Showers of water soon entered through the windows as Adrian looked around the smoky room to see if there was anyone in it. He was just about to make his way out of the room and go search other parts of the house when he noticed a door that was closed. He hurried over to it and kicked it open, sending it flying into what looked like a washroom. It was filled with smoke and on one end of the room, there was a woman lying on the floor. He dashed quickly to where she was, lifting up her head slightly and checking her pulse to see if she was still alive. There was a faint beat under her wrist and so he immediately put his gas mask over her nose. She coughed, sexy green eyes that were filled with fear fluttering open.
“Am I dead yet?” she said amid the spattering coughs.
“No, and neither are you dying, because I'm going to get you out of here,” he said, leaving her with the mask as he got up and grabbed a towel, shoving it under a tap and turning on the water.
He was relieved to find that the water was still running as he soaked the towel and then put it over his own nose.
“Come on, we have to get out of here,” he said, lifting her easily onto his shoulder and carrying her out of the room. “Breathe through your mouth and do not remove the mask.”
*****
She was feeling lightheaded from all of the smoke that she had inhaled, but she could still feel the strong body that carried her out of the house. Christie coughed to clear her aching throat as they came out of the house, the strong man taking her to a waiting stretcher and placing her gently onto it.
“I think she will be alright, she just chocked on the smoke, but nothing serious at all,” he said to the EMTs that hurried to her side.
As she looked through her hazy eyes, she saw the man that had rescued her removing his helmet, brown eyes looking into hers. There was something vaguely familiar about the man, although she could not quite make out what it was. What she did know was that he was one of the hottest looking men that she had ever seen. She was madly attracted to him in a way that she could not understand, despite the fact that she was in a bad situation.
“Ma'am, my names are Adrian Walsh, the chief firefighter here, and I hope that you don’t mind if I ask you a couple of questions. First of all, can you hear me?” a sexy voice said to her, the name sounding so familiar, Christie was sure that she must know the man from somewhere.
She nodded her head, her eyes still looking into his brown eyes, Christie finding that she could not stop herself from looking at him. It was almost as if there was some sort of pull that attracted her to him in the most intense way.
“Yes,” she managed to say weakly, not sure if she was weak because of all the smoke that she had breathed in, or because of the hunk of a man that was asking her the questions.
“Perfect. Now, in the house, is there anyone else inside, or even pets?” he asked, his eyes never wavering away from hers as she once again nodded her head. The man then turned to the other people around. “She was the only one in the building, forget the rescue and focus on putting out the fire now. Are you hurt anywhere, ma'am?”
“No, I got out of the room in time before the fire became too much,” she responded weakly.
“What were you doing in the office, why didn’t you just get out of the house instead? Don’t you realize that you could have died in there?” he said to her with concern as an EMT walked over to her to check her pulse using a stethoscope.
She noticed the way that his eyes swept over her bare body as her gown fell apart by mistake, a soft blush washing over her cheeks as he looked away quickly, the EMT covering her up quickly.
“I would like you to give me a full update on her status before you leave,” he said to the EMT before he walked off, this time not daring to look at her again.
The EMT went about with her regular drill of checking her out and asking her about how she felt as she touched her in different places. The whole time, Christie's mind was on the hot fireman that had caught her eye. She pondered where she’d heard his name mentioned before, although she knew that it wasn’t from her circle. He was just a fireman, while she rolled with the wealthy circle of the city. Maybe she had read the name in one of the numerous novels that she had read. Putting it at the back of her mind, she laid her head back and wondered about the extent of damage that the fire had caused, also wondering what could have been the cause. It was almost twenty minutes before the firemen got the situation under control. Adrian broke away from the rest of the team and came back to where she was now standing with the cops and the EMTs.
“Thank you for saving my life,” she said to him weakly as he came right up next to her.
“Anytime, ma'am, that is what I do for a living. I'm just glad that you weren’t hurt and that your family was not here with you,” he said to her, and for some reason, she felt the need to tell him that she was single, and available too.
“I actually live alone here since I have no family, and over the weekends, I usually tell my workers to take the days off to do their stuff,” she said to him, noting the awesome physique as he stood next to her, the pure definition of maleness.
“You’re kidding, you live in this big house all alone?” he sounded surprised, more like shocked. “I mean, you must get pretty lonely, unless of course, you enjoy being alone.”
He stood there in silence beside her, watching as the other firemen began putting away their equipment. He was right, she did get lonely especially when her only friend Karla was working, but there was nothing that she could do about it. Not until she found herself a man that could occupy the space with her and keep her company. A man like Adrian Walsh. She needed to get the fireman out of her mind because there was nowhere that she could go with a man like him. He just wasn’t her type, or was he!
“Well, if you're okay then I guess that we can get going,” he said to her as he removed the fireproof overalls that he was wearing, his body coming into view.
