I woke up to a vision of loveliness next to me in bed. Marissa was gorgeous, even when she was asleep with the passion drained from her face. I managed to keep the possessive beast that normally wanted to claim beneath the surface for the most part. Even when I said the words into her ear, I knew there was an asterisk next to my desires. Donovan. I could never make Marissa mine—not exclusively. That was tough for me to swallow because I had let lust guide me towards our night together, but a stronger desire than that was simmering underneath my skin. Donovan and I had rubbed off on each other a little bit. He saw some of that fury that resonated when true desire transcended sex. I chased lust when I didn’t know there was more waiting on the other side of the night. The three of us together? He certainly believed it could work, but I was struggling with it. Sharing her was an amazing experience, but would that be the foundation of a future that included more than fucking?
I need coffee, even if it isn’t enough to fully clear my head.
I rolled out of bed and found a pair of jeans in the closet without waking them up. The aroma of the coffee pot would probably do the trick, but I wanted them to sleep as long as possible. Donovan and I had a few conversations about our perspectives on life. He wasn’t the type to commit to a woman, yet he seemed to be there with Marissa. I wasn’t the type to crawl into bed with a woman I didn’t actually care about. Caring often led to the possessiveness that pushed away my last girlfriend. Marissa’s will was even stronger. I would always have to compromise in order to quell the beast, but I wanted to give it a shot. I wanted to be a better man, because the one who loved so recklessly and gave everything just kept leaving me broken. I had to find balance. Maybe the three of us could find that together but getting there seemed like a rough endeavor. It was going to tear at the core of who I was.
If I can wrap myself around the moment, like Donovan does so easily, maybe there could be a chance…
I fixed a pot of coffee, but even the aroma of caffeine in the air wasn’t enough to lure them from the depths of their exhaustion. It barely opened my eyes—it had been a long time since I was that worn out. I chased my desires without much thought because they were truly remarkable. Marissa was amazing and while she was a virgin when we took her bed, she knew what she wanted. She understood her own needs and begged for them to be satisfied. I watched her sleep for several minutes and felt a gnawing hunger that overpowered my desire to crawl back into bed next to her. I walked back to the kitchen, poured a second cup of coffee, and then started making breakfast. The smell of coffee wasn’t enough to stir either of them, but bacon did the trick for Donovan. He came stumbling into the kitchen once it began to sizzle, wiping his eyes and yawning.
“Marissa isn’t awake?” I looked at him in surprise and turned over an empty cup, so he could pour some coffee.
“No, she’s out like a light.” He chuckled and sat down at the table once his coffee was poured. “I guess she wasn’t ready for a full night of passion.”
“She was ready—even if it takes a little longer for her to recover.” I smiled and used a pair of tongs to flip the bacon, so the other side could cook.
“So, I guess you’re ready for a relationship that involves the three of us?” Donovan looked over at me as I turned towards him.
“I’m coming around to the idea.” I nodded slowly. “It’s just tough—you know how I am.”
“Yes, and I know what that did to the relationships you’ve had in the past.” He shrugged and sipped his coffee. “I’m no saint and I’ll never claim to be one. I don’t hide from who am and neither do you, but obviously it isn’t working. Otherwise we’d be married with kids by now.”
“I guess so.” I nodded again and turned to wait for the bacon to finish. “At least you have an excuse. You saw how fucked up relationships can be when they go south without ever having to live through it.”
“The best gift my Dad ever gave me.” Donovan exhaled sharply. “But now I’m starting to wonder if he was just a cheating asshole.”
“It took you this long to figure that out?” I smirked and shook my head. “It’s possible to find the right woman, but you have to be open to it.”
“I think I was just looking in the wrong places. My eyes are definitely open now.” He sighed and sipped his coffee. “I just don’t want to get too far into this unless I know you’re committed to the same thing I am.”
