“Just like I’ll treasure you.” He brushes the hair back from my face, over my shoulder. “Do you have an evening dress?”
I blink, trying to catch up with him. “I wasn’t expecting that, but no, I don’t.”
“Sorry, it suddenly popped into my head. I have a benefit to attend tomorrow night. It isn’t something I can miss and all money raised is for the new wing of the children’s hospital.”
I bite my lip, feeling nervous. “Are you sure you want me to go?”
“Of course I want you to go with me. Why wouldn’t I?”
“This is all new to me. You’ll stay by my side, right?”
He cups my face. “I promise.” Kissing me on the forehead, he adds, “I really need to leave.”
“You go and get your work done, and I’ll be here when you’ve finished.” I smile and Jarrod frowns.
“You still need a dress.” He taps his lip with a finger and then smiles. “I’ll take you to get a dress tomorrow,” he offers and then groans. “I can’t.”
I roll my eyes. “I think Gia and Parker are heading out this afternoon, so if they have time I’ll ask them to come with me. “Parker said Julian was staying here with us, so he can be bodyguard.” I kiss the tip of his nose. “I’ll be fine with them.”
He glances at his watch. “I’m going to be late, but I’ll give Julian a heads up on my way out of the house.” He clasps me around the waist, and tugging me to him, kisses me so that I’ve forgotten my name. He smirks. “I’ll see you later, honey.” He’s gone.
Throughout my shower, I have a huge smile on my face, and can’t stop looking at my beautiful ring. Jarrod has made me happier than I ever thought possible and in my heart I know that Gia will be happy for us. She probably hadn’t considered that her father would want to marry me, but since she met Hunter, she wants Parker and I, as happy as she is. From what I saw yesterday, Parker is certainly happy, and I’m about to burst with elation.
I’m in such a hurry to go out dress shopping that within ten minute’s, I’m downstairs grabbing a travel mug filled with coffee and a cinnamon bagel that I’ll eat in the car.
I laugh at Parker sitting up front with Julian because she has hardly paid me any attention, her eyes just for the man she’s been obsessed with since he first appeared when Gia was in danger.
Gia looks tired, which has me chuckling because I’m guessing she spent the night in her husband’s arms. She glances at me from the corner of her eye, and then does a double take, grabbing my hand.
“He’s asked you to marry him, and he had the ring,” she says, surprise clear in her voice.
I don’t really know how to react because usually I can tell what’s running through her mind, but this time her face is solemn.
“He bought me the ring in Frisco.” I shrug, feeling the excitement of before seeping out of me.
“As long as you don’t expect me to call you Mom then,” she grins, “congratulations.” She grabs me into a hug, and whispers, “I really am happy for you both, Ivy.”
“Thank God… You had me worried there,” I admit, and then have my hand snatched by Parker, my whole body restrained by the seatbelt. “Ouch.”
“That’s a beautiful ring.” Parker smiles, no apology in her tone, just excitement. “Congratulations.”
I beam and sit looking at my hand while munching on my bagel.
33
Jarrod
Pulling into my driveway in a rush after a hell of a day, I notice Ivy’s parent’s car parked outside of the house. I’d gotten a heads up call from the security team that Hunter set up.
My heart has been in my throat the whole way home wondering why Suzanna and Charles would both show up here. Ivy had told them that she’d been staying here with Gia, so as they’d never shown interest in her whereabouts before, this time had me worried.
Gia had told me in the past that they constantly bullied Ivy into doing what they wanted. She’d said that Parker and herself, had never blamed Ivy when she’d let them down because they knew it was her parents’ doing and not hers.
Quickly entering my home, I head into the living room, and find Ivy practically cornered with her father hissing words of anger at her. The look of fear on her face pisses me off. Without greeting, I stride over to Ivy and when she notices me, the sadness I see in her eyes makes me want to pound her father into the ground.
Slipping between them, I pull her into my arms and sigh when she slides her hands into my jacket and around my back, her head resting against my chest as she sighs into me. I kiss her on the top of her head and then meet the furious eyes of her father.
“Why, have I arrived home to find you backing my fiancée into a corner?”
His eyes widen and he splutters while her mother clutches the pearls around her neck and sits on the sofa behind her.
I smile, realizing they hadn’t known and I feel pleasure that I was the one to tell them. “You heard me correctly, in case you were wondering.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Charles splutters. “You are not marrying my daughter. People will talk. There has to be twenty years between you both.” He shakes his head. “I do not give you permission to marry him,” he glares at Ivy, “daughter.”
I move her slightly away and intertwine our fingers. Tugging her with me, I move us away from the corner that she’d been backed into.
I face the man who is no longer welcome inside my home. “This is our home, so I’m asking you to leave.”
“We’re not leaving unless Ivy is with us,” he states, blowing out his chest. “And, if you don’t release her, we will be calling the police.”
I glance at him in surprise and laugh, and then tell him, “The police can’t and won’t do anything because Ivy is here of her own free will.”
“Of course she isn’t.” Charles reaches for Ivy, but I’m quicker and shove her behind me.
