Chapter 10
Chapter Ten
Clay
The first thing I smell is smoke.
Not the faint whiff from Ember’s favorite camp-scented candle, or the remnants of last night’s fireplace embers. No—this is acrid, thick, and wrong.
I jolt upright from her couch, bare feet thudding on the hardwood as I move to the front door.
The sky’s dark, but not from nightfall. Orange flickers lick up from the east window—Mrs. Vance’s house next door. Jesus.
“Shit,” I mutter, yanking the door open and sprinting across the yard. The fire’s already crawled up the front porch. Flames twist through busted boards and shattered windows.
“Mrs. Vance!” I shout, scanning for movement. No answer.
Behind me, Ember’s voice cracks through the air. “Clay!”
“Call it in!” I bark without looking back. “Stay here!”
She doesn’t respond, which is both typical and infuriating. I shove my shoulder into the front door—it creaks, groans, and gives way, heat blasting me in the face like a damn furnace.
“Mrs. Vance!” I cough, pulling my flannel over my nose. The smoke’s thick. The place is a maze of fire and half-collapsed beams, but I move fast—if she’s in here, she doesn’t have long.
I make it to the hall when a beam crashes from above.
It hits hard.
Pain explodes through my shoulder. The world tilts. Heat licks at my skin, but it’s the smoke that wins—it pulls me under, tight and fast like a fist around my throat.
Everything fades.
My lungs ache.
There’s shouting. Coughing. Something warm, solid, dragging me backward.
And then a voice.
“Don’t die on me. Please don’t die on me, Clay.”
I blink. Her face swims into view—Ember. Eyes wide. Soot streaks her cheeks. Her fingers press against my neck like she’s checking for a pulse.
“Em...” I rasp, grinning despite the burn in my chest. “Guess we’re really engaged now.”
She makes a sound halfway between a sob and a curse, gripping my shirt like she’s anchoring herself.
“You asshole.”
I try to sit up, but pain lances down my side. “You okay?”
“I’m not the one who ran into a burning house like a damn lunatic!” She’s crying now, angry and beautiful, mouth trembling. “You scared the hell out of me.”
I lift a hand, cup her jaw. Her skin’s warm, soft beneath the soot. “You make me want to live, damn it.”
Her breath catches.
And then I kiss her.
Right there in the dirt and ash and chaos, I kiss her like I’ve got nothing to lose. Because I nearly did. And it wrecks me, how close I came.
The sirens scream down the road, but all I hear is her.
All I feel is her mouth against mine—desperate, searching, hungry.
“Dumbass.” That’s the first thing Gabe says when the paramedics haul me upright, checking my ribs. “You went in alone,” he grits out, running a hand over his buzzed head. “Again.”
I don’t answer. Ember’s still at my side, breathless from our ash and soot kiss.
“I had to try,” I say.
Gabe glares. “Next time, try not being a hero. That’d be nice.”
“What about Mrs. Vance?”
“She was staying with her sister in Devil’s Peak. The house was empty, Clay.” He stomps off to help the rest of the crew. I wave off the oxygen mask, ignoring the medic’s protests. Ember steps forward, hands still trembling.
“Come on,” she says quietly. “Let’s get you home.”
Back at her place, she fusses.
I let her.
She pushes me down onto the couch and disappears into the bathroom. I hear the faucet, the rustle of towels. Then she returns, kneeling in front of me with a warm rag and eyes that cut straight through me.
“You could’ve died.”
“I didn’t.”
“Not the point.”
She scrubs gently at my cheek, wiping away soot and sweat. Her fingers tremble as they move over my jaw.
“You didn’t listen,” she murmurs. “You just ran in. Like you always do. Alone. No thought for what happens after.”
I catch her wrist. “Thought about you.”
Her lashes flutter. I don’t let go.
“You make everything loud, Ember. Loud in a way I can’t ignore. You think I’m just some broken bastard who’s good with tools, but you—”
“I never said that.”
“You didn’t have to.”
Silence stretches.
“You scare me,” she admits.
My brows draw tight. “Me?”
“How easy it is to fall for you. How much I want this to be real.” Her throat works on a swallow. “I came here with a plan. A lie. And now I don’t know how to keep pretending.”
“I’m not pretending,” I growl.
She leans in. “Then prove it.”
I don’t need another goddamn invitation.
I drag her into my lap, mouth claiming hers. She tastes like desperation and fire and the sharp edge of fear. Her legs wrap around me, fingers tangling in my hair. I carry her down the hallway, never breaking the kiss.
Her bedroom door slams behind us.
And finally—finally—I lay her down and worship every inch like I promised.
My hungry gaze eats up her delicate skin, the soft pink of her chest and cheeks gleaming. I push the soft flannel off her shoulders and strip off her leggings. I take in her pussy glistening with juice meant only for me. “You drive me crazy thinking of all the ways I could own this pussy.”
A slow shudder rolls through her body as another surge of arousal coats the folds of her pretty pink slit. I part her thighs, too eager to taste her on my tongue again to tease her any longer.
“I feel like a savage the moment I get a whiff of this juicy little cunt.”
My fingers press through her velvety folds, my tastebuds hungry for more. I need to bring her to orgasm, make her cry with pleasure—she’s nowhere near ready for all the ways I plan to take her.
Her fingers claw into the sheets, my balls drawing tight at the base of my shaft as my mouth waters with the need to push inside her, to fill her up with my seed and cement the fact that she’s mine, now and forever.
“N-no one’s ever made me feel this way before,” she gasps between pants.
