Blaze: A Firefighter Romance

by Lisa Lace

  "Hi," said Eden, shrugging the robe off her shoulders to look at the cuts on her back. "How long was I out?"

  Fully absorbed with the profile of his next target, Thiago didn't answer her.

  "Hello? Thiago?" said Eden, her forehead wrinkling in annoyance. She twisted her lips thoughtfully. "Holograms aren't a thing here, are they?" "

  The sound of a heavy object hitting something repeatedly rang against the steel floors beneath them. Stools and tables around the ship rattled from the hits. A cupboard door swung open from a particularly hard blow. Eden shrank up against the wall of the vessel instinctively. She slid up to the side, peeking out the window of the cockpit door. She didn't see anything unusual. Hercules, however, circled an old rug centered on the floor, snapping his pincers and growling.

  "What was that?"

  "Your mouth seems to be working fine. Relax," said Thiago stonily, without lifting his eyes from the screen. "He's properly restrained and encased in a 2-meter thick slab of concrete. He can try to escape, but no one's ever managed to break out of our cell."

  Eden's eyes widened in sudden realization. "Are you out of your mind? Is Krypt under us? How did you do that? Never mind. I thought we might have giant space termites."

  "These low-lifes have to be transported to the authorities one way or another. They won't come aboard my ship willingly."

  "I guess you're right. I never thought about it," Eden muttered, grumpily tying her robe around her waist. "I feel like things are getting a little tense here, so I'm just going to go upstairs and cool off. I'm glad you and Hercules are okay."

  "We are. No thanks to you."

  "What was that?" said Eden, stopping midway to the cockpit doors. "I don't think I caught your meaning."

  Thiago glanced over his shoulder at her. He was puzzled, but he could follow directions. "I wasn't whispering, and I think my intentions were clear. Did you not hear me? I said, no thanks to you."

  "I know what you said!" Eden snapped. "I wasn't looking for a thank you or anything for having your back out there in that gross, old warehouse, but at the very least, you could not blame me."

  "Why would I thank you? You broke your word and came running after me when I explicitly told you not to. You had no training and no plan. I'm beginning to doubt whether you people on Earth were born with common sense. That was wildly irresponsible. Krypt might have killed you."

  "Not only was I in the martial arts club in high school, but I've completed a total of three hour-long self-defense classes as an adult. It's not like you aliens are any better," Eden shot back, one hand firmly planted on her hips. She raised her voice over Krypt's floor-shaking antics in the other room. "You're all surly and ungrateful, and I was born and bred in New York City! I don't know how Hercules stays sweet and cuddly after hanging around with you all day. I didn't see you for over an hour. What was I supposed to do? I was worried sick."

  "I had everything under control until you showed up."

  "From where I was standing, it sure looked like Krypt was about to maul your head."

  "Shut up!" roared Eden and Thiago in unison, glaring heatedly at each other.

  Beep. Beep. Beep.

  They turned their attention to the windshield, currently overlaid with a grid map and blinking red coordinates. The craft began a smooth, slow descent. The floor rumbled as the spaceship released its wheels and hovered over the landing strip of a pod suspended above the ground. Behind the landing strip was a prestigious government building. It was grandly regal in contrast to the heavily-manned prison guard towers and drab walls surrounding it, garnished with spikes that expelled threatening sparks.

  Eden muttered to herself as she followed Thiago out of the cockpit. "Stay back," Thiago warned.

  He grabbed onto the edge of his wall of weapons and lifted it over his head, revealing an extra storage space stuffed with broken junk. Casually throwing a few objects over his shoulder, he reached in and pulled out a rectangular wooden box with an antenna loop protruding from the side. He swung the pivoting wall down and set the box onto a podium. He lifted the cover of the yellow switch next to his weapons, retreating as the floorboards pulled back.

  Eden gawked as a horizontal cell raised from the ground. Krypt lay flat on his back, his wrists restrained with a unique set of strong black handcuffs. There was a metal contraption fitted over his head like a middle schooler's over-engineered headgear. His flashing eyes balefully monitored every one of Thiago's movements, bits of frothing drool collecting on the sides of his mouth.

