Finally Yours (Love & Wine Book 1)

by Claire Raye

  Lu wraps her arms around my neck, wriggling closer and sending a spike of lust right through me. “I’ll bet you can’t talk like an American,” she says, pressing quick kisses against my mouth.

  I slide my hands higher, over her hips and under her t-shirt to her breasts. “I bet I can,” I murmur, my fingers teasing her nipples through the lace of her bra.

  Lu’s eyes close as she leans slightly back, giving me better access to her chest, while at the same time pushing her body right against my dick.

  “Go on then,” she says, breathy and low.

  I grin, leaning in to suck her neck as I say, “What do you want me to say?”

  Lu groans, “Anything,” as her hips grind against mine, turning me on so bad. “Tell me what you want right now?”

  I move to the other side of her neck, nibbling her skin as my hands move to her back, unhooking her bra before slipping around to her breasts again. Lu lets out a low moan, her hands sliding into my hair as though to hold me against her.

  Swallowing, I move my mouth to her ear and in my best American accent I say, “I really wanna fuck you out here.”

  The noise she makes nearly undoes me and without even waiting for permission, I move my hands to her waist, pulling her t-shirt up and over her head. Throwing it on the deck, I then move to her undone bra, sliding it down her arms before it joins her top.

  “God, Jack,” she whispers, finding my mouth. “We shouldn’t, we…”

  “Who’s gonna see us?” I murmur between kisses. “Everyone’s gone home.”

  She groans again, her eyes opening as she takes in our surrounds. The sun is low in the sky, casting long shadows and deep red light over her back lawn. It’s silent though, the only noise, the soft music that comes from her phone.

  I lower my head, take her breast in my mouth, teasing her nipple with my teeth.

  “Where?” she breathes out and I can’t help but grin, glancing up at her as I lick her skin.

  With my hands on her hips, I push her up so she’s standing in front of me, kissing her stomach quickly, before also standing. I pull my t-shirt over the back of my head, throwing it on my chair before walking toward her sun lounge, undoing my jeans at the same time.

  When I’ve stripped off, I lie back, look up at Lu as I beckon her over with a finger. She smiles at me, biting her bottom lip as she quickly looks around again as if to check we really are alone, before undoing her shorts and slipping them and her panties down her legs.

  “Come here,” I say, my voice low.

  She walks slowly over to me, pausing beside the sun lounge where I run a hand up her leg, my fingers dancing over the skin of her inner thigh. She smiles at me, her eyes flicking to my dick and my obvious arousal. Without saying a word, she straddles the lounge and slowly lowers herself onto me.

  “Fuck,” I breathe out, my hands moving to her hips.

  Lu lifts her body from mine, before slowly taking me again, inch by painful inch.

  “Lu,” I moan, my fingers digging into her.

  She grins down at me, her hands on my chest as she leans in and whispers, “That was the worst American accent I’ve ever heard,” before repeating the move and leaving me unable to speak at all.

  Chapter Twenty

  Lauren

  We’re pushing four weeks since Jack’s arrival and I’m trying not to focus on the fact that he will have to leave eventually. We’re waiting on the last two parts for the crusher that are slated to arrive in the next four to six weeks, so that gives us a solid amount of time.

  Time for me to prepare myself for him to leave or time for me to convince him that he wants to stay.

  The pessimist versus the optimist.

  But, if I’ve learned anything from my previous relationship, it’s that you can’t make anyone do anything.

  When you’ve been burned that pessimist lives inside you; it screams louder, it pushes harder, and it reminds you that people suck.

  I need Jack to not suck.

  What I hate more than anything about that pessimist in me is that when she realizes I’m happy, she nags at the back of my mind, she whispers to me in my sleep and she reminds me that I’ve been left before.

  I wake up covered in sweat, my heart hammering in my chest while Jack sleeps soundlessly beside me. I suck in a ragged breath and exhale slow and long as I try in vain not to wake Jack. My breathing is labored, hard and noisy in the silence of the room and I hold my breath when Jack shifts in his sleep.

