Fireman Edition (7 page)

Literally.

I coughed – hard – not having been ready for the romantic gesture. He righted me and slammed his hand against my back in an attempt to resuscitate my lungs. “Holy crap, Jane. Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” I squeaked. “Just give me a minute.”

Hacking up a lung isn’t the sexiest maneuver I was capable of and my cheeks flamed red with embarrassment and lack of oxygen.

“Okay. I’m fine again. Just, in the future, a little bit of warning would be nice. Or maybe a snorkel. A snorkel would be good.”

His laughter echoed throughout the room as he stepped up to me and brushed my unruly hair back with his hands. “A warning then. Jane, I’m going to kiss you. Take a deep breath, baby, because I’m going in.”

He tried again and I’m really glad he did. Dropping my purse to the ground, I tried not to think about what type of nastiness I’d just dropped it into. I let myself go to the soulful and beautiful seduction that Mark was forcing inside my body. My toes curled, it was so good, and I stopped caring about the smell and the odd echoing noises in the large space of the garage.

His hands held my head in place, but slowly slipped down to tickle along my neck before sliding down my arms. He gripped my waist – or at least, he attempted to – but became a little more brazen when his hands slipped up again to brush across my breasts.

Pulling away, he smiled and those dimples fixed me into the type of trance from which only mind-blowing sex could free me. I was melting in his arms as I gazed into the depths of his sparkling, emerald green eyes. His hair was even messier than when I’d first seen him that evening and I tried not to remember it was because he kept running his hands through it every time I did something stupid.

“You ready for this?”

“Yes,” I breathlessly answered.

Taking my hand, he led me past three fire trucks, and motioned for me to climb the back ladder up what I assumed must have been engine number four. I eyed the ladder, not quite sure if I would be able to balance myself properly thanks to the alcohol that continued to rage through my veins. A warning in my mind went off, but thankfully it was dulled by the excitement that I, Jane Marie Taylor, would get to experience the moment that every fireman romance novel heroine dreams of.

This was it.

The peak.

The moment.

The climax.

Taking the sides of the cold, metal ladder in my hands, I set my foot to the first rung and pulled my weight up. Rung after rung, until I reached the top and froze.

“What’s that?”

Mark climbed up behind me, standing on the rung beneath mine and hugging his arms around me. “I think it’s a stain?”

We were staring at the folded bed of the fire hose. Something that had once been white and now was a frightening shade of dirt smeared brown with areas that resembled a high school science project.

Turning my head to and fro, I studied the stains, not quite sure I trusted laying my body on top of it.

Who knows what type of organism could crawl up inside me and feast on my delicate organs?

“Maybe we should have sex IN the truck and not on top of it.”

“We could do that,” Mark agreed. “But, I really just think those are stains. We hose down the truck every day. It should be clean enough.”

“Yeah, I’m not trusting it. Let’s go inside the truck.”

Okay, so it wasn’t exactly like what happened in the book, but it was close enough. I was perfectly fine with close enough.

Climbing back down, the soles of my feet touched the dirty and cold garage floor, but I ignored it. Mark pulled open the doors as soon as I was safely out of the way and I froze again.

There was no room. Fractions of inches of space in between all the equipment packed inside the truck. Mark grabbed my hand and tugged me partially inside. “Let’s do this.”

“Wait.” I pulled back. “How the…what the…there’s no way…”

I think I’ve mentioned already that I’m not a small girl, and even with the curves of a full figured woman, Mark was even bigger than me with his broad shoulders and muscular body.

“We’re not going to fit.”

“Sure we are.” He was optimistic. I’d give him credit for that.

“No. Mark. I don’t think you understand. I’m not a freak show contortionist. How are we going to fit inside of there…together?”

“We can do this, Jane. Trust me.”

Like a fool in love, I trusted him and stepped up into the truck, ducking my head as I was led inside, yet still getting bonked by something hard and heavy that hung from the ceiling. “Ouch!”

“Oh, crap, Jane. Sorry. Watch your head.”

Mark maneuvered the inside of the truck like a professional – probably because he
was
a professional – but I wasn’t. I was very much
not
able to react quickly enough to prevent banging my knee on that metal tool chest or smacking my toe against whatever the hell that thing was.

Mark turned slowly, our bodies pressed against each other as we attempted to figure out the logistics of this liaison.

“I think if you lie down in the center of the floor and I climb on top…”

“Yeah, that might work,” I agreed. But, to be honest, I had my doubts. Thank the lord for the copious amounts of firewater in my belly, because without it, slamming my elbow into the unfortunate placement of a cabinet would have really hurt.

Finally positioning myself on the ground, I laughed when Mark attempted to crawl down to lie on top of me.

We were face to face and he took the opportunity to kiss me again. It was nice, and I was dying to run my hands through the messy tresses of his hair. I reached up, but my shoulders were crammed between two opposing and non-moving objects, thereby limiting my ability to do much more than lie there like a dead fish.

Mark, himself, was having problems and by the end of our five-minute wrestling match, courtesy of the inanimate objects that were bolted to the ground, we both ended up laughing and giving up.

But, dammit, I’m not a quitter. This was going to happen.

“Okay. The top. Let’s have sex on top. If you say it’s clean, I’m going to trust you on that. I can’t have sardine sex, and that’s exactly what I feel like at the moment.”

“Good plan.” He agreed.

It only took him another five minutes to maneuver himself back into a standing position. He reached down to help me to my feet, but damn near yanked my arm out of the socket when my body wouldn’t budge.

“Shit! I’m stuck!”

My hips were wedged between the cabinets, my face lighting up with embarrassment and fear. Would he be able to get me free? “Get out the jaws of life!” I kept pleading with him and he laughed in response.

“I don’t think we’re to that point yet, Jane.” He spoke through strained breath as he worked to free me.  “Just one good tug and you’ll be…”

My hips broke away from the cabinets, his body flying backwards and mine coming up into a standing position that was too quick and too fast. I fell forward, crushing him against the back doors.

Thank goodness they were closed or that would have been really embarrassing.

Now squished together, but able to breath again, Mark and I laughed as we looked into each other’s eyes.

“Top of the truck?” He offered.

“Yeah, babe. Top of the truck.”

Climbing back up was tedious and I felt winded by the fourth rung. I imagined the fire hose would have to be softer and less restricting than the interior of the truck. Crawling over the rough fabric of the hose wasn’t fun and when I pulled up my hands to look at my palms, they were stained black.

“I am so going to need a shower after this,” I commented.

Mark chuckled. “I’ll just spray you down with the hose when we’re done. Chin up, kid. It’s just a little dirt. It won’t kill you.”

“But they didn’t mention this part in the book.” I objected.

“Whoa! Watch your head!”

Mark grabbed me just in time to keep me from doing a face plant into the base of the main ladder.

“It looks like we don’t have much room here either. We’re going to have to get creative.”

“Why is none of this mentioned in the book?” I couldn’t wrap my head around it. At no point did Mina complain about getting her brain knocked around my all the metal and hard plastic implements used on a fire truck.

“We can do this.”

Mark spun me around and laid me down on top of the hose – and perfectly in the center of a questionable stain that I’d been eyeing since we crawled up here.

“Ew! It’s squishy!”

Laughing, he pulled me out of the stain and I felt it slip along my back where the dress didn’t cover my skin. Oh gawd, this was horrible.

Finally nestled into a space that wasn’t crawling with disease, Mark looked down at me, satisfied that we’d figured this out. “Now. It’s time for fire truck sex.”

His hands worked over my body, squeezing and teasing, tempting and building up a fire inside of me that would be difficult to extinguish. Thankfully, I was in the right place should internal combustion actually be real. His mouth moved over mine, our combined moans and giggles lightening the mood of what was truly a disastrous night. But, in the end, it was all worth it – for this moment alone.

The top of my dress slipped apart and his skilled hands worked over my breasts until they were so sensitive I thought I would scream. His hips fell in between my legs, his body pushing up against me and setting flame to the nerve endings beneath my skin.

