Shock Advised (Kilgore Fire #1) (24 page)

“Alright,” I said. “Time for the tough one.”

“Hit me, baby,” he challenged.

I closed my eyes and grinned, nearly missing the step in my front yard and face-planting into the walkway. I squeaked as I saw my life flash before my eyes.

“What’s wrong?” He asked, startled.

“I almost fell on my face,” I giggled.

He sighed. “You missed the step again, didn’t you?”

I glared at the offending step and continued
walking to my car.

I started it up and fastened my seatbelt in before replying.

“What is the one thing I do when you’re not here?” I asked, trying to tease him into saying ‘masturbate.’

He was silent for a long while, so long that I had to pick my phone out of my pocket and check to make sure that we were still connected.

We were.

“Tai?” I said softly.

He cleared his throat.

“Your favorite thing to do is look at old pictures on the bench Bowe made for you,” he said softly.

My heard skipped a beat, and I had to blink back tears.

“How’d…how’d you know?” I asked.

He hummed.

“You were doing it that night I came over to your place to pick you up for dinner with my brother for his birthday,” he said. “I just let you finish before I came inside.”

I closed my eyes and smiled.

The questions continued as I drove to our breakfast spot, and he got every single question I’d asked him right.

In fact, I was still on the phone with him when I got out of the car and saw him leaning against his truck with his phone in his hand.

He looked up at me as I got out and watched as I walked towards him from across the parking lot.

“Mia?” He asked.

“Yes, Tai?” I said, only about half way across the parking lot from him now.

“Will you marry me?” He asked softly.

I stopped in the middle of the lot, causing him to smile at me and my reaction.

“Yes,” I whispered.

“Good,” he said. “Now are you going to come over here to me?”

I bit my lip and tried hard not to cry before I started forward once again.

He dropped down to one knee, in his fire department work clothes, with his beautiful black hair and two days’ worth of beard growth, and I fell head over heels in love with him all over again.

“I love you!” I blurted.

He grinned.

“I love you, too. But you’re stealing my thunder,” he glared teasingly.

I mimed zipping my lips and threw the key away over my shoulder.

This time when he opened his mouth, my eye caught on the massive rock nestled in the black velvet box in his hand.

“Oh, my God!” I said, jumping forward and dropping my head down so I could see the ring even closer. “Is that a pink diamond?”

His head fell forward, obstructing
my view, as it came to a rest against my belly.

“Mia!” He said on a huffed laugh. “I’m trying to ask you a fucking question here!”

I held my hands up in the air. “Sorry, sorry.”

He sighed and pulled the ring out of the box, slipped the cool metal onto my ring finger as he was standing up.

“Well?” I asked once the silence went on a long time as he stared at me.

“What?” He asked.

“I was waiting for you to ask me,” I said impatiently.

He grabbed my hand and started walking us inside.

“I already asked you,” he said. “I was going to do it right, but then I realized it didn’t really matter how I asked since you already said yes.”

I smacked him on the ass.

“Do it right,” I ordered, shaking my finger at him.

He smirked, but, nonetheless, he dropped down in the little alcove that led into the restaurant.

“Mia, will you marry me?” He asked. “Make me the happiest man in the world?”

I grinned down at him and then threw myself into his arms.

“Yes. A million times yes,” I said. “Were you nervous to ask me?”

He shook his head. “No. I knew you’d say yes.”

“Pretty sure of yourself there, huh?” I challenged, leaning back so I could see his face.

His beautiful eyes.

His lush lips.

“Yeah. You just can’t resist me.”

I burst into a fit of giggles.

Then we ate breakfast.

Then I went to work, and he went home to bed.

And I would always remember that proposal and the security of knowing that this was the man that I’d spend the rest of my life with.

“I could’ve sworn the charge nurse said you were married.” Payton said to me.

I looked up from my ring.

“No, just engaged,” I said. “We’re getting married in six months.”

“Oh, that’s awesome. Do you know where?” She asked.

