“Okay, guys. Let’s roll,” I called out as I grabbed my gear and followed Spinelli and the truck.
We arrived on the scene, and the printing company that we were dispatched to was already blazing with flames, knocking out the windows on the top floor.
“Okay, Spinelli, Tony, and Max, take the fourth floor. Markie, Tom, you guys the third, and Sam and John, you take the second. Call out when your floors are clear. Now go!”
“Oh, sir, please help me,” a woman said as she rushed between our trucks and grabbed on to me. “Sir, my daughter is in there. We were separated coming down from the second floor near the back printing presses. Please help me. She’s only fifteen years old.”
“Lacey, come over here and stay with this woman while I go in.”
“Chief, you’re going in?” she said as if I were crazy.
“Yeah, I’m going in, and the last time I checked, I was a firefighter. Now, control what’s happening out here, and I will take care of the inside. You got me?”
“Yeah, Chief. Be careful. All units, all units, Chief Bartelli is in the building. We have a victim unaccounted for, last seen on the second floor in the back near the printing presses. Do you copy?”
“Shit, it’s fucking hot in here. Team one, are you clear on the fourth?” I called out.
“Chief, Spinelli here. We have cleared the third and fourth floor, we are making our way down to you. It’s pitch black in here. I repeat, we have no visibility,” Spinelli called out, followed by Tony and the rest of the men.
“Chief, we did the perimeters. There’s no girl here. We need to get out of here before this floor gives way.”
“What about fallen debris?” I asked.
“We swept the floors, Chief. No girl up here.”
“Okay, clear the building. Tony, stay with me. Lacey, come in?”
“Chief?”
“We’ve swept the building and the second floor again. There is no girl here,” I called out.
The frantic woman was screaming in the background that she was in there and to keep looking. Tony and I split up and did one last check when I tripped over what I thought was fallen debris. But it was the girl! She had passed out in an alcove with debris all around her.
“Chief, you have to get out of there,” Tony was screaming through his mic.
“I’m right behind you, Tony! Go!” I shouted as I hoisted the girl over my shoulders.
I took the steps two at a time and then hit a wall of flames. The ceiling looked weak and was going to come down on me at any moment.
“Shit! I have to go back up to the fourth floor,” I screamed as the girl was coming to.
“Please, I don’t want to die in here,” she coughed.
“You are not going to die, not on my watch. Hang tight, sweetie. Tony, I hit a wall of flames, I need you to come up on the north side. I made it back to the top. I’m breaking us out of here.”
“You got it, Chief. We’re already there,” Spinelli said through his walkie.
I hit that wall with all that I had. I willed my ax to keep breaking through until I saw light. Tony broke through from the outside, and then we had enough of an opening to get to safety. I delivered the girl, and then made my way out right behind her.
“Oh, my baby! Thank you! Thank you for saving her,” yelled the frantic mother, who rushed through the guys and made her way over to her daughter who was getting lifted into the ambulance.
“She’s going to be fine, just some smoke inhalation,” I assured her.
By the time we got back to the house, it was past my scheduled time to meet Thea. With the rush of the fire, I didn’t have time to text her. I showered, changed into clean clothes, and tried calling her again, but it went straight to voicemail. Fuck! Now she’s going to think I blew her off on purpose, which is something I would never do. I wasn’t even supposed to be at work today, but taking a day off is something I rarely do, and I would never ignore an incoming call.
“What the hell were you thinking?” Tony shouted at me as he charged through my office with Spinelli, hot on his heels.
“Excuse me? Have you forgotten whose office you are standing in?”
“No, sir, but when does our commander go running into a burning building when you had enough bodies on the inside? We were making our way to that floor, boss. We didn’t need you saving our asses back in there.”
“Tell me something, Tony…what is the real reason you are so upset? Is it the fact that I was in there in the first place, or is it that you didn’t get the save this time? Because the last time I checked, we are a team and we are in the business of saving lives, not trying to prove who has the bigger set of balls. Now, we are done here, unless you have anything to add? Hmmm? I didn’t hear you, Tony. Are we finished here?”
“Yes, sir, we are,” he said as he slammed his way out.
Spinelli remained behind, of course, to give me counsel when it wasn’t necessary.
“He’s a hothead. You know that, but it comes from a good place.”
“I am well-aware of Tony’s mood swings, but no one is going to tell me that I can’t go running into a burning building, not when innocent lives are at stake.”
“Maybe I can,” I heard from the doorway.
We turned to find Chief Michaelson standing there. Spinelli made his discreet exit, and now I was going to get shit from my boss.
“Thomas, I’m fine, so can we save the lecture for another day?”
“Are you okay, Bartelli? Is there something I need to know?”
“Everything is fine in my house, boss. No worries. I may wear a different shirt, but I am still a firefighter, and I always will be.”
“I know, but you did the unexpected today, and the guys were rattled.”
“They will get over it. Now, I have to run. Is there anything else?”
“No, that will be all. Just keep yourself in check, Nick. The last thing you need is to lose one of your guys’ trust.”
“That will never happen as long as I draw breath.”
