by Heather Long
He promised to sneak me pictures. He also said I owed him at least one nice nude for being so helpful.
When I showed Jake the message, he sent Coop his middle finger and then said he’d think about it.
There was laughter in the group message after that, but even Jake seemed more relaxed. I sat with Klara and had coffee while Jake called Alicia.
“You’re good for him,” Klara told me, and I glanced at her.
“He’s good for me.”
“I’m sure,” she said. “But he was so serious and so tense all the time after we first got to Germany. He was very determined to not like it here, and yet he wouldn’t tell us why.” She shot me a look. “I’m pretty sure I know why now.”
I smiled. “He’s happy now.”
“Yes, he is.”
And I planned to keep him that way. “Do you think he and his dad can work things out?”
“I do, even if we have to lock the stubborn bastards up and make them talk.”
I laughed.
“You think I’m joking.”
“Actually,” I said slowly. “I don’t think that at all. But I don’t know that I’d help you lock him up.”
“That’s the right answer.”
“Not that this was a test,” I deadpanned, and it was Klara’s turn to grin.
“Oh yes, I do like you.”
That was cool, I liked her too.
Chapter Twenty-Four
From Where You Are
Frankie
“You look sleepy,” Coop said from the screen on my computer. I was sprawled next to Jake in the bed, and I hadn’t bothered with pulling the sheet up. Coop had video-chatted right in the middle of sex, and Jake answered then told him to wait. The fact Coop swore because Jake’s ass was in the way competed with Coop’s own suggestions had left me in stitches from laughter.
Worse, I’d been trying to smother it because Jake’s dad was home from the hospital and they were only two rooms away. I did not need them hearing me, even if Jake had been all the more determined to make me scream. Turned out orgasms were even better when you had the giggles.
“I wore her out,” Jake said with a wicked grin, running his thumb up and down my arm. The last week here had been a combination of playing tourist and history buff in and around time spent visiting with Jake’s dad. When he came home from the hospital two days earlier, it had led to some tensions, and I had a feeling an explosion was imminent between the two men.
Jake’s dad had taken to his convalescence probably as well as Jake would, especially since it also came with a wheelchair and orders to stay in it for at least another week, then they would fit him with a leg support and brace. Meanwhile, Jake had done the heavy lifting, and his dad had been a prick about it. Klara’s words, not mine, and I was staying out of it.
For now.
Per Jake’s request.
Mostly because he said if his dad snarled at me even once he was going to take his head off, and while I didn’t think he would snarl at me, probably better to reduce the potential for violence. But seriously, his father was a grown-ass man, he needed to act like it.
“I don’t know,” I said as I tilted my head. My back was to Jake’s chest, and I ran my foot up his bare leg. “I bet I could handle another round or three.”
“Is that a challenge, Baby Girl?” I swore his voice dropped an octave, and I didn’t miss Coop licking his lips.
“No,” I murmured, biting back a smile as Coop’s whole expression fell. “A challenge would suggest I didn’t think you could handle it.”
“Wow,” Coop said as Jake started laughing. “I didn’t know you had such a cruel streak in you.”
“Yes you did,” I retorted. “Now, stop trying to focus on sex. Tell me how the move is going. You guys have all been cagey when we’ve talked to you.”
“You want me to talk about moving? Furniture? And real estate in a hot as hell city when the most perfect breasts in the world are staring at me?”
Jake cupped my breasts, covering them with his hands, and I swore my nipples peaked at both the contact and the way Coop’s mouth dropped open.
“Problem solved,” Jake offered as he began to massage them. “Tell Baby Girl what she wants to know.”
Okay, there was something seriously hot about Jake tracing the rough calluses of his thumbs against my nipples as though taking turns torturing me and Coop. He caught my foot and trapped it between his legs so it spread mine, and the sheet drifted lower while he played.
“Um…it’s a place, got rooms. Lots of new furniture… A little harder there, Jake, her nipples aren’t quite red enough.”
“It’s a place?” That was what he came up with? Jake dipped his head down to nuzzle the shell of my ear, even as he slid his hand down and bared one of my breasts. Fortunately for me, his fingers dipped right between my legs. Unfortunately for Coop, he dragged the sheet up with his other hand to hide everything from view. “Oh, I like this.”
“Traitor,” Coop mumbled, but Jake just laughed at him as he began to play with his own cum and used it to tease around my clit. Considering how hard I’d come just a few minutes ago, I was still sensitive as fuck and it was hard not to shift against the bed. Particularly when the pressure was just enough to make me squirm but not quite enough to give me the friction I craved.
“Answer her questions,” Jake said. “She’s been a rock star for me and deserves everything.”
Coop made a face. “She’s a rock star for all of us. You’re just the lucky asshole who has her to himself.”
“Hey,” Jake said slowly. “You know what? I do.” He reached over and waved at the screen. “Night, Coop.” Then shut it off as Coop complained.
I burst out laughing and twisted to roll over on him as Jake set the laptop aside and pulled me to him. “That was mean.”
“Him and his blue balls are going to record you a video tour of the brownstone Archie purchased. It’s a really nice place on the upper West Side, and we’re not that far from Central and Riverside Parks.”
I stared at Jake and then sat up abruptly, straddling his hips. But he pulled me back down before I could grab my phone. “Jake…”
“Nope, no freaking out, Baby Girl. Archie’s surprise is excellent, and I am dying for you to see it. And until you walk inside that place, you do not get to freak out.”
I gaped at him. “Do you have any idea how much real estate there has to cost?” I’d done some searching when we’d first looked at NYU to apply. Apartments there were a nightmare cost.
“Mmm-hmm, I have some ideas,” he murmured, then rolled us so I was on bottom and he could pin me more easily. He rained kisses down along my jaw. “And I also know that we can afford a bigger place, a more secure one where you and Bubba can practice, and we have space to work, to study, and to even set up a workshop if we want.”
I groaned as he nuzzled kisses against my lips. “He bought some mansion, didn’t he?”
“You’ll see,” he teased, working his way to my throat, and the brush of his beard just added to the sea of sensations he seemed intent on drowning me in. His cock rubbed along my slit, and it grew stiffer with each slow grind. “Let Coop impress you. Archie’s nervous enough about it.”
“Archie likes to pretend he isn’t nervous.” That wasn’t a betrayal if Jake had seen it too. He tugged at my earlobe, his teeth scraping gently.
“He does,” he murmured. “But he also over plans when he’s nervous, and he has a pair of backup spaces if you hate the one he found.”
Another shudder went through me, and I dug my fingers into Jake’s ass. The bite of my nails actually had him lifting his head. “Jake, how many places did he buy?”
“I didn’t ask and he didn’t offer,” Jake told me firmly. “He said New York real estate was always a good investment and that some of those places were already in the family. My only request is we were nowhere near the place his mother is living.”
I made a face. Yeah, I could live without seeing Muriel. I
sighed and then met Jake’s gaze. “Am I making too much out of this? I know Archie will say he can afford it and that I can too, now.” Not that I would ever be quite as easy at spending as Archie was. At least not on myself. Spoiling the rest of them? I was down for that.
“No, Baby Girl.” Jake’s expression softened. “You have never loved Archie for his money. You have never noticed his money, not like so many others did. Honestly, half the time, I forget about it until he does something violently generous. We are never going to be those people where we take it for granted. That said…”
He raised his brows, and he didn’t have to go on. I got it. “We are his people though, just like he’s ours.”
“Exactly.” Mouth on mine, Jake didn’t give me room to breathe much less respond, but I arched into the kiss, dragging my nails up his back as he mimed pumping with his hips. The slow push and pull dