Never Let Go (The Storm Inside #4)

by Alexis Anne

  We were the rain in summer. Constantly growing and changing but also, somehow, the same.

  “Fuck, Eve. I can’t do it like this, then.”

  I giggled as he wrapped me up in a hug from behind, my hands falling away from the door. I leaned back into his solid wall. “I don’t care what we do. I just want it to last.”

  He stiffened around me, feeling the double meaning in my words, understanding the need that was driving all of this. His hand snaked down to my clit, starting a slow, firm circle of building desire as he lazily walked us back to the bed.

  “I’m going to stretch you out and worship you, baby. I want the same things, you know that right?” His lips were just behind my ear, his soft breath whispering across my skin in the silence of our bedroom. “I would taste you everyday if I could. I’d devote an entire hour every morning and every evening just for drinking in the sight of your naked body. I need times like tonight just as much as you do. I love our lives, but sometimes I need more.”

  I yearned to give him what he needed.

  As if he could hear my thoughts, “You are. Back there in the shower combined with what we’re about to do? That’s exactly what I need.” We stopped as my legs hit the edge of the bed.

  He slowly turned me in his arms so that we were nose to nose—well, with my head tipped back and his leaned forward—and kissed me again, this time slowly. Delicately. As if he were tasting me for the first time all night.

  His hand came around to brace me as we fell to the mattress. “I’m going to make sweet, sweet love to you. Slow, so slow. And just when you’re so hot and sweet, when you’re blissed out and high on my love, that’s when you get what you want.”

  My eyes flew open when his voice dropped two octaves into the dirty range.

  He grinned. “That’s right. You heard me.”

  And from there things became a blur of tongues and fingers as we traded pleasure in every way possible. He massaged my left breast—and only my left—circling closer and closer to my nipple until I thought I was going to combust. That was when he finally closed that hot mouth of his and sucked. I bucked, wild with need. He quieted me a little by sliding his thumb into my mouth. I sucked as he sucked, but my hips still gyrated until he took back his thumb and moved it south to still my rocking hips. That sexy thumb stroked back and forth across my belly, moving lower and lower until he pressed it against my clit. I moaned as pleasure rolled through me from my toes to the tears forming in my eyes.

  So many feels and not enough hours to properly feel them all.

  But this would have to do for a while.

  Then his thumb moved further south, folding into my warmth until my core pulsed around him.

  Somewhere in the tumble of our bodies coming together and moving apart I wound up sliding down his lean torso to take his cock back into my mouth, sucking and licking until he yanked me away. “Oh no you don’t, you little vixen. When I come, I’m coming deep inside you.”

  Oh yes.

  I rose up onto my knees. “I want you, Jake. No more waiting.”

  He moved behind me. “Are you sure?” he murmured against my sensitive ear. The one that seemed to have a direct line to the muscles in my core that clenched every time his voice vibrated against my skin. “Because I can keep this up all day.” He kept talking and my core kept rippling with want for a cock to fill it, all while he resumed his rolling of my nipples. He clamped them with his fingers, calling for the blood to engorge them so that when he let go and pressed me forward toward the mattress they’d spike with a whole new level of sensitivity as they swept back and forth across the sheets.

  Yes. Yes. Yes!

  “Oh god, yes.” And I’d said that out loud.

  His cock was hot against my backside, ready and waiting for the action to really start.

  With his fingers still on my nipples he adjusted us slightly, lining up our final round for success. I tried my best not to grind my hips. Really I was trying to not move at all. I was so ready that any errant movement might just send me over the edge. We hadn’t built all of this up for a misfire.

  But Jake knew me well. Knew how much anticipation turned me on and kept me level at the same time. He froze, his breath the only movement. We stayed just like that, heavy breath, my knees inside his, his fingers holding my nipples hostage. The anticipation of what was coming next tingled across my skin. I knew what we were about to do, but I didn’t know exactly when or in what order. I didn’t know if he’d be loud and commanding or silent so he could hear every moan that escaped my throat as he pounded me into oblivion.

  He surprised me by moving slow. He released one nipple.

  I hissed as the blood rushed to the tip. “Yes.”

  Then the other. This time it was Jake who did the hissing. “They are so beautiful. They are begging for my mouth. Do you want my mouth?”

  I shook my head. Yes, yes I did, but no, I couldn’t handle it. If his hot tongue pressed against my nipples when they were this sensitive I’d blow right then and there.

  He splayed his left hand across my belly, just below my navel, while his right hand pressed behind my shoulder blades and slid up into my hair.

  Yes. I took a deep, shaky breath as that tingle of anticipation sparked into a full-on flame of need. My panting grew ragged and raw. My feelings were everywhere, my emotions on full display.

  My desire naked to the world, but only for Jake’s eyes.

  His fingers tightened in my hair, but slowly. Excruciatingly slowly. The pain and pleasure spreading across my scalp one heartbeat at a time.

