April Embers_A Second Chance Single Daddy Firefighter Romance Read online

  But the situation was out of my hands. All I had were the dozen roses, my explanation, and the hope that Grace would sit and listen.

  So I drew in a deep breath, raised my fist, and knocked on the door.

  Chapter Twenty

  Grace

  Ivy was a decent roommate. She was a fashion choreographer who helped out with the world’s most incredible runway shows. She worked with some of the most high-profile designers, some of the most beautiful models, and always came home with clothes that seemed tailored to fit her slim form. She was bubbly and bright, and always had a bottle of wine she never could finish by herself. I enjoyed listening to her stories at night over a glass of rose or red wine, and little by little I started settling into the rhythm of my new life.

  Emilia was trying to do everything in her power to make sure I stayed at the shop this time. Starting with giving me a salary and two days off a week. I chose Sunday and Monday so I would only be off one day the shop was actually open, then I rearranged the entire workspace in the back to better suit the growing of the flowers. The salary wasn’t much, but it was enough for me to live off of from week to week. I stuffed the money Hayden had paid me for my work into multiple investment accounts, then let them ride.

  Maybe if I was lucky, I could retire early and travel or something.

  I was glad to be back at the shop. In some ways, I had missed it. The smell in the morning. The monotonous cultivation. Researching new methods to grow flowers and using different methods to tie-dye white roses and tulips. The wedding orders were flying in and Emilia was right. The need for azaleas was high this year. The entire back half of the green room was dedicated to growing those things, and I still had to call out to other shops and reserve azaleas for when the time was right.

  I told Emilia that, eventually, we would be at capacity for those kinds of orders and would have to start turning people down.

  I thought about Hayden more than I should’ve. At night, mostly. When I was lying in bed and painfully aware of who my roommate really was. I wondered how he was doing with his recuperation. How his physical therapy was going. If he’d found himself a good part-time nurse that would check on things like his diet and vitamin intake. I had the urge to call him on several occasions. I never could bring myself to delete his number from my phone.

  But I always chickened out at the last second.

  Ivy was gone for the week on business again and I was at the apartment alone. And while I enjoyed Ivy’s presence, I also enjoyed the time to myself. I’d cook in the kitchen and sit on the couch and stare out the window into town. We were just far enough away for the traffic to not bother us but close enough for me to feel like I was still a part of things. A cog in an important turning wheel that somehow helped our fine city to move a little easier.

  The longer I worked at the florist shop, the more I realized how much I missed it. It was cathartic and peaceful, and nowhere near the type of stress load I endured as an in-home nurse. It felt like I was back home after trying to branch out on my own as a teenager, and there was something comforting about the notion of coming home.

  But that didn’t mean I didn’t miss Hayden.

  A knock came at the door and it pulled me from my thoughts. I put down my mid-day glass of wine and walked to the front door. I peered through the peephole, expecting to see Emilia on her lunch break or something.

  However, I was met with a face I hadn’t seen in weeks.

  My heart slammed against my chest and my hands began to sweat. My knees grew weak and my head was spinning at lightning speed. What was he doing here? How did he figure out where I lived? I hadn’t told very many people where I was staying now to give myself time to adjust.

  How had Hayden found me?

  I drew in a deep breath before I opened the door, and the first thing I saw were the roses in his hands. Clipped at a specific angle I recognized and arranged in a fashion I knew could only be attributed to one person.

  Emilia.

  Which meant Hayden came in peace.

  My eyes raked up to his and I was mesmerized. His suit clung fabulously against his body and he was upright on both of his feet. My eyes dropped back to his long, strong legs as a smile crossed my face.

  He had done it.

  Hayden was walking.

  “For you,” he said.

  He handed the roses to me and I took them into my shaking arms.

  “Hayden. You’re…”

  “Walking?”

  I smiled up at him and the grin that crossed his face made my stomach lurch.

  “Could I come in?”

  “Yes. Of course. Sorry,” I said.