  If he wakes up, I’ll have to explain everything to him, something I don’t think I can do since I can’t even explain it to myself.

  It’s been months since I’ve had the dream and I thought by now my subconscious would’ve moved on, but clearly it has other ideas.

  It’s not even really a dream, but more of a reminder of reality that creeps in when I’m sleeping.

  He’s going to leave.

  The words float around in my head, but I push them away. It’s not the same thing because I know Jack will leave, but he won’t leave me.

  I close my eyes as my breathing begins to settle and carefully slide myself back down in the bed, nestling my body against Jack’s.

  And I tell that voice inside my head that he’s here now and that’s what matters.

  The morning comes and goes without Jack mentioning the minor meltdown I had while he was sleeping so I’m to assume he was none the wiser. I hate that I’m keeping this whole thing a secret from him, but I have no idea how to bring it up. I want Nate to be listed in that ex-boyfriend file, the one you gloss over, the one you shrug your shoulders at, like he was a poor choice in a long line of decent ones.

  Ellen walks into my office, a smile on her face and looking like she’s got a whole lot to say.

  I haven’t seen her since the kids unloaded Jack’s and my news on her. I’m shocked that she hasn’t been trying to hunt me down and harass me for all the details.

  “I told Mom you and Jack are dating,” Ellen announces, far more proud of herself than she should be. I swear she’s been waiting for this moment since I was fifteen as payback for all those times I was terrible to her when we were kids.

  “Oh my god, Ellen. Why would you do that?” I scrub my hand over my face knowing this is the perfect opportunity for our mother to shoot me with an I-told-you-so that she’s been waiting to use for nearly fifteen years.

  “It just slipped out,” she says, lying through her teeth.

  “Bullshit. Just like you didn’t know it was Jack coming to fix our crusher when he showed up here a few weeks ago.”

  “Okay, that I didn’t know. I promise. But look how well it turned out,” Ellen brags, giving me a wink and a cheesy smile. “And speaking of how well it’s turned out, do you and Jack wanna go to dinner tonight with Will and me? I finally got a babysitter that isn’t you.”

  “Let me check with Jack,” I reply, giving the idea much less thought than I would have in the past.

  “You don’t need to,” Ellen says sheepishly. “I saw Jack a few minutes ago and mentioned it to him…”

  “What did he say?” And I catch the nervousness in my tone. This isn’t something that would be the norm. I’ve always had a relationship with Ellen that was entirely separate from my personal relationships.

  And I get that since Jack is living on the property and working with me that we spend a substantial amount of time together so our relationship has accelerated faster than most, but I worry that a double date with Ellen is a little premature.

  “He said yes,” Ellen tells me with a look on her face that says I’m being stupid. “Why wouldn’t he say yes?” she asks, looking for the answer that I’ve got buried inside my head. She knows I’m second-guessing everything.

  “I don’t know. It’s kinda… soon?”

  “It’s not too soon. Jack is crazy about you and he has been forever.” She shakes her head and shoots me a look that our mother perfected around the time that Ellen and I became teenagers. “He’s not Nate, Lauren.”
/>
  It’s like she can read my thoughts, my transparency glaring and obvious.

  “I know,” I say trying to convince myself that this is a good idea. “Okay, what time?”

  The smile that spreads across Ellen’s face is large and beaming as she gives me the time and the restaurant and tells us to take an Uber because she plans on all of us getting drunk tonight.

  It’s several hours later and Will and Ellen are already at the restaurant when we arrive and from the looks of it, Ellen wasn’t joking about that getting drunk thing.

  There are two bottles of wine already on the table and Ellen is putting back what’s left in her glass when we walk in.

  “Yay!” she practically yells when we walk up, jumping up from her chair and hugging both Jack and me.

  “Ellen doesn’t get out often,” Will says, jokingly smiling at us. “The kids were a little intense today with us leaving for vacation in a couple of days.”