  And then his lips were back at my ear. “You know what’s in my head when we’re like this?” His fingers tightened on my belly, pulling me closer against his body. He didn’t wait for my reply. It wasn’t necessary. This was the last surge of foreplay before the big show. “That I’m the only man who ever sees you like this.” My entire body fluttered in need. “And you’re the only woman who makes me lose my fucking mind.” His fingers tightened in my hair, tilting my head back so that he had full access to my neck. He sucked gently along my pulse, my sex hot and throbbing for the same thing: Jake’s lips on me everywhere. Forever.

  I moaned as suddenly everything became too much. My nipples were on fire, my skin tingled, my pulse was so fast and my breathing erratic. He bent me forward, his hand on my belly sliding to my hip to open them. No more teasing, no more waiting. He thrust into me with one smooth, firm stroke, but not hard enough to hurt. I bucked and cried out with relief.

  Then he reared back, ready for his cock to plunge home. I widened my hips and presented just a bit more of my ass to make this one a good one. With both his hands on my hips he plunged deeper, my body stretching around his thick invasion, and stilled as our bodies locked fully together. It was too much and not nearly enough. The fresh bite of his cock filling me past the point of full, forcing me to expand around him then clench hard, holding him tight and deep—maybe so he couldn’t escape.

  “Yes,” I moaned. I leaned down so that my nipples could brush against the bed as Jake drove into me again and again. Harder and deeper. His grunts matched my own. Blinding pleasure shot through me with each stroke. His cock hitting my core and detonating a bomb with each and every thrust. Like a shockwave flying out from an explosion. My nipples sent a small wave back toward his cock until I was filled with nothing but pleasure. The world faded away. There was no light or needs or cares. Just the sound of Jake losing control as he pounded into me until my feelings erupted into a blinding orgasm, pulsing and clenching around Jake’s thick cock. “Jake!” I called his name out, loud and needy, just as he promised I would.

  “Oh…” he moaned as my body clenched him tight. “Oh…” and with a final slam, his pleasure joined mine.

  I was still shaking and pulsing as we awkwardly rolled to the side together. He showered me with kisses down my neck and shoulders, licking at my skin followed quickly by gentle love nips. His hips kept rocking against my backside, sending tremors up through
my core.

  “I’m still hard, baby. Might be all day after—”

  I gulped. “Are you suggesting?”

  He slid his hand over my hip, seeking my clit. “Not suggesting. Demanding.”

  I groaned as he made contact. I was most definitely up for round two. So I hooked my foot up on top of Jake’s, giving him a little more maneuvering room to work.

  “I like it when you’re demanding.”

  He grinned. I could feel it against my skin. “Good. Play with your nipples.”

  So I closed my eyes and floated away on a blissed out cloud of pampering. My husband’s eternally hard cock rocking inside, his hand outside, and my fingers deftly rolling and pinching just the way I liked it until I pitched off a cliff of insanity that shockingly took Jake down with me.

  SPRING TRAINING ENDED in a blur of fan parties that blended seamlessly into opening day festivities. I barely remembered any of it. Jake managed to find a way to romance me every day and somehow those were the only memories that managed to stick. We fell into the regular season rhythm after that. Jake was up and at the office by five every morning while I got the girls up and to school before I headed in.

  Zoe picked them up from school and took care of them until Jake got away, which was pretty early most days. He’d found a renewed interest in life that included everything from the business to the girls to fishing.

  My nights varied depending on the game schedule. Some days I was home at four, other days I was at the stadium until the game was over. Our weekends were either spent in the world of baseball or on the water. The weather was glorious. Bright, hot sun and regular afternoon thunderstorms I could set a watch to—which was a huge reason why I raced home early on the days that I could.

  “Hey babe?” Jake was in the middle of serving up bowls of steaming homemade mac and cheese.

  “Yeah?” I said as I poured two identical princess cups of milk.

  “The girls are getting older.”

  I chuckled as I put the milk back in the fridge. “Your powers of observation are unparalleled.”

  He swatted my ass and pulled me into him with a growl. “Snarky.”

  I threw my arms around his neck. “Only because it gets me this.”

  He kissed me, licking along my lower lip. When I didn’t open like he wanted, he forced his way inside, claiming my mouth. “I see you’re enjoying the crime and punishment game this evening.”

  Yeah, I was feeling feisty. “Why not?”

  He released me and took the bowls in to the dining room table. “So as I was saying…” Then he took the princess cups and set them beside the bowls. “The girls are getting older and I’ve been thinking.”

  I spooned mac and cheese onto our plates next to our kabobs. The girls had adamantly refused to eat the grilled veggies and meat and we’d decided it wasn’t a war we wanted to fight right now.

  “What are you thinking?”

  He poured us both a small glass of red wine and nodded toward the dining room. I followed him in. “I want to start working with foster families again. I want to offer respite care. I think the girls are old enough.”

  “Oh!” The word popped out automatically. Of all the things I thought he was leading up to, that wasn’t it. “Yeah. Maybe? Yeah.”

  He laughed. “I know. It’s a little earlier than we’d agreed to, but,” he sighed.

  “But what?”

  He shrugged. “The night I came home from Maine. The night we,” he glanced up at the porch above us, grinning, “the night we celebrated my return? I told you that every time you trace my scars it feels like you erase some of the past.”

  I nodded, knowing where this was going. “Taking care of these kids does kind of the same thing, doesn’t it?”

