Chapter Five

Kayla

I don’t know what’s come over me, but I’m sucked into some kind of trance, and Jase is the hypnotist. He’s handsome, breathtaking, the knock-you-on-your-butt, almost surreal type of handsome. And I know he is drawn to me just the same by the way he can’t stop looking at me like I’m the center of the room. His rough, calloused hand glides up and down my arm, and his husky, deep voice turns to gravel in my ear as he whispers for us to leave. And though my mouth opens to say no, my heart has other plans.

“Yes.” A three-letter word with the promise of unknown seconds, minutes, or hours ahead of me. I don’t know Jase. We haven’t even established a baseline for conversation. Yet here I am, ready to speak no words and only do whatever he leads me to do.

I’ve never had a one-night stand, but I’m sure this isn’t how they usually go. There isn’t just lust behind our glazed eyes. There is a deep urgency to connect, to talk, to chase this feeling until we catch it tightly in our shaking hands.

“Kate, Sadie, um...I’m gonna take off with Jase. Harmony, Harlen, thanks for inviting me.” I’m red in the face, flushed over the fact that everyone at this table is giving us a knowing glance.

“Boom,” Harmony mouths to me before my eyes drift to Kate and Sadie’s, who nod encouragingly.

“Oh no, Sadie Jay, she may be the next you. That Ben Cooper effect is real,” Kate says, referring to Sadie and her husband, the rock star she married in less than a month of knowing him. I don’t think this will be more than a one-night fling, where I will then spend the next few decades comparing every man to the one who got away.

Jase. He is that man. The one you never see coming and never—ever—want to forget.

I don’t know what is going to happen the second we step out the bar door, but I can only hope it will be that something I was looking for to make me forget the pain of the past two years. I pray it’s going to be the start of a new life, one where I will live each day in the light and not the shadows of my past.

“Where do you live?” He finally speaks when he starts up his truck. The question isn’t the first one I expected him to ask. Is he used to this? Am I this kind of girl? One who sleeps with a total stranger who only knows my address before he gets inside me?

“I...I live up Parks Road, just two blocks f-from the university,” I stammer out, trepidation obvious in each word.

He says something then that almost frightens me more than the idea of finally punching my V-card. “Don’t be nervous, Kayla. I only want to get to know you.”

My eyes find his, sparking as he gets on the main road. It’s brief, because he has to focus on driving, but I can’t believe he just said that.

“So we aren’t going to...you know...have sex?” I about slap my open palm to my forehead, not believing I actually said that out loud.

“No, I don’t just fuck women I want to respect, but don’t worry.” He pauses, reaching over to put his hand on my knee, and instantly, I feel a spark that nearly singes my spine in two. He looks at me with a penetrating gaze, and it’s as if I can feel him inside me already. I almost crumble under that intense look. “When I get to know you, you and I won’t be able to keep our fucking hands off each other.”

I gulp, so loud I’m sure he hears it. “Wow.”

“Yeah, it’s a first for me too, baby,” he says knowingly.

I know he and I are feeling that pull, but I guess we both can’t believe just how strong that tug is. We fall silent, and I grow more nervous by the second, lost and unsure what to say.

“So, Harmony told me you moved here from Portland.” He speaks first, and the question is easy enough. I can do this.

“Yes, my mom went to college here. I did it to be closer to her.” I look down and feel that pang in my chest. Do not cry. My fingernails dig into my palms, and I look at the promise ring my mother gave me as a talisman, centering me.

“That’s a far way from home. Wouldn’t it have been easier to just stay physically close?”

I close my eyes, knowing this is going to be awkward. “Uh, no. You see, m-my parents passed away two years ago.” The slice of regret smells bitter in his truck.

He drops his head and shakes it, letting out a deep breath. “Wow. I’m an idiot. Sorry, baby.” He calls me baby as if he’s been doing it for years, and in that instant, it feels like he has.

“Do not say sorry. It’s not something I announce off the bat, and how would you know?” I reach over and squeeze his hand, comforting him while my heart whirls in pain. I cannot and will not break in front of him. I mean, this is already an unlikely scenario, and I don’t want to add me breaking down to the mix. That would be a story for my kids one day.

“What are you going to school for?” Jase asks after we turn off the highway and head toward my place.