  “I believe that word belongs to me.”

  “Huh?”

  I stepped to the side and let Hayden in before I shut the front door. I rounded around to the small kitchen the apartment had to afford and grabbed a vase from one of the top cabinets. I filled it with some water and put the flower food attached to the rose stems in with it. Then I stuck them in and fanned them out before I drew in their heavenly scent.

  Emilia’s roses always did smell the best.

  “Sorry. That word. It belongs to me,” Hayden said.

  I opened my eyes and found him standing in the living room staring at me.

  “I’m not following.”

  “I didn’t fire you because you were incompetent, Grace.”

  I drew back from the roses and closed my eyes.

  “Hayden, whatever the reason, you had it,” I said.

  “But you misunderstood my actions.”

  “You were frustrated. Held back by me because of my own worries. It’s okay. I’m not upset with you,” I said.

  “But I’m upset with myself. I didn’t get the chance to properly communicate to you why I let you go.”

  “Then take your chance now,” I said. “What happened? What did I do?”

  His long legs carried him into the kitchen and the only thing he had was the slightest limp. Which only served to etch a swagger into his step that left me breathless. He hovered over me, his chiseled features gazing down into my eyes. My hand was itching to touch him. To smooth over his freshly-shaved skin and fist my hand into the thick tendrils of his shining hair.

  He looked like a new man.

  One I almost didn’t recognize.

  “I know this man is foreign to you, but this is the man I am. Confident. Powerful. Protective. I know what I want, and I never fear chasing it, but that accident ripped that away from me. It wasn’t vanity or ego that kept me in that chair, Grace. It was you.”

  “What?” I asked breathlessly.

  “Watching you in my apartment. Your hips swaying and that constant smile dancing on your lips. It reminded me of what I couldn’t have. I was broken. Exhausted. Frustrated at my predicament and the downturn my company was facing. I was in control of nothing, and I didn’t understand how to handle it.”

  “I tried to help.”

  “And you did a wonderful job. But we grew close. From the first time you took my hand in that movie theater to all the times you helped me put my own damn pants on, I knew there was nothing I could give you. Nothing I could offer you from the broken parts of my existence that would’ve ever been worthy for the care and compassion you were showing me.”

  I had no idea how to respond to such a thing.

  “Grace, you couldn't be my nurse and my lover. And so long as you were my nurse, my pride was always going to be a downfall. I recognized that, so I leapt at the emotional chance to fire you. To send you off on another path so I could lick my wounds and heal myself.”

  “I don’t understand,” I said. “Why are you here?”

  His hand raised to cup my cheek and his touch sent electricity flowing down my spine. I backed myself into the kitchen counter, my hands pressing into the edge of it. His thumb slid across my cheek before dropping to my lower lip, and his eyes watched as he unfurled it from my teeth. The look in his eyes. The intensity of his gaze.

  My body w
as heating for him.

  “To apologize,” Hayden said. “And to tell you I’m ready.”

  “For what?” I asked with a whisper.

  “For this.”

  He guided my lips to his and everything else melted away. The anger. The abandonment. The pain. The sorrow. My hands slid up his arms and gripped his shoulders, then I felt his fingertips fall to my waist. Dancing along my skin. Playing with the hem of my pants.

  Teasing me in ways I couldn't take any longer.

  My hands fisted his hair and my tongue plunged into his mouth. His hands held tightly onto my hips and he hoisted me onto the edge of the counter. He pressed my legs open and seated himself between them, his groin rolling deeply into me. Our tongues did battle and my lips were swelling against his, and soon my hand dropped to wrap tightly in his tie. I pulled him closer. Slid his suit jacket from his shoulders. Fumbled greatly with the buttons of his shirt before he grunted and pulled everything over his head.

  My hands drifted down the chiseled muscles of his chest. Rumbled over the physique of his washboard abs. Tickled the padded lines that disappeared beyond the hem of his tightly-tailored pants.