  Thiago remained composed even as Krypt began hurling obscenities in his direction. He proceeded to fiddle with some knobs and twisted out the other antenna of the rectangular device to its fullest.

  Raising his hand like a conductor, he waved a hand in front of the antenna. A haunting, high-pitched note emitted from the instrument. The beautifully serene chord was received with equally intense animosity as Krypt cried out in his cage, writhing in his headgear.

  "That was on the lowest setting. We can do this all day. Or you can choose to cooperate and make this easy for both of us. We'll walk into headquarters together, and you can keep the dignity you have remaining. I'll drop you off at the office, collect my credits and be on my merry way. Which will it be?"

  Krypt turned away from Thiago. A hateful look in his eyes was still present, but subdued. The criminal focused on a stain on the floor next to him. Thiago flashed a triumphant smile, nodding.

  "Wise choice," said Thiago, keying in a security code to unlock the cage. He stepped aside just in time to avoid a collision as Krypt pitched forward. Shaking his head, he helped the criminal to his feet as Hercules bared his pincers from the sidelines. "Hurry up now, off you go."

  As Eden opened the front door, Krypt lumbered past her, leering one last time before ducking his head under the doorway and exiting the craft. Thiago slung a navy-blue satchel over his shoulder, turning back to Eden before slipping out the door.

  "I'll be back in half an hour. 45 minutes at most. If I'm not back in 46, don't worry. Stay put!"

  "Could you be more annoying? Get out of here!" Eden rolled her eyes as the door sealed shut in Thiago's grinning face.

  She winced as she felt a hot, stabbing sensation on her back. Her wounds had not healed as much as she thought. Holding onto her back with one hand, she wandered into the kitchen for something to cure her hunger and take her mind off her pain. Hercules trotted along behind her, happily wagging its broad, forked tongue.

  "Are you hungry?" Eden cooed. She ruffled the top of Hercules' head, the creature purring agreeably under her touch. "I'm hungry too. Let's raid your master's cupboards and see if he's got anything edible around here."

  She retrieved a dusty, half-open box of what appeared to be alien cereal. The box had a picture of colorful marshmallows shaped like tiny, sweet humans. When she opened the box, a whiff of mold and neglect waved into her face. She swiftly dumped the box in the trash, fanning out the air in front of her.

  "Bachelors," gagged Eden, rolling her eyes. Hercules nudged her from the back, guiding her forward. "What's up, Herc?"

  The creature led her in front of a small oven, blinking back at her expectantly. She unhooked the latch of the oven door, pulling out a tray. She felt her chest warming at the baked dish waiting for her. It looked suspiciously like macaroni and cheese, only the homemade macaroni shells were as purple as yams, marinating in a green sauce. An extra coating of crispy, edge-burnt cheese lay on top of it.

  "Did he make this for me?"

  Hercules nodded in reply, beckoning toward the refrigerator with its hairy legs. Eden opened the fridge, a gasp of astonishment lodging in her throat. The top two shelves of the fridge contained cans of pomado-honeyberry pop. Unable to suppress a smile any longer, she beamed to herself, grabbing a soda can and cracking open the tab.

  "Are you saying I'm a little too harsh on him? Or is he making it difficult for me to leave?"

  Hercules made a small noise, raising four of its legs as if
to shrug at her. Eden grabbed the dish and reached for the cleanest utensil she could find before joining the creature in its nest. She tucked her legs underneath her and rested her head against the warmth of Hercules' torso. Unleashing a long, drawn-out sigh, she began to dig into the dish.

  Chapter Eleven

  Thiago listened thoughtfully to the poignantly melodious tune wafting out of his spaceship. He tiptoed through the front door, treading lightly toward Eden as he watched her. Seemingly oblivious to his arrival, she had her back turned to him. She sat on a stool in front of a rectangular device. Her fingers wiggled gracefully in mid-air, plucking invisible strings from a vertical antenna. Thiago folded his arms over his chest and leaned back against the wall, a floorboard creaking under the weight of his boots.

  "Oh," said Eden, jumping back in her seat. The look of alarm on her face quickly changed to one of relief. "I didn't hear you come in."

