CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX | CASSIDY
“So you really won’t tell me where we’re going?” I asked, blinking up at Brady from my spot in the passenger seat.
“It’s a surprise,” his lips curled up into a mysterious smile. He was holding my hand in his lap, and he lifted it to his lips and dropped a soft peck on the knuckle of my ring finger, just above the band of my sparkly diamond engagement ring.
The fuzzy yellow glow of street lamps slipped through the truck windows as we drove down the road, and the diamond caught the light and reflected rainbow-colored shards that danced around the dark truck cab like a disco ball.
I hadn’t stopped admiring the ring since Brady had slipped it onto my finger back in the Rose Garden. It was perfect: a bright white emerald-cut stone on a dainty platinum band. My heart skipped every time I looked at it, and my heart skipped twice when I thought about what that ring meant; that this was real.
“Brady Hudson,” I smiled with a content sigh, “You’re full of surprises tonight.”
“So are you, Ladybug…”
His eyes met mine and he returned my smile. Then he steered the truck off of the road, turning onto a windy stretch of narrow pavement that crawled through a dense forest of trees.
Without the glow of the streetlamps that had illuminated the main road, our surroundings were pitch black. The only light came from the truck’s headlights, which lit up the road ahead of us with a pair of bright white beams.
The truck turned around a sharp bend, and then stopped just short of a barbed-wire gate that blocked the road.
My heartbeat intensified.
“Brady…” I said slowly, my voice filling with apprehension.
“Trust me,” he said. He kissed my hand again, then he popped open the truck door and slipped out. I could hear his footsteps crunching over the rocky road, then I saw him step in front of the white glare of the headlights. He walked towards the edge of the gate, where a keypad was affixed to the fence. He punched a series of numbers into the keypad, and the gate immediately started to churn open.
Brady hopped back into the truck and slammed the door shut and the gate slowly opened, allowing us access to the road behind it.
“Perks of being with Firehouse 56,” he winked with a cocky grin. He shifted back into drive, and we proceeded through the open gate.
“Where are we?” I asked.
“We’re almost there,” he squeezed my thigh. “Be patient!”
I couldn’t see anything but the trees and road directly ahead of us. The road was climbing up a steep incline, and the turns were become sharper and tighter…
Then the pavement abruptly ended, and Brady stopped the truck. He shifted into park and shut off the engine, and everything went pitch black.
My heart was racing, but when I felt the strong grip of his hand around mine, I was filled with a sense of peace and security. Brady climbed out of the truck, then he turned around and lifted me out through the driver’s side door and set me gently on the grass.
My eyes were adjusting to the dark shapes that surrounded us, and my mind was racing with the possibilities of where we were, and what was waiting for us in the pitch-black night…
“Are you afraid of the dark?” Brady asked. I couldn’t see him, but I felt his body as he stepped close to me and pressed my back against the truck. The metal frame was still warm, and I could feel the hum of the engine winding down under the hood.
“Maybe,” I admitted, feeling my heart pound in my throat between breaths. “What if something’s out there?”
“Like what?”
“I don’t know,” I squeaked in a tiny voice. “Bears?”
“There aren’t any bears in Hartford,” Brady chuckled playfully, tracing my fingers with his in the dark. “And if there were any, I wouldn’t let ‘em anywhere near my girl.”
There it was: my girl.
Even though it was too dark for him to see, I smiled up towards where I knew his face must be. His lips grazed mine in the darkness, and his hands squeezed my hips through the thin white silk of my dress.
I felt safe. And in the pitch-black night, I felt something stronger than light flicker through me as I explored his body in the dark, feeling the firm warmth of each and every muscle, and then slipping down towards his waist…
Then his lips slipped away from mine, and I heard a clicking sound. I opened my eyes I saw the wide beam of a flashlight flooding our surroundings. I realized that we were standing in a small clearing, surrounded by trees. The paved road ended, but there was a narrow walking trail that cut through the trees directly ahead of us.
Brady handed me the flashlight, then he reached for something in the bed of his truck.
“Let’s go,” he took my hand again and led me forward.
The path weaved through the dense forest, and I could hear the cicadas purring in the summer breeze.
“This way,” Brady whispered, guiding me towards the edge of the forest. I followed, and we slipped through a gap in the trees and stepped out onto a small clearing.
As soon as we emerged from the woods, we were bathed in pale light shining from the distance. I gasped as I blinked up and saw the source of the light: the Hartford skyline.
The night sky was illuminated by the glittering gold lights of the city, shining over the banks of the Connecticut River. The glistening black river stretched between us, separating our private hilltop hiding place from the western edge of the city. The black waves reflected the lights from the skyline, and the river looked like a night sky filled with tiny golden stars.
“This is incredible,” I marveled, admiring the view. “I’ve never seen Hartford like this…”
“Come on,” Brady whispered into my ear as he wrapped his arms around me from behind and rested his chin on my shoulder. “The show’s about to start…”
“What show?”
He just smiled as he reached into the box that he had carried from his truck and unfolded a large fleece blanket that was embellished with the Firehouse 56 emblem.
He sat down on the blanket, then he pulled me on top of him. I perched on his lap with my back pressed against his chest. His hands slipped under the hem of my silk dress and his palms slid up my bare legs.
I exhaled softly as his hands slipped between my thighs, and then his lips pressed against my ear and he said:
“Look up!”
My eyes fluttered up just in time to see a trail of flickering golden sparks snake up above the skyline and fizzle across the dark night sky. Then there was a soft crackle, and a giant firework filled the sky with murky purple light.
“Fireworks!” I gasped, pressing into Brady’s chest. “But it’s not the fourth of July?”
