Forever Love: A Novella Collection, page 23
“Hey,” Jax said as he gently squeezed his hands at my waist. “We’re not looking back anymore. Forward only from here on out. We’re together now and there’s no fucking way I’m letting you go.”
“So we’re a thing now?”
“Truth?” he asked.
My eyes widened a bit as I nodded. “Yes.”
His hands moved from my waist to trail up my back. “We were always a thing, honey. Now we’re just acknowledging it out loud.”
I shivered when he slid one of his hands up my neck and used it to pull me closer. When our lips were almost touching, he spoke. “I’m going to enjoy kissing the hell out of you as often as humanly possible.”
My noise of agreement was lost when his tongue traced my lower lip. When he finished, he used the hand at my neck to keep me where he wanted me as he set his lips against mine. A jolt of electricity went through me as our tongues met. In that moment I was truly at home. My entire being seemed to let out a sigh of contented relief as we kissed. We fit together so perfectly, just as we had the first two times we kissed.
The heat and hardness of him beneath me was too good to ignore. He groaned as I moved on top of him, desperate to be closer. When he pulled back, I leaned forward to kiss him again.
“God, baby,” he growled before he kissed me.
I was only aware that we’d moved when I felt the leather cushions of his couch beneath me. He kept his left hand at my throat where his thumb rubbed back and forth against my pulse. The right hand he used to hitch my thigh up and the heat of his palm against my skin caused me to shiver. I gripped his waist and held on as he kissed me stupid. We were so desperate for contact that we were continuously rubbing up against one another, the friction making things hotter.
The way we fit together was so incredible. I remembered being hot and bothered the night we made out in the dugout, but being alone in his apartment with him took it to a whole new level. I kicked off my black Chucks and wrapped my legs around him, whimpering into his mouth as he ground against my aching core.
He groaned as I bucked my hips up to rub against him as our kiss grew more frantic. Tearing his mouth away, he turned his head, looked at the table, and let out a curse.
“No part of me wants to stop right now,” he rasped, “but we’ve been at this for hours and it’s almost two in the morning. If I don’t get you home soon your dad will probably show up here with a gun.”
I wanted to argue because my body felt like it was on fire and I wanted to stay with him no matter what, but he was right. Not about my dad and a gun, of course. My dad loved Jax and our parents were all going to be beside themselves with glee that we were together. The real issue was that my dad was a known worry-wort and since it was my first night home, I couldn’t just bail out. Not without telling him that was my plan beforehand.
“You’re right,” I sighed. As I spoke, Jax sat and then helped me up. A thousand butterflies took flight in my stomach as he rose from the couch and retrieved my Chucks before he bent down and put them back on me.
I felt like I was walking on a cloud as we left his apartment hand in hand. When we got to my house, I wasn’t ready to let him go.
“I know I have to be home tonight but I don’t want this to end. Will you spend the night with me?”
Jackson’s brows rose. “You sure?”
I nodded. “I’ll text Dad to let him know I’m home and that you’re spending the night. I’ll have to leave my bedroom door open so he knows there’s no funny business going on, but at least we can be together.”
“You don’t have to ask me twice,” Jax laughed. “If I get to be with you, the answer is always yes.”
Even though we slept fully clothed with my door open, I’d never felt safer or more content than I did with his arms wrapped around me.
* * *
The sound of familiar voices interrupted my slumber. I stretched and rubbed my cheek against Jackson’s t-shirt covered chest as I came fully awake. Realizing who was in the house, I let out a chuckle. “Jax. Wake up.”
He grumbled something unintelligible and hugged me. I could tell by the way he was breathing that he was still out. I giggled softly as I slid my hand beneath his shirt and tickled his side. Leaning my head back, I watched as he slowly opened his eyes and focused on me. The smile of contentment on his face when he saw me was everything.
“Your parents are here,” I murmured.
He let out a soft laugh and rolled his eyes. “I figured they’d turn up. What time is it?”
