Up in Flames: Steamy Firefighter/Single Mom Romance

by Mari Carr

  “Holy crap.”

  “That’s not the worst part,” she confessed.

  “There’s something worse than a six-year dry spell?”

  “Alan was my first. I got pregnant the same night I lost my virginity.”

  Ada was quiet. As in speechless quiet.

  “Say something,” Hope urged her.

  Ada gawked at her a few moments, her mouth opening and closing, no sound coming out.

  Finally, Hope rolled her eyes, annoyed.

  “I’m trying to think of something,” she said at last. “I swear to God.”

  “I haven’t wanted to have sex with a guy ever since that night. I honestly thought maybe something was broken inside of me.”

  She sighed as she thought about her arousal levels whenever Jake was around, then admitted, “Nothing is broken, believe me.”

  Ada patted her arm consolingly. “And now I understand the grumpy Gus face the past two days. You realize the solution is simple.”

  “It is?”

  “Yeah. Fuck Jake.”

  Hope tried to feel those words, to let them sink in and empower her. “Okay. You’re right.” She raised one fist in the air, trying to appear tough and ready to resist. “Fuck Jake,” she repeated.

  Ada rolled her eyes. “No. I mean literally. Fuck. Jake. Take that bad boy to bed, let him fuck you senseless, then make sure you’re the first one out the door come morning.”

  “That’s your advice? How is that helpful?”

  “How is it not? You’re horny, you need experience, and if the gossip around town is correct, Jake is more than man enough to take care of that for you. Give yourself one stellar night. Come back to the land of sexual beings, then turn the tables. You be the user this time. Get what you want from the man, then stick your middle finger in the air and give the universe a big fuck you. You deserve one night of nonstop orgasms.”

  Hope closed her eyes. “I’d settle for just one.”

  Ada snapped her fingers until Hope looked at her again. “No. You’re not settling. Make that bad boy give you three at a minimum. Five would be ideal.”

  “Five?” She tried to figure out if Ada was joking or serious. One look into her jet-black eyes told the tale. Ada was serious as a heart attack.

  “And then I just walk away?” She’d meant her words to be a comment, but they ended with a definite question mark.

  Ada narrowed her eyes. “Yes. You walk away. As fast and as confidently as your bowlegs can carry you.”

  “I’m not bow-legged.”

  “You will be after a night with Jake.”

  Hope didn’t have the faintest idea how to respond to that. Apparently, she didn’t need to. Her body gave her all the answer she needed. Her pussy clenched, her heart raced, her palms sweated, and her nipples tightened.

  “Okay. I’m going to see how tonight goes. If I’m still feeling this attraction to him, I’ll hire a sitter and set up another date for this weekend.”

  “Why not tonight?”

  “Because I have to hit the grocery store after work, start the spaghetti sauce, and tidy up my house. I don’t have time to attend to the pertinents between now and then.” Hope gestured to her pussy and then ran a hand over one leg. “I’ve been single for six years. Everything needs a trim. Or maybe hedge clippers. God, maybe even a chainsaw.”

  Ada laughed. “You have issues, girl. If you decide to move forward with it tonight though, call me. I’ll come get George. He can do an overnight with Auntie Ada while you get your pipes cleaned.”

  “Lovely image, Ada.”

  She gave Hope a grin and a wink. “Trust me. After one night in Jake’s bed, you’ll understand exactly what I mean.”

  Hope wished Ada would stop alluding to Jake’s apparent talents in the bedroom. It only made her more nervous. And hornier.

  God. If she didn’t have an orgasm soon, she was going to spontaneously combust.

  Ada stood up, then stopped at the door. “You’re on the pill, right?”

  “Did you miss the part about me getting pregnant the first time? What do you think?” Hope’s comment clearly failed to comfort her friend, so she added, “Of course I am. Take it every morning like clockwork.”

  “Perfect.”

  Hope waved as Ada headed back to the clinic, then she glanced at the clock on the wall. She only had five more minutes before she had to pick her class up from the art teacher.

