Chapter 28
JJ
“Nobody ever drowned in sweat.”
~ Grandma Dixie
Lowering my head, I leaned my hands on the shower tile as I rolled my neck and let the strong, heated stream of water massage my muscles. Growing up on a farm and always being involved in sports meant that, for as long as I could remember, my days had started before dawn and ended long after the sun had gone down. Playing ball on a professional level was physically demanding in and of itself. When travel, double headers, and training were added, it pushed your body to its limits. And those limits were tested even further with an injury, surgery, and PT.
I was no stranger to hard work, so for the life of me, I could not figure out how this week had wiped me out so completely. My mornings had started early, which I was used to. I worked reno at my house. Then, depending on Destiny’s schedule, I worked side by side with her at Sugar Rush. We’d busted down two walls, pulled up tile that had been double glued, stripped the walls of the old green-and-orange-flowered wallpaper at the storefront. The days she worked the lunch shift, we had dinner together, and the days she worked the dinner shift, we had lunch together. Every night, I’d fall into bed, exhausted—but here was the real bitch of the thing. I’d end up spending most of the night wide awake, thinking, fantasizing, and dreaming of Destiny. I was lucky if I caught even a couple hours of sleep.
Nothing in my life had ever been as challenging as letting Destiny set the pace between us. It had been one week since I’d made breakfast for her and we’d spent every day together since. Flirted, of course. But, each time we said goodnight, I gave her a hug and kissed her on the forehead. And that was it.
She never brought up the conversation we’d had in her kitchen, and the last thing I wanted to do was pressure her. I tried to console myself with the fact that she was letting me spend so much time with her. Still, without being able to touch her, to kiss her, or to tell her I loved her, I was suffering from a hall-of-fame-worthy case of physical and emotional blue balls.
I was all for giving Destiny the time she needed, but this snail’s pace was going to be the death of me. After the press conference and groundbreaking today, we were going to have a talk. I wasn’t necessarily going to put the ring that had been burning a hole in my pocket for the past six weeks on her finger, but I at least needed to be able to kiss her. Slow was one thing. Standing completely still was another.
With that decision made, my entire body relaxed. At some point, my eyes drifted shut, and although I’d never fallen asleep standing up in a shower before, I was not surprised when that was exactly what happened. When my phone buzzed on the counter I jerked awake. In a flash, I became aware of my surroundings again. There was a definite possibility that I’d lost some time. My first clue was that the water now felt lukewarm.
Blowing out a long breath, I shut the water off and stepped out of the shower. Then I grabbed my towel off the rack. I had a lot of renovations to do in this house, but over the past two weeks, I’d gotten it livable. Tonight would be my first night in it.
When I looked down at my phone, which had stopped vibrating, it showed that I’d missed not one but four calls from Jessie. An uneasiness swelled up in my chest like a balloon being inflated. If she was calling this much, then there was a situation. I wanted everything to go smoothly today of all days. The groundbreaking ceremony for Briggs Big League Sports Academy and the press conference were scheduled in an hour.
It took me a few seconds to dry off, and when I reached for my phone to call my publicist back, there was a loud knock on my front door. It was not a welcome-to-the-neighborhood knock. It sounded more like a this-is-the-police knock.
“What the hell is going on?” I mumbled as I tightened the towel around my waist and marched to the front door.
I hadn’t made it two steps before my phone was buzzing again. Jessie’s face lit up the screen.
“What?” I barked into the phone just as I reached the front door and swung it open.
I hadn’t really had an expectation of who would be on the other side of the door, but Destiny was there. I was pleasantly surprised. And, oddly, she looked as surprised as I felt. Stunned, actually. Which made absolutely zero sense, since she was the one knocking on my door. Another thing that struck me as unusual was, unless my Spidey senses were off, she’d been crying.
Jessie’s speech was rushed. “JJ, there are a few things I need to go ove—”
“Let me call you back.”
Jessie’s voice grew louder, but I didn’t care. I disconnected the call.
The only thing I cared about was standing in front of me.
“What’s wrong?”
Destiny blinked twice and looked up at me. Until that moment, I hadn’t noticed that she’d been staring at my chest since I answered the door.
“Oh…umm…right…” She sniffed loudly and wiped her nose with the back of her hand as she took what looked to be a fortifying, but shaky, breath and squared her shoulders. “I need to talk to you.”
“Okay. Do you want to come in?”
