Chapter Thirteen
Cam
"All right, girl, here goes nothing," I said to Tesla as I pocketed my wallet and grabbed my keys. "I don't know how this is gonna go, but one thing is for sure: I won't forget about you."
Tesla let out a short bark and then went and climbed up on the sofa. She sighed as she dropped her chin between her paws and stared at me. I laughed at her attempt at emotional blackmail as I tossed a few cookies her way. It always amazed me how quickly accusations could turn to love when food was involved.
I drove over to Alex's apartment and parked. She buzzed me up, and when she opened the door, I was struck by how beautiful she looked no matter what she was wearing. She had chosen a soft blue dress that hugged her curves and high-heeled, leather boots that made her hips sway gently as she walked around the apartment gathering her things. Watching her move, I wasn't entirely sure that we would make it out the front door.
"So, where are we going?" Alex asked as she pulled her coat out of the closet. It took me a moment to snap out of a fantasy involving me removing the blue dress and seeing Alex in her lingerie.
"Huh? Oh, dinner, yeah," I said as I grabbed the coat out of her hands and held it for her. She laughed as she slid her arms into it and then buttoned it up. "Dinner, I thought we should try someplace a little nicer than O'Neil's, so I got us a reservation at Villains over on Printer's Row."
"I've heard of it, but never been there." Alex smiled as she locked the door and we headed to dinner.
Over beers, we talked about work and school, but the conversation soon turned toward getting to know one another better, and I felt myself pulling back even though I wanted nothing more than to have Alex know me.
"So, have you always been single?" she asked before sipping her beer.
"Not always," I said, shaking my head. "Just for a really long time. Too long."
"Why is that?" she asked, tipping her head sideways so that her long hair fell across one side of her chest. She looked like a Nordic painting. I swallowed hard and tried to answer her question.
"I've just been really involved in my career," I replied, side-stepping the reality.
"So, have you ever had a girlfriend?" she continued. I could feel the heat rising under my shirt collar as my desire collided with the guilt I felt being so attracted to her.
"Sure, I've had girlfriends," I said. "Nothing worked out."
"Is that because you leave your wet towels on the bathroom floor or because you leave the toilet seat up?" she asked as a hint of smile played at the edges of her lips. It made me want to kiss her even more.
"You want the truth?" I sighed as I gave up the ghost and decided that maybe, just maybe, Alex Pierce was the woman I could tell this story to and not have her look at me with pity.
"No, just lie to me. It's so much healthier," she deadpanned. For a moment, I was confused, and then I saw the smile on her face and a chuckled.
"Fine, but just remember that you asked for it," I said, shaking a finger at her.
"I'll do that," she said, wagging her finger back at me with a smile.
"Ten years ago, my fiancée died in a fire," I said, quickly ripping the Band-Aid off the conversation. "I was new to the fire squad, and I wasn't there."
"I'm so sorry, Cam," Alex said quietly as she reached out and laid her hand on top of mine. There was kindness in the gesture, so I didn't pull away. "It must have been awful for you."
"It was pretty terrible," I nodded as I debated whether or not to tell her the whole story.
"How did it happen? The fire, I mean?" she asked, sparing me the decision. "I mean, if you want to talk about it. I don't mean to pry."
"No, no, it's just..." I began as I looked across the table into her soft blue eyes.
"Just what?"
"It's just that you're the first woman who's asked that question and not made me feel like an object of pity," I admitted. "It's just weird."
"I don't see how anyone could pity you," she replied as the server set down our food and asked if we needed anything else. Alex smiled at him and said, "No, I think we're fine for now, thank you," before turning back to me.
"You'd be surprised at how much pity a dead fiancée can garner," I said grimly as I cut into my steak.
"Well, I'm not going to pity you," she said as she picked up her fork and dug into the smoked trout on her plate. "So, you can either tell me what happened or we can change the subject and talk about something else. Either way, I'm fine with it."
In that moment, I made the decision to open up, and once I started spilling the story, I couldn't stop. I told Alex how Quinn and I had bought the house three months before the fire. It was a foreclosure that had been on the market for three years and was in desperate need of an overhaul, and that was the only reason we'd been able to afford it. We lived in the bottom half of the house while I spent my days off from my training with the CFD renovating the upper half. Over the weekend, I'd finished the master bedroom and what would eventually be the nursery while Quinn studied for her nursing exam downstairs in the kitchen.
