by Jaci Burton
She lifted her tank top off and tossed it onto the floor. His eyes gleamed in response. He cupped one breast, lifting it to his mouth. She braced in anticipation as he captured a nipple between his lips, teasing the bud with his tongue.
She let out a soft moan, every sexual nerve ending vibrating in response to Jackson’s sucking motions. She wrapped her legs around his hips to pull him closer.
He backed up only long enough to draw her shorts and underwear down her hips and over her legs, leaving her naked and sitting on the kitchen island, which was a little odd.
But at this point, she didn’t care. All she cared about was having an orgasm. She was pent up, quivering and in need of what Jackson could give her.
When he pulled up a bar stool and sat, then cupped her butt and dragged her toward him and draped her legs over his shoulders, she lifted up on her elbows to watch. She wanted to see what he was going to give her.
He smiled up at her. “Ready?”
“More than.” She nibbled on her bottom lip and gave him a look that let him know she wanted what he was ready to give her.
He slid his tongue down one side and up the other, caressing her labia in such a tender way it made her shiver. His tongue was hot and wet and when he circled her clit, she was panting in anticipation. And then he closed his mouth over the bud and swept his tongue over her clit.
She could come right now. Right damn now. The sensations were incredible, and she was taut with the need for an orgasm. But there was no way she was letting go just yet, not when this amazing man with an oh-so-talented tongue was doing delicious things to her. She intended to enjoy this for as long as she could.
Except that he swept his tongue across her sensitized flesh over and over in relentless fashion, sliding a finger inside her to add to the rock-her-world sensations.
She came with an unexpected cry, her entire body shuddering with the force of her orgasm. She rocked through the amazing sensations that seemed to go on and on until she collapsed, those waves of orgasm still undulating within her.
Jackson rose up and pulled her toward the edge of the counter. “I’ll be right back.”
He dashed upstairs while she took a minute to catch her breath. She felt warm and complete and still turned on. So when he came back, she was more than ready for him.
He pulled off his shirt and dropped his shorts and underwear, depositing the condom packet on the counter so he could draw her into his arms for a blistering kiss that left her senseless. She wrapped her legs around him and the kiss intensified, making her feel weak and hot and quivery.
He pulled back from her only long enough to put the condom on. She leaned back and he slid inside her.
She gasped, holding on to his shoulder as he drove deeper.
“You’re beautiful, Becks,” he said, looking from her sex to her face. “From the sounds you make to your movements to the way you feel when I’m inside you, everything about you is made for me.”
She felt it, too, that utter perfection of him as he moved within her. Her body tightened around him as if to capture him and hold him there.
As if she’d want him anywhere else except right where he was, sliding in and out of her and making her feel things she’d never felt—a sense of rightness, of belonging, as if this man had been made just for her.
She realized she’d echoed the words Jackson had said.
Monumental? Emotional? Or just sexual? She had no idea and she refused to plumb their depths right now, not when every part of her felt so damn good. She was coiled tight and ready to explode.
“Yeah, just like that, babe,” Jackson said, the strain on his face evident as his movements increased. “Come on and take me with you.”
Her breaths grew more rapid as she raced to the edge of oblivion, held for one beautiful second, then fell.
She took Jackson with her, both of them holding on to each other as they shuddered through the wild storm of their orgasms.
Afterward, Becks laid her head on Jackson’s shoulder, licking at the sweat that had formed there. She was perspiring all over as well. When she pulled back, she realized they had stuck to each other.
“Quite a workout, huh?” she asked.
“Yeah. Feel like another shower?”
“Definitely.”
He lifted her off the island and they went upstairs to rinse off. Afterward they got dressed, disinfected the kitchen counter and sat on the sofa to watch a movie. It was nice to have a night with just the two of them, alone to hang out and talk.
She didn’t make it ten minutes into the movie before she was asleep.
CHAPTER 25
The last several shifts had been grueling for Jackson and the entire station. The combination of the epic rainstorms they’d been having and the summer vacation traffic had increased the number of accidents they’d worked the past week. One had been particularly bad, involving a fatality and an ejected passenger. Those incidents were the worst and always brought the entire station down. Their job was to save lives, and when they couldn’t, they felt useless.
As a firefighter you could do your best to get the word out to people about fire safety, but there wasn’t much you could do to prevent automobile accidents. No matter what the laws were or what people logically knew was right or wrong, people were going to talk on their phones while in the car. Some were going to text. Some would drink and drive. Some were going to lose focus because they were having an argument with their spouse, or yelling at their kids. And like today, some tractor-trailer truck driver was going to fall asleep at the wheel at three a.m., causing him to drift into the adjacent lane and ram into the guardrail, causing his eighteen-wheeler to jackknife, ramming an SUV against the overpass bridge and shutting down the northbound lanes of I-95.
When they arrived on scene Jackson assessed the situation. A family of four was trapped inside the SUV—a couple and their two teenagers. Since both sides of the vehicle were obstructed and the back was pinned as well, they’d have to pull them out from the front windshield.
