The Firefighter and the Virgin Princess (12 page)

Having Joe come to watch her felt
special.

His nieces were cute too, like him. Lily
hadn't known many kids, even when she was one herself. Her best
friend, as she'd told Joe, was Maria— the girl who left ballet
school at sixteen and chose a real life instead. And left Lily
behind too, after they'd sworn they'd be friends forever. Just like
her parents who were supposed to be there for her. Although she
knew it wasn't their fault that they died, an eight year-old girl
couldn't be expected to grasp the concept of a god — a deity to
whom she was supposed to pray every night— being cruel enough to
take her parents away. In her eyes, they'd left her.

She supposed she'd
separated herself from Joe, before he could do that to her too. But
he came back. He didn't give up, damn him. He made it impossible
to
not
like him.
To not let him in.

The old lady beside her leaned over and said
softly, "Make the most of your time together, dear, with the ones
you love. It all passes much too quickly. Before you know it they
grow up and take flight from the nest. Don't waste a moment."

* * * *

When he got off the ice, she was standing at
the barrier, hands in her pockets. "You looked good out there."

"Will you teach me how to spin around?"
Antonia demanded breathlessly, tugging on Lily's coat.

"It's called a pirouette, and I'm afraid I
can't teach you on skates, but I can teach you on the floor, if you
like."

"Yes!" the child bounced gleefully.

"Yes,
please
," Joe corrected her
firmly.

"Please."

"Me too," shouted Nicky.

"Of course," said Lily, beaming. "It will be
my pleasure."

While they took their skates off, Joe was
thinking about what to say next, how to thank her for coming out
with them, when she said, "Are you going home now on the
ferry?"

"Yes," replied Nicky, "we're going on the
ferry. Are you coming too, Lily?"

"You come too, Lily!" her sister exclaimed.
"Then you can teach me to ploo...pirette."

Suddenly he realized Lily was looking at
him. "I don't know. Should I?"

His heart was thumping way too hard. It was
Saturday so he knew she had no class in the morning. He cleared his
throat. "You should. Definitely."

"Okay then." She slipped her hand through
his arm, and the four of them left the skating rink together.

Joe stayed quiet, his breath and his
heartbeat loud in his own ears, afraid that if he said the wrong
thing she'd take flight again. But she was hanging on to his arm,
touching him in the street— a public display of some affection that
she would usually avoid. That had to be a good sign, right? He
daren't believe she was really coming with them until they were
safely on the ferry and halfway across the water.

* * * *

They dropped Nicky and Antonia off at his
brother's house first. Lily saw at once that no one had been told
anything about her. Standing in the small, brightly lit kitchen,
she felt Joe's sister-in-law raking over her skin with sharply
questioning, wary eyes, while his brother tried not to look
surprised.

"Nice to meet you...Lily. You've known my
brother long?"

"A few weeks. He drove by in a fire truck
and splashed my coat in the street one day."

"Uh huh?" He looked over at Joe, who was
fidgeting, ready to leave, not volunteering anything to the
conversation.

"Lily's a ballerina," Antonia announced, in
a tone that suggested they were dumb for not knowing. "She's the
best ballerina in the world. We saw her tonight, and she's going to
teach me to ploopret."

"Really?" the little
girl's father exclaimed. And then a light seemed to switch on
inside his head, for he smiled widely at his brother. "Right! Now I
remember.
A dancer
."

"So you live in the city?" the wife asked
stiffly.

"Yes."

"I didn't think you were from around
here."

There was an awkward pause, broken by Joe's
brother. "Let me get you a drink, Lily."

"We gotta go," Joe replied hurriedly. "I
gotta get Lily back on the ferry."

She turned. "I thought I was staying with
you tonight?"

His lips parted, he looked paler than usual.
She realized she probably shouldn't have said that in front of the
others, but why not? He always claimed to be a man who said what he
thought. No lies.

One hand cupping her elbow he steered her
out of his brother's house as if it was on fire.

"I wasn't ready to tell them about you," he
muttered.

