After the Blaze Read online

  He chuckles. “She adores you. She talks about you almost as much as I do.”

  Warmth settles over me. Archie’s holding my hand, he’s coming home with me later, and Mrs Tucker loves me. Today has been freaking awesome.

  I grin. “In that case, what’s good for dessert?”

  “Well, there’s this chocolate fondant…” Archie shoots me a wicked glance. “I guarantee you’ll love it. It’s gooey and rich and delicious, and it’s designed for sharing.”

  A shiver runs down my spine at the thought of me, Archie, gooey chocolate cake, and no clothes. If only his parents weren’t joining us, we could get dessert to go.

  And speaking of his parents… they must have been hovering right outside, because here they are, crossing the restaurant toward us with big smiles.

  Archie and I stand to meet them, and I instantly wish I’d stayed sitting so they couldn’t see my jeans.

  “Charlie!” Archie’s mum swoops, grabbing my hands and leaning in to kiss my cheek. “I’m so happy to meet you at last! We’ve been hearing about you for years, but we’ve never quite connected, have we?”

  I’m a little stunned but manage a smile. “It’s lovely to meet you too, Mrs Tucker. I’ve seen you from afar so often and keep meaning to introduce myself, but it’s usually at an event, and….” I shrug. Mrs Tucker is often involved in organizing community events, which means she’s always running around trying to keep things on track.

  “Well, we’ve finally managed it.” She beams at me, then releases my hands and steps back. Mr Tucker moves forward, hand outstretched for me to shake.

  “It’s so good to meet you finally, Charlie,” he says warmly. I’ve never been this close to him before, so I never realized how like him Archie is. It’s uncanny—if not for the age difference, they could be twins. “Archie and my mother speak so fondly of you. She was going to join us but decided she couldn’t tear herself away from Love Island.”

  My eyes go wide, and they all burst out laughing.

  “I don’t like to think about it, either,” Archie commiserates. “Let’s sit.”

  So… my worries about meeting Archie’s parents are completely unfounded. I really shouldn’t be surprised by how warm and down to earth they are—after all, they raised Archie. By the time we’re ready to go, Mrs Tucker—or Ella, as she insists I call her—has enlisted me to help her with her bushfire support drive. There’s a lot of work going on at the moment to get people who lost their homes and livelihoods settled again, and a lot of man-hours are needed just for the organizational aspect of it. Putting the fires out was just the beginning.

  I’m still smiling as I slide into the car. Archie gets us on the road, then looks over at me. “Is it still okay for me to stay for a bit?”

  “Definitely,” I declare, reaching over to take his hand.

  Talk about a perfect evening.

  Chapter Four

  Kissing Archie is addictive.

  We’re just inside my front door, in the dark because neither of us waited long enough to turn on a light. I don’t know how long we’ve been there, but my shirt is undone and I’ve got my hand in Archie’s pants. My lips feel all tingly, and I’m hot all over.

  It’s time to take this to the next level.

  “Bedroom,” I gasp, pulling my mouth away from his. He whines in protest, his lips seeking contact again, but I take his hand and walk backwards, tugging him toward my excellent mattress and sheets. I’m going to have him naked on those sheets and rub all over him.

  I don’t bother with the light in the bedroom, either. Our eyes have adjusted now, and there’s enough ambient light to prevent us from walking into anything. I push him onto the bed, and he pulls me after him, so we end up in a tangled pile of limbs, breathless and laughing and then breathlessly kissing.

  “You’re wearing too many clothes,” he says, breaking the kiss and trying to pull my shirt off my arms without unbuttoning the cuffs.

  “So are you. We need to get naked.” We just lie there, wrapped around each other. I don’t want to let him go for that long, and seemingly he feels the same.

  But his hard dick against my side is driving me mad with want, and in the end, I’m willing to let him go for a few short seconds if it means I can get better acquainted with all of him.

  “Count of three, we get up and strip as fast as we can,” I propose.

  He mutters, then says, “Okay. And lube. Is there lube?”

  “In the bedside table. Ready? One. Two. Three!” I try to spring up off the bed, but we’re still kind of tangled together, so instead I go sprawling over the side and land facedown on the floor.

  “Are you okay?”

  I hear him scrambling toward me. “I’m fine! Strip! I need you naked.” Hauling myself up, I follow my own directive, although getting out of my jeans is an undertaking that can’t be hurried. Those babies are tight and get even tighter when I’ve been worked up.

  I’m bent over, working the denim down my legs, when I hear his guttural moan. Twisting, I peer behind myself and see him stretched out on the bed, shadows kissing his gloriously naked body, hand working his dick and eyes on me.

  Or to be more precise, on the arse I’m presenting to him.

  So I give it a little shimmy.

  His groan this time ends on a gasp.

