Page 12 of Her Older Fireman

I step into the house and crowd her against the counter. “Oh yeah?” I say as I lean down and brush my lips against hers.

“Mmhmm,” she says. “I thought about you all day. Even during class.”

“Did you think about what we did the other day?” I say. I surround her waist with my big hands, relishing the feel of her curves. I press my hard cock against her thigh for emphasis. “Because I did. Couldn’t stop.”

She blushes. “You know I did.” She bites her lip, and it’s so fucking sexy that I can’t resist leaning down to steal a kiss. The kiss turns hot and hungry, and I groan as I feel her graceful fingers gently stroke against the bulge of my dick.

I pull back, breathing hard as I lace our fingers together. I need to tell her about my promotion before we get carried away. “Baby, I’ll let you play all you want and then I’ll eat your pussy until you scream, but first—”

The sleepy smile falls off her face as we hear the sound of a car as it crunches through the gravel drive.

“Shit,” she says. She gives me a gentle push back, but I keep a firm hold on her hand. “That’s my mom. She wasn’t supposed to be back until late.”

The door opens and Jodie walks in, a frown stamped on her face. Maddie shares some of her features, I realize, but it’s not readily apparent with the scowl that Jodie seems to wear all the time. Maddie’s right—Jodie radiates negativity.

I really hope she’s ready to get out of here. I’ll wait if she isn’t, but she deserves so much better than this.

“Hi, Jodie,” I say, my voice tight. Jodie’s eyes fall to our clasped hands and her frown deepens.

“Hello, Gabe,” Jodie says. She sets her handbag on the counter and turns to both of us. “It’s Gabriel Anderson, isn’t it? From the fire department?”

“Yes,” Maddie cuts in. “He’s at the station down the street.”

“Interesting,” Jodie says. A bad feeling curdles in my gut, and I wonder what she’s about to unload on her daughter. “That’s not what I heard today.”

She digs her phone out of her handbag and taps at it a few times before holding it up. It’s some social media thing about me—I can’t read the text, but there’s a picture of me in my dress uniform.

“This says that you’re leaving this station and headed to the east side for a promotion,” Jodie says. “Congratulations, Captain Anderson.”

I look down at Maddie and see confusion written on her face. Before I have a chance to say anything else, Jodie blazes on.

“And you put your house on the market.” She sets the phone down and crosses her arms. “So I suppose neither of us will be seeing much of you anymore.”

Maddie lets go of my hand and cranes her neck to look out the window. The big lawn sign is visible from here, and that bad feeling in my stomach rolls into full-on nausea as she whips her head back around to look at me, angry tears sparkling in her eyes.

“Maddie, please let me explain,” I say. I inch closer to her and raise my hand to try and wipe away her tears, but she twists away.

“I think you should go,” she says hoarsely. “I don’t want to talk right now.”

I hesitate. “Maddie, I—” I start. I feel Jodie’s eyes on me. She looks grimly satisfied, like she’s glad to finish up with a dirty job.

“No,” Maddie says. “Not right now.”

It’s not the time, I realize. Not when she’s so swamped by her own pain and Jodie is fucking with her head like this.

“All right,” I concede. “But we will talk about this.”

As I walk out the door, I hear a soft sob from behind me. It’s a little sound, but it feels like a blow to the chest.

She’s not ready to talk right now, but if she thinks I’m walking away so easily, she’s dead wrong. I’m not giving her up—not now, not ever.

Madelyn O’Malley is mine.

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