Stepping to the side, I waited as she looked between me and the house like she was choosing between door number one and door number two. I had no idea what was going on, but something was definitely not right. My phone buzzed again and I shut it off.
“Destiny?” Closing the distance between us, I lifted my hands to cup her face.
Before I made contact, she bent beneath my arm and ducked into the house. “No. Don’t. I need to talk to you.”
“Oookay.”
Once I’d shut the door, I turned. She was staring at me like she’d never seen my body before.
“Destiny?”
“Can you please put some clothes on?” Her posture was stiff and her tone was filled with irritation.
“No. Not until you tell me what’s wrong.” No way in hell I was doing anything until I knew that.
“Fine.” She dropped her hands in exasperation and started towards the door. “I can’t do this.”
“All right.” I held my hands up in surrender. If it kept her here, I would do anything. “I’ll go put some clothes on.”
“No, not that. I mean, yes, that’s part of it. But I mean this.” She motioned her hand between us.
“Destiny. What are you talking about?” I asked slowly. No, I hadn’t had much sleep and I might be a little slower at connecting the dots, but I was pretty damn sure she wasn’t making any sense at all.
“I don’t know.” Her voice was quivering, and tears started to well up. “That’s the point! I have no idea what’s going with us, and it’s driving me crazy. People keep asking, assuming things. I swear half the town has already married us off with a white picket fence and two point five kids. Everyone is acting like you liked it so much you put a ring on it, but,”—she held her hand up—“there’s no ring! Which is fine. I thought I could handle just waiting. Waiting to see what you were doing here. Waiting to see if we were ever going to be us. But I can’t. I can’t deal with everyone thinking we’re in some kind of relationship, when really what we are is friends. Platonic friends!
“I have no idea why you said the things you did in my kitchen, because obviously it wasn’t to get me in bed. I mean, you could not have made it more clear this past week that that was not what you wanted. But the thing is, I’m not some toy you can play with when you want. You can’t just tell me…say to me…the things you have and then act like were buddies. I mean—”
“Stop.” It took me a moment to snap out of the shock of Destiny’s rant. She thought I wanted to be friends with her? What the hell?
I took a step towards her, but she retreated.
“I meant every word I said to you. And I’m not playing with you. I’ve been trying to give you space. I didn’t want you to feel pressured. I know this all happened so fast and that you, being you, would need time to adjust to me being back and in your life.”
“Adjust to you being back?!”
When her eyes widened, I had the very distinct feeling that I might have said the wrong thing.
“What are you talking about? You being here, in Wishing Well, is all I’ve ever wanted since you left for college!”
“I just… I told you I’m not good at this. I’ve never even had a girlfriend, and I sure as hell haven’t ever been in love before now, before you.”
Destiny sucked in a breath and she began shaking her head as she started retreating backwards. I was messing this up so bad. Every word that came out of my mouth felt like a shovel full of dirt as I dug myself deeper into the pit of no return.
“Look. Maybe I wasn’t clear.” A forced huff of laughter pushed from my chest. “Obviously I wasn’t clear. I want to be with you. No games. I don’t want to be your friend. I mean, you are my friend—my best friend. But I sure as hell do not have platonic feelings for you.”
“You’re in love with me?” She stilled and her eyes lifted to mine.
I would have bet money that she hadn’t even heard the last things I’d just said. Not that it mattered, because the most important thing was that she knew I was in love with her.
“Yes.” I crossed the distance between us, not able to take another second of not touching her.
Thankfully, she stayed put this time. So I pulled her into my arms as I breathed in the citrus scent in her hair.
“You’re it for me, Destiny. You always have been, even when you shouldn’t have been. I love you, Pip.”
Her arms wrapped around mine as she whispered, “I love you too.”
The second those words left her mouth, I breathed a breath I hadn’t even realized I’d been holding for… Well, damn. It felt like my whole life.
Pulling back, I cupped her face in my hands and tilted her head up to mine. With my thumbs, I wiped the tears streaking her soft cheeks as I stared into her eyes and told her again, “I love you.”
Her eyes sparkled brighter than a five-carat diamond ring, and I should know. I’d been carrying one around for the last month and a half.
Her voice shook as she smiled through her tears and said, “I love you too.”
My mind and emotions knew that this embrace was an emotional one and not a physical one, but the man downstairs had other ideas. He was more than a little happy to be pressed up against Destiny’s curves with the only barrier between us a towel and a thin sundress.
