I spread my legs wide and closed my eyes, willing myself back home where she waited. Like so many times before in the years without her, it wasn’t lust that drove me. This was an act of love, even from a distance. From the first time I’d taken her as my own, every climax had belonged to her.
I drew in a deep breath and thrust with my hips, not into cold air and my own hand, but into Ember’s heat. Into the sweet, warm shelter of her flesh and the embrace of her love. I rocked on my heels, building up a rhythm that always made her breath catch and her pussy tighten against me. I gripped harder and moved faster, imagining her breathing matching mine as we climbed together toward the top. I’d bury myself in her until my balls were pressed hard into her flesh, tight against the cleft of her ass when our climax began. She always said it made her come harder when she felt them pulsing there… and emptying inside her, the way it was meant to be…
I groaned as it hit, hot seed spilling out in a rush. For a moment I could almost see her, almost feel her. I dropped to my knees, flooding the ground, lost in my image of her climaxing too. I could almost feel her squeezing me in rhythm with the powerful, throbbing pulses that pummeled me. I could almost taste her mouth… Whenever I came inside her, I could always taste the salt of us… mingling on her lips…
It was more than half an hour later before I trusted my legs to get me back to my bedroll. I climbed into its cold comfort and fell asleep almost instantly. There was only one thought left in my drained and spent body; that two weeks had already been too long, and longer still was totally impossible.
Tomorrow I would find a way to head back to the cabin…
and to her.
19
Ember
“Backpackers are always building campfires where they’ve got no business…” Connie said, stuffing the last of the kids’ toys into April’s little pink suitcase. I’d told her about the smoke from last night. “They only know it’s cold at night… and they just don’t stop to think how much of a danger it is.” She put her hands on her hips and smiled at me. “You’re sure you’ll be okay on your own? We could probably stay a few more days…”
I picked Joey up out of his high chair and wiped the applesauce off his pudgy little hands, feeling my heart and my ovaries do a little flip-flop inside. Just the sweet, baby scent of his soft blond hair made me ache inside. “Go on, get out,” I said, handing him over reluctantly. She reached out as he put his arms around her neck and kissed his fat cheek.
“You’ve already overstayed your welcome,” I teased. “And I need to get back to work too.” I sighed and looked over at the abandoned typewriter. “That novel isn’t going to finish itself…”
And I was right.
Six hours later, I had nothing but another stack of balled-up papers in the corner. Reilly lifted his head, his shaggy ears perked and he whined softly. He’d paced most of the day, his nails tapping back and forth across the wooden floor. He missed Connie and the kids. So did I.
I pushed my chair back and headed for the back porch. The wood Jason had split and stacked was almost used up, but then I was no stranger to Dad’s axe after the last few winters. The wood was still dry and that was what mattered most. And maybe the exercise would help clear my head…
I crammed Randy’s old ball cap on my head, stuffing the trailing ends of my hair up inside and tied the laces of my boots. A lightweight jacket would be more than enough over my flannel shirt. Twenty minutes was enough to work up a full body sweat, even in winter. Rye padded outside with me, nose to the ground, no doubt picking up the lingering scent of my little niece and nephew. I smiled and wrapped my hands around the axe handle. Jason had left it half-buried in the old stump, just the way Dad always had. I rocked it back and forth until it was free, and balanced a log on its end…
“Like this, baby… Stand it on the flat end and then get yourself back where it’s safe,” Daddy had said. I’d been nine or ten years old and followed my father everywhere he went like a shadow. I knew him more from the stories Mom told than from actual experience. He’d been gone so much of my childhood… having him home with us was like having a legend suddenly come to life…
“Make sure your foundation is stable first,” he had said, easing me behind him with a calloused, gentle hand. “The you swing the axe hard and true…” He lifted it above his head and came down through the log in a single clean stroke. “You picture in your head where you’re going. Then you just go. No hesitating… or you lose your focus.”
