What to Read After FSOG: The Gemstone Collection (WTRAFSOG Book 3)

by Lauren Hawkeye

  “Wow,” he said, taking in the beauty of the cabin. To his right was the family room area featuring a large, comfortable sectional couch pointed at brick fireplace and stone mantle. To the left was a reading area, complete with bookcases and two leather recliners. The first floor had no televisions. The entire first floor had hardwood floors, and across from the family room was an office complete with Wi-Fi (a convenience put in by my parents after we had stopped using the cabin as a family when we were younger; they did it for potential renters). Across from the reading area was the huge kitchen with granite countertops, a full gourmet cooking range, and a large eating area with a huge, round pine table that seated eight comfortably (ten squeezed in, I remembered from some of our family trips).

  I took Nick on the upstairs tour, too, and he hauled the bags up the stairs and around with us. There was a loft area with satellite television and four bedrooms, each with its own bathroom, walk-in closet, and television. The master bedroom, where we finally ended the tour, was something to behold. It was a huge room with a king-sized bed and dark wood furniture, and the bathroom featured ceramic tile countertops and a ceramic tiled shower.

  Nick was impressed. “This is much nicer than I pictured when you said your parents had a cabin,” he said, setting our bags down on the dresser.

  “Wait until you see it in the daylight. It’s amazing.”

  He pulled me into his arms. “You’re amazing. Do you know that?”

  I blushed. And then I nodded. “So I’ve been told,” I said, noticing again the exact hazel shade of his eyes.

  He chuckled. “Well let me tell you again.” He gazed into my eyes. “You’re beautiful, smart, funny, caring, and so incredibly sexy.” He brushed his lips against mine just once, and then he pulled back and looked at me in wonder. “You’re the first person I’ve ever talked to about my mother.”

  My heart broke for him. I wished he had as good a relationship with his mother as I had with mine. “I feel honored that you feel comfortable enough with me to share that part of your life,” I said.

  “I don’t know if I’ve ever felt this comfortable with anyone else before.” His voice was low and sexy.

  I knew what he meant. I kissed him once, and he pulled me close against him so that I could feel his heart beating against my cheek. It felt perfect there in his arms. We stood in silence for awhile, both lost in thought as we held one another.

  “I have a question,” he started, breaking the silence as he pulled back from me. He took a deep breath, anxiety written in his eyes. He still held my body against his, and I was starting to feel the familiar pull to him, the need to have him, to feel his skin against mine.

  “What is it?”

  “Are you, um… Are you seeing anyone else?”

  I shook my head.

  He kissed the tip of my nose. “I’m not seeing anybody else, either.”

  “So we’re exclusive?” I asked, knowing my tone was more hopeful than it should have been.

  Nick nodded, and then he smiled. My heart fluttered in my chest; my hands were sweating, my knees shaking once again. He wrapped his arms more tightly around me and pulled me close against him, and we were lost to the rest of the world as our kiss turned fierce, his mouth covering mine as his tongue entered my mouth for the familiar erotic dance.

  I felt his hands moving up and down my back and into my hair, and I wrapped my arms around his neck, my hands finding the back of his head and my fingers twining gently in his hair. His tongue moved slowly, sensually against mine, and I knew I was in for a fantastic weekend.

  He took his time with me, building the anticipation between us as he gently moved his hands down my body, grazing against all of my most sensitive areas. I would never, ever get tired of feeling his fingers on my body or feeling his lips against mine. I felt tingles racing up my spine and a tightening deep in my belly as I anticipated what was coming next.

  Nick backed me slowly to the bed, and then we both fell onto it, our lips never breaking our carnal connection. His hands started their arousing journey under my shirt to my breasts, which he grasped in his hands over my bra. I reached under his shirt, too, and felt his perfectly cut muscles under my hands, that tightening feeling down low intensifying with every passing second in his arms.

  He lifted my shirt over my head and then took care of his own, and he kissed his way across my belly and up my sternum to my chest, up to my neck, and then his lips found mine again. I moaned into him, lost in the pleasure that only he could give me.

  I kicked off my shoes as we kissed, and I heard his drop to the floor a second later. And then he reached for the button on my jeans, and he unzipped them. He hovered over me and grasped the top of my jeans, slowly pulling them down and throwing them onto the floor. I lay in just my panties, a deep purple silky pair I chose specifically for Nick.

  He gazed at me lying there, and then his eyes met mine and he grinned wickedly. He kissed his way back down my body to my panties, and he grasped the hem between his teeth. “I like these,” he growled.

  Fuck, he was sexy. And when he did things and said things like that, I could hardly handle the lust I felt for him.

  He crawled his way back up to me, hovering over me as he kissed me with his deep, aggressive intensity. Just when I thought I couldn’t take any more, he reached down to remove his jeans and boxers, and then he motioned for me to lose my panties as he pulled on a condom. A moment later he hovered over me, and I felt him as he settled between my legs. His lips covered mine and then he rammed into me, and I felt complete having him inside of me. I arched up into him, and he groaned in satisfaction as my fingernails trailed down his back. It was just us; nothing else existed outside of our space together. My world was perfect when I was locked in Nick’s embrace, when our bodies became one.

