CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Skye
Present Day…
Why in the hell had I said yes?
And why in the hell did I ever think this was a good idea when I was younger?
My teeth chattered from the cold as I looked out another plane’s window. Not the luxurious jet from before, but a tiny thing that was so loud I couldn’t even hear my pounding heart over the rattling motors.
Skydiving.
Jake was taking me skydiving. Over the Grand Canyon.
“Let’s knock two of those dreams off the board at the same time,” he’d said.
And I’d let him.
I pulled on this awful looking jumpsuit and tied the running shoes he’d given me. I’d placed the hideous safety goggles over my eyes and said yes.
Jagger would laugh at how silly I looked.
I groaned. Jagger. My baby.
Was I really going to risk making him an orphan? Was I really going to follow through on this insanity and jump out of this noisy but perfectly respectable plane?
I looked at Jake. He winked, his dimple showing, and I sighed. He looked so happy. Well, sure, as a Navy SEAL, I was sure he did this kind of thing before breakfast. Jumping from this high up was probably as easy as walking down steps in his former world.
Duckwalking toward me, Jake twirled a finger, indicating I should turn around. I swallowed and did as I was told, and felt him buckle us together. We were jumping tandem, Jake told me earlier. That, at least, made me feel a little bit better.
Soon, I was strapped to him in a similar fashion to how I used to carry Jagg around when he was a baby. Too soon after that, the door on the side of the plane was being opened by the man I was told would be jumping with us, videotaping our descent.
The wind was like a tornado ripping through the small craft, and a low moan began to issue from my throat as Jake duckwalked us to the door. Then we were at the edge and there was nothing between me and Earth but air.
And it was beautiful.
Our incredible planet looked like a patchwork quilt of colors, the gaping hole of the Grand Canyon a bright red mouth. As I looked down, I felt the old Skye resurface from where I’d stamped her down so many years ago. The daring Skye. The risk-taker Skye. The Skye who jumped into quarries.
And that Skye was smiling. She was proud.
“Ready?” Jake yelled into my ear.
I was born ready.
“Yes!”
We leaped.
I screamed, from terror and happiness, as we fell through the sky, the wind roaring past my ears. The force of it was incredible against my face, and when I began to laugh, my lips blubbered, making me laugh even harder.
Jake flipped us, and Earth became sky, the plane we’d jumped out of a tiny speck in the distance. He flipped us again, and Earth reappeared, so much closer now, rushing to us at an incredible speed.
Jake tapped my arm, the signal for me to hold onto the straps so he could pull the chute.
I grabbed on tight, then it was like we’d run into an invisible wall before we were yanked back upward. Then we were floating, suspended above the ground, giving me the time to really inspect the beauty below me.
The colors of the canyon grew more brilliant, the reds glimmering under the hot sun. We weren’t allowed to dive into it, which was a tiny bit disappointing, but we got so close I felt like I could reach out and touch it. When Jake pulled on some straps and steered us toward an open patch of dirt, I wasn’t ready for it to be over. I smiled as I recognized the Land Rover from the airport. Jake had thought of everything.
“Keep your feet up. I’ve got you,” he yelled, and I did as he said. Soon, we were on the ground, the landing surprisingly gentle.
As soon as he released my straps from his, I turned and leaped into his arms. I kissed him, our goggles crashing together, but I didn’t care. I kissed him again.
“Thank you. Thank you so very much.”
He shoved both our goggles over our heads and deepened the kiss, our mouths taking and giving as if our lives depended on each other’s breath.
Maybe they did.
In this short amount of time, I was coming to depend on him. Ache for him when he wasn’t with me. Love him more than I’d known my heart would allow.
“I love you, Jake,” I whispered against his lips, then repeated it louder, my voice clear and certain.
“I love you too, Skye. I think I’ve loved you my entire life.”
We held hands as we walked to the Rover and he put me inside. Later, we held hands as we walked to the rim of the canyon and looked down, suspended over one of Earth’s most amazing creations. We held hands as we ate the picnic lunch prepared for us. It was like we could never let each other go.
I couldn’t believe it was only one in the afternoon when we stepped back onto his jet. We were both sweaty and dusty as we fell into the leather seats, still holding hands.
