“I need to call Teddy,” Ally said as we drive the fifteen minutes to the nearest town. “She will be back from Hawaii tomorrow, and I know Jacob will be waiting for her. He will assume she knows where I am.”
“I can have Richie pick her up,” I replied, knowing she would not rest until she knew that her best friend was safe. “Is there anywhere safe she can go?”
“I guess she could go to her parents,” Ally said, giving me a worried look. “But Jacob knows she grew up on the same street as me.”
“I don’t think he will go looking for her once she’s gone from DC,” I assure her, knowing that she was now worried about her friend too. It seemed to be never-ending.
While part of me wanted to believe that Ally’s fears were irrational, I got them. It’s why I insisted that Travis came with us. There was no way I could have left him behind, not after what had happened to Thatcher.
When I called Richie, he told me that Thatcher was now out of the I.C.U., but that he still had a long road ahead of him. There was no way I could let something like that happen to Travis.
And while Jacob’s official record was pristine, Richie said that after he’d done a little digging, Jacob was bad news. There had been several allegations made against him over the years, but each time something happened, the witness would refuse to testify, or would suddenly lose their memory.
The truth was, until now, Jacob Wallace had been untouchable, and Richie said that Jacob believed that he would come out of this untarnished too, whatever the cost.
Jacob was capable of anything, and because of that, I was scared for Ally, because she would be the only thing that could stand in his way for the future he wants. That put her right between his crosshairs.
“I wish to God that I never met Jacob,” she sighed, releasing a long, miserable sigh. “I brought him into our lives, and now he is never going to let us live a normal life. I hate that I did this to you all.”
“That’s not true,” I said, glancing over at her, hating that even though she was away from him, he was still getting to her. “He is going to pay for what he’s done, and then you can get to go on with your life, living the kind of life you deserve.”
“I wish I could believe that,” she replied, giving me a sad smile that almost broke my heart. “I feel like I destroyed everything. Why didn’t I listen to my dad or Teddy, they could see the true Jacob?”
I pulled the car off the road abruptly, taking a side road down towards the lake, pulling to a stop when we reached the riverbank. I turned off the engine, then turned in my seat to look at Ally.
“You need to stop letting him do this to you?” I said, knowing I sounded a little harder than I should have.
“Stop letting him do what?” She asked, giving me a surprised look.
“Living in your head,” I sighed, knowing that I needed to tread carefully with her right now, but knowing I needed to be honest with her too. “I know you have every reason to be upset, even scared. But blaming yourself for everything that is going on right now is just letting him keep his power over you.”
“I just feel like I have somehow let you all down,” Ally whispered as tears danced in her eyes.
“You haven’t let anyone down,” I said, reaching over, taking her face in my hands. “But you can’t let him live in your head anymore. You can’t keep second-guessing yourself as you do. If you do that, you’re letting him win.”
“I just feel like everything I do is wrong,” she sighed as tears trickled down her face. “I guess if you’re told you’re a screw up enough times, you believe it.”
“You’re far from a screw-up,” I assured her, pulling her face to mine and kissing her softly on the lips. “In fact, you’re pretty damn perfect.”
I lean forward and kiss her again. This time it's deeper than before, and instantly my whole body reacts to the feeling of her lips against mine. Ally reached up and ran her fingers through my hair, gripping it tightly, kissing me as she’d never kissed me before.
Suddenly she moved, undoing her seat belt with one click before she moved across the car, climbing onto my lap.
I quickly reached down and pulled the release on the side of my chair, sliding it back to give us more room.
Ally pulled back from me, looking down into my eyes, and I have no clue what she’s thinking. But I am fairly sure I know what she wants. I’m sure it’s the same thing I want. She moves slowly, rolling her hips, and as she does, she brushes against my now swollen cock, making me groan with pleasure.
This made Ally smile, and she rolled her hips once more, as once more, I groan in pleasure. I’m so turned on right now; I know that if she keeps doing that thing with her hips, I am going to come hard before I even get my cock out of my pants.
I leaned up and claimed her mouth with mine once more, this time, I fisted my hands in her hair, pulling her face closer to mine as my kiss deepened.
As we continue to kiss, Ally reached down and undid the buckle on my belt, before she quickly reached into my trousers and grabbed my cock in her hand.
“Ally,” I groaned, pushing the urge I had to come right there and then back down inside me. “I want you.”
She slammed her mouth against mine once more, as her hand continued to work my cock. After a moment or two, I pushed her back, looking up into her eyes. She was almost unrecognisable, but I never felt more turned on in my life.
I pulled the buttons on her coat open, pushing it from her shoulders as I leaned forward and kissed her once more before I reached for the buttons on her jeans.
Once they were open, I pushed my hand down the front, allowing my fingers to find her wet, sensitive bud. Rolling the tips of my fingers around it, again and again, as she cried out, the sound of pleasure coming inside her was almost indescribable.
“Jaxson,” she moaned loudly as her hand splayed against the now steamy window of the car, as she threw her head back in pleasure.
I couldn’t hold back any longer, I needed her, almost as much as I needed oxygen to live. Grabbing hold of her hips, I lifted and turned her around.
