Hell, Fire & Freedom (Fighting for Freedom) (25 page)

“I do not. I feel incredibly awkward right now,” I tell her. Someone like me does not belong in this dress. She closes my door, exposing the full length mirror on the back. I gasp in shock.

The dress not only has a huge dip in the front, but in the back, as well. The straps are encrusted with crystals, coming around my neck with a small strap crisscrossing in the back. The material hugs my every curve, and luckily doesn’t expose any of the bruising on my abdomen. Aside from the length, it is stunning. Something I would have never picked out for myself, but I feel incredibly sexy in it.

“Am I showing too much skin? I ask Marie.

“You would be if the dress was anything but floor length, but it is
just
the right amount of skin. You look incredible! Seriously, I am wearing that to prom next year,” she says, giving me the once over.

“Thanks Marie, and you’re more than welcome to so long as you don’t have a date,” I tease. “The dress is a little long, though; we’ll have to get it hemmed.”

“Or you could just wear these,” Marie says, pulling a pair of stilettos out of the tissue paper in the box.

“Oh. My. God!” I scream, grabbing them from Marie’s hands to examine. The silver stilettos are full of little crystals, lining the straps that come around my ankle, and the upside down clam shell type strappy design that goes along the front of my foot. Terrible description, but the shoes are awesome.

“Help!” I ask Marie, sitting on the bed and sticking my feet out.

“With pleasure, birthday girl,” Marie says, kneeling down and placing the shoes on my feet. I stand up, and what do you know, the dress is now the perfect length.

“He is going to pass out when he sees you,” Marie teases.

“Thanks Marie,” I say, pulling her into a hug. I don’t think I’ve ever felt this good about myself before. I feel incredibly beautiful. A little silly since we’re staying home, but I guess it’s for the best. A crooked cop with a gun and a psychotic ex-husband with nothing to lose, doesn’t exactly make the walls outside of this apartment safe.

I hear a knock at the door and wonder how on earth I’m going to walk in these shoes. I take a few steps and find that they’re still incredibly comfortable. It’s manageable.

“I’m going to go get ready, so I’ll see you in a minute,” Marie says, heading to her bedroom.

I look through the peephole to see a handsome looking Blaze standing there waiting in a grey tuxedo. I undo the locks and open the door.

Blaze says nothing at all. Not a word … for at least sixty seconds. His jaw drops, and his eyes continue to roam my body. I wonder if I’m wearing it wrong or managed to get a stain already, but when I look in his eyes, I see a look of pure love and lust. He thinks I’m beautiful, too. I decide to just accept the gift since it clearly makes him as happy as it makes me.

“Come in,” I say, grabbing his hand and pulling him inside. I close and lock the door behind him since he’s clearly not thinking straight.

“Fuck, Brynn, you look … incredible. There are no words,” he mumbles, pulling me in for a kiss. It starts out soft and slow, but before long, he has me pinned up against the door, our mouths working feverishly.

“Did a pretty good job, didn’t you?” we hear from behind us. Blaze bursts out laughing.

“I did, didn’t I?” Blaze says. “It’s a nice dress, but …”

“Agreed. Now keep your paws off of it, because I already claimed it as a prom dress next year,” Marie jokes.

Blaze looks at me skeptically. “I told her she could so long as she didn’t have a date,” I clarify.

“Good stipulation,” he says, “but I’m positive you’re going to have a date, so the dress is going to be off limits.” I watch as Marie’s face falls, disappointed.

“Blaze,” I start to scold him.

“She needs a dress of her own. She’s in New York. You’re not wearing a second hand dress to your only prom,” he promises her. Marie’s eyes light up, and I watch as she becomes teary eyed.

“So what are we doing?” Marie asks excitedly.

We hear a knock at the door. “Just wait and see,” Blaze says, opening the front door.

Chapter 18

The next week flies by. Blaze has Marie and me stay inside the apartment. Stella gives me a week off, and we tell Marie’s school that she’s going on vacation. Flynn is out on bail after being arrested and charged with blackmailing but Blaze’s money is still being held up with red tape. At least it was recovered from under Flynn’s mattress.
Really original
. They still haven’t been able to link the flowers to Carl, but I have no doubt in my mind it was him. Nobody else in the world calls me darling, and I don’t know of anyone else with an Oregon IP address who would be buying me flowers. I was nonexistent there—merely a prisoner of Carl’s.

