4. Nicholas

4

Parker gave me a slight nod, his eyes wide and expecting, just as I started to move my hips against his mouth in a steady rhythm, my cock sliding in and out.

Fuck.

This felt way too good.

I hadn't known what came over me when I'd pulled Parker off the dance floor, and I had even less of an idea of what I was doing right now. All I knew was that I wanted him to myself and I didn't want anyone else to touch him, much less dance all over him. A wave of annoyance had been coursing through me earlier tonight, one that'd gone straight from the back of my head and reached all the way down to my cock.

And now, as I was on the verge of exploding into Parker's mouth, a part of me began to wonder what the game plan was going to be here. How was I going to go back to having casual conversations with him after we did something like this?—

Don't.

Don't make this complicated and ruin everything.

We're having fun, right?

Parker's words from earlier floated through my brain, just as I thrust my hips against his mouth again, just as his gaze went from wide-eyed to completely blown with lust, like he was on the verge of exploding, too.

"Fuck, Parker. I'm going to—" I groaned as I felt myself coming between his lips, strings of my come landing somewhere on his tongue. It took me a moment to catch my breath, my palms now sweaty as they began to slide down the bathroom wall.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

There was no way I wasn't going to want to do this again, to feel this again.

How was I already addicted to the idea of fucking Parker when I hadn't even been inside him yet?

"Looks like I've got another satisfied customer," Parker joked, as he rose to his feet with a smirk.

"Parker… that was…"

"Fun, right?" He offered me a wink before he nodded down at my waist. "Although, you should probably pull your pants back up before we get back out there. Sadie might like us but I don't think that'll be enough for us to not get banned for life if we're just walking around with our dicks out."

Parker pushed open the bathroom stall, disappearing out of my view entirely. "I'm going to go check on our drinks! Maybe order another round! Come out whenever you're ready, okay?"

I opened my mouth to say something in response but instead I let the words just fall to the ground, unspoken and unannounced.

Because I didn't know what the hell I was going to say to Parker, not tonight, not tomorrow, not ever.

How was I supposed to tell him how badly I wanted to bend him over and just?—

No.

I needed to snap out of it. I needed to accept that I was just overwhelmed because it'd been such a long time since hooking up with someone had been this good, like someone who hadn't had sugar in years and suddenly decided to try a slice of cake. There wasn't some mystical, magical connection between me and Parker, I just hadn't indulged in far too long.

Besides, there was zero guarantee that Parker would even be interested in doing this again. It wasn't like he'd said as much when it was all over. For all I knew, he'd be headed back to the dance floor by the end of the night, going home with someone else, thinking my jealousy had been a one-time thing.

I cringed at the thought of Parker hooking up with someone else tonight.

And then, I pulled up my jeans, and headed back out to the bar myself, trying my best to shake the thought away, trying my best to keep things uncomplicated, simple, fun.

Even if all I could think about was Parker naked in my bed.

"George? Are you pranking me right now?"

It was 3AM, the time blinking on my alarm clock as I shot up in bed. Parker was sleeping soundly next to me, all partied out from the honky-tonk. I'd been pretty deep in my own sleep cycle, too, before I heard my phone vibrating loudly on my desk.

"Nope. Not a prank." George sighed on the other end of the line. George was one of the higher-ups at the fire station, and despite knowing he wasn't prone to prank behavior, I was still hoping that he'd recently changed his mind about them. "Sorry. We're going to need you to come in, Cooper. I know it's not ideal but hopefully the situation resolves itself?—"

"And, what, exactly, is the situation?"

"One of the guys is pretty sure they saw the beginnings of a forest fire on the edge?—"

"Right, but why am I being called in again? You don't have enough guys to handle it?"

"Oh, you're really going to make me say it?" George barked out a laugh. "You really need your ego stroked that badly, Cooper?"

"Say what, George?"

"That you're the best we've got, kid," he replied. "All the guys look up to you as a leader around here, which means, they're not as confident going into something like this without you. Especially since it could be even worse than we think."

"Understood." I groaned, a part of me desperately yearning to go back to sleep, even as I rolled out of bed. "I'll be there as soon as I can."

"I'll keep an eye out for you, kid."

George ended the phone call with a click and I paced around my darkened bedroom, the only light spilling in from the window. I groaned again as I located my suit, pulling it on despite my eyelids still so heavy with lingering dreams. I was never one to shy away from running toward a fire, and honestly, the fire wasn't what was making me so reluctant to show up to the station.