  She looked down at the grocery list she’d been attempting to make. The plan for tonight’s meal was spaghetti with a salad and garlic bread. Lots and lots of garlic on the bread. She was hoping a case of stinky breath would keep her from crawling onto Jake’s lap and doing a tongue tango with him.

  Hope had wanted him to kiss her Saturday. After all, they’d been standing right there—alone—by his truck. There’d been ample opportunity.

  So why hadn’t he?

  According to Ada—and every other woman in town—Jake didn’t hold back on his desires. If he saw something he wanted, he took it.

  Which was a depressing thought.

  Because he didn’t kiss her.

  Chapter 4

  Jake stood on the front porch to Hope’s house and lifted his hand, intent on knocking. He paused. There was music coming from somewhere inside—an oldies station—and it sounded like Hope was singing along. Then he heard George giggle. Rather than knock, Jake walked to the end of the porch and peered into the window.

  Hope hadn’t had a chance to hang curtains yet, so he could see through the empty dining room and catch glimpses of her and George in the family room in the back. They appeared to be dancing as they cleaned up. Hope had a GI Joe doll in her hand and she was using it as a microphone as she rocked out to Elvis’ “Blue Suede Shoes.” She grabbed George’s hand and spun him around as the little boy laughed.

  Jake walked back to the door and turned the knob.

  Unlocked.

  Perfect.

  He quietly made his way to the living room. George saw him first and his toothless smile grew wider. The kid had a way of making Jake feel like a superhero. He liked it. And George.

  “Mind if I cut in?”

  Hope jumped and dropped the GI Joe. She turned in surprise, which Jake used to his advantage. Grabbing her hands, he spun her around the same way she’d just done with George, then he dipped her as the little boy clapped his hands.

  Unfortunately, the music ended way too soon and Jake was forced to let her go. Her face was flushed, but this time he couldn’t decide if it was because of him or the dancing.

  “Your door was unlocked.”

  She nodded. “My hands were full of groceries when I got home. Meant to go back and lock it.”

  Jake shrugged. “I got a dance out of it, so I’m not complaining.”

  Hope looked at George. “Finish picking up the toys, Georgie, while I go stir the spaghetti sauce. Would you like a glass of wine, Jake? Or a beer?”

  Jake followed her to the kitchen. “Beer sounds good.” Walking up to the stove, he lifted the lid on the pot and sucked in a deep breath of the delicious-smelling air. “Dayum.”

  She popped the cap on a Budweiser and handed it to him. Then she poured herself a glass of red wine. He tapped his bottle to her glass and they both drank.

  Hope took a big sip and it occurred to Jake the bottle of wine was already half empty. So maybe her flushed cheeks were a result of the wine.

  He got a sense she was nervous and was probably using the wine to keep her calm.

  “Given your response,” she said, “I’m going to go out on a limb and say I picked right. You like spaghetti?”

  “I love it. Though to be honest, I’m a bachelor who lives on diner food. Anything you made tonight was going to be a step up. It smells great. And you look very pretty.”

  She smiled, then flipped her hair over her shoulder. It was loose tonight, hanging in long auburn waves. Jake hadn’t lied the first time he’d met her at the fire station. He really was a sucker for a redhead. />
  She also wasn’t hiding behind baggy clothes tonight, which pleased him more than he could say. She’d put on a pair of jeans that fit her just right and a low-cut black top that revealed the perfect amount of cleavage. Hope’s tits were going to star in his fantasies from now on. He was tempted to reach out and cup them to see if they were as full and firm as they looked.

  He shook that thought away.

  Jake was pretty sure that would get his ass kicked out in record time. Dating without knowing the end result was new to him.

  He took women out all the time, but he and his date always knew where the night was going to end—in his bed—so he took advantage of that, stealing touches and getting the foreplay rolling right out of the gate.

  Hope invited him here to thank him for helping her out around the house. Which reminded him.

  He looked up. The old detector was still hanging open, sans battery.