  “You don’t need to make excuses for Ellen’s drunkenness. It’s what she does best.” I tease her as I pull out the chair next to her and sit down.

  Jack pours us both a glass of wine in an attempt to catch up to Ellen who has obviously drunk more in a half hour than most people drink during an entire meal.

  “Just catch up with me,” Ellen says, her voice a touch louder than necessary and Will shakes his head, but smiles at her.

  We order a few appetizers and another bottle of wine, and coax Ellen into drinking a little water so Will doesn’t have to carry her out of here.

  But it doesn’t take us too long before we’ve caught up to her and the conversation begins to flow.

  The vineyard dominates the conversation and even though Will doesn’t work in the business, he knows it’s something that has been front and center in our family.

  “So, Jack,” Ellen starts and I have no idea where she’s going with this conversation. “Did you know that Lauren used to email me while I was away at school when you were visiting?”

  “Oh, is that so,” Jack plays back and he turns to smirk at me. “I’d love to hear what she said in those emails.”

  With her glass of wine in her hand, she’s prepared to unload everything and I’m cringing inside. I can’t for the life of me remember what I wrote to her in my annoyance-filled evenings with Jack.

  “You kept her very busy,” Ellen says, not giving anything away just yet. “An email practically every night. I hate Jack. Jack’s a jerk. Jack did this, Jack did that. Mom says he has a crush on me. Do you really think he like me? She was relentless.”

  “Oh my god, Ellen. I was not relentless! And I never asked you if you thought he liked me!”

  “Yes you did and I always told you he did like you. You made fun of Jack for having a big ego, but you were stringing Jack along because you loved the attention just as much.”

  “So you actually liked my attention, huh?” Jack says, wrapping his arm around my shoulder, a smug smile on his face.

  “Stop,” I say, shooting a look at Jack because he absolutely knows I liked him all those years ago. “And Ellen, you stop adding fuel to his fire.”

  “Fine, fine,” Ellen concedes but not before adding, “I always knew you’d end up together. So glad Nate finally disappeared.” She rolls her eyes dramatically, not even realizing what she’s just said.

  The conversation halts, the restaurant loud, but Ellen’s words resound louder and my eyes widen giving away that what she said had an impact.

  Will catches my eye and quickly flips the conversation away from Ellen’s comment.

  “Skeletons are meant to stay in the closet, El,” Will, mutters, but I catch his words and force a smile at him. “I’ve heard you traveled around a lot, Jack,” Will adds attempting to keep the conversation going without the awkward mention of my ex-fiancé.

  Jack clears his throat, and I know he didn’t miss Ellen’s comment, but now is not the place to discuss it. He lets it go and begins to chat with Will about the places he’s traveled because of his career. The list is pretty extensive and the two of them begin discussing their favorite places to visit since Will travels often for his job too.

  “How did you and Ellen meet?” Jack asks, changing the direction of the conversation for the better as I pour everyone a little more wine. We might all be a little tipsy, but the more we drink the more likely it is that Jack will forget Ellen’s little slip of the tongue.

  “We met when I was a freshman and Will was a sophomore at the University of Michigan,” Ellen says proudly and both Will and I let out a riotous laugh. This is the story she likes to tell and most people don’t ask anything beyond this, but not tonight. Not after she sold me out and told Jack I liked him.

  “Something tells me that isn’t the whole story,” Jack says, looking from Will to me and back again.

  “Nope, not the whole story at all,” Will says, pulling Ellen a little closer and pressing a kiss to her temple.

  “Let’s hear it,” Jack demands, a teasing quality to his voice.

  “Ellen and Will did meet at the University of Michigan, but it’s not a simple story of meeting at a bar or being set up by friends,” I begin and Will picks up where the story actually begins and I can see the flush creeping up onto Ellen’s cheeks.

  “Ellen was doing the walk of shame out to her car at about five a.m. in the parking lot of the apartment complex that I lived in,” Will continues. “I was just making my way home from a friend’s house where I had passed out on the couch and woke up because a blade of the ceiling fan had flown off and hit me in the head.”