“Put your hands on the steering wheel,” I instructed her, and instantly she did as she was instructed. When she did, I eased her trousers down enough to give me the access I wanted. Then I reached for my own trousers. I pushed them down, freeing my rock-hard cock before I pulled her back, easing her down onto my waiting cock.
As I filled her, we both cried out in pleasure, and I knew neither of us would last very long. I pulled her back against me as I began to roll my hips, and Ally moved in time with me.
Each thrust into her, I can feel myself come apart. I reach around and take one of her breasts in my hand. I sweep her hair back with my other hand, letting my lips find the bare skin on her neck.
“Jaxson!” Ally moans loudly, and I knew she was close. I nipped and sucked on her shoulder as she continued to bounce on me, meeting my thrusts with hers.
It’s all too much. I can’t hold myself back anymore, pulling her closer to me, I erupted inside her, empty myself into her as her hips continued to circle me, taking my cock in as deep as it can go.
Finally, she cried out too, as she found her own release, then sagged back against my body.
“Do you know how amazing you are,” I gasped breathlessly against her ear. “You’re like a drug that I just can’t seem to get enough of.”
She doesn’t reply, but I sense her smile.
“Tell me that this is forever, Ally,” I whispered against her ear. “Tell me that you love me, even a fraction as much as I love you.”
She turned on my lap to look at me, smiling at me before she kissed me softly on the lips.
“I love you with everything that is inside me,” she said, looking down into my eyes. “It’s funny because after I married Jacob and realised I’d made the biggest mistake of my life, I swore if I ever got free from his grasp, I would never give someone that power over me again. But then I met you, and in some ways, the way I feel about you scares me more
than Jacob ever did. While he had the power to control me and destroy my life if he wanted to, you have the power to destroy my very soul.”
“You know I would never do anything to hurt you, Ally,” I replied, trying my best to reassure her.
“I know you wouldn’t,” she smiled, softly kissing me once more. “And the truth is, while how I feel about you scares me. I know that somehow, you have made me whole again. You have given me hope that I can have a future, that I can be happy. I think that’s what I’m most afraid of is that Jacob will come and take that all away from me. He will come and steal my hope. He will take you.”
“We are going to figure this out together, Ally,” I promise her, knowing I shouldn’t be making a promise I didn’t know if I could keep.
The truth was if Jacob comes for her, and being who he was, I know it was more a when not if. I was willing to lay down my life for her. I was willing to die so that she can live again.
“Promise me,” she replied, almost as if she was reading my thoughts.
“I promise,” I said, knowing once more, I shouldn’t make promises I didn’t know I could keep.
“Good,” she said, kissing me once more. “Now, I think we’d better get to town and back to the house before my parents have a search party out looking for us.”
“I think you’re right,” I laughed but made no effort to move her from my lap.
This was what I wanted. Just Ally and me together and happy for the rest of my life.
Chapter 25
Ally
I had just finished tapping a message to Teddy into the new phone and hit send when Jaxson returned to the car.
We’d just finished lunch after we’d finished doing the errands Jaxson needed to do and had just reached the car when Jaxson said he’d forgotten something. He suggested that I wait in the car and that he’d be right back.
“Holy shit,” he said, as he quickly jumped into the passenger seat. “I don’t think I’ve ever been this cold before.”
“You live in DC,” I laughed, and I watched him trying desperately to warm up his hands. “It can be freezing there sometimes too.”
“I know,” he chuckled himself, then added with a wicked grin. “I think it’s because we got a little… um… hot on the drive from the house.”
“Is that what you call it,” I giggled, blushing as I recalled the amazing and very unexpected sex, we had in the car on the way down to the town. I reached out and took his hands in mine, then pulled off his gloves. “Let me.”
I cupped my hands around his, then brought them to my mouth. Slowly I blew out, letting my hot breath feed in through my fingers, heating Jaxson’s ice-cold hands.
“Your hands are cold!” I said before breathing against my fingers once more.
“Cold hands, warm heart,” Jaxson replied, giving me a big smile. “Or so I’m told.”
“I can’t argue with that,” I reply, returning his smile before he leaned forward and softly kissed my lips.
“If you keep breathing on my hands like that,” he whispered as he looked at me from beneath his insanely long eyelashes. “We just might have to stop for another detour on the way home.”
“You’re incorrigible,” I laughed, kissing him once more before I sit back into the seat of the car, knowing that it wouldn’t take much to tempt me to stop either, but we needed to get home. “But I think we’d better be getting back home.”
“Okay,” he said, pretending to pout as he slipped the key into the ignition, but before he turned on the engine, he stopped. “I almost forgot…”
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small, black velvet box and held it out to me.
“I thought,” he said, looking from the box, up into my eyes. “That we needed to mark your newfound freedom, and our new beginning.”
I looked down at the box, completely thrown that he would have done something like this.
“It’s just something small,” he said as if he was reassuring me that it was okay to take the box. “I just… I saw it, and I thought that you would like it.”
I reached out slowly and took the box from his hand, taking a deep breath before I slowly opened it to find the most beautiful white gold chain, with the pendant of a butterfly on it, which had four small diamonds down the centre of its body. It was gorgeous.
