Smokin' Hot Firemen

by Delilah Devlin, Jo Davis

  A sly smile tipped her lips. “Deal.”

  CHASING FIRE

  Elle James

  Chance Muldoon checked his gear one more time as he stood beside the plane’s open door, wind blasting his face, the acrid scent of smoke already burning his nostrils. Ahead of them, in the distance, red flames shot high as fire lit the evening sky to the west. Towering stands of Ponderosa pines, already ravaged by ravenous pine beetles, lit up like torches. A hot summer wind charged across the mountains like a freight train, fanning the flames, sending flames higher, climbing the hills, consuming all which lay before it at a breathtaking pace.

  Adrenaline shot through Chance’s veins as he prepared to jump in front of the fast-moving line of fiery death. This was his world, his job, his life as a smoke jumper.

  “Ready?” the most experienced spotter, also their strike team leader, called out.

  Six other men, all wearing similar jumpsuits, harnessed into parachutes and lined up behind Chance, who nodded, prepared to jump on command.

  The chief pointed at a break between the trees, where what looked like a slim thread of silver shone up through the gathering smoke. “Anchor point is between that stream and the rock escarpment,” he shouted over the roar of the engines. “We’ll create our own fireline and then backburn to consume the fuel ahead of the storm.”

  Chance gave him another nod, patted his chute, and checked the big harness on the paracargo box full of the tools and equipment they would need for the fight. The jumper’s job was to jump ahead of the fire and create a break in the fire’s path to rob it of the fuel it needed to continue its march across thousands of acres of forest. An entire community of more than a hundred homes stood in the path of the raging inferno. If they didn’t stop it first, the homes would be nothing more than tinder, burnt to a crisp, when the beast was done with them. Any livestock or unfortunate animals left behind would be killed, either burned to death or succumbing to smoke inhalation.

  The strike team leader shouted. “Go!”

  A team of paracargo handlers shoved the box out the door. The static line jerked and the paracargo chute opened, lifting it up and away from the aircraft.

  When the spotter called out “Go!” again, Chance didn’t think, didn’t hesitate. As the first man standing at the door, he jumped. As soon as he cleared the fuselage, the static line triggered the release of his parachute and it unfurled, jerking him upward.

  The plane flew on, dropping its load of jumpers two at a time, chutes bursting open like popcorn in the sky.

  Once they were out of the plane, the engine noise faded, the only sound filling the sky the roar of the fire storming across the mountains, an angry titan on a rampage.

  Chance counted the chutes. The entire team was there. Now he could focus and guide his descent to the agreed-upon location while following the path of the paracargo.

  The gentle glide of the chute gave him too much time to think about the conversation he’d had with Maggie when he’d headed out that morning.

  Her long blond hair had splayed across the pillow, mussed from sleep. Her body had pressed against his, warm and naked. She’d been more beautiful than he could ever remember.

  He’d kissed her long and sweet. With his cock already hard and ready, he’d paused and stared into her sleepy eyes.

  “Marry me,” he blurted.

  The minute he said the words, he knew he wanted this more than anything he’d ever wanted.

  Instantly, her body stiffened, all sleep cleared from her eyes. “You know the answer.” She shoved the sheets aside and sat up, scooting to the edge of the bed.

  Chance grabbed her around the waist and held on, refusing to let her run. “I want you in my life.”

  “I told you from the start, I can’t fall in love with or marry a jumper.” She remained stiff, her body resisting his gentle tugging.

  Chance sat up, his arms wrapping around her, his hands cupping her breasts. “Don’t you like me? Just a little?” he said, trying to lighten the tension his sudden declaration left between them. He nibbled at the curve of her neck, tonguing the lobe of her ear before capturing it between his teeth.

  “I work the base operations. I see what happens when a jumper doesn’t return. I’m the one who has to notify loved ones that their husband or son will not be coming home—or will, but in a body bag. I won’t be one of those people waiting on the sidelines for bad news. I can’t.”

