Play For Me

by Tam DeRudder Jackson

  All the while Jack spoke, he slowly weaved his spell over me. His big hand on the back of my neck dropped behind me, snuggling me next to him until our faces were so close I had nowhere to look but deep into his beautiful eyes. “What I’ve discovered over the last five years is that I’m never going to stop falling in love with you, Clio. No matter who tries to stop me, no matter how great the distances between us, no matter how long I have to be apart from you, there is no obstacle big enough to keep me from loving you.”

  He cupped my cheek in the way that always got to me, holding me still as he lowered his lips to mine. The kiss was slow, tender, and so thorough that when he finally ended it, I gasped for air as a torrent of silent tears cascaded down my face.

  “You’re everything to me Clio.” He sucked in a breath. “I was afraid of how much I’d hurt you to trust you enough to tell you everything when I should have. I’m sorry for that, but I’ve learned my lesson.”

  “You’re the only person who’s ever seen me, made me feel like I mattered. I should have trusted that, trusted you. I’m sorry too, Jack.”

  With his thumbs, he gently brushed the tears from my face before he leaned in and kissed me again. This kiss, however, was hungry, his tongue sliding inside my mouth to demand a dance with mine, claiming me, ratcheting up my desire for him to stratospheric levels in the space of an inhale. The hand on my face slipped down to my neck, sending shivers through me before it dropped lower to cup my breast, driving me from zero to sixty in one heartbeat.

  Passion drove me as I climbed onto his lap, straddling him while I removed my sweater and bra. After all this time apart, my need, my only want was to feel his body pressed to mine, to show him with my whole self how much I trusted him. How much I loved him.

  Our kisses grew frantic, and after a few brief minutes, Jack unbuttoned his shirt and shrugged out of it. Rubbing my naked breasts against his naked chest, I reveled in the friction that hardened my aching nipples into hypersensitive peaks. He groaned into my neck where he licked and kissed me in the perfect way only he could do, making me squirm against him, struggling for more.

  His hands were at the fly of my jeans, and I slid off his lap to help him remove them. In short order, his jeans joined mine on the floor beside the couch. Before I knew it, I was on my back with Jack on top of me, his erection hard against my pubic bone. Reaching down beside the couch, he rummaged in his jeans to retrieve a condom.

  “Looks like someone is still cocky,” I teased.

  “Hopeful, babe. Hopeful.”

  “I hope you arrived here really hopeful,” I said as I lifted my hips and bumped my body into his before I opened my legs, letting my slickness show him exactly what I meant.

  “I got a whole box of hopeful in my duffel bag,” Jack said, a smile dancing in his eyes as he sheathed his cock. “But I need you to pay attention to right now.”

  He took his cock in his hand and guided himself into my wet waiting heat. As I lifted my hips to meet him, we stared deep into each other’s eyes at the incredible sensation of Jack’s shaft sliding home inside me.

  He rode me hard and fast that first time we were back together, neither of us able to deny our need for each other. I clenched my pussy tightly around him, my body bowing up into his as a shower of green stars burst behind my closed eyelids. Jack pumped into me two more times after I started to come, and with a shout he joined me, our bodies seeming to melt into one.

  When the first storm of our lovemaking passed, Jack rolled over between the back of the couch and me, spooning me close, my back to his front. He pushed up onto one elbow, supporting his head in the palm of his hand as he smoothed his other hand over my skin. After a few minutes in the afterglow, he said, “I think now is good time for you to open your present, Clio.”

  Turning my head, I glanced up to find him smiling at me. After I grabbed the present from where it had fallen to the floor, I rolled onto my back to open it. Giving it a little shake, I noticed how light the box was for its size, and I couldn’t imagine what it might contain. Shaking it gave nothing away, so I tore off the fancy red and green wrapping paper and opened one end of the box to discover layers of tissue paper. When I tugged on the paper, a small velvet box came out with it. My heart thundered in my chest as I stared at the box then at Jack’s face.

  Looking more serious than I’d ever seen him, he reached out and took the velvet box from me, opening it to reveal a perfect solitaire diamond in a thick platinum band.

