Chapter Nine
“Honey, I think it’s the insurance guy,” Mom says, glancing out the dining-room window.
“I’ll be right there,” I call from the kitchen where I’m only halfway through the breakfast dishes because I keep stopping to text Brady.
Your place. Actually, your bed. I type into the message box. I hover over the send button. Am I being too forward? Is Brady going to think I’m throwing myself at him?
He asked where I wanted to go when he gets off firehouse duty tomorrow. He said we could do whatever I wanted. Not gonna lie. I want to do him.
I add a shy face emoji and delete it. I don’t need to feel shy. We've gone back and forth about those amazing hours we spent having sex at his place. Neither of us thought it’d be that good. We both want more.
I could put a heart emoji. But that would mean I’m thinking love thoughts, and we’re not going down that road. We’re friends who fuck. Friends with benefits.
We fit. It’s convenient.
I’m less heartbroken over Lara being hundreds of miles away.
I’m not going insane by obsessing over every past encounter between my former best friend and former husband.
Did they always have a thing for one another?
Were there signs? Why now? Why not when we first divorced?
Maybe they were seeing each other but only went public after I left LA?
He's a liar. Maybe she is, too.
And why was she the one who texted me? Why didn’t Mark tell me first?
Who fucking cares?
No need to obsess. I’ve got Brady.
I add a kissing emoji and press send. Sexy and cheeky. Light on feelings. Heavy on physical contact.
“Sammy,” Mom calls.
By the front door stands Trey, one of the nicer guys from the insurance company. We sit on the sofas in the back room, and Trey tells us about getting the video footage from the first fire. “Our analysts believe the person in the video is a woman.”
I feel my jaw drop.
“The local police and state police asked federal agents to give their opinion, too. We’re waiting on their verdict. But for now, we need to assume this person could be anyone, man or woman.”
“Any other information?” Mom asks.
“The person is between five-five and five-ten. Clothing and any other identifying markers are impossible to decipher. Maybe the Feds will do better.” He looks at me. “If you think about a woman starting the fire, does anyone come to mind?”
Gabriella.
But why would she?
Well… Why would she have sex with my ex-husband? Why would she tell me before he did?
The car fire occurred the day after she texted me. What if she was really in Whispering Pines when she texted me? What if she saw Mark and I together and got jealous? But how would that explain the first fire?
Was that to scare me off from here? Get me back to California? Like Mark wants? Was she working with Mark?
He’d never. Would he?
“I….” My voice fades on the syllable. “I just don’t know.”
Trey studies me like he’s waiting for more. “Well, think about it. Have you been in contact with your cousin, Tabitha and her boyfriend, Ollie?”
I nod.
“Do they have any ideas about who might’ve started the fire? As victims, they’ve got a stake in this.”
“They haven’t said anything to me.” I look at Mom.
“Me neither, and let’s hope there aren’t any more victims.” She frowns.
“That’s our hope, too.” Trey turns to me. “Have you been thinking about rebuilding the retreat? Is that still what you want?”
“I honestly don’t know. Am I insurable if I decide to open the retreat elsewhere? Like California?”
He nods. “You’re always insurable. But rates do fluctuate.”
The crunch of gravel sends my heart racing. I look in the rearview mirror and whoop at the sight of Brady’s SUV coming down the driveway. I get out of my car as he pulls up beside me.
He doesn’t bother opening his garage. Just grins ear-to-ear.
Relief pours through me. I didn't know if I was overstepping or would irritate him by showing up at his house after his shift. We went back-and-forth with dirty suggestions about how we’d reunite. I teased about showing up at his house to return the making-love favor. Then I thought, what the hell.
He scoops me into the air, swings me around, and sets me on the ground.
“Best surprise ever.” Holding my face, he covers me in kisses.
He smells like healthy sweat and fireman suits and a touch of oil and dirt.
He’s all manliness, and his mouth is magical.
Each touch of his demanding lips and roll of his tongue sends a cascade of tingles into my breasts and down to my pussy.
Whimpering, I run my hands under his soft T-shirt and over his hard abs. His chest is muscle covered in a thick layer of hair.
“I missed you,” I confess against his mouth, not wanting to end the kiss.
“I thought about you all the time.” He pulls me tighter and sends one hand down to my ass. He kneads my cheeks, murmuring about how much he’s missed my ass and how he wants me more than he’s ever wanted any other woman.
I’m numb with pleasure. My head is somewhere in the clouds, but my body is earth-bound and open. I feel a trickle of wetness dampen my panties.
“Let me take a shower,” he says. “Then I’m making love to you.”
I pout. "But I'm making love to you."
"That works."
“Can we shower together?”
“You better believe it,” he growls and picks me up.
I cling to his enormous shoulders and get more of his rich, dirty man smell. “What is it about firemen and carrying?”
“We spend all the time training, thinking about how we’re going to rescue the woman of our dreams.”
I feel my cheeks getting hot. No way am I the woman of his dreams. No fireman dreams of divorced single mothers well into their thirties who live with their parents and get screwed over by their ex-husbands and best friends.
Still, he might be the man of mine.
Natural light floods Brady’s bathroom through tall windows overlooking a stretch of rolling forest. I strip down with my eyes on his ass and his abs and his unreal cock.
I've only seen three erect penises up close and personal.