I explored his body myself and was enthralled with the hard muscle of his arms and chest, the soft skin beneath the shirt that I slowly unbuttoned.

My hips gyrated against him, my body screaming for more when he dropped his weight on top of me…and on top of my full bladder.

“I have to pee!”

Squeezing my legs together, I wanted to push him out of the way. I don’t know what happened. One minute, I was about to peak on the euphoria that could only come with a decent orgasm and the next? I was pushing and swatting at the man on top of me, begging him to let me go before we were both dashing for the shower to wash off the evidence of how much I’d had to drink that night.

His forehead fell on mine and he laughed. “You know what? Okay. I have to pee too. Why don’t we go to the bathrooms and meet back up here in five minutes? We’ll try for round three.”

“Yes. Let’s do that! Good thinking!”

Chapter Nine

After peeing and freshening up in the bathroom that shall not be described, I lamented the fact that the momentum of my alcohol-induced stupor had started to wear off and all the bangs and bruises were now coming to life. I felt aches and pains from injuries I couldn’t remember and my body was so dehydrated, it felt like somebody had taken a baseball bat to my head.

Gripping my skull in my hand, I stumbled back into the garage looking around for Mark. He entered a couple minutes behind me, gripping his own skull, but less hunched over. At least only one of us ended up looing like a ninety year old former boxer in a retirement home.

“Not feeling great?”

“Yeah, no. I think the alcohol has worn off. I can walk straight again. I just don’t want to.”

I laughed, and then instantly regretted it.

“Well, Mark. I say we give up. I don’t think fire truck sex is the best idea, after all. It’s dirty and stinky, squishy, and quite honestly, painful.” Holding up my hands in mock surrender, I said, “I give up.”

I expected him to agree, to walk away with me and escort me back to my car in the parking lot of the restaurant where I’d never show my face again. But he didn’t. Damn his stubborn optimism.

“No. I answered that ad and promised to give you the fireman romance novel experience. We’re doing this, Jane. I won’t let you give up.”

I argued, but my voice was weak because talking too loud just tightened the vice grip on my skull. “Seriously, Mark. You gave me a great night. I’ve felt the experience and I’ll be returning this book to my store and marking it a dud.”

“No!” He argued. “There is no way I’m allowing those other men to beat me out. I refuse to believe a kidnapper or a vampire…hell…an alpha male is better than a fireman. We’re doing this, Jane.”

Sweeping me up in his arms, he carried me to the truck. I was surprised at his strength and caught off guard by his enthusiasm. With a few slaps against my bottom, he nudged me up the ladder. Finding our safe place once again, my dress was stripped from my body and my breasts bounced free for all to see.

“You are so beautiful.” His eyes drank me in and I could feel his gaze against my skin. I know that’s something you read and think it can’t be true, but his gaze truly was palpable. I was amazed by the heady sensation of being looked at and admired. Heat built in his eyes and between our bodies, his mouth and teeth now kissing and nipping my skin.

His hands smoothed up my thighs, his fingers wrapping into the sides of my panties and slowly pulling them down my legs.

I was hot.

I was ready.

I was going to have sex on top of a fire truck.

And I was suddenly deaf when the alarms in the building rang; my shock transitioning into mortification when men began pouring into the garage.

“We need two engines ready, pronto! Eric and Carl, get engines two and three fired up and ready to go! This isn’t a false alarm boys and the fire is close by. I can smell the smoke already. Hurry! Open up the damned doors. We needed to be out of here five minutes ago!”

Rushing feet and startled voices, men beneath us on pulling on their gear and readying the engines of the trucks that would soon be flying out of the building.

I froze in place not knowing what the hell to do when the guy in charge suddenly yelled, “Mark, I know you’re up there, man. Get your clothes back on and a gear up! We need all hands on this! Sorry to your girl, but she has to go before the chief gets here and catches you both with your pants down!”

My hand felt around desperately for my dress, but I couldn’t find it.

“Mark! Get down here now! We’re heading out.”

He looked at me with an apology written into his expression. A quick kiss on the cheek and he said, “I’ll make this up to you. You have to leave now before the chief gets here!”