FOREVER BOUND
1
They were the reason why stories of great tragedies withstood the ages...
2 years later
New York City
It was just a goddamn corridor. So why the hell was Jake’s stomach knotted as if he was awaiting a fucking death sentence? He’d arrived at JFK later than expected and had checked into a hotel down the street…just in case. The constant chaos of New York City. He wanted everything going on in his line of sight, which being in a NYC clusterfuck of wall-to-wall people made a near impossibility.
But this trip wasn’t about him and his comfort level.
Besides shocking the shit out of Eve, he figured it was gonna take a hell of a lot more than him simply showing up in New York to get her to open the door, let alone convince her to hear him out. Everyone had a limit to the shit they’d endure for someone they loved, and he was well aware Eve had been hanging off the edge of that cliff for him way too long.
For the first time in his damn life, he was nervous about seeing a woman. But this wasn’t just any woman. She was fucking his.
Get your head right, asshole.
It had been two years. She could’ve moved on, met someone else. While his gut said no, it wasn’t Eve’s nature, logic demanded he acknowledge the possibility. If so, he’d leave her in peace—she damn well deserved some after the shit he’d put her through since he’d first laid eyes on her, and particularly after the last three years.
Eve had taken part of him with her when she’d ran out of that hotel room and insisted he not contact her. He’d respected that request—to an extent. Technically, he upheld his end.
His boy, Raul, with whom he’d worked several ops, had retired on the East Coast in Manhattan where Eve was living. Jake had contacted Raul, who had agreed to stay on the stealth tip and keep an eye on her from time to time—make sure she was okay. If not for Raul’s intel, Jake wouldn’t have been able to get through the last twenty-four months with no contact. An invasive violation of her privacy? Yep. But what the fuck was he supposed to do? Let her traipse off to New York and not know where the fuck she was? If she was safe? Not his nature.
Since Maddie was healthy and the kids had accepted the divorced, he was here to offer Eve what he never could before—a commitment. The first time he’d seen her, when she was too young to look at or think about in any way at all, he’d been drawn to her—to her innocence, her warmth...those unforgettable blue eyes. Even as a teenager, Eve had a warm, vivacious, and loving demeanor that drew people to her. The fact that the years he’d been absent had contaminated her life was like a knife deep in his back. He knew he was at least partially responsible for some of that damage.
“Ahhh, fuck,” he growled, sweeping a hand over his beard. Showing up here was ballsy. With their history, how could she trust him? He’d broken her heart for most of her life. First when he’d left for the Navy, telling her she was too young, which she damn well was at fifteen. She’d been seventeen when he’d come home on leave and she found out he’d slept with two of her friends.
After that first tour at twenty-two, he’d come home looking for Eve. He’d tried to find her a few times during that two-week leave and when he couldn’t, he’d gone off the grid knowing he’d only fuck up her life. War, by nature, leaves a stain, an imprint, on even the hardest of men. The first kill or be killed situation had changed the boy to a warrior in less than a second and that was nothing she needed to be a part of.
Death…Death was a dedicated chameleon. It either became a multi-faced phantom, etching the faces of lives taken somewhere deep in your psyche to haunt at will or it became your executioner.
When Jake had faced that crossroad, looked that duplicitous motherfucker in the face for the first time, he’d had a flash of another face—Eve’s face. In that moment he’d made a choice. He’d chosen to uphold the oath he’d sworn to his SEAL brothers, to protect his nation, the innocent, and in doing so, he’d willingly become one of the haunted.
Yeah, he’d looked for her and he could have tracked her down. To be honest, he knew she couldn’t deal with whatever it was he’d morphed into. Warrior? Protector? Killer? Monster? All labels described the same man—he’d changed in ways someone as loving and innocent as Eve couldn’t handle.
One year bled into the next. Missions became his primary focus. Needing an outlet when he was stateside, something to decompress, anything to stop the movie reel of dead faces flashing through his head, he’d spent years fucking everything with a pussy and pulse. When one hot chick started blurring into the next he’d met Kelly, who, like Eve, was a good girl—wholesome. Different. At first, he’d dated Kelly along with the others. No commitments to anyone except to his team. The only time he felt alive was on assignment. Home became foreign territory.
Until Kelly had gotten pregnant. Realizing he had to make a change with a baby on the way, he’d married Kelly, hoping marriage and starting a family would redefine his sense of home, give him an anchor, curb the guilt of not going out every tour, but it hadn’t. Warriors didn’t adapt to domesticity well, especially when they knew their absence in the field could lead to one of their brothers not making it back alive.
Not long after he and Kelly had married, he’d run into Eve. Seeing him with a new wife on one arm and a newborn on the other—Jesus Christ—the annihilation on her face. Couldn’t keep the ultimate heartbreak out of her eyes.
She’d been twenty at the time, and so fucking gorgeous in a little blue-green dress and cowboy boots. She’d grown into her body, her ebony hair hung mid-back and those eyes…those electric blue fucking eyes that had haunted him from day one. Seeing her that day...someone might as well have cracked open his chest cavity, yanked out his fucking heart and everything inside along with it.
It was that moment he’d known he’d substituted the wrong woman for the one he’d always wanted, as fucked up as that was. But he’d had a newborn daughter and responsibilities. Eve had been kind and gracious to Kelly, but when she’d turned her gaze his way for the briefest of seconds—an Alaskan glacier didn’t get that fuckin’ cold.
It was the last time he’d spoken to or seen her for sixteen years.
When he’d tracked her down three years ago—because he just fucking had to, he couldn’t let her go—right and wrong didn’t matter. Moral fucking constructs didn’t mean dick to him after being out of her life for so long. Being in her presence was like the sun warmed his skin after almost two decades of solid ice.
Then she’d walked out of his life at that hotel in Malibu, because it had been best for him. Despite living a life she’d thought would never include him, she’d never given up on him, which is why he was now stalking down this hallway, to see if she finally had.
24 A. 24 B. Where the hell was this apartment? He rounded the corner, passing a few more doors before he saw it. 24 L. He stood there for a moment, contemplating how this would play out.
Yeah, he’d be okay if she didn’t want anything to do with him, but he’d be empty, and he’d had enough emptiness to last a lifetime. Eve wasn’t his savior. There was no saving him. But to him she was light. Brought him as close to peace as he could get, and she unconditionally accepted the dark parts of him nobody else seemed able to.
At least at one point she had.
If she threw him out, he’d deserve it. If she slammed the door in his face, he’d deserve that too, but fuck him, he wasn’t a man who gave up and he’d warned her. Shit, he’d told her he’d come for her. So he wasn’t going home without saying what needed to be said.
It’d taken almost twenty-five fucking years, twenty if he only counted the years she’d actually been old enough to be involved with a man, but it was what it was. After he’d served in the SEALs, he’d become a government contractor, so Eve knew his life, what he did for a living and the risk involved. She knew all his baggage. If he got even a hint of feeling from her, game on, and he was a persuasive motherfucker when it came to something he wanted.
He hoped they were something she still wanted as well.