I could still hear the sharp crack of the wood as the log fell into two equal halves. I had picked them up, one by one and stacked them for him as perfectly as I could. “Once you begin, you follow through,” he said as I stood another log on the stump. “If you’re unsure before you start, you can get yourself hurt,” he had added, kneeling down to look into my face.
His face had been creased, and his brow beaded with sweat. But his crisp blue eyes had been honest and kind. Although I couldn’t see it then as a child, I could see it now. There had been a whole lifetime in those eyes; backbreaking work, heartbreaking sorrow… and more than enough love to keep bringing him back home to us. My parents’ relationship had been hard. Harder than most… and for reasons I would likely never know. But they’d loved each other anyway…
All that love was in his eyes as he brushed a smudge off my little forehead with his thumb. “Once you know what it is you want, Emmy, you give it everything you have. No fear, no doubts… no stopping halfway through. Picture what it is you want, and never let anything stop you.” He had picked up the axe and swung it again, cracking through the wood almost effortlessly. “A good life, a life worth living is hard work,” he had said. “But if you’re lucky enough to find something or someone you love, you never give up, Emmy. You just never give up.”
I lifted the axe and let it swing. Tears blurred my vision, but I could tell by the sound I’d made a clean split. The blade didn’t stop until it was buried deep in the stump. Solid… and almost effortless.
“I still don’t know how to say goodbye, Daddy,” I said, wiping my face. “I know you loved us… and I know being a firefighter wasn’t even a choice. It was just… you…”
I looked at Reilly, who was staring into the distance and making a grumbling sound in the back of his throat. I set up another log and swung hard. It had been the hardest thing I’d ever faced when we lost Dad. The fire had come from nowhere. At least that’s what we were told. Nearly three hundred men had been battling it for weeks before they finally had it contained… or thought they had…
I stripped off my jacket, grateful for the bracing cold. The tears that ran down my face were hot; I swept them away with the back of my sleeve and summoned all my strength for the next swing. I put my whole body behind the axe and struck, over and over again until the sun started to set, until I was standing at the center of a waiting pyre. I used the hem of my shirt to wipe the sweat from my eyes, feeling drained, clean… purified somehow.
“How do I face the chance of losing Jason, too?” I asked, looking up into the pink and orange sky. High clouds were thin, thready… windswept. “How do I love a man I can’t keep safe?”
I took one more swing and left the axe where I’d found it. Reilly came toward me barking and spinning circles. “Suppertime, boy,” I said, opening the back door for him. He barked, and whined, pawing at the fence. I could hear my phone ringing inside.
“Well, stay out here if you want,” I said, “but dinner’s being served in the kitchen…” I let the door slam shut and heard him barking even louder. I’d left the phone on the mantle, never expecting it to ring. Cell coverage out here was spotty, at best; we’d kept an ancient landline for emergencies…
“How’s my babygirl?” Jason’s voice was deep and warm in my ear.
“Jason…?” I gasped as my heart started to pound. “Is everything okay? I didn’t expect to hear from you for at least another week or so… Are you all right?… is Randy?”
“We’re both just fi
ne, Em,” he said, and I felt my heart rate level off. “I wanted to surprise you is all,” he said, the timbre of his voice shifting from reassurance to something deeper… “At the end of a long day’s work, a man wants something more than a hot meal and a blanket to keep him warm.” I heard his breath hiss through his teeth and catch.
“Are you… are you calling me for phone sex…?” I asked, embarrassed not only by the thought, but by the instant response in my body. “How can we possibly…?” I heard him laugh and felt like everything solid inside me had melted to liquid.
“Open the front door, babygirl,” he said,
“I’m here…”
20
Jason
“Goddamn, you’re a beautiful woman,” I said, pulling her into my arms, lifting her off her feet. I spun her around and let her body slide down mine as I kissed her neck, her jaw… her heated, welcoming mouth. Every inch of me was aware of nothing but her… it felt like I hadn’t touched her for a lifetime…
“So you’re not disappointed?” I asked, smiling down into her face, teasing.
