Freed by Fire (14 page)

Matt dropped. “Shit, I’m sorry Emery. I didn’t mean to…”

“Get away from me,” I hissed and crawled to my feet. I found Caid outside, still on the phone with Caleb.

“Okay, you tell them that…Yes, I promise. All right, buddy. Good night.” Caleb hung up and smiled at me as I walked. His smile faded to a frown when he noticed I wasn’t walking exactly normal and then he saw my bloodied knee. “What happened, Em?” He rushed to me, shoving his phone in his pocket.

“Nothing, I tripped.” I lied.

Caid kissed me and wrapped his arms around my body. I melted into him, and inhaled deeply. Smelling the scent of his mouth-watering cologne and the natural aroma of his skin. The moment I felt his body tense, I sensed he knew I was lying.

“Wait right here.”

“Caid…” I warned. “Leave it alone.”

“Nope.” Caid walked toward Matt, who was leaving the restaurant. “Hey…”

Matt turned and glared at Caid. “Can I help you?”

“Caid!” I called. “Let’s just go!”

Matt’s eyes lit up like a Christmas tree. “Oh! You’re with
her
are you?” Matt laughed. “Get in the car, Lindsay.”

The blonde, Lindsay, got in the Volvo in quite a hurry.

“Did you put your hands on her?” Caid barked, his voice doused in caution.

“Fuck off,” Matt murmured. “Figures she’d send someone to defend her. She was always a fucking mouse. Now she’s just a fucking slutty rat.”

Oh, shit.

I got to Caid just as his arm tensed to haul Matt into oblivion. “Caid!” I screamed. “No! He’s not worth it! Let’s go,
love
.”

“Love?” Matt said, like he was offended.

“Yes,” I said, standing in front of Caid’s body. He was like a loose cannon and I put myself right in the line of fire. “You’re in no position to hold judgment, Matthew. Now, get in your Swedish shitbox and drive away.”

Matt backed up and made his way to the driver’s door, keeping his eyes locked on mine. “Know this, Emery…he’ll never make you feel the way I did. Nothing compares to me.”

I laughed, wholeheartedly, loudly and without reservation. “That’s where you’re right. No one compares to you, Matt.” I could still feel Caid behind me, and I knew he was getting angrier by the second. I waved as they drove out of the parking lot and quickly turned to face Caid.

“Hey,” I said, holding his face in my hands. “He wasn’t worth it.”

“Em…” His eyes began to fade from their jade-laden rage. “He hurt you. No real fucking man does that.”

I pulled his mouth down for a kiss. I needed to feel him, and I wanted to him know how much my heart soared, knowing he had stuck up for me. Something I was never able to do for myself. Not until now, that is. “He isn’t a real man,” I assured him.

Caid pulled me against his body and I felt his heart begin to slow. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry.” I looked into his eyes. “How’s Caleb?”

A glimmer, like the last time he spoke about his son, flashed across his eyes. “He’s good. Just finished a big bowl of ice cream. Now he’s watching Megamind for the hundredth time.”

“Megamind? Don’t think I’ve ever seen that one.” I smiled.

“Will Ferrell. It’s good.” Caid smiled back at me. “Let’s go.”

We drove to a hotel and checked into a room. The four-plus hour drive to Chicago would have to wait until the morning.

***

Saturday, July 13
— 8:15 am

After Caid insisted on cleaning the scrape on my knee, we went right to bed when we got to the hotel. As much as my body had begun to crave and ache for Caid’s touch, I just wanted to be held last night, and I think he felt the same way. I remember falling asleep still fully clothed, but when I woke up this morning I was only in my panties and t-shirt. Caid had only his boxer-briefs on.

I lifted the sheet and snuck a glimpse underneath. I think the giddy girl in me will always be
marveled at the thought of “morning wood”. Caid, as expected, was sleeping peacefully with a content smile on his face and his erection was so immense that it poked out of the top of his underwear.

I licked my lips. Taking a quick peak at his face to see if he was still sleeping. He was. I slowly pushed him onto his back. He let out a small grumble and scratched his stomach with his hand slowly. God, he was a beautiful sight.

Slowly. Ever. So. Slowly. I pulled down the thin material and held my breath as he stirred again. As I took him into my hand I moistened my lips, in an attempt to prepare them for what was about to happen. The soft velvet crown was wet and salty. I closed my eyes and sucked, sliding my tongue across the wide slit.

I took him into my mouth with such conviction, I wanted to please him, to reciprocate how he made me feel by just being near me. Slowly I began to build my pace, working my grip and mouth together as a team. The thick and stone-hard base of his length was a place my lips had not tasted yet. He was so big, I was unsure if I could even try to take all of him.