“Elementary education, even though I’m sure I will suck at it. I love children, but I don’t think they like me. I swear I repel most kids. For instance: Sadie’s. She’s got a sweet little daughter, and whenever I hold her, she wiggles until she’s free. I’m starting to think I have a weird face or maybe I just smell funny.” I instantly blush as he laughs deep from his belly, his hand tightening on my thigh.

Nice, Kayla. Talk about having body odor. That will get his rocket shooting.

“I doubt it. Depends on her age. My daughter went through a stage last year where she didn’t want anyone to hug her, pick her up, or slow her down. She had to be going all the time.”

A daughter? Jase has a daughter. Obviously, he isn’t married, or at least I would hope he’s not, since we keep touching one another and he keeps referring to me as baby.

“You have a little girl?”

“Yeah, I do. Her name is Avery. She’s five.” He pulls down the visor above him and takes out a picture. “She’s incredible, way too smart, and keeps me a nervous wreck every damn second of the day.” His eyes sparkle when he talks about her, and it’s his most breathtaking look yet.

He hands the picture to me, and the little girl smiling through the photo is adorable. Her hair is a wild mess of brown locks, her eyes a similar color to her hair, and her smile is huge as she squeezes a doll to her chest. I can see it on the printed gloss photo that she is most likely the sweetest thing ever. I don’t doubt she would send Jase into cardiac arrest multiple times a day.

“She’s adorable.” I smile over at him, and with one more glance at the picture, I hand it back.

“Avery is adorable, but she is a handful. Ask my fucking cardiologist,” he jokes, and it lightens the mood again. I make note to ask him about her mother at a later time. We already touched on some deep stuff, and I don’t want this moment to pass.

“Poor thing. Oh, my house is that one right there.” I point to the little white house with a porch light on just up the road.

“There’s no one around you. You have roommates?” He parks, and we both unbuckle.

“Nope, just me.” I watch his nose flare, and his eyes bore into the house like it’s reached out and slapped him.

“What is it?”

“It’s not safe to live out here all alone, baby,” he says, his voice stern.

“That’s exactly what your friend Harlen said, except he was way scarier. That man is huge. And it’s fine. I’m not a damsel in distress. I know how to kick someone’s ass if need be, baby.”

His eyes find mine and he looks shocked. “You making fun of the way I call you baby?”

I smirk and open the truck to jump out. I’m feeling lightheaded and playful and so unbelievably comfortable in this man’s presence. Turning back on him fast, his face still locked in shock, I wink. “Maybe I am. Or maybe I just like calling you baby.” I slam the door and start heading up the walkway, biting my lip in complete and utter disbelief. I haven’t been this carefree or bold since years ago.

“You little fucking minx.” I’m shocked and yelp when I’m suddenly looking at the backside of Jase and his perfect Levi-encased ass. Holy hell. I didn’t even hear him coming up behind me. How did he throw me over his shoulder so damn fast?

“Ahh! Jase! I’m wearing a dress!” I try to reach back to cover my lady parts that I’m sure are out for him to see. I’m thankful I don’t have neighbors close enough to get a look out their window.

“I know, and damn that lace for having the great fucking honor of covering that peach.”

I gasp when I feel a sharp sensation on my upper thigh closest to his face. “Did you just bite me?” I ask, astonished yet excited, my core tightening with my question—completely betraying me.

“Sure did, sassy little thing. You asked for it,” he rumbles. I have an idea, and it hits me fast. Before I can stop myself, I go for it. “Hey! Oh, you fucking tease.” He sets me on my feet and looks back to where his hand is rubbing his ass before turning back to me with a cocky, playful grin. “Did you just bite my ass?”

“Sure did,” I remark, mimicking the same tone he used on me. “You brought it on yourself.” I run up the stairs then to my door and try to unlock the door with shaking hands. Jase is on me then, his front clinging to my back, his tall frame looming over me. He slides one hand up the side of my thigh, up under my dress, and leaves it firmly gripping my hip, where the lace of my panties sits. His lips find my neck, and his hot tongue begins to travel all around my weak spots. This is happening. I know it.

Once the key finally works, the door swings open and he has me against the wall of my small foyer. Lifting me up and around him with little effort, he thrusts forward and lets his hips hold me up. I feel his cock straining against his jeans, and I whimper into his mouth, our tongues fighting and taking more and more with each second, and even then, we can’t get enough.