As he raised his fist to knock, a sweet melodic laughter drifted down the hallway from around the corner, freezing him up. His heart rate went supersonic. His stomach jack-knifed and he closed his eyes for a brief second, remembering the last time he’d heard that soft lilting sound. He’d know Eve’s voice anywhere.
What he hadn’t counted on was the deep baritone that accompanied it.
Blood surged and roared to life through his system. The urge to rip apart whoever the fuck was with her steamrolled him, but he locked that shit down quick—it wasn’t his right.
The voices grew louder and echoed down the empty hallway. He moved a few doors down into the darkened entryway of another apartment that didn’t have its exterior light on. From this angle, he had a clear view of her door. Time to see what was what because the brutal reality was—Eve wasn’t his.
Approaching footsteps cut off his internal bullshit and he easily blended into the shadows.
“Two years went by too fast,” Eve commented as she stopped at her door.
Jake watched her fish through her purse searching for her keys. Goddamn Eve. How many times had he told her she needed to have those fuckers out and ready? The woman had zero self-preservation skills.
“Yeah.” Came the male reply. “Way too fast.”
Jake assessed the man standing about a good foot and a half above Eve. Motherfucker was big. About six-four, blond and built like a goddamn WWE wrestler. What the fuck? How had Raul missed this? Didn’t matter. If the dude touched her in a way she wasn’t cool with, Jake would end him up close and personal right in front of her apartment door. Thanks for playing, fucknut.
“So, you leave on Monday?” The guy asked.
Eve’s head lifted for a second, still fishing in that black hole of a purse. “Tuesday actually. The movers are coming to take the things I didn’t sell on Monday.”
The dude leaned against the end of the entryway and took his damn time looking Eve up and down as she hunted.
Jake took a long, deep breath until his lungs wouldn’t expand any farther, clamping down the flood of rage or jealousy or just straight-up motherfucking possession riding him hard.
“I’m almost all packed. Ah! Got ‘em.” She palmed the keys and looked up at the guy. “Tonight was fun, Alex. Thank you.”
This Alex fuck moved a bit closer to her and Jake’s fingernails dug deeper into his palms.
“The entire time you’ve been here, Eve, you’ve never gone out. We’ve been trying to get you to come with us for a year. It was nice to have you along tonight. You need a life outside of work.”
Eve shrugged. “I know. I’ll work on that when I get home, but this post-doc was a once in a lifetime opportunity. I was here to learn and...um, get some other things straightened out. Tonight was different. End of the program party and all. I just wish I could have gotten to know some of our colleagues better. Everyone was very approachable and kind. I’m sure I’ve given off a not so friendly vibe over the past two years.” She laughed nervously.
The dude reached out slowly and pushed her hair behind her ear. “Eve...I know you’re leaving and I’m staying here, but I’d like to get to know you better.”
Jake narrowed his eyes, studying Eve’s body language.
Her shoulder blades pulled tight and she took a small retreating step backwards. With a nonchalant turn of her head, she broke contact.
“Alex…you’re wonderful. Like you said, I’m leaving. You’re staying here, and we know very little about each other. Other than we make a wicked research team and both like our coffee black as sin.”
Alex sighed and shook his head. “Hence, getting to know you better. My God, you’re beautiful,” he blurted out. When her head jerked up and back, Alex dipped his head. “I’m sorry, but I’ve wanted to say that for a year now. I didn’t want scare you off.”
Eve chuckled the compliment away. “I do give off that vibe, don’t I? The don’t approach me, I’m a bitch vibe?”
Alex’s eyes widened, and Jake suppressed the impulse to cave in the side of his face.
“Not at all. It’s just before tonight, you seemed...distant. You were friendly enough, but never really warmed up to anyone. Is it because someone’s waiting for you back home? Is that why you stayed so closed off?”
Jake jolted as if he’d just been tazed. This is gonna suck...
Eve took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Her head tilted slightly to the right and she looked up at the jolly-blonde-fucking-giant.
“No,” she said softly. “Waiting for me?” She scoffed, making Jake’s chest ache. “He’s definitely not waiting for me. But he is there. He’s always there…” She sighed. “Being in New York, where he’d never, ever come, was easier for me. But now I have to go home, where he’s only an hour or so away. A little harder, but I’ll be fine.”
“He hurt you that bad?” Alex asked, as Jake noted the drop in his tone. Dude was genuinely concerned about her, and that pissed him right the fuck off. Asshat was looking for more than just getting goodnight laid. But that was too fucking bad, because now he’d heard it. She’d just confirmed she still wasn’t over him. The breath Jake had been holding came barreling out.
“Alex, it’s a long, complicated story. Trust me, three days isn’t enough time to cover it.” She laughed, but Jake didn’t miss the pain edging her tone. “Let’s just say, I don’t think he ever meant to hurt me. Not intentionally and we both knew I was coming here. That aside, I’m not ready to invest that much of myself into anyone right now. I have my job waiting for me in LA. That will keep me busier than I was here.”
Alex shook his head and stepped closer to her again. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry you were hurt. It’s his loss, Eve. If he let you go, he never deserved you in the first place.”
Eve took a step back, her spine stiffening. “I—I appreciate you saying that, I do, but like I said, we have a long story with a complex history. Ja—he’s a good man and he’s lost more than most people will in a lifetime. I want him to have a good life.” She shrugged. “Not everyone gets the happy ending. I’ve come to terms with that, but it’s not like I’m giving up on life. I just need more time.”
“How much time, Eve?” Alex pressed. “I have frequent flyers miles up the ass.”
“Another time, another place, you and I...who knows. We’ll just have to settle for friends if that’s okay with you. Long distance friends.” She laughed and singled out her house key.
Take the hint, you big motherfucker, or your ass is going through that wall.
Jake didn’t move a muscle as Eve put a hand on Alex’s forearm.
“Thank you again for tonight. It was lovely and I enjoyed getting to know you better. I know you’ll be a brilliant therapist.”
Alex grinned and nodded. “Okay, Eve. I hear you. At least give me a hug, research partner.”
“Of course.” Eve chuckled and went into that dickfuck’s waiting arms.
Alex’s grip tightened around her. He rested his head on top of hers for a second and closed his eyes.
Jake’s face grew too hot and just as he was about to blow cover and crush that dude into tomorrow, Eve pulled away.
“Drive safe, Alex. I learned a lot working with you this past year,” she said, putting the key in the door and turning so Jake had a solid profile of her beautiful face.
“Me too. You be safe.” He nodded to the door. “Go ahead. Lock the door behind you.”
Eve gave him a brilliant smile, the one Jake had seen in his dreams for the past two fucking years and she softly closed the door behind her.
Jake watched Alex place a hand on the door for a second, before turning around and walking back down the long hallway.
Once he was gone, Jake stood for a minute before moving out from the darkened apartment alcove. He leaned his back against the wall opposite Eve’s door.
He couldn’t blame the dick. Eve was easy to love, but she hadn’t let him in. Hadn’t let him kiss her and seemed uncomfortable when he’d touched her. Both motherfucking times. She’d even defended him at one point. Loyal to the bone that woman, even when he didn’t deserve her loyalty.