I shook my head. “No, not yet. My mother and I have been looking at venues, but we haven’t found the right one yet.”

I smiled at the memories I had of all that we’d tried to do over the last couple of weeks. Tai had originally wanted to get married as soon as possible, but after discovering that most reception halls were booked at least six months in advance, we’d had to push it back. Because I was
not
having a shotgun wedding in front of a judge. Hell no. I was having the whole shebang!

“You should try the Gold Hall. That’s where I had my baby shower,” Payton said, smiling fondly at the memory.

My heart stilled as a memory assaulted me.

I didn’t have a baby shower because Colt came two weeks early.

And that was better than a baby shower any day.

I remember looking down into the bright blue eyes of my baby boy, with his messy, full head of brown hair and thinking, ‘This is the best thing I could ever have hoped for.’

I smiled as that memory pierced my heart.

As was becoming more common, I just rode the wave of sadness.

There was a time, not that long ago, where that memory would have me on my knees and in tears.

It wasn’t that the pain I felt was any less.

The pain was still fresh, but I was more accustomed to the sharp stab of it now, and I was stronger than I had been back then.

“Mia?” Masen said softly, jolting me out of my thoughts.

I smiled sadly at her concerned face.

“It’s fine,” I said, noting her concern.

She pursed her lips but thankfully chose not to say anything.

And hours went by as I enjoyed my new job.

The highlight of my day, however, was a visit from Tai during one of his many trips to the hospital during his shift.

His strong arms wrapped around me, I smiled as I buried my face in his neck.

“Hey, baby,” he rumbled.

I shivered in delight.

“Hey.”

“You doin’ alright?” He asked, running his lips along my neck.

I nodded in confirmation.

“Yeah, I’m doing alright.”

And I was.

And getting better all the time.

If you stroke my beard, I cannot be held responsible for the pregnancy that will follow.

-E-card

Mia

Two months later

No.

No. No. No. No. No.

Please God, no.

I threw the white stick across the room like it was a poisonous snake attempting to bite me.

“Baby,” Tai said.

I turned to look at him through my tear-filled eyes. Tears that flooded my eyes the moment they saw those two pink lines.

I just couldn’t do it.

Not again.

“It’s positive,” he said.

He knew it.

Hell, I’d known it…although I’d been trying to deny it.

I didn’t want to know the truth, because the truth meant opening myself up to the possibility of experiencing loss again. I didn’t ever want to go through that kind of pain again.

But that’s not really accurate. I should say more.

This was the kind of pain that never went away, never dulled.

The kind of pain that was so debilitating, that even now, more than six months later, there were days that I didn’t want to get out of bed.

I felt this pain every day when my thoughts inevitably and often went to Colt.

Tai’s hands took hold of mine as he roughly yanked me to him.

We sank together to Tai’s bathroom floor.

My bathroom floor now, too.

I’d moved in with him after he’d proposed, and now, technically, I guess it was our bathroom.

Tai’s hands slid into the hair on either side of my face, and his eyes flared as they took in my devastation.

“You’ll love this baby,” he ordered.

I sniffled as my breathing hitched.

“Yeah,” I cried.

“You’ll give me a baby,” he ordered again.

I nodded.

I would.

“I love you.”

I nodded. “I do, too.”

The now familiar shrill tones of Tai’s SWAT beeper went off, and my heart started to pound.

He got up and carried me to the bedroom, placing me carefully on the bed.

I watched him as he walked to the closet where he kept all of his stuff.

This last couple of months he’d been busy.

PD, Bowe, Drew and Tai all finished their online police academy program, passing with flying colors, and completed their hands-on training hours not long ago. Luke didn’t waste any time getting them on the rotation.

He’d gone on four SWAT calls in the last month as part of his training, but none of them had caused me to feel the terror I was currently feeling.

He came back out of his closet a few minutes later as I tried my hardest not to hyperventilate. He was dressed in his black tactical pants, black SWAT shirt, and his gun belt was slung over one shoulder.