“Jase,” I moan his name, and it feels familiar. Why? I don’t know. But in this moment, I decide to stop second-guessing it or asking myself questions. I want to feel this moment, even if this is what it will only ever be—a fleeting moment that will be chased away by the morning sun.

“Say you’re okay with this and that you want me, baby.” He finally gives us room to breathe. Our foreheads touch, and his eyes stay shut as if he is trying to mentally talk himself down. I taste the mint from his tongue on mine, and smell his natural manly scent, making me crumble as it breezes across my face.

“I want you to be my first,” I whisper, kissing just his top lip.

“What? This is your first time?” His eyes are open and his breathing has evened out.

I nod, biting my lip, my eyes watering from the real, raw desire consuming my body. I can’t even find the words.

“Don’t answer me with lust. Answer me with words and feelings, baby.” He leans in and kisses my cheek, then my forehead and the tip of my nose.

“I want you tonight, Jase. I want you to be the first man to touch my body.”

“Fuck.” Just like that, he places me back on my feet, and I would stumble, but he keeps a firm grasp on me.

“Undress, beautiful. Slide off your dress and show me your perfect skin.”

I stand nervously, his hands still on my hips as I process what he just asked me to do. “It’s not perfect.”

“I doubt that. Because everything else about you has been perfect so far.”

Nearly purring and blushing like a praised fool, I melt into him. I don’t need to second-guess myself. Jase will make me a woman tonight, and if this is the only time we ever touch or talk again, it won’t make me regret this night.

I reach down, and with one swoop, I remove my dress and he gulps, his eyes glazing over as he stands back. With one hand, he reaches out to touch my hipbone. My chest is bare, being that my breasts are small yet enough and perky, so I don’t have to have a bra.

“Your panties, I want to take them off myself, beautiful. Is that okay?” Jase is soft with not only his touches but his words, and I feel that much safer.

“You don’t have to ask. I’m yours tonight, Jase.”

“You think this will only last tonight? You couldn’t be more wrong, Kayla. This is just the fucking beginning. You’re mine.”

I’m completely robbed of words. Holy hell, that feeling I desired when Harlen spoke to Harmony the way he did comes to life. I have heard men like Harlen and Ben talk to their women this way, but never did I believe I would be under the spell of a man who would speak that way to me. And now that I am, I know I will never be able to go without it.

The delicate feeling of his calloused fingertips makes me shiver as he slides my panties from my body. On his haunches, I become aware of his nearness, and no man has ever been this close to me before. I’m nervous Jase will be disappointed in what he sees. I don’t wax, I just trim, and I’m sure the women this man has been with are perfectly groomed. Jase is older than I am, so he’s probably had his fair share of women. That doesn’t still my frantic heart, so I push it aside and pray he takes me for what I am.

I peer down, risking a look to see what his reaction to me is, and I’m nearly knocked back into the wall, more than I already am.

“Fucking beautiful. Breathtaking. Perfect—I knew you would be perfect, baby.” Looking up from under his thick lashes, his head comes in closer to my core, and before I can question him, he kisses my pubic bone then nips it before soothing it with an open-mouthed kiss.

I bend at the waist and let out a whimper before jolting back into the wall, my hand grabbing a fistful of his hair. “Shit.” A slip of the tongue, unable to handle the sensation.

“Bedroom, point,” he demands, kissing my slit, and the arousal deepens in the pit of my stomach as I nearly combust.

Standing when I follow through, he lifts me up again, my legs banding around his waist. I wrap my arms around his neck, and we share lazy, slow kisses, the kind you give someone you’ve known as a lover for years. That’s how real this feels, how unbelievably natural this connection seems to be.

“You taste like something I’ve been missing,” he whispers against my lips as he leads me into my bedroom, where boxes line the wall and the only thing put together is my nightstand and bed. Thank God for Sadie and Kate’s help today, or we would be making love on hardwood floor.

“What have you been missing?” I whisper when he lays me gently on the bed and stands back to remove his shirt. I watch the muscles bunch, move, and tighten on his six-pack as he removes the material, and my mouth goes completely dry. I have never seen such perfection; he’s built like a god, like the men you see in movies and fantasize about—but better. One hundred times better.