  He slid in and out of me as his lips assaulted mine, his heavenly tongue mixing with the sensation of him moving inside of me as his left arm supported his weight next to me and his right hand moved up the length of my naked body. It all became too much for me as he found that magical spot inside of me that sent my body quivering into a loud and intense orgasm, and he pressed up hard into me three times more as he found his own thunderous release.

  The next morning, I was up first, the thought of the Cabrillo account on my mind. I wanted to finish the work and have it out of the way so that we could enjoy the rest of the weekend without any obligations hanging over us.

  I put on the coffee and wandered around the first floor of the cabin, reminiscing about all of the fun times I had had at that very place; some with family, some with friends, and even a few with old boyfriends. I poured myself a cup of coffee and sat at the kitchen table, staring out the window at the Ponderosa Pine trees Payson was famous for. A thick blanket of snow covered the ground, and the ice coating the trees glinted in the morning sun. The beautiful view reminded me of so much from my past.

  I recalled the time Travis and I had come up to this very place when we were in college. One of our “Friends with Benefits” weekends, in fact, took place right in this cabin. Since at the time I was too young to feel comfortable sleeping in the master bedroom, we took up residence in one of the guest rooms. It was strange to me that Travis would pop into my mind at that time, but he was familiar. He was friendship; he was home. All this with Nick was so brand new, and I was feeling a mass of emotions that were also brand new to me. I had been in love in the past, but never like this. And I knew for sure that it was love. The way I felt when he held me in his arms, when he kissed me, when he made love to me… it was stronger and more powerful than any connection I had ever had before. It felt like he was my other half, like I wasn’t whole until he was there, too. He was my soul mate; the one person put on this earth specifically for me to find. And now that he was part of my life, even the thought of being without him cut me to the core and brought tears to my eyes. I was in deep, and knowing that he felt the same way made my heart feel safe with him.

  “What are you thinki
ng about?” Nick’s warm voice pulled me out of my reverie.

  I turned from the window to look at him. He was a gorgeous, mussed vision before me, sleepy and sexy all at once, and I felt the familiar magnetic pull to him as he walked toward me. The truth was that I was thinking about him and how quickly I was falling completely in love with him. But I couldn’t tell him that; I didn’t want to scare him off, but more, I didn’t want to be the one who said it first. I liked following his lead, and I knew that he was in love with me, too, and he would tell me when the time was right. I liked letting him control the tempo of our relationship. Hell, I liked giving him control in general. So I lied. “Work stuff.”

  He came up behind me and kissed my neck. I melted. “What kind of work stuff?” he asked, his voice husky in my ear.

  “Like the Cabrillo account. I need to finish.”

  “Yeah, I know how you feel. I’ve been there. Let’s get it done so we can focus on just the two of us for the rest of the weekend.”

  “That sounds perfect.”

  He walked to the counter and poured himself a cup of coffee in the mug I had left out for him, and I felt suddenly cold without him behind me.

  He chatted while he poured his coffee. “I have to say, I’ve worked my way up the ladder, and McMillan’s one of the best places I’ve ever worked, barring the whole not dating your coworkers rule. I just really feel happy there, like I could be there forever.”

  “I like working there, too. The job is fun, and the people I work with are alright.”

  He smirked at me as he took a seat next to me. “It just feels good. Like it will be the last job I’ll ever have. And it gave me you,” he squeezed my hand.

  After our coffee and a steamy shower together, we got to work. By noon, we were both ready for a break, and we assessed what was left and determined that we could get the rest done in an hour or two. It was time for a lunch break. We went into town, and we found a bar and grill where we ordered burgers and beer. We laughed through lunch, always finding new things to talk about, and then we spent the afternoon walking through the boutique shops in town. He held my hand in public and it felt so right after being so secretive at work. He stopped suddenly and pulled me into his arms, kissing me right there on the middle of the sidewalk, and I longed for a normal, public relationship like most people had. But we couldn’t, or it could mean one – or both – of our jobs. And after he had confessed to me that morning just how much he loved working at McMillan, I was more determined than ever to make sure that we both kept our jobs. I just couldn’t imagine not working side-by-side with this gorgeous, creative, intelligent man.

  When the sun started to set and the night’s chill set in, we headed back to the cabin. We spent some time finishing the Cabrillo project, and then we celebrated with some wine we had picked up while we were in town and made sandwiches for dinner.

  “Great work,” he said, holding his glass up for me to clink.

  “I had a great partner helping me,” I smiled, taking a sip of the deliciously sweet Moscato.

  “We do make a good team. I wonder if Davidson would consider shifting things around a little?” he said, thinking aloud.

  “As long as he doesn’t shift you off my team anytime soon, I’m a happy camper.”

  “Agreed. Although if I wasn’t your boss anymore, we wouldn’t have to hide our relationship.”

  “That would be a huge benefit.”

  “Have you told anyone?”

  “Not anyone at work. I told my mom and my sister. And Travis.”

  “What’s up with that guy, anyway?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean the way he looks at you.”

