Through Fire (Portland, ME #3)

by Freya Barker

  That’s why I hadn’t pushed, but I’m worried now. I don’t know if her CPS worker or her foster family are even aware of the details of her ordeal.

  I turn in Tim’s arms and loop mine around his neck. “I want to call her.”

  He lowers his mouth and takes mine gently. I’m temporarily distracted by the masterful play of his tongue, but am dragged back to reality when Mark marches in. “Christ, you two. I’m starting to get a complex here.”

  Tim lifts his head and rolls his eyes at me. “Don’t listen to him, please. Just go make your call.” With a last sweet touch of his lips to mine, he steps back, letting me go.

  I walk over to where my phone is still on the kitchen table, and spot Mark dip a few stray nacho chips in the fresh tub of guacamole. “Scoop some out in a bowl, please,” I admonish him, while my finger hit’s the speed dial for Nina’s phone. This time there is no ringing first, it immediately goes into the mechanical message. Dejectedly, I drop it on the table.

  “Still nothing?” Tim asks concerned.

  “Straight to voicemail now,” I tell him. “You think maybe Claudia would know where she’s at?”

  “We can try,” he says with a shrug.

  “The doc?” Mark shakes his head. “If anyone would know where she’s at it would be Mike. The investigation is ongoing, and he would need to know where he can find his witnesses.” He immediately pulls out his phone and dials.

  I never thought of that. Of course.

  “Hey—Yeah, we just found out—She’s fine,” he says the last, looking at me as he listens. “I’m sure—Listen, Ruby is a bit worried about Nina. She can’t get hold of her on her cell. Do you know where she can be reached?—Oh—No, I get it. So tomorrow?—Fine, I’ll let her know.” He hangs up the phone and turns to me. “He doesn’t know her exact location because any contact with her has to go through CPS, but he’ll contact the caseworker tomorrow first thing, and give you a ring back. That okay?”

  It’ll have to be. No choice really, if she doesn’t answer her phone. But the worry remains. To keep busy, I finish cleaning the kitchen, while Tim and Mark hit the pub for a drink. By the time I’m done ,it’s almost ten thirty and I’m dead on my feet.

  Mark has left, but Tim is in animated conversation with Gunnar when I walk up to the bar. Tim immediately pulls me between his legs, my back against his chest, and folds an arm around me to keep me in place. I squirm a little, not yet used to the easy public displays of affection. The conversation continues over my head.

  “Drink, Ruby?” Syd asks from behind the bar.

  “Just some water, please, Syd. Thanks.”

  Gunnar gets up from his stool. “Good news, buddy,” he says, as he claps Tim on his shoulder, and with a wink for me, he slips behind the bar.

  “Sorry about that,” Tim mumbles in my hair. “You wanna head home?”

  I wiggle out of his hold and hoist myself on the stool Gunnar just vacated with a deep sigh. My feet are killing me. “Where did Mark go?”

  “Took the truck and went home. I’ll call him when I’m ready to go tomorrow.”

  The implication is clear, he plans to spend the night. My eyebrow rises in question and he grins a bit sheepishly. “Hope you don’t mind?” he asks as an afterthought, watching me closely for a reaction.

  I put my hands on his knees and lean in close and he automatically does the same. “I’m wiped,” I softly warn him. I’m not sure if I’m up to any bedroom gymnastics tonight, tempting as he is in his now standard flannel. “And my feet are killing me

  “I just need to hold you for a bit,” he whispers back. “Maybe I’ll rub your feet.” And just like that, my minor irritation melts like snow in the sun.

  I’ve barely touched my water, and he hops off his stool. “Let’s go. Where’s your stuff?”

  “Kitchen.”

  Syd chuckles as he jogs around the bar and down the hall. In a few seconds, he’s coming back this way, carrying my purse and coat.

  “Where’s your coat?” I ask him as he helps me in mine.

  “Must’ve left it in the truck.” He shrugs buttoning up his shirt instead.

  “It’s cold out.”

  “I know,” he says, crouching down in front of my stool, his back to me. “You can keep me warm. Come on, climb on.”

  “I’m too heav...”