Shit! What a crazy day it turned out to be. Call after call had me spent, but if I could help it, I was not missing this meeting with Thea. I glanced down to my watch and clenched my jaw as it was nearing two thirty by the time I reached Bryant Park. I didn’t even know why I ever thought she would still be waiting for me when I was already hours late, but I needed to see for myself.
Back in the day, we always loved coming to Bryant Park. We never missed the summer concerts that would play here, and when I could afford it, we would dine at the Bryant Park Grill. She loved everything about the park, but what I loved most was just being with her.
Stop it, Nick, and get the hell out of your past. It was a long time ago, and the whole reason for meeting with Thea is to get answers for our unresolved issues, not to travel down memory lane.
I turned the corner, and there was Thea, sitting where we once considered our spot and wiping away her falling tears. Whatever the reason for her tears, I somehow felt they were because of me, and that was not what I intended this meeting about. She didn’t see me yet, which gave me another minute to compose myself.
I absolutely hated to see her cry, even the happy tears got to me. She had suffered so much pain with the loss of her father and all the members that we considered our family. I was second-guessing my decision to come here or even suggesting we talk at all. Clearly by the look of things, she’s happy and is planning to marry Cocksucker Newbanks—no, I mean Carter Newbanks.
Damn, I am an asshole! Man the fuck up, Bartelli, and just go to her. You wanted this meeting, and for whatever reason, she waited for you.
I let out a few calming breaths and then walked over to where she was seated. She was looking down at her phone. I quietly stepped up and waited for Thea to look up. Did she know I was already here? Her eyes could only hide so much.
“You’re late,” she said.
“I know, and I am sorry.” I looked away as I apologized and tried to not notice how she quickly wipe
d away her tears.
“You smell like smoke,” she said.
“Even after a shower? I guess I need stronger body wash.”
“Or maybe you should stop running into burning buildings.”
“You know I can’t do that. It’s my job.”
“Yeah, I know. I have always known, Nick, and that is why I left.”
“Okay, let’s begin there, shall we?”
I woke up to Carter inside of me, fucking me hard to the point that I would have a problem walking today. He drove his point home last night as my hands were tied to my bed posts and I repeatedly screamed out his name with the many orgasms he gave with unbridled emotion.
He hated the fact that I sent him home without me. He didn’t want me alone with Nick, and he confessed that it brought back the anger he felt when I rejected him back in Los Angeles. He had repeatedly asked if he could join me and meet my mom, but once again, I had refused him. I was so over that argument and did not want to rehash it again.
So instead of arguing with Carter, he passionately fucked me instead. Once his anger subsided, then he switched back to my tender lover and made love to me until I literally could not move and passed out.
I woke up somewhere around three, and he carried me into my mother’s bathroom that had a garden-sized tub in it. I felt as if I was breaking a house rule: never ever use my mother’s bathroom and have sex in it. That was not Carter’s intention at all. I knew he felt bad for the rough sex we just had a few hours before. He knew I would never do something beyond anything I could not handle, that was established from our beginning, but it still pained him to know how aggressive he could get, especially when he was angry. He never hurt me, not once in all the time we’ve been together, and tonight was no different.
As tired as I was, I let him lead me to the bath and wash every inch of me. He inspected my body, taking in some of the marks he left. Again, nothing we had not done before. The marks on my wrists were nearly gone. He used the belt to my terry cloth robe and kept them secure enough to keep me in place but loose enough that they didn’t hurt. After he rubbed some lotion on them, they almost disappeared. The marks that his eyes found were at my hips. I knew he saw them because he never stopped tracing the marks with his fingers. I was on top of him as he pressed his thumbs and index fingers into my hips.
“Stop it, Carter, please?”
“Fuck! I went too far. I’m so sorry, baby.”
He then pulled me in between his legs while bubbles surrounded us in the huge, deep tub.
“I just get so fucking crazy at the thought of you and him and his feelings that he still has for you,” he said.
“Carter, that is not true. You are just reacting to what I told you back in LA. That kiss meant nothing—less than nothing—and I swear it with all my heart that it will never happen again. You can trust me, Carter. If you don’t, how are we ever going to make it in marriage?”
“I trust you, Thea, with everything I have. Just give me some time to work out my feelings, and…fuck! You are seeing him today, right? At what…your special place?”
“Bryant Park is just a place in the city. It wasn’t our place.”
“I still don’t like it.”
“Yes, I know. You have made your point perfectly clear and then some.”
I hated how my words sounded, and once I said them, I saw the hurt in his eyes. My vagina was sore with all that we had done, but I didn’t care. I straddled him in the tub and made my intentions perfectly clear.
I said, “You have this body, and the heart that beats in it is just for you, my love. I know I am responsible for the doubt I see in your eyes and in the tone of your voice, but I swear it, baby, I am going to do everything in my power to prove how much I want and love you. I am wearing your ring. I asked and said yes to you, only you. Once upon a time, I ran away from what I believed was my happily ever after. What little girl didn’t dream of the fairytale? We all watched the movies where the chosen prince rode up and won the girl in the end.”
