by Sierra Rose
Instead of the insurance paperwork she expected, there were only two sheets of paper. One was a listing for an apartment in the city. She scanned the fact sheet. It had a roof garden, just like the one she’d picked out to share with Kevin before they broke up. The second one was a note written in his slanted scrawl. “Try once more, a real chance for us this time. A new place. A new start.” She let the paper flutter to the coffee table in surprise. A week and more ago he had given her this file and she’d avoided looking in it when all along this had been waiting for her. A declaration of intent, a real estate printout in a manila folder much like the one she’d been carrying the night they met. It was like he had handed her back her own dream in a crisp file folder. She wanted to cry. Instead she called and left a voicemail.
“Hi Jack, I need to go over some paperwork with you. Give me a call when you get the chance,” she said, a half smile on her face.
She hoped that he would listen to it, would answer her. When there was no immediate response, she fell to working again, convinced that when he heard the message he would call her, would speak to her and they could talk it out, figure out a way to be together. She had thought he was over her, but this folder seemed to prove otherwise. Slowly but surely, she plowed through more files, none of them nearly so exciting as Jack’s.
Chapter 18
She fell asleep on the couch surrounded by papers, her laptop sliding precariously off her lap. A knock at her door, insistent, woke her. She caught the laptop and set it on the table, tried to smooth her hair and looked out the peephole to see who would be there at two in the morning. Jack stood in her hall, for once not at ease but shifting his weight, stuffing his hands in his pockets and then taking them out again. She opened the door.
She smiled a little drowsily. “You got my message.”
“What message?”
“I left you a voice mail,” she said, puzzled as to why he was there.
“I’m not here because of some message. I’m here because I had hoped you’d show at Salamander tonight and you didn’t come. I wanted to know...if you’re that finished with me. The boys and I, we just got a recording contract at a bigger label. We were trying out our new songs on the crowd. It was a pretty big night for me and I wished you had been there.”
“I was there, Jack.”
“I looked for you,” he said, a little hurt in his voice.
She let him in and he waited while she stacked up her work and set it aside before he sat down.
“I was there. I stayed up until you had equipment trouble and kissed a girl,” she confessed. “Then I left. Don’t tell me it was your sister. You don’t have one.”
“I’m so sorry you had to watch that. It kind of just happened.”
“Who was it?”
“That was Miranda.”
“Oh, that explains it. Miranda,” she said a little hotly.
“Miranda and I have been out a couple of times. She came to my show. She kissed me and I kissed her back. So pretty much it’s exactly what it looked like.”
“I see.” Britt sank down onto the sofa, about two feet away from him, careful to leave plenty of space. “So, you have her. Why did you come here?”
“Because I don’t want her. She’s nice and a way to pass the time, but if you would give me a real chance this time, I’d be yours.”
“You’re offering to ditch your girlfriend for me.”
“She’s not my girlfriend. What about you? Are you and Greg together?”
“No. I’m not with anyone.”
“Then I guess you won the better person lottery,” he said ruefully.
“Did you sleep with her? The first night, like you slept with me?” she asked, although it cut to ask it.
“No. I kissed her twice. Once you saw. I shouldn’t have.”
“We are not together. You can kiss anyone you want,” she said flatly. “And now I need a drink.”
“I’ll take one too,” he said.
She opened two beers from the fridge. They talked over a few more beers trying to figure everything out.
“I’m trying to process all of this,” Britt said. “But it’s hard.”
He set down his beer. “Just let me help.”
With that, Jack took her by the arms and kissed her, his mouth coming down over hers almost before she could get a breath. The rush of her senses overwhelmed her as she opened her lips to let his tongue invade her mouth. Her hands were on his back, her tongue stroking his. Jack moved his hands to her face, holding her there while his mouth plundered hers. Her breath grew ragged, her hands pulling at his shirt, rucking it up so she could touch his skin, lay her hungry palms flat on the heat of his muscled back.
After a moment, he drew back, looking at her with an intense, heated gaze.
“You said I could kiss anyone I wanted. I want to kiss you. Every day, every minute possibly.”
“You’ll have to get rid of Miranda,” she said a little breathlessly. “And I’ll have to have dinner with your dad so I can get over this thing where you’re my boss’s son and it’s unprofessional or awkward or something.”
“We’ll do that tomorrow. He has a charity golf tournament but we can meet up with him after that. So do we have any other problems?”
“Your gross overreaction to the fact that Greg called me.”
“I’m sorry about that. I was so...jealous. I think I could have handled that better if I hadn’t felt so threatened. Like I was about to lose you to some other guy.”
“You were never about to lose me. Not until you started ranting about Greg and acting like I was on trial.”
“Fair enough. So we can kiss and make up?”
“I thought we already did.”
“Then how about we fuck and make up?” he said and she grinned wickedly at the dirty word he used to describe what they were about to do. “Because I’ve made love to you, and I want to do that again, tonight even. But it’s been too long without you and I need to claim you. Prove to myself that you’re mine. If you’ll have me, Britt.” He said, raking a hand through his black hair, adorably uncertain.