“Everyone okay in there?” he asked.
“We’re okay. No one’s hurt,” the driver said.
Some kind of fucking miracle there, all things considered.
“Rafe, the Sawzall.”
Rafe nodded and ran to the truck to get the necessary equipment while Jackson stayed with the family in the van.
“Okay, I need you all to cover your faces because we’re going to pull the windshield to get you out. Do you have something in there to cover yourselves?”
The man looked around, then nodded. “We do.”
The kids threw jackets to both the adults in the front seat. The kids had blankets and when everyone’s faces were covered, Rafe had returned. He had safety glasses on and the Sawzall in his hand. Tommy Rodriguez was there to help him lift the windshield.
“Okay, we’re getting started. You’ll hear some sawing noises. Don’t be scared. We’ll get you out of there shortly.”
Jackson nodded at Rafe, who punctured two holes in the top and bottom of the windshield, then started cutting the windshield with the saw. Tommy made sure to slip his hand inside the slightly opened passenger-side window to hold the windshield and make sure it didn’t fall inward.
It took less than a minute, then Rafe and Tommy lifted the windshield off. They laid a tarp over the jagged bottom of the windshield and helped extricate the family.
“We’ve got you,” Rafe said, helping the woman out first, then the kids. The dad said he’d wait until last and assisted Rafe and Tommy with helping his family out.
Miguel and Adrienne were there to take them to the ambulance for assessment. Other than what appeared to be some soft-tissue injuries from being jostled so hard at impact, they all appeared to be fine. The parents declined treatment for any of them and said they’d follow up with their family physician.
The tru
ck driver had sustained a broken arm, so he’d be transported.
Tow trucks came and they assisted with the extrication and removal of the vehicles. Which left cleanup, and there was plenty of that. They moved as fast as they could so the highway could be opened quickly. Closing all the lanes of a major interstate wasn’t acceptable. They worked with the Florida Highway Patrol to get the tractor-trailer moved as soon as possible, so they could get a couple of lanes open. Highway Patrol handled traffic control while Jackson and his team finished with their jobs.
By the time they got back to the station it was the end of their shift.
Jackson had reports to write, so he stayed behind.
“You coming home?” Rafe asked.
“I’ll be there later. I want to get this report filed while it’s still fresh in my mind.”
Rafe gave a short nod. “Later, bro.”
“Yeah, later.”
While he wrote his report, he gave a verbal assessment of the accident scene to his next-shift counterpart, Leo Stockton. Leo had been a lieutenant at Station 6 for six years longer than Jackson, so Jackson held a lot of respect for him.
“I’m amazed the family in that SUV got out without a scratch, considering the size of the tractor-trailer that crushed them,” Leo said.
Jackson leaned back in his chair in the kitchen, talking over the noise of everyone wandering around fixing food and eating. “No kidding. I guess it just wasn’t their day to go.”
“You’re right about that.”
Firefighters often talked about the freak accidents they worked, and how sometimes it seemed as if it was just a person’s day to die. And sometimes people survived things that defied explanation. There was no way to fathom it other than either it was your time to go or it wasn’t.
The call alarm sounded so everyone disappeared, leaving Jackson alone to finish his report. He liked second team shift, but with them milling about and Leo using his office, he didn’t have much privacy to concentrate.
Now, though, it was plenty quiet, giving him time to get his report done.
He couldn’t wait to finish so he could get out of there.
When he was done, he filed his report, closed his laptop and slipped it into his bag, then headed out to his truck. It was ten in the morning and he was dead tired. Since that last call came in at three a.m. he’d lost some sleep. He needed activity and caffeine to charge him up.
But he’d wanted to stop by Becks’s new shop and see how things were going for her. She’d been open more than a week now, and she’d told him she’d had a full schedule every day. She’d been working well past closing time and had come home late and wiped out. And he’d been busy on his off days, either working at home since it was his week for yard work or doing some things at Mom and Dad’s house. Now that they’d agreed to sell the house, Dad wanted to get it done right away. But first they had to spruce the place up, which meant Dad had commandeered Jackson, Rafe and Kal to do repairs and painting.
None of them minded, of course. It just required pitching in on off days.
He stopped by the coffee shop, grabbed a large coffee and a couple of breakfast sandwiches, then headed over to Becks’s place.
The rain had stopped, making it even more hot and humid. There was nothing worse than Florida in the summer. Though as he parked and got out of his truck, he could smell the ocean.
Maybe after he visited Becks he’d make a stop at the water and do some boarding. It might wake him up enough to keep him going until his regular bedtime tonight. The worst thing about a twenty-four-hour shift was the havoc it played on your sleeping hours. If you had a middle-of-the-night call, the last thing you wanted to do was pass out during the daylight hours, then end up staying awake all night long, no matter how much you wanted to sleep.
In the meantime, he was hoping this large coffee would help.