  “Clio, I knew you were the one after our first date. It’s been a long hard road for us, but we’re finally here together. I love you. Please say you’ll be mine for the rest of our lives.”

  Cupping his handsome face in my hands, I said, “I’ve been yours since you first noticed me. I love you.” I tilted my face to his and kissed him, a lingering joining of lips, tongues, breath.

  Finally, he pulled away long enough to lift the ring from the box and slide it over my finger before he laced his fingers through mine and pulled our hands to our hearts. We smiled into each other’s eyes and breathed each other in.

  “From now on, we’re a team, Clio. A family.”

  My heart felt like it might swell out of my chest. “The best family.”

  I glanced down at his erection pushed into the space between us.

  “Definitely hopeful,” I said, laughing.

  “You have no idea, but you’re about to find out,” he said with a grin.

  He let go of my hand to feather his fingers up my rib cage, lightly tickling me and making me arch into him. We were both laughing when he wrapped his arm around me and hauled me up on top of him. “Your turn to lead this time.”

  “So that’s how the game is going to be played,” I deadpanned.

  He nodded sagely, a dare I couldn’t resist. Without giving him a warning, I pushed up and back on my knees to straddle his legs before I dropped down to take his length in my mouth as much as I could handle. Jack cried out and buried his hands in my hair as I hollowed my cheeks and pulled slowly on his cock until I reached the head, where I lavished all the attention of my lips and tongue, kissing and licking and sucking. I savored the smooth texture of his shaft and the kissable resilience of the head. Bobbing my head to my own rhythm, I worked his length, licking my way down, hollowing my cheeks on my way slowly back up before sliding up and down fast until I could feel the barely leashed tension in his legs beneath my own and in his abs beneath my hand.

  “Clio,” he gritted through clenched teeth, “I’m really close. Jesus, babe.”

  That was all the encouragement I needed. Massaging his balls with one hand and jacking the base of his cock with the other, I licked and sucked and kissed and sucked as much of his cock as I could take in my mouth until his body stiffened beneath me, his cries of ecstasy filling my apartment as his come filled my mouth.

  I swallowed him down then let him go and pitched forward to rest my cheek on his taut stomach. Idly, he ran his hands through my hair, his breath sawing in and out of his lungs while I discerned his taste. Salty, kind of primal like the sea, like nothing I’d ever tasted. Jack tasted delicious.

  When he had himself under control enough to speak, he said, “You never did that even once when we were together last summer. Why now?”

  “Because you dared me to.”

  “I did? Please tell me how I dared you so I can dare you again,” he said with a chuckle before he sobered up. “Seriously, Clio. That was amazing. Incredible.” He cleared his throat. “Maybe I don’t want to know the answer to this question, but I’m going to ask it anyway.”

  “How did I know how to give you a blow job?”

  “Yeah. Especially one as fucking awesome as that one.”

  I grinned impishly up at him. “I lived in a sorority for over two years. Women talk.”

  “About giving blow jobs?” Jack’s voice rose on the question until he nearly squeaked.

  His comical response cracked me up. “Some of them even gave demonstrations. I learned so
much living there.” I peeked up at him from beneath my lashes, gifting him a saucy grin.

  “Your sorority friends are something else, I’ll give you that. I think I’m really glad you lived there for a while.” He smirked. “Come here.”

  He tugged on my upper arms and pulled me up his body to lie on top of him. I rested my cheek on his chest, my hands on his shoulders as he ran his hands up and down my back and over my ass like he wanted to create a tactile memory of my body in his hands.

  As we lay there in the quiet, I gazed at the twinkling lights of my miniature Christmas tree and knew I’d experienced the best Christmas of my life. Jack must have been reading my mind as much as he read my body because he said, “When I flew out of Atlanta after the concert last night, I worried I wouldn’t make it home for Christmas. Now that I’m here, I can’t remember any Christmas in my life as good as this one.”

  The soft rumble of his voice in his chest beneath my cheek made me want to snuggle in even tighter to him. I was so focused on the sensations that I almost missed what he said next. “It’s going to be even better tomorrow when I introduce you to my family. My mom is going to freak. I can hardly wait to see that.”