“I’ll have you but you may have to persuade me. I think you’ll have to sing to me,” she said playfully.
“In that case,” he said, vaulting off the couch and bounding toward the door.
Jack opened the door and got an acoustic guitar out of the hallway. She burst out laughing.
“I brought this in case of emergency,” he said, brandishing the instrument proudly as she giggled.
He settled onto the couch beside her and strummed a few chords before singing, low and dark, the song he’d written for her about the clever girl and two margaritas. She curled up beside him and held his arm possessively, her head on his shoulder. She was by turns thrilled and bashful about the song he’d written, the one he performed so beautifully right there beside her. When he was finished, she tipped her face up to his and kissed him softly. It was easily the most unabashedly romantic thing anyone had ever done for her.
Jack set his guitar aside and slowly, languorously, he brushed her hair back from her face and kissed her cheek. “I love the way you look at me.”
He kissed softly along her cheekbone, her jaw, her chin until he came to her lower lip.
“I love the way you kiss me,” Britt said.
“I love how adorable you are in every way.” He kissed her, gently taking her lip between his and tugging it. “I love how our bodies connect so perfectly, like a puzzle. Whether you’re holding me in your arms, we’re laying down. I love the way I can’t imagine going one day without you.”
Britt smiled as she stared into his eyes. “I love how passionate you are about life.”
“I love you because you make me feel so happy and comfortable when I’m with you.”
She cupped his face. “I love how you complete me.”
“And I love the way you caress my face, so soft and gentle and romantic. I love how you never cease to amaze me and take my breath away.”
> “Oh, Jack.”
The rush of her breath, the parting of her lips to take his tongue, the fist full of his shirt that she clutched...all of it blended together, getting blurry at the edges as she reached for him, for Jack. For the man she’d wanted all these weeks that had seemed like a doomed forever.
Chapter 19
She pulled him down over her on the couch, sinking into the cushions, relishing his weight that pressed her down. Her arms were around him now and she felt such a relief being with him, being close to him again. They kissed for so long that lost all sense of time, all sense of anything but their hands and mouths and tongues and the way they moved together so naturally. For all his protestations about wanting to claim her fiercely, his kisses took their time, building a slow burn into an inferno of need and desire.
Britt tugged at his shirt, pulling it up and off of him. She had the smoothness, the heat of his skin under her hands now and her mouth, as well. She licked his chest, bit his shoulder lightly because she couldn’t resist. When her mouth went to his ear, she whispered. “Please.” She felt the shudder go through him, felt the half a second of stillness before he took her by the hips and stripped her clothes off of her. His fingers pressed into her flesh, marking her as his. Jack’s mouth closed over her nipple, sucking, laving it with his tongue as she twisted beneath him, desperate to capture him between her legs where her heat and wetness throbbed for his entry. Relentlessly, Jack licked her nipples, beading them to an aching hardness so that she jerked and whimpered at the light scrape of his teeth along her tender flesh.
“Let’s try this again,” he said against her mouth with almost a grim tone, kissing his way down her stomach.
He pressed a soft kiss between her legs, sending a shiver through her. Britt’s hands were in his hair, pressing him closer, holding him there, her thighs draped over his shoulders. She spoke his name again, like a talisman she recited as he licked and sucked, at last pushing his fingers inside of her. She started to spasm but she shook her head, pushing his hand away.
“You. All of you. Please,” she rasped and he moved up her body.
She tasted herself on his lips as he kissed her, his tongue in her mouth driving her wild, keeping her right at the edge of pleasure. Panting as his big hands parted her legs, Britt gave a cry of joy, of ecstasy as he filled her with one thrust. She took all of him in, reveling in the pressure, the thickness as he moved in and out of her. Quivering with anticipation, she reached between her legs above where they joined and she rubbed fast and hard in rhythm with his thrusts until she crashed, splintering into a thousand pieces as she came and came around him. He kissed her, swallowing her cries of completion. Her head fell back, her desperation gone.
Jack pulled out of her, rose up above her and sat back. Confused she looked at him questioningly.
“More,” he said simply.
He turned her over onto her knees, her elbows on the couch. Jack set his hands on her hips and she waited, sensitive and trembling for his penetration. Instead she felt his tongue, the long sweep of his tongue licking between her legs in strokes that enticed her, made her jerk and gasp. She had thought she could stand no more, that after the first crushing orgasm she would hold on long enough for him to come, then she could roll onto her side and gather herself, breathe normally and rest. Instead here she was on her knees, his tongue pressed to her sex, laving her mercilessly. She clutched the couch cushion, pushing her hips back against him rhythmically as he took her again. Her inner muscles clenching, the cold rush of pleasure bursting within her. Crying out, she pulled away from him to catch her breath.
He was smiling at her, the wicked man. She kissed him, climbed in his lap. He was still hard, still throbbing and she settled over him, her tender folds parting to take him inside. She rocked against him, never releasing him. Just the push of his cock within her made her nipples harden. He took them in his hands, rubbing, squeezing as he exploded inside of her. She felt the hot liquid rush of his pleasure and it made her gasp. She ground her mouth into his, kissing him as he finished. Jack pulled her against his chest and held her close, nearly crushing her.