I held my breath and went in for the kill. Pushing past everything internal that was fighting in protest of the invasion, I met the base with my lips and tongue. My nose—just for a moment—touched his skin. I pulled back up and popped him from my mouth. Pleased with my accomplishment. As I lowered back down to finish him off, I squealed as Caid’s hands grabbed me and threw me back on the bed.

“You’re gonna give a man a heart attack tryin’ to wake him up like that,” he said, his voice in a guttural sleepy rasp. “But,” he nipped my lip with this teeth. “I would have died by the hands of an angel.”

“Don’t forget by her mouth, too.”

Caid’s nostrils flared. “I’ll never forget that mouth. Not for the rest of my days.”

He lowered to kiss me and I moaned into his mouth. A small pout for him waking and me unable to finish what I had started, and another for the aching between my legs that was being teased by the incessant rubbing of his length on me.

“I wanted to finish. I wanted you to come,” I breathed into his mouth.

“Em,” he groaned. “Sit up. Sit on your knees.” Caid moved so I could sit and he knelt before me. “Shirt, off.”

A wicked gleam flickered across his eyes, and I licked my lips with expectation. While I took my shirt off, Caid slowly stroked himself, watching me with his eyes still alight.

“Christ, your tits are perfect. I fucking love them,” he growled. “Come here. I want to slide my cock in between those perfect things.”

My mouth fell open, unsure if his words registered in any place in me except for the area between my legs. Which, throbbed and dampened with his sexy commands. I placed my hands on either side of my breasts and looked up to Caid, regarding him with heated desire, a little nervousness, and full-blown need.

The silken skin-on-skin, hard-on-soft, recipe was mind-altering. Caid breathed heavily as he began to thrust up and down between the swell of my breasts. He held my hair with both hands and slowly lowered my lips to take his tip into my mouth again.

“That’s it, baby. That’s…fuck! That’s good.”

“Mmm.” I hummed as I licked and sucked. Greedy for his release. As I kept my breasts clamped around his erection, my nipples repeatedly rubbed against the tight skin of Caid’s stomach and I felt my own need to implode. I was going to, regardless.

The pleasure was too much to bear. Feeling him in such an intimate and provocative way, made my body scream at me with reckless abandon. Caid’s breathing increased, as did his thrusting. I knew he was close. I sucked and flicked my tongue harder and with more power.

“Lay back,” he said deeply.

I shook my head and let my hands fall from my breasts, leaving his erection in my mouth. Quickly I resumed pumping him with my hands, desperate to taste him.

“Oh, fuck!” he roared. The trembles from his voice shuddered through his body and I felt it in my mouth. I took one last inhalation as he let go, and the hot, tangy shot riddled my mouth like a burst dam.

I drank him in, swallowed with such fervor that I may have looked a little ridiculous. I didn’t care. I wanted him. I wanted Caid to know that I craved him, in any way I could get him. I stroked once last lick on the slit with my tongue, swiping anything that remained, as sat back and wiped my mouth with my fingers.

“
Jaysus
,” he said. “Wake me up like that any day, baby…”

I smiled sweetly and reached for the glass of water on the small wooden nightstand. “What were you dreaming about?”

Caid fell on the bed beside me and wrapped his arm around my waist, pulling me into his body. “Oh, some girl.”

“Yeah? What was she like?”

“Pretty young thing. Had a pussy that felt like heaven and a mouth…
feck
, her mouth.” Caid kissed my hair. “I think her name was…
Andrea.
Something like that, anyway.”

“Caid!” I turned and smacked his chest with my hand. “Ass.”

He chuckled as he kissed my hair and sighed. “You’re making me think too many things, Emery. What are you planning on doing with me once I’ve turned into a big, sappy pile of goo?”

“Goo?”

“Goo.”

I laughed. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Caid flipped my body and towered above me. His green eyes were mossy and rich in the post-coital glow type of way. He lowered to me so his lips were mere inches away. He spoke slowly, “You’re making me consider doing very mean things to you, Miss Finn…”

“You’ve mentioned that.”

“Yeah, I did. But now, I’m almost certain these are the type of things I want to do to you for the rest of my life.”

My breath caught just as his mouth stole a kiss. Stole? Who was I trying to kid? I would willingly give Caid everything. My entire world. And I wanted to. How insane was it though? That I was falling so fast and hard for a man I didn’t even know for two flipping weeks.

“We should go, we have a long drive ahead of us.” Caid placed a chaste kiss on my cheek and walked into the bathroom. His underwear still around his thighs. Leaving his perfect firm behind in full view.