  “I don’t know what you mean. He’s my best friend, and that’s all. What we had is planted firmly in the past.”

  “Is that all for him, too?”

  “Yes. Am I sensing jealousy?”

  “I wouldn’t call it ‘jealousy.’ But I see the way he looks at you, Julianne. It’s the same way I look at you.”

  “I think you’re mistaking friendship for something more,” I said, although my conversation with Lucy about this very same topic popped into my mind.

  “Maybe I am. It doesn’t matter, anyway. I trust you when you say that it’s in the past.”

  “Good. And you’re my present.”

  “And hopefully your future.” He held up his glass and grinned. “To the future.”

  “To the future.” I smiled back, clinked his glass with mine, and took another sip.

  Chapter Ten

  Sundays were becoming my least favorite day of the week because they meant that I was going to have to separate from Nick. Maybe it was unhealthy to spend all my time with a man, but I couldn’t help it, and apparently neither could he. There was no one else who I wanted to spend time with but him, and having to pretend like nothing was going on between us when we were at work was becoming increasingly difficult.

  We spent the better part of the morning in bed, making love and holding each other in bliss. We got up and showered, and then we took a long, cold hike on the trails behind the cabin. It was a chilly thirty degrees, so we bundled up, and we held hands through our gloves and talked the entire time. When we returned to the cabin, Nick started a fire in the fireplace and I made us each a cup of hot chocolate to warm up after our outing. We made love in front of the fireplace, and when the sun started to go down behind the mountains, we knew it was time to start our trek back home.

  We were both quiet on the ride home, knowing that this would mean a night apart. I had the Sunday Night Blues hardcore, and the thought of a night away from him was depressing. But he had to go home and get a change of clothes for the next day, and I needed to spend some time at home, too. I needed to sort through my mail and clean my apartment and do some laundry. All things that would have been more fun with Nick’s company.

  Nick walked me up to my apartment and came in for a few minutes, helping me get settled. He kissed me long and slow with those perfectly chiseled lips before he left. And when he was gone, it felt like a part of me had left with him.

  I called Travis as I pulled the sheets off my bed for the laundry and separated my mounds of clothes that had been long neglected.

  “Hey, babydoll,” he answered, sounding tired.

  “What’s new?”

  “Not much. I’m still hung over from last night.”

  “What did you do?”

  “Danny and I went out again. I drunk dialed Brooke and she met us, and we went home together.”

  “That’s not healthy.”

  “I know. More unhealthy for her than me, though. I think she thinks we’re back on.”

  “Is that a bad thing?”

  “I’m still hung up on someone else.”

  “Are you going to tell me about her yet?”

  “Nope. Tell me about your weekend.”

  “Guess what?”

  “What, Jules?” he asked.

  “He said we’re exclusive,” I bragged.

  Travis was silent.

  “Hello? Trav, are you still there?”

  “Yeah. Uh, congrats, Jules. I’m happy for you.”

  He didn’t sound like it.

  “Thanks. Are you okay?”

  “Yeah, I’m fine. I’m just not making much progress in my own love life.”

  “I’m sorry, buddy. You will soon, I can feel it,” I said, trying to make him feel better. “Listen, I need to call my mom and Jamie, too. Do you want to come over?”

  “I don’t think so, Jules. I’m really tired. I think I might just call it an early night.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yeah. I’ll talk to you soon.”

  “Trav, I love you.”

  “Love you too, Jules.”

  I hung up with him and dialed my parents’ house, wondering the whole time what was wrong with Travis and what I could do to help make it better.

  “Guess what, Mom!” I said when my mom answered.

 
“What, Jules?” she asked.

  “You know how I went to the cabin with Nick?” I asked.

  “Yes. How did it go?”

  “It was perfect! We’re exclusively dating now.”

  “Oh honey, that’s fantastic! I’m happy for you. So does this mean you can tell people at work?”

  “No, not yet.” I could sense her disappointment. She didn’t think it was right to hide our relationship, no matter how valid we considered the reason.

  “Well, tell me more about this Nick character,” she said.

  I told her everything, from how sweet and gentle he was with me to how attractive he was. I left out the sexy details, and she strongly expressed her disapproval at hiding our relationship once again, but she understood that it was my life and that I was an adult who was making the decisions that were best for me.

  I called my sister next, and she was happy for me too. She also reminded me that she only had two weeks until her due date, and I was thrilled for her. We talked the longest, and I told her all the gory details about Nick.

  As soon as I hung up with her, a text came through from Nick: This weekend was perfect. I miss you already.

  I texted back: I miss you, too. I had a great time this weekend.

  What are you wearing?

  I laughed. Nothing. All my clothes are in the washing machine.

  Wish I was there.

  Me too. Wish you were kissing me again. Still.

  Let’s go away together again. Soon.

  I would love to.

  See you tomorrow.

  Can’t wait, I replied.

  What was weird is that I saw him only for a moment in the morning the next day, just long enough to give him the finalized marketing plan for Cabrillo’s team, and he took it to Dorsett Printing himself, hand-delivering the materials. I never saw him again after that.