The Single Dad - A Standalone Romance (A Single Dad Firefighter Romance) Read online

  “Mmmm, yes,” he murmured, as he leaned forward and kissed me again. This time, he slid his tongue along my lips until I parted them and let my tongue find his. Without leaving the kiss, he pulled his hand from between my legs and quickly shed his own clothing. Before I knew it, he had looped his thumbs in the side of my panties and pulled them down around my ankles as he buried his face between my legs.

  “Mmmm, you’re so wet,” he murmured, as he reached up and spread my thighs so that he could have full access to what lay between them. The moment I felt his tongue on my skin, I began to moan, bucking my hips up to meet his expert tongue. He parted my lips and glided his tongue up and down between the velvety folds as he used two fingers to tease my now-dripping opening.

  “Blake!” I cried, as he slipped his fingers inside me, but stayed too shallow to offer me any hope of release.

  “Good girl,” he said, lifting his head to look up at me. “Lay back and enjoy it. You taste amazing.”

  “Oh God,” I moaned, as he returned to his task, licking and teasing until I thought I was going to lose my mind. I could feel his fingers stroking my inner walls as he licked and licked and licked. I cried out, “Blake, please!”

  A moment later he was beside me, kissing my lips and running one hand through my hair as he rolled a condom on with the other.

  “Mmm hmmm,” I moaned, as I lifted my hips, urging him to give me what I wanted. He positioned himself above me, never taking his lips from mine as he spread my legs and rubbed the tip of his rigid shaft between my nether lips, coating it in my wetness.

  He pushed a few inches inside of me and then held still. I could feel him hard and thick, and I wanted to thrust my hips up and force him all the way inside me, but he shook his head and continued his slow thrust, stopping after another inch.

  “Blake, oh God, what are you doing?” I cried. “I need you! All of you!”

  “I need you, too, Emily,” he murmured. “I just want to take my time with you. I want you to feel good.”

  “I do, I do, I do,” I panted. “I’d feel better if you were all the way inside me!”

  And with one quick thrust, he was.

  I cried out as I felt him filling me up. Nothing had ever felt this good before. He began slowly moving his hips, first in small circles, and then up and down, pulling halfway out before pushing all the way back in. I could feel every inch of him moving inside me, stroking my G-spot as he maintained a steady pace.

  Out. Wait. In. Out. Wait. In.

  “Blake! Blake!” I cried, as I ground my hips against his pelvis, feeling the pressure bringing me closer and closer to orgasm.

  And in an instant, I felt the wave move through me. Starting slow and deep inside and spreading out until it consumed my whole body. A loud moan escaped my lips as I arched my back and let go. Blake maintained his pace until I gripped his upper arms and moaned insistently, “Now! Now! Take me! Hard!”

  He braced himself and began thrusting hard and fast. I could feel him going deep, and it pushed me over the edge again. I cried out as he moved faster and faster. The pounding of his hips meeting mine made me grip his shaft as he chased his own release.

  He groaned loudly as he let go and followed me to the other side. I could feel him throbbing and jerking as he came. He held me tight as his hips continued thrusting forward almost of their own volition. I wrapped my arms around him and held him against my naked chest as we both lay panting as we tried to catch our breath.

  It was a long time before he raised his head, but when he did, he cupped my face with one hand and kissed me tenderly.

  “You’re amazing, Teach,” he grinned.

  “You’re not so bad yourself,” I sighed, with a weary smile. “You feel so good.”

  “Likewise,” he murmured, as he thrust his hips forward again and made me moan.

  We lay tangled up in each other for a long time. Not talking, just touching and kissing and enjoying the way it felt to have all the time in the world. Blake pulled the blankets up over us, saying, “I have to get home and check on Nina, but it’s still early, isn’t it?”

  “Mmmm, dunno,” I murmured, as I snuggled up in his arms and rested my cheek against his chest. “Maybe just a little while longer?”

  “If I have my way, it’ll be a lot longer,” he whispered, as he kissed the top of my head and ran his hand down the length of my body.