He walked inside. Aria was busy on the phone; she made eye contact, smiled at him and held up a finger to let him know she’d be right with him.
There wasn’t anyone in the waiting area, but he heard Becks’s voice so she obviously had someone in the back.
Aria put the phone down. “Hi, Jackson.”
“Hi, Aria. How’s it going?”
“It’s busy here. Which is good.”
“Sounds great. How are you liking the job?”
“I’m loving the job. You look like you just got off work.”
He was still wearing his uniform and hadn’t had a chance to shower, figuring he’d do that once he got home. “Yeah.”
“How’s your job?” Aria asked.
“Busy. Which in my line of work isn’t always good.”
“I guess you’re right about that.”
“What’s Becks up to?”
“She’s doing a piercing. She should be finished soon.”
“A piercing, huh?” He’d talked to her about her tattoos, but he didn’t know she also did piercings.
She came around the corner with a young girl who looked to be in her late teens. She was wearing a crop top and looking down at her belly, where there appeared to be a brand-new piercing.
“Okay, Hailey, Aria will give you a sheet containing your aftercare instructions. Follow them closely, because the last thing you want is an infection.”
Hailey nodded.
“And if you have any problems or any questions, call me. Aria will give you my card.”
“Thanks, Becks.”
“You’re welcome. The piercing looks good. I think you’ll like it.”
Hailey stared down at it, then up at Becks with a happy smile on her face. “I know I will. I already do.”
After Aria motioned for Hailey to come to the desk, Becks stepped over to Jackson, and the sweet smile she laid on him made his day.
“This is a nice surprise.”
“I was going to head home after my shift, but I wanted to stop in and see how you were doing.”
“You came by at just the right time. I have about a half hour before my next client comes in. Let’s go back to the break room.”
He followed her down the hall. She’d done a lot with the space since the last time he was here. More equipment, more people for sure. She stopped in a doorway where a tall, bald, muscular guy whose arms were covered in ink was sitting and working on tattooing another guy’s shoulder.
“Hey, Martin, this is Jackson Donovan, my . . . my roommate.”
Jackson noted the hesitation.
Martin swiveled around in his chair and cast some serious blue eyes and a smile at Jackson. “Hey, buddy. Nice to meet you.”
“Same.”
She tugged on the sleeve of his T-shirt. “Come on.”
They’d taken a small space in the back of the shop and set up a mini-fridge and microwave as well as a small table and a couple of chairs.
“Cozy.”
She shrugged. “It works as a spot for breaks and to eat. And speaking of eating, you brought your breakfast?”
“A couple of egg sandwiches, because I got out of the station late. I brought extra, you want one?”
She shook her head. “I made some toast and eggs before I came in this morning.”
He got up. “Maybe Aria will want the extra sandwich. I’ll just tuck it in the fridge and you can let her know it’s here. She can microwave it if she gets hungry.”
“You’re sweet. I know she’ll appreciate it.”
He closed the mini-fridge door. “Hey, we know what it’s like to be hungry.”
“Yes, we do. And speaking of being hungry and homeless . . .”
“Yeah?”
“It went well, as you know, and Lexie was very excited about meeting the Rothman family. So yesterday, your mom took her to meet them.”
“Is that right?” He was relieved to hear it. It wasn’t often kids like him and Becks g
ot a break.
She nodded. “Yes. Aria filled me in on what happened. I guess Lexie and the Rothmans connected right away, and the other kids in the family grabbed her and took her upstairs and showed her which bed would be hers. It was like she was already a part of the family.”
“Aw, that’s great.”
“Yes. I hope it’s going to work out. She’s a sweet kid.”
“Yes, she is. And it’s one less kid on the streets.”
“That’s right.”
He ate his sandwich in about three bites. He could have eaten the second one easily, but he’d grab something else after he got home. It was important that Aria got to eat.
“So, you do piercings, huh?” he asked.
“Yes. Why, do you want one?” She arched a brow.
He laughed. “No, just asking about your business. Do you do all kinds of piercings?”
“Yes.”
“Yet you only have piercings in your ears and the one in your nose.”
She smiled at him. “So far.”
He arched a brow. “So far, huh?”
“I might get more at some point.”
“That has my imagination working overtime.”
“Why? Are you fascinated at the thought of me getting nipple piercings? Or maybe a clit piercing?”
His dick twitched. “Are you trying to get me hard?”
She leaned forward and brushed her lips across his. “Do I have to try?”
He laughed, then pulled back, knowing this wasn’t the time or place, despite really wanting to explore the kiss. “Tease.”
“So why were you stuck at the station late?” she asked.
“We had a call in the middle of the night that took a while to work. We didn’t get back to the station until after end of shift, and I stayed to write my report.”
She swept her fingers over his forehead. “Must have been a bad one.”
“The wreck was bad. Surprisingly, no major injuries.”
“That’s good to hear. You’re probably tired.”
“I am.”
“And yet you took the time to stop by here.”