  In a flash, he’s back up and in my face, his forehead leaning against mine. “Don’t say it, Ruby,” he says in a warning tone, before crouching down again, his arms reaching back. I throw Syd, who’s watching us with a smirk on her face, an exasperated look, which only makes her smile bigger. Fine. If he wants to put his back out by lugging me across the street, who am I to stop him? I reach around his neck and let my body slide on his back, wrapping my legs around his waist. His hands immediately lock under my butt and we’re off to the collective calls goodbye.

  “You’re crazy, you know that?” I mutter in his ear, as the cold outside air hits us.

  “Only for you,” he says, throwing a smile over his shoulder.

  Tim

  “Ohhh, that’s so good...”

  She has no idea what her moans and groans do to me as I dig my thumbs into the arch of her foot. I shift slightly to try and alleviate some of the pinch of my far too enthusiastic dick behind my zipper. She said she was tired, and I’m sure tonight was a shock, so he’ll have to be on his best behavior. Not an easy feat, when the sounds she makes tease my baser instincts.

  “You okay?” she says in a sleepy voice, her eyes peeking from under heavy lids.

  “I’m good,” I reassure her, shifting once again as I try to stay on task.

  A little smile tugs at the corner of her mouth, as she carefully flexes her foot, causing her heel to slide over the bulge in my jeans. I hiss at the friction and firmly grab her foot, stilling the motion. I watch as she sucks in her plump bottom lip and bites down. Without moving her eyes from me, she starts doing the same thing with her other foot. Flexing and relaxing, pressing her heel down in a torturously slow rhythm, massaging my now painfully engorged dick.

  “I thought you were tired,” I try to throw out casually, but the slight hitch in my voice betrays my state of arousal.

  “I was,” she says, her voice not unaffected either. “But now I’m not.”

  “Little minx,” I growl, lifting her feet and shifting out from under her, before leaning over and plastering my mouth to hers. Her arms come up instantly and pull me down further, until I’m covering her body with mine. I can feel her satisfied hum against my mouth when she spreads her legs and my hips fall between. I give up trying to control my body and instinctively rub myself against her heat as our tongues duel. With a small whimper, I feel her tilt underneath me, seeking friction, while her hands pull frantically at my shirt.

  “Stay right there,” I state firmly, when I push up and quickly strip the flannel down my arms, while she’s already shoving up the T-shirt underneath. That’s gone in a flash and tossed on the floor. Ruby’s small hands play over my chest, setting my skin on fire. “Turnabout is fair play, Boop,” I warn her, as I grab the bottom of her sweater and pull it right off her body. The moment her arms are clear, the hands are back to playing.

  “I love this,” she says, her eyes focused on her fingers that have found the small flat disks partially obscured by my chest hair. With a light flick of her fingernails, she sends a charge right to my cock. In retaliation, I pull the cups of her bra low, so her tits spill out and launch my own assault on her nipples, making her gasp. “So damn responsive,” I mumble, as I lean down to have a taste, which leads to another. Before you know it, I’m back to being draped over her, but this time with my mouth latched on to her breast, while my fingers strum the other.

  Our lovemaking is slow and sweet. By the time we are both naked and I finally slide inside her, the frantic earlier pace has burned off, leaving behind a deep glowing heat to fuel us. Ruby’s half-lidded eyes burn into mine, as I rock my hips in a deep, stroking rhythm. Each time I
fill her completely, a soft puff of air escapes her partially opened lips. So fucking beautiful, fully aroused, with her lips wet and swollen from our kisses, and a deep blush on her cheekbones. “Move in with me.” I underline my demand with a powerful thrust of my hips, making her gasp. “I need you with me.” Again I slam myself to the hilt. I see her eyes glaze over with her impending orgasm and still she manages to form words.

  “Too soon,” she sighs, but I thrust inside her again, making her eyes roll back before I pull back, staying poised at her entrance. Her eyes snap open.

  “I...need...you...to...move...in!” Each word is emphasized by my bucking hips. Sweat dripping down my face in my struggle to maintain control, I pause at her entrance again.

  “Please...” she whimpers, tilting her hips to try and force me inside, but I just pull back a little further. “I need...”

  I drop my head and run my nose along hers. “I can give you what you need. Just say yes...” I mumble against her lips, while I slowly push inside her before pulling out and stilling again.