  I closed my eyes and tried to let go of the fear that something bad would happen — like it had every other time that things were going well in my life.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Blake

  Reluctant to leave the warmth of Emily’s body and bed, I called a cab and headed home just after midnight. On the ride, I thought about all the ways in which Emily’s sudden appearance in my life had made it so much better. She’d helped Nina find a way to improve her grades, she’d formed a close relationship with my parents, and she’d become the person I wanted to see first thing in the morning and last thing at night.

  It was the first time in a long time that I felt optimistic about my personal life and about Nina, but the prospect of asking Remy to let Nina live with me weighed heavy on my mind. I had thought about it from all angles and had come to the conclusion that no matter how I approached the issue, Remy was going to be pissed. The best shot I had at it was basing it on Nina’s improved school performance. I was just going to have to cross my fingers and dive in.

  When the cab pulled into the driveway, I saw that all the lights were off. I shrugged it off, thinking Nina had gone to bed and forgotten to flip on the porch light. I entered the house as quietly as I possibly could, and tiptoed down the hall to Nina’s room. I put my ear to the door, and when I couldn’t hear anything, I cracked the door and peeked into her room.

  Nina’s bed was empty.

  Thinking she might have fallen asleep on the couch while watching a movie, I walked back out to the living room to check. She wasn’t there.

  “Nina?” I called, in the empty front room. “Where are you? Nina?”

  When I got no response, I marched over to the back door and flung it open yelling into the yard, “Nina Marie Gaston! Where are you?”

  No one replied.

  “Jesus H. Christ, where the hell are you?” I muttered, as I went back into the house and searched every room, yelling Nina’s name as I checked bathrooms and closets.

  When it became clear that Nina was nowhere in the house, I picked up my phone and called her, but was sent straight to voice mail. I sent a text that simply said, “WHERE ARE YOU?” before I called Emily. She didn’t answer, so I left a message and then sat down at the kitchen table to try and make a list of all the friends Nina might be with and all the places they might have gone.

  I methodically called each girl on the list of friends and was only mildly surprised to find them still up on a school night. Not one of them would admit to having seen or heard from Nina, and since I couldn’t see their faces, I had no idea if they were telling the truth or simply covering for my errant daughter.

  With every call, I became more worried. I began wondering if Nina had been taken rather than run away. I quickly dismissed the idea since there was no evidence of a struggle. After the last girl claimed she knew nothing about Nina’s disappearance, I called Emily and was transferred to voice mail.

  “Em, Nina’s missing,” I said. “I’ve called all her friends, and now I’m going to go out and check out the places where the kids hang out. If you can think of anything I might have missed, will you call me?”

  I waited a few seconds, wondering if I should say something else, and then hung up. I thought about driving over to Emily’s and waking her up, but I knew she had to be at school early and I didn’t want to keep her out all night chasing a daughter I should have kept an eye on.

  “Goddamn it, Nina!” I shouted at the empty house. “Your mother is going to have a shit fit about this, and will definitely blame me!”

  I thought about calling Remy, but the prospect of ha
ving to deal with her rage over the phone was more than I could handle at the moment. I was holding out hope that I’d find Nina hanging out with friends somewhere in town, and I didn’t want Remy to punish her — or me — for Nina being an irresponsible teenager.

  I grabbed some bottled water, a couple of granola bars, and pulled my coat back on before heading out to the truck. I quickly mapped out a route that would take me past all of the places where teenagers had a tendency to hang out in Waltham, then backed out of the driveway.

  At the first stop, a convenience store on the edge of the city, the kids in the parking lot said they hadn’t seen Nina since school let out earlier in the day. I asked them if they knew where she might have gone, and they shrugged as they suggested around the back of the Waltham Mall or maybe the arcade. I suspected that they knew more than they were telling me, but I had no proof, so I let it go and headed toward the center of the city.

  The Mall parking lot was deserted, and at the arcade, none of the kids hanging around playing 80’s video games had any suggestions for other possible hangout spots. I left the arcade and sat in the cab of the truck, wracking my brain for any clue that Nina might have dropped.

