MAC
I just had sex. Me. Mackenzie Valentine. I squirm a little in the front passenger seat, my body parts sore and throbbing. We’re driving back to Jake’s place and with the humidity rampant, both windows are down. A wild breeze blows through the car.
I turn to look at him as he drives. One tattooed arm controls the steering wheel and the other rests outside the open window. Jake looks mussed and sexy and completely carefree. A wide grin splits my face.
“What?” Jake asks, glancing across at me before turning back to the road. A grin curves the corners of his lips.
I shove the windblown hair off my face.
“Nothing,” I reply when right then it’s everything.
I turn my focus out the window, unable to stop smiling. I’m alive. Relaxed. Happy.
Sex is not how I imagined it. It’s messy and awkward, but it’s so intimate, as if in a single moment we became one person. Jake is right. It should have been special. Planned. But with him all my plans seem to get tossed right out the window. I become reckless and lose my mind. It’s a good feeling.
“I can’t believe we just did that,” he says without taking his eyes from the road.
“Me either.”
“We should do it again.”
Again? The idea sends my body into overdrive. I’ve always imagined my first time, but it never went further than that. Now I’m quickly realising that this is something we can do every day. My insides quiver and the throbbing between my legs intensifies at a rapid pace. “When?”
Jake indicates before turning left into a tiled driveway. A frown forms. The house is unexpected. It’s imposing and beautiful despite the front lawn being overrun with cars. The gardens are chaotic, but the scent of jasmine in the stifling heat is rich and sweet. The address is also not the last house on my list. If I hadn’t stumbled across Jake while hitchhiking, I would never have found him.
He turns off the ignition and looks at me with heat in his eyes. “Now.”
My heart rate escalates. “Now?”
Jake reaches behind and plucks my bag off the back passenger seat. There’s no centre console in his car. The front seat runs all the way along and when he opens his car door, he grabs my hand and pulls me out his side.
The front door is timber and wide. It swivels inward as we step inside and through to the living area. The space features three long leather couches. They’re black and occupied by three guys who are passing a joint around. The air is thick with smoke and makes my throat burn.
One of them glances up at our arrival and does a double take. He’s built with blond hair that hangs in his eyes. He exhales a deep plume of smoke, his green eyes widening on my face.
I know him, though I have no idea what he’s doing here. He spent one year at my high school before disappearing like smoke. He used to hang with a crowd of motorcycle heathens, the kind my brothers would lock me up for if I were caught talking to them.
“Luke,” I say. “Luke Fox.”
His gaze drops, assessing my hand clasped inside Jake’s. A furrow creases his forehead when he looks back up. “Mackenzie Valentine.”
“You two know each other?” Jake asks.
Luke’s gaze shoots to Jake, his eyes wide. “She’s your princess?”
“Wait, what?” Jake had mentioned me?
Brows rise all around the room and I don’t understand it. Luke passes the joint toward the guy next to him and gives Jake his full attention. “Does this mean you win the—”
Jake’s grip on my hand tightens. “Not now, Little Fox.”
“Little?” I almost laugh. Luke is huge.
Jake points to Luke. “Little Fox.” Then he points to the guy beside him. An older version of Luke with cool eyes. “Big Fox.”
“For the record…” Luke’s palm goes to his junk and he winks “…I’m not little.”
Jake rolls his eyes as if he’s heard the line a thousand times before. “So how do you know each other?”
“Luke went to my school. We were in grade seven together.”
“Small world,” Luke adds then cocks his head, eyes crinkling curiously. “How did you meet Mac?”
Jake’s response is unexpected. “We used to be neighbours.”
“Didn’t know you lived in Sydney, Romero.”
Jake shrugs. “I used to.”
“Didn’t know it was the famous Mackenzie Valentine who stole your heart either. I should’ve known. I tried pinning the girl down all school year, but her brothers guarded her like she was the crown jewel of England.” Luke’s gaze shifts to me and he winks again. “Isn’t that right, sweetheart?”
My hackles rise at the endearment. “I’m not your sweetheart.”
“I guess you aren’t.” He looks at Jake. “I’m impressed, Romero. You’ve got balls the size of King Kong to take on the Valentine clan and survive.”
Neither of us mention that my so-called Valentine clan don’t quite know I’m here. From the way Jake squeezes my hand, I figure I should keep quiet about it too. “I guess that’s something you wouldn’t know about, is it, Luke?”