  “Hey, wait for me!” I yank at my jeans, finally getting them off, then join him on the bed. “This is mine.” I push his hand away from his cock, wrapping mine around it instead. He gasps again. “Mmm. Much better.” In the gloom, I lean down and lick the head.

  Suddenly, his hand is in my hair, pulling me back up to meet his mouth, and with his other arm, he hauls my body flush against him. I wriggle deliciously against all that taut, velvety skin and firm muscle, and he lets go of my hair and reaches between us to unclasp my hand from him.

  Before I can pull away from his mouth to protest, he’s got both our dicks in his hot, callused hand.

  “Better?” he whispers, and I make a choked sound. “Good. I’m going to jack us both together like this, like we’re going to be together always from now on, and then after we come, I’m going to kiss you and lick you all over like I’ve been wanting to for years. And then we move on to round two.”

  “That’s the best plan ever,” I mumble, most of my attention on the way his cock is rubbing up against mine, hot and hard and slick with the lube he must have found, his hand wrapped around us both with just enough pressure, working up and down, over and over…

  I come so hard that lights flash behind my closed eyelids, my body arching, yelling Archie’s name the way I have so many times in my fantasies. I collapse against him, spent, and a moment later, he goes rigid.

  “Charliiiiieeee,” he hisses, and I kiss the nipple beside my mouth as his hot cum splashes between us.

  This is perfect.

  And in just a minute, when he can breathe again, he’s going to lick me all over like….

  Wait.

  “Did you say you’ve wanted me for years?” I ask incredulously, propping myself up on an elbow.

  He yanks me back down and kisses me hard. “Yes. Since the day I met you.”

  I laugh. “We’re so fucking stupid. I’ve wanted you since then, too. Why didn’t you say anything?”

  He shrugs, and I feel the movement of every muscle. It’s wonderful. “At first because Grandma told me she’d never forgive me if I made her visits to the shop awkward. She knew right away that I wanted to do dirty things to you, but she made me promise I wouldn’t unless I knew it meant more. Then… we were friends. I didn’t want to lose that. Then, at New Year’s, I realized there was nobody else I’d rather be with, ever, and that by not taking a shot I was just wasting time we could be together. I had to work up to it, but I’m glad I took the risk.”

  “Yeah. Me too.” I kiss his nipple again. “I’m glad we’re friends. This means so much more than anything I’ve ever….”

  “I know.” His hand strokes lazily down my back. “S
o, does that mean we’re more than just pre-boyfriends?”

  Grinning, I say, “Yes. We’re more than pre-boyfriends. We’re together forever.”

  And we are.

  Hi from Louisa!

  Hey folks! Thanks so much for reading After the Blaze. I intended this to be a story of hope and perseverance in dark times, so fingers crossed it hit the mark.

  Of course, when I wrote this novella 2020 was just beginning and I had no idea of what was to come. If this had been reality, Charlie and Archie would have been self-isolating in April, not going about their lives as usual. I’ve decided to leave it as it was originally written, though, and hope you were able to suspend disbelief to enjoy it anyway.

  If you’d like to try more of my work, you can peek into my Joy Universe series with this free novella—just click here. You’ll need to subscribe to my monthly newsletter, but you can unsubscribe anytime—or stick around for regular freebies and bonus content.

  Or if you’re looking for something different, give my Met His Match series a shot—charming European billionaires and hapless tourists are a lot of fun!

  All my books can be read as standalone, but you’ll meet recurring characters and can follow their journeys through the series.

  Please take a moment if you’re so inclined to leave a review for After the Blaze. Reviews can make a huge difference to a book’s visibility. And to find out more about me and my books, check out my website or visit my author group, Seymour Books with Masterful Men.

  Hugs!

  Louisa xx

  Also by Louisa Masters

  M/M:

  Met His Match

  Charming Him

  Offside Rules

  Joy Universe

  I’ve Got This

  Follow My Lead

  Novellas

  Fake It ’Til You Make It

  Out of the Office

  M/F:

  An Irish Flirtation (Emerald Isle Enchantment)

  An Irish Attraction (Emerald Isle Enchantment)

  Writing as Olivia Ventura

  Miss Fix-It

  Catch a Shooting Star

  About the Author

  Louisa Masters started reading romance much earlier than her mother thought she should. While other teenagers were sneaking out of the house, Louisa was sneaking romance novels in and working out how to read them without being discovered. As an adult, she feeds her addiction in every spare second. She spent years trying to build a “sensible” career, working in bookstores, recruitment, resource management, administration, and as a travel agent, before finally conceding defeat and devoting herself to the world of romance novels.

  Louisa has a long list of places first discovered in books that she wants to visit, and every so often she overcomes her loathing of jet lag and takes a trip that charges her imagination. She lives in Melbourne, Australia, where she whines about the weather for most of the year while secretly admitting she’ll probably never move.

  http://www.louisamasters.com