  I looked back up into his eyes as his hand wrapped around me, then he picked me up from the counter and carried me down the hallway.

  We fell to my bed and his lips were all over me. My neck. My bosom. My nipples as he pulled them out of my bra. He clawed at me until nothing but my skin was underneath his hands and I could feel my arousal pooling between my legs. I heard him unbuckle his pants and shove everything to the floor, then he rose up and devoured me with his eyes.

  His cock was throbbing. Swollen. Thick with girth and leaking with lustful desires.

  I rose onto my knees and scooted towards him, then bent down onto all fours and slid my lips across his cock.

  His hand curled into the tendrils of my hair and he fucked my face. I could taste his precum dripping down my throat as he swelled against my teeth. The taste of him was luxurious. I felt my arms and legs trembling as he pulsed against the walls of my throat. I lapped at his tip and traced the bulging vein underneath his dick, and the groans that fell from his throat made goosebumps trail along every inch of my body.

  But before I could bring him to the precipice I so desired, he pulled me away from his body and pushed me back to the bed.

  He grabbed my ankles and pulled me to the edge of the bed. Then he knelt down and curled his arms around my thighs. I looked up and caught his stare. Darkened with pupils that were blown wide with lust. His lips tell to my coated thighs and I began to tremble. To pant with shallow breaths as he grinned against my glowing skin. My pussy was begging for him. Aching for the touch of his tongue. My clit was swollen and my hands were curling into the sheets of my bed.

  “Please,” I said breathlessly.

  His mouth hovered over my pussy lips before he smiled up at me.

  “Anything for the beautiful lady,” he said.

  His tongue plunged into my depths and my head fell to the bed. My hair, haloed around the pillow, dug into the softness of the fabric below me. My hands curled in his hair, pulling him closer as my thighs tightened around his cheeks. Fire shot through my veins as his tongue flicked and raked, lapping at my slit and driving me to a speechless ecstasy.

  My toes curled into his back and I could feel his muscles twitching. His tongue raked side to side, pushing me further and further up the darkened mountain. I rocked against his lips as whimpers fell from mine, and soon starts were bursting in my vision as he sent me over the edge.

  “Hayden. Hayden. Ho, yes. I… it… ugh.”

  I trembled and held onto his hair as he rode me through my orgasm. Through the bursting stars and the shivering body and the trembling legs. My arching back dropped to the mattress and he kissed my pussy, causing me to jolt with every touch he initiated.

  When I opened my eyes, he was hovering over me with his cock pressed squarely against my entrance.

  I lifted my hips to beckon to him and he slid himself in. Inch by inch, he sank into me, his lips dropping to mine. I tasted myself on him. The luscious mix of his sweat and my scent. I wrapped my arms around his waist as he bottomed out, sinking to the hilt and molding our bodies together as well.

  “Don’t hold back,” I said with a whisper.

  “As you wish,” Hayden said lowly.

  His hands reached up to grasp my headboard and he drew himself out. He slammed back in, forcing me up the bed and causing my mouth to part in ecstasy. I latched onto his back, my nails curling into the strength of his lean muscles as my legs fell open for him, making room for his thighs as he perched himself onto his knees. His eyes were locked onto mine and the grunts falling from his lips were pure bliss. I planted my heels into the bed and met him thrust for thrust, watching as his jaw slowly unhinged.

  Then, it happened.

  My name slipped off his tongue.

  “Grace.”

  “Say it again.”

  “Grace.”

  “Again.”

  “Holy hell, Grace. Fuck, I’ve missed you.”

  I reached for his arms and yanked them from the headboard. I wanted him to hold me. To pull me close and never let me go. He dropped to me and our lips crashed together, and he rolled us over so I was straddling his hips. I bounced on top of him as his hands sank into the meat of my body. Rolling me and bouncing me and steadying my movements. I placed my hands into his chest and my tits bounced in his face. He kissed them and sucked them and marked them as his own, his cock growing thicker against my walls.