And when the jet was in the air and we were cruising back to New York, Jake pulled me up from the chair and walked me down a short hallway and into a bedroom. I was still gawking at the silk bed covering as he pulled me into the master bath. He turned on the water to the shower and watched me as I stripped. In return, I watched his skin be revealed one article of clothing at a time, the muscles flexing with the movement.
The water was warm, the scented soaps and shampoos sensuous as we washed each other slowly, not missing an inch. He bundled me into a thick towel after squeezing as much water as he could from my hair. It would be a mess later, but I didn’t care.
Because he was leading me to the bed, tossing the rich comforter to the foot of it before laying me down on the silk sheets, covering me with the hard steel of his body.
What started as gentle became more urgent as he began to devour my mouth. I fed from him too, my legs curling around him, pressing every inch of our flesh together that I could.
His kiss. With only his lips, he stirred something deep in my soul. And I knew he felt it too.
“Do you know what you do to me?” he growled, his teeth nipping at my bottom lip. “How crazy you make me? How beautiful you are? So perfect?”
I moaned as his mouth crashed onto mine again, and his hands moved between us, capturing my breast. “So responsive,” he said as he pinched a hard nipple. He ground a thigh between my legs. “So wet.”
His very words were a seduction, and I fell willingly under his spell.
He pushed up on an elbow, hovering over me. “In a minute, I’m going to push your legs apart and I’m going to feast on your sweet pussy. I plan to eat you so hard you come all over this bed.” A finger trailed over my breast and down my stomach. My breathing hitched as he circled my clit. “This is mine. Do you understand?”
Unable to speak, I nodded instead.
His finger trailed lower, dipping inside me. “Mine.”
I nodded again, then gasped as his hand went lower still, his thumb circling the tight muscle of my ass. “Mine.”
My lips trembled when I finally said, “Yes. Everything is yours.”
His eyes, nearly black now from his dilated pupils, smiled down at me. “Yes, everything. And I’m going to claim it now.”
The bed lurched as we hit a patch of turbulence, but we didn’t break eye contact. “I’m yours.”
Without warning, his lips crashed down on mine again, his tongue invading my mouth just as two fingers invaded my sex. It was a full-on assault as they slammed into me over and over. They twisted, and his knuckled grazed over my inner walls until he pressed hard against my G-spot.
I wailed into his mouth, my hands clutching the sheets before moving to his shoulders to clutch him, my pelvis lifting as he drove me to the brink.
“That’s right, Skye. I’m going to make you come so hard and so fast that—”
Pleasure exploded through me, threatening to tear me in half. My toes curled. The roots of my hair tingled, but he didn’t stop moving, didn’t give me time to even catch my breath. The fingers moved faster, twisting and turning until I came a second time, this time feeling a splash of fluid released from my body.
“That’s right, give it to me.” He lifted his fingers to his mouth and sucked. “You taste so fucking good. I crave it. I crave everything about you.” Then he was between my legs, his tongue thrusting into me hard.
I clutched at his hair, writhing, trying to pull him closer and push him away at the same time. It was too much. Too much feeling. Too much sensation. He bit my clit. Too much everything.
Before I could come again, he pushed to his feet and pulled me to a sitting position, standing between my legs.
“I want your mouth.”
Mmm… he looked so sexy standing in front of me like that. The sprinkle of dark chest hair, the scars that made him uniquely him. The hard muscles of his stomach, the deep v-grooves over his hips.
And that cock, so long and thick jutting out in my direction. I wrapped both fists around it, and licked the gleaming bead of moisture from the tip, savoring his taste. Savoring the way he groaned. Savoring the way his fingernails scratched at my scalp as he pulled my wet hair exactly right.
I looked up at him and squeezed him harder. “Mine.”
The right side of his mouth lifted, the dimple on display winking. “Yes, yours.”
I slid a hand down his shaft and cupped his balls. “Mine.”
The grin grew bigger. “Yes, ma’am.”
Feeling distinctly like the devil, I crooked a finger up and down, then headed farther south. He jumped back, terror on his face. I tried to hold back the laugh, but there was no stopping it. “What?” I asked with all the innocence I could muster. “Isn’t turnabout fair play?”
