Chapter 25
MILES
I’ve moved too fast.
I couldn’t help it if I tried.
London stares up at me. Her face is . . . wrecked.
I grip her hips as if they are my only remaining anchor. “I—we were supposed to take it slow, I know. But I—”
She shakes her head as a wobbly smile ghosts over her beautiful face. “It’s just right.”
God, thank fuck.
My throat swells as I’m overcome with emotion. My throbbing cock brings me back to where we are. I give her hair a tug, and her expression fades to need.
I slam into her, and she gasps before mouthing a curse.
She pushes back into me on the next thrust. My cue to get back to business. The business of ruining this incredible woman. Ruin her for any other man.
I pull out, ever so slow.
And fuck.
Slow is fucking overrated.
I pump into her, sending my hand around, finger brushing over her clit. Her back arches further and she tightens down around me.
“Good girl,” I say, tugging her hair, sliding an arm underneath her to raise her up until her back meets my chest. I thunder into her as she turns her head, mouth hunting for mine.
I close my hand around her throat, and she moans.
“Come on, London. Beautiful, give it up.”
“No.”
“Brat.”
She huffs a low sound as her mouth curls up. “Yes sir.”
My thrusts turn punishing.
Every breath she takes is lined with a sweet sound now, and I don’t know how much longer I can last without her coming first.
I swirl a finger over her clit, and she gasps. Her body starts to tremble.
“Come for me, baby. Go on.”
She whimpers, and I turn her head to capture her mouth with mine.
I swallow down the most incredible sound this woman has ever given up, and she shatters around my cock, milking me fucking dry.
She’s goddamn heaven.
Her hands are grabbing for me, sliding into my hair, gripping tight.
I know, beautiful. I know.
I can barely comprehend the way we work together. The innate way our bodies move together, the way our hearts simply fit.
Heat coils at the base of my spine as I reach the edge she pulled me toward with her climax.
“London, baby, I—”
Her mouth covers mine.
I come hard. Fast.
My thrusts sink into her deeper than ever before, until there is no way to tell where I end and she starts. I never want to be any further from her than this.
A stone swells, blocking off my airway.
When I can’t hold us both up any longer, I pull out and scoop her up. Her head rests on my shoulder as dark brown eyes find my own.
I crawl over the bed and hide us under the sheet and away from the world.
May we never come back out.
Two days goes way too fast when you’re squared away with the only thing you’ll ever need.
London, however, has requested sustenance before we’re due back on shift in the morning.
So we walk along the sidewalk of this behemoth city, hand in hand, her head on my shoulder as we hunt down some food.
The Indian place around the corner from my apartment is still open, and we walk inside, dropping into a booth.
“Let me order for you, please?” she says, pressing her hands together as if in prayer before plucking up the menu from the center of the table.
“Sure, beautiful.”
“Yes, okay, so we are going to need chicken, beef, some papadam, lots of rice . . . maybe some onion bhaji—”
“This looks cozy.” The voice, male, is all too familiar.
Fuck our luck.
London looks up at Schmiddy as he leans on my side of the booth, a bag of takeout hanging from his forearm as his gaze rakes over London’s body as if he can tell something’s different.
“Oh hi, Schmiddy. Enjoying your days off?” she says, her voice chipper.
“Not as much as you two, apparently.”
London straightens in her seat, her expression falling.
I fold my arms over my chest. “Did you need something, Schmiddy? Or can two friends get back to dinner?”
He scoffs a laugh. “Yeah, right.”
London’s lip disappears between her teeth as her focus dips to the menu on the table. And I hate that she cowers from him. From anyone.
“Get lost, Schmidt.”
“So you can go back to your cozy little date? Yeah, not happening.”
“Unless you’re wanting to join us.” I nod to the takeout swinging from his arm. “Just walk away, buddy.”
“I’m not your buddy, Hammond. Never will be.”
Fuck.
He rolls off the side of the booth and walks for the door. When he reaches it, tugging it open, he looks back, shaking his head.
Double fuck.
There is no way he’s not going to take this to Cap. He doesn’t give a crap on a cracker that he’d be ruining London’s career. Not a single damn one.
“Oh my god,” London utters, her forehead hitting the table.
“I’ll make sure this doesn’t blow up in your face.”
She lifts her head, her eyes finding mine. “How? The guy hates us both. This is all he needs to make captain over you, and . . . have me fired.”
Panic claims her face and she stands, pacing a tight circle by the booth. “Miles, this is not good. He’s—oh my god.”
I push up from the booth and take her arms in my hands. “London, stop. I won’t let anything happen to you, I promise. If I have to, I’ll take full responsibility. You—”
“No! You have worked a decade for this. I’m just a probie, I can’t let you throw yourself under the bus for me. Not happening, Miles.”
She stalks from the restaurant.
Now, not only are we foodless, we’re in deep shit. Turning her head side to side, she stands on her tiptoes.
She’s trying to find Schmiddy?
Dammit, woman.
I roll out of the booth and push through the front door.
“Leave it, London.” I grab her arm, spinning her back to me.
Big brown eyes drift up to me, her face crumpled under worry.