The rest of my birthday went exceptionally well. Blaze had a chef come to the house to cook for all of us, and we had a relatively fancy dinner in my not-so-fancy condo. He also picked up my cake from Wren at the café, and we enjoyed that for dessert. It ended up tasting even better than it looked, which was a hard sell. He surprised me after dinner with a pair of diamond earrings. The best part was probably watching him try to be sweet and put them in for me. Let’s just say he has big hands. Marie and I laughed our butts off.

I was shocked to hear another knock at the door, and it turned out, he had another surprise up his sleeve. He had a photographer come to the house, and Marie and I spent an hour getting our portraits done. We snuck in a few of Blaze and me, as well. The photographer showed us the shots on his laptop after, and they were absolutely beautiful. I looked incredible, and therefore, I began to feel incredible on the inside. I think that Blaze gave me my self-confidence back for my birthday. I’m pretty sure he boosted Marie’s as well; the smile could not be wiped off her face.

That brings us to the present—Blaze is getting ready for work. He has an overnight shift at the fire station tonight, that he couldn’t get covered. He rented a bunch of old girly movies for Marie and me to watch and a bunch of junk food to eat, too. It’s the first night we’re spending together in a while, and I’m excited for it. I’ve been helping her study all week, but we haven’t had much fun since my birthday. Blaze wanted to bring a bodyguard to the house, but I assured him that would cause us to be more on edge than being alone would. He’s only minutes down the road, anyway.

“All right beautiful. I have my cell phone on me, and I left the numbers for the fire station on the counter, so make sure you use them. I can be here in five minutes if you need me to be,” Blaze says.

“I got it, but don’t worry, we’re going to be fine. I’m going to keep the door dead bolted anyway, and I’ll have all the curtains closed. Nothing is going to happen,” I tell him, and I truly believe it. I’m more worried about Flynn looking for revenge on Blaze than I am of anything else.

Blaze pulls me in for a tantalizing kiss—stroking, tasting, licking, and finally biting my bottom lip. I moan into his mouth before he pulls away. “You need to stop that, or I’m never going to leave,” he promises, and I feel the butterflies stir in the pit of my stomach.

“Make sure you bring that helmet back with you, fireman. I’m feeling some heat between my legs, and I may need you to bring your hose in, to ya know, cool me off,” I whisper, teasing him. I love that I’m able to do that. It’s really nice to feel sexy and wanted.

“Fuck, you’re cruel,” he says with a laugh. “Love you, Brynn. Lock this behind me,” he says, stepping out the door.

“Love you, too. Be safe,” I holler back, closing the door behind him, locking the lock and bolting the dead bolt.

“Marie!” I holler, “Come watch some cute boys on TV, so we can bawl our eyes out and get fat.”

Marie comes out of her room giggling, “Seriously, Brynn, you don’t need to be so literal … just call it a girl’s night, all right?”

And that’s what we have. We watch
Dirty Dancing, Flashdance
and
Beaches
, bawling our eyes out to each and every one while polishing off a pint of mint chocolate chip ice cream. We get ready for bed, and I give Marie a hug goodnight. I walk down the hall and climb into my own bed, bringing my phone with me to text Blaze.

Brynn – All cried out, heading to bed.

Blaze – You missed me that much, huh?

Brynn – Keep dreaming. Goodnight Blaze.

Blaze – Sweet dreams, Brynn. I’ll be home early in the morning to put out that fire between your legs for you ;-)

Brynn – haha, please see that you do. Xo

I set my phone on my nightstand and roll over in bed, hugging my pillow tightly. Well, even if he doesn’t bring the helmet home, at least he gave me something good to dream about. I roll over, falling asleep easily.

“Come here,” Blaze says, leading me up into the fire truck. I look around, but there’s nobody there; all of the other firefighters must be sleeping. I do as he says, climbing into the front seat of the truck after him. He reclines the seat, and I straddle him.

Blaze looks incredible, wearing only his yellow fireman pants and suspenders, which do little to hide his rippling muscles. I look down and realize that I’m already naked. Convenient. I snake down in the seat, pulling his suspenders off one by one, trailing my fingers down his chest. I move down and unbutton his pants, pulling them down to the base of his ankles. He was commando, so his throbbing cock is now exposed. It jerks hungrily, desperate to be touched.