Cracking his neck to both sides, he stepped in front of her door for the second time. He’d considered flowers, but discarded the idea as too corny and not him. How do you say, “I’m sorry for fucking with your head and your heart for the past two decades” with roses or lilies? You didn’t. You manned the fuck up and owned your shit. On a deep inhale, Jake gently rapped on her front door, before stepping back.
Scampering feet shuffled across what sounded like a hardwood floor.
“Just a second!” Eve called from behind the door. “Alex, I—” the door flew open. Eve’s eyes widened. Gasping, she put her hand to her throat. She gripped the doorknob with the other as if needing something to steady her.
Jesus Christ, was it possible for one woman to get even more beautiful? Her jet black hair had grown longer, falling to her waist in sexy waves. She’d clearly been hitting the gym, because her bare arms and legs were toned and cut, but she was still lean and lithe. That kissable mouth and those sinful fucking lips formed a perfect O. Her striking blue eyes misted as she shook her head back and forth.
Jake let the grin he’d been fighting since that front door flew open spread across his face.
“You still owe me four hours, baby.”
* * *
Nonononono. NO!
Eve stared at the gorgeous face that had tormented her in one way or another for most of her life. Heart rates weren’t supposed to pound as fast or as loud as horse hooves in a full heat at the Kentucky Derby, but apparently they were capable of doing just that.
Dear God, even two years older, he was still the most handsome man she’d ever seen. Couldn’t he have at least put on like a hundred pounds? Developed a beer gut or something?
The faint traces of grey throughout his dark hair only made him look more distinguished. His beard had grown in since the last time she’d seen him and he’d put on a considerable amount of muscle, but those dark, penetrating brown eyes were still scalpel sharp and laser beam intense as they scalded every inch of her body they landed on.
Just the sight of him after so long brought back that familiar ache between her thighs and unfortunately sparked a glimmer of hope that she’d convinced herself she’d extinguished a long time ago.
Not happening!
The clammy skin on her throat dampened under her palm.
“Jake,” she choked. “What—” She cleared her throat and forced herself to meet his gaze. “What are you doing here?”
Anchoring both hands on either side of the door frame, he smirked down at her. “Two years ago, you promised me twenty-four hours. I only got twenty. I’m here to collect.” His hands dropped and he took a step forward.
Fiery pinpricks shot across her skin and she put both hands out, stopping him from coming any closer. She made damn sure she didn’t touch him, because if she did, she didn’t trust herself not to wind up in his arms. That said, she wasn’t the same woman who’d run out of that hotel room. She’d changed. Her life had changed. She was stronger now.
Straightening her spine, she loosened her death grip on the doorknob. “You came all the way to New York, which you hate, to collect the hours we lost? Do you realize how ridiculous that sounds?” She ignored the fact that while her head was forcing logic, her body jumped to life, instantly catapulting her out of her vow of celibacy.
His head tilted to the side and his eyes took a slow run down her body.
Dear God, please let the padding in this bra do what I paid an obscene amount of money for it to do!
“Eve...we need to talk, baby.”
She squared her shoulders and pulled at the bottom of her shirt. “I think we’ve said everything that needed to be said, don’t you?”
“Not even close. Nice shirt by the way.” He grinned as her cheeks blazed and she glanced down her body.
For the love of God! She was wearing his Navy water polo tank top, which she usually slept in, a pair of loose white boxers that hung off her hips, yellow knee-high socks and her green Grinch slippers, with giant puffy Grinch heads on top. Yes, stuffed Grinch heads! Thank the good Lord the knock came before she could wiggle out of the bra.
Unbecoming attire aside, she focused on the gorgeous problem standing in front of her.
“There are phones, Jake. It would have saved you airfare and time.” She hoped that sounded as assertive as she’d intended, but when he just smiled and his eyes dropped to her mouth, she highly doubted it.
“You changed your number,” he said softly. His voice alone heated her skin as if she were freezing and had just been dropped into a bubbly warm Jacuzzi.
“Like that would stop you if you really wanted to talk to me.” She knew Jake had government level clearance and once he set his mind to something there would be no stopping him. She’d bet her degree if she pulled contacts up in his phone he’d have her number, because he obviously had her address.
“It wouldn’t. What I have to say needs to be said in person. Are you gonna let me in or you gonna leave me standing in the hallway?”
Let him in? Good God, no. Hallway was much safer.
“Here. Say what you need to say right here.”
“Where it’s safe?” He crossed muscular arms over his chest and rested a shoulder against the doorframe, jacking up the sleeves of his flannel. Some kind of writing of what had to be a new tattoo stuck out under the thick band of his watch.
“Absolutely,” she insisted. The tone of his voice...God, that damn voice. His voice was hot buttered rum heating her from the inside out. It had been so long since she’d heard it. Jake had been the last man she’d been with. The last man she’d kissed, touched, had any physical contact with and no other man measured up, which was the most unfair reality ever. She wasn’t about to let him know this fact though.
“Okay, honey. Here then.” He stood in her doorway, looking sexier than any man had a right to look.
“Well, go ahead. I’m listening.” She crossed her arms over her chest, too, not only hoping to look as confident and calm as he did, but also hoping he wouldn’t see her nipples had tightened so hard the padding in the bra was quickly proving it wasn’t worth the mint she’d dropped on it.
“Let me ask you this, Eve. Why would I fly all the way to New York to see you?”
“You’re going to play the rhetorical question game, Jake? No. Tell me or leave. Evasive isn’t your style. At least at one point it wasn’t. Go back to that.” If he was here to tell her something, he was damn well going to say it and not make her guess. He’d made her guess about his feelings for her long enough. She deserved more than that.
“Baby, I’m here for you.”
The apartment got quiet—deafening, impending, deep-shit quiet. That echo chamber of non-stop thud-thud, thud-thud, in her ears had to be her heartbeat, because all outside noise had just muted with that statement.
Whatever part of the brain responsible for interpreting words people say, forming a coherent response and then voicing said response, malfunctioned. Baffled, she stood there seconds, possibly minutes, contemplating his words. What the hell did he mean? Irritation barreled right past stunned.
“You’re here for me for what, Jake?” she demanded. “To escort me home to LA? To pop in and ass-end my life up once again? What exactly do you mean by you’re here for me?”
Penetrating brown eyes locked to hers and slammed the brakes on her heart performing properly. Dear God, he was serious.
“Let me in, Eve.”
She knew better. There was no question she knew better. If she let him in... No. He didn’t hold the power he’d always held over her anymore. She’d prove to him she was over him. That he couldn’t just show up and fuck up her life. Glancing up at him, the tilt of his lips made the heat pool lower in her core.
Okay, so maybe she overshot with the being over him assertion, but she’d been doing an exceptional job of faking it. At least until she’d opened her goddamn door.
You can do this!
Stepping aside to allow him entrance, she waved a hand inside. “Come in. But only for a little while. I still have to pack.”
He walked in and stood just short of the closing door.
