached for her, sliding his large hands around her waist to touch his fill of bare skin and watched her hands as they made much shorter work of his shirt buttons than he’d managed with her dress.
“Careful, sweetheart,” he warned as she lightly drew her nails down his chest and abs and pushed his shirt off his shoulders until his arms were trapped behind himself.
“I think I like you like this,” Erin said musingly. “Bound, subject to my whims.” The purr she added to the last word shot straight south and Cam cursed, struggling to disentangle himself. Erin laughed and bolted across the room to launch herself face down onto their bed, but he was only a step behind her and pressed her down into the bed with his own weight as she giggled, deliberately shoving her ass back against his groin and wiggling to tease him.
“Damn it, woman,” he growled, delivering a light swat to her ass and smirking at her shocked yelp. He took advantage of her momentary distraction to undo his trousers and release his throbbing cock from its fabric confines. He grabbed Erin’s hips and hauled her up onto all fours, the cool slide of her underwear against his cock making him hiss and thrust against her. “Like this?” he asked breathlessly.
“Oh yes,” she sighed in response, groaning softly when he pulled her panties to one side and slid his fingers down the length of her, gathering enough wetness to ease his way. “Come on, Cam, I’m not going to break.”
“I know, sweetheart, but I was given instructions to take my time, and I’m damn well going to enjoy doing just that.” He angled his hips so his cock slid forward between her legs to rub against her clitoris as he used first two fingers and then three to drive her halfway to madness with frustration.
He took his time as promised but the little sounds she was making and the way her whole body trembled in an effort to remain still as he played eventually became too much. He gripped her hips tightly with his hands and slid deep inside of her, the hot grip around his cock almost too much to bear. Erin sighed out her agreement with the change in pace and Cam was happy to oblige, setting a slow pace that was punctuated by hard, deep thrusts the way he knew she loved.
Despite the time and the fact that they had been awake for almost a full twenty-four hours, neither of them took long to reach climax. Erin came first, groaning Cam’s name on a rough exhalation and he followed just a minute or two later, collapsing over her back and feeling the minute trembling of her muscles echoed in his own. He took a moment to gather himself and then carefully withdrew, kissing one shoulder blade before falling onto his side on the bed and stretching languorously.
Erin rolled over so they were face-to-face and kissed him softly, lingeringly. “I’m happy you’re happy,” she told him.
“So happy,” he confirmed sleepily.
“Good. I’m going to go take a shower.” She sat up, but before she could get off the bed Cam shifted to drape an arm over her thighs and hold her in place.
He shuffled around so his head was in her lap and pressed a soft kiss to her stomach. “I love you,” he whispered, smiling at Erin’s hand carding through her hair. “Both of you.”
“We love you too,” she promised.
Fight
It had been a ridiculous thing to fight over, a real non-argument, but the last twelve months had been hard, and it was really just the straw that broke the camel’s back. Cam sighed as he tipped his beer back to drink the last of it, stretching his legs out to prop his feet up on the rail that ran around the back deck.
“Jesus Christ, Cam!” Erin had exclaimed when he’d broken the news to her, slamming her laptop closed with enough force to make him wince. “Why couldn’t you have just said no? We’ve had this freaking trip planned for six months!”
He had just been asked to lead a training exercise in Florida that began in four days, which just so happened to be right in the middle of their planned trip down to visit Jon and Rose in California for a week.
“I can’t say no, sweetheart,” he told her, his tone begging her to understand. “This is a massive honour, and I have the chance to effect real change to the policies and procedures we have in place to keep fire crews safe.”
Erin shoved up from the desk in the study and glared at him, folding her arms over her chest, above her belly which was just starting to fill out. They hadn’t told the Campbells that they were pregnant again, and they planned for it to be a surprise announcement during their visit.
“Awesome,” she snapped, her expression furious. “And what am I supposed to tell Elliott? Sorry, honey, but Daddy has to go and spend more time with other people instead of us. Again. Chin up, though, it’s for the greater good.”
Her tone put his back up a little, but Cam took a deep breath and tried to remain calm. “Don’t do that, Erin,” he told her quietly. “You know being away from you guys so much kills me.”
“How would I know that?” she asked with dangerous sweetness. “I don’t see you enough to be able to tell anymore.” She shoved past him and disappeared into the house, a door closing behind her with slightly more force than was strictly necessary.
The kicker of it all was that she was right. They had been working flat out for months now, and this trip away had been planned partly to reconnect and spend some time together as a family. Between his training to eventually step into Rufus’s shoes when he moved on and Erin’s cake decorating business which had grown exponentially, they were f
inding the home/work struggle a hard one. Elliott’s sudden emotional outbursts were wearing on them as well, and the news of this second, unexpected, birth-control-surprise-baby had just added to the strain they were under.
Cam sighed and abruptly scratched his nails across his scalp in a frustrated gesture. His work was important too, dammit. The research he had been doing and some of the trials they had implemented at the station had the potential to be huge as far as fire fighting innovation was concerned, and it was important to him.
He knew Erin’s reaction was a combination of stress, fatigue and loneliness. They had spoken before about how hard it was missing the person you shared a bed with, but had agreed that the long-term benefits would be worth a little short-term sacrifice. Neither of them had planned on it being so hard, though.
He considered going and finding Erin and trying to discuss it in a rational manner, but decided that they both needed to cool off a bit before making the attempt. Instead, he went and fetched a beer from the fridge and a novel from the living room and went outside. Maybe some fresh air and a bit of light reading would be the respite he needed.
Cam got so caught up in his book that it was more than an hour later that he resurfaced, disturbed by Erin coming out to sit on the porch swing next to him, putting her feet up on the rail next to his. She rested her head on his shoulder and he shifted to wrap his arm around her, holding her close.