“Nice ass,” I cat-called.

Caid let out a small chuckle and closed the bathroom door.

I pulled my phone from my purse to text Maggie and check up on her. I wanted to tell her about the altercation with Matt, but I knew that was something that would have to wait until we were both back home in Chicago. If she found out what he did, she would probably fly out of Indianapolis and show up here, ready to knock his ass out.

There was a text waiting for me. But it wasn’t from Maggie.

Matt:
Don’t do this, Em. Don’t do this to us.

I would have burst with laughter, except that I didn’t want to explain to Caid why I was giggling. Matt was such a fucking idiot. With that, I dialed the 1-800 number for my cell provider and requested a change in phone numbers—to a Chicago one. I grabbed Caid’s phone from the pocket of his jeans and put my new digits in. Erasing the old one.

There. The last part of Emery Morgan was really gone. Deleting that number confirmed it. Before I put his phone back I took a moment to smile at the
home screen photo which was of Caid and Caleb. They were in a fire truck and Caleb was behind the wheel. Caid gave a thumbs-up and Caleb had the biggest smile on his little face.

“Did it ring?” Caid asked, stepping out of the bathroom.

I dropped the phone. “No, sorry. I was just…I changed my number and put in the new one. Sorry. I—”

“Em, don’t apologize for anything. You need to stop doing that. I don’t care if you look at my phone.”

“I’m s—” I almost said it again. “Okay, well…anyway, that’s a sweet picture of the two of you.”

“He wants to be just like his daddy,” Caid said softly. “As much as I’d love to have you only in panties and nothing else on the four hour drive, I doubt I’d make it far without crashing.”

I looked down, forgetting I was still almost completely naked. “Whoops.”

Caid moved to me and tipped my chin, bending to kiss me. “You can dress as soon as I’m done with you, love.”

I blinked. “Done?”

Caid nodded and the emeralds in his eyes twinkled. “Lay back, I’m
hungry
.”

Chapter Eleven

Saturday, July 13
— 1:05 pm

Caid told me he had called a towing service to pick up my car yesterday while I was in the house talking with Mr. Walters. When we passed the place outside of Joliet where Blue had sat, the spot was empty.

“It’s at a garage just on the edge of Chicago, Em. You can decide what you want to do when we get back on Monday.” Caid reached over the console and held my hand.

“Monday? I thought we were going to Chicago now?”

He snorted. “I lied.”

“Caid…” I said, my voice weak but audible.

“We’re going to Rockford. I want to take you camping.”

Say what?

“Camping? Really? Like…in an RV?”

This time he laughed. “Hell no, that’s not fucking camping. We’re sleeping in tent, love. I have it all stuffed into the box in the back.”

I had been camping—in the traditional sense—a whole lot of zero times in my life. I wasn’t one of those girly-girls who didn’t like dirt, bugs or sleeping outdoors. I just had never done it before. Matt and I went “camping” once with his parents in Iowa. And when I said camping, I meant it was an RV fully-loaded like a mansion on wheels.

“So…in the middle of the woods?” I asked. “With the animals?”

“Emery, no, not with the wildlife. And not exactly in the middle of the woods either. We’re going to a campground, but it’s secluded. The only animal you’ll need to worry about is the one sharing the tent with you.”

“You’re a little much, aren’t you?” I said, my voice laced with a teasing tone.

“A little.” He smiled.

My stomach knotted as we passed the same Pump N Serve that I had gassed up at on my way to Belleville…the same place where that creepy old guy said he
saw
me. I shuddered. But as I felt Caid’s warm touch, my body soothed. I was safe with him. I knew it.

“Have you done that before?” I asked, my cheeks reddening.

“Have I done what before?” he asked, pulling to a gas station about ten miles from the Pump N Serve.

“Umm,” I looked out the window, not wanting to finish the sentence. “Never mind.” I was embarrassed, I couldn’t ask the question. Maybe I didn’t want to hear the answer. I didn’t like the idea of Caid being with other women. But, judging by his…experience—Caid had done a lot of things in his life.

As he pulled into the parking lot, he veered off and parked under a tree instead of next to a pump. “Em…talk to me.”

“It’s nothing…I just, wondered if you had done that…the thing with my boobs. It doesn’t matter,” I shook my head, “forget I said anything.” There. It was out…now it was the burning anticipation of his answer.

Caid threw the truck into park and lifted the center console, sliding his body right next to mine. He took my hands and put them on his chest. One hand tipped my chin, forcing me to show him my flushed face. “Emery…beautiful...” His eyes searched mine. “Yes, I’ve done that before.”

“Oh.” I managed.

