I nod. “Yes.”
Immediately he slides the ring on my finger as he looks up at me with a smile. My hands open wide and quickly find his face as he moves in to me, kissing me softly, but just like everything we do it’s just a spark that very quickly builds into something more.
A few people recommended I meet with a psychologist a few weeks ago after what happened. I have no doubt that would have been a great experience, but lucky for me Jonah always knows exactly what I want.
The man can listen for long stretches like no other.
He can massage my feet until his hands go numb, or at least I think they must be. I wouldn’t know. He never mentions it, only asking me if he’s doing it exactly how I like.
And he’s reading me right now, because I want to seal this engagement right now with some adult fun in the bedroom, which I know is going to lead to some baby fun in nine months…if not sooner considering this isn’t our first time, although that time will always be with me.
He scoops me up off the couch and slowly and romantically carries me to the bed before gently laying me down.
I feel something foreign touching my skin and turn and look, seeing the rose petals laid out in the shape of a heart beneath me.
“You’re the heartbeat of our little family. It’s appropriate.”
“And you make my heart beat just a little too fast all the time, and sometimes really fast. Okay, I won’t lie. You keep my heart racing.” I smile as I slide out of my lounging clothes almost as quickly as he ditches his dark denim and snug white T-shirt.
He slides into our bed and brings his body horizontal, before sliding up to kiss me, making sure his skin moves across mine.
The skin-to-skin contact creates this heat, this friction, this feeling that is unrivalled anywhere except in our bedroom.
The next hour he’s gentle, attentive, and the best lover the world has ever known as he explores every nook and cranny of my body, bringing me to a peak before backing off.
He’s built me up time after time only to stop just short. My anticipation and desire can’t take anymore and I know I’m going to explode when he finally gives me exactly what I know he’s holding back.
And then he does just that, mounting me and sliding inside me, fitting like a glove.
I’m already so primed for him, so ready that it takes mere seconds for my entire being to slide away into complete climax as he fills me with his warm gift.
He carefully lies down next to me, pulling me in close to him as he leaves himself inside me, the two of us connected as he just holds me.
I open my eyes to find him looking right into them.
“You’re so beautiful and peaceful when you sleep, but then again you’re always beautiful.”
“I wasn’t asleep.”
“I must be projecting again.”
“Projecting?”
“Because ever since I met you it’s been like a dream I didn’t even know I ever had, and I don’t ever want to wake up.”
There’s a time to be alpha and there’s a time for this, and there’s no other time that I’ve wanted to hear these kind of words more than right now.
I feel his hand take mine as he brings it up to his lips, kissing my ring finger gently. “This ring is sealed to your finger now, never to come off.”
“Never. It was never going to.”
“Good, because I love seeing it there. I love knowing I put it there. You know why?”
“Because I love you.” His fingers intertwine with mine and he slowly and gently takes our hands to my stomach, before calmly lying them on top. “Just like I’m going to enjoy seeing what we put here.”
“The first of many,” I say.
“The first of many, with you my love. I love you.”
“I love you.”
“And soon it will be I love us.”
“Us. My favorite word.”
“Mine too, but it’s tied with one other.”
“What one other?” I say sharply, but he knows I’m playing.
“Mine,” he says pulling me in even closer and kissing the top of my head. “Mine,” he growls into my skull, as if doing so will imprint it into my brain forever.
He has nothing to worry about. It’s already there, and will be. Always.
EXTENDED EPILOGUE
Daphne
Four years later
I arrive at the scene of the blaze, having been to a fire crime scene plenty of times before.
First, as Jonah’s wife, and second as a trainee.
No longer.
Today is my first day, officially, as a forensic fire scientist.
It worked out perfectly. The station had always had one main forensic fire scientist, but he was getting a bit older and wanted to cut back. He sat down with Jonah and I and we all got what we wanted. Jonah would hand pick the juiciest cases for me. That require the most time and thought, like a mystery novel. The easier cases would go to Ben, who was nearing retirement and really just wanted something to get him out of the house a bit.
Officially being on the other side was amazing. I could feel the adrenaline pumping through my veins as my mind started to process what might have lead to this fire, and more importantly what put an end to it.
I look through the smoke and my eyes immediately lock on my man. He’s a true hero, wading through broken, smoldering boards and rubble.
“No casualties,” he calls out as he always does, his eyes finding mine.