Jake snorts with laughter. Even Luke cracks a grin. “And a pity that is too, isn’t it?” He gifts me with a wistful sigh as his eyes trail down my legs and back up again. “We could’ve had it all, you and me.”
“Put your dick away,” Jake retorts before I can say the exact same thing. “Mac doesn’t want your STDs.”
Laughter fills the living area. “Don’t listen to him, Mac,” Luke says in an overly serious tone. “I’m still a virgin.”
My cheeks warm in an instant. Luke is only teasing, but I’m not a virgin as of an hour ago and the reminder makes me hot.
Jake squeezes my hand again. I turn my head. He’s looking at me, his eyes hotter than my cheeks. We share a small smile that can only be described as goofy.
“Well this was fun,” Jake says and leads me down the hallway of the house, away from Luke and the smoky haze.
“Say hi to your brothers for me, Mac!” Luke yells after us. “I remember them fondly!”
I follow Jake up a set of stairs and inside his room. He sets my bag on the big bed and scrambles to collect random clothes that are strewn about the floor. Sheets are spread across the mattress in a haphazard fashion and empty bottles litter the bedside tables. Jake tosses the clothes in the corner and scratches the back of his neck, shrugging.
“It’s a bit of a mess. Wasn’t expecting company, you know?”
“I don’t care about the mess.”
Jake straightens and gives me a look I can’t decipher. “Well, it’s just for one night, right?”
“One night?”
“You’re going home tomorrow, Mac. You can’t stay here. I mean…” he waves his hand about “…look at the people I live with. You don’t belong here.” My nostrils flare as he grabs another shirt from the floor. The reason I’m here is because I don’t like being told how to live my life, and now Jake is trying to do the same thing. “You need to go—”
“Not this again, Jake. I belong wherever the hell I choose.”
Jake pauses in his attempt to fold the tee shirt. He bunches it in his hands and sighs deeply, his eyes fixing on the open window. “Why with me? I’m not anyone special. I don’t have anything to offer you. You have so many opportunities to live a crazy and exciting life. Who would throw all that away for some guy they used to know a long time ago?”
My eyes burn. Since when did Jake become so defeatist? I move toward him and take the shirt from his hands, tossing it to the floor. With his hands free, I take them in mine. “I’m not throwing anything away. I want to live a crazy and exciting life. I just want to do it with you.”
I push up on my toes and press my mouth to his. He responds, his touch heartbreakingly tender. It sends my pulse rocketing clear through the roof. “This is a bad idea,” he mutters against my lips. Then his arms snake around me in a fierce hold and lift me until my feet leave the ground. “But I don’t know how to be smart when it comes to you, Princess. You make me stupid.”
A smile pulls at the corners of my mouth. “Then we can be stupid together.”
He laughs and the sound is beautiful and light. “I can’t argue with you. You have an answer for everything.”
“So don’t argue.”
His expression darkens. “We can talk about it tomorrow.”
“There’ll be no talking tomorrow…” my eyes drop to his lips “…and you know it.”
Heat replaces the dark, and he tosses me on the bed. I know then that I have him and giddiness consumes me. Laughter spills out as I bounce on the mattress. Jake jumps on the bed above me, hair falling in his face as he grins down at me. “You’ll always be mine, Mackenzie Valentine, won’t you?”
“Yours,” I confirm.
His smile sobers as his eyes search my face, serious in an instant. He tucks wayward strands of blonde hair behind my right ear with care. My lungs constrict at the intimate gesture. Literally. I can’t get any air. “I don’t deserve you.”
I wake the next morning with Jake wrapped around me. His body is warm and heavy. I love it. Happiness settles in my gut. I was right coming here. Jake is the man for me. No distance, time, or age, will change that.
A knock comes at the door. It opens without invitation.
“School, fuckface!” Dark brown eyes settle on me. “Well, well. The rumours I heard downstairs at the breakfast table were true.”
I pull the sheet high from prying eyes as Jake stirs behind me. “And who are you?”
The guy grins, hand resting on the door handle as he gives me the once-over. “I’m Rowan, sweetheart. Lead singer and stud for hire, if you’re interested.”
My eyes frost over. “Do I look interested?”
“Not yet, but I can change that.”