“Did it upset you? I’m sorry, love. I thought you were in to it.” Caid kissed me softly.

“I—I was in to it…more than you know. I just wondered, that’s all.” Did I want to ask him to take me deeper into whatever sexual world he had been to? My fingers were itching to touch my laptop now, to make my BB and LL go to bed and play out the same delicious actions that I just had. “I write books…”

“You mentioned that,” he said, nipping my lip. I felt his heart begin to increase and his breathing became heavy. “You drive me crazy, Emery.”

“I—I…” Oh God, he’s driving ME crazy! “The books are…steamy.”

Caid kissed my jaw as his hand slipped under my shirt. “And you taste so good,” he whispered.

“They’re romance books, Caid.” I dropped my hand and slowly stroked his erection over his jeans. There. It was out. Just waiting…waiting…waiting…for his reaction.

“You’re kidding…” he groaned.

“Hey! Just because I’m not…as
mean
as you, it doesn’t restrict me from writing a good love story.” I stuck out my tongue. “But…I was thinking…maybe you could—you know—
help
me with some certain scenes.”

Caid blinked. “R-really?” Just as he pulled his lips from me, he closed his eyes and when they opened they were raw and blazing. Heady. “Jaysus, you never cease to amaze me.”

I found that hard to believe. I was a Plain Jane boring girl from Belleville, with limited sexual experience and a brain full of ideas but no real way to express them. Aside of reading other books, or watching porn. I had no idea what balls-to-the-wall, mind-fucking sex really was…until now. Until Caid.

Caid slipped his hand under my waist band and began stroking my slick folds. He groaned as I fumbled with his zipper. I needed to touch him. I wanted it again. I was becoming an addict. An addict with no intentions of every quitting. He was a drug—and I would love nothing more than to be strung-out in his poison for the rest of my life.

“I’m so hard now, Em…with your pretty hands on me, thinking about what those hands write about. Fuck…I’m hungry.” Again, he didn’t mean food. Caid grabbed my legs and turned my body so my back was against the door, my head tipped back as my hair draped the outside of the open window.

The sound of the busy Interstate whipped by us, the occasional car horn, random talking
of people just two-hundred feet away, pumping their gas and going on their way. That was all that didn’t matter. What mattered was right in front of me, touching me…tasting me.

“You’re insatiable.” I was
not
complaining.

“It’s your fault you’re delicious. Now, spread those pretty legs, love.” Caid pulled my shorts down and growled as his eyes drank up my naked skin. It glistened on my upper thighs from the simple touch of his fingers. As he lowered his head, I grabbed his hair—I just couldn’t believe this man was real. That he wanted me.

“Oh, God!” I cried out as his tongue laved into my heated skin. I knew I wasn’t going to last long. But he took long, languorous licks with his big, velvety tongue and I panted as I felt my body screaming. I didn’t care if someone heard me—hell, maybe the idea of that turned me on a little. Okay, I lied…it would turn me on a lot.

I panted deeper, gripped his silken hair harder, and bucked my hips when it orgasm hit me. Like I was a boat in the ocean and my climax was a tidal wave—no, a tsunami. It rocked me, capsized me, and as the sated feeling started to wash over me—I sunk into the depths.

I don’t know how much time had passed after his mouth left my body, and I laid there with my eyes closed, trying to catch my breath and moaned softly. I felt Caid move, so I released my fingers from his hair and moved them to my chest. It hurt—and not in a bad way. I was on the brink of tears, my heart ached and I just wanted to break down and cry.

This wasn’t just sex for me. Not anymore. I slightly opened my watering eyes and looked at the man before me. He sat there, with his hands on his thighs, watching me. Neither of us said a word. But I felt that there was an unspoken conversation happening between our eyes. His green on my brown.

“You’re beautiful,” he said as he raked his hands through his hair. “You don’t even see it.” Caid sat back in his seat and grabbed his sunglasses from the dash, placing them over his glorious eyes.

He was right. I didn’t see it. But, it didn’t matter. He made me
feel
beautiful, even when I knew I truly wasn’t.

I pulled up my shorts and adjusted myself in my seat. Caid shifted into first gear and crept over to the gas pumps.

“I’m going to use the bathroom. I’ll be right back. Do you want anything from inside?” I asked, nodding toward the convenience store.

“No, thanks.” He got out and closed the door behind
him.

Shit. What did I do?

I used the facilities provided in the store to clean myself up. I was a sopping mess. I had to throw my underwear in the garbage—they were soaked. Never ever had my body responded like that to Matt. Hell, sometimes he had to use lubrication because my sex wouldn’t get excited about having him occupy it.

