— EPILOGUE —
“AREN’T they amazing, these men of ours?” Olivia tucked her head against Dani’s shoulder.
“Oh, yeah.” Dani stared at Jake as he carried a piece of dock into the lake. The men—Jake, Rafe, Dean, Matt, Tom, and Sean—had spent the morning sinking support pilings underwater, and they’d worn wet suits, but the late May afternoon sun was unseasonably hot, and Jake had since stripped down to a pair of board shorts.
Putting in a dock had been a most excellent idea. It was a bit of a hike to get to the lake—Jake’s property was a long, narrow slip of land, with a forest and a rocky descent between the house and Lake Huron. She hadn’t known about the lake access until one morning a few weeks earlier when Jake woke her up at an ungodly hour with coffee and what was starting to look a lot like a girly wedding binder.
“So I’ve been thinking more about your dock idea for the wedding,” he’d said, like that was an acceptable thing to do at quarter to six in the morning instead of sleeping.
“It’s okay, baby, I don’t care,” she’d mumbled, flashing him some boob in an attempt to lure him back to bed. It didn’t work. Instead he coaxed her out of bed and into a hot shower, and then made her pancakes while he talked about the forest and a tent and mowing a bigger back lawn.
“You’ve totally lost me,” she’d said for what felt like the tenth time, but probably was the first one she’d said out loud.
“Come on.”
He’d bundled her up and they’d headed back beyond the fence that she’d always assumed was the border to his property. Apparently not.
And now he had all of their brothers hard at work. Plus some of his crew. Being a builder had its perks, apparently. One of them being drool-worthy abs, and another being a lot of power tools.
The women were sitting on a large landing halfway down the newly built stairs descending to the lake from the top of the hill. The landing functioned like a deck, and Dani had carried two chaise chairs down to it in the name of comfort for her pregnant friend. That she also got to sit and ogle…well, just her fiancé, because most of the other good-looking men below were related to her.
But Jake was definitely ogle-worthy all on his own.
“You okay there?” Olivia laughed and pressed her cold bottle of lemonade against her neck.
“This is the first summer I haven’t had to avert my eyes around him. I’m going to be disgusting in my appreciation for a good while yet.”
“You guys pick a date yet?”
After months of dancing around the details, because nothing had felt quite right, once Jake came up with the idea of building a dock, all the rest fell into place. She even had her dress ordered.
“We’re thinking last weekend in August. Just need to finalize a caterer and make sure we can get tents rented.”
“If you can’t rent them, I bet he’ll just build them.” Olivia pointed to where Jake was barking orders like a drill sergeant. Which he was. It made Dani laugh.
“Jesus, you even find his bossiness a turn on?”
Hooking a finger over her sunglasses, Dani tugged them off her head and onto the bridge of her nose. Everything Jake did was a turn on. It would be best for everyone if she had some privacy as she ate him up with her eyes.
— —
Running water and girly scents greeted Jake as he entered their bedroom. He found Dani in the bathroom, filling the rarely used tub.
“Taking a bath?” he asked drily. He didn’t mind—hell, he wanted to watch—but it wasn’t like she’d busted her very fine ass all day installing a dock.
“It’s not for me, silly. Strip.”
He didn’t need to be asked twice. He dropped his swim trunks on the tile floor and padded across the room. She patted his butt and pointed to the water. “In you get.”
Snagging her wrist, he worked his other hand under her shirt. “Join me,” he muttered, kissing that spot on her neck that always got her going.
“Can’t. I’m babysitting tonight, remember?”
That worked for him. “Tell me more about your dirty babysitting fantasies.”
She giggled as she pulled away. “No, for real. I told you, Ryan has a…well, he wouldn’t call it a date. But he’s going out, and he asked me to watch the kids instead of their grandparents, so I’m assuming he doesn’t want them to know that he’s going out. Ergo, a date.”
Jake tipped his forehead against Dani’s. He did remember now. Damn. “Do we know who the mystery woman is?”
“Nope. Still a secret.”
“What time do you need to be there?”
“An hour from now, but I wanted to—”
“Nope, that’s long enough. Strip.” He twirled his index finger in a circle, pleased to see she didn’t bother fighting.
“You know at some point we’re going to have to stop going at it like bunnies, right?”
“Not any time soon, I hope.” He licked his way down her neck, already half hard and ready to be inside her. “God, you taste good. Shirt off, please.”
Her whole body shook with laughter as he shoved her t-shirt up and mouthed over one of her nipples.
“What? I said please.”
“Sure.” She wiggled out of her shorts and climbed into the tub, holding out her hand in invitation. “You coming?”
“After you.”