A growl rips through me at the thought. “No one else ever will.”
Just to drive home my point, my teeth snake against her tight little clit. My palms cup her ass cheeks as I drive her a little further up the bed and add my thumb to the tiny rosebud at her ass.
“This will be mine when the time is right, too.”
Her muscles draw taut, limbs quivering as an orgasm overtakes her, her face morphing into pure pleasure.
Her eyelids flutter closed, her top teeth cutting into her pink lips, and her coming undone undoes me.
Tingles erupt at the base of my balls, and with one hand I cup my shaft and tug.
Semen leaks from the tip; a few more strokes flood my cock with Ember-induced ecstasy.
Her eyes flicker open and my own pleasure boils over; our eyes lock as I come unapologetically in my fist, white splashes grazing her pussy.
A soft rumble quakes through my chest as something primal overcomes me. I glance down at her prone body and push a hand between her soaked folds, mixing my cum with hers.
“You’re a fucking vision.” I cage her in my arms, kissing up the line of her neck, my Ember-soaked lips trailing the juice of her wet pussy across her skin. Her round eyes meet mine, drunk on arousal and aftermath.
She feels so good beneath me, in her bed—our bed—she never has a chance of leaving.
“You look delicious enough to eat.” I tug on her ear, digging my cock into her thigh. “I’m starved for you, my little firecracker.”
I slap at the pink flesh of her nipple, bite down on one dark peak, then slap softly again, listening to the wave she moans and shrieks on a whim.
“You sound like you’re enjoying your training.” I slip down the vee of her pussy, sliding my nose along the slit and inhaling deeply. It’s my new favorite perfume.
“W-what training?” She sounds so innocent I almost come again. When I said I feel like a beast around her, I meant it. She unlocks something wild inside me that can’t get enough. I have to have her, protect her, love her.
I have to be her everything, or die trying.
“Your training to be a slave to my cock.” I don’t give her a chance to protest. I dig my thumbs into her thighs and feast on the most delicate of delicacies I’ve ever tasted.
“I’m already a slave to your tongue.” She giggles.
I laugh against her engorged pussy; the vibration sparks another shudder through her. Her fingers grasp my biceps, sweet kitten mewls slipping past her lips as she rides her second orgasm.
“I don’t blame you.” Her juices soak my face, sending a thrill straight to the base of my dick. I stroke it slowly, teasing the tip against her silky skin, leaking and leaving a trail of my own pleasure on her. “But once you get this thick dick, you won’t ever go back.”
Her giggle echoes around the room and through the cold chambers of my icy heart.
This woman has put a damn spell on me.
“Feel how hard I am for you?” I rock against her.
She nods, her flush deepening. “I don’t think it will fit.”
I laugh, cock dripping at her naive words. “I don’t think it will either.” I lick up her sopping slit, tasting us mingled together, thinking this officially is the best scent in the world. “But we’re still gonna try.”
I knead her into a moaning heap, her hips working against my face, begging for more.
I’m not giving it yet.
“Clay,” she calls on soft breaths.
“Not yet, sweet Ember. Not until I say you’re ready.
” I stroke her pussy long and slow, relishing the feel of her cunt quivering around my tongue.
“We’ve got a lot more orgasms to go before this pussy is good and ready for me.
I’ve never been with anyone else. I’ve been saving myself for marriage and I know we’re not married yet but I’m going to change that just as soon as I can.
I’m safe and clean, baby, and I don’t want to use a condom. ”
“I’ve never been with anyone, so I guess that makes me clean by default. But Clay, I’m not on the pill.”
“You’ve been a good girl not letting anyone have what’s always been mine.
” I add a finger and she sighs. “I want to kill every fucker who’s ever laid eyes on your pretty face and had a dirty thought.
” I add another finger; her hands clutch the sheets.
“I’ll bust the balls of any man who thinks about getting between these pretty thighs. ”
She can’t speak any longer, her chest arching off the bed as I slip through her trembling folds, completely under my control. One hand strokes my cock, tip rubbing the sheets, leaving a wet circle as I work her until she’s whimpering.
“It may take me a week, but the caveman in me wants to tie you up here until you’ve had so many orgasms you can’t walk and won’t want to.
” I add a third finger, edging past the entrance of her innocent little pussy, spreading her slowly as I go, mouth watering as I devour the soft flesh of her clit.
She arches and moans, my fingers sliding deeper until the passage tightens—and I know no one else has been here. My cock throbs, anticipation curling inside me as I think of coating her warm womb with our future offspring.
“I’m a very possessive man, Ember, but I make sure I take care of what’s mine.”
She meets my eyes, nodding fiercely, then gives up another moan as my fingers hunt for another release.
“Already, I think you’ve achieved your goal.”
“Sweet Ember, you have no idea how much I want to ruin you.”
The scent of her is all over me—smoke and sweat and something sweeter I can’t name.
“I should be mad at you,” she gasps as another orgasm builds inside of her.
“You were.”
“I still am.”
“You’ll get over it.”
Her nails scrape lightly over my chest. “You scared me.”
I press a kiss to her neck and suck. “You brought me back.”
She shifts, eyes searching mine. “I’m not a damsel. I’m not someone you rescue once and then forget.”
I smirk. “Never.”
Her smile is small. “You say the sweetest things, Walker.”
“It’s true.”
“Is this...real?”
I grip her chin, hold her gaze. “You tell me.”
She nods once.
And for the first time in my entire damn life, I feel like maybe I’ve finally found happiness I thought wasn’t mine to want.
With Ember, I feel like I’m home.