“Jaxson,” I whispered, unable to take my eyes from the beautiful gift. “This is beautiful.”
“The butterfly is the symbol of new beginnings,” he explained as he reached into the box and pulled out the necklace. “It is also the symbol that something beautiful can come from something ugly. That your future can be so much better than your past.”
He opened the clasp on the chain, then reached forward and carefully placed the chain around my neck. Then he kissed me softly on the lips once more, before giving me the biggest smile.
“It’s beautiful,” I repeat as I look down at it once more, completely blown away by this beautiful gift. “But, you know there really was no need…”
“I know,” he replied, smiling once more. “But I wanted to. I would do anything to make you smile.”
I suddenly felt a little choked up, completely overcome with love for this man sitting before me.
“Don’t cry,” Jaxson quickly said, reaching up and wiping the tears that escaped from my eyes.
“They are happy tears,” I quickly assured him as I leaned forward and kissed him softly on the lips once more. “I promise. I’m happy.”
“Good,” he replied before he sat back and finally started the engine of the car. Then, with one more smile, we set off back towards the house.
“Do you want to lick the whisk?” Mom asked as she turned and held up her whisk to me, giving me a broad smile just like she’d done so many times when I was growing up.
She’d been baking up a storm all day, and the large, modern kitchen was now covered in freshly baked muffins, cupcakes, and Apple pies. She was now working on some brownies, which was what the whisk was covered in.
“Is the Pope Catholic?” I replied with a laugh as I jumped down from the stool I’d been sitting on, watching her as she worked in the kitchen, and reached out for the whisk before I returned to my stool.
Despite everything, I’d never seen my mom look so happy, nor look so at home anywhere as she was in this kitchen. She’d fallen in love with it the moment we arrived at the house, and she seemed to be taking complete advantage of such a perfectly appointed kitchen.
“You’re going to miss this place when we finally get to go home,” I say as I work my tongue along each blade of the whisk.
“I am,” she replied with a sigh. “I think I’m going to have to talk to Dad about maybe modernizing our kitchen. I love the brush steel effect on everything. I think our kitchen would look amazing with it.”
“I think you could be right,” I replied, knowing that Dad was going to have his work cut out for him, talking Mom out of this idea.
“So, you’re going to be coming home?” She asked, giving me a look that said she wasn’t sure if she should bring up the conversation or not. “When this is all over, I mean.”
“I don’t know,” I shrugged. The truth was, I hadn’t allowed myself to think of the future. Right now, I was focusing on getting through each day, just praying that this nightmare would all be over soon. “I hadn’t thought that far ahead. I honestly don’t know what my next move is going to be.”
“I thought that maybe you’d want to stay in DC with Jaxson,” Mom said, giving me a knowing smile, and instantly I could feel my face flush with embarrassment, as my heart began to hammer rapidly in my chest.
“With Jaxson?” I asked, deciding to play dumb, but why I didn’t know, because it was clear my mother already knew about Jaxson and me.
“Come on, Al,” my mom said as she set down the bowl she had in her hands, before wiping her hands in her apron. “It’s written all over your face how you feel about him, every time you look at him. And I’m right in saying that he feels
the same, right?”
I nodded, but I don’t speak. I knew if I did, I would cry.
“You know it’s okay that you’ve found someone that will treat you how you should be treated,” Mom said as she walked around the workstation, she was standing behind and hugged me tightly. “You need to be with someone who is a good man. And Jaxson is a good man.”
“He is,” I whispered as tears trickle down my face. I didn’t know why I was crying. Perhaps they were tears of relief. “Does Dad know?”
“He has his suspicions too,” Mom confirmed, and I couldn’t help but groan. “It’s okay; he likes Jaxson. He much prefers him to Jacob. He thinks he’s a good man too.”
“Then, he’s not angry?” I asked, feeling a wave of relief wash over me.
“Why would he be angry, Sweetheart?” Mom said, sounding almost surprised. “He wants you happy. We both do. After everything you’ve been through, if Jaxson can make you smile once more, then we are happy for you both.”
As if on cue, Jaxson walked into the kitchen, and froze the minute he saw that I was upset.
“We were just talking about you,” Mom said, giving him a broad smile.
“Oh?” He said, shooting me a worried look, but I quickly smiled through my tears, and instantly Jaxson smiled too.
“Why don’t you come in and sit down, Jaxson,” Mom said, giving him a broad smile. “You can try some of my cake. Then we can talk about you taking my daughter out for a proper date.”
“I can’t believe I let you talk me into this,” I sighed as I looked at myself in the full-length mirror. “I don’t know if I’m ready to go on a proper ‘date’ date.”
“Maybe she’s right,” Dad said from the doorway, giving my mother a pleading look. “Besides, we don’t know how safe it is for her to be going out like this.”
“She will be fine, she will be with Jaxson,” Mom said, waving her hand dismissively at him before she turned back to face me. “Why are you so worried. It’s not like it’s a real first date.”
“But it is,” I sighed, giving her a worried look. “We’ve never gone out like this before.”
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