Every so often, she'd bring me a sandwich or a cold drink and comment favorably on the progress. Her parents had been furious about us moving in together before we were married and it had been hard for her to reject her South Side Catholic roots to follow her heart. We had decided that we'd finish the house before she graduated from nursing school and that we'd plan our wedding for the August after she got her license. I picked up extra shifts to make sure that she could focus on school and not have to work full time, but she somehow managed to take a full load of classes and work nearly full time in the blood lab over in the basement of the hospital. When I objected, she said that it was the perfect job because when things were quiet she could study.
"She was a nursing student, too," Alex observed as she continued eating. "Is that weird for you?"
"No, actually there's something kind of comforting in being around the hospital all the time," I admitted. "Is that weird for you?"
"No, actually it's pretty understandable." She smiled. "I mean it's not like you're trying to replace her or something."
"No, not at all," I said, shaking my head.
"What happened?" Alex asked. I hesitated because the memory was so overwhelming that I tended to keep it bottle up tightly, but the look in Alex's soft blue eyes made me feel like letting go.
"She was volunteering at a South Side women's clinic," I said. "And someone with a grudge against things they knew nothing about threw a Molotov cocktail through the front window, and then three more right after it. The same people had blocked the back exits, so there was no escape once the front area was on fire. Quinn and the staff tried to get the patients into rooms where they could block off the smoke and wait for the fire department, but the records room and lab both caught fire and it brought the roof down before firefighters could get to them."
"Were you there?" she asked quietly.
"No, I was in training then," I said, looking at my plate. "But we heard the call go out on the radio and I knew it was Quinn's clinic. One of the Battalion Chief's came and got me out of class and drove me to the hospital. They wouldn't let me go to the site. Quinn was still breathing, but they had her on a ventilator because she'd inhaled so much smoke. I sat with her for two days before they told her family that there was no hope and let them make the choice to disconnect the machines."
"That must have been horrible," Alex said. "How did you survive that decision?"
"I knew it was the right thing to do," I said sadly. "I knew that letting her go was better than keeping her in a state of limbo forever, but I didn't want to let her go. I think that was the worst day of my life."
"I can only imagine," Alex said. "I'm so sorry you and Quinn had to go through that."
I looked up at Alex as she spoke. It was the first time anyone had ever included Quinn's name in that statement. Everyone had always said they were sorry for me, for Quinn's family, for her patients, but no one had ever sad how sorry they were that she had to go through it, too.
"Thank you, Alex," I said, holding her gaze for a few seconds before looking away and saying, "Sorry, I'm dominating the conversation with my sad tale, aren't I?"
"No. I mean, yes, but it's perfectly okay," she replied. "I was just thinking about how interesting it is that we all have our stories and that you never know a person's story just by looking at them."
I nodded as I watched her trace a circle around the bottom of her wine glass with the tip of her finger. There was something very comforting about the motion, but the movement of her finger was also incredibly sensual. I could feel myself responding to the idea of her touch.
"What about you? What's your story?" I asked as I looked up from her finger and caught her staring at me.
"My story isn't very interesting." She laughed. "Just the usual: parents who didn't really like each other but stayed married for the sake of the kids. Teenage heartbreak, from which I actually did recover, despite feeling like I never would. Failing out of college my first semester. You know, the usual."
"I can't imagine what idiot would have ever broken your heart," I said. "But I'm kind of glad he did."
"Eh, he was a jock with a chip on his shoulder, and I was too easily impressed by his cute smile." She laughed. "Teenagers are stupid sometimes."
As she said that, I sensed a slight shift in the tone of conversation before she laughed again and turned to look for the server.
"Should we get the check and go walk around a little?" she asked, changing the topic and indicating that any further questions were off-limits for now.
We pulled on our coats and went out on to the street where a light snow was falling making the city look clean and fresh. Alex took my arm as we walked down the street toward my truck and chatted about work and the way in which all of the residents were completely worn out by the shifts they were required to work. She talked about her classes and her exams, and as we waited for the light to change, I looked down at her and smiled at the snow blanketing her hair. I reached out to brush it away, but instead leaded forward and kissed her.
Her lips were cold but soft, and I felt the familiar rush of blood as she reached up and rested her mittened hands on my cheeks. I wrapped my arms around her and lifted her off the ground as passing cars honked their approval. Alex started laughing as I lowered her to the ground.