He had to have one of the most inspiring bodies that she had ever laid her eyes on. Inside the overalls, Adrian was wearing a tight fitting polo shirt that showed off all of his muscles, since it held onto him firmly. He was also wearing a pair of lacks that brought his body out in a sexy way, and it was not hard to try and imagine what he looked like without his clothes on. This was definitely someone that she would not mind getting freaky with any day, his social status notwithstanding.
“I really don’t know how to thank you, Adrian,” she said to him, not really knowing what to say. He now looked more familiar than ever, although she still wasn’t sure where she could have seen him. “Will I get to see you again?”
No way, she just didn’t ask him that, did she? It had never been her nature to ask a man, and least of all a stranger, such a question. The fireman had an effect on Christie that she could not even begin to describe. She was supposed to be thinking about all of the things that she had lost to the fire, but instead she was standing here thinking of Adrian in a sexual way. Could it be that she had gone for too long without having sex? Christie had been through a number of sexual flings, but those barely got rid of the itch that she felt in between her thighs. She had never felt attracted to the men the way that she felt about Adrian. Looking at him more closely, Christie realized that she actually knew him from somewhere.
“Wait a minute, you look very familiar, don’t tell me that you are the Adrian from Jonathan Wolfe School?” she said excitedly before she could stop herself.
“I thought that I also knew you from somewhere, although I just didn’t know from where. Wait a minute, you couldn’t be Christie Allen, could you, the chick who hated me with a passion for some reason,” he turned to look at her, his gaze so intense, she wondered if he could see right through her robe, and especially since she was wearing nothing underneath.
“Don’t you think that hate is an overstatement. Maybe we just didn’t get along for some reason,” she said, wishing that she could turn back the hands of time and amend her behavior.
She had been very mean to Adrian w
hen they were in school, having been in the same class from the time that they were in the 10th grade. She could not quite understand why she had behaved that way towards him, probably because once when they were adolescents, he had tried to make a hit on her, asking her out on a date. At that point, Christie had her eyes on other boys from some of the upper classes, and she had warned him against ever making such a mistake, threatening to take action by reporting him to her parents if he ever tried doing that again. Christie could still remember the hurt and dejected look on his face as she had walked away from him before announcing to the whole class what she had just done. Adrian had become the laughing stock of the school, and that had even prompted him to change schools at some point.
“I guess I'll see you some other time, it was nice meeting you again, Christie Allen, and I'm glad to see that you're doing so well,” he said as his fellow firefighters came and joined him. “That was a job well done boys, we had better get back to the department just in case there are more jobs before our shifts come to an end.”
There was so much warmth in the way that he communicated with his fellow workers, Christie felt a tinge of guilt. How she would die to have that sort of relationship with those that worked under her, but instead, they treated her like an iron lady. She had built some sort of wall around her, always too scared to let anyone too close to her. She found herself following the firemen to the truck and noted the way that Adrian made sure that all of his men were onboard before he himself made for the passenger door of the truck.
“Adrian,” she called out to him before he opened the door, spinning around to look at her with that sexy gaze.
“What is it, Christie?” she could still sense the anger in his voice now that he had discovered who she was. It made her feel bad about the sort of woman that she was.
“I'm really sorry about what happened between us in the past, and I was hoping that maybe you and I could make up and at least become friends,” she said to him pleadingly. “How about you pick me up and take me to a place of your choice for dinner so that we can make up?”
“Wait a minute, are you actually asking me out on a date or something of the sort?” he sounded a little surprised as he arched his eyebrows to look at her.
“Maybe, something like that, only, you get to pick where you would like to go for dinner,” she said to him as he looked at her skeptically, almost as if he could not believe what she was telling him.
“I really don’t know about this, Christie. You know what they say, once beaten, twice shy,” he said to her.
“Come on, Adrian, stop being such a pussy and take her up on the offer. Dinner with the lovely lady won't hurt at all,” the driver seated in the cabin of the truck said to Adrian, leaning over to the passenger window inside the cabin.
“Brian, will you stay out of this,” Adrian said to the other fireman, before turning to look at Christie. “Alright, but if this turns out to be one of your pranks from before, I'm going to do something bad that you will regret for the rest of your life.”
“Believe me, I would let you do anything that you wanted with me,” she said softly, under her breath so that he would not hear her.
*****
“So, where do you know that hot lady from,” Brian said to him as the truck branched out of the compound. “That is a one of a kind woman, and according to what I’ve heard, she is also a very reputable fashion designer and business woman.”
“Says the person that knows nothing about her. Believe me, I went to school with her and probably know her more than anyone else in this world. She is a woman that likes associating herself with the high and mighty, even back in the days when we were still students. She once turned down my offer for a date and then went ahead and told the whole school what she had done,” Adrian said to his friend bitterly.
“Well, from what I just saw back there, I can bet you a million bucks, she is way deep into you. Did you see the way that she was looking at you longingly, almost as if she was practically undressing you and even making love to you,” Brian said, speeding up the truck.