I looked over at the clock on my nightstand. “A few minutes after ten.”
“We got lucky,” he said, his voice husky from sleep. “I was afraid they’d be here at sunup.”
I smiled as he hugged me tight. “What’s the plan?” he asked.
“I smell food and I’m hungry, so I’ll wait to take a shower until after breakfast. For now I just need to brush my teeth and we can go.”
“While you’re brushing your teeth I’ve got to sit here and think about toxic waste and what self tanner the president uses.”
I wrinkled my nose. “Why those particular things?”
Instead of answering verbally he cupped my bottom with one hand and rocked against me.
“Ohhh, I see,” I murmured.
“If you don’t get up now I’m going to need to add other things to that list,” he growled.
I nodded and sat up reluctantly. Already I was looking forward to being able to wake up with him each morning, alone. If no one else were around, I knew we’d find a much, much different way to take care of his situation.
By the time I got back from brushing my teeth and changing my clothes in the bathroom, he had himself in control. He dropped a quick kiss on my lips before he hurried to the bathroom. He stuck his head out into the hall as I left my bedroom. “Is it cool if I use your toothbrush?”
“I think we’re way past the whole exchanging saliva conversation,” I joked.
Leaving him to it, I continued down the hall to the kitchen. Turning the corner, I smiled when I found my dad sitting at the kitchen table with Jackson’s dad. Across the kitchen, Jackson’s mom was at the stove making eggs. Conversation stopped as I opened the cabinet above the coffee maker and pulled out a mug. I feigned being oblivious as I set it down on the Corian counter and made myself a cup of the delicious brew.
I smiled when I felt Jackson at my back. Wrapping one arm around my waist, he used his other hand to open the cabinet and pull down a mug for himself. The silence at that point changed from merely quiet to stunned. I’m pretty sure we’d have heard a pin drop as our parents took in the scene before them. When he finished making his coffee and stepped back, we turned in unison. Even though our parents had had ample time to school their expressions, our fathers both looked stunned.
Only Aunt Madeline looked as if she’d been expecting us to wind up together all along. I made a mental note to ask Jax if he’d talked to her about Aria. Even without confirmation from him I was willing to bet money that he had. Jax and his mom were thick as thieves. If it was important to him, she was in the loop.
“So, I take it you kids are… seeing each other now?” Uncle John asked as we each took a seat at the table.
Jackson snicker laughed as he set his mug of coffee on the distressed white table his mom and I had refinished together years before. “We’re more than seeing each other,” he said. Turning to me, he held my gaze as he answered his dad. “Chloe is mine, I’m hers, and we’re going to be together from here on out.”
“This is the answer to so many prayers,” Aunt Maddie said gleefully.
“For us too,” Jackson agreed. “Really hoping you all aren’t going to make it weird, though,” he joked.
“Us? Weird?” my dad asked. As he talked, he made funny faces.
“We won’t make it weird,” Aunt Maddie promised. “We’ll be perfectly normal.”
Jackson and I didn’t try to hide the look of disbelief that we exchanged.
“Have we ever done anything to embarrass you?” Uncle John asked.
Jax and I were too busy laughing to answer. Parents embarrassed their children whether they tried or not, but all three of our parents were funny. Over the years they’d not hesitated to prank us when the opportunity arose.
“So now that this is all settled, you two can pay up any time now,” Aunt Maddie announced as she set a plate of scrambled eggs down on the table.
“Don’t think I don’t know you cheated, Maddie,” my dad griped.
“Goddamn con artist,” Uncle John grumbled.
I bit back a laugh as I looked between my dad and uncle. “How much did she take you for?”
“A hundred bucks,” Dad answered.
“Each,” Uncle John added.
They spent the rest of breakfast trying to detail all the times Maddie had bet and won money from them. I knew they did it to keep from staring at me and Jax as we held hands and exchanged loving glances throughout the meal.