  Jerking my head from his chest, I stared in shock at the playful smile on his handsome face.

  “What did you say?”

  “I can’t wait to see my mom’s face when she meets you and Angel. You two are going to be the best Christmas presents in my parents’ house tomorrow morning.” His grin grew even wider. “I’m going to be the favorite son for the whole fucking day. It’s going to be awesome.”

  “W-we’re going to your parents’ house for Christmas?” I stammered. Quite honestly, the idea of meeting his family scared the hell out of me and stole away some of the lovely afterglow of the amazing sex we’d shared.

  “We’re a family, now, Clio. The way I was raised, that means we spend time with the rest of the family on holidays. Unless you had plans with someone else?”

  He looked at me strangely, like the idea had just occurred to him.

  “No, no plans,” I said. “Although, Angel and I were invited to Harrison and Meredith’s for the day,” I added offhandedly.

  “What?” Jack sat up, rolling me up with him to sit across his lap. “Tell me about this,” he demanded. “They haven’t tried to take Angel again, have they?”

  “No. They’ve backed off from the threats. But I turned them down for Christmas and returned the gift they sent Angel without opening it. A few days later, I received a letter from Harrison.” His raised brow told me what he thought about that, so I hurried on. “I’ll let you read it. We haven’t fixed anything, but they’ve opened a door to working on our relationship.”

  “How do you feel about that?” Jack asked in a careful tone.

  “I’m thinking about it.”

  “You have no plans for Christmas Day?”

  “I had this idea of creating my own traditions with Angel.”

  He slanted me a look.

  “But that was before you showed up beside us in church tonight and followed us home afterward. Jack, what if . . .” I swallowed. The idea of his family scared the hell out of me. “What if your family doesn’t like me as much as you think they will?”

  Hugging me close to him, he whispered against my skin, “Clio, they’re going to fucking love you. Maybe not as much as I do. I don’t think anyone can love you as much as I do. But they’re going to love you. Especially since you come as a package deal with Angel.”

  “I hope you’re right.”

  “Oh, I’m so right. In every way.”

  His laughter rippled over the skin on my neck before he started nibbling there. In short order, his hands were all over me, his mouth on my neck creating lovely sensations that shot straight to my core.

  “You’ve been saving up, I think,” I managed to say as his cock hardened beneath my ass.

  “Did I mention I brought a whole box of condoms with me? I have a plan for every single one of them.”

  He waggled his eyebrows at me when I looked at him in mock horror. “Tonight? You plan to go through a whole box tonight?”

  “Depends on your stamina,” he said, trying to keep a straight face.

  Abruptly, he lifted me off his lap, stood up, and scooped me up high in his arms. As he carried me toward the bedroom, I shrieked in surprise and delight.

  “Shhh! You’re going to wake the baby, Clio,” Jack teasingly admonished me.

  I answered with a giggle. In my bedroom, he laid me out on the bed and climbed on top of me. We didn’t use the entire box of condoms on Christmas Eve, but we definitely tested each other’s stamina. Neither of us wanted to open our eyes when Angel woke us on Christmas morning.

  Epilogue

  Jack

  In Greek mythology, Clio is the muse of music. My Clio was the muse of my life. Marrying her, making her mine, was the only option.

  I would have settled for a fifteen-minute ceremony at the courthouse the day after Christmas, but Clio wanted to have a proper wedding. That’s how I found myself dressed in a tux, holding Angel in my arms while standing beside my older brother Colin and my Balefire bandmates in front of our family and friends one June afternoon. Standing in my parents’ backyard, I admit, I couldn’t wait for Clio to emerge from their house.

  We decided to get married after Clio finished her nursing degree. As a present to my mother, she asked Mom to host our wedding. Though she’d made a tenuous reconciliation with her own parents, Clio wanted our big day to take place in “a real family home” as she described my parents’ place.

  In a concession to her parents’ sensibilities, we hired a string quartet to play the prewedding and the wedding ceremony music. It was going to be fun to see her parents’ reaction to the special song the guys insisted on including in the ceremony before I slipped Clio’s wedding band on her finger. The justice of the peace knew about it, but it didn’t make it into the wedding rehearsal. The thought of Harrison and Meredith Barnes’s reaction to our rock band antics put a smirk on my face.