"I think we should take this show out of the public view, don't you agree, Mr. Connor?" She grinned.
"Where to?" I asked as I nodded in agreement.
"Well, it's either your place or mine." She shrugged and then added, "Where do you live, anyway?"
I debated about what to tell her, since I still lived in the house that Quinn and I had bought. I'd done all of the remodeling myself in the years after the fire and now it looked like something completely different than what it had back when we'd stared the overhaul.
"Over toward the West Side," I said, avoiding the issue altogether. If she continued to be a part of my life, I'd take her there and tell her about it, but right now I didn't feel like having to explain CSC on top of everything else.
"Well, then my place is closer!" she said as she reached down and scooped up a handful of snow and tossed it at me. The light flakes broke apart in mid air and showered us both with a dusting of snow making Alex laugh again.
Back at her place, we picked up where we'd left off almost as soon as we'd shed our coats. The feeling of Alex's body pressed against mine was almost more than I could bear as I cupped her round bottom with both hands and kissed her harder and deeper. I could feel her fingers running through my hair as she parted her lips and pushed her tongue into my mouth. The intensity of our kiss made my pulse race, and suddenly I felt light headed.
"Alex," I groaned into her lips as she ran her hands down my chest.
"Mmm hmmm," she hummed as she took my bottom lip between her teeth and lightly bit it. Anything I was going to say flew out of my brain as her hands continued their downward descent.
I found the hem of her dress and quickly pulled it over her head, inhaling sharply as I saw that she was wearing a black lace bra and panties. With her blonde hair falling down over her shoulders, she looked like a fantasy. I yanked off my shirt and pulled her against me, but she pushed me back as she looked up with a wicked grin on her face and unzipped my jeans.
"Are you sure?" I asked as I stepped out of my pants and ran my fingers through her hair.
"Are you?" She smiled. All I could do was nod my head as she wrapped her arms around my neck and kissed me again. The feeling of her bare skin against mine was almost more than I could handle, and it wasn't long before she'd pushed me back down onto the couch where she straddled my lap as she undid her bra and then pressed her soft, beautiful breasts against my lips one after another.
She moaned softly as I teased each nipple with my tongue before sucking them until they were both engorged and stiff. As I slid my fingers between her legs and teased her through the sheer fabric, her moans grew louder and more insistent. When she suddenly stood up, I was surprised and wondered if she'd changed her mind, but when she quickly walked across the room and opened a paper bag then returned holding a familiar blue box, I smiled.
"We have to be protected." She smiled as she tore open one of the packets before slipping out of her panties. She gave me a sexy smile as she asked, "Don't you want to lose those boxers?"
"Oh, yeah!" I replied as I quickly shed my underwear and watched her kneel in front of me so she could roll the small ring of latex down over my thick erection. After a moment, she giggled and looked up at me.
"I was trying to be cool, but I'm not doing this right." She sighed. "Help me?"
"Gladly." I grinned as I took over. A few seconds later, I pulled her back onto my lap and held my breath as she grabbed my shaft and positioned it at the edge of her warm opening. I could hear her softly humming as she stroked herself with the tip of my now throbbing erection before she dropped down and took me deep inside in one swift motion.
I almost climaxed as I felt her tight warmth enveloping me, but she sat completely still and let me regain my composure as she kissed my jaw and ran her tongue over my ear. The sensation was incredible, and I could feel her beginning to rock back and forth as she slipped a hand between us and began to stroke herself.
"Oh God, Alex," I groaned as I felt her tighten and release. She smiled and kissed me again as she began to rock a little harder and faster. I could feel her rising up and then dropping down again, and the motion combined with the pulsing of her inner walls was more than I could bear.
"Come for me, Cam," she whispered breathlessly. "I want us to come together."
I swallowed hard and nodded as I looked up into her beautiful blue eyes and did exactly as she'd asked. The sensation shook my body as I felt the wave of orgasm flow over us both. She cried out and gripped my shoulder as she reached the peak just a few seconds after I did. I could feel her pulsing and throbbing as I did the same. I gripped her hips as I held her in place and continued thrusting up and up and up.
When we'd both regained our senses, I looked up at her and smiled as I shook my head.
"What?" she said.
"You're amazing," I replied. "Simply amazing."
Her only response was to lean down and softly kiss my lips.