Eve took the long way around him into her little kitchen. “Coffee?”
“Yeah, honey. Coffee’d be great.” He took a seat at the stool under her counter as she moved around on the other side.
“Do me a favor, okay? If you’re here to talk, drop the endearments.” Because if he kept it up, the Jake-proof armor she’d built up over the past two years would crash down around her. Defenseless was not something she could risk around him—might as well throw fresh chum to a shark. “Talk, Jake.”
The audacity of him just showing up got to her before he could get word one out. With a huff, she slammed the coffee can down a little harder than intended and moved to stand in front of him, feeling somewhat bold and safe with a countertop between them.
“You know what? No. Me first. I have a few questions for you. Most important, how is Maddelyn? Is she better? Is she doing okay now?”
Please. Please let his daughter be okay.
His steely eyes that missed nothing softened at the mention of Maddelyn’s name. He sighed and leaned both forearms on the counter.
“Yeah, she’s good. You were right. When we took her in, she eventually admitted she’d started cutting. From what we found out in therapy, she’d only done it a few times.” He dropped his head for a second before looking back at her. “She stopped therapy months ago. She’s doing great.”
In that moment, Eve wanted to hug him. Let him know she was genuinely relieved his daughter was healthy again, but she resisted the urge. Nodding her head, she looked back down at the can and started scooping out the coffee.
“I’m happy to hear she’s better, Jake. That’s wonderful news.”
Reaching across the counter, his hand covered hers mid scoop and every muscle from her fingers to her face quivered.
“Eve, stop shaking.” He soothed. His thumb stroked across the top of her hand and damn it all to hell, she calmed, as she always did whenever he touched her. “Thank you for asking about Maddie. If it wasn’t for you—”
Now she met his eyes and jerked her hand out from under his. “I had nothing to do with it. You or Kelly would have caught it soon enough. You’re an amazing father and you’ve always spoke highly of Kelly as a mother. It’s one of the things I lo—you’ve always put your girls first. It’s one of your best attributes.”
Jesus Christ! Do NOT use the word, love, in any context around this man! Focus Eve!
He stood and slowly walked around the counter to her.
“Ja—Jake,” she stammered. “I really need you to sit back down. Please.” The coffee was going to be black sludge, but she didn’t care. She kept adding more grounds the closer he came.
“Eve, look at me.” He stopped about a foot away from her.
Forcing as deep a breath as her overworked lungs could handle, she put the scoop down and turned to him.
“We caught it sooner rather than later, because of you. Because you trusted me with something deeply personal.” He shook his head and glanced at the floor before meeting her eyes again. “You were strong when I wasn’t. You opened my eyes. Maddie’s my baby—I didn’t want to believe it. You leaving was a wakeup call.”
Eve shook her head, jammed the overstuffed filter in the cradle, and flipped on the machine, one hand on the counter, the other on the top of the coffee pot.
“Come on, Jake. Let’s be honest and take Maddelyn out of the equation for a second. You were going to let me go at the end of your little twenty-four hour time limit. We both know that now. I was temporary to you. A moment.”
His hand covered hers on the counter again, this time squeezing hard.
A searing heat instantly flared throughout her entire body and her eyes jumped to where they touched. The tan skin of his hand in brilliant contrast with her pale one.
“But when it came down to it Eve, if you remember, I didn’t make that call and you were never a moment to me—never temporary. I wanted both you and my life. You saw what I couldn’t and you let me go to deal with my daughter undistracted.”
Eve lifted her gaze to his. “You were never mine to let go. I left because it was the right thing to do. Maddelyn, your girls come first, always. But I let you go for me too,” she whispered.
She pleaded with whoever was listening upstairs to hold the fissuring dam behind her eyes at bay. “I couldn’t wait for you anymore. The emotional wrecking ball I’d become was too much for both of us—even you couldn’t deal with me. Since I was old enough to actually know what I felt, I’ve been waiting for you in one way or another. That had to end. I’m not perfect and I carry my share of the guilt about getting involved with you when I should have waited, but I deserve better than just being someone’s distraction, an afterthought.” Jesus, she actually said the words out loud. The tightness in her chest loosened the slightest bit.
His warm hand moved up to her forearm. “Is that seriously what you thought you were to me? Christ, baby. You were never that.”
“Words, Jake. Your actions spoke differently. That’s not good enough for me anymore.”
“No, love, it’s not. It never has been. You deserve much better than that and if I made you think that’s all you meant to me—”
“Jake,” she pleaded softly. “Please, just leave it.”
“Eve, why do you think I’m here? Do you think that little of me that I’d come for you if I wasn’t in a position to give us an honest shot? I told you I’d come for you. Fuck, honey, don’t we deserve a chance after all the shit we’ve been through?”
Eve yanked her hand away and stepped back. “Jake. On your time. You came when you were ready and I know you had to make sure your family was okay, that Maddelyn was healthy—I understood that. Jesus, I wouldn’t have it any other way. But you came with no consideration for what might be going on in my life. How is you being here right now any different than any other time you’ve come to me? Reached out to me? My God.” She slapped a hand over her forehead and balanced the other on the counter. “What else is going to come up and you’re going to have to leave? You can’t commit to me Jake. You said it yourself.” She glanced up at him as a hated tear slid down her cheek. “I was doing good,” she insisted, taking another step away from him like the more distance she put between them, the truer that statement would become. “I’d accepted we weren’t meant to be.”
He advanced on her slowly. “You’ve accepted we’re not meant to be together? Look me in the eyes and say that.”
“What are you trying to do to me?” Another tear trailed down her cheek to dangle off her chin. “Did you expect to just show up and I’d fall into bed with you? I can’t do that again. I don’t want that.”
The smirk that crossed his gorgeous mouth both pissed her off and set her body aflame. He found this comical? She opened her mouth to tell him to go straight to hell, but the words that came out of his mouth were a shot to the heart and stopped her cold.
“No, baby. I came here expecting you to fall into a life with me. Why else would I get on a fucking plane and come to you? You asked why I didn’t call? This is an in person discussion, Eve. Not a phone call. I found you after sixteen years at the wrong time. I couldn’t commit then. I’m here now, because I can. No strings. No hiding. You and me. It’s not too late. Unless you don’t love me anymore. If that’s the case I’ll accept that, but no fucking way am I leaving here with you thinking I don’t want you—all of you—or that you were ever just a fucking moment to me.”
Eve backed out of the kitchen slowly and into her tiny living room. “Please stop.” She put her hands up as she continued backing away from him. All of a sudden, her quaint little sanctuary of an apartment, which she loved, became a cramped, claustrophobic, and cage-like enclosure.
“No, you wanted answers, here you go, honey. We’re gettin’ this shit straight once and for all. Since I first laid eyes on you, Eve, when you were too fucking young for me to even think about, I was drawn to you. When you were older, it didn’t work out, but there’s never been a time I haven’t wanted you, even when I shouldn’t have. When I hadn’t seen you in years, when I was married to another woman, you’d pop into my fucking head in one way or another out of goddamned nowhere. I think in some fucked up way, I’ve always thought of you as mine.”