7
Chloe, One week later
“Do you know where he’s taking you tonight?” Caroline asked.
I shook my head as I held up two hangers, one held a red lace bra, the other a pale pink satin bra. “Somewhere in Boston, but I don’t know where. Which do you think?”
She looked back and forth between both options before she pointed to the pink. “That’s more you, especially for losing-your-virginity night.”
I hummed in agreement and hung the red back up before I moved to the section that had matching panties. It only took a minute to find the beautiful pale pink satin panties that matched the bra.
“Are you excited?” Caro asked as I headed toward a display of pretty satin robes.
“Excited doesn’t begin to cover it,” I admitted. “He’s been adamant about making sure that this is special for me and I love that, but waiting has nearly killed me.”
“It gets worse once you do it,” she snickered. “Once you break the seal, it’s impossible to put the genie back in the bottle.”
“Which explains why you and Alec are like rabbits,” I joked. “I hardly get to see you anymore because you spend all of your time over at his apartment doing whatever it is that you two do.”
“We do each other,” she deadpanned.
“On Jackson’s grandmother’s old lady furniture,” I teased.
Caro shrugged as she pulled a fuchsia robe from the display and assessed it. “What can I say? The floral patterns really get me hot.”
I shuddered as I chose a champagne colored robe and put it over my arm. “You have no idea how glad I am that Jax didn’t keep that furniture. It would feel sacrilegious doing anything on it.”
“That’s your loss because I’ve had many religious experiences on that furniture,” Caroline laughed. “In fact, the neighbors probably wonder why I spend so much time calling out to God.”
I pretended to gag. “If you don’t shut up I’m going to spend the rest of the day praying to the porcelain gods. Considering what’s on tap for me tonight, I’d rather not do that.”
* * *
“This view is amazing,” I said as I ran for the floor to ceiling windows that overlooked Boston harbor. Behind me, Jackson was putting our bags on the bed.
“Best fucking view ever,” Jackson agreed huskily.
Turning, I found him watching me as he crossed the room. “You aren’t even looking at the harbor,” I chided softly.
“I’m too busy looking at the only thing that matters to me,” he said as he reached me. “I love you more than anything in this world, Chloe.”
My heart felt like it would burst with emotion. “I love you too,” I sniffled.
I held back tears as he wrapped his arms around me and pulled me close. Leaning in, he dropped a soft, slow kiss on my lips. I forgot all about the view as I melted into him. The kiss was deep and emotional, leaving me with no doubt about how he felt. Being in his arms was perfect. I was exactly where I was supposed to be.
One kiss led to another and then another. I whimpered and wrapped my legs around him when he held me at the waist and lifted me. He’d been torturing me for all week, and I was primed and more than ready for what came next. He made his way to the bed with ease, as if the weight of me wasn’t anything at all.
After he set me down on the bed he knelt before me and took off my platform wedge sandals. Once they were off he briefly massaged each foot while staring into my eyes. I shivered when he slowly glided his hands from my ankles to my knees.
“Lift up your dress, spread your legs, lay back, and put your feet flat on the bed,” he rasped.
The peach cotton dress I was wearing was light and easy to maneuver. I hiked it up to my waist and then spread my legs as he’d instructed before I laid back and put my feet on the bed.
“So fucking beautiful and already so goddamn wet for me,” he groaned.
I blushed, knowing that the pale pink satin panties I’d bought earlier in the day on my shopping trip with Caroline were soaked. I shivered as Jackson ran his hands from my knees and down my inner thighs. When he got to the apex of my thighs, he slid his fingers along the elastic on either side of my underwear. He kept that up until I made a breathy noise and followed that up with a broken plea for more.
Chuckling, he traced two fingers up the center of my panties. When he got to the top, he traced the elastic before he dipped his fingers beneath it. The feeling of his fingers against my naked skin was almost too much. He dropped a kiss at the top of my panties as he touched me.