“Um… well…” He looked at the finger I was still crooking up and down. One of my hands still had him by the balls, so he wasn’t going too far. I gave him a little squeeze to remind him of that before letting him off the hook.
“Just kidding.” I bobbed my eyebrows. “This time.”
He blew out a relieved breath, then moaned when I ran my tongue over his tip. Pulling him closer to me by the balls, I wrapped my lips around him and began to suck.
“Fuck, Skye.” Another long moan. “Shit.”
Licking and sucking, I enjoyed the power I held over this big man. Opening my throat, I tried to take most of him in, working his thick length past my gag reflex.
“Stop,” he begged, pulling on my hair. “You’ve got to stop.”
No way in hell.
I squeezed his balls, pulsing them in a more gentle grip as I worked to consume him, loving the weight on my tongue.
The hands in my hair became more desperate as I felt him thicken, knowing he was close. I pulled away, his cock making an obscene sounding pop as it left my mouth, and grinned up at him. “Your wish is my command.”
He narrowed his eyes, and I yelped when he yanked me up and tossed me onto my stomach, dragging my hips up. With his hand on the back of my head, he pushed my cheek into the silk sheets, leaving me with my ass in the air.
And he spanked me. I moaned as the sting of his palm spread over my behind. Moaned when he struck me a second time. With a knee, he forced my legs open, then… whack, his palm came straight down on my sex. Again. And again. And again.
Pleasure and pain danced around each other as I processed all the sensations. But then everything changed.
Dropping to his knees, his lips replaced his hand and he sucked my outer lips into his mouth. It took everything inside of me not to scream. His palm came down on my ass again as his tongue slid into me, followed by two fingers. He stood up and began fingering me hard. I was so close. Close. My internal muscles gripped him hard… and he pulled away.
“No.”
“Payback’s a bitch, sweetheart.” The words were accompanied by a chuckle just before his tongue washed over my anus. Then a finger was there, circling the tight rim. Then pressure. So much pressure.
When his finger breached the entrance, I groaned. Not from pain. Not exactly. A feeling of fullness, of…
Oh. Yes.
As he withdrew his finger, his knuckle skimmed over the sensitive nerves, and I understood what this was all about. Ripples of pleasure shot through me, then stopped as he penetrated me again.
In. Out.
Pain. Pleasure.
When he added a second finger, the feeling intensified.
He twisted them, stretching me wider.
“I want you here.”
Pain. Pleasure.
“Yes. I want that too.”
His movements stopped. “You do?” He sounded surprised, and I wished I could see his expression. Then I forgot all about faces as his fingers began moving again.
“Yes. Please. Anything.”
He withdrew from me, and I felt the loss of him. “Turn over. I want to see your face.”
As I turned, I watched him walk over to the bag on the table. A second later, he was removing a small pack of wipes and a bottle of… lube?
“Prepared, aren’t we?”
He grinned. “A man can dream.”
Setting the lube down, he washed his hands with a wipe, then washed them again with a second one. His eyes were so intense on me, it was hard to be embarrassed about why they were needed.
He tossed the wipes away and picked up the lube. As I watched, he poured some in his hand, then stroked himself.
Damn. That was sexy.
As I watched his cock slide through his hand, I was reminded of just how big he was. “Will it hurt?” I asked, swallowing hard, feeling a little bit of worry and panic rise in anticipation of what we were about to do.
“Yes. At first. Then it won’t. I promise.”
Pouring more lube in his hand, he let it drip onto my stomach, my hips, my thighs.
“Open your legs.”
I did as I was told, and he moved his fingers over me. He smiled as I arched against his fingers and he spread the slick fluid over my clit, down my slit, then… there.
My heart began to pound as he pushed my knees back and opened them wide. Moving closer, I felt his cock nudge my entrance, his eyes locked on mine.
“Take a deep breath,” he said, and as I inhaled, he pressed forward, causing me to cry out.
It burned with a white-hot flare of pain, and he reached down and began circling my clit with a lubed finger. As he inched inside me, I thought he must have been wrong. There was no pleasure in this.
I wanted to shout at him to stop, scream to him to never touch me again. I was too full. I was being split in two. Then I looked at his face.
It was twisted in an agony of pleasure, his eyes fixated on where our bodies connected.