Watching Jonah do what he does was the best thing in the world…well, next to watching him play with our three-year-old twin sons Liam and Lucas that is.
But after we get cleaned up here at the scene there will be no Liam and Lucas this weekend. Their Uncle Daniel is taking the boys camping, much to my surprise. Does he really know how much work two little boys are?
He loves them to pieces, but let’s see if he can handle being trapped in a tent with them over a long holiday weekend.
And speaking of being trapped…Jonah and I already have all the delivery numbers right by the phone. We don’t plan on doing anything other than trapping ourselves in the bedroom all weekend and getting busy making our boys some more siblings.
After their birth we decided to take a break. Seeing that we got twins, and I was balancing going back to school to get my degree, there was just no way we could welcome more bundles of joy into our lives.
But now that my degree is finished and my job secured?
I’m ready to get back at it, especially while Ben is still here to take on cases for the next few years until he hangs up his fire helmet for good.
I take some notes and some pictures as I wander through the scene.
“Whatcha looking at?” a deep voice comes from behind me, yet quickly cloaks me a I study a backyard barn and wonder why it went unscathed.
“Just…checking things out,” I reply with a smile.
“Yeah, me too…scientist.” I feel a hand grab my ass hard and a nose press against the side of my face as he breathes in deep.
“Even out here with all this smoke in the air I can smell your sweetness.”
“Which sweetness?”
“All of it.” His hand that’s got my globe in a firm grip slides in-between my legs. “You know how hot you look right now, walking around like you own the place.”
He always instills confidence in me and always has my back. “I look like I own the place?”
“Well, technically I’m in charge here, and you most certainly own this,” he says, taking my hand and putting it on his flame resistant pants.
They may be thick, but what’s underneath is even thicker, harder, and wants out.
My breath catches before releasing, causing my heart to slam into my chest.
He spins me around, kissing me hard as his lips slam into mine and his body does nearly the same.
My back finds the wood of the backyard barn as I drop my notes, and grab his dick harder.
I frantically unzip his suit and pull out hi
s cock, stroking it furiously.
He jerks down my trousers as I wiggle my hips. It’s dry as a bone everywhere you look, yet I’m a drenched mess.
“I want you so bad right now…and I will have you.”
“Always. And I’ll have you. Give me that thick cock of yours which belongs to me.”
Being with Jonah for over four years now has made me just as possessive as him. I guess working around a bunch of alpha males only adds to it, especially when I go home with the alpha of the alphas.
His big hand comes in over the top of mine, putting the crown of his cock right at my entrance. He pauses, looking into my eyes… “Mine,” he says before stuffing his entire length inside me with one upward thrust of his hips.
My feet come off the ground as the force of it pushes my back against the wood behind me, and his hands cupping my ass, keep me in position.
“Oh fuck, Jonah. I’m gonna…Uh, uh.” My body convulses as I cream on his cock, immediately causing him to grunt, growl, and then groan as he unloads his hot seed inside of me.
He stares into my eyes as we breathe hard, before he claims my mouth possessively again.
“Daphne. You back there? I got something we need to take a look at,” one of the firemen says.
“Stay back, Johnson!” Jonah growls. “She’s doing her investigating. She’ll get there when she gets there.”
“Yes, sir.”
The sound of boots turning the other direction is audible, but my giggle is muffled.
“Doing my investigation, huh?”
Jonah smirks.
“Well, I never have to look hard, that’s for sure.” The man has got a pole like no other, not that I’d know. All I’ve ever known is him, and that’s how it’s always going to be.
He slides out of me to a vacuum sound, that void always pissing me off. I just can’t ever get enough of him.
“I know one thing you’ll never have to investigate?” he says.
“What might that be…captain?”
“My love for you because I’m gonna keep showing you each and every minute of every day until the end of time.”
He gives it to me hot and quick but he sure knows how to throw me some sugary sweetness at just the right moments too.
I wrap my arms around him and we stare at each other once again, before we kiss gently. “You gonna show me some more of that later when we get home?”
“As far as I’m concerned we’re home now?”
“Home? What are you a pyromaniac now?” I laugh.
“No, I’m a Daphnemaniac, and home to me is wherever you are, so if you’re here then I’m home.”
“You’re too good, you know that?” I say kissing him once more fixing my clothes and then walking away to get back to work.
I look over my shoulder and he gives me a wink.
