by Sarah Markel
Aspen fisted her hands in her hair as her body trembled. She felt like she’d come undone and the feeling of the cool air on her most sensitive areas sent her right back to the edge. “Oh, God, Lorelei,” she gasped, arching her hips, “please don’t stop.”
Lorelei sat up and quickly discarded her clothes, before returning to her position and placing a slow, sensual kiss on Aspen’s pussy. She felt Aspen’s body jerk and slid herself up her wife’s body in one long, slow stroke.
When she reached Aspen’s lips, Lorelei kissed her deeply and pressed herself against Aspen’s center. “I’m not stopping until you beg me to,” she promised when the need for air pulled them apart.
Aspen’s body thrummed in response. She wasn’t sure why this encounter was so different, but Aspen didn’t care. She filed her thoughts away for later contemplation and focused solely on the way Lorelei’s touch ignited her senses.
Chapter 18
“Hello?” Lorelei rasped sleepily into the phone. She glanced at the clock on her bedside table and groaned at the time; 4:17 a.m. Aspen had been insatiable the night before, keeping Lorelei up until nearly 3 a.m.
“When?” she asked, instantly wide awake when she recognized the voice on the other end of the line, “Yes, Sir… No, Sir, I understand. How involved?... Holy shi… sorry, Sir. Yes, I’ll be there. Thank you, Sir.”
“Who the fuck was that?” Aspen growled when Lorelei clicked off the call, her face buried in her pillow.
“It was the NIFC,” Lorelei replied as she pushed the blankets aside, “my team is being sent to California to assist with the Axiom Ridge fire.”
The National Interagency Fire Center, located in Boise, Idaho, was the coordinating agency that dispatched hotshot crews to where they were needed throughout the nation.
Aspen’s eyes popped open and she bolted upright in bed. “I thought it was almost contained?” she said, staring wide-eyed at Lorelei as she went to the closet to pull out her gear bag.
Lorelei shook her head as she started shoving socks and underwear into the bag. “It was at seventy percent, but a shift in the wind caused it to jump the fire lines. Rawlings said it jumped up the gulch and spread faster than they could get a crew in front of it. Containment is down to thirty-five percent.”
Aspen’s heart began to race as her mind tried to process the impact such a dramatic containment shift would cause. “How long until you leave?” she asked.
Lorelei let out a sigh and moved over to Aspen’s side of the bed. She reached out and cupped her wife’s cheeks, gently drawing Aspen into a long, deep kiss.
“I have to be in Portland by seven. We’re leaving from there at eight,” she replied apologetically when their lips parted.
Aspen’s eyes popped wide. “But you haven’t gotten any sleep!” she exclaimed, suddenly feeling wrought with guilt over her insatiable libido. “How are you going to function?”
Lorelei smiled and placed another gentle kiss on Aspen’s lips. “You know me, baby, I can sleep anywhere. I’ll probably sleep for most of the trip.”
Aspen nodded, but a sudden sense of dread had her wrapping her wife in a tight hug. “You call me when you get there,” she said, trying her best not to cry, “and make sure you call me every day.”
Lorelei could hear the tremor in Aspen’s voice and it made her heart clench. “I promise, baby,” she said as she pulled back and kissed her wife once more.
The pair were quiet for several moments, each content to simply study her wife’s face. Aspen’s anxiety ratcheted up several notches when her perusal brought her to the scar along Lorelei’s jaw. Willing her hands not to shake, Aspen brought her fingers up and traced the faint line.
“You bring my wife home, Captain Blaise,” she said, her voice much firmer than she’d expected, “I don’t want to be a widow before I’m old enough to drink to her memory.”
***
“Blaise; shift change!”
Lorelei let the head of her McLeod rest on the ground as she sucked in a breath of relief. She’d been swinging the McLeod; a double-headed cross between a rake and a garden-style hoe, for the last six hours as her team worked to build the fire line that would stop the Axiom Ridge fire from spreading to the homes behind them. If the fire got past the line, the entire town of Axiom would be engulfed in flames.
Axiom; a retirement community in the middle of Butte County, California, was home to nearly 1,000 people over the age of 60. Nestled in the woods on a cliff above Lake Oroville, the tiny town was surrounded on three sides by hundreds of acres of wooded terrain, with the fourth side facing the picturesque lake.