I lower myself farther so that my knees are in front of the seat, and I take him into my mouth in one swift motion. He cries out in pleasure as I continue the up and down motion, pushing him to the back of my throat. He growls in satisfaction before grabbing me under my arms and pulling me up. I move to straddle him, but he pulls me up farther and farther until I’m hovering over his face, feeling his hot breath against my core.

He leans in, blowing hot breath into me until I can’t take it anymore, I push myself into him and he latches on, sucking my clit fiercely. “Mmm,” I call out.

He nibbles gently, before bringing his hand up, and entering two fingers inside of me. He starts sucking, stroking, and licking until I come so hard my whole body starts shaking.

“More!” I scream, wanting to feel that intense release, again and again.

Blaze pulls me down, so that my breast is in his mouth, and he bites down hard.

“Fuck, that feels good,” I cry out with a moan. Blaze reaches down, holding his cock firmly, and impales me upon it in one quick thrust. I cry out in pleasure as I start moving up and down, finding my pace. Blaze reaches down, placing a thumb to my core and works me each and every time I move. In seconds, I’m thrown over the edge again, crying out my release.

“Fuck, baby, that’s beautiful,” Blaze calls out.

My legs have now turned to jelly so Blaze picks me up, carrying me out of the truck, still deep inside of me. He stops at the fire pole setting me down, and I whimper at the loss of contact.

“Turn around, baby, and hold on to the pole tightly,” Blaze orders.

I have no fears, no doubts, and I do as I’m told.

Blaze enters me roughly from behind, holding my hips securely, his body smacking roughly against mine with each thrust.

“Yes, yes, yes!” I scream, each movement taking me closer to the edge. I feel Blaze’s cock begin to throb, his own release coming quickly.

That’s when I hear the fire alarm go off, and I look around, waiting for the firemen to begin sliding down the pole, but they never arrive …

I wake up sweating to the sound of the fire alarm going off. What the hell? Miss Rose, if you just interrupted the best dream of my life, for a stupid candle, I’m going to open a retirement home myself to get you out of here. I shake off the sleepiness and open my bedroom door. I can actually smell smoke. Maybe this isn’t a small table fire after all, maybe this time she’s burning the whole building down. I rush into Marie’s room, panicking.

“Marie, Marie, wake up!” I yell at her, shaking her vigorously and pulling the iPod headphones out of her ears. She starts to wake slowly, but not still not quickly enough. I grab her by the arm and start to pull her out of bed.

“What the hell?” she cries out, finally waking.

“There’s a fire, Marie! A real one, hurry up!”

She rushes out of bed, and I grab her hand, running to the front door. There’s smoke billowing in from under it. I run back to my room and look out the window, which looks over the main street to see if there’s anyone there to direct us, but there’s only a dozen or so people waiting on the street—no fire trucks yet. I grab the blanket off of my bed, and rush back out to where Marie is waiting by the front door.

“This is the only way out. Let’s go,” I say, hollering over the alarm and unlocking the dead bolt on the door. I swing the door open and a cloud of smoke rolls in. I start to yell to Marie to get low so we can crawl out under the heavy smoke, but I’m knocked back inside the apartment, and the door is swung shut again. My eyes are blurry from the pain, and they’re burning from the smoke, but when they start to focus again, I can see that it’s Carl.

“You dirty little cunt … thought you were smarter than me, didn’t you? Made my life a fucking living hell. People looking at me like I did something fucking wrong. If only they knew what a stupid bitch I was forced to live with,” Carl seethes.

I reach my arm out, blocking Marie from him, and push her back. I drop the blanket I was carrying on the floor. I can’t look back to see if she’s all right, because turning my back on Carl would be an idiotic thing to do.

“I’m so sorry, Carl,” I lie through my teeth, grabbing his hand and pulling him toward me as I move away from Marie. “I was a terrible wife. I should have done better,” I croon.

When he gets within range I lift up my knee, effectively hitting him right in the balls. I go to grab Marie and run, but he grabs a hold of my hair, pulling it roughly as he pulls me close to him.