The first two were nothing compared to Brady's.
His is thick and long and so vertical it nearly hits his abs.
I squirm with a funny feeling of weakness and hunger. “Brady?” My voice sounds high-pitched and strained. “I want to go down on you.”
His jaw loosens. He lets out a hard breath. “Alright, then.”
I follow him into the shower and fall to my knees under the warm water.
“Sammy?” He tilts my chin upward. “Let me shower first.”
“No. I want you just like this.” I move my hands to his ass. There are so many ways I want to play with his dick, but right now, I want to feel him wholly in my mouth. I spread my lips and take him to the back of my throat.
Nearly gagging, I clutch at the skin of his ass. He groans, sending one hand to the wall like he needs support. Forcing myself to relax, I bring him to the back of my throat again. I’ve never done anything like deep throating, but with his size I have no choice.
He moves with me, thrusting like he’s fucking, but not hard enough to make me want to quit. If anything, I want more. I cup his balls in one hand and swirl my tongue around his flared head, then take him down as far as I can.
“Sammy.” He sounds like he’s in pain. “I can’t take this. I want you too fucking badly.” He groans.
Oh, his torture is my pleasure. Ignoring his plea, I suck him harder.
“Sammy, come on. You’ve got to stand up.” He rests his hand on my cheek. “Please.”
“I like when you say that word.” I stand for him.
He wraps his arms around me. "Please, can I be inside you?”
I swipe strands of wet hair from my eyes. “In here?”
He nods. “I’ll get a condom.”
“I’ve got an IUD. If you’re okay, we can do it bare.”
He searches my face. “I’ve been to the doctor plenty of times since I was with a woman who wasn’t you.”
I wrap my hand around his shaft. “Then why don’t you get inside me.”
He spins me around so my back is against his chest. “Look up me, Sammy, will you?”
I twist to meet his eyes, and he nudges my leg to the side. My pussy swells with anticipation. Crouching down, he enters me, his eyes closed, his face in a tortured pose. He moans my name and tells me how good I feel.
“Sammy,” he says, sliding his hand between my legs. “How close are you?”
“Very.”
“Good,” he purrs and circles my clit with his fingers.
I’m so full of him and full of pressure inside my cunt. My hips take on a life of their own. I squirm in his arms, but he’s relentless. I can’t keep looking back at him. I lean on his chest, my legs wilting from the way he’s directing all my blood to the place between my legs.
“Sammy, please look at me.” I meet his eyes. The pressure inside me explodes. I squeal and buck. The onslaught of orgasmic waves of clenching and release leave me spent.
He holds me around the waist and works himself deep inside. With a hard thrust, he cries my name and comes. His moans echo off the shower walls and linger in the fog of warm water.
“Here you go.” Brady hands me a glass of red wine. “Looks like we’ve got a clear twilight.” He nods at the wall of windows facing the pine forest. “Want to go out to the deck?”
I glance down at my clothes. I’m covered in Brady. I’ve got on his Fire Academy T-shirt under his Sharks sweatshirt and sweatpants. On my feet are his warm, wool socks. “Let's do it.”
It’s chillier than I thought, but I'm plenty toasty. He removes the covers on his deck chairs and ottomans. I brace for critters underneath, but we’re spared. We sit and take in the forest from the outcropping of rock where the deck is situated.
“Lara would love it up here. She’d feel like she was taller than the trees.” I can imagine her peering through the slats of the railing.
“You should bring her when she gets back.”
Hearing Brady say “when she gets back” takes the edge off my nerves. She'll be back soon. I can manage three more days until she’s in my arms.
He places his glass on the small table between us. “How are you feeling about what the insurance guy said?”
“I still can’t imagine any woman I know setting a fire to the property. I suppose the only one would be Gabriella.”
I tell him my suspicions about Gabriella acting on Mark’s behalf without him realizing it. “She can be mean as a rattlesnake. She and her ex-husband absolutely hated each other. They lived down the street from us, and you could feel the tension every time you passed their house.”
“If it was her, what do you think would be her next move?”
“If she’s doing this for Mark, I'd say she’ll set another fire.”
Brady nods and takes a sip of wine.
“Tabitha thinks the arsonist could be a love rival for Ollie’s affection.” I giggle.
“Ollie?”
“I guess he’s a heartbreaker? She thinks both arsons were part of a retaliation against her for winning him.”
Brady and I laugh so hard we have to set our glasses on the table.
“Tabitha needs to stop binge-watching crime thrillers,” I say.
“Yeah, she does.” Brady meets my gaze and shifts on his chair. Suddenly, there’s room for one more. “You want to come over here?”
God, do I. I nestle in beside him. His lips taste like wine. Our kissing is deep and romantic. It makes me feel like we’ve been reduced to two bodies whose sole purpose is to seek the other.
Brady slides his hand down the front of my Sharks sweatpants. He’s gotten me turned on and wet for him, of course. Hell, merely knowing he exists in the same town makes me wet.
He pushes a finger into my entrance. I give a ragged moan against his mouth. “How about we get naked? Waist down?” I suggest.
We wiggle out of our sweatpants, and I lift my leg to his hip. He slips inside me. Our eyes lock. He steadily pushes and retreats. The sensations between my legs reach a peak. His hazel eyes blur, and my body surrenders.