“Thanks, Erixon,” Lorelei said as she hefted the McLeod onto her shoulder and headed for the truck that would take her back to the anchor point.
Lorelei and her crew had arrived that morning and immediately got to work. Now, twelve hours later, Lorelei was exhausted. She’d spent the first five hours of her shift felling trees along the designated fireline, and she readily admitted that she’d rather use a chainsaw all day than swing that damned rakehoe for another minute.
Once the rest of the crew had switched out, the truck pulled away from the line and made its way back to camp at the anchor point. Too tired to really converse with one another, the Northwest Hotshots simply shared the ride in silence. When the truck stopped, Lorelei and her team hopped out of the back and went to check in with Command.
“Ready to keel over, yet?”
Lorelei ground her teeth when a member of the NorCal Hotshot team fell into step with her on the way to the mess tent.
“You wish, Jensen,” she replied evenly. Lorelei and her team had worked with Mike Jensen and his on several occasions. He was the only member of his crew that Lorelei couldn’t stand.
Five years her senior and a year-round wildland firefighter, Mike had made passes at Lorelei at nearly every fire the two teams worked together. She’d informed him of her disinterest as politely as possible, but the man didn’t take too kindly to finding out he had the hots for a lesbian.
“Hey, I heard you got married,” he said, intentionally ignoring the redhead’s tone, “Finally found someone to set you ablaze, huh?”
Lorelei rolled her eyes as Mike laughed at his own wit. She had heard every play on words associated with her last name, and this one was no exception. “I did,” she replied flatly as they picked up their trays and headed for the closest available seats, “and she’s not afraid to play with this fire.”
Just as Mike was about to respond, Steph Burns and Wendy Brees claimed the seats opposite them.
“Hiya, Blaise,” Burns said, pointedly ignoring the man, “fancy meeting you here.”
“Yeah,” Breezy chimed as she crunched a carrot stick, “you never call, you never write, then you just pop in unannounced. So inconsiderate.”
Lorelei chuckled as she ate, “You know me, Breezy, I only like to visit California when it’s on fire.”
“Maybe next time you visit, you could bring the cheerleader along,” Burns teased her friend, “I bet the guys would love a pretty young thing like her cheering them on.”
“Cheerleader?” Mike asked, wondering what a cheerleader had to do with Lorelei.
“Yes, Mike,” Breezy sighed dramatically, already annoyed with his presence. She couldn’t stand Mike Jensen, either. The man was a pig and Steph had already put him in his place once, after he’d made a crude comment to her about her wife. “Blaise is married to a pretty blonde cheerleader that could probably run circles around your ass.”
Lorelei could see the questions filling Mike’s eyes and she wasn’t in the mood to answer them. “Speaking of my cheerleader,” she said as she finished the last bite of her food, “I need to call her before I crash. Thanks for the reminder, Breezy.”
Breezy shot her friend a winning smile and nodded her head. Lorelei waved to her friends and dug her cell phone out of her pocket as she made her way out of the mess tent. She walked west toward the cliffs above the lake and found a clear, semi-quiet s
pot where the grass gave way to the smooth stone of the cliff tops.
“Hi, baby,” she said tiredly when Aspen picked up the call.
“Oh, sweetheart, you sound exhausted. Did you get any sleep at all on the way down there?”
Lorelei smiled fondly at her wife’s concern. “I got about an hour, yeah. We got straight to work when we arrived, though, and I just ended my shift. I wanted to check in with you before I catch a nap.”
“Thank you for doing that, honey, but I would have understood if you just sent me a text. You should get some sleep while you can. How long do you have before you’re back on shift?”
Lorelei pulled the phone away from her ear to check the time. “Six hours,” she replied, “if the current containment strategy holds. There are a lot of us out here, and everyone is working shifts to build the fireline. Once the line is set, though, we’ll be breaking off into groups to work on direct suppression.”
“How long will that take?”
Lorelei shrugged, then rolled her eyes when she realized that Aspen couldn’t see her. “With as many hands as we’ve got here, it shouldn’t take long. I’m guessing we’ll be moving on around midday. Our main objective right now is to be certain that Axiom is safe, then we’ll worry about putting the fire out.”