  All I knew was that when Emily and I had left for the game, Nina was in her room. I tried Emily again, but only got her voice mail. This time I didn’t leave a message. It was well past 2 in the morning, and I was officially worried.

  I sighed as I put the car in drive and headed for the Waltham Police Department to file a report and see if I could get some help locating my daughter.

  Remy was going to kill me.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Emily

  Way before the alarm went off the next morning, I woke up with a ginger paw resting on my cheek and a pair of green eyes staring at me.

  “Well, good morning, Mr. Zinn,” I yawned, as I reached out to pat Howard’s head. He blinked twice, then turned and hopped down off the bed and sat on the floor, staring up at me. I took a quick peek at the clock and saw that it was 4 in the morning. I looked down at Howard and sighed, “Breakfast, already?”

  Howard mewed once, then turned and swished his tail as he stalked toward the kitchen. I slid out from under the warmth of my comforter and slipped into the fuzzy robe laying on the foot of my bed. It was entirely too early to be up, but I knew that it was unlikely that I’d be able to go back to sleep even if I stayed in bed. I consoled myself with the fact that I could probably get all of the History class’ papers graded before I had to leave for school.

  In the kitchen, I started the coffee before I dished up Howard’s breakfast, and when I went to pick up his food bowl, I yelled, “Howard! What the hell?”

  Draped across the bowl was the headless body of a mouse. Howard looked at me, then looked away as he began furiously grooming his head with one paw. The mouse was fairly small, but it had obviously met a rather gruesome end. I wasn’t sure what creeped me out more, the headless mouse or the fact that I knew that where there was one, there was likely to be others.

  “Way to follow directions, buddy,” I grimaced. I lifted the small gray corpse by its tail and walked to the back door. “But seriously, Howard, this is not a good way to wake up. Next time leave it by the back door, okay?”

  I shuddered as I flung the decapitated mouse into the garbage pail just outside the back door, and quickly returned to the warmth of the kitchen. Howard had hopped up onto the counter and watched intently as I scooped out his breakfast kibble and mixed it with half a can of wet food.

  “I’m surprised you’re still hungry,” I said, as I set the bowl down in front of him and watched as he dived in. I poured myself a mug of coffee and took it into the living room, where I sat on the couch, flipped open the file of History papers I’d left on the coffee table, and picked up where I’d left off.

  I’d worked my way through half of them by the time my alarm went off, and when I went to shut it off, I remembered that I hadn’t checked my phone. I pulled it off the charger and looked at the screen. There was an Amber Alert with Nina’s name on it and three calls from Blake, but only one message. I listened to it, and before it was half over, I was dialing Blake’s number.

  “Hello?” Blake answered groggily.

  “Blake, it’s Emily,” I said breathlessly. “What the hell’s going on? Did you find Nina?”

  “Oh, Em, hey,” he said, as he tried to get his bearings. “No, I drove around for a couple of hours, but I couldn’t find her anywhere.”

  “I’m assuming the police issued the Amber Alert,” I said.

  “Yeah, they said it’s unlikely she’s been kidnapped, but the alert would mean that people would be actively looking for her,” he said.

  “I’m so sorry I didn’t answer my phone,” I said. “I should have left it on.”

  “How were you supposed to know that Nina would run away?” he sighed.

  “Do you really think she ran away?” I asked.

  “You saw how pissed she was at me last night before we left,” he replied. “She can be a hothead when she’s mad.”

  “Indeed,” I mused, as I tried to think of all the places where high school kids hung out. “Did you try the back of the Mall?”

  “Yep, and the arcade, that dump of a convenience store over on Lincoln, and the high school parking lot,” he said wearily. “No luck.”

  “What about her phone? Did you try to find it?” I asked.

  “The cops did a search of her number and tried to use the Find My Phone feature, but apparently she turned it off,” he said.

  “You want me to come over?” I asked.