She blinked, still breathless from the kiss as my hands roamed her body, unashamed. “That you’re home?” she gasped as she pushed my coat off onto the floor. Her hands were as greedy as mine. “How in hell could I be disappointed…?”
“No phone sex,” I answered with a grin, slipping my hands up under her shirt to find her skin. She was hot and damp… I could smell the clean scent of fresh cut pine in her hair, feel the fineness of her soft skin. “That means you’ll have to take me as I come… dirty… sweaty,” I said, pulling her cap off so her curls spilled down the slope of her neck, “I’m a man who needs a fucking hot shower before I lay a hand on you…”
She looked up at me with an intoxicating mixture of innocence and pure, wanton desire.
“What a coincidence,” she said, peeling off both her shirt and her lacy bra. She dropped them at my feet and tossed her hair back brazenly. She grinned up at me in a way that made my blood surge. “You get the towels… I’ll get the soap…”
My hands slipped over her wet, lathered ass. Her breasts quivered as her body shook. I opened my eyes to look up the length of her belly… and water from the shower trailed over her swollen clit and ran, salty, onto my tongue. I nuzzled her mound, letting my fingers explore.
Nothing made me want her more than watching her, feeling her climax. The hot water poured over her body in sheets, and down the length of my rigid cock. I stood, catching her against me and waited for her breathing to steady, for her beautiful eyes to open. I lifted one wet breast to my mouth, needing every part of her.
“I should take you to bed,” I said, dragging my mouth up to find hers. I kissed her deeply, letting her taste herself on my lips. “Before the hot water runs out…” She wrapped her arms around my waist, god help me… and then she slipped down lower…
“I’m a patient man, Em… but not when you… fuck, not when you do that…”
The water pounded down my chest and back. Her hair was as bright as a flame in the clouds of steam that surrounded us. She held my cock tight at the base while her head bobbed. I felt my balls tighten and lift, thighs harden as she pulled me closer and closer, sucked me harder and harder…
“Fucking Christ, Em…” I gasped out, “mercy, baby. Slow… slow and easy…”
She let me go and gazed up. Her eyes were huge, so dark and deep I could lose myself in them. “But you know how much I like fast…”
“And you know exactly where I want to be when I come,” I shot back, lifting her up off her knees. I pulled her to me, crushing all the soft curves and valleys of her body against the unyielding muscle of mine. “We fit like we were made for each other, Em. I need to be inside you completely…” I hooked my arm underneath one of her thighs and pressed her back against the hard shower wall. My cock was raging, ready. “I don’t want to go too fast… I don’t want to hurt you…”
She wrapped her arms around my neck, digging her nails in to climb higher on my body. “You won’t hurt me, Jason,” she said through her teeth. She bit into my bottom lip and I caught the challenge in her eyes,
“but you sure as hell had better try…”
21
Ember
I held on as he punished me, giving me what I’d begged for, driving in deep. He reached down and hiked up my other leg so they were both caught over his hard, roped forearms. The relentless thrusts of his cock kept my back flattened to the wet wall, sliding me up and down in time with his movements. All I could do was hold on and ride him out. With every thrust he swelled and hardened even more. I was crying out, thrashing and lost in my own climax just before I felt him explode deep inside me. His hot seed spilled, making every thrust hotter and wetter. I gripped him, pulsing, squeezing,… hungry for every last drop he could offer. A single hard shudder shot through us both as I held on, wanting to hold him, just hold him inside… for as long as I could…
When I opened my eyes again, it was to Jason’s solid, reassuring presence beside me in bed. His head was cocked, resting easily on one hand as he lay on his side, watching me.
“I don’t know how you do it,” he said softly, “but every morning you’re even more beautiful than the last.” He leaned down to kiss me, taking his time. Then he reached over and picked up my ring off the bedside table and slipped it back onto my finger. “This is where it belongs, Em. It’s where it always belonged.”