“I think you’ve got it all mixed up, and besides, I have Malaika and would never leave her for such a hothead,” Adrian said, although he knew that he was lying to himself if he said that he did not feel any attraction towards her.
The moment that he had seen her, he’d had the feeling that it was Christie, the woman that had tormented him the most in the past, and also the woman that he had never been able to get off his mind all these years. He could not understand why he felt so attracted to her even after all that she had done to him. He had not seen her in years, but the moment that he had set his eyes on her, she had still been the most attractive and sexiest woman that he had ever laid his eyes on. There was something about her that just made his blood race through his veins, his body reacting in ways that he did not wish to think about. Not even Malaika made him feel this way whenever he was around her.
“You know what I think, Adrian, I think that you two are madly attracted to each other but neither of you wants to admit it. No, correction, you don’t want to admit it. The fact that she asked you out means that she is admitting exactly what she feels about you, even after all this time,” Brian said to him.
“Could we please talk about something else, I don’t want to talk about Christie right now,” he replied, and they drove the rest of the way in silence.
*****
Adrian paced around in his walk in closet, not sure what he was going to wear. He felt anxious, almost as if he was a sixteen year old going out on his first date. He had not been able to get Christie off his mind since getting back home from work. Even at work, he had thought about her the whole time. Right now she looked way more mature than she had been when they had been in school, and also a lot sexier. She still had long wavy blonde hair and the same green eyes that he could remember from back in the day. Her hips had matured a lot more, growing wider, and he did not even want to think of what her breasts had looked like when he had given them a brief glance.
That had been the most trying moment of his life, seeing the way that her pink nipples had looked at him almost invitingly, and the way that she had blushed when she caught him looking. It had taken all of his will power to stop his cock from hardening right there in front of Christie and the medical assistance team. That woman still had the same sort of hold that she had on him when they were still young and he felt helplessly attracted when he was around her.
Adrian finally settled for a black polo shirt and a pair of blue jeans. Christie might be used to class, but he was not going to give her the benefit of gloating over him by wearing anything fancy. As a matter of fact, he intended to take her to his favorite pool bar, where they could eat steaks and drink draft beer. The thought made him almost smile at the thought of the look on her face as they walked into the joint. A pair of Air Force sneakers and a touch of his favorite cologne finished the look for him, before he strode out of the closet. He checked himself in a mirror one more time to see if he looked alright, before he walked out of the house, getting into his truck and turning the ignition. He had the feeling that all of this would probably end up very badly, but if this was the only date that he was going to get in his life with Christie, then he was going on it and nothing was going to stop him, not even Malaika.
His hands gripped the steering wheel nervously as he drove the truck to her neighborhood. A part of him told him to just turn around, go home and forget about this whole thing, but the bigger part of him told him to go. He, therefore, drove on, and it was almost an hour before he pulled up to the mansion. He checked himself in the rearview mirror to see if he looked alright, running his fingers through his dark hair as he combed it backwards, before stepping out of the truck. He walked over to the house, going up the porch and then rang the bell. He waited for what seemed like a century, his heart beating so wildly, he wondered if she would hear it. There was no response and so he rang the bell again. He waited for some time and was just about to walk aw
ay when he heard the footsteps coming from within the house, just before the door pulled open, and there stood Christie, a towel wrapped around her breasts, and her wet hair making her look sexier than ever.
“Come on in, I'm so glad that you could make it. I'm sorry I took so long to open for you, I had just began taking a bath when you rang the bell,” she said to him, stepping out of the house to give him a hug.
“I have always been a man of my word,” he could hardly contain his dick from getting hard as their bodies touched, her hands around his shoulders before she quickly pulled back and pushed the door wide open for him to enter the house.
*****
His scent filled her nostrils, filling her with a sense of arousal that shook her to the very core. There wasn’t a man that had made her feel half the arousal that this man made her feel, and she felt goose bumps forming on her forearms.
“Come on in. I'm sorry, after the fire there really isn't much left downstairs, but you can come and wait for me upstairs while I just finish cleaning up,” she said to him, feeling his presence in the house as he walked through the door.
This was the sort of presence that she had always dreamed of coming home to after a long day at work. There had been a couple of men here to visit her, but none had the sort of fulfilling effect that Adrian had. Christie felt as if he belonged here with her, he belonged in her house, in her life. Just the thought scared the shit out of her because it was something that could never come to pass, and most especially being that he probably still hated her after what she had done to him when they were teenagers.
“Would you like me to fix you a drink, champagne or whiskey perhaps?” she asked absentmindedly as they headed into the house, heading for the stairs that led to the top floor landing.
“No, I think I prefer to have drinks just before we have our dinner,” he said to her politely, and Christie could swear that she could feel his eyes on her butt as they made their way up the stairs.
Ways in the Guardian: A Menage Romance Book Collection Page 59