  "You don't have to stop," said Thiago softly, clearing his throat. "That is, if you don't want to."

  "Sorry, I didn't mean to touch your stuff," Eden mumbled, an embarrassed flush of pink creeping into her cheeks. "I got bored. There's not much to do around here."

  "It's fine," said Thiago earnestly, stroking his chin. "You're excellent. Did you compose that piece yourself?"

  "I wish," snorted Eden.

  Thiago found himself staring as she gathered her unruly mass of copper hair over one side of her neck, exposing a thin sliver of her porcelain flesh. She started up the song once more. This time, she kept her eyes closed, allowing her head to rock back and forth to the music.

  "This is a Louis Armstrong classic called 'West End Blues.' It's one of only two songs I know how to play on a guitar," Eden explained. She stopped playing abruptly, smiling as she turned back to face him. "And that's all I know. What do you call this instrument?"

  "It's a theremin. Ironically, it's a device from Earth. I believe a Russian physicist created it. I'm not sure how it made its way from Earth to space, but I retrieved it from an old junkyard and tinkered with it until I got it to work."

  "Interesting," said Eden slowly, rising to help Thiago dismantle the device. She ran her tongue over her lips thoughtfully, clearing her throat as she handed him the pieces to stow away behind the arsenal. "Thanks for the food, by the way. It was tasty despite the appearance. I'm not sure if the burnt edges were intentional, but it was just like Dad used to make it."

  "No problem. I followed a recipe I found from your home planet. It wasn't yellow, but I did what I could."

  "It tasted fantastic," said Eden gently, playing with the wrinkled creases on her elbows. "It was sweet."

  "I'm pretty sure it was meant to be a savory dish."

  "I meant, what you did was sweet. You know, like all the 'garbage' sodas you bought for me in the fridge."

  "I ordered everything in one sitting and had it delivered," Thiago said hastily. He had hardly ever received praise from those around him and he was growing increasingly uncomfortable. "Besides, you're too stubborn to drink anything other than that toxic swill. I didn't want to come home to find you starved to death and staining my floors."

  "Oh, right. Sure," laughed Eden, punching him playfully on the arm. She fell back on a large cushioned armchair. Thousands of microscopic alien creatures in individual bean casings shifted under her weight. They swarmed together, massaging the tension out of her back through the fabric of the chair. "I think I'm growing on you."

  "You're welcome to think whatever you'd like," said Thiago tonelessly. He grabbed a jug of Pasquin ale from the cabinet above him and poured a shot into a clean goblet.

  As he guzzled down the bitter liquor, Eden looked up. She crossed the kitchen and moved to the kitchen countertop next to Thiago. He was facing away from her. Wordlessly, she inspected the aged scars on the side of his neck. One ragged scar appeared to stretch down his back, disappearing from the neckline of Thiago's hooded jumpsuit. Biting down on her tongue, she traced the mark with her fingertip.

  Thiago shivered at the unexpected contact, turning back questioningly. "Hey!"

  "Did you get this from the warehouse, or is it an old battle scar?"

  "I guess you could say it was my first. It turns twenty-four this year," said Thiago glumly.

  "Can I see it?" said Eden, her mossy-green eyes widening.

  "What? What for?" Thiago asked. Noting the adamant expression on Eden's face, he grudgingly agreed. He unzipped his jumpsuit from the waist, shedding off the top half of his outfit and casting it aside. Eden was taken aback by the ripples of muscle in his naked upper body, sculpted naturally by years of strenuous bounty hunting. Her diverted eyes roamed back to his scar. The flesh-toned wound stopped halfway down his spine.

  "Hang on a minute. Twenty-four years ago? You were just a kid."

  "I was nine."

  "The bombing from the Noxx territory wars was twenty years ago," Eden whispered. Her chest tightened. "What happened?"

  "Like you said, it happened over twenty years ago. There's no sense in bringing it up now."

  "I'm not going anywhere."

  "Fine, if you insist. We used to live out in the countryside, in an area called Myron Plains. There were a few hundred or so families, mostly similar to mine – husbands who'd fallen for their human mail-order brides and decided to start families of their own. Our unique family dynamic wasn't accepted or tolerated by society, which was why we were living in the country outskirts."