They made short work of getting clean, then Jake leaned back, pulling Dani backwards with him. He knew he didn’t have a ton of time, so he worked efficiently, teasing all the places that got her hot and bothered without spending enough time in any one place to finish her off. He liked fingering her best, that slippery slide into her pussy the best feeling on earth as far as giving went. Her riding him beat it all, of course. But turning her on with just the touch of his fingers…that was a power trip. He could do a lot with his hands. Build houses. Fire a sniper rifle with deadly accuracy. Comfort friends in need.
But everything paled in comparison to this connection they had.
“I love you,” he said, his voice thick with emotion, and she echoed the sentiment, arching out of the sudsy water under his touch.
He couldn’t wait to make this woman his wife. He’d build a hundred docks if she wanted. She’d thought she was being stubborn and difficult over the early months of wedding planning, but Jake hadn’t cared. He loved that Dani waited until the right answer presented itself. She didn’t settle, ever, and that made the wait all the more worthwhile.
“How do you want me?” he asked with a groan as she rocked her ass against his now rock-hard cock.
“Like this.” She lifted up again, tipping her hips down enough to welcome him into her body, and then they were groaning together as she stretched around him. “So good,” she panted, and it really was.
At this angle, he wouldn’t last long, so he resumed his teasing and stroking. The bubbles helped him slick his hands over her breasts and down her belly to her clit, then back again, but on the next pass, she clamped her hand over his as he reached her pussy. She held their fingers there and he rocked his palm back and forth over that nub of nerve endings as she touched where they were joined. Then she stroked lower, her fingertips glancing over his balls, barely able to reach as they drew tight, his orgasm coming on hard and fast. Water sloshed all around them as she swivelled her hips, taking all he had to give her and then some as she found her own pleasure against his hand and around his erection.
“Wow.”
He wasn’t sure which one of them had said it, or maybe they both did at the same time. Either way, that had definitely been wow. He couldn’t feel his legs and his vision was sort of spotty, but he was suddenly a big fan of bubble baths. “We should use this thing more often.”
“Mmm hmmm.” Dani slowly extracted herself from his grasp, then peered over the edge of the tub. “Or…”
He couldn’t muster enough energy to move. “Did we flood the floor?”
“Just a bit.”
“Worth it.”
“Let me guess… the builder is confident in the waterproofing membrane he laid down under these tiles?”
The builder didn’t give a fuck at the moment, but as a matter of fact… “Yeah, he is.”
“I’m pretty confident in his abilities, too.”
“Dirty girl.”
“You love it.” She climbed out and pressed a kiss to his forehead. “You crashing soon?”
He might fall asleep before he got out of the tub. “Yep.”
“K. I’ll see you when I get home.” Her voice grew distant as she disappeared into the bedroom, and he slowly followed after draining the tub. He stepped gingerly on the bath mat, then on the trail of towels Dani had tossed on the ground to sop up the water. He flipped the switch for the fan, gathered up the wet towels and lay down new ones before crawling into bed and passing out.
— —
Dani couldn’t stop smiling the whole way home. She still didn’t know who the mystery woman was—Ryan had left and returned on his own. And he hadn’t been gone that long, didn’t smell like perfume or have any lipstick marks on his collar, or any other obvious sign that he’d been with a woman. But there’d been a softness in his face that made her heart sing. She bit back all the questions she had for him. If he wanted her to know, he’d offer the information freely.
And Ryan didn’t want anyone to know that he was on the road to happiness again. She got that.
It still made her smile.
She parked in the garage, then walked through the house, locking up and turning off the lights. As she usually did if she was the last one up, she stopped at the fireplace and looked at the double selfie she and Jake had taken the day they’d gotten engaged. Everyone else had left, and the snow had started falling. Outside, a blizzard raged, and inside they’d been nothing but smiles for each other. Jake had cracked open a bottle of wine while Dani documented every step of the process on her phone.
“Give me that,” he’d said gruffly.
“Baby, I want to remember ever single moment,” she’d protested.
He’d just given her that smile, the one that undid her every single time, and stretched his arm out in front of them at the same time as he pulled her close. “My wife,” he’d whispered just before pressing the button, and the expression captured on her face made her do a secret happy dance every time she looked at the picture.
Turning off the light, she glanced back at the mantle one last time before climbing the stairs.
She crawled into bed, kissing Jake’s back as he snoozed away. “My husband,” she whispered, feeling blessed beyond words.
THE END
Thank you for reading Jake and Dani’s book! If you enjoyed it, please leave an honest review where you bought it. Reviews help new authors be found by readers.
Want more Pine Harbour? Turn the page for an excerpt from Rafe and Olivia’s book, and a sneak peek at Ryan’s book!
Love in a Small Town - Rafe & Olivia’s story
Love in a Snow Storm - Jake & Dani’s story
Love on a Spring Morning - Ryan & Holly’s story
(expected Spring 2015)