Chapter 24

Cade

I stood under the hot water, my hands resting against the tiles and my head bowed. The fire this afternoon had gone from bad to worse, necessitating back up support from my crew for the local crew after the hotel beside the house on fire was threatened. The fire had started after the homeowner left the coffee pot on when they left the house. The house was a total loss, but we’d managed to keep the fire from spreading to the hotel. With the hotel adjacent to a swath of spruce forest, it was a damn good thing.

It was high summer in Alaska with not enough rain and acres and acres of spruce forest filled with spruce trees dead or dying from spruce bark beetle. As such, the already problematic fire conditions that were getting worse with every dry summer out West were made much worse with so much dead, dry fuel. Blue spruce trees were hardier and more able to resist the beetles, but flying overhead, sometimes my heart cracked. We’d fly for miles and see nothing but brown, dead swaths of spruce trees. Keeping that section of forest from catching fire was a lucky break.

I’d had a long afternoon and was tired as hell. I’d come to know Amelia tended to work late in the evenings. No surprise, so when I arrived at her cabin to find her gone, I headed straight for a shower. I stood there and let the hot water pound down on me. I heard a soft click and glanced over my shoulder to find Amelia stepping into the shower with me. I let my hands fall and turned to face her. The second my body knew she was near, my cock swelled. By the time I was facing her, I was rock hard and ready. She was untangling her hair from a messy ponytail. She had a streak of dirt on her cheek and one on her arm. My eyes traveled over her—savoring the contrast of her strong legs and lush breasts.

“Dammit,” she muttered as she glanced over at me.

She couldn’t miss the fact I was fully erect, her eyes widening slowly with a naughty grin curling the corner of her mouth.

I stepped to her, satisfaction rolling through me when her breath drew in sharply as I came flush against her. “Dammit, what?” I murmured, my lips feathering against her neck.

“I can’t get this thing out of my hair,” she said between gasps.

I lifted my head, reaching up to help her. She dropped her hands. It took a minute, but I managed to get the elastic out and let it fall to the floor. “There,” I said, my voice coming out rough when I met her eyes and saw them darkening.

“How was your day?” she whispered.

“Busy. Yours?” I returned as I slid my hands down to cup her bottom.

Another gasp from her when I pulled her tight against me. I bit back a groan at the feel of her heated core against my cock.

When she didn’t answer me, I repeated my question in between licks and nips along her neck. “Your day? How was it?” I murmured.

“Oh God, it was fine,” she muttered as she curled her hand around my cock and stroked.

Steam cocooned us as the water fell around us. She felt so fucking good, slick and wet all over. I reached between her thighs and found her hot, wet and ready. I wasn’t in the mood to wait. I hooked my hands under her thighs and lifted her, pressing her back against the tiled wall.

She curled her legs around my hips as her head thumped against the wall. I had my cock in my fist about to sink inside of her when I looked at her. My heart gave a resounding kick. Her hair was a damp, tangled mess, her eyes like molten honey, her nipples pink and taut, and her breasts so full and round. I loved the sight of her, loved everything about her. So much it almost hurt.

She rolled her hips as she bit her lip. I adjusted her where I held her with one arm hooked firmly under her hips and nudged into the cradle of her hips, lifting my hand and brushing the damp strands of hair away from her face. I traced her lips with my thumb. Her eyes darkened, and she caught my thumb in her teeth, drawing it in to suck on it lightly.

“I love you,” I said, the words burning fiercely inside and coming out rough.

In the pulse of the moment, I felt her tense. Her eyes took on a sheen and a tear slipped out one corner. It wasn’t that I hadn’t known I loved her, forever it felt like. But I hadn’t spoken the words aloud in seven years. I waited, wondering if I’d said too much, too soon. I drew my thumb out of her mouth and trailed my fingers down her neck, across the wild flutter of her pulse.

“I love you too,” she finally said, waiting just long enough I thought I might die from it.

“Okay then,” I managed.

Words were a poor substitute for everything I felt, so I used my body. I eased my hips back slightly, adjusted my angle and slid home in one swift surge. She cried out and tightened her legs around my hips. With my eyes locked to hers, I held her with the water pounding down around us and poured everything I felt into the beat of the desire that lived and breathed between us as its own force.

Every stroke brought me deeper, every raw groan from me and rough cry from her, every slap of our wet skin, all of it was more than words could ever say. In the heat of this frantic, wet coupling, we were rough and wild, but underneath was the fierce tenderness that bound us together—that which we’d lost sight of before. I felt her tightening, shudders rippling through her. I sank again and again and again into her creamy clench until I felt her throbbing around me. Her nails scored my back when she cried out. I followed her over, my own release thundering through me with such force, my knees almost gave out.

But she was there, her hands sliding up to cup my cheeks, murmuring my name and feathering kisses over my face. We stayed like that, my cock buried deep inside of her, my lips against hers and hot water streaming over us, for so long the water started to cool.