Breathless, sweaty, they clung to each other in the aftermath of that intensity.
“Jack,” she said against his lips. “Jack.”
“I love you, Britt. I want to show you. Come to bed with me.”
“Again, after that?” she asked with a nervous laugh.
“Did you hear me? Maybe you need a minute to let the initial shock wear off and let it sink in.”
Did he just say those magic three little words? “What?”
“I can see that you are completely taken off guard, but I said I love you.”
Britt tried to process those wonderful words. He wasn’t trying to get her into bed and it wasn’t said during the throws of passion. Although, it was after the throws of passion.
“This wasn’t said under the influence of organisms, sexual bliss, and drinks, was it?” she asked.
“Absolutely not! I want to make love to you now, soft and slow and show you how much I need you in my life.”
This was coming straight from his heart. The look in his eyes told her everything. Tears welled up in her eyes from all the emotion consuming her. Britt was nervous, excited, and couldn’t even begin to explain the wonderful feeling she felt. She was exploding with happiness. Wow! What a night!
She gripped his hands. “I love you, too.”
Cupping her face, he stared deeply into her eyes. “I have ever since...I don’t know, I’ve loved you so long. I knew it, knew it so bad, so sharply when you said you met somebody else on a date. It was agony. It’s the worst thing that’s ever happened to me.”
She wrapped her arms around him tightly and pulled him in a big, glorious hug. They’d reached the ‘I love you’ milestone. Britt’s heart pounded like a drum. She was sure she loved him too. “We need to work on your sweet nothings. Telling a naked woman she’s the worst thing that’s ever happened to you...” Britt teased as he pulled her along to the bedroom.
“You know what I mean. I didn’t know anything could hurt that bad, scare me that bad. The first thing I did was get so drunk. Then I wrote four songs and I went out with the guys in the band and they dumped me at my place before midnight because they were sick of hearing about how brokenhearted I was.”
“You were having a pretty good time the night I came to your place to beg you to take me back.”
“Is that why you were there? I wondered because you ran off so fast, like you were panicked or something.”
“I saw the girl on your couch.”
“What girl?”
“Blond, messy bun, barefoot, playing on her phone, like she lived there.”
“You mean Chloe. Dave’s wife. She comes to all our practices because Dave...well, Dave is an excellent bass player who does not excel at monogamy.”
“Wait, is there another guy in your band who would’ve been leaving as I came in? He was with his wife and I remember him saying it wasn’t his fault Dave was an asshole.”
“Clint, the drummer. And his girlfriend, Maddie. She hates Dave. She and Chloe are good friends and, in fact, Chloe stayed with them the last time Dave went off the rails and did some girl from Hooters.”
“Hooters? Like a waitress?”
“No. Hostess. Dave said she wasn’t smart enough to be a Hooters waitress.”
“Wow. Dave sounds like an asshole.”
“He’s a good bass player. His wife, I think, is sticking around to see if we hit the big time so she can leave him and take all his money, which isn’t a bad plan.”
“So she’s smarter than the Hooters hostess?”
“Easily.”
“These are your friends?”
“Yeah. But he’s not my role model don’t worry.”
“So what’s the deal with this new recording contract?”
“It’s going to be amazing. Two albums and a tour. Not just the tri-state area, either. We’re doing cross country and in
to Canada!”
“That is the most excited I have ever seen anyone get about Canada. Is it the moose?”
“Yes, moose are my favorite.”
“I’ve never seen one in real life. Just on, you know, Bullwinkle and stuff.”
“Then you’ll have to be my groupie and come to Vancouver with me.”
“Really? Can I ride the bus?”
“Definitely. Keep my bunk warm.”
“I want to be the girl you kiss on stage.”
“I’ll take that deal,” he said with a smile and kissed her, pulling the covers up over them because her skin felt cold.
“Jack,” Britt said.
“Yes.”
“Remember when I took the day off work just so we could spend it together?”
“Yes.”
“Why did you ditch me that day? I’ve always wondered.”
“I heard you on the phone with Marj. You said ‘how did a one night stand get so out of control?’ Those words cut deep. So I pouted like a child. I’m so sorry.”
“I didn’t know you heard that. And I’m sorry too. I think I was going through so many emotions at the time. I didn’t think it was wise to get involved with the boss’s son. I don’t know why I can’t take chances.”
“That’s why I’m here. To push you past those walls you have up. You can’t live your life watching the world from your front door.”
She laughed. “I love the places you take me.”
“Stick with me, kid. I’m going to take you to the moon and back.”
They both burst out in laughter and Britt enjoyed watching his face light up.
Britt lay in his arms for a few minutes just soaking up the warmth and contentment of being with him, being so close again after all their mistakes and all their misunderstandings. It was amazing to believe that they had come out on the other side of that turmoil stronger and closer than ever.
“I love you,” she said, whispering it against his chest as she laid her cheek over his beating heart.
“Do you really?” he teased.