“I’m sorry,” she offered softly. “I know what you do is important.”
“I’m sorry too,” he told her, running his hand up and down her arm. “I promise I’m not prioritising work over you guys just for the hell of it-”
“I know, Cam,” she interrupted him. “I don’t really think that. I’m just disappointed.”
“Maybe I can just give my speech and then leave right after to meet you in California?” he offered, but Erin shook her head.
“It’s okay, you should stay for the whole lot. We’ll arrange something for after you get back.”
“I don’t want you to resent me for this,” he told her, looking out over the yard, complete with colourful plastic toys and a little wooden balance bike. He felt so selfish, sometimes, asking for more when he already had so much.
“I’ll never resent you for trying to help people, you should know me better than that,” she told him firmly. “Get frustrated? Sure. Jealous of the time they get with you that we don’t? Absolutely. Whinge and pick fights with you about it? You’d better believe it. But it’s who you are, my love, and I’m proud of you.”
He looked down at her and found her looking back, a smile sweetly curling her mouth upwards. “What did I ever do to deserve you?” he asked softly.
“Stopped me from slipping on ice and hit me with a cheesy pick-up line?” she suggested, getting to her feet as she took his hand.
“Damn, I’m good,” he grinned, allowing her to pull him to his feet. “Where are we going?”
“There’s half an hour before I have to go and get Eli from daycare,” she told him, leading him back inside. “Think you can make it up to me for leaving me to holiday while you work in thirty minutes or less?”
Cameron just grinned and swept her up into his arms, making her shriek with laughter as he carried her into their bedroom.
Comfort
“Daddy!”
The chorus of overjoyed voices that greeted him as he came home after a long couple of days at work gladdened Cam’s heart, and he felt the exhaustion slip from him as he was overtaken by a hurricane made up of small people. He chuckled and leaned down to let Will and Eli wrap skinny arms around his neck and press wet kisses to his face while he waited for Jack to walk on unsteady legs to collect a cuddle of his own.
“Hi, ratbags,” he smiled, gathering the three of them up together into a tight ‘squashy cuddle’ as his boys babbled to him about their day. He got to his feet and tousled Will’s blond hair as he grabbed Cam’s bag and dragged it into the laundry, before hoisting Jack up onto his hip and heading into the kitchen in search of his wife.
“Five minutes, boys,” Erin called from the sink where she was washing up the remains of their dinner, “and then it’s time for bed. Hi, Cam.”
“Whoa,” Cam said as she turned to give him a tired smile. “You look awful, sweetheart.”
“Thanks,” she replied wanly, her face pale and her usually-lively green eyes exhausted. “I feel like death warmed-” She broke into a hacking cough, curling over on herself as she struggled to catch her breath.
“Hey, you really don’t look so good,” he said concernedly, kissing Jack on the head and putting him down on his feet before reaching past Erin to turn off the faucet and gently steer her away from the sink with his hands on her shoulders. He pushed her down onto one of the stools at the counter and watched anxiously as she folded her arms and dropped her head down onto them.
Cam pressed a hand briefly to her forehead and frowned, fetching a bottle of Tylenol and a glass of water for her and smoothing his hand over her hair. He pulled his phone from his pocket and dialled, drumming his fingers impatiently against his thigh as he waited for an answer on the other end.
“Cam? You just left, son; what part of ‘no more overtime this month’ don’t you understand?”
“Hey Rufus, is there any chance you could send Amy or John up my way if you’re not busy tonight?”
“I can send them up right now, Cam- what’s going on?”
Smiling at the concern in his boss’ voice, Cam nudged the glass towards Erin who was glaring at him, though some of the effect was diminished by how fragile she looked. “It might be nothing, but Erin’s looking pretty rough, and she has a cough I don’t like. She’s okay for now, but if the EMTs happen to be around later, I’d sure appreciate it if they’d stop in.”
“Consider it done. Call the station if you need anything.”
“Will do. Thanks, Rufus.”
“Don’t mention it.”
“That’s so unnecessary,” Erin grumbled as he terminated the call, coughing again with a hand pressed firmly to her chest as her face screwed up with pain. “Okay, maybe not.”
“How long have you been this sick?” he asked, glancing up as a shrill argument began in the boys’ bedroom. “Go have a hot shower, and I’ll get the boys into bed,” he told her, a hand under her elbow as she got to her feet.
Erin swayed against him, resting her forehead against his collarbone for a brief moment. “I missed you,” she murmured quietly.
“I missed you too, sweetheart,” he told her, then kissed her hair and gently pushed her in the direction of their bedroom. “Go. Lots of hot water and plenty of steam, okay?” He laughed at her sad attempt to wiggle her eyebrows suggestively and sighed as the argument increased in volume.
“I hope you boys are ready for snuggles and stories,” he called, smiling at the chorus of excited ‘yeahs’ he got in return. “Not until all your toys are put away,” he said firmly as he entered the bedroom to find trucks and puzzles strewn across the floor. The boys wasted no time in putting their things away, and it wasn’t long before Cam had them dressed in their pyjamas and they were all curled up together in the oversized armchair tucked into one corner of the room.
Cam read them a pirate story, a book on different kinds of heavy machinery, and a pop-up dinosaur story twice, Jack roaring delightedly at the giant T-rex mouth full of teeth on the last page. He glanced up and winked at Erin as she stood in the doorway and watched them, wrapped in his cotton robe, and finished the book. He ignored their protests and put the stories away as their boys climbed into their beds, making sure everyone had their particular toys, blankets and water bottles before kissing them all and bidding them goodnight.
He watched as Erin sat briefly beside each of them to brush their hair back and press soft kisses to their foreheads, murmuring words of love and affection to them as they smiled and closed their eyes. He turned on their constellation projector as Erin joined him in the doorway, and turned off the light.