“This is a private show,” Brady smiled. “Courtesy of Firehouse 56.”
Another rocket fired into the sky and burst into a shimmering cloud of bright white sparks.
“You mean… this is just for us?!” I asked, staring up at the sky in awe.
“I might have called in a favor with Hartford PD,” Brady shrugged casually. “They did this sting operation last month on an illegal fireworks smuggling ring…”
“Are these fireworks illegal?” my eyes went wide. “Aren’t they dangerous?”
“Nothing the Firehouse 56 crew can’t handle,” he winked.
I imagined the crew playing with fireworks back at the station, and I stifled a laugh.
“Do you like it?” he asked.
“It’s perfect,” I whispered, resting back on his chest and gazing up at the sky. “The perfect ending to a perfect night…”
“Oh Cass,” he clicked his tongue, tickling the back of my neck with his breath. “The night is far from over…”
That was the only warning I got before he slipped his palm suddenly between my thighs and caught my pussy in the rigid hook formed by his index finger and thumb; his index finger prodded my clitoris, and his rigid thumb traced the groove where the silk of my panties had gone wet and clung to my throbbing skin.
He dragged his hot mouth over the back of my neck. He dug his fingers deeper into my slit and I felt the silk disappear into my folds as I let out a moan. Then I remembered where we were, and I threw a hand over my mouth to silence myself.
“You don’t have to be quiet here,” Brady said, swirling his fingers around in the sticky mess that I had made of my silk panties. “I want to hear exactly how I make you feel…”
Then he gave me something to moan about: he jerked my panties aside and thrust a pair of fingers into my slick hole, twisting around until my back arched and my head tilted back and rested on his shoulder.
“I’ve missed this,” I murmured when fresh air finally fluttered into my lungs and I caught my breath.
“You took the words right out of my mouth,” Brady muttered. He pointed my chin up and smashed his lips into mine, slipping between my lips and flicking his tongue against mine.
He wrapped his fist around the crotch of my panties -- what was left of them, anyways -- and tugged them down around my knees. Then he hiked my skirt up around my waist, so I was bare.
I got up on my knees and turned around, facing him. My hands fumbled with his pants while his hands finished the job of pulling my dress over my head.
Another firework crackled in the sky above us, and green flashes of light danced over our bare skin. He kicked off his briefs impatiently, then his palms wrapped around my thighs. He guided me onto his lap as he leaned backwards, and I spread my hips so I could straddle him.
I could feel the heat of his cock pulsing beneath my bare mound. I gripped the base of his shaft, then I arched my hips forward and grinded my dripping slit along the underside of his cock.
“You’re so fucking wet,” he muttered, gripping the back of my head and tugging to control the speed of my gyrations. “I want you all over me…”
I bathed his cock in my juices, and then I raised my hips up and guided him towards my entrance.
“No condom?” Brady panted. His cock jerked eagerly in my hand, and I shook my head.
“I got my birth control prescription refilled a while ago,” I confessed. “Just in case we--” my voice trailed off, and I felt my cheeks burn red. Even though I was naked and straddling my fiancé in front of the Hartford skyline, I felt suddenly bashful about admitting how many times I had fantasized about feeling his bare skin inside of me.
“In case we… what?” Brady asked in a low voice, daring me to finish the statement. “You can tell me, Ladybug. Don’t be shy…”
“In case we wanted to... fuck like husband and wife.”
I bit down hard on my lip, bracing myself for the wave of embarrassment. But I didn’t feel embarrassed… I just felt more turned on. There was another fireworks show going on inside my body; sparks of tension erupting in sizzling hot bursts of desire that tingled through my pussy.
He felt it, too. His fingers dug into my ass and he pulled me closer, releasing a primal grunt of lust as his cock twitched in my hand.
“I was going to surprise you on our wedding night,” I confessed.
“That’s one hell of a wedding present,” he smiled, squeezing his fingers harder into my plump ass. “But there’s something you should know…”
“What’s that?”
“Husbands and wives don’t fuck,” Brady said. A firework erupted behind us, and the gold flare of sparks lit up his eyes. “They make love.”
He closed the distance between our lips with a gentle kiss, then he guided my hips slowly down.
My mouth fell open as his thick girth parted the seam of my slit and filled my walls. The heat of his bare skin spread into my body. I melted and moaned, but he kept his lips on mine, tasting my pants of pleasure.
“Fuck, Cass…” he moaned. “You feel too good…”
My legs were trembling but his hands held me up, guiding me up and down on his shaft. Brady pulled my hips down until I felt the tick of his cock stab the end of my tunnel.
I couldn’t hold it any longer. I clenched my nails into the dense muscles of his biceps as an orgasm erupted inside of me, shattering through my body as the fireworks shattered in the sky around us.
My walls twisted and tightened as I came, and the vibrations pulsing in my body intensified when I felt him grow suddenly stiff.
He gasped and I felt streams of sticky heat burst from his cock, filling my insides. He thrust up again, and the spasms of my orgasm milked another spurt of come from his throbbing shaft.
“Brady, that was--” I stammered, catching my breath as I slid down on his shaft. My ass rested on top of his thighs, and he was still twitching inside of me.
“Amazing,” he finished for me. “That was amazing.”
He gazed up at me as a firework erupted in the sky, and his fingers absently tucked a loose black curl behind my ear.
Then, without warning or pretense, he said it:
“I love you, Cassidy Laurent.”
If I wasn’t still panting for breath, I might have squealed with happiness. Instead, my squeal came out as a fluttery gasp.
“I love you too, Brady Hudson!”
We kissed over and over and over again, until the fireworks ended, and we were left with the yellow moon and the faint scattering of stars overhead.