AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Richard gave him a thumbs up with one of the hands curved over her back. Brick helped him secure the blanket around her as the DM emptied out the room, clearing Richard’s route to an easy chair in one corner. He carried her there and settled in.
As he packed up, Brick kept an eye on Tish as promised, though if her emotions took an unexpected turn, Richard would be the first to give him a heads up.
Brick had no problem with aftercare. He enjoyed it, but when cradling a woman in his arms after giving her this first-time experience, it was harder to keep his thoughts from going right to where they’d wanted to be. Not just since the beginning of this night, or even that visit last month. The desire to think about her had been going on for a long time before that.
Celeste Joy Wilder.
She’d been called Les for as long as he’d known her, which was since his teen years in the small town of Fairhope. She’d been several years younger than him, so should have been entirely out of his sphere of interest. And she had been. Until she wasn’t.
Before that visit four weeks ago, he’d held off on acting on his feelings. When a female got into your head in high school, you waited to see if it would change. That was the way these things were supposed to go. As life gave a man more possibilities, those possibilities shaped who he was and wanted to be, molding him into an adult with other needs, not just in work and life, but in relationships.
His best friend’s little sister being the end of his rainbow hadn’t made any sense. He could have a hell of a satisfying relationship with a woman like Tish. But his heart always pointed him back to one serious, lovely young woman whose needs were more complicated than most suspected.
That suspicion had been confirmed at Rory’s wedding a few months back. Even in their far too few interactions there, Les had responded to him in a way he recognized.
She had the heart, mind and soul of a submissive.
She hadn’t actively pursued it, he was almost sure of that, and she might not even be aware of it herself, but everything about her broadcast it to him. The vibes were so strong he’d had to restrain himself from finding more blatant ways to test it, then and there.
In his early days exploring his Dom side, he’d made the mistakes a young guy with those desires but no good sense would make. He’d eventually acquired a mentor, a sixty-year-old Dom who’d been in the lifestyle for forty years. He’d set Brick straight on a lot of it.
Subs were allowed their stumbles from overeagerness, the euphoria and sometimes manic needs that came to the surface as they discovered that side of themselves. It was a Dom’s job to help them manage that. Yes, Doms had similar issues, but because they were the one in charge of the sub’s welfare, they had to have better control over it.
So Brick had put in the time, knowing he wanted to be ready and experienced before he directed those desires toward the woman he wanted most.
He was ready.
Ever since he’d returned from the wedding, he’d had zero interest in sex with anyone else. He’d taken a pass on the standing friends-with-benefits offer with Tish, and hadn’t allowed any sub he played with to give him sexual relief. His visit with Les at her college had made that resolve non-negotiable. She’d admitted she wanted him, and now she had his commitment, whether she was aware of it or not.
Brick’s attention snapped back to his immediate surroundings. Tish had shifted against Richard, and tears were slipping down her cheeks. As Richard spoke to her soothingly and rubbed her back, rocking her, he gave Brick a nod. All good. Just all those places deep inside a woman that could open up from a good session.
Tish not needing him specifically in this instance, just a responsible and caring Dom, reinforced his thoughts. Brick let himself imagine it had been Les on the table, him touching fire to her skin, arousing her, making her body lift to his touch, his attention keeping her safe and warm at the same time.
Les was too busy to be active on social media, but their mothers were friends who chatted regularly. Over the past couple years, whenever he’d talked to his mother, he’d always asked after Les’s wellbeing and what she was up to. Somewhere along the way his mom had gotten wise to the fact his interest wasn’t casual. Now when they touched base, she always had a “Les update.” She didn’t take it beyond that, exercising that maternal caginess that told him she liked the match, and was smart enough not to push it and turn him away from it.
He wasn’t going to encourage her by telling her there didn’t seem to be any chance of that. Rory had always yanked his chain about Brick’s enduring interest in his sister, either because Rory wasn’t sure what to make of it, or just because he liked to yank Brick’s chain.
But Brick wanted to wrap that chain around Les and make her cry out for him, shudder under his touch and flame.
Crazy? Maybe. But if he looked at his life, his certainty made a lot more sense. He’d known he was going to be a firefighter from the time he was twelve. When he discovered an aptitude for football, he used it to gain a modest scholarship to a school where he could get a degree in fire sciences. While continuing to work for the local fire department where he went to college, he discovered his interest in arson and tailored the degree’s coursework accordingly.
He was a patient and decisive man. Brick never rushed anything, because if he wanted something, he would earn and obtain it when the time was right, an unknowable factor he left to powers bigger than himself.
He'd gone to see her, and turned a spark to a flame. He’d agreed to turn it down, keep it simmering and waiting until she was ready, and had been ready to respect that. Because of the age difference, she was in a far more transitional time of her life than he was. A third-year med student’s life was total chaos.
All reasonable considerations. She’d sent him an enthusiastic thank you for her birthday gift, but lighthearted. Heart emojis. Hug gifs. He hadn’t taken that as a dismissal, or that she didn’t understand the significance of the gift. Just the opposite. He’d seen what she was struggling with that day. Her desire had been as strong as his, but it had been struggling under a crap ton of responsibilities.
That was why he hadn’t given in to the desire to call her every damn day since. Though the response he’d sent to her birthday text had reflected his struggle with self-restraint.
Happy birthday, doc. I’m thinking of you every day.
What he wanted from her could be too easily unleashed if he kept trying to communicate with her. Which would put pressure on her. The lost weight, the shadows in her eyes, said she already had enough of that.
But hell…those things said other stuff, too. Fuck, had he been this much of an idiot? Driving away hadn’t felt right. He’d thought it was just the ache of wanting her. But that uneasy feeling had been with him ever since.
He stuck with a resolve as long as he was sure it was the right path, but there were also moments when an experienced firefighter sensed something about a fire’s path was about to change. You didn’t ignore that instinct.
The size of a fire, its heat and intensity, could double in a matter of minutes.