“I gotta go, I love…”

“No!” I cried, grabbing onto his hand before he could go. “You can’t leave me. If you die while I’m pregnant, I won’t be able to do it! You can’t leave!”

Tai’s arms went around my back and he pulled me into his chest.

I felt the reassuring pound of his heart. The heat of his body surrounding me in comfort.

And I tried to calm my erratic breathing.

“I can’t promise you that I won’t die. Just like I can’t promise you that I won’t, one day, get in my truck to go to the grocery store or my brother’s and get into an accident. This is life, baby, anything can happen at any time. When it’s my time, it’s my time. But I promise you,” he said fiercely, “I know what I would be missing without you. I’ll do everything in my power to always come back to you. I’ll never carelessly put myself in harm’s way. I love you so much, and I know you love me just as much. There is no way I would walk away from you, from us, without one hell of a fight, baby. I swear it.”

I started to cry harder.

“I’ve gotta go, baby. I’m so sorry,” he whispered. “You’ll be okay.”

He let me go, and I watched as he left me.

My hands went to my belly…to the unborn life that could also be taken away from me at any moment, just like Colt was, and I fell to my knees and sobbed.

“I swear to God,” I said to the door long minutes later. “If you don’t come back through that door tonight, I’ll never forgive you.”

I stood up and walked back into our bedroom, flopping face first on the bed and burying my head in the covers.

I was alone, so there was no reply to my threat. The silence had me thinking about the worst things that could happen, and I knew in that moment that I needed to have someone there with me.

I knew exactly who I needed right then. I needed the comfort and reassurance that only this person could give me. I needed her wisdom, I needed her experience, and I needed her strength

And so I called my mom. And in the way that only she could, she gently but forcefully pulled me back from the cliff I’d been on.

Her unwavering faith renewed mine, and I knew I could, I would, do this.

After I got my pep talk, I let the phone fall to the bed beside my face, and I slept.

I woke a few hours later to Tai slipping into bed behind me, pulling me up against his chest.

“I’m home. Safe and sound,” he said teasingly.

Turning my face, I pressed my lips onto his arm that was now pillowing my head.

“You and me against the world,” I said. “Although we’ll be adding a third to our team soon. Are you ready?”

He chuckled softly and I felt the first ripples of awareness at the sound of his voice.

“You know how hot it makes me knowing that you’re carrying my baby?” He asked.

I rolled over so I could see his face.

“No, how hot?” I questioned.

He grinned.

“Let me show you.”

And show me he did.

His hands felt like they were everywhere as he woke my body up, one slow, wet kiss at a time.

My body felt like it was on fire as his hands drifted over it, paying special attention to my belly where the new life he’d put there was safe in my womb.

“You’re going to be amazing,” he promised.

I gasped as his mouth moved down my body to the top of my slit. “At what? Laying here while you take me?” I asked teasingly…
breathlessly
.

He blew gently on my clit, and I lost all thoughts as my pussy throbbed from the sensation.

“Oh, fuck me,” I cried, reaching down to grab onto the first thing I could find, which happened to be Tai’s hair.

He chuckled darkly against my slit, sucking my clit into his wet mouth and running his tongue along it lightly.

I bit my lip to keep from screaming, but that proved futile when he thrust his fingers into my pussy and I came.

When I came, I tended to lose control of my mouth.

And Tai took great pride in this.

He curled his finger in a ‘come here’ motion, rubbing that spot that made me soar while my orgasm went on and on.

He stopped a few moments later as my spent body sank into the bed. He crawled up my body, like a hunter about to strike its prey.

I shivered in anticipation.

Tai was like a ninja with his ability to remove my panties without waking me. Which explained why I hadn’t realized that they were down around my ankles until that moment.

With a swiftness that only an aroused Tai could manage, he pulled my legs up and pushed them to rest on my chest using the panties around my ankles as a hand hold.

I gasped as he slid easily, in one smooth movement into my liquid heat not even using his hand to guide himself in.