He wanted this, and I’d give him anything, I realized.
I took another deep breath and forced myself to relax. “That’s right, baby. Let me in. Accept me.”
Accept him.
When I stopped fighting, it became easier, and he slid the rest of the way home, his thighs on my skin.
“Thank you,” he moaned.
I tried to smile at him, thinking I was simply here to give him pleasure, that there was nothing here for me, when he began to withdraw and… oh.
A different set of nerves engaged, clawed at me. Pain, yes, but different. Good.
“You’re so beautiful,” he said, “and I love you so very much. Thank you for letting me back in your life. For giving me a son. Hope for the future.”
My world narrowed down until there was only him. Only his voice and the words he was saying. The heat of his hands on my leg, my clit. The hard muscles of his thighs on my behind.
The pain became secondary, an afterthought to this gift I was giving him. Giving myself.
He pressed into me again, and I arched into the pain.
He pulled out, and pleasure pushed everything away.
In. Pain.
Out. Pleasure.
As he gently rocked in and out, I rode a rollercoaster of intense sensation.
He continued to speak to me, soothing and loving words, but I couldn’t speak in return. Too much was happening for me to process it all. I knew one thing, even if I couldn’t articulate it. I didn’t want him to stop.
The finger on my clit pressed hard as he picked up speed, rubbing me, pressing into the bundle of nerves, and I relaxed my legs even more, giving him room to change the angle of penetration.
“Jake,” I screamed into my hand as he filled me even more.
“That’s right, baby. I’m going to make you feel good. I’m going to make you come so hard you’ll never be the same.”
He was right. I was going to come, and when he slipped his fingers inside me, twisting them until he found my G-spot, I was filled to capacity, yet still wanted more.
In. Out.
He picked up speed again, plunging into me over and over until pain and pleasure became one. My orgasm built and my core contracted, building up strength.
“I wish you could see your face right now,” he murmured, “how beautiful and sensual you look.”
His thumb brushed over my clit, and I exploded, crying through the intensity of the orgasm. An instant later, he followed, cursing through his own release.
We were both breathing hard when he pulled out, leaving me alone and empty, but only for a moment. He cleaned me up, and then curled around me on the bed.
“Thank you for trusting me,” he murmured into my still damp hair.
I turned until I could see his face fully. “Thank you for today. For pushing me out of the comfort zone I’d gotten used to.”
He nuzzled my face, the scratch of stubble soothing. “You and Jagger mean everything to me. In the darkness of my life, you and he are the only light. I can’t believe how lucky I was to be in that stadium that day. To be the one who found Jagger when he was lost. You saved me, Skye. You saved me that day.”
I leaned in and kissed him. “You saved me too.”
He shook his head, the pain back in his eyes. “I dreamed of you. Daydreamed of you. Sometimes, I’d catch a glimpse of a woman with long, dark hair, and I’d run to her. But she was never you.”
My heart twisted. “You did?”
He nodded, his eyes serious. “Yes. We had that one time together, and it was like you poured some highly addictive drug into my system. I wanted more, but…”
I ran a hand through his sweaty hair, pushing it back from his forehead. “You wouldn’t allow yourself to have more.”
“So, I chased the addiction for a while, trying to find a replacement.” His face turned a little red. “Women. Jumping out of planes. Firefights I shouldn’t have lived through. When I got out of the Navy, I bought my apartment, but it didn’t feel like home. I bought this plane, but it couldn’t fly me far enough away to forget.”
My eyes burned with hot tears as his own eyes turned red with emotion.
“I was ready to give up, Skye.” His voice cracked on my name. “That day at the ballpark, I was meeting a man so I could create a system to funnel all my money to veterans. I planned to set it up that way so I could…” He shook his head and closed his eyes. “Then I found you. You were like an angel in front of me. Hope.” He shuddered, his entire body rippling with the movement. “I was scared. I thought you’d hate me. I found out about Jagger but thought I’d probably suck as a father.”
A tear slid down his cheek, and it shattered me to see such a big, strong man this way.
“You gave me my life back, Skye. I’d been running from it for so long, and now I’m thinking that I won’t have to run anymore.”
As I pulled him to me and held him while he cried, I felt hope too.