  “Yeah. It does.” He leaned forward and took my hands in his. “But if we’re not ready, we’re not ready, and that’s totally fine. I just thought I’d mention it since it’s been on my mind.”

  Helping kids in foster care—many of who were exactly where Jake had once been—meant so much to him. He loved the opportunity to help. Some of the kids didn’t want that, but a lot of them bonded with Jake. He did his best to be there for them if they wanted to talk, even long after they left our home. When we were lucky we got graduation announcements a few years later.

  I didn’t doubt his instinct in the slightest. Which is why I didn’t need to think. “We’ll give it a go. If it feels too soon, we’ll go back on pause until we know we’re ready.”

  His eyes lit up, taking me in as if I were some strange mystery apparition that had suddenly appeared before him. “Yeah?”

  Silly man. Didn’t he know he could conquer the world if he set his mind to it? And when the two of us worked together? We were unstoppable. I loved that Max and Sam were growing up in a home that set that kind of example.

  “Why not?”

  He bounced his eyebrows.

  14

  JAKE

  Jake’s Journal

  It’s a miracle. Greg is getting married today. When we first met all those years ago working for Uncle Tom I never, ever would have imagined Greg being happy, let alone happy and in love.

  To be fair, I couldn’t imagine that for myself either. Not back then. We were both jaded and angry. Life had dealt us shit to deal with. It was a dark tunnel that had no end.

  Until it ended. I know that Greg is the only reason I got up the courage to come home. I had done the work but I was too scared that I would hurt Eve again. That fear paralyzed me. If he hadn’t pushed me I wouldn’t be here today.

  And he wouldn’t be getting married. He came back because he cared so much about helping me that he forgot how much he was hurting. Thank goodness for that. I like seeing pain whither away and die.

  I held up my glass of Macallan 35 and looked through the glass tumbler at my best friend. “Do you think Tom could have ever imagined this day?” We were downstairs in a hospitality suite at the Don Cesar. Greg was getting married in less than two hours.

  Greg snorted. “Hell no.” Then he made a face. “Well, not this precisely anyway. Your uncle always saw bigger things for both of us, I’m just not sure it involved the two of us becoming so domestic.”

  That was an interesting comment. It intrigued me. “Bigger things, huh?”

  “Let’s face it, I was always a lost cause, but he wanted you to be the man your dad never was.”

  Something weird took hold in my chest. It was dark and it twisted until it was hard to breathe. The scar of having a shitty father was a permanent one. Nothing would ever remove the shadow he cast on my life. “Yeah, I think you’re right.”

  “I am right.” He took a massive sip of scotch. “You have this thing in your eyes.” He waved his fingers in front of my face. “That blissed out look. You only get that when you’re thinking about Eve or the life you wanted to have with Eve. The idea of wedded bliss and a herd of kids makes some guys run for the hills. But not you.”

  And some guys are sick fucks who use their family instead of getting the help they need to stop being narcissistic abusive assholes.

  “You have that look, too.” I raised my glass in a toast. “You always looked a little bit lost until the day you met Marie. And you’re a natural father when it comes to Natalie.”

  The smart-mouthed bookworm was a perfect match for Greg.

  He nodded and took another sip, but didn’t say anything.

  I grinned. Greg Hamilton was too choked up to answer. I leaned forward and clapped him on the arm. “Don’t worry, I won’t tell everyone you’re secretly a teddy bear under all the sarcasm and swearing.”

  “Shut up.”

  “What?” I laughed. “I said I wouldn’t tell.”

  He glared at me. “I just don’t know what to do with all this fucking emotional shit. It sucks.”

  “No it doesn’t. It’s awesome. You know it’s awesome. Being alone sucks. It is a sad, boring, meaningless existence.”

  He grumped some more and finished his drin
k. Then he cocked an eyebrow. “You give me hope. I always worried marriage was boring and sexless. That it meant being stuck with someone you don’t like very much.”

  I grinned. “If you do it right, marriage is definitely not boring or sexless.” I sat back and finished off my own drink. “In fact it’s usually the opposite. And it’s fantastic.”

  The door opened before Greg could say anything crass. Natalie’s father, Brandon, stepped in and closed the door. “I hear the good scotch is in here?”

  I poured another glass and refilled both of ours. Since Greg was my best friend and Natalie was now a permanent part of our lives, I had been trying to get to know Brandon because it meant he was now part of our lives, too.

  “How’s the jetlag?” They’d flown in from Paris two days earlier.

  “Gone. I don’t usually get hit with it like I did this time. Maybe I’m getting older?”

  “Is Natalie ready?” She’d been so excited. She usually acted and spoke like an adult, but since she arrived for the wedding she’d been giddy like Max and Sam. I supposed seeing your mom get her happily ever after did that to a kid.

  Hell, it was doing it to all of us. Seeing someone who had a good heart and had survived the ups and downs of life, find peace and happiness? It was satisfying no matter how old you were.

  “So ready. I’ve never seen her like this.” Brandon’s smile faltered and I had to wonder if it was because he realized that it was another man who’d made Marie and Natalie this happy.