Her heartbeat took off at about ninety-miles per hour. The pressure squeezing her chest felt like an anaconda had just wrapped around her torso. Yep. She was having a heart attack, she was sure of it. She was gonna die, right here in New York.
Rubbing between her breasts, she backed up until her ass hit the brick wall encasing the fireplace. Brick was brick, no retreat and he was practically on top of her.
“I’ve never been yours, Jake.”
Although she’d always thought of herself as his—like they’d been bound by some unseen tether since the day they’d met, but were fated to be apart. They were the reason why stories of great tragedies withstood the ages.
“No. You haven’t. I came here hoping to change that Eve.”
Breathe you idiot! Breathe, breathe, breathe!
He put one hand on the brick by her head, the warmth of his wrist seeping into her cheek. She clamped her eyelids shut, refusing to look at him, willing her traitorous body not to melt into his as it was clearly intent on doing.
He was saying all the right things. All the things she’d hoped he would one day say, but how could she trust it? Words. They were all just words and she’d heard them before.
“Jake, I can’t do this again. We’ve been through this,” she mumbled.
“Not like this, we haven’t. Not when we’re both free to see where this goes.” He leaned in closer, but didn’t touch her.
Eve shoved both hands against his chest, keeping him from molding his body to hers. “I—I, Jesus. I can’t think. I can’t think right with you this close.”
“Breathe, baby. Just breathe, we’re only talking.”
Bullshit, you seductive ass.
He was right though, she needed to breathe. She needed to think. The only man she’d ever truly wanted was standing inches away, offering what she’d always wanted, always believed she’d been born for. Somewhere buried inside the dark abyss that made her who she was, she’d always known she belonged to Jake. Even if they couldn’t be together. Whoever she ended up with would get a ghost version of her, which wasn’t fair to them, but it’s how life wound up sometimes.
“You can’t just show up and expect me to give up my life.”
A moment passed before his fingers caught her chin and lifted her head. His eyes locked onto hers, the intensity in their brown depths not allowing her to look away.
“Eve, have I ever asked you to give up anything for me?”
“Jake,” she pleaded softly. “You ask without asking. You always have. It’s your way. You have an expectation of me, and it’s hard to say no to you, even when I know it’s going to end with me destroyed.”
“I’m not asking you to give up your life. I want to be a part of it.”
Staring up at his gorgeous face, she raised her hands and let them fall. “You’re here, saying all the right things, like you always do. What about your life, Jake? What do you expect me to think? That you’ve been pining away for me like a goddamn monk for the past two years? Come on. I’m not that naive.”
Now the easy grin he wore turned into a devious smirk—and that expression she knew all too well. Without meaning to, she’d just thrown down the gauntlet.
“Who’s Alex, baby?”
Her mouth fell open so wide at the question, lockjaw was a possibility. “How—how do you know about Alex?”
“I saw you together. I was a few doors down. I got here before you did and heard you in the hall.”
“And you stood there watching us?” Not Jake’s style at all.
He tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “I didn’t trust myself not to do something that would piss you off and I had to see if you’d moved on. If you had, I’d have left and you’d have never known I was here. So who is he to you?”
Now Eve shoved her hand against his chest. “If you saw me with him, then you saw him leave, did you not? Alex is a colleague. A friend. And you obviously deduced that for yourself, since you’re standing here in my kitchen. Not that it’s any of your business at all.”
“Ah, but it is, baby. I came here to claim what’s mine.”
The goddamn nerve of this man!
“Yours? Yours! Jake, do you even hear the words coming out of your mouth? It’s been two years. You have no right to come here and question me about my life. Who’s been warming your bed since I left?” She shook her head wildly and waved her hands in front of her face. “No. Forget it. Know what? It’s none of my business either. You were never mine. It doesn’t matter.”
The fingers gripping her chin slowly slid down the column of her neck, over her shoulder to squeeze her bicep.
“Nobody, Eve.”
“Bullshit!” She exploded. “I know you better than that. If it wasn’t me, it was damn well someone else. Don’t forget I’ve known you my entire life and I’ve seen you in action. You’re probably regretting telling me everything you have about you and other women right about now. Two years is a long ass time for you to go without a woman. You actually expect me to believe you haven’t slept with anyone?”
When she spun to walk away, he gripped both shoulders and plastered her against the brick wall.
“Look at me, Eve. Right. Now.”
The hard directive in his voice had her eyes snapping to his faster than she could will them not to.
“I won’t apologize for my past and I don’t regret anything I’ve done or told you about. As for the past two years, I’ve been with nobody since you. All together I was on different operations for a little over a year. I had my family to take care of, my girls, Maddie. I was worried about you here in this fuckin’ city by yourself to the point of distraction. Didn’t leave a lot of time for an empty fuck, sweetheart.”
Eve stared up at him, studying his facial expressions. Nobody could hide emotions better than Jake. He was a master manipulator when he had to be—it was his damn job for Christ’s sake! If he were lying, she’d never know it, but something deep in the pit of her gut screamed that he was telling the truth.
“You’re serious,” she whispered up to him.
“As a motherfucking heart attack, baby. I’ve taken blue balls to another stratosphere.”
Her hand softened on his chest and his covered hers. “I haven’t been with anyone since you either.”
He moved his hands to frame her cheeks and a small grin played at his full lips. “I know that.”
She straight armed him again, but he just tightened his grip on her face. “You cocky shit. You just assumed that I’d be here, buried in work, surrounded by cats, reading Sylvia Plath, in some kind of hideous floral smock, mourning the loss of you?”
“Not at all.” His thumbs stroked her cheeks as he chuckled at her outburst. “Even if I hadn’t heard you in the hallway, I know you, Eve. I’ve known you since you were thirteen. If it’s one thing I know without a shadow of a fucking doubt is that when you love, you love with everything you’ve got. All of you. That’s a gift, baby, but it’s one that takes time to get over. It’s something I’ve taken for granted in the past, but I won’t again. You’re bound to me. You were before, but after I made love to you the first time, I knew we’d take time for you to get over. We’re too good together.”
“Jake! Do you know what an ass that makes you sound like? It’s—it’s like premeditation! Like you intentionally meant to tie me to you.”
He leaned in until his body was flush against hers, forcing her to look up to see his face. “That was exactly my intent. Honey, that dick you were married to didn’t know what to do with you. I damn well did. Why? Because I’d fantasized about it for fucking years. What I’d do to you. How I’d bind you to me so tight you’d never get me out of your system. I unleashed the woman you’re meant to be. You’re mine, Eve. And I want all of you. The good, the bad, the dirty, the innocent, the seductress, the scholar, all of it.”
There were no words. Was he a selfish prick? Yes. Was he wrong? No he wasn’t and he’d done exactly that—shown her the woman she wanted to be and guaranteed she’d forever want only him. She’d known the first time he’d kissed her that she would crave him the rest of her life. It’s why she’d gone against everything she’d believed in to be with him when they’d reconnected. It was also why she’d held back with him sexually. Once Jake had touched her, something inside her had ripped free and she fought a constant battle not to give him everything. All of her. It was like some kind of primal drive to submit to him in every way.