  “This is already getting good,” Jack says, nodding his head at the drunken antics of college kids.

  “Oh, just wait. There’s very little that can top this story,” I say, leaning into Jack’s side as I polish off the rest of my wine. Jack signals the waitress to bring us another bottle, because even he knows this story is going to need another drink.

  “Turns out there was a skunk waiting silently under Ellen’s car and when she opened the door to the car, she scared the hell out of the thing.”

  “Oh fuck,” Jack says, despite not having skunks in Oz everyone knows the ramifications of startling a skunk.

  “That stupid little fucker blasted me,” Ellen says, seeking sympathy. “And so I started screaming.”

  “This is where I come in,” Will says, trying to sound like the hero, but I know it’s far from that. “I hear her screaming and I assume something horrible is happening. Girl in a dark parking lot screaming, you know. I run over and find Ellen smelling like death and puking next to her car. I’m still drunk from the night before and the sound of her puking makes me puke too.”

  “Such a hero, right?” Ellen says, giving Will a little push, but he pulls her closer. “Now you’d think the skunk spray and the puke would be the worst of it, right?”

  Jack nods a little, but I look at him and shake my head.

  “That fucking skunk got in my car!” Ellen yells and I start laughing as I remember the phone call to our parents the next day. “We spent a solid twenty minutes in that parking lot trying to get that damn skunk out of my car.”

  “How’d you get it out?” Jack asks, enthralled in this ridiculous story.

  “Looking back now, we should’ve called the police or animal control or something, but we were both still semi-drunk and underage, our logical reasoning was not what it should’ve been,” Will says defending his decision like every time he tells this story.

  “So what’d you do?” Jack asks again.

  “By that point, I was kinda crushing on smelly Ellen so I did what I thought would win her over. I grabbed the skunk with my bare hands, let it spray me like a million times as I pulled it from the backseat and tossed it into the field next to the parking lot.”

  The laughing at the table is crazy and I can’t tell if it’s because of the story, the wine or a combination of both.

  “We puked a few more times, and then went up to Will’s apartment and I showered fully clothed wash
ing with Bloody Mary mix,” Ellen adds like everything about this is totally normal.

  “We had no tomato juice,” Will says shrugging his shoulders. “My semi-drunk ass thought Bloody Mary mix would be the next best thing.”

  “And the rest is history,” Ellen quips, leaning over and kissing Will.

  “The story doesn’t exactly end there. This is where Ellen likes to end it, but there’s still more,” I add, nodding my head and making Ellen roll her eyes again. “She then had to call home and explain what happened to our parents.”

  While I was only fifteen, I knew something about this whole thing was off as I listened on the other end with Ellen trying to explain what happened to our parents. The best part was when our father told her that the village had lost its idiot that day.

  “The car was a total loss because they couldn’t get rid of the smell. The insurance company just took our parents’ word for it. No one came to look at it. They just towed it away and left a check in its place,” I continue and we are all laughing despite how awful it really was because in the end Ellen and Will ended up together.

  The night ends on that note, and Jack takes my hand in his and I lean against him as we leave the restaurant.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Jack

  “You’re gonna ruin your Uber rating if you keep this up,” I whisper, my mouth against Lu’s ear, while her hand is half-way down the front of my jeans. Thankfully it’s dark, the roads back to Somerville’s barely lit as the car speeds along, the driver apparently oblivious to the soft porno that’s going on in the back seat.

  “Don’t tell me you’re suddenly shy,” she teases, undoing the top button of my jeans, her body pressing mine into the corner of the seat.

  I chuckle. “Never,” I say nibbling the skin just below her ear. “Just didn’t pick you for doing something like this.”

  Lu exhales hard against my neck, her breath warm against my skin, her sexy murmurs a low rumble in my ear as her fingers start to work another button of my jeans. She’s drunk and it’s making her both confident and horny, two things I like very much.