“I took it off when I went out to do chores.” I smiled and kissed the edge of his roughened jaw. “I can’t believe you still had it… I never thought I’d ever see it again,” I said, angling my hand so that the ruby caught the light. He took my hand and kissed the stone. Then he turned my hand over and pressed his mouth into my palm. Even after all the pleasure we’d shared, that simple gesture triggered something deep inside me. “There were times I was afraid I’d never see you again…”
He took a slow breath in and out, trailing his eyes over my cheek, down to my lips… to my chin. His hand tightened on mine, pressing the ruby into my flesh.
“I’ve got two days,” he said, stroking the damp hair back from my face. Moonlight was coming in through the windowpanes and he pulled the covers higher up around my shoulders. I let my fingers play over his chest as I listened to his heartbeat. He curved his arm around me possessively.… and he smiled that easy smile I loved so much.
“Do you think we’ll starve if we just never leave the bed?” I asked, tilting my head and resting my chin on his shoulder.
“Left to make our own choices? Probably so,” he said, kissing my forehead. “But I doubt Reilly would let us.” We’d left him downstairs, sleeping by the fireplace. “It’s only a matter of time before the fire dies down completely and he wanders up to find us…”
“Then I’ll just have to enjoy you while I still have you all to myself,” I said, letting my lips trail over his collarbone and along the muscled ridge of his chest. “If it’s two hours or two days… you belong to me… and only me…” I kissed down one hard pec and felt his nipple harden as my lips brushed over it. He took a sharp breath in and held it, as my mouth moved farther down…
His work-hardened chest tapered to solid, ridged abs. He was massively built, the most powerful man I’d ever known… yet when I moved down even lower and ran my hot tongue over his most sensitive flesh, I was in control. And I had no intention of letting him go before I had to.
“Ember…” he breathed out as I licked him. “Holy… fucking…”
“Shhh…” I whispered, letting my breath work its full effect on him. His cock was throbbing, erect and butting against my lips. “I didn’t get to finish this in the shower,” I said softly, insistently. I leaned down and ran my hands up his thighs, cupping his heavy balls. “You’re not going to argue with me… are you…?”
His thighs tightened in response, driving his already enormous erection higher and harder. I held him tighter and ran my tongue up his veined length. “I fucking know better by now…” he ga
sped out, drawing one big hand along the side of my face.
“God help you if you don’t,” I said, holding him, stroking him, licking him mercilessly. “Consider yourself on notice,” I said. “If I have to spend the rest of my life watching you leave me to follow your dreams, I’m going to make it every bit as hard for you as it is for me…”
I drove my point home by engulfing his cock with my mouth. I worked him with passion and desire and love, heightened by an overwhelming need to make him understand… maybe even to punish him somehow. I wanted him to feel what I felt; the sweet, pure joy of being together again mixed with the gut-wrenching pain of knowing the fire would drag him away from me again… And so I put every ounce of emotion into my hands, my mouth, my body. I rubbed my naked breasts into his belly as I bent down to swallow him.
Before I even knew it, he’d lifted me by the hips and spread my thighs so I straddled his chest. I felt his hot breath just before his lips found my bared clit, and he held me, rocking me on his mouth as I worked his length deeper in my throat. I moved by pure instinct, driven to please him… to give him a climax as intense as the emotions that heated my body and drove me on. I pleased and I punished, long and hard until his body clenched and exploded… and he took me over the edge along with him…
22
Jason
Reilly took off before the stick even left my hand. I was learning fast, to throw it harder and farther every time he trotted back with it. With the last toss, I’d bought myself enough time to sit down on the porch and strip down to my last layer. My tee was damp and skin-tight. I couldn’t help smiling when Ember brought me a third mug of coffee. It was just an excuse and we both knew it. She liked to watch me work…
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