“This is your last chance. Leave now or I will be the one calling the police, or I’ll call the Marshals who currently have this house under observation.” I raise a brow and watch as he looks to his wife in anger and panic.
Ivy keeps her arm wrapped tightly around one of mine, and says, “Nothing you do or say will make me walk out of this house with you. I’ve been in love with Jarrod for years, and very soon I’m going to be his wife.”
“But what about children, dear?” her mother asks, the first time I’ve heard her speak since I arrived.
I squeeze her hand, and reply for Ivy, “I’ll give Ivy whatever she wants,” I move my gaze to Ivy, “and that includes children.” I smile and then hardening my stare, meet that of her fathers. “I love your daughter, and I’m going to be doing everything in my power to make her happy.”
Pulling Ivy against my side, I move toward the front door, and opening it, I come face-to-face with one of the Marshals.
“Everything all right in here, Judge Carrington?” he asks, looking into the foyer.
While I’m quickly debating whether to ask him to remove Ivy’s parents, she makes the decision for me.
“Please could you escort my parents from our home and the property. For now, they are not welcome here.”
Her mother gasps and her father hardens is stare on his daughter.
“You’d choose him over your own family?” he asks, moving closer.
“I will always choose Jarrod over anyone,” Ivy admits, wrapping her arms around my waist as she burrows against my chest.
No more words are spoken as they leave followed by the Marshal close on their heels.
I close the door and cupping Ivy’s face in the palm of my hands, I kiss her sweet lips. “Are you okay?” I meet her gaze intently.
“I wasn’t expecting them to turn up here, or to even know about us, so that was a surprise, but their reaction to us being together wasn’t a surprise at all.” She buries her face in my neck while I hold her as tight as I can. “No matter what my father said, our age isn’t the problem for him, that was just an excuse. He would have reacted tha
t way even if we were the same age.”
I kiss the top of her head. “I’m still sorry that you had to deal with them on your own.”
“Not for long.” She moves away and slides her hand into mine, leading me toward the kitchen. “You came to my rescue.”
“It bothers me that they treated you that way. I knew that they’d interfered in a lot of your plans with Gia and Parker as you were growing up, but I had no idea how bad it was.”
“Please don’t worry.” Ivy takes hold of my suit jacket and helps me remove it before she stands in front of me and loosens my tie, unfastening the top two buttons. “That’s better. You look more comfortable now.”
Her eyes sparkle with mischief as she lowers her head to my chest. “I want,” she says before I feel her lips touching the skin between my opened shirt, “you to be relaxed.” Her mouth trails fire along my throat to my jaw and finally to my lips.
I capture hers and hold her in place, devouring her mouth as heat rushes straight to my groin. Her arms wrap tightly around my neck and her body presses into me, the plump mounds of her breasts feel so good against my chest.
She pulls her lips away. “I want you. Now.”
My blood thrums through my body and my cock is so damn hard that it’s going to be imprinted with zipper marks.
“I have a surprise.” She smiles, and quickly removes her dress, leaving my tongue hanging out once her nude body is revealed.
She presses her hand against my swollen cock, and the fingers that she’s trailing back and forth along me, causes precum to leak out into my briefs. My breaths become heavy and when she leaves the button, and unzips my pants, her searching hand rubs against me and then her fingers are pulling me out.
Her hand tightens into a fist around the throbbing length, nearly bringing me to my knees.
“I love watching how you react to my touch. How your flesh feels against my fingers. I feel the pulse in your penis as you rest against the palm of my hand. You’re so silky smooth, and your excitement glistens on the head.”
I close my eyes against the onslaught of desire that has me in its clutches, but they snap open when my body jerks at the feel of her mouth circling the head of my cock.
I grab her up in my arms and rest her back against the wall, hauling her higher. “I’m going to come,” I admit, unable to catch my breath.
“I’m yours.”
God, give me strength!
I impale her on the steely length of my dick and catch my breath at the hot warmth that surrounds me.
Using my hips to keep her against the wall, I rip my shirt over my head, and snap the button on my pants open. Shoving them to the floor, I grab her bottom into my hands and start to thrust.
Her legs are wrapped around me and her feet push against my ass. Feeling my balls ready to burst, I thrust inside her and sealing our mouths together, I feel her claw at my shoulders as her core pulsates around me.
“So good… You’re making my toes curl in my shoes… Feeling you so wet and warm and tight drives me insane,” I confess.
I shove her arms above her head, and growl when her breasts move closer to my lips. I swoop down and suckle on a large nipple, massaging it against the roof of my mouth.
“I’m… Oh…” Her climax tears through her so strongly that her vice like grip around my cock, sets mine off as she milks every bit of semen from me. It goes on and on, until I’m sure my eyes roll back into my head from the pleasure.
Ivy slumps against me, her head rests on the top of my shoulder as she breathes a kiss against my neck. “I love you.”
“I love you too, honey.” I slowly lift her up and the sensation of sliding out of her makes me hard all over again.
She chuckles. “Take me to bed, Jarrod.”
“My pleasure.”