  Catching my smile, Angel leaned across my chest to stick her little mug right in my face, a new habit she’d developed. Placing her chubby baby hands on both of my cheeks, she stared solemnly into my eyes before tipping forward to give me a big open-mouthed baby kiss on the lips.

  “Hey, Angel baby, I love you too. Now let’s watch for Mommy,” I whispered to her.

  The music changed from the classical strings of Vivaldi to Pachelbel’s Canon, and I held my breath for my bride. She stepped through the back door and locked eyes with me. If the world caught fire in that moment, I wouldn’t have noticed. In her tight strapless lace dress, Clio stole all my thoughts as she walked slowly and purposefully to me. The smile on her face eclipsed the summer sun. I’d never seen anything more beautiful in my life than my gorgeous bride walking toward me on her way to becoming my wife.

  When she reached me, she whispered, “I love you, Jack, so much.”

  Angel let out a squeal, making the assembled crowd laugh before Clio took her from me. She gave our baby a kiss before handing her off to my mom, who sniffed back her tears as she smiled at us before she carried Angel back to the front row of chairs to sit with her and Dad and my four younger brothers.

  Clio smiled at me as she slipped her hand in mine, and together, we faced the JP, who began the ceremony. When the time came for her to slide the wide platinum band on my finger, I knew I’d never felt anything so right as that physical symbol tying me to her forever. Maybe I should have been manlier, but I didn’t care as my voice thickened over my vows when I added the diamond-studded band to the giant solitaire I’d already placed on her finger. That was the cue for my bandmates to grab their axes from where they’d discreetly placed them behind the JP. They launched into a raucous acoustic version of “Far Away” that had all our guests on their feet and cheering as Clio laughed with me, her eyes shining with love.

  Of course, I couldn’t let the ceremony end and our life tog
ether officially begin without some of my own theatrics. I play drums in a rock band after all. At the JP’s invitation to kiss my bride, I pulled Clio close and dipped her as I fused my lips to hers and slid my tongue in her mouth.

  What started as a very public claiming on my part, Clio changed into something far more intimate as she wrapped her arms around my neck and tangled her tongue with mine, kissing me back fiercely before she changed the angle of her mouth into something seductive and wild. A long time later from a far distant place, I heard the applause of our guests and at last tipped her back up onto her feet. She smiled at me with a flushed face and mischief in her eyes before we turned to greet our cheering audience. No stadium full of crazy loyal fans could compare to the heartfelt response of our family and friends to our marriage. That moment began the real rock ’n’ roll party that would be our life together. Greatest tour I’ve ever been on. And the best part? It was never going to end.

  Play For Me playlist:

  “Love Isn’t Always Fair”—Black Veil Brides

  “Untraveled Road”—Thousand Foot Krutch

  “Save Today”—Seether

  “If You Only Knew”—Shinedown

  “Don’t Wake Me”—Skillet

  “It’s Not Over”—Daughtry

  “Here Without You”—3 Doors Down

  “Turn the Page”—Metallica

  “Torn to Pieces”—Pop Evil

  “Every Time You Leave”—I Prevail (feat. Delaney Jane)

  “Second Chance”—Shinedown

  “Happens All the Time”—Cold

  Thank you for reading Play For Me.

  Turn the page for an excerpt from Sing For Me, Book Two in the Balefire Series coming in August 2021.

  Chapter One

  One year ago

  Blu

  With a tall pretty blonde tucked under my left arm and a gorgeous bronze-skinned brunette under my right, my fingers loosely holding the neck of a bottle of beer, I surveyed the action. Music pounded a decibel-ripping beat. A rainbow of lights pulsed across the ceiling and along the walls of the ballroom. Raucous laughter punctuated loud conversation. Buffet tables groaning beneath a feast of regional food lined one wall while bars flowing alcohol lined two others. People gyrated on the dance floor in the middle of the room, and something resembling a mosh pit writhed in front of the dais where a local band thumped furiously to impress the crowd. Oh yeah, this after-party was ending the Australian leg of our tour in epic style.