  “Who’s to say I’ll be one of those who doesn’t make it? The chances of dying on a jump are so slim, sweetheart. You know the statistics.”

  “I don’t want to make that gamble.” She struggled against him. “Let me go. I need to get back to my apartment.”

  “Okay, okay. I promise not to talk about marriage. Just don’t leave yet. We can make love, then I’ll cook breakfast. I’ll make your favorite veggie omelet.”

  Her struggles slowed. “I should go.”

  “But you don’t want to, not yet. Sex and an omelet…that’s all I’m asking.” For now. He’d have to work on her to get her to say yes to marriage. Prove to her that he was going to live long enough to grow old with her, raise a few kids, and hold his grandchildren. Yeah, Maggie Parker was worth the effort. She was the one for him.

  She sighed and turned with a sad sort of smile. “You know the way to a girl’s heart. Are you sure you don’t want to feed me first?” Her tone deepened, the way it did when she was turned on. She got up on her hands and knees and straddled him. “I’m really hungry.”

  Food was the last thing on Chance’s mind, with her pussy poised over his rock-hard dick. “Um, yeah, I’m hungry too.”

  She lowered herself so that the tip of his cock barely dipped into her warm, wet channel. Then she rose up, out of his reach. “Omelet-hungry or are you in the mood for something else? Shall I guess?” She dipped over him again, letting him in just a smidge deeper.

  “You’re killing me, woman.”

  “You’re a big boy, you can handle it.”

  That she played and teased him when they made love was one of the things he found most endearing about Maggie. “I’m getting bigger all the time.” He bucked, his hips rising, his cock reaching for her entrance.

  Maggie slipped lower, down his body. His dick skimmed her belly. “Uh-uh. Not yet. I want a little appetizer before we start cooking.” She inched down his chest, leaving a trail of kisses and tongue-flicks that had him so hot he thought he might ignite the sheets.

  When Maggie’s hands wrapped around his balls, Chance almost came right then. It took all his remaining self-control not to flip her over and ram himself deep into her cunt.

  “My, my, aren’t we hard this morning?” Her tongue touched the tip of his head, touching lightly against the slit at the end. “Umm, and I’m wet. Great condiment, don’t you think?”

  “I can’t think at all when you do that,” he said through gritted teeth.

  “Then let me do the thinking…and tasting.” She took him full into her mouth, the warmth and wetness so like her pussy.

  Chance rose to fill her, thrusting deeper until the tip of his cock bumped the back of her throat.

  All the while, she swirled her tongue around his hard length.

  He could have come right then and there, but that wouldn’t convince her to stay with him. Chance had to show her what she’d be getting if she chose him for life.

  Once, twice, three times he thrust into her mouth, then he reached out, pulled her up over his body and rolled on top of her. “My turn for a little snack before breakfast.” When she reached out for his ass, he grabbed her wrists and pinned them above her head. “Oh, no. I want it all, no distractions. Total focus is what I need.”

  “What? No multi-tasking? I thought all jumpers try to stay one step ahead of what they’re doing.”

  “This particular kind of fire will take all my expertise and focus to control.”

  She wrapped her legs around his waist. “Think you can control this one?”

  “Not a
chance, but I’ll give it my best.” One hand gripping her wrists, the other unlacing her legs from around him, he ducked low, capturing a rosy-tipped breast between his teeth and nipping gently.

  “Ouch.” Instead of jerking away from his bite, Maggie arched her back, offering him more of the same.

  He sucked her breast into his mouth, pulling hard.

  Her heels dug into the mattress, her hips rising, eager to take him inside her. “Fuck me, jumper. Fuck me like this will be our last time.”

  “No way. It will be like it’s the first of many more times. Every time we make love.” He licked her nipple, releasing her wrists as he traveled down her body, his hand skimming across her flat belly to the thatch of soft, sandy-blond hair covering her pussy. His fingers threaded through the hairs, sliding between her folds. “I want you to want me as much as I do you.”