“Okay. Make sure you send me a text when you move out. Don’t worry about calling, as long as you text. You need to get as much sleep as you can, Lorelei, so go to bed.”
Lorelei playfully huffed out a breath. “God, baby, you’re so sexy when you’re bossing me around like that.” She could hear the way Aspen’s eyes narrowed and it was all Lorelei could do to not laugh out loud. “I promise, as soon as I’m off the phone with you, I’m going right to bed.”
“Good girl. I love you, Lorelei.”
“I love you, too, Aspen,” Lorelei said, using the crook of her elbow to muffle a yawn.
“Hey, Captain?”
“Yeah, honey?”
“Make sure you bring my wife home. If you don’t, I’ll never forgive you.”
“I promise, baby. I’ll be home before you know it. Goodnight, sweetheart.”
***
“How you holding up?” Cordy fell into stride with Aspen as the younger woman walked past the Police Department.
Aspen smiled reassuringly at her friend and shrugged her shoulders. “I’m doing okay,” she replied, toying nervously with her wedding ring as she’d done incessantly for the past five days. “Lorelei said they had to establish a new anchor point inside the fire. I guess the flames are acting pretty unusual.”
Cordy grimaced and reached out to pull the cheerleader into a one-armed hug. “She’ll be home soon, Aspen, don’t stress yourself out. Lorelei is one helluva firefighter. She’s astute and perceptive and not afraid to take charge when she needs to. She’s also completely in love with you, so there’s no way she’s going to stay away for long.”
Aspen chuckled and returned the hug as they walked. “Do you even know what astute means?” she poked, grateful for the Lieutenant’s presence. Even with Jenica and the others visiting her regularly, Aspen had been feeling especially lonely and isolated without her wife. She’d never realized how pivotal Lorelei’s presence was to her feeling of inclusion, until now.
“Of course, I know what it means,” Cordy grumbled and rolled her eyes, “I’m not a complete ignoramus. My vocabulary is quite extensive. I just choose to match the local vernacular so as not to completely ostracize myself from my neighbors. Jenica gets bitchy when people look at me funny.”
Aspen’s grin widened. “Doesn’t everyone look at you funny?” she asked, giving a pointed once-over to the redhead’s choice of attire.
Cordy tossed her head back and laughed. “Yes, but those looks are given out of judgement and jealousy. Not everyone has such an effulgent sense of style.”
Aspen snorted at the diva-esque way Cordy tossed her hair over her shoulder and swept her hand down her body. “That hurt, you dick,” she said, rubbing the sides of her nose, “and now I’m judging you hard for using the word effulgent like that.”
Cordy shrugged and straightened the hem of her tan and sage striped button-down. “Judge all you want,” she said with a haughty sniff, “you know I look good.”
“Ignore her, Aspen,” Jenica said as the pair reached Cordy’s front yard, “her delusions are getting worse. I think it’s time to increase her medications.”
Cordy arched an eyebrow and fisted her hands on her hips. Jenica looked up at her wife from where she knelt in the flowerbed and offered the woman an adoring smile. “Atu koe e ahau Aroha,” she said, batting her long dark eyelashes.
Cordy continued to glare at her wife for a moment longer, before a smile swept across her face and she leaned down to kiss Jenica’s lips. “I love you, too.”
Aspen sighed at the scene, her heart aching as she longed to kiss her own wife. She and Lorelei had been separated a few times the previous year, while Lorelei was out with the hotshots, but something about this time was different.
The feeling of dread that had surfaced the morning of Lorelei’s departure hadn’t gone away. In fact, as the days passed, Aspen found herself increasingly anxious and agitated as the sense of foreboding seemed to get exponentially heavier. She tried to keep positive and occupy her mind with happy thoughts, but every time she hung up from a call or responded to Lorelei’s check-in texts, she was besieged by overwhelmingly ominous feelings.
“Aspen?” Jenica asked, placing her hand gently on the blonde’s shoulder.
Aspen jolted out of her own mind and shook her head before meeting her friend’s exotic gaze. “I’m sorry, I must have zoned out. What did you say?”