  “Nah, you’ve got school, and I’ve got to get to the station,” he said.

  “Blake, your daughter is missing,” I said softly. “I’m sure they’d give you a day off, if you asked.”

  “So I can do what? Sit around the house and be pissed at myself for going out last night and pissed at her for being so goddamn irresponsible?” he shouted into the phone. “No thanks!”

  “You don’t have to yell at me,” I said quietly. “I’m just trying to help.”

  “Yeah, I know,” he sighed. “I’m sorry.”

  I waited for him to speak again, but as the silence lengthened, I began to wonder if he’d hung up.

  “Blake?”

  “I can’t believe I’m such an idiot,” he said. I could hear the emotion in his voice. “I should have stayed home with her and talked it out.”

  “You had no way of knowing she would leave the house,” I reminded him.

  “But I knew she was upset!” he yelled. “What the hell kind of parent am I that I leave my child alone when she’s upset?”

  “The same kind of parent as everyone else,” I said. “She’s a teenager. They’re moody little beasts sometimes. You can’t stop living your life simply because they get upset. You had no way of knowing she was going to do this.”

  “Her mother is going to remind me that I should have known,” he grumbled. “She’s going to have my ass when she gets back.”

  “Deal with it when it happens,” I said. “For now, we need to focus on finding Nina.”

  “What if we don’t?” he said quietly. “What if something terrible happened to her and I wasn’t there to protect her?”

  “Do not go down that road right now, Blake,” I warned. “It’s way too early to think that way, and it won’t do you or Nina any good.”

  “I know, that’s why I need to go to work,” he said. “I need to keep busy, or else I’ll go crazy.”

  “Okay, well, I’ll grill the kids in Nina’s classes and see if I can come up with anything on her whereabouts,” I said. “I’ll let you know what I find out.”

  “Emily…” Blake said, letting my name hang in the air between us.

  “No, do not think that,” I said, in my most stern teacher voice. “I won’t allow it. We will find her.”

  “I hope you’re right,” he sighed.

  “I am. Of course, I am,” I said, projecting a confidence that I didn
’t entirely feel. I told him I’d call later, and hung up hoping that I hadn’t made a promise I couldn’t keep.

  After each class I taught that day, I kept the girls after and grilled them about Nina’s whereabouts. They all gave me the teenage shrug before saying that they knew nothing about her or where she’d gone. I wasn’t entirely convinced, but I knew that badgering them wasn’t going to produce any better results.

  “All right, ladies,” I said to the groups of Nina’s friends who’d I’d retained after History class. “If you have nothing to report, that’s fine, but please keep in mind that if Nina is actually in danger, and we find out you did know something about where she was, you can be charged as an accessory to a crime.”

  I had no idea if that was true or not, but I knew that if any of the girls was at all wavering, that might push them over the edge and give us a clue as to Nina’s whereabouts. The girls filed out of the room, assuring me that if they found out anything, they’d let me or the principal know. I knew it was a long shot because I still clearly remembered how much information I had withheld from my own parents when I was their age, but I figured it was better to try than to not try.

  After school, as I was cleaning up my desk, the classroom door opened and Emma Langdorf slipped into the room. She quickly moved away from the door and pressed her back against the wall as she looked sideways to make sure no one had followed her.

  “Miss Fowler?” she whispered softly.

  “Emma? What is it?” I said, looking up from my desk.

  “Shhh, please don’t give me away,” she pleaded.

  “Okay, but you have to tell me what’s going on,” I said, looking back down at my desk and shuffling papers so that anyone walking by wouldn’t know that I was having a conversation.

  “Miss Fowler, I think I know where Nina is,” Emma whispered urgently. “No one wants to rat her out, but I think she’s got a boyfriend over at Waltham College.”

  “Why do you think that?” I asked, not looking at her.

  “She’s been texting a boy for a long time,” Emma said. “She wouldn’t tell any of us who it was, but I saw her phone last week, and someone had texted her a picture of the library and another building, and told her that they’d meet her there on Valentine’s Day.”