“You smell so goddamn good,” he rasped.
I murmured in protest as he took his hands from my panties, but then exhaled harshly when he hooked his fingers at either side of them and started tugging them down. I raised my hips to help, and he made quick work of getting them off. That first feeling of his face between my legs, his hot breath against my mound, was almost my undoing.
“You have no idea how many nights I jerked my cock thinking about burying my face between your legs and eating you until you screamed.”
I hissed out a broken sound as he parted my lips with his thumbs. “I knew you’d be beautiful,” he murmured.
I didn’t have a chance to answer because I was too busy gasping as he settled between my legs and traced his tongue between my lips. I whispered his name when he reached my clit and wiggled his tongue against it softly. Soft turned to something else rather quickly, and before I knew it I’d threaded my fingers into his hair to hold on as he kissed my sex. Each lick, swirl, and suck electrified my body. I was dimly aware of how good it felt when my hard nipples rubbed against the silk of my bra, but the majority of my nerve endings seemed to have taken up residence along my clit. He added a finger to the mix, sliding it into me slowly. I trembled as I clenched around it, knowing that soon I’d have something far bigger inside of me.
“So fucking wet and tight,” he growled as he lifted his head to watch his finger moving in and out of me.
As he spoke, he pulled his finger out and added another before sliding both back into me. "I can't stop thinking about how good your tight little cunt is going to feel around my dick."
I closed my eyes and moaned, the feral nature of his words making my clit tingle even more. I liked dirty talk.
“We’ll go slow tonight,” he continued, “but someday soon I’m going to want this ass, too. I want to put my come inside you in every way I can. Tell me you want that, too.”
When he finished speaking, he sucked my clit into his mouth. I cried out “yes” as he applied himself to making me crazy. I shamelessly ground myself against his mouth as he ate me, his fingers rubbing something inside of me that turned me to mush. When he began to flick his tongue over the hood of my clit, I threw back my head and yelled his name as the pleasure overtook me. My toes curled and my breath came in gusts as he kept on going, his growls of pleasure taking me higher and higher.
I was still shivering with aftershocks as he stood. I watched through hooded eyes as he stripped, my enjoyment at watching the way more of his tan and muscular body was revealed to me as he removed his clothes. Sitting up, I pulled my dress up and over my head. When I reached behind me to undo my bra, he stopped me.
“That’s my job,” he rasped.
When he brought his hands around my back to undo the clasp, I licked my palm before I reached out and took his hard cock in my hand. His sharp inhalation was music to my ears, as was the way he fumbled with the clasp of my bra as I jerked his substantial length.
“Fuck, Chloe,” he growled. As he spoke, he undid my bra and slid the straps down my arms. I grinned up at him when he got the first strap off without a problem but couldn’t remove the bra entirely because my right hand was busy shuttling up and down his cock.
I looked back down when I felt something warm and sticky on my hand. Grinning, I licked my lips when I saw two drops of pre-cum.
“Looking at your tits while you jerk me is making it so fucking hard not to cover you with come,” he groaned.
My pussy clenched with need. “Do it,” I whispered.
He closed his eyes and clenched his jaw as I jerked harder. I thought for sure he was going to come, but he didn’t. Instead he put his hand on mine and stopped my movements.
“The only way I’m coming right now is inside of you. I promise to paint your pretty tits with come later.”
I made a sound of complaint as he stepped back. We stared at each other in silence for several seconds. It was so quiet that I heard my bra fall to the floor after I flicked my wrist. Jackson looked at every inch of me as if he were committing my body to memory.
“You look so goddamn beautiful with nothing on but your necklace.”
By reflex I reached up and took the gold and diamond heart between my thumb and forefinger. In the previous five years, I’d only taken it off to clean it a handful of times.
“You’ve always had my heart,” he murmured.
I was staggered by the intensity of his words—and by the depth of my stupidity. How had I been so blind?