“I was just asking if you wanted to go with me to see Amy and the baby? Amy is going stir-crazy and with Lita at that conference in New York, she needs someone other than the baby to talk to.”
Aspen’s spirits lifted and her face broke out into a million-watt smile. “I’d love to! It’ll be nice to have a conversation with someone closer to my own age,” she said teasingly as she narrowed her eyes at Cordy.
The redhead’s eyebrow shot into her hairline and she raised her hands defensively as she looked quickly to her wife. “I didn’t say a single thing about her age,” she said firmly, “Besides… Amy is only a couple of years younger than we are, so she’s not that much closer.”
Aspen shrugged her shoulders. “I was talking about Anystee,” she replied, referring to Amy and Lita’s five-month-old daughter, “I’m going to go change. I’ll be right back.”
Cordy stared open-mouthed at the blonde’s retreating back. “Did… did she just call us old?”
Jenica slipped her arms around Cordy’s waist and pressed an affectionate kiss to her cheek. “We’re double her age, Aroha,” she replied as she ushered Cordy toward the house, “I believe that she did exactly that.”
Cordy draped her arms over Jenica’s shoulders and sighed heavily. “Kids these days are so churlish. When her wife gets back, I am so telling on her.”
Jenica laughed; a full, rich sound that never failed to make Cordy’s heart flutter. “Come on, tattletale, I need a shower before I cuddle that baby.”
Chapter 19
“Mayday, mayday, mayday! This is Pacific Northwest Hotshots at Anchor Point Delta. The fire jumped the control line. I repeat; the fire jumped the control line. Our team has been divided. We’re deploying our shelters now. Coordinates as follows.”
Lorelei rattled off their location with calm efficiency. Around her, a deafening roar swirled with the scorching heat of the inferno she and her team had been fighting for the past five days.
“Blaise, time’s up!” Smokey yelled, “Let’s go! This thing has blow up written all over it!”
Lorelei nodded once and grabbed the blue duck bag beside her feet. She tugged on the bright orange strap, but instead of releasing the foil-lined personal shelter, the strap simply broke off in her hand. Years of firefighter training and experience seemed to disappear i
n a flash as she stared at the defective piece of nylon.
“Mayday!” she screamed into the radio. She pivoted on one foot, scanning the area for a possible escape route. Heat blasted her from all sides as an uncharacteristic wave of panic washed over her, “This is Blaise! My PPE shelter is defective; repeat, my PPE shelter is defective. Moving west to seek shelter!”
Static crackled through the radio and Lorelei’s panic intensified. In all her time as a firefighter, she’d never been in this situation before. Sure, she’d trained for it, but no amount of training could have prepared her for the sheer, unadulterated terror of knowing that she might not be able to keep the promise she’d made to her wife on the phone that morning.
The wind produced by the rapid growth of the flames scorched across Lorelei’s turnouts, quickening her pace as she hunkered low and searched for a clear route.
I have to keep my promise, she thought as her eyes scanned the length of their fire line, everyone else in her life has let her down, and I’m not going to do that to her. We’ve only been married for a year! I promised I would watch her graduate, dammit, and I’m not about to break that promise.
“Blaise!” Lorelei was ripped from her thoughts by the sound of a familiar voice. “Blaise! What’s your twenty?”
“Thirty yards west of the anchor point. Burns!” Lorelei quickly dropped to her knee and checked her oxygen gauge. She was almost out of air. “Did you find Smokey?”
“We got Smokey, Blaise,” Burns replied, her voice fading abruptly.
“Burns!” Lorelei called, “Burns, backtrack!” Fear tickled at the back of Lorelei’s mind when she couldn’t hear her friend’s voice. Afraid she may not have heard her direction, Lorelei hit the button on her TPASS alarm.
An ear-splitting trill echoed against the roar of the encroaching inferno. Lorelei remained crouched, careful not to move unless she absolutely had to. The wall of flames continued to close in, consuming everything in its path.
A loud creak thundered ominously nearby, but Lorelei couldn’t pinpoint where. She knew that sound, it was as familiar to her as the sound of her own breathing; a tree was going to fall.