His thumbs never stopped stroking her cheeks and when he slid one over her bottom lip, his eyes glued to her mouth, all the fight drained out of her like a slow leak on a tire.
“Damn you to hell, Jake,” she whispered.
“It’ll be worth every fucking second.” His thumb slowed on her lip, moving over it in an unhurried, seductive manner—over, under, around. “It’s been two years, Eve. You haven’t been touched in two years. Have you thought about me, love?”
He pressed his hips into hers, his hard cock, long and thick, molded against her stomach.
“At night, when you were in bed, did you think of me? Did you touch yourself, because you just needed the release, needed the memory of what I do to you? When you came, how loud did you scream my name?”
With every word, he inched closer to her and one by one, her barriers fell like exploding bricks at a demolition site. He knew all the graphic images to paint and the exact words to unravel her.
“I know your body better than you do, baby. I’d bet my house I know what pushed you over the edge. My mouth on that pussy I can’t get enough of until you came so hard, you’d beg me to make love to you. I love getting you to that point when you stop thinking. Did you remember how I touched you? How I licked you, teased you, until your entire body became mine?”
Her chest rose and fell faster as his lips skimmed her ear, his thumb continued to stroke her lips. Every word out of his sinful mouth added more fuel to an already out of control blaze scorching her from the inside. It’d been so goddamn long. She remembered all of it. Wanted all of it.
“I want you in my bed every night. I want to wake you up with my mouth on your pussy. Your clit so hard, so swollen that you can’t help but ride my tongue, because coming for me is the only thing that matters. And when you can’t stand it anymore, when you need my cock, I’ll suck your clit until you scream my fucking name and only then will I give you what you need. Jesus Christ, I’ve missed the taste of you. Say yes.” He leaned back so he could see her face. “Say yes, Eve,” he growled.
Eve shoved her hands through his hair, barely getting out a “yes” before she crushed her lips to his. Jake groaned long and loud, thrusting his tongue into her mouth as if he’d been starving for something only she could provide. She clutched his face to her, holding him as he wrapped his hands around her ass and yanked her up against him harder.
Familiar. The consuming hunger Jake brought out in her was so familiar. The way he spoke to her, unleashing a need for only him familiar...and the fear of him leaving afterwards, all too familiar. Fear won out over desire and she found the will to yank back, forcing her arms in-between them.
“How is this different, Jake,” she panted. “Do you know what you’re asking of me?”
“Yes, baby. Fuck. It was never a case of not wanting you. It was timing, Eve. That’s it. Now. Our time is now,” he ground out. He pulled her forward and kissed her forehead, before leaning back to look at her.
Eve bunched the material of his flannel at his shoulders in her fists, not giving a shit as tears free flowed down her face. “Jake, you better be sure. If we try to make this work and you pull away from me again, do that distant thing where you emotionally detach and shut me out, I’ll hate you,” she hissed. “I understood and put up with it before, because you have other people you’re responsible for and I never hated you for it. If you do this, if you commit to me and pull your shit that’s it. I’m done. No more chances. Not even if you track me down in fucking Iceland.”
He chuckled down at her, wiping away tears with his thumb. “Baby, you’ve gotten testy over the past two years.”
“Yeah? Sexual frustration will do that to a woman and I’m dead serious.” Trying to unscramble her brain and find some last ounce of self-preservation when she was so close to him seemed nearly impossible. He had to realize what he was asking. She needed to hear him say it.
Pulling her into a crushing embrace, he ran his hands down her back. She slowly wrapped her arms around his waist, taking warmth and heat from his body. She buried her face in his shirt.
“This is your out, Jake. I’ll forgive your little visit and you can go on your way to a new life. All the women you want. No commitments, no strings.”
He shackled his hands around her biceps and pushed her away from him, so he could see her face. “You’re the only woman I want. When are you going to trust me? I know I let you down in the past, give me the chance to prove to you I’m in this as much as you are, honey.” He squeezed her harder.
Eve dropped her eyes to his full, wet lips. She’d never wanted a man as she did Jake. He’d seen to that. She grabbed his face and pulled him to her so their mouths were centimeters apart. One last chance.
“Then yes. Yes. Make me yours,” she whispered the last part against his lips.
He yanked her against him so hard she lost her balance, but he caught her and jerked her away from the fireplace. They met with open lips, licking into each other’s mouths, teeth banging together, hands in each other’s hair, both of them groaning after being apart so long.
“Fuck, I’ve missed you, Sunshine. So much,” he groaned between deep, drugging kisses. “So fucking much.” His fingers bunched the bottom of her shirt and yanked it over her head as she shoved her hands into the arms of his flannel and pushed it off his shoulders. “I can’t be gentle about this, Eve. It’s gonna be quick and hard, baby. Can’t help that,” he mumbled against her mouth, fumbling with her shorts.
Unable to get his clothes off fast enough, Eve jerked the wife beater over his head and dropped her hands to his belt as he made quick work of her bra. “Make love to me later. I need you. I’ve missed you to the point of pain, Jake.”
He bunched the sides of her boxers in his fists, forcing her to a stop. “No going back. This is it. You and me. From here on out. You don’t get to disappear on me, Eve. Say you understand.”
“Yes, yes,” she groaned, rubbing her hands up his chest. “No more running.” When she got to his left pectoral muscle she jolted back, shocked. Only his arms locking around her waist stopped her retreat. “You inked it out?” Her eyes sought his and dropped back down to his chest.
Thick black lines of an intricate cross covered the tattoo of his ex-wife’s name that had been etched across his chest. Eve ran her fingers over the detailed lines and elaborate design. The cover up was amazing. A beautifully scripted M for Maddelyn on one side and K for Kelsie on the other lay directly underneath the thick arms of the cross, as if protected. A fresh round of tears blurred her vision. “It’s gorgeous.”
“I told you before, there were reasons for that tat that I can’t go into. They don’t matter anymore.” He wiped across the apples of her cheeks. “I couldn’t stand the pain in your eyes every time you saw it. I wasn’t about to attempt a life with you with another woman’s name on my body.” He moved a bit of hair out of her face.
Eve leaned to the side and started to turn his left arm over to get a look at his wrist. “Did you lose your damn mind in that tattoo shop, Jake?”
He held her boxers tighter, not allowing her to turn his hand over. “Baby, can we do show and tell later? Epic blue balls, remember?” With that, he dropped to his knees and took her boxers with him. Giant green Grinch heads stopped him from taking them off her feet and he glanced up at her with a smirk. “I—I have no words for these.” He slipped them off and threw them both over his shoulder. “I’m saying they don’t make the move.”
“You go before they go,” Eve mumbled as he buried his head in her stomach and ran his hands up the backs of her legs to her ass. Shoving her hands through his thick hair, Eve bent at the waist and hugged his head to her. “I love you, Jake,” she whispered into his hair. “I’ve always loved only you.”
“I can’t think of a time I haven’t loved you, baby.” He split her legs and pulled her down to straddle him on the floor. “Mmm, no underwear. You’ve finally learned.”