  “Thought you were getting a new one.”

  She pointed to a bag next to the refrigerator. “I did. I just haven’t had time—”

  Jake raised his hand. “Say no more.” He grabbed the detector from the bag and unpacked it. She opened a drawer, rummaging around until she found her lone screwdriver. Luckily it was a Phillips head, so it worked.

  “I’ll start working on the salad.” She turned her back to him, giving him a chance to check out her ass as he stepped up onto the chair. Jake made short work of changing out the smoke detector. She glanced over her shoulder in surprise when he pushed the chair back to the table.

  “That didn’t take long.” She’d just picked up a cucumber and Jake couldn’t resist stepping next to her and taking it out of her hands. It was a decent-sized one.

  “Seems a shame to waste this on a salad.”

  She laughed, bumping her hip against him playfully as she grabbed the cucumber back. “Behave.”

  “Where’s the fun in that?”

  “You’re going to be trouble, aren’t you?”

  Her eyes drifted to his lips. Oh yeah. Hope wasn’t pushing him away tonight.

  God. More than that, she was flirting.

  Jake leaned closer, his mouth thirsting for a taste of her. He could smell the sweet wine on her breath. It was warm and inviting.

  “Trouble is my middle name.”

  She licked her lips, shifting toward him.

  “Mommy!” George called out from the other room. Footsteps in the hall said they had incoming.

  She gave Jake a regretful grin, and they moved apart just as George walked into the kitchen. “The TV has that blue screen again.”

  “I can’t fix that right now, baby. I promise I’ll look at it after—”

  “Blue screen?” Jake asked, latching onto anything as a distraction before more blood rushed to regions south of the border.

  “We got cable yesterday, but I think there’s something wrong with the connection.”

  “Why don’t you finish that salad and I’ll take a quick peek?”

  She smiled appreciatively at his offer and Jake noticed a slight tremble in her hands.

  He wasn’t the only one hurting.

  Good.

  Good?

  No. That was bad.

  Jake wasn’t here to seduce Hope Connor. Definitely not with her kid home.

  He’d only done that once and it hadn’t been his fault. Hence that unfortunate question from Amy at the fire station. He’d spent the night with her mom, Dixie. They’d been naked in bed when Dixie’s ex arrived with Amy in tow, three hours earlier than he was supposed to. Luckily, they had managed to toss on clothes before Amy saw them, but short of him climbing out of a second-floor window, there was no way to get out of the house without Amy seeing him.

  Jake figured that ranked right up there in the top ten as far as awkward sex moments in his life. The sad part was it didn’t make the top five.

  He fiddled with the television for a few minutes. Hope was right. The cord was dodgy. He had an extra one at home. He figured he could offer that as an excuse to come back again.

  Until then…

  “There,” Jake said, as the picture popped back up. “Going to need a new cord,” he explained to George, who’d stood next to him as he worked. Jake had noticed the last time he’d been here, he had acquired a five-year-old shadow.

  “Mommy said I can watch Toy Story tonight after dinner.”

  “Oh yeah? Think she’d let me watch it too? It’s my favorite.”

  His eyes lit up. “Yeah. You stay, okay?”

  Jake ruffled the little boy’s hair playfully, then Hope called their names from the kitchen. “Jake. George. Dinner’s ready.”

  It was a simple invitation to eat, but something about it made him feel warm inside. After a decade of living alone, there was something “home-y” about being called in to supper.

  They settled down at the table, digging in. Hope really was an amazing cook.

  “This spaghetti tastes even better than it smells,” Jake said after he’d polished off his second helping.

  Hope smiled, then took another sip of wine.

  Jake glanced toward the counter where the bottle was. One more glassful left. She was definitely getting tipsy.

  George kept the conversation rolling throughout the meal, excited about the fact his mother had signed him up for tee-ball.

  “I think you’re going to like that,” Jake told him. “I know the coach. He’s a great guy.”