It was just that putting out this literal fire was another thing preventing me from putting out the fire I'd started with Parker back at the bar. I knew that I needed to address it somehow, especially since I hadn't stopped thinking about Parker since we'd been all over each other in that bathroom stall. I still had no idea what I was going to say to him but as we'd both tumbled into bed, I knew that I needed to say something. There was no way I could keep being this close to him without something breaking, without accidentally revealing every dirty thought I'd been having about him in my head.

I grimaced as a new thought wiggled through my brain just as I made my way to the hall, already halfway out the front door.

There was still the very real possibility that Parker never wanted to do that with me again.

Absolutely nothing had changed from the bar. It wasn't like Parker had revealed anything to me on our way home to make me think he'd even given our hook up a second thought. It was almost like it hadn't happened, at all, like it was something I'd daydreamed while Parker was out on the dance floor.

Fortunately or unfortunately, Parker needed to be the last thing on my mind for the next few hours, which meant I'd get to live in blissful ignorance of how he really felt about the hook up until I came back home.

Ah.

Blissful ignorance.

Nothing could've sounded any better.

I held my place near the front of the fire hose, the water rushing out of it. George was close behind me, somewhere to my left or my right. It was always a little disorienting when putting out a fire, so much to look at that it was hard to place anything happening outside of the flames. I squinted in an attempt to get better visuals on the forest fire in front of us, noticing the way the water seemed to quickly douse the blaze.

"Almost got it!" George yelled out, just as I heard the shifting of boots, his location still a mystery to me.

A few more seconds of aiming the water toward the fire and the blaze was done for. I let out a loud sigh before I leaned against the fire truck, a trail of smoke dancing up toward the night sky, finding its place among the stars…

It was beautiful.

It was also the kind of thought I never would've said around the other guys, completely uninterested in hearing their jokes or taunts, even though they wouldn't have meant anything by it. People tended to think of me a certain way, probably because of my build, maybe because of my history, too. I was meant to be ripped and rugged, not poetic and soft.

Not thoughtful in the way I often felt myself being.

I quietly took a deep breath, inhaling the scent of the forest, loving the way the earthy smell filled my lungs. Just as I turned toward the truck, ready to help put the fire hose away with the rest of the squad, I felt someone clap me on the side of my shoulder.

"You see why we needed you?" George grinned, before he playfully nudged me in the shoulder. "That took like five minutes with you. Would've been thirty without."

"I'm not the only person who knows how to work the fire hose." I grinned right back. "In fact, I'm starting to suspect this might've been a bout of learned helplessness."

"Maybe I didn't feel like taking all of the glory."

"Are you pretending to be humble right now?"

"You know what my wife says, I don't make a big enough deal out of being a firefighter," he joked. "Not like I've been on the squad for nearly two decades or anything."

"Oh. Is this what this is?" I quirked an eyebrow. "Are you looking for someone to replace you? Was this my unofficial audition?"

"Maybe so." George nudged me in the arm again, a bright smile on his face. "I mean, I think we could do a lot worse."

I couldn't help but beam back at him, the center of my chest filling with pride. I hadn't really thought about being in George's shoes one day, content with being on the squad but not above it. Although now, I couldn't help but admit that the idea was appealing to me, images of being promoted casually sliding across my mind, shaking hands with George before he pinned a new badge on my uniform, one of the guys snapping a photograph of us in front of the station.

There were other images, too, though.

Parker on his knees in the bathroom. Parker looking up at me as he took my cock inside his mouth. Parker's hands eagerly making their way toward my thighs, his fingers desperate to undress me?—

"You okay, kid?" George's face was filled with concern. "You didn't inhale any of that smoke, did ya?"

"I'm fine," I insisted, shaking my head. "It's just… a lot to consider, you know? I never thought that you would actually… I never thought I could really…"

"And that's why you'd be perfect for it," George said, as he took the fire hose out of my grip. "Because you're not entitled to it. Because you put in the work without ever expecting it. You're just one of the guys… and that's what makes you shine, Cooper."

It was the last thing he said to me as he finished attaching the fire hose back to the truck. Instead of continuing our conversation, I headed toward the recently extinguished fire, wanting to hastily survey the land and make sure we hadn't missed any cinders. Honestly, I'd also wanted to get a moment or two to myself to figure out what was going through my head, why I couldn't stop thinking about Parker even though I'd just potentially received some of the best news of my life.

Fuck.

Was I really that invested in the guy just because he blew me in a bathroom stall?

What was it about him that had me feeling so obsessed? Why couldn't I just let it go?

Whatever the reason, I really, really needed to find a way to get Parker out of my head.

And I needed to find it fast before I missed a cinder or two, my mind too preoccupied with Parker and his perfect mouth…

Before everything I'd worked so hard for somehow all went up in flames.