Wildfire Smokejumper Trilogy

Chapter 5-4

Akbar heard the porch deck boards creak as Laura came out the cabin’s front door.

“Johnny?” Laura had taken to calling him that almost from the beginning; he hadn’t argued and now was coming to like it. Only his mother ever called him that but he hadn’t told Laura, because…well, because it was just too weird if he thought about it. His dad always used Akbar or Akbar the Akbar with a bit of a laugh, Great the Great. His big sister usually called him Dipwad; the nickname had been mutual in both directions since before he could remember. There was a little worry in Laura’s tone.

“Right here, Space Ace.”

It was only an hour or so before dawn. Yesterday’s heat had continued to hang on through the night, comfortable now without being oppressive. Laura was wrapped in a light blanket which was more than he wore.

“What are you thinking about so intently out here in the dark?” She slid into his lap and rested her cheek on his hair as his arms slid around her incredible form and held her close. The better he got to know her, the more amazing she felt, which was totally backwards. First nights were supposed to be the best and then the long slow burnout as the initial heat wore off.

Their first night of making love had turned out to only be an invitation, an introduction to the wonders of Laura Jenson’s physical form. For a month, the heat had kept building, driven and fanned by the woman within.

“I’m thinking about what an incredible body you have.”

She made a fake gagging sound, “Besides, if you were thinking that, you’d still be in bed with me.”

Well, he’d known she was smart from the first moment he’d spotted her. Paybacks were such hell. Yeah, paybacks like a beautiful woman who welcomes him into her life as if he’d always belonged there.

“I’m thinking…” he nuzzled her neck and cupped her breast through the thin blanket, “…that I was an i***t and should drag you right back to bed.”

“Answer the question, Fire Boy, or get that hand off my breast.”

He removed his hand, then slid it down between her legs to cup her behind through the cloth, his wrist riding tight against her.

“Okay,” her breathing was distinctly heavier. “Maybe I should have phrased that differently.”

Akbar tipped his head and kissed her. Kissing Laura Jenson made him feel so alive and powerful it was hard to credit. It was the exact same feeling as waking on that ridgeline to see that they’d defeated the blaze and ten thousand acres of forest lay safe before him. Knowing that somehow, inexplicably, he was a part of something so amazing.

She brushed those slender, strong fingers along his face and then pulled back enough to speak, but her fingers continued to caress his cheek. “What are you avoiding?”

He tried to shrug it off, but stopped halfway through with a sigh, “Damned if I know, Laura.”

She pulled his head against her shoulder and rested her cheek once more on his hair. “Describe it for me.”

“It feels…” he growled at his own helplessness then forged ahead anyway. “If feels as if I’m watching a fire, but I’m missing something. Some key element. And if I don’t find it, it’s going to do a slopover across the control line and I’ll have a blowup with a whole new world of hurt on my hands.”

“And this doesn’t have anything to do with Tim threatening to be my champion if you screw this up?”

“You heard that?” He wished she hadn’t heard that. It was embarrassing. As if Tim could see the “something” that he couldn’t. And he hadn’t been the only one. Krista had pulled him aside and threatened him in that gentle way of hers, something about “taking a Pulaski to his nuts.” Jeannie, even Jeannie, had sent him a text message saying she liked Laura and, while she was too good for someone like Akbar, Jeannie would still let him be her friend as long as he didn’t screw up the relationship.

“Yes, I heard that,” Laura’s chest hummed against his ear. “I don’t think he gets how far that deep voice of his carries.”

Akbar sighed. “Yeah, I used to think the same thing. Tim doesn’t miss that kind of thing. He must have known you were nearby.”

“So, I’m guessing he’s not the only one who has thrown you over for me and that’s freaking you out.”

“No,” Akbar ground it out. “That’s not what’s freaking me out. I don’t think.” Pissing him off a bit? Yeah. Confusing the daylights out of him? Way. But what was freaking him out was that he wanted to shout to Laura how much he… What? How easily he could see himself still being with Laura beyond a season…or even two…or more?

A shiver ran up his spine despite the warm embrace and temperate dawn.

He couldn’t believe that was in there trying to get out. Having thought it, he knew what his friends had each said was true. But there was no way he was ready to deal with a “keeper.” He needed to tread very carefully here, this slope was filled with hotspots dying to reignite.

Akbar held Laura tighter for a moment, breathed her in for strength. “I’ve never been here before,” he could admit that much without getting specific. “So let me sit with it for a minute and try not to run screaming into the woods.”

“Don’t do that,” her bright laugh danced around him and made him feel lightheaded.

“Why?”

“Because you’re n***d, Fire Boy. And no, you can’t have my blanket if you’re going to go dragging it through the woods.”

“Not even a corner of it?” Using his teeth, he slid it off her shoulder and nibbled on her bare skin.

“No.” But she didn’t try to tug the blanket back up.

“How about this little bit here?” he moved aside a flap with his nose and tipped her back to nuzzle the breast now glowing in the moonlight.

“Absolutely not!” Her breath was accelerating, going a bit gaspy. She gathered the blanket into her grasp and pulled it over her, around the back of his head.

Slowly, fold by fold, he maneuvered and shifted her in his lap until the blanket was around them rather than between them. And then, because the nearest protection was all the way in the bedroom, he made love to her with his mouth and his hands. He did it slowly, carefully, and very thoroughly, dragging out the exquisite mutual t*****e until the sunrise forced him to leave this woman and this place where he could imagine a lifetime.