  Eden listened intently. She watched as she saw a fleeting look of vulnerability cross Thiago's steely composure.

  "My mother was making sweet bread in the kitchen. My father was out in the yard sharpening handmade tools he traded with other villagers in Myron. I'd just completed one of the passages my mother assigned to me, so I ran outside to play. I went to a creek I visited every day. I remember leaning over the bank of the river, playing with a couple of baby anuras. Out of nowhere, a blaring sound filled the air. All the anuras swam away from me for cover faster than I'd ever seen them move before."

  "Oh no," Eden breathed, her stomach twisting as she braced herself.

  "There was an explosion of course, but I barely remember it. The next thing I knew, I was washed up on the bank of a creek about thirty miles south from where I'd started. I still don't know how I managed to survive the blast. I wandered for days but eventually hiked back to my town. Everyone I knew was dead. They completely obliterated Myron. We made it into a graveyard shortly after."

  "The Land of the Fallen," said Eden morosely, tugging at the sleeve of her robe.

  "Right," said Thiago, averting his eyes. He cleared his throat, downing the rest of the ale and chucking his goblet into the sink.

  Thiago hadn't thought about the incident for over two decades, but it was always lurking at the corner of his mind, waiting to take over his thoughts. The memory started a wave of dormant emotions flowing through his body. Like everything that discomforted him that wasn't a physical problem, he tried to flush it out of his system. Thiago took a deep, revitalizing breath, swallowing a tickle building up in his throat.

  "I'm sorry," Eden murmured, her voice thick with emotion.

  Her fingers gingerly scraped down the length of his scar, feeling his shoulders tensing up under her wandering touch. There were no more words to say, but her chest swelled with the burning desire to ravage his deliciously firm body and take away his pain. She resisted her urge. Instead, she closed in on his rigid back, planting a line of softly sensual kisses along the length of his scar.

  Thiago spun around without warning, his hands smoothly circling her waist and pulling her close to him. Eden's surprised giggles trailed off timidly as the distance between his strikingly handsome face and hers dwindled. He cupped his hands around her chin and kissed her, delicately dragging down her bottom lip against his.

  Eden moaned, sinking into the kiss. As their lips collided, her hands traveled up and over the back of his head. The patterns on his shaved head felt bristly against her palms. His groping
hands slid down her back and found their way to her butt. He smirked, awarding himself a hearty grab as he hoisted Eden off the floor and wrapped her legs around his waist.

  The pair continued to kiss as he carried her past a napping Hercules asleep in its nest. They teetered up the flight of steps, knocking sideways into the wall and railing before making it up the landing. Thiago gently placed her slender frame onto his bed. Eden's robe came undone as she toppled backward, the globes of her milky, bare breasts jiggling into view. She made a face, rubbing on her bandaged waist.

  "Be gentle. I'm injured, remember?"

  "Sorry." The impish grin on Thiago's face weakened Eden's legs. He climbed into bed and crawled on top of her. The back of his hands graced the supple bottom curves of her pear-shaped breasts. With his intense gaze steadily fixed on hers, his lips latched onto her nipple. She moaned, feeling herself hardening in his mouth as his tongue swirled around her.

  "When I was bandaging you today, it took all the restraint I had to refrain from looking at your body."

  Her appreciative whimpering was stifled while she chewed her lip. Squirming against the wrinkled sheets, she snatched his taunting hands and slapped them roughly onto her breasts. With her fingers interlaced through the gaps of his fervently kneading hands, she positioned her legs around him. The sole of her foot moved against his cock bulging through his jumpsuit. Her toes wriggled as she pressed down and began to move her foot in circular motions.

  "You better do something about that before I do."

  Eden flashed him a quick wink, deliberately licking the ruby red of her lips. Thiago stripped off the rest of his jumpsuit and flung it behind him, sending the pair of pants flying over the second-floor railing. As he stood at the foot of the bed, Eden crept toward him, her breasts swaying slightly from side to side. She wrapped her fingers around the thick girth of his cock and steered it into her mouth. As his tip touched the back of her throat, she gagged slightly, titillated tears springing to the corners of her eyes.