“I was getting ready for bed, crazy man.” She chuckled.
“All your underwear definitely stays in New York. No negotiations.” He turned towards her large cushioned hassock, lifted and laid her across the top of it, coming down on top of her. Framing her face in his hands, he stared at her for a second before lifting up a little. “You’re so goddamned beautiful.” His eyes dropped to her lips. “I missed your mouth,” he groaned taking her lower lip between his and slipping his tongue deep inside.
The muscles in her stomach went nuclear as he ran one hand down the center of her body, between her breasts to just above the small strip of hair on her mound.
“Shh, stop shaking, baby.”
Two years without him. Two years without his touch. He ran both hands up just under her breasts, molding them around the swells of each one. His thumbs and index fingers closed around her nipples, rubbing and pinching them into rock hard peaks. It was as if a veil of vulnerability had been ripped away from her and she lay completely exposed, giving her a sense of freedom. The harder he pinched her the wetter she became—like an electric wire ran a direct current from her breasts to her pussy.
“I want it all, Jake,” she pleaded. “Everything you held back. Everything I said no to before, all I was afraid of, because I couldn’t risk you walking out and never seeing you again. I want you to show me everything I’ve waited to experience, because I’d always hoped it’d be with you,” she managed to get out.
The pressure on her nipples increased and she cried out, not sure if it was from pain or pleasure. She glanced up at Jake’s intense stare, trained on her like a sniper scope.
“Everything, honey?” He squeezed harder and she moaned, pushing into his hands, needing the sweet pain that was just out of her reach and all in his control.
“Everything. Teach me what makes you feel good. I want you to feel the way you make me feel.” Inching toward him, she ground her sex into his pelvis and he moaned.
“I crave you, Eve.” His voice edged with a deep guttural need. “In a way that’s beyond what you’re capable of understanding. Be sure this is what you want. Know what you’re asking me.” Flipping his hand around, he slid two fingers through her saturated folds, along the sides of her cleft down to her entrance. He slowly worked two fingers inside her. “Fuck, I missed how you respond to me. You’re so wet, so fucking tight. Open, baby. Let me see what’s mine.”
It was the claim.
The sense of ownership of that statement shouldn’t have been what ultimately calmed her, but that’s exactly what set her at ease, opened her up to what she needed—to belong to Jake in every way possible.
His fingers continued to stroke inside her slowly, rubbing up against her upper wall, while his thumb drew slow circles around her clit.
“Open for me. Show me what I’ve been fantasizing about for two fucking years.”
She’d never been this exposed, even with Jake. With a doctorate in sexual psychology, she knew what he was asking—total submission, total vulnerability. Total trust. The truth she’d never admitted before, the truth she’d ignored and could now acknowledge—she needed him this way. In total control. It was the aggression, the dominance and command that was a part of Jake as a man that she’d always responded to. Now she had no reason to fight it and every reason to give into it.
Slowly, she pulled her legs up, wrapping her hands around her knees. The position forced her channel tighter around his fingers. Just the stretch of his fingers inside her made the ache worse and a flood of arousal urged him deeper.
“That’s my girl. Shit me, I’m not gonna make this. Show me, baby.”
Letting her head fall back on the cushion beneath her, she slowly parted her legs.
“Wider,” he demanded, his voice laced with a command she couldn’t and didn’t want to fight.
She closed her eyes and pulled her legs to her sides, opening herself up to him, displaying her body to him in a way she never had before, but felt strangely empowered doing.
“Fuck me,” he growled and slipped his fingers out of her body. “You get so swollen. Your lips are so full, so perfect, so pink. I gotta taste you.”
Before Eve could tell him she was more than ready, his warm mouth covered her entire vulva. His lips moved over her pussy as if he were kissing her mouth. The soft moans he made as he licked up one side and the down the other, only stopping to suck one lip into his mouth then the other, vibrated straight to her clit, making the small gland pulse harder.
“God, Jake—yeah...”
Shoving her hands through his hair, she held him against her as he ate at her so sweetly. Soft, barely there flicks of his tongue over her straining clit broke any last attempt to stay silent. A long moan ripped from her lips as she pressed her hips against his mouth.
His hands moved up her thighs to just under her knees, pushing her legs open wider, but he never stopped licking her. He kept her on edge, licking fast, then flattening his tongue and sliding it from the bottom of her entrance to the top of her hood, rubbing the tip of his tongue just over her soft hood.
The more her muscles jumped, the stronger his hold on her legs became. The little flicks of his tongue like fluttery wings against her engorged clit shut down her brain so she became all sensation. Sound became acute, the wet laps of his tongue, like a crescendo pushing toward the climax of a beautiful piece of music only she could hear.
“Jake!” Her hands tightened in his hair. “Please, babe. Please.”
“Say it, Eve. Out loud,” he spoke the words against her core, each word like a spark to her clit.
“Harder. Christ—I need it harder.”
“Come here,” he growled. He knelt above her, wrapped his hands around her thighs and yanked her to the very end of the cushion.
As soon as her ass hit the end, he dropped down and his mouth covered her cleft.
With both thumbs, he held her lips open and sucked her needy clit into his mouth hard. Strong, direct strokes of his tongue over her throbbing bud catapulted her close to hyperventilation. The ache in that one tiny place on her body grew so consuming, so painful, her adrenaline overrode embarrassment, overrode composure.
“Please. Make me come. Oh, God, Jake. Please. I need it. I need you.”
She barely got the second please out before he sucked her clit so hard she ground her teeth, but the pain was too good. The harder he sucked, the more she pushed against his mouth. When he ran his tongue over her clit hard, her body detonated. Every muscle shook with the overwhelming release only he could give her, only he commanded. The second he slid two fingers inside her to the knuckle, more intense waves of release broke over her body.
“I love you!” she wept as her lower body arched off the cushion into him, her body milking the two fingers buried inside her. Only his muscled arm over her stomach held her in place, while he slowly brought her down. Soft licks and a slow glide inside over her g-spot drew out continual waves of bliss.
When he finally lifted his head, he reached up, wrapped a hand in her hair and pulled her up to him. The second she was upright, he crushed his mouth over hers, his tongue penetrating her lips, stroking against hers over and over.
“Can you taste yourself on me?”
“Yeah, yes,” she pleaded.
“I love doing that to you. Love making you taste how fucking addictive you are. Jesus Christ, you come so beautifully for me. All day, baby. I could eat you all day and night.”
Eve ran her fingers over his wet lips, splitting them, then sucking one of his lips into her mouth followed by the other. Arousal trickled down her thighs, but she was beyond caring.
“Move,” she said softly. “Back up, Jake.”
“Where the fuck do you think you’re going?” He framed her face as she scooted off the cushion and lowered herself to the floor, putting her mouth at the same level as his hips.
Gripping her hair in his hands, he lifted her head, forcing her to look up at him. “What are you doing?”
She rested her hands on the button of his jeans and slipped it through the hole. “I want this. I want to do this with you.”