The sight of him in his fire suit, covered in soot with his helmet tipped to the side is the sexiest sight in the world. No wonder a shot just like this one sold so many calendars for charity last year.
Does it make me jealous that other women have that calendar? It sure does.
But what they’ll never have, and I’ll always have, is him.
The man who only has eyes for me, yet is kind to both our family and those in need. That original calendar project we started has expanded to not only help widows of firefighters but also provide scholarships to local students.
And the best part is he never poses provocatively anymore. Just the sight of him in his fire suit is enough to have those calendars flying off the shelves.
Let the young guys do all the sexy poses in the middle, I’ll keep the hottest pose, the hottest guy, and the hottest body all for myself.
And that pose is when he flexes his biceps and each of our boys hangs from one as he lifts them up off the ground as they fill our house with giggles and laughter that turns our house into a home…because that’s where my three men are. Two little and one full grown.
And our love, and our family, only grows stronger, and bigger each day.
EXTENDED EPILOGUE
Jonah
Six more years later
“Are they asleep?” I ask, looking over my shoulder from the hammock that I don’t plan on getting out of any time soon.
“Totally zonked out.”
“Good, then we can do the same.” I extend my arms and my woman comes to me, crawling on top of me…right where she belongs.
“Are we going to break it? We’re too heavy?”
“I’m too heavy. You’re like, what? The weight of a few feathers, tops.”
“Stop it,” she says slapping my chest. “I’ve got mom bod.”
“You do not. You’ve got mom awesome.”
“What in the heck is mom awesome?”
I reach for my phone on the table and pretend to open the Internet on a web browser. “The dictionary says it’s when an insanely attractive woman, especially the most attractive one in the whole world, somehow, unable to be explained by science or the laws of the universe, becomes more attractive because she’s given her king the heirs to the throne he’s always wanted.”
“It does not! Give me that,” she says, reaching for my phone, but my hands are too long. I set it out of her reach. “Are you calling me a liar?”
“I’m calling you my biggest supporter, my biggest fan, and the only man I’ve ever loved.”
“Keep going,” I tease.
She playfully slaps me on the chest again and then falls back onto it, her head resting right there on my pecs.
This is the way our vacation to Puerto Rico was supposed to be…a decade ago.
That’s why I had to come back, to bring her back, and make things right.
But as much as I was looking forward to that vacation ten years ago, I was even more excited about this one.
Because this time we’ve got five children in tow.
There’s the twins, Liam and Lucas, plus our two-year-old Isla, who is really into her name and is saying we can call her “Puerto Rica” this week since she is an island after all. Then there’s the middle two Mauve and Finn, ages three and five.
It’s perfect. Two of us and the five of them…lucky seven.
And with some of Puerto Rico’s incredible tax benefits right now I might just have to spring the idea on Daphne of staying here full time.
We’ve worked hard these last few years and saved up a lot of money. The stock market is high and Puerto Rico offers some zero tax incentives on capital gains, although it’s based on how long you’ve been a permanent resident and things like that.
I smile.
Why in the world am I thinking about taxes on vacation? Isn’t the point of a vacation not to be thinking about things like that?
Plus, how could we ever leave our community behind, not to mention the kids have friends and will want to go to college one day. We’re not putting our money into an island house. We’re investing in what’s most important…our children, no matter that Condé Nast Traveler readers picked Blue Beach, known as La Chiva, down here in Vieques, Puerto Rico, as one of the top twenty-four beaches in the world just a few months ago in their latest Readers' Choice Awards.
It is a beautiful and amazing place, but I don’t care what readers picked…I care what I picked, and will always pick given two choices when it comes to anything in life.
Time with my family. That’s always number one in my book.
And number one starts with her.
She’s our champion. She’s our college grad slash mother slash working mom slash do it all at home…and always with a smile on her face.
As firemen we get a lot of accolades from the public. It’s nice, but the ones who deserve the real accolades are the women of this world. If it weren’t for women having babies there wouldn't’ be firefighters, and there wouldn’t be reasons to run into houses and save people, because there would be no people.
And if I hadn't met her I wouldn’t be the person I am today.
I’d be the guy w
hose vacation time just disappeared every year because it expired, going unused.
I’d be the guy who was chained to his desk, married to his job, and probably died early of stress and everything that comes with it.
Brother's Fireman Friend (A Man Who Knows What He Wants Book 106) Page 13