  Then we turned again and my leg was tossed over his shoulder before he pounded into me.

  “Hayden! Yes!”

  “So tight for me.”

  “Don’t stop. Please,” I said.

  “Never, Grace. I’ll never stop.”

  My mind was a messy hazy of sexual passion and my body was as limp as a rag doll. I felt that coil tightening in my abdomen as heat began to rise upon my skin. All of me was flushed. Sweat was dripping down the sides of my face. Hayden was groaning and I was whimpering and the smell of sex twirled around our heads. His cock felt amazing. It parted my walls and threw me into a frenzy as he pinned me beneath his body. Our fingers intertwined and my body was spread for him, and soon his trimmed curls were grazing the tip of my clit.

  And that was all it took.

  “I’m cumming. I’m cumming. I’m cumming.”

  Hayden’s hips began to stutter as my pussy clamped down onto him.

  “Grace. You're mine. Always… and…-”

  He slammed into me one last time and released himself within me. Pump after pump. Thread after thread. Coating my walls with himself. My pussy swallowed his cock as deep as it could go, then tugged at him for more. My leg slid from his shoulder and my arms wrapped around his neck, and soon his body fell to mine. Cloaking me. Comforting me. Covering me from the pain I refused to acknowledge because I never thought I’d see him again.

  Never thought he’d come back.

  I kissed the shell of his ear and he kissed the side of my neck. He slowly slid his cock out and I shivered, then felt the rush of fluids fall from my body. He rolled us over until I was on top, my body falling between his lean, strong legs.

  Then he smoothed my sweaty hair from my face and smiled.

  The man underneath me was completely unrecognizable.

  And yet, somehow still the same.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Grace

  I laid in bed, my fingers tracing the outline of Hayden’s jaw. The sheet of my bed was barely covering our bodies, and I couldn't keep my hands off his heated skin. He kissed the tips of my fingers and locked those beautifully-stoic eyes onto mine, and I had this desperate need to feel closer to him.

  I slid my arm around his waist and scooted closer, and he opened his legs to capture mine between them.

  “I didn’t fire you to get you to go away,” Hayden said. “I fired you, so we could be together.”

  “I think t
he last hour sort of solidified that for me,” I said with a grin.

  “Though, in hindsight, I probably could’ve just talked with you.”

  “Maybe try that tactic next time.”

  “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t apologize. Not all of us can be as confident as I was in my wheelchair.”

  “And they say women don’t have egos,” he said coyly.

  “I can’t believe you’re standing on your own two feet.”

  “I know. You’ve never seen me do it.”

  “You’re so tall,” I said. “I thought you’d be a little shorter than that.”

  “Why? Because my arms are so big?”

  “No, because a man’s ego is usually in direct proportion to the size of a few attributes on his body.”

  “Are you saying I have a small cock?”

  “I’m saying you have an above average frame, in general, for a man with an ego your size,” I said.

  “I’ll take that as a compliment.”

  “Not sure I meant it as one.”

  “Too bad.”

  He rolled me over and showered my face in kisses. I giggled and squirmed, trying to get from underneath the tickling of his lips. I wrapped my arms around him and spread my legs, feeling him slide easily between them. His kisses became languid and his tongue started to dart out, and he nipped at my cheeks. Trailed down to my neck. Placed open-mouthed kisses against my breasts.

  “So beautiful,” Hayden said. “So soft.”

  He breathed a puff of cold air onto my nipple and I felt it stiffen at his command.

  I giggled and looked down at him as his eyes shimmered back up into mine. I snuggled down into the covers and found his lips again, kissing him over and over. He tasted so sweet, but had an undertone of musk to him. A manly scent of wood and sweat that dripped from his pores. I felt my skin heating as my tongue massaged his, and I felt his cock stiffening against my thigh.

  “Feels like someone wants to play,” Hayden said.

  “Sure your body can handle that?” I asked.

  “Oh, I’m hurt.”