“A fucking heartbeat.”

I melt under his words. Who is this man, and what is his story? Because I think he may be just as broken as I am.

“I couldn’t find mine either, until tonight. You made it beat again,” I confess. He should feel like a stranger, but instead he is on the cusp of being so much more.

Now fully naked, with lust and promise in our eyes, he climbs onto the bed, his hard cock intimidating me.

“It’s going to hurt, beautiful, but I promise to be slow and gentle with you.”

I nod nervously, with rapid jerks of my head. “Okay.”

He smiles gently, crawling over me, using his elbows to hold his body weight as one hand cradles my face. I swallow thickly past the nerves in my throat, and we lock in a heated gaze. “You ready?”

“I am.”

“Are you on the pill?” he asks, reaching down between us and finding my clit. I cry out, the sensation overwhelming. He may be only touching my clit, but it feels like he is touching everywhere, as if he’s in every cell of my body.

“Y-yes,” I stutter, my hands gripping the sheet as he picks up speed. It’s then I feel something enticing growing in my belly, a slow burn that boils to the surface.

“Good, now come for me, beautiful. Let go.”

I do on command. “Oh my God, Jase! Stop! It’s...its too much!” I try and climb away as my orgasm jolts me nearly off the bed. I’m running from the incredible sensation, while trying my damnedest to get closer to it.

“Fuck, baby, I can’t wait. I need you,” he growls, and before I can settle, I feel his cock at my entrance, collecting my juices as he prepares to take me. “Look me in the eyes. Tell me if it’s too much, okay?”

“I will, baby.”

“I love it when you call me that.” He smiles through his response, and it’s the perfect moment to join us together for a night I will never forget, and pray it will not be the last.

Biting my lip as the first inch goes in, I’m completely aware of ever nerve-ending in my body. He goes slowly, giving me inch by inch with a kiss to my lips.

“Let it out, baby. This is going to hurt.” He walks me through it, and with one more thrust, he breaks through and I cry out.

No longer a virgin and now a woman. His woman.

“Jase!”

“So fucking perfect and tight. My girl.”

“Presumptuous,” I squeak, trying to distract myself from the pain.

“Call it that if you will, but the moment I broke that barrier and claimed your body, you became mine. And I don’t share, Kayla.”

I’m suddenly gasping for air, waiting for this dream to end. “We will see what the morning brings us,” I try to brush it off, not wanting to get my hopes up where they shouldn’t be.

“I already know. You’ll be riding my face as I make you mine indefinitely.”

My core clenches, and the pain starts to disappear. Holy hell, I never knew dirty talk could call to the deepest parts of me.

“There it is. You like that idea too, baby, and I know this shit didn’t happen for no reason.” He picks up his pace, and I know I won’t be able to last long.

“Then why don’t you take me like you own me?”

“Letting a stranger own you. If I wasn’t that stranger, I would spank you for giving your body to one.” He moves, sitting up on his knees and gripping my hips. The new position has him deeper inside me.

“Maybe I want you to spank me,” I tease, my head rolling back when he strokes my clit. “Ahh!”

“Next time. Right now, I’m making love to you. It’s your first time, beautiful.”

“Such a gentleman,” I moan, reaching up to grab my hair, and I can’t help but notice the emboldened words slip out of me so easily, the way they used to years ago.

He doesn’t miss a beat, pounding inside me. “No, baby, I’m an alpha. Big fucking difference. Now come for me again. Come with me.” I watch him bite his lip and I mimic it. Totally enthralled. In this moment, I’m his and he is mine. “Don’t you dare stop. Come on, give me one. Chase that feeling.” I do what he says, and I let my body be owned as I let myself feel him deep. Forgetting everything then, I feel him expand inside me. “Pretty baby, come for me.” He pinches my nipples, taking nearly my entire breast in his hand as I come hard. This time, it’s more intense, my core clenching tightly around his shaft.

“Fuck. Damn it.” He comes then, growling my name, the vein in his neck protruding as he keeps up the steady pace.

“Jase!” I grip his hand on my chest and ride out the waves. His come fills me, and it solidifies our connection and this night.

I gave my body to Jase, and I know now that if I’m not careful, he might steal my heart.