CHAPTER NINETEEN

STEELE

 

Just as I thought, the view of the woods from the bed is breathtaking. Must be early because the sun’s just starting to break around the trees. I run my hand over Jay’s silky hair. Enjoying the scenery, I allow my fingers to stroll along her beautiful face and naked shoulder. I glance down. The sight of her sprawled comfortably over me, the sheet barely covering her ass and leg, is even more breathtaking. Last night was amazing.

I kiss the top of her head.

A faint popping sound that’s not coming from the fireplace pulls my eyes back to the window.

Jay mumbles something incoherent as she snuggles closer to me.

“Do you hear that?”

“What?” Her hand reaches around me, her face finding a resting place in the crook of my neck.

I tilt my head toward the window. “There! That?”

She lifts her head, eyes closed. “Oh, that.” She lies back down. “It’s called frost crack; in the winter when the sun warms the trees, there’s like this contraction in the wood that causes the bark to split,” she mumbles against my chest but, this time, coherently.

“Huh.” My hand goes back to caressing her hair, listening to the odd sound and imagining the effects on the wood from the cold and heat. Makes sense. I watch a small branch fall from a tree and land gracefully on the ground.

The tips of her fingernails scratch up the side of my head. Feels good. My eyelids slowly fall.

“Steele?”

My eyes snap open. “Yeah?” I draw my hand down her silky mane, content with lying in this bed for the remainder of the day.

“Why are you here?”

My hand stops mid-stroke. Fuck. Thought I would get out of answering this question. I resume caressing her. “Remember what I told you about my mom.”

“Yes,” she responds in a low whisper as though if we don’t talk too loudly about it, then maybe it didn’t really happen, but it did.

“Well, the day she took me and Stone, I was so scared. I mean, Stone was with me, but he was little. I had to be the strong one.” I stare off into the woods, everything around me turning into a blur, even the memories. My fingers drift down her skin, following each soft line. “Every day that we were with her, I’d pray someone would come and help me because even though I was ready to do it, I really didn’t want to do it alone.” My fingers slide to her head. I brush away a few strands, then bend down and kiss her forehead. “When I heard you left and that someone had died, I wasn’t sure what happened, but I knew whatever it was, I didn’t want you to have to go it alone.”

It remains silent for a few seconds. Then something wet drops on my neck. Son of a bitch. Did I make her cry? Before I can respond to the thought, she pushes herself up and moves to the edge of the bed. She sits there with her back to me. Her shoulders shake, following a faint sniffle.

Maybe she’s cold. Perhaps, that’s all it is. I pull the sheet up and around her.

“Thanks.” Her voice quivers as she grips the sheet closer to her chest.

Dammit! She’s crying. I move back in the bed, giving her some space to deal with why I’m here and why that made her cry.

Fuck it. We both need to face the fact that I care about her, and that’s why I’m here. I settle against the headboard and concentrate on the woods, struggling to blur everything else out. Succeeding, I find myself lost in the trees, some with naked limbs and some lush with pine needles.

“Man, it sure is beautiful here,” I comment aloud.

“Yeah.” She blows out. “Trevor and I used to sneak in after hunting season when Dad wasn’t around. We’d bring a twelve-pack and get drunk. We’d sit right there.” She points in front of the window, and my eyes focus on her frail frame at the end of bed, still protected by the sheet I wrapped around her naked body. “You should see it after a good snowfall. The trees glisten. It feels like you’re in a whole other world.” Her head tips back a little as though she’s closing her eyes and trying to get lost in the memory. “I used to love walking home at night. The branches drooped like they were draped in diamonds and crystals. Wherever the snow stuck—on the cars, houses, trees—everything would come alive when the streetlights hit them. Everything sparkled.” Her hands come out wide, and the sheet falls to her hips. Her slender back, the silhouette of her body, chokes me. “You should see it, Steele. It’s so pretty.” She picks the sheet up, readjusting it around her. “Unlike California or Chicago, it’s not busy here. You can walk down the middle of streets.”