"Interesting. You were mad when you thought
I was keeping you out of my world, but you hadn't told anyone about
me."

"I didn't have the chance to tell anyone. I
don't even know what's going on with us now, do I?"

Lily thought for a minute and then said,
"You're going to make love to me, all night long. As you suggested
at the ice rink."

With a groan he put his arm around her
shoulders. "All you ever want from me is sex. We've been through
this—"

"You told me I should come on the ferry with
you."

He grimaced. "I did."

"And you came to see me because you missed
me." Lily licked her cold lips. "And I missed you." Tonight she was
going to be brave and not hide everything she felt. She wanted to
be more like him. It was so warm under his arm, his body heat
seeping through their clothes.

They turned down another street, and he
picked up the pace. "If you stay tonight, and you want to make
love, you have to spend the day with me tomorrow. No running
off."

"I might have known. Now you have me on your
territory, I'm trapped."

"That's right. You might never escape Staten
Island again now we got you here." Lily felt the laughter vibrating
deep through his chest. "Come to dinner with me at my mother's
house tomorrow. I want her to meet you." A soft groan escaped his
mouth with another cloud of breath. "She'll have to, now that
Sherri and Mike have seen you, because they are sure to tell her
and she won't shut up until she's met you. Given you the once over
and her stamp of approval."

"Approval for what?"

"For you to be in my life, Lily Keene. Did
you think you're the only one who's fucking choosy about who they
let in?"

"You drive a hard bargain."

"Exactly. No sex for you, Princess, without
the spaghetti and meatballs too."

"You and your balls," she exclaimed.

"You love my balls or you wouldn't be here
right now."

She couldn't deny it, could she? "Every
princess loves a good ball, but a pair of them is even better."

* * * *

He flicked on the light switch inside the
front door. "It's nothing fancy. Just a place to prop my butt when
I'm not working," he mumbled apologetically.

Apparently he rented the lower floor of a
two family house. It was small but neat, furnished with mismatched
furniture that she suspected had been handed down to him or found
at garage sales.

Lily slowly removed her coat, looking around
for somewhere to put it.

"Let me show you around," he said, taking
her coat and tossing it over a hook by the door. "Give you a tour
of the place."

Before she could say anything, he had swept
a pile of newspapers and mail off his kitchen table and lifted her
onto it.

"This is my kitchen," he whispered, tugging
at the drawstring waist of her sweatpants.

"Do you cook?" she inquired politely,
pulling up his shirt.

"Nah. But I had a fire in the stove
once."

She laughed and kissed him. Her lips
trembled with delight to feel his again.

"You like this table? It's not very fancy
and it wobbles."

"I love this table."

She felt his cock right away between her
legs, the knob pushing at her cotton panties, pressing at her with
a promising heaviness that quickened her own throbbing need. "You
already wet for me, Princess?" His voice was husky as his fingers
stroked her, slipping under the crotch.

"After watching you skate? How could I not
be?" It was very hot watching him with his little nieces, she
mused. Was that weird? Creepy? She didn't know. It was
just...incredibly hot...seeing this big hulk of man being gentle,
caring, patient and indulgent to two little kids.

"You wanted me to fall on my ass." He helped
her out of her sweater and then ducked his head to nuzzle her
breasts as he unclasped her bra. "You must be disappointed."

"Impressed." She slid her arms around his
shoulders, her legs around his waist. "I had no idea you had so
much balance."

As he licked her bared nipples, she leaned
back, feeling the unsteady little table rocking under her.
Hopefully it wouldn't give way and cause someone an injury.

"I've had a hard on for days, since you
walked out on me," he muttered, his hand back to rubbing the crotch
of her panties. "I saved it for you though. Didn't want to jack
off. I oughta make you wait, now, huh? Like you made me wait."

So he hadn't satisfied himself with another
woman in the interim. Lily felt extremely glad about that.
Sometimes she'd imagined him having fun with another woman, someone
loud and tan and extroverted. But it hurt her to breathe whenever
she imagined that, so she tried to block the images from her mind.
It wasn't fair of her to be jealous, was it?