Knowing that there was no way she hadn’t noticed my eagerness, I teased, “I guess that answers the question of whether or not I have platonic feelings for you.”
The love shining through her eyes now had another spark infused in them—one of the naughty variety. “I don’t know.” She grinned. “I might need a little more convincing.”
“Done.” There was nothing I wanted more than to prove exactly just how un-platonic my feelings were for her. Upon picking her up, I stalked towards my bedroom.
She giggled all the way until we crossed the threshold into my room. “Not now! We don’t have time before the press conference.”
“We have time,” I assured her as I lowered her onto the bed. “We’ve spent years wasting time, but now… Now, we have all the time in the world.”
With the flick of my finger, the towel around my waist dropped to the floor. In a single pull I removed her dress and dropped it beside my towel. My hungry gaze roamed up Destiny’s body. She was wearing a matching pink lace bra and panties, and my heart and other parts of my body swelled as one word kept repeating in my head.
Mine.
When my gaze reached hers, the look in her eyes was filled with a combination of heat, love, and awe. An urge to claim her swept through me as I stood before her naked, raw, hers. If I did what my body was demanding, this would be over before it had started. Which, in the back of my mind, I knew would probably be for the best considering I was scheduled to be standing in front of a swarm of reporters in less than an hour. But even that knowledge didn’t change the fact that I was not going to rush this. Showing and telling Destiny how I felt, how I’d always felt for her, was the only thing that mattered to me.
“These are pretty.” My words were strained with passion as my hands traced the outline of her bra and panties.
“They’re new,” she panted as her body flushed beneath my touch.
I locked my eyes with hers. “Did you buy them for me?”
She nodded as her lips parted and her lids grew heavy with lust.
Pride and love rocked through me. “Well, I better take a closer look, then.”
Destiny inhaled sharply as I slid my fingers beneath her knees and tugged her firmly to the edge of the bed. Lowering to my knees, I spread her legs apart, and my entire body pulsed with fiery need at the provocative view.
Taking my time, I ran my fingertip along the hem of her panties, over her hipbone, and across her stomach before moving my attention to her full breasts. I lovingly grazed my fingers over every single stitch of the fabric concealing her chest. Her nipples beaded under my caress. My palms tingled as I kneaded her lace-covered flesh.
“JJ,” she pleaded.
Her damp core ground against me as I leaned forward and placed gentle kisses along her collarbone—then lower, dipping into her cleavage as I slipped the thin material of her bra down. Then I kissed and sucked each nipple. Drawing them each into my mouth as my tongue flicked and my teeth nipped the distended buds.
Destiny writhed beneath me, grinding against my steel-hard length. Her hands roamed my back. My balls tingled and tightened from the sensation of her nails scratching and digging into my back and my shoulders. Her moans and sighs were getting louder each time I drew her breasts into my mouth.
I knew I could give her what she needed just like this—while teasing and sucking her nipples as my shaft ground against her swollen clit. The only problem with that was that, with a few more hip rolls, I would lose it. Destiny’s body felt too damn good. I didn’t even have to be inside it to explode.
As tempting as it was to come all over the creamy skin of her taut stomach, climaxing inside her, with her, would be so much better. Stilling my hips as I hovered over her, I pulled each one of her nipples into one more openmouthed kiss before I began my journey south.
When my mouth left her breasts, she groaned and her hands clasped in my hair, attempting to hold me in place. But her body relaxed as I kissed, licked, and loved every inch of her as I pulled her panties off.
My breath was labored as I sat back on my heels. I held her gaze as I placed one leg and then the other on each of my shoulders. A pink blush rose on her cheeks as she bit her lip and tilted her body upwards. I loved that being open to me like this made her blush even as she shamelessly offered herself to me.
Taking her seductively silent invitation, I covered her core, licking her from the base of her opening to hood of her sex. A wild tremor shook through her. My hands gripped her hips as I repeated the motion twice more before centering my efforts on her clit with a suctioning kiss. Within seconds, her body convulsed as she came against my mouth.
I continued suckling the hood of her sex as I slipped not one but two fingers into her tight passage. Curling the tip of my finger, I intimately massaged her, and then another spasm hit her. Her back surged off the bed as her hands fisted in my hair, holding me in place. Not that that was necessary—I have would happily stayed just like that, feeding off Destiny’s sweetness, for the rest of my life.
And, now that we’d cleared up the misconception that my feelings for her were platonic, I hoped that was exactly what my future held.