His grip loosened and he linked her hair behind both ears. “Last time you had issues with this, baby, and after watching you come, I’m about to explode here.”
She pulled down his zipper and pushed his jeans and boxers over his ass. His cock sprang out, standing straight up against his taut stomach.
“Everything, Jake. You promised,” she reminded him. The need riding her was combustible. She wanted him in her mouth. Wanted to drive him as insane as he did her. Now that he was here, now that he’d claimed her as his, she wanted to create new memories with him and kill the pain of the past. An overwhelming desire to taste him drove her as she gently took him in her hands.
“Jesus, Eve—do what you gotta do, baby, but fuck me. Move when I tell you to move.” His hands framed her face and her eyes dropped to his cock.
Dicks were never her favorite appendage on a man. She’d never seen the appeal—until Jake. He was beautiful, thick and so sleek. Velvety soft skin covering iron underneath. His dark skin stretched taut against the raised veins along his shaft.
Anchoring one hand at the base of him, she split her legs on either side of his and scooted closer. She held him up in one hand and licked the underside of his cock up to the rim around his head. Sliding the tip of her tongue back and forth just under the ridge, she grew bolder with each sharp breath Jake took. Knowing she could make him lose that rigid control he always had with her was empowering. His hands fisted tight in her hair, but never pulled her to him, or yanked her closer. He just held her hair back.
Closing her eyes, she took the tip of him in her mouth, moaning at the salty taste of him. Clean, with the faintest hint of male arousal. She took her time, sucking him in increments until she got comfortable enough to take him deeper, to the back of her throat. With her hand as an anchor around the base of his cock, controlling how much of him she took, she slid him out slower, until he growled down at her.
“Eve—fuck, baby. Have you ever swallowed?”
Without moving her mouth off the top of him, she shook her head slowly, keeping her teeth tight behind her lips. She’d never swallowed. Had no desire to do that, but for him, she’d try if that’s what he wanted.
“Christ!” His hands tightened in her hair. “Don’t shake your head, hon, or you’re gonna get a crash motherfucking course. Look at me.”
On a long lick up his shaft, she slowly raised her eyes to meet his. The expression on his face was one she’d never forget. His eyebrows bunched together, his teeth clenched hard, and the love and possession she saw reflected in his eyes had tears pooling in hers.
“Fucking beautiful,” he growled and pulled her off him by the hair. “You’re done, baby.”
With a small kiss to the tip of his cock, she leaned back against the hassock.
He reached under her arms and lifted her back up on the cushion. “You good?”
“Yes,” she purred and wrapped her arms around his shoulders, putting her mouth at his ear. “I like doing that to you,” she said softly as she caught his earlobe between her teeth. “The swallowing thing—I—I’ll try if that’s what you want.”
Strong hands wrapped in her hair and pulled her face away, so their mouths were touching. “I’m good with that sinful fucking mouth wrapped around my cock. I don’t need more from you, but we’ll play it by ear. Right now—”
Eve took his bottom lip between hers cutting off the rest of his sentence. “Right now,” she whispered. “I need you to fuck me, Jake.”
“All night long, honey. I was gonna bitch about that trucker mouth you’ve developed, but I gotta say—kinda fuckin’ hot.”
She barely got out a giggle before her back hit the cushion and he was balls deep inside her taking her breath away. No matter how wet he got her, the first time he fought his way inside her body was always the most painful, but a sweet, delicious kind of pain.
He wrapped his hands around her shoulders holding her down. “Breathe, Eve. It’s been a while. Breathe for me.”
It had been so long she forgot how much he filled her, how far he stretched her. Her body clung to his at the invasion, squeezing his cock in quick, uncontrollable spasms.
“Relax,” he soothed her, his voice tense, sounding like he was battling for control. “Relax for me. Relax that tight little cunt for me, love. Fuck, you’re gonna kill me,” he ground out.
His graphic words worked better than any muscle relaxer. Her body finally accepted his presence and stopped clamping down on him.
“That’s it, baby. Goddamn you feel fucking phenomenal.” He pulled out slow, so slow, leaving a sense of emptiness in his wake. Before she could make the slightest protest, he thrust back in hard.
Eve struggled to catch her breath, but wrapped her legs high around his back, locking her ankles.
The pain quickly eased into a warm ache and then to a hot blaze. Her walls swelled around him, the harder he rode her, the more her body adapted, coating him with a fresh dose of arousal. In and out, from base to tip, he surged into her, staking his claim with each hard thrust.
Without breaking pace, Jake slapped the outside of her thigh.
“Move your legs. Give me your legs, baby.”
He pushed inside her deep, so deep he hit her cervix, and stayed still until she unwrapped her legs from around his waist. He yanked her down to the edge of the cushion and wrapped her hands around her knees.
“Hold your legs open for me.”
Grabbing her knees, she pulled her legs to the side as he shoved a pillow under her ass. The tilt of her hips forced her channel tighter around him to the point even Jake groaned.
“Fuck me. That’s it, hon. Hold them there. God, you’re beautiful.”
Eve pulled her knees as far apart as she could, willingly letting the decades of built-up inhibitions go. He’d been right. It was different when she willingly did what he wanted and right now, pleasing him in every way was the only thing that mattered.
When Jake started moving again, she inhaled deep, trying to slow her breathing, but as soon as his thumb landed on her clit, she arched towards him unable to get close enough. Would she ever feel close enough to him? She wanted to crawl inside him where it was safe, warm and where there was no sense of right or wrong, dirty or clean, just this living, breathing thing that thrived between them.
He circled her clit hard with the flat of his thumb as he pumped inside her.
As if she hadn’t just had the most explosive orgasm of her life, her body blossomed for him again in seconds. Her clit burned with each wet glide of his finger, but she couldn’t bring herself to stop him. The sounds coming out of her mouth were foreign even to her, but they seemed to get Jake off even more as his rhythm grew harder, more aggressive. His thumb teased her ruthlessly, side, side, top, side, side, top.
Even as wet as she was, she felt the hard circles and punishing thrusts rumble throughout her entire body. “Jake—oh shit!”
“You can take it baby, stay with me,” he ground out. “Does it hurt?”
“Yes,” she cried out.
“Do you want me to stop?”
“No—don’t you dare stop,” she hissed up at him. “I will end you!”
The sexy chuckle rumbled through his chest as he pistoned into her.
“Come for me, love.”
One more slide of his thumb in perfect sync with the thrust of his cock and she arched off the cushion, digging her nails into his shoulders. She held on to him as he slammed through her orgasm, through her muscles milking him. Her saturated body allowed him to go deeper, harder. Perfect.
“You were made for me, Eve.” With a final thrust, warm jets shot into her body, soothing the pain, giving her a comforting sense of peace she’d only ever known with Jake. He slowly slid in and out of her a few times, before clutching her to him and falling down on top of her, his face buried in her hair. “I fucking love you.”
Eve wrapped her legs around him and hugged him to her. They stayed there wrapped around each other, his body buried inside hers.
She leaned back to kiss his forehead before putting her mouth to his ear.
“I fucking love you too.”