34
Ivy
My belly is full of nerves as I look at myself in the full-length mirror on the inside of the fancy dressing room in Jarrod’s bedroom. I feel like a princess. My hair has been curled and then secured with a jeweled clip at the nape of my neck. The evening dress that my friends persuaded me to purchase is off the shoulder with a fitted bodice, and the hem brushes softly against the floor. The lavender colored dress feels soft against my skin, and the slit in the front reaches mid-thigh. My high-heeled sandals are the same color as my dress, and make my legs look longer than they are.
Hearing the bedroom door opening, my breathing becomes heavier while I wait for him to see me. I’d hidden the dress in the closet yesterday because I’d wanted it to be a surprise and now I was nervous for him to see me in it…and then I catch his stunned expression through the mirror and all my worry falls away.
I slowly turn and meet his heated gaze before his eyes caress me from head to toe and back again. He opens his mouth to say something, but closes it again, licking his lips as he moves closer. When he lifts his hand to cup my face, I lean into him and feel the tremble in his touch.
“You are so beautiful,” he whispers, as his other hand caresses down my side, landing on my hip. “I’m almost afraid to touch you.”
“You can touch me and I never want you to let go,” I admit.
“Never.” He kisses my forehead before stepping back. His eyes glance over me again while mine do some looking of my own.
He’s a handsome man and always has been, but in a tuxedo, he makes my knees weak. He chuckles as my eyes widen at the more than noticeable bulge behind his zipper.
My eyes snap to his, which are full of amusement, and more than a hint of arousal. “I only have to think about you and I start getting uncomfortable, but you look at me the way you do, as though I’m the only man in the world, it makes me so hard that I have to work out complicated mathematical problems in my head before I become an embarrassment.” He shudders.
He gentle clasps the back of my head and kissing my forehead once more takes my hand into his. Our fingers intertwine as he leads me from the dressing room, downstairs and outside to the waiting limo. On seeing the car, I raise my brows because this is a surprise.
“Only the best,” he whispers.
He ushers me inside and then follows, sliding along the seat so that we’re thigh-to-thigh. The door is closed and then we’re enclosed in the large dark car, the partition already in place between us and the driver.
Jarrod takes hold of my hand again, and turns, kissing my shoulders. “You really are beautiful, Ivy. I can’t take my eyes from you.”
“Then don’t,” I tease, offering him a soft smile, but nerves start building in my belly.
What will his colleagues think of him being with me? Or that I’m his fiancée? Will they be rude to me or friendly? So many things are going through my mind as we approach the hotel where the event is being held.
“What’s bothering you?” He kisses my knuckles as I bite my lower lip.
He shakes his head and removes my lip from between my teeth. “Don’t do that, honey. Talk to me, please. I’m here for you and I want you to be able to tell me anything, whether or not you think I’ll like what you say.”
He’s so sincere and worried about me that I ask, “Do your colleagues know about me?”
He smiles. “Yesterday, I hardly had time to eat the sandwich that was brought to me, let alone announce our engagement.” He frowns. “Are you worried what everyone is going to think because of our ages?”
“I’ve never been to anything like this before, even when my parents went to charity events, I stayed home. Everyone loves you, and I’ve seen the pictures in the papers before of the women clinging to your arm at these events, and,” I blow out a puff of air, “I’m really nervous.”
“Look at me,” Jarrod insists.
When I do he lets me see his love for me shining in his eyes.
“Those women were never my date at those events, they’d just attach themselves to me when the photographer was around. No one has ever come close to you. You, my beautiful fiancée, are the most loving and caring person that I know, and I’m
so grateful that you return my feelings because I have no clue how I would have handled any other outcome.” He softly kisses my lips.
“I’m the one who should be nervous because there are going to be other men at the event who are closer to your age, who you—”
I cover his mouth with my hand. “Don’t even continue that train of thought. I’m yours Jarrod. Completely.” I smile and leaning forward, place a tender kiss to his lips, my hand caressing his face. “I’m just nervous, more so, after the visit yesterday from my parents. As long as you stay with me then I can get through the evening, and the next time it won’t be as difficult.”
He frowns. “I’m sorry. I didn’t think about how difficult tonight might be for you, I just wanted you with me.”
I shake my head. “Don’t be sorry. I’m your fiancée, so of course you’d want me with you. I’d have been pissed otherwise.”
He laughs. “My fierce woman.”
The limo pulls to a stop outside of one of the most exclusive hotels in Houston, and minutes later the driver opens the door for us.
Jarrod squeezes my hand. “Are you ready?”
I can do this.
“I’m ready.”
Jarrod moves around me and once he’s exited the car, he holds his hand out for me. I wrap my fingers around his outstretched hand and taking a deep breath, allow him to pull me from the car. The minute I’m on my feet, flashes of light causes me to stumble, but Jarrod pulls me completely against him.
“It’s only a couple of photographs. They capture all the guests as they arrive,” Jarrod whispers with a quick wink. “Don’t worry about them.” He kisses my forehead, which has me believing it’s one of his favorite spots.
Lawful: Gia ~ Hunter ~ Julian ~ Jarrod Page 18