  “In case you haven’t noticed…” She cupped his hand and pushed it lower to her heated, moist entrance. “I already do want you.”

  “Not enough.” Not enough to say she’d stay with him for always. “I want you to scream for more.”

  “I don’t scream,” she replied, her tone haughty.

  “You will.” He kissed her belly, his finger sliding into her pussy. “You will.” He used the wet finger to slide over her clit, deftly flicking the nubbin with just enough pressure to tease.

  “No…” She drew in a sharp breath.

  He flicked again.

  “I won’t…” her breath hitched, “screeeeeaaammmm!”

  “Close enough.” He grinned up at her. “I’d call that a scream.” Before she could force enough air into her lungs to argue, he slid his tongue in between her folds where his finger had just been.

  Her heels pushed against the mattress, and she rose to meet him, encouraging him to continue.

  He did, sucking her clit into his mouth, twirling on the swollen tip with his tongue.

  “Now, now!” she screamed, her hips pushing higher, her body shuddering with her release.

  One final lick at her sweet spot, and he swiftly climbed up her body and slammed home, his cock sliding in her well-slickened channel. He buried himself all the way to the hilt, drawing out halfway, then thrusting in again and again, riding her with fast, steady strokes that made her crazed enough to explode with another wave of orgasm.

  Maggie wrapped her legs around his middle, locking her ankles, her heels digging into his ass.

  As the first wave of release hit, he almost hesitated. If he shot his wad into her, he could impregnate her. Then she’d have to marry him. For a flash of a second, he imagined her big with his child. As quickly as the image rose, it was consumed by another. Maggie big with child, waiting for him to return from a fire. Sick with worry.

  Chance pulled free at the last moment, his sperm squirting out across her belly. No, he wouldn’t trick her into marriage, and he didn’t want her to carry his child, living in the shadow of fear that he might not return to see his baby grow up.

  Maggie was right. She shouldn’t be fool enough to fall in love with a jumper and most definitely, she shouldn’t marry one. In most likelihood, it would only end in heartbreak for her.

  After a long, sexy shower where they made love all over again, Chance fixed Maggie’s omelet. When she’d kissed him goodbye and told him she didn’t want to see him anymore, he didn’t argue. He took it on the chin, knowing she was doing the right thing.

  Then why the hell did it hurt so much?

  What other choice did he have?

  Not an hour later, Chance, Maggie, and twenty other smoke jumpers and ground support personnel had been called into action.

  Now, as he fell toward the earth, he could think of the only choice he had if he wanted to keep Maggie in his life. He could quit or request a desk job with the forest service and spend his days pushing pencils, trapped in a safe, air-conditioned office throughout his youth, hating his life and resenting having given up jumping to become a family man. Then again, he couldn’t imagine hating his life too much if Maggie was in it.

  Chance adjusted his chute as the ground rushed up to meet him, landing gently, knees bent to take the impact. He pushed thoughts of Maggie to the back of his mind, concentrating all his energy and strength on saving the lives and property of hundreds of people and possibly thousands of animals.

  As the day progressed into night, he didn’t need a flashlight to see what he was doing. While he and the other jumpers battled to establish a firebreak on the opposite side of a stream, the fire raged on, burning a path directly for them. The clouds they’d seen on the horizon hadn’t materialized to push their way across the horizon to quench the fire, as the firefighters had hoped and prayed. It was up to them to do their best to stop the blaze from spreading farther.

  Maggie manned the operations center, anticipating resupply and providing first aid to injured firefighters as they were brought in by truck or helicopter. The night lengthened into morning with no sign of the fire letting up. It continued to burn unchecked, closing in on the jumpers’ location faster than anyone had anticipated.

  She’d kept one ear cocked for the radio operator, praying for news from the team that had set up across a stream. The strike team leader had checked in when they’d all landed safely and located the paracargo box full of supplies. That had been the last contact they’d had from Chance’s team. No one had heard from them for more than eighteen hours. The shift supervisor had begun to worry. Dozens of planes had dropped fire-retardant material on the flames, but the wind hadn’t let up. The dead and diseased trees acted as kindling, making it easier for the flames to leap from branch to branch, leaving a charred and blackened earth in their wake.

