Chapter Seventeen
By the time Sean arrived at the scene, three ambulances had come and gone, carrying two firefighters and an elderly woman. Thankfully, Charlotte had been able to capture it all on video, though she went through the entire experience in a haze.
She’d been so excited to be on the scene of a fire, to be at a story before anyone else. It had been exhilarating. But witnessing the all-out desolation of a charred house and defeated firemen left her bereft. Tears threatened to spill from her eyelids each time her gaze swung to the man who had shown her the depths of ecstasy just hours before.
Normally, Trey stood tall, proud, his shoulders thrown back and his head held high. But the man sitting on the bumper of a fire truck couldn’t be more opposite from that man Charlotte had begun to know. Hunched over himself, his head rested in his hands.
With all the footage transferred to Sean and Rudy, Charlotte was free to go. She was due back at the station, but with one look at Trey, she knew that wouldn’t be happening. Quietly, she slipped between two of the barricades and approached Trey with caution. They really didn’t know much about each other yet. Charlotte had no idea how he would want to be comforted after such a devastating day. Would he want to be alone? She could understand it if he did, no matter how much she longed to be the place he took solace in.
As she approached, he swung his face up, tracks of tears obvious from the stains down his dark face. His eyes swept her from top to toes, as if checking to make sure she were okay. Still a foot away, Trey reached out, taking hold of her hips, and drew her in those last dozen inches. His forehead touched down against her stomach, and his shoulders relaxed for the first time since he received the phone call.
Had that really only been two hours ago that they laid in bed wrapped around each other? The tinge of soreness between Charlotte’s thighs confirmed that it had, even as her brain told her it had to have been much longer.
“Do you know them, the men taken to the hospital?” Keeping her voice low, Charlotte skated her hands over his short hair, trying to ease some of his pain.
He nodded, never letting his head move away from her middle. “I trained one of them. He hasn’t been on the squad for longer than two years. The other is my competition for the captain’s job.” Trey’s normally solid, deep voice sounded tissue paper thin. It cracked with emotion as he continued. “We came up through the system together. Always had a rivalry going between us. But no matter how much we butted heads, you never want this for someone. Especially when it’s your fault. When you could have stopped it.”
Charlotte gripped the sides of his face, tilting it up so that his eyes connected with hers. “How could you have prevented any of this?”
Trey shook his head, breaking her hold on him. “Do you mind if we don’t talk about it for now? I just want to go home, wash the past few hours off me, and get back in bed with you.”
Shoving down the disappointment that Trey didn’t want to open up to her, Charlotte nodded, trying her best to plaster on a smile for the man she couldn’t stop thinking about. “That can be arranged.”
Standing from the bumper, Trey flung his arm around Charlotte and pulled her tight against his side. Without a thought, she wrapped both her arms around his middle, lying her face against his hard chest. The significance of the moment wasn’t lost on her. She never did anything without over analyzing it from every angle. But with Trey, it just seemed natural. He needed her support, and she would give it in any way he needed.
On the way back to his apartment, Charlotte called into the station and explained the situation to Michelle. For the first time in her career, she was being selfish, and her boss wasn’t particularly happy about it. But before her boss could really get going, Bekah had entered the office and apparently offered to hold down the assignment desk for the night. God knows the woman had hung out with Charlotte as she worked enough lately to know what it involved. With work squared away, Charlotte turned her attention back to the bereft man beside her.
Trey’s hand lay possessively on Charlotte’s thigh, his thumb running up and down the seam of her wrinkled work pants. Despite the sadness in the air, she couldn’t help the way her arousal built to an almost frenzied level. She willed herself to sit still, not to squirm until his broad fingers rested at the apex of her thighs.
Her own fingers gripped the seat on either side of her, ensuring they wouldn’t reach over and paw the man who had just watched two of his friends get carted off in an ambulance. That wasn’t the kind of comfort he needed at the moment.
Just a few minutes later, they pulled up to his house, and trudged inside, both exhausted. “I need a hot shower.”
“Sure. I’ll make some food while you do that.” Charlotte turned toward his kitchen, a mixture of excitement and apprehension at poking around Trey’s kitchen. Where a person ate could tell you a lot about them. Would his fridge be full of healthy veggies and proteins? She bet it would given how ripped he was.
But just as she reached the threshold to the kitchen, Trey’s hand wrapped around he bicep, pulling her back against his chest. “No. You’ve been far enough for long enough. I want you right next to me for the rest of the weekend. I’m not letting you out of my sight until you have to leave for work on Sunday.”
Charlotte fought the smile creeping onto her face, biting her lip as the happiness and pleasure of having Trey’s hands on her filled her body and soul. “I don’t have any clothes with me. I’ll have to go back to my place to change.”
“Trust me, with what I have in mind, clothes won’t be needed.” Trey swung her up into a bridal carry, his solid arms holding him tight against his torso.
Silently, he placed her on her feet in the middle of his modest bathroom. Normally, her curious mind would be looking around, taking it all in, every detail from the tile to lotions spread across his vanity. But with his hands and eyes on her, intensity filling the air around them, nothing but Trey penetrated her mind.
Once they were both rid of their smoke tinged clothes, Trey reached into the shower, turning the knobs until he was satisfied with the temperature. Steam clouded the room, giving the whole thing a dream like quality that brought an uncharacteristic bravery to Charlotte. Trey stepped over the side of the tub and into the shower first, holding Charlotte’s hand to steady her as she followed.
Before Trey could make another move, Charlotte fell to her knees before him, his intimidating cock already hard before her lips.
“No, Charlotte, you don't have to….” The first touch of her tongue to his dick stole the words right off his lips.
“I know I don't have to. You would never make me do something I didn’t want to.” She flattened her tongue on the underside of his manhood, dragging it all the way up to the tip. He tasted of salt and smoke, and she wondered it that was what he always tasted like, or if the flavor was simply due to his work at the fire. “I want to do this. I’ve fantasized about doing this. And I feel safe enough with you do explore my desires.”
“Shit, woman, how do you make the beginnings of a blow job the sweetest thing I’ve ever experienced?’
Not knowing how to respond, Charlotte simply went to work discovering how to pleasure the big man looming over her. She knelt in the space where the shower drops arched over, leaving her largely untouched by the water. Taking the head of his cock into her mouth, Trey fell forward, bracing his hands on the wall above her, and blocking the rest of the water from hitting her.
As she worked, Charlotte let her eyelids drift shut, focusing all her attention on the texture of the appendage of a man she had always been so curious about.
“Open those beautiful eyes, baby. I want to watch them as you suck your first cock.”