  Jake was the coach, but he didn’t tell them that. Wanted that to be a surprise the first day of practice. This night just kept getting better and better. Hope had taken him up on the offer of the cable cord, which meant he could spend more time here, and now he would see her at tee-ball games.

  Jake didn’t usually try so hard to manufacture reasons to see a woman, but he liked Hope.

  She was pretty and sweet and not eyeing him like he was a grade A beef or a hunter stalking his prey. The Big Hose reputation always managed to land him in one of those two categories with most of the women in town, and he was sick of both.

  Of course, that wasn’t to say all women felt that way. He had quite a few female friends—wives and sisters of his buddies—who were cool to hang out with. Hope mentioned being friends with Ada. She was his best friend Ike’s sister and a great person. He was glad Hope had found her rather than Lauren Rogers’ pack of piranhas.

  “George said something about Toy Story being on the agenda for tonight.” Jake had obviously surprised Hope with his comment.

  “Jake’s watching it with us,” George said excitedly. He was wiggling in his chair. Hope gave him a look and he said, “Can I be excused? I wanna play with my trucks.”

  She nodded and smiled.

  George raced back to the living room.

  “Nice manners.”

  Hope stood and started clearing the table. Jake rose and helped her.

  “My dad was military. Table manners, please and thank you, using sir and ma’am as terms of respect were sort of drilled into my head as a kid. We lived with my folks up until the end of July, so Dad’s been a pretty big influence on George as well.”

  “I think it’s great.”

  “So do I.”

  She rinsed the plates, then slid them into the dishwasher. “You really don’t have to watch that movie with us if you have other things you need to do.”

  “Trying to get rid of me?”

  Jake liked the way she shook her head instantly. “Oh no. Not at all. It’s just…”

  “I really do love Toy Story and...” He reached over to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear, lightly touching her earlobe as he did so. “Spending time with you.”

  “I like that too,” she replied, somewhat breathlessly.

  Jake’s cock went from zero to sixty in two seconds. Hope was hell on his libido. Too many more nights of this cat and mouse game and he was going to end up in the hospital with terminal blue balls.

  “Can we watch the movie now?” George shouted from the living room.

>   Hope closed the dishwasher, even though she hadn’t finished loading it. “I’ll clean up the rest later.” She poured the last of the wine into her glass as she asked, “Another beer?”

  He’d only had the one, so he nodded. “Yeah. I’ll grab it.” Jake opened the fridge and pulled the bottle of Bud out.

  Hope was only a few feet away, so he reached for her free hand. She stopped and turned toward him. “Jake?” she started.

  He closed the distance between them and gave her a quick, hard kiss. He’d been wanting to kiss her since the first moment she walked into the fire station, looking like some sort of gypsy goddess, patiently guiding the tide of little kids surrounding her.

  After they parted, she touched her lips and smiled at him.

  “Appetizer,” he said. “For later.”

  She surprised him by taking his kiss and raising him one. The kiss she initiated lasted a few seconds longer, though it was still closed mouth. He really wanted to steal a taste of her. When they separated this time, she gave him a saucy smile. “Dessert,” she corrected.

  Jake laughed as they made their way to the living room. He and Hope sat next to each other on the couch, but George somehow managed to wiggle his way between them. Not because he was trying to keep Jake away from his mom. In truth, it felt like he wanted Jake all to himself. That theory was proven when George gave his mom a look and she shifted away a few inches to give him more room.

  George tucked himself under Jake’s arm as Hope started the movie. She rolled her eyes above her son’s head, and Jake winked at her.

  He hadn’t lied about loving Toy Story. He’d probably watched the movie close to fifty times in his life—all with his kid brother who was only a year or so older than George.

  When it was over, Hope stood up and looked at George. “Time to get ready for bed.”

  George groaned, but Hope remained firm. “It’s a school night, Georgie. Brush your teeth and put on your pajamas. I’ll be in in a few minutes to read you a story.”

  “Can Jake read to me tonight?”

  “I don’t think—” she started.

  “I’d love to,” Jake said.

  “Jake,” she said. “Really, I understand if—”