She hooked her thighs tighter around his
waist and he tumbled forward, bending over as she lay back on the
table. "Don't make me wait," she purred, grinding her panties on
his hard cock and his hand. "I want you now, Joe."

"Oh, yeah?" He slid a finger between her
labia.

"Take my panties off."

"Not yet." He added a second finger and
stroked, teasing her tense pussy. "I gotta keep 'em on right now,
or else I might get too fucking horny and stick my dick in here
without a rubber."

Lily shivered, running her palms over his
pointy little nipples and the soft fur of his chest. He was so
strong, his torso all ripples and ridges and wide planes that she
loved to explore. His eyes gleamed down at her, lusty and
wicked.

"You don't have any diseases, do you?" she
gasped out, lifting her hips, knowing her panties were sopping wet
now and he must be getting a kick out of that.

"Nope."

"And you know I don't."

"How do I know?" He kissed her nipple and
then sucked it gently while his fingers probed further inside to
tickle her clit.

She ground her teeth, holding back a squeal
of need. "You were my first, and there's been no one else. Just
you. Only you, Joe."

Suddenly he lifted his mouth from her breast
and slammed his lips against hers, his tongue thrusting deep. It
was a kiss far more passionate than she'd ever known. With his
fingers he drove her to a jagged peak, merciless. Lily came in a
rush, the little table rattling and groaning under them. She
groaned into his mouth as his kiss continued, and she knew he must
have felt her tightening on his fingers, her dew flooding down as
that rough orgasm took her in its savage grip.

He kissed and licked his way back down her
body while she still trembled. Then he put his mouth over the
cotton crotch of her panties and sucked the moisture he'd made
there, nuzzling her needy cleft through the wet material, making
her come again. This time she cried out his name and it sounded
like a prayer.

Chapter Nine

Joe lifted her off the table and carried her
through to the living room, which was small, square and
cluttered.

"Let's continue the tour," he muttered
tightly, not sure how long he could hold back from fucking her
sweet, hot, wet cunt. He wanted to bury himself in her, do every
dirty thing he'd ever fantasized about. "This is the lounge. Nice,
huh?"

She gasped, "Lovely carpet."

"Uh huh." He sat her on his couch, knelt
between her legs and forced her thighs wide apart. Her panties were
almost transparent at the crotch, she was so wet.

"I can see a bit of pink through your
undies, Princess." He grinned slowly. "Your pussy lips are blushing
and swollen for me."

"Please take them off," she groaned.

"Nah. I told you, not yet. I might be
tempted to fuck you without a rubber, if I don't have something in
my way right now. And you won't be able to stop me." He leaned in
and licked her labia through the cotton with slow, deliberate
strokes of his tongue. He heard her breathing change as she hitched
forward, pushing herself at his mouth.

"That's it, baby, you wanna come again?"

She shook her head.

"Why not?" He treated her to another slow,
teasing swipe of his tongue and pressed the tip at the crest of her
labia, holding it there, feeling for her thudding pulse in that
sensitive spot.

"Take my panties off!"

Instead he hooked a finger under the crotch
and pulled it up tight, so the cotton gathered and pressed between
her blushing folds, slipping into the crack of her ass too. "This
couch is real comfy," he said, staring at her twat, watching her
writhe as she tried to hold off another orgasm. "I've had it for
years."

"I bet you've fucked lots of women on it,"
she snapped.

"A few." Joe stood and held his aching cock
by the root. "You want some cock now?"

"Yes," she hissed, eyes flaring.

He rested one foot on the couch and pushed
his cockhead at her mouth. "Take some then, Princess."

Christ, that felt good. Holding her head
with both hands he swayed, sliding his prick in and out of her
sucking mouth.

"Don't be greedy now," he grunted. "I'm not
coming until I'm up inside your cunt."

She grabbed his buttocks with both hands and
pulled him forward, her sucking increasing until he began to feel
his spunk surging. He wrapped her hair around his fingers and
pulled. "Stop that, or I'll choke you with my sperm. You're fucking
incredible with that mouth."