“What if he—”
I fold her into my chest, dotting a kiss to her head. “Then I’ll fix it.”
We stand amongst the people passing by on the sidewalk as the night turns busy around us. She slumps against me, and I turn us for home.
Isip my hot Milo drink as Schmiddy’s glare burns a hole through the side of my face. If the motherfucker thinks I’m intimidated by him, he’s got another thing coming.
London sits chattering away with Davey and Sandy about a hiking trip to Forest Park on our next days off.
Heids plops on the seat beside me.
“Enjoy your days off, Cap?” Her eyes are on me, something like hope in them as they drift between London and me.
Schmiddy breaks his stare and leaves the table.
Stellar timing, Heids.
“Hammond, my office, now,” Cap grunts from the top of the stairs.
Every head turns as the room goes silent.
Dammit.
I down the Milo, and Heidi’s grip catches my forearm as I rise, her brows dropping.
“Be right back.” I slip from her hold and walk for the stairs. I don’t look back. I don’t want to see the look on London’s face if I do.
I fly down the stairs and am in the captain’s office a beat later.
“Shut the door,” he says, his tone clipped.
I haul in a breath, close the door, and turn back to stand with my hands clasped in front of me, shoulders back, attention trained on the man who paces behind his desk.
Not good.
He stops, a hand rubbing over his jaw before he sighs and meets my gaze. “It’s come to my attention you’ve asked your crew to disregard direct orders from Schmidt on his weeks as acting captain.”
I feel the urge to relax but tamp it back, stiffening my shoulders further.
“It was a matter of safety, sir.”
“You didn’t think you should have come directly to me if you had concerns, Hammond?”
I thou—
“You know, this type of thing I actually expected from Schmidt. You? The thought never crossed my mind that you would destroy the morale of this unit so easily.”
Morale?
“Sir?”
“You undermine your acting captain on his weeks, and you confuse the crew. Not to mention the probies, who probably feel lost and unsafe. This one I can’t explain away.”
“Schmiddy is dangerous. He’s lax, breaks rules that keep the crew safe. Not to mention the fact he’s barely engaging with most scenes. I thought I could control the situation, sir. I didn’t think it would—”
“It wasn’t your call to make!”
A grind my molars down hard.
“Yes sir.”
I can feel my chances at the captaincy dissipating more and more as the minutes tick on.
“The way I see it, I have two options. I promote Schmidt to captain in light of your sabotage. Or I put you on a desk and hope like hell he transfers out, and you have the position by default. I hate both options, Miles. But so help me god, I will do what policy dictates. Because this station is hanging on by a damn thread as it is. With funding rerouted to stations with EMS capabilities, we’re a relic compared to other stations.
Other engines. This isn’t something I want to write up.
It’s just another excuse for the department to decommission us. ”
“Yes sir.”
I don’t know what else to say.
I’ve let every single person in this house down.
I’ve let London down. If the firehouse closes, she loses her job. So do Sandy, Heids, and Davey.
Schmiddy can walk the streets for all I care.
“Sit yourself at the front desk. You can catch up on the service reports. No more callouts until I say so. Limit your interactions with the crew to the fitness assessments. Am I clear?”
“Yes sir.” Every muscle in my body is alive with a tension I’m barely reining in.
“Dismissed.”
I walk out, dazed.
I’ve literally pissed away my captaincy trying to keep my crew safe.
Cap’s right, I should have gone to him and not tried to control everything myself.
Fuck.
I take the steps two at a time and stalk for the locker room. My fist meets the old metal locker before I step sideways and drop to the bench and plunge my head into my hands. “Christ above.”
I flick through every possible way that could have gone better, but I can’t grasp one scenario where I don’t come out worse off.
“I take it that didn’t go well,” Heids says, sitting on the bench.
“Nope.” I don’t raise my face from my hands.
“If it’s any consolation, I think you two are incredible together.”
That makes me lift my head, but it’s shaking even before our gazes meet. “Not that.”
“Then what?”
“Taking over Schmiddy’s callouts.”
“Ah, fuck.”
“Yeah, fuck.”
“So what? You pull your head in and let him run his dangerous shit show?”
My head is shaking again.
“Worse?”
“I’m on the desk for the foreseeable future.”
Heidi’s mouth gapes, her brows crashing down. “Oh, we are so screwed.” Now her head drops, and she runs a hand over her hair.
“Unless somehow he transfers out, or quits, there’s a good chance he’ll make captain since I fucked everything up.”
“Oh hell no.”
Heids looks enraged as she stands. “Over my dead body.”
Unfortunately, that’s a distinct possibility with Schmiddy in charge, and I can’t believe I didn’t see this coming. I didn’t think I’d have an oversight so severe it would put my crew at risk.
“Miles?” The new voice is soft, low, and worried.
I snap my head up, and the second she reads my expression it’s as if she knows what this means for us, at least here in the house.
“Are you alright?” She leans on the doorjamb and folds her arms over her chest, that bottom lip tugging between her teeth.
“Yeah, go back to your crew, Tennison.”
Her face moves with a hurt and confused gesture, but she swallows and pushes off the door and turns back.
I watch her walk away.
And I fucking hate it.