As I left the bathroom and stepped into the conditioned air of the small variety store, I watched Caid through the large window that faced the six gas pumps. He was speaking to a woman. I could see in her eyes that she was undressing him with every spoken word. He was still wearing his sunglasses, but I could tell from his smile that he was interested in whatever she was saying.

When she placed her hand on his chest, my heart fluttered and my stomach flipped. I was feeling jealous—possessive—hurt. I told him I was his…did that make him mine? I damn sure thought so. I watched them intently as I grabbed some bottles of water from the cooler. Holding them in my hands, I saw the woman—a leggy redhead with boobs for days and an ass for weeks (semi-quote/unquote Ice Cube)—place a small white business card into Caid’s hand.

She winked before climbing into her white BMW and she drove away. Caid pulled the nozzle from his truck and placed it back on the latch. He closed the door of the tank and started walking into the store. As he pulled out his wallet, I was sure he was going to stick the card inside. But, he didn’t. He flicked it into a nearby trash can and opened the door to step into the store.

My heart resumed beating the moment his eyes locked on mine when he lifted up his shades and placed them on the top of his head. The heat and rays of sun created sweat impressions on his t-shirt and my eyes drank it right up. He was the beautiful one. He was the perfect mixture of soft and hard.

“Hi,” I said softly as he stood behind me in line. Two people were ahead of me and another three came in just after Caid.

He didn’t say anything, but I felt his body inching closer and closer to mine. I stepped forward as one person left the line after paying. I felt Caid’s hand on my hip. His fingers slipped under my shirt and circled my heated skin. My knees felt weak and I knew I needed to pull from his touch if I were to remain calm in this store full of strangers.

The three people standing behind Caid were laughing about something, talking loudly about the fishing trip they were headed on and how hot the girls were that would be joining them later.

“I can’t wait to fuck that tight little ass,” one said. I felt my body constrict with his graphic choice of words. “I bet she’s better than her sister was,” another said.

Caid’s grip on me tightened and he stepped closer. I felt his erection against my behind. His fingers dipped into the waist of my shorts again, and they tenderly stroked the soft skin over my hip bone. He was doing it on purpose. He wanted my reaction.

As the man in front of me paid and left, it was my turn to pay. I set the bottles down on the counter and smiled at the older woman behind the register. “Umm…” I said, placing the tip of my finger in my mouth. “I think I want some gum too.” I pulled away from Caid’s grasp and leaned down to select a package of gum.

I didn’t bend my knees. I took my sweet time perusing the limited selection of colored wrappers wondering if this was having the same effect on Caid as his touch had on me.

The whispered and slight mention of “sweet ass” from the group behind him told me his eyes weren’t the only ones currently viewing my…display. I picked up a package of gum and set it on the counter.

“That’s all, thank you.” I smiled at the older woman who rolled her eyes at me and snorted at the perverts behind Caid.

She gave me my total and I paid. I didn’t look back at Caid but I heard his deep voice ask me to wait. I stopped, turned on my heel and smiled. “Yes?” I asked, popping a piece of gum into my mouth.

He slapped down a bill on the counter and told the woman to keep the change. His eyes went from green, to jade, to emerald, to moss, to…fuck, I don’t know what else but they looked terrifying. “You’re a little fucking tease, aren’t you?” he growled has he bent and picked me right up off the ground.

“Aww, damn! You lucky motherfucker,” one of the guys said. “Girl, if he don’t keep you satisfied you can call me anytime!”

I kept my eyes locked into Caid’s. “Sorry, sweetheart. I belong to this lucky motherfucker.” I kissed him, and giggled as his hand slapped my ass before reaching for the door.

“Okay, enough of the PDA! Get a room, you two!” The woman rattled from behind the counter. Her shaking head was the last thing I saw before Caid carried me out.

Caid pushed me up against the door of his truck and slipped his sunglasses over his eyes. I saw my reflection in them. I almost didn’t know who was staring back. “We don’t need a room. Or my truck for that matter. I could fuck you right here and I think you’d like it…wouldn’t you?”

I bit my lip and nodded. “Yes,” I breathed.

Caid groaned and pulled my head down for a kiss. His mouth and tongue moved with pure passion as his hands roamed under my shirt and caressed my back. The pressure building deep in my belly was almost more than I could take. The constant friction of what was beneath me, but shielded by our clothing, was driving me insane.

He pulled away, began chewing the gum that had just been in my mouth, and gently set my shaky legs on the pavement. Caid opened the door and helped me up into the truck. I fell back into my seat and closed my eyes briefly as he closed the door. The three guys from the store came out and one lifted his hand to Caid as if he wanted him to high-five it.