  “This is blackmail,” she wails, writhing underneath me.

  “I know,” I whisper. “I love you.” As if that is a valid explanation but for me somehow it is. I’m not sure where this urgency comes from. I just know I don’t want to spend one more night going to sleep, without her safely in my arms, or wake up one more single morning not having her beautiful eyes to look into first thing.

  Again I tease her with a slow roll of my hips, not quite enough to push her over, only bringing her even closer to the edge.

  “Fine! Yes. Please... Tim,” she finally cries out.

  “Yes?” I push one of her legs back for a better angle and flex my hips once.

  “Yes, yes, yes! Please!”

  I drop my head and let go of my control, hammering into her at a frantic pace until I can feel her inner walls start to ripple. With a loud, incoherent scream, Ruby’s body arches up beneath me and the powerful pulsing of her pussy drags me over the edge with her.

  “Ruby!” I shout hoarsely as I lose myself inside her body.

  Ruby

  He’s really quite beautiful.

  I just come back from an early morning bathroom visit when the solid man, sprawled out in my bed, takes my breath.

  My eyes trace over his face and his body at leisure. His dark blond hair has a reddish hue and is a bit on the long side, but I love tangling my fingers in it. The red comes in stronger in his beard, framing a perfect set of full lips, which he knows how to put to good use. A strong forehead, the beautiful blue pools of his eyes behind his closed lids, and a prominent, mostly straight nose.

  He’s still fast asleep, the steady rise and fall of his broad chest proof of that. I lay back down with my head to his chest and my arm resting on his stomach. I love the little bit of softness to cover the muscle on his midsection. It makes him all man to me.

  My man.

  Who managed to blackmail me into moving in with him. Bastardo. I smile at the memory of his particular method of coercion. He had me almost bursting out of my skin with want before he gave me what I needed. I know I said I needed time to be alone, but truthfully, unless I was with him I felt unsettled. We also seem to naturally veer toward his house, spending most of our time together there. Other than that one time before Christmas, the first time he saw my brand, which resulted in an unpleasant morning to end our first rather innocent night together, he hadn’t slept a night here, until now

  A slight tightening of the hand that automatically had seemed to find its way back on my ass is the only warning I get. I must’ve fallen asleep again, because daylight is now streaming in.

  “I like this bed,” his gruff morning voice gently stirs the hair on my head. I just snuggle closer in response as his hand almost absentmindedly massages my backside. “I sleep well here, but we’re sleeping in mine tonight.” I can’t stop the smile pulling at my face.

  “Ours,” I whisper with my lips pressed against his skin. I feel him jerk slightly at my declaration before his strong arms pull me on top of his body. I lift my head and am instantly pinned by his soft gaze.

  “Ours,” he confirms, before following it with an order, “Kiss me.”

  Scooting up his body, my lips find his in a lazy, early morning kiss.

  Before it can turn into a lazy, early morning anything else, we’re interrupted by the incessant ringing of a phone. “That’s yours,” Tim mumbles against my mouth, reluctantly letting me up. I throw on my sleep shirt, which had stayed, unused, under my pillow and am about to leave the room when he calls out. “I’m hopping in the shower, quick.”

  “Knock yourself out,” I suggest before padding toward the kitchen, where I’d dumped my purse last night. Fishing out my phone, I notice a missed call from an unknown number. It’s a Boston number, though, and I wonder if it’s perhaps Nina calling? I’m about to hit dial when I hear Tim calling.

  “Boop. Do you have a spare toothbrush somewhere?” I take a few steps to look down the hall to see Tim sticking his head out the bathroom door on the other end. “Shit. Never mind.” He waves me off with a smile as he steps buck naked into the hallway and opens the door to the linen closet, rummaging around inside. “Found it,” he says, triumphantly waving a toothbrush still in its packaging. One that I know for a fact, I never purchased.

  With morbid curiosity, I slowly walk toward the closet, pulling the door open. Behind the stack of folded towels, I just put on that shelf last week, I spot the corner of a brown paper bag I had not paid attention to before, sticking up. Inside is a five pack of toothbrushes. Now with two missing.

  -

  I’m not sure how long I sit on the couch with the paper bag clenched in my hands before I hear the shower turn off. My ears register each and every sound coming from the bathroom. The hair on my arms is standing up straight and I struggle for each breath, trying to stay calm. Finally the door opens and I hear the soft sound of his bare feet coming down the hall.