  Maggie tended the wounded, fixed coffee, and handed out sandwiches as shifts changed—and still no word from Chance.

  The previous morning she’d had every intention of ending their relationship; she couldn’t risk falling in love with a jumper.

  This morning, after she’d spent more than twenty-four hours on her feet worrying, she’d come to the realization that it was too late. She’d been in love with Chance from the day he’d swaggered through the door of the station, his jumpsuit black with soot, his face gray with ash. His blue eyes had been slightly red-rimmed, but shining as bright as his teeth when he gave her a cocky grin and asked her out on a date.

  She’d had it on the tip of her tongue to tell him where to go. But when his buddy mocked him for asking a girl out when he looked as bad as he did, she’d taken him up on the offer, soot and all.

  That had been three months ago. The past twenty-four hours might as well have been three months, as slow as the time had stretched.

  Then a ping, ping, ping echoing off the station’s metal roof jerked her back to the present. She ran outside and stared up at the sky full of dark gray clouds as they released a torrent of rain.

  She laughed and raised her arms to the soggy heavens and thanked the Lord for His help in quenching the fire.

  The rain took its time sweeping across the Idaho mountains and valleys. As it did, teams reported in, one by one, that the fire was out. Jumpers were recalled; trucks picked some up. Helicopters swooped in and collected the more remote teams and their equipment.

  Maggie treated, assessed, and arranged for transport for the more seriously injured, all the while praying she’d see Chance step through the door, all full of attitude and wearing his beautiful cocky grin.

  By the end of the day, Maggie had been up for more than thirty-six hours. Her back ached, her feet burned, and still no sign of Chance. When his strike team leader stuck his head in the door to report their return, Maggie almost cried. She rushed out into the parking lot, her gaze searching for Chance.

  “You’re not going to find Muldoon here.” Randy, one of Chance’s teammates found her standing in the rain, crying.

  Lead sank to the pit of her belly before she remembered that the strike team leader had reported they were all there and accounted for. Maggie grabbed Randy’s collar and
pulled him close. “Then where the hell is he?”

  “Hey, hey. He’s okay.” Randy smiled and pointed toward the road. “He said something about a cool stream just down the road. You know the one. Some of the guys like to swim there.”

  Her shift had ended hours before. Maggie ducked into the building, told her boss she’d be leaving, and ran down the road to the stream, less than half a mile away.

  When she got there, she still didn’t see Chance anywhere. “Muldoon!” she yelled.

  No one responded. Had he gotten down here and had a latent reaction to smoke inhalation? Would she find him gagging for air, or worse, already unconscious?

  She followed the stream, working her way up a hillside, slowly at first. Then she was running, afraid she’d be too late. Maggie tripped and fell through a break in the brush, tears falling, her hands stinging where she’d landed on sticks and rocks. When she looked up, she spotted a soaking wet jumpsuit spread out across a rock, boots set neatly in front of the boulder.

  She scrambled to her feet and peered over the top of the big stone to discover a lovely little waterfall and a smooth, clear pool of water surrounded by dense green forest. Beneath the tumble of water stood Chance, his naked body gleaming and wet.

  Without thinking, Maggie, ran along the edge of the pool, relief bringing more tears to her eyes. He was alive. “Chance!”

  He didn’t turn. He probably couldn’t hear her with the water rushing around his hears.

  Maggie plowed into the pool, water up to her knees. When she reached him, she flung her arms around him, burying her face against his back, the pounding of the waterfall washing away her tears. “Thank God. Oh, thank God,” she said, coughing when she snorted a lungful of water.

  Chance turned and pushed her out of the full force of the waterfall. “Maggie. Oh, sweet Maggie. Of course I’m all right.” He held her close, his arms tight around her middle, his cock pressing into her belly, already halfway hard.