“You miss it?”

Her small shoulders shrug. “I forget sometimes how peaceful it is here. Then something reminds me of home, and I remember the people I left here, living and dead. Like the globe you gave me⸻”

“I’m sorry.” I sit up straight. “I didn’t mean to⸻”

“Oh, no. I love the globe.” She turns and looks at me with gentle eyes. “It’s beautiful.” She touches my bare leg. “Thank you, Steele, and thanks for coming.”

“Sorry about your friend.”

“She was a wonderful person. I feel bad for her husband. He’s lost so many people already in the past few years.”

“She was Trevor’s mom, right?” I pause as the sheet slides off her shoulder, almost revealing her nipple. Instant hard-on. Fuck! “Your, ah”—I toss a pillow over my cock—“mom told me when I stopped there before I went to the cemetery.”

“So …” A smile rouses her thin lips as she glances at my protected crotch. “You met Cosmo and Wanda or, as I like to call them, my fairly odd parents.”

“They seem nice.” I’m quick to defend the pleasant, helpful couple who directed me to Jay with no questions asked.

“They are.” She spins around to face the window, shielding her expression as she pulls the sheet back over her shoulder.

That’s not going to get me to back off, though. I want to know more about the girl who I just traveled 3000 miles to see. The woman who employs my thoughts and governs my body. “You and Trevor where high school sweethearts, then?”

“Since grammar school, we were best friends, yeah, but we started dating our senior year.”

“And the both of you moved to Chicago for …?”

“We moved to California, not Chicago.”

“California?” Okay, maybe now we’ll get closer to the truth, like why she hates my state. “Did Trevor die in Cali—”

Her head shakes. “I don’t want to talk about it anymore.”

“What brought you to Chicago?”

“I said …” She flips back around, eyes narrowed and voice getting louder, “I. Don’t. Want. To. Talk. About. It.”

I surrender with both hands in the air. “Okay.” I hold my breath but don’t retreat. I’m not afraid of her anger. I put it there, and she can hold me hostage until it’s gone.

My arms start to lower as her face begins to soften. Again, the sheet falls this time from both shoulders, exposing her perfect round tits. There’s something so captivating about seeing her naked. It makes it difficult to resist the vulnerability in her eyes. I move from her face to her collarbone, then to her rose-tipped nipples that mirror the perfection of the rest of her body. I don’t stare too long, just enough for her to see how beautiful she is to me.

“Come here.” I nudge, daring her to leave her anger behind.

“Why?” Her head tilts. The twinkle in her eyes starts to give me hope.

“You know why.” I wink, loving the playful smile now on her face. Thank God! She’s back. I got her. She’s mine. I’m not sure for how long, but I’ll take what I can get.

“Yes.” She pulls the pillow from my lap, revealing my growing arousal. “But I want to hear you say it.” Her eyes flash to mine with a sexy, little giggle.

“Oh, you like that?”

“What?”

I look down at the full erection between my thighs and come back up with a grin. “My cock.”

“Yes.” She rolls her upper body, and the sheet completely leaves her naked body. She crawls between my legs. “Would you like me to show you how much?” Her hand wraps around my cock. Her mouth encases me.

“Fuck!” My head thrashes back, hitting the headboard. “You know what … Shit!” She grabs my hips and pulls me in deep, deep-throat deep. It’s hot. Then she goes back to sucking me, licking me like my dick’s the only thing containing water for miles, even hotter. She palms my balls in her hand. Her lips pull all my cum to my chamber. “Fuck, Jay.” I clench my fists. “You know what happens to naughty girls.” I squeeze my ass cheeks, trying to keep my ammo in check.

Her mouth unsheathes my throbbing cock. “Yes. They get naughty men off.”

She couldn’t be more right.

It took me the remainder of the day to make up for the best damn blow job I ever had the pleasure of experiencing. But even after bending her over my knee, spanking her ass, fucking her hard, and giving her three orgasms, I still feel as though I might have shorted her.