“I’m with Jake in case that escaped your attention,” I snap.
“I can change that too.”
Jake groans from behind me. “Get lost, Rowan. It’s school holidays.”
Rowan gives a mock pout as he throws up his hands and turns to leave. “Fine. I get it. I’m not wanted.”
I roll and face Jake. His eyes are a little puffy and stubble lines his jaw. He’s sexy and all mine. My lips curve. “Good morning.”
His eyes light with warmth. “Morning, babe.”
“Oh, I’m babe now?”
I poke his naked chest.
“Yeah.” Jake laughs and wraps his arms around my head. My face gets stuck in his armpit and the hair tickles my face. His grip tightens when I try squirming free. “You don’t wanna be my babe anymore, babe?” The big dork chuckles at his own joke. “Didn’t realise you were so fickle.”
I’m slowly suffocating in a haze of man smell and warm skin. I manage to rip my head free and sit back on my knees, dragging air inside my lungs. “Oh, you wanna fight?”
Jake grins. The sight sends my heart into jackhammer mode. “Give it your best shot, babe.”
Before he can do anything more, I have him flipped over, his right forearm pinned behind his back while I reach for the left. “Holy fuck,” he mutters into the pillow where his face is now mashed. “I’m so hard right now.”
I laugh. My hold loosens enough that he gets free and rolls beneath me. “Jesus, Mac.” Jake’s expression sobers as my hands rest flat on his chest. His heart is pounding an erratic beat beneath my fingers. “Don’t look at me like that.”
“Like what?”
“Like I hung the goddamn moon.”
“It feels like you did, Jake, because I love you.”
Jake swallows and his eyes shift somewhere over my right shoulder. “You might think you do, but you don’t.”
I pull back, hurt welling in my chest at the rejection. “You’re going to tell me how I feel now?”
I roll off him, scoot my way from the bed, and reach for my clothes.
“Stop being so prickly.”
“Oh my god!” I yell, spinning around as I yank on my underwear. “Would you just stop telling me what to do!”
Jake sits up in bed, the sheet pooling at his waist. Frustration lines his forehead. My body gives a jolt of longing. It would be easier to be mad at him if he didn’t look so good.
“Damn you,” I hiss. “Don’t you have school like Rowan whomever said anyway? Go do that. And who is he anyway, lead singer of what? The Muppets?”
“He sings in my band.”
Half-dressed, I pause. “Your band?”
“The band I’m in,” Jake corrects.
“You are in a band? Since when?”
“Since a year ago,” he tells me, moving off the bed and getting to his feet, naked. He yawns and stretches. Meanwhile my gaze lowers until it reaches what my hands itch to wrap their fingers around.
It begins a slow rise as though saying hello.
“That’s quite the greeting,” I manage to get out, utterly fascinated and impressed all at the same time.
“It’s because you’re staring at it.”
My gaze flies up. “You got hard because I looked at your dick?”
“Um, yeah?” he says, his tone sardonic as if it’s something I should already know. “Feel free to touch it.”
Jake mustn’t have been expecting me to actually do it … because when I wrap a warm, slender palm around it and squeeze, it gives an almighty jerk. Jake groans and tips his head back, his eyes closing.
“What do you play?”
“Play?” he hisses when I give a firm stroke.
“In your so-called band, The Muppets.”
“We’re not The…” His breath catches when I stroke again. I like his body’s response. “The Muppets.”
“Well …?”
“The drums,” Jake manages to say through his heavy breathing. “I’m the drummer.”
“Are you any good at it?”
“The best. You should come watch us one night.”
My hand keeps up its ministrations. I love how much Jake enjoys my touch. “When do you play next?”
“The ahhh … the weekend.”
Jake takes my hand and peels it off. Then he turns me around, and I’m pushed down on the bed in just a few fast beats of my heart. He bends and touches his lips to my chest, his touch lighter than a feather. They trail down, lower and lower, until he’s peeling the panties down my thighs, his face now hovering between my legs.
I can feel his breath puffing against my skin and fight the urge to squirm. When his tongue snakes out and touches me there, I almost jolt straight off the bed. Oh my god, is this even real?
“It might mean me staying more than one night,” I gasp, which is a bonus for me because I’ve decided that Jake’s head now has to live between my legs.
He moans and licks me again as though the taste of me is better than ice cream. “Okay.”