  “Hey, beautiful. Who was that on the phone?” He kisses my head and pads on into the kitchen. I don’t move. I can’t. I’m afraid to make a sound, for fear a question slips out I don’t want to know the answer to. “Ruby?” He sticks his head back into the room, and I notice he’s just wearing a towel slung low on his hips. He really is quite beautiful, and seems to feel quite at home here. “What’ve you got there?” he asks, looking a bit puzzled as he walks up and takes the bag from my hand.

  I know the moment he realizes. First curiosity, when he peeks in the bag, followed by confusion and then he snaps his eyes to mine, filled with concern and maybe fear. “Ruby...” His voice is soft, pleading, and I can’t stand it.

  “Funny,” I manage, my voice sounding flat even to my own ears. “Until last week I’d never even opened that closet. Pam took me to Wal-Mart to pick up some towels, which I washed and was putting away. I didn’t even notice the bag there. I never knew it was there.” I let my words hang, watching regret settle on his face. But I’m not done. I’m hurt to the core that while I’ve been forced to bare myself completely, he’s been less than forthcoming with me. So I hammer my point home.

  “It would appear you really do like that bed. Seems you were in it enough.” My tone is vicious, matching the boiling of my blood.

  “Ruby...” he tries again, but I jump up off the couch and run to the bathroom locking the door behind me. “Fuck!” I hear him yell before I sink to the floor and curl myself into a ball. Tears burning tracks on my cheeks.

  Tim

  “Fuck!”

  I throw the stupid bag of toothbrushes at the wall where it bursts apart, spilling it’s contents to the floor. I wasn’t thinking when I marched up to the closet, where a long damn time ago, Viv had sent me to grab a spare toothbrush after our one night together. In that same bed. That’d been a mistake of epic proportions. Something we both willingly admitted to, although I never quite could give up wondering what if. Then she found Ike, and now that I’ve found Ruby, what happened with Viv is ju
st a shadow behind me.

  I sit down on the couch where she was just sitting and drop my head in my hands. Any time during the past months I could have told her, but each time I thought I should, I held back for fear of hurting her. I feel sick to my stomach now. She’s crying behind that door. I can hear her.

  Suddenly I’m propelled off the couch in a surge of panic, remembering the last time I left her behind a locked bathroom door.

  Charging through the hallway, I throw my shoulder into the door, splintering the frame as the lock breaks away. Son of a bitch! Ignoring the burning in my shoulder, my eyes immediately spot Ruby curled up on the floor, her arm covering her head, and the sight steals my breath. Slowly she lifts her arm, that I realize was thrown up to protect herself when I barreled through the door like a raving lunatic. She turns her tear-filled eyes to me and gives me a full dose of the pain and betrayal she feels in one look. It slices me open and leaves me bleeding. I slump down on the floor beside her legs and wince as my back hits the vanity, but my burning eyes never leave hers.

  I reach for her ankle, and she allows me to wrap my hand around it, sensing, more than feeling, her pulse underneath my fingers. I take a deep shaky breath in. “Only one woman has ever had the power to destroy me. To drag me through fire. Only one who can crush my heart as easily as she fills it.” My voice is raw with emotion and I don’t give a flying fuck. The pain in her eyes is like an acid burning through me. “Ruby,” I plead. “There was never anyone who could’ve caused more than a blister before you. Please let me explain.”

  “How will you explain?” she rasps. “I trusted you with everything. In return, I find out that not only you, but at least Viv as well, have kept something pretty significant from me. I don’t see how there can be any explanation for that.”

  My right shoulder is killing, throbbing right down to my finger tips, but I lean over and pull Ruby’s limp body on my lap with a wince anyway. “Let me try,” I beg, with my nose pressed in her hair. She just shrugs. Fine, I’ll take it as a yes. “Viv and I have been friends for quite a few years. One night, we’d been talking a bit. She’d been telling me some of the crap her ex had put her through. We had too much to drink and what was supposed to be comfort turned into something else. One night, Ruby. And as soon as it was over, Viv made it clear it was a mistake. That it was not worth losing our friendship over.”