I continued, “In my story, I broke the heart of the prince and never once looked back. I buried those feelings for years, and now they are all resurfaced, but not the way you are thinking. Had I not come back when I did, I may not be here with you right now. That trip and that kiss showed me who I wanted, and it’s you babe, only you.”
He let out a deep breath and then wrapped his arms around me as I rode his dick to release. Carter was in a blissful trance after our explosive sex in the tub. His legs were shaking as we both got out from now the cold bath. We dried off and climbed into bed, holding each other, and now he was inside of me again, tenderly making love to me, erasing the ugly he thought he brought me last night.
“Good morning, my love, is this okay?” he asked as he continued to hold my hands and place kisses down to my swelled breasts. My breasts were beyond tender, and I bit back as he took one of my nipples into his mouth.
“Oh, baby, let me hear you,” he said as I continued to thrust my hips toward him. “I am so fucking close, I swear I am going to explode any minute.”
Once he said the words, exploding was an understatement. His entire body hardened as he screamed out his release, shouting my name so loud, I was sure our neighbors heard him. He was panting between breaths as he crushed his mouth down to mine and “savored our morning fuck,” his words, not mine.
I knew the message he was trying to convey, loud and clear. This was his way of branding me his and telling Nick to fuck off. As much as I assured Carter that he had nothing to worry about, I also had to physically prove it to him. If Carter had any doubts, it was because I placed them there.
“I love you, Thea,” he said as he pumped the last of his essence inside of me.
He kissed me once more and then slowly pulled out of me as his eyes brightened at the sight of cum spilling down my thigh.
“You look happy,” I told him.
He winks, “I am. Come, let’s shower.”
I followed him into the bathroom, and after about an hour, I was preparing to leave for the day.
“Damn, you are beautiful. Is this for me?” he asked as he stood behind me in the floor length mirror.
“No, this lingerie is for me. It makes me feel beautiful when I wear it. You enjoying it is just an added bonus.”
He quirked a sexy grin at me, as his lips found my neck. He moved my hair aside and tilted my neck for better access.
“Carter, I have to finish getting ready. I want to visit mama first, and then I will head over to the park.”
“Okay, fine, you win,” he said in a gruff tone.
“Don’t pout. We have been over this and quite a few times.”
“Okay, I know when I have reached the point of defeat, but will you call me when you are finished with the firefighter?”
“I will, and he has a name.”
“Do you want me to say how I would prefer to address him?”
“No, I don’t have time to discuss your vast vocabulary on your choices for him.”
“Good, its better you don’t know. Give your mom my love.”
“I will, and please send my regards to Sam and Michelle. I’m happy you are meeting up with them today.”
“Well, don’t get too excited, love. Stan is not entirely happy with us being here this week, so he would like me to fill in for David while he’s on assignment. When word got out that I was in town, I was the logical choice, and that freed up Elizabeth to stay on the campaign trail with Hillary. Baby, I don’t want to sound like an insensitive prick here, but we need to get back to Los Angeles, and I mean no later than Sunday.”
“I know, and I will call Stan after I speak with mama’s doctors.”
“See that you do. Okay, I have to run. I love you.”
“I love you too, and please don’t worry.”
“I’m not, Thea. I know whose bed you will be in tonight.”
Confident motherfucker! I said in my head, but he knew exactly what I was thinking. It was confirmed when he
glanced back and winked at me. Yeah, he knew. And didn’t care.
After Carter left for the station, I finished getting ready. I called for a car, and my first stop was visiting mama, hopefully catching her doctors on rounds, but I missed them. Mama was in a spirited mood this morning with a happy smile to match.
“You look amazing, mama,” I told her.
“I feel pretty good. Come here and give me a hug.”
She extended her arms out for me to walk into. She didn’t hesitate wrapping her arms around me as I placed my head down on her chest. I inhaled her scent with the familiar perfume she always wore. On my last visit, I packed a bag for her with personal items, and I bought her a new nightgown, which she yelled at me for…
“Thea, how many times do I have to tell you? I have dozens of nightgowns and robes hanging up in my closet, and I don’t need another just because I am in the hospital.”
She wouldn’t let me get a word in, but who was she kidding? I checked her closet and she had two robes, one for summer, and one for winter, and they needed to go to the Goodwill bin. Her nightgowns were in better shape, but still, what was the harm in treating my mother with some new things? I’ll tell you, nothing. I did some online shopping and ordered her more things that she would complain about but not return because she was afraid of hurting my feelings. Damn, I loved her, and I knew in my heart that she did secretly love it and would never part with her gifts because they were from me. Mama always used to say, “A gift should always be welcomed because the amount of thoughtfulness behind it can never be measured in equal value.”
I asked, “Did you shower on your own? Or did a nurse come in to help you?”
“I had some help, but she was very respectful and remained outside of the curtain until I needed her. The shower has surrounding bars, so if I was dizzy, I could easily grab hold of one of the supports. I was fine, but once I was finished, I needed help walking back to my bed and dressing.”
“The dizzy spells still occurring?”
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