“I wouldn’t have slept with her if I didn’t feel a connection. You’ll just have to trust me on it. I may not be there yet, but I want to be—I just have to get past my own shit.” I pulled the bacon out of the pan and dropped it on a plate.
“You seem to have dialed it back a lot. Granted, I’ve never seen what you told me about, but it didn’t seem so bad last night.” Donovan raised his eyebrows and titled his head. “Surely that has to mean something.”
“It does.” I nodded and poured scrambled eggs into the bacon grease. “It’s new to me, but I see the positive side of taking a calmer approach—I wasn’t the one who broke the bed.”
“Yeah.” Donovan chuckled. “I didn’t see that coming—not with a virgin.”
I finished cooking breakfast and decided to go wake Marissa up before we started eating. I knew she would be hungry, even if she was still exhausted. I walked into the bedroom and looked at her gorgeous curves illuminated by the early sunrise. Fuck, she was so damn beautiful. My cock started to get hard in my jeans. I wanted her so fucking bad. I took a deep breath and willed the lust to subside as I sat down on the side of the bed and gently nudged her. Her eyes opened slowly, and a smile spread across her face, but that turned to a grimace when she tried to move. She was feeling it—a price she would pay for the passion we shared. She slowly got out of bed and hugged me without saying anything. After digging through some of the debris from last night she found a discarded shirt to pull on and then we walked to the kitchen.
“Ah, you’re finally awake.” Donovan grinned and hopped up to pour her a cup of coffee.
“Yeah, I’m not sure how I’m even able to stand.” She sat down slowly. “If that’s what one night is like, I might never make it to Monday.”
“Does that mean you’ll stay tonight too?” I raised my eyebrows inquisitively.
“I’m thinking about it.” She winked at me and grinned.
The ache wasn’t enough to keep her away from her desires. We ate breakfast, drank enough coffee to get our blood flowing, and then we went back to the bedroom. Donovan pulled away the broken pieces of the bed and left the mattress flat on the floor. It would have to do. Our passion erupted immediately once we were back between the sheets. We chased bliss for the entire day, only pausing to eat, and then we were right back in bed. Our craving was insatiable, and it lasted well into the night. Sunday morning was just as marvelous, with the three of us tangled in embrace after embrace. I wasn’t ready for Monday when it finally came, but I had to get back to work. I had given myself as much of a break as I could spare, and it was the first time I had spent a weekend away from the case since I got it.
“Okay, I need to go. I have to go home and shower, so I can get ready for work.” Marissa pulled back from our embrace. “I start my new job today—I definitely can’t be late.”
“Not yet.” I shook my head. “I need another taste.”
“Me too.” Donovan grinned and put his hands, on Marissa’s hips. “Something that we can think about all day long.”
“Maybe a little taste wouldn’t hurt.” Marissa grinned and bit down on her bottom lip.
It’ll have to be quick, but it’ll be worth it.
I was left craving more when our passion was done, but there was literally no time to push for more. Marissa kissed the two of us and then bolted for the door, muttering about being late under her breath. I showered at Donovan’s house and borrowed some of his clothes. Thankfully, we were almost the same size. I didn’t have time to go back home before our shift. Donovan and I walked into the fire station with minutes to spare before our shift started.
I was usually there before everyone else, so I wasn’t prepared to see so many people buzzing with activity so early in the morning. There was a different air—excitement maybe? Donovan and I exchanged confused looks as we walked towards our desks at the back of the station. I saw something I didn’t expect—Detective Lewis. He had a huge smile on his face, and Chief Vance was standing beside him with a smile that was just as broad.
“We got him.” Detective Lewis nodded with a confident smug. “Fireball is behind bars.”
“What!?” My eyes opened wide. “You have to be kidding me? Why didn’t you call?”
“I wanted to give you the news in person.” Detective Lewis picked up a photograph that was lying next to him.
“Holy fuck.” Donovan blinked in surprise.
“I’d like you to meet Johnny West.” Detective Lewis slammed the picture against the white board behind my desk and slid a magnet over to keep it in place. “Also known as—Fireball.”
“Detective Lewis was just filling me in on this asshole.” Chief Vance turned towards the board. “He set a bunch of fires when he was a kid, but his juvenile record got sealed, so he was never on our list.”
“I had to get a court order to get it opened back up.” Detective Lewis turned towards us and pointed at the picture. “But this is our man.”
“How do you know for sure?” I tilted my head to the side.
“His Dad used to work at Livingston Capital.” Chief Vance nodded. “They fired him because his portfolio started losing money. Guess how Johnny handled it?”
“He started setting fires…” Donovan nodded in understanding. “Wow, so you were able to arrest him without any issues?”
“Yep.” Detective Lewis was so full of confidence he was practically beaming. “Anyway, I need to get back to the station. There’s a press conference later.”
“Do you need us to come with you?” I raised my eyebrows inquisitively.
“Nah, the police can handle this.” Detective Lewis walked over and patted me on the shoulder. “We’re the ones who caught him.”
I wanted to be happy that Fireball was finally behind bars, but there was a bit of turmoil inside of me because I wanted to be the one who solved the case. Detective Lewis was brushing us aside like we weren’t the ones who put in all of the work that narrowed down his list of suspects. We would have never been able to solve the case on our own, but it still didn’t sit well. I walked over to the board and stared at the picture of Johnny West. He just looked like a normal guy. I could have walked by him on the street and never known that he was the one responsible for so much carnage. The city was finally safe—even if we weren’t there to see Fireball get taken down. That should have been enough to make me smile, but it wasn’t. I didn’t like being kept out of the loop. Detective Lewis could have called. I didn’t need the glory, but I didn’t like being cut out when I could have been there to at least see him walk past me in handcuffs.
“I don’t want you two to think that I don’t value everything you put into this investigation. I know it was your case, and Detective Lewis would have never been able to arrest this asshole if you didn’t put in the work.” Chief Vance sighed. “On to the next one though—that’s how it works.”
“Yeah.” I nodded and turned away from the photograph. “We’ve got plenty of cases that need attention.”
“After all of that—it’s over.” Donovan sat down across from me with a perplexed stare on his face. “It doesn’t feel real.”
“We picked one hell of a weekend to take a break.” I exhaled sharply and looked at the stack of files next to me. “I guess I can send all of this stuff to storage.”
“It looks that way.” Donovan nodded and leaned back in his chair. “Okay, what are we working on next?”
“I don’t even know.” I shook my head back and forth. “You should go see your Dad now that Fireball is caught. I can manage for a couple of days.”
“Are you sure? I don’t want Chief Vance to think I’m slacking off when I’m up for a promotion.” Donovan looked up at the photograph of Fireball. “Although he might not even need a new investigator now…”
“I don’t know man.” I pushed my chair back. “I need to get out of here for a little bit.”
I was frustrated and if I sat behind my desk for another second, I was going to blow a gasket. Donovan had helped me with the case a lot in his spare time, but he wasn’t as invested in it as I was. I felt bad that he had rushed back to help me with the case when it was so close to being solved, and I knew he would have preferred to take a few extra days to spend with his Dad. At least he would be able to do that with Fireball in jail. Chief Vance agreed and promised that he didn’t have a problem with him going back upstate to see his family. Once Donovan’s car was out of sight, I started walking down the sidewalk with my hands stuffed in my jacket pockets. I had no destination in mind, I just wanted to put some miles on the soles of my shoes while I worked off the frustration.
How much devastation could have been spared if Detective Lewis just put in the fucking work from the beginning? Fireball would have never added a casualty to his list of destruction.
I wasn’t disappointed that I got to spend the weekend with Marissa. My frustration and anger were directed towards Detective Lewis. He wouldn’t have told me he was going to arrest Fireball, even if I was sitting behind my desk digging through old case files while it went down. He could have solved the case at any time if he just put in the work. I walked for a while, realized I had been gone for longer than I intended, and called Chief Vance to let him know that I just needed a day to collect myself. He told me that he was feeling the same way and let loose a few profanities about the way the police department handled things. I walked into a bar and sat down. It wasn’t even noon and I needed a drink. I had just finished my first one when the television in front of me flashed with an important announcement. A few seconds later, an empty podium appeared, and the mayor walked up with Detective Lewis flanking him.
Whatever.
I finished my drink and demanded another one as the mayor made his announcement. The press cheered when he started thanking Detective Lewis and the other officers for all of their hard work. There was a brief mention of assistance from the fire department, but he never mentioned anyone by name. He sure as fuck didn’t look at us as assistants when the case was on my desk and the police weren’t helping. He put all the pressure on the fire department, and most of that landed on Chief Vance. I swallowed my anger and chased it with booze. All that really mattered was that Fireball was sitting in a jail cell. His reign of terror was over, and the people of New York could get on with their lives. I had to do the same. Luckily, even in the chaos, I had found something that was more important than the investigation. With it behind me, I could focus on Marissa, and she certainly deserved my undivided attention.
At least one good thing came out of this. She was exactly what I needed when that case was tearing me up—such a beautiful distraction.
Marissa
My body was sore, and my muscles ached when I walked into the office. That wasn’t enough to erase the silly grin on my face. I didn’t just lose my virginity, I spent an entire weekend with my two gorgeous firefighters. They opened my eyes to things I never imagined, and I never wanted to close them again—except that’s exactly what they were begging to do because I was freaking exhausted. I fueled up on coffee as I met my new boss, my co-workers, and sat with one of them to learn the software I would be using. They sat me with a woman named Cathy who had been an Account Manager for several years. I felt overwhelmed as she showed me how everything worked, but I was excited to get started. I was going to make Ms. Stone proud, and finally live up to my potential.
“So, is it true?” Cathy leaned back in her chair and looked over at me.
“Is what true?” I tilted my head to the side.
“What you did to Olivia Adams.” She winked at me and grinned.
“Yeah, I guess so.” I shrugged and nodded.
>
I really only know what Hannah told me people were saying—the rumors might have been embellished a little bit.
“If you’ve got that kind of spirit, you’ll be a great fit down here in the pits.” She chuckled under her breath. “Just don’t lose any money or you’ll be out on your ass.”
“Ever?” I blinked in surprise.
“If the market is down, you can’t really avoid it, but bad investments aren’t met with much forgiveness. You worked for Ms. Stone directly, so you know how she reacts.” Cathy grimaced. “It’s not pretty to be on the wrong side of her wrath.”
“I’ve seen her temper flare.” I nodded in understanding. “I definitely don’t want to have it directed at me—even being a bystander is bad enough.”
“What is everyone freaking out about?” Cathy looked around the office and focused her attention on a co-worker that was staring intently at his monitor. “Nick, what’s going on?”
“They got him.” Nick looked up and smiled. “They caught Fireball!”
“What?” I jumped up from my seat and ran over so I could see his monitor. “When?”
“They’re giving a press conference right now. The police arrested him over the weekend.” Nick pointed at his screen.
But—I was with Kincaid and Donovan all weekend. They weren’t involved? I thought this was their case.
I stared at the screen as the mayor gushed over the police departments work, mentioned that the fire department had helped, and then soaked in the applause like he was the one who did all the work. I was happy that Fireball had been caught, but I thought there would be more discussion about everything Kincaid and Donovan were doing—especially Kincaid. He had been slaving away, working on the case since the beginning. After the announcement, there was a lot of rejoicing on my floor. The worry that had been at the back of my mind started to fade away as I saw the excitement on everyone’s face. We were safe—there was nobody lurking the shadows. I couldn’t help but worry after Mr. Livingston was targeted, but at least the horrible events could fade into history where they belonged.
Arson & Ache: A MFM Firefighter Romance (Surrender to Them Book 8) Page 11
