Honey

Jamie sat between Jake and me, curled against my side, knocked out. I hadn’t watched all of it because I’d made Jake and his dad grilled cheese sandwiches. I’d also placed an online order for groceries.

When my phone buzzed with a text, I eased Jamie over to lie on her sleeping dad. Everyone but me had dozed off.

As silently as I could, I opened the front door and stepped out onto the porch. Axel was there. He held out my keys.

“Where have you been?” I whispered.

He sighed. “I’m not going to lie to you. I never have.” That sounded ominous. “After I dropped my brother off, I went back to your grandmother’s.”

“Why?”

I wasn’t mad and she enjoyed his company, but I was curious.

“After meeting little Jamie, I saw how truly important you were to this family. I’d hoped you’d change your mind about moving out.”

I blinked. “Thirty-second rule?”

He’d mentioned how he’d sized up Jake in that time. Had he also done the same with Jamie?

He nodded. “That little girl loves you too. And whatever happened between you and Jake, you guys needed to work it out.” My words to Jake about Tara were being tossed in my face. “And I wanted time with Grams.”

I couldn’t stop the lift of my lips at the corners. “You wanted a home cooked meal, didn’t you?”

He grinned like he wanted me to see all of his teeth. “I like her company and her advice.”

“And what advice did you need?”

His bright white smile dimmed some. “On how to let go of hope.”

I reached up, cupped his cheek, and drew him down so our foreheads met. “I’ll always love you.”

“Like a brother?” he asked.

“Like a brother.”

When he leaned in and kissed my cheek, the door opened. I knew who was behind me. I didn’t move away because we’d done nothing wrong. Instead, I combed my fingers through Axel’s hair before ruffling it.

I jumped back, giggling when he slapped my hand away and tried to fix it.

“Gotcha,” I said, lighting the moment.

He ran his hand over his hair a few times and it fell back into place. Then his eyes lifted to the man behind me.

“I should go.”

I could no longer deny my feelings toward Jake when he said, “You don’t have to. You can stay for the night or however long.”

Axel gave me the I told you so look. “Thanks for the offer, man. But my roadie followed me.”

He pointed to a car off in the distance I hadn’t noticed. It wasn’t running, that was how I’d missed it.

“Well, don’t be a stranger. You’re welcome at any time. Though I have to warn you that when my daughter turns twenty-one, she won’t be marrying a rock star.”

I hadn’t heard Jamie tell her father about meeting him. I guessed while I was cooking, she’d shared that story with him. Axel gave Jake a thumbs-up with a wicked wink and laughed.

I went in for another quick hug and said, “Call me anytime.”

He nodded and walked off into the dark, which out in the country is absolute. Except for the porch light there was nothing but the moon and stars to light his way.

Jake came over and wrapped an arm around me as I watched the car Axel got in disappear down the lane.

Then Jake turned and our eyes connected.

“Marry me, Honey.”

Okay, that was the last thing I expected him to say and for a second I could do nothing but gape.

He filled in the silence. “I know it’s soon, but I’ve never felt so sure in my life about anything. When I thought you were leaving for good, I knew I never wanted you to go… ever.”

“Tara?”

His head slowly drifted from side to side. “I thought about it for sure. But it was more out of obligation. We’d been together so long, it was almost expected. And I think now, I must have realized that something wasn’t right between us. She’d wanted me to stay, but I left for the military anyway.”

When I still said nothing, he added, “You don’t have to say yes now. But it’s what I want. And a side bonus, it’s what Jamie needs. She loves you just as much as I do.”

I didn’t know what to say and I could see that hurt him, but he tried to hide it.

“Sugar—”

As if he didn’t want me to say no, he cut in.

“Do you think you could put Jamie to bed, while I help Dad?”

I nodded. We went inside. Jamie was out like a light and I cradled her in my arms and took her to her room and got her tucked in.

Jake was still with his dad when I made my way to my room, looking at the suitcase still on the bed. Had I really been about to leave?

The thought had me hugging myself.

“You all right?” Jake’s drawl startled me as he filled in the doorway like no other man could.

He didn’t wait for my reply. He kicked the door shut and stalked toward me. He lifted his hands to either side of my head to tangle in my hair. He bent and slanted his mouth over mine in an explosive kiss like the one that had my knees weak earlier today.

Passion was the spark that made me give into the stroking of his tongue, consumed with need for him. His big, calloused hands slid down my back, over my hips to cup my ass. He brought us tighter together than a dart on a bull’s-eye as his growing erection pressed hard against my belly.

A growing pressure inside me forced me to act. I rolled my hips to grind against him. He answered with a growl into my mouth.

“I need to fuck you.”

I gave my agreement with a nod. Those strong arms of his lifted me up and I wrapped my legs around him. We didn’t have far to go, two steps and he dropped me like a stone on the bed. He hooked his thumbs in his belt loops and just stared at me with hooded eyes.

Mouth suddenly dry, I licked my lips and let my eyes fall to the bulge in his pants. I edged up on my forearms, not sure why he stopped.

Then he reached up and pulled his shirt over his head in one swoop. “I need to take a shower first.”

Now that was a plan I could get on board with. “I’ll join you.”

He shook his head. “No. If you do, I won’t be able to stop myself and we need to play it safe for now.”

Talk about total deflation. Even the sight of his ass in those jeans as he disappeared into my bathroom couldn’t take the image of what Tara had done to him out of my head. I fell to my back and stared at the ceiling. I wished I’d slapped the woman the first time I met her instead of shaking her hand. Worse, I couldn’t imagine what Jake was thinking. I made up my mind and went into the bathroom anyway. Just because we needed to play it safe didn’t mean we couldn’t play.

“Sugar,” I said, like a curse or maybe a prayer.

He was gloriously naked and soapy from head to toe. His ass was on fine display. When he heard my voice, he turned. I held up a foil package I had in my stash and walked into the shower with him. He snatched it from me and used his teeth to open it.

All I could focus on was his soft lips and how he’d used them on me in the past. I had to clench to stop from exploding with just the thought of the things he did to my body. But even though that didn’t do it, when he scooped me up, pressed me to the wall, and thrust into me, that did. I came hard and fast, spasming around him. He stopped and groaned into my now wet hair as warm water sluiced over me.

And then he began to move with earnest. He sucked on my neck, nibbled on my ear, biting at my lips as he worked us both up. I would have multiple orgasms before the night was over. But my second came on the heels of his. He drove into me so deep, I felt his cock pulsing inside me. When I began to come, he jerked a few more times, prolonging both of our pleasure.

However, Jake wasn’t done. Out of the shower, he laid me gently on the bed. Crawling between my thighs, he settled there and used his tongue in all the ways his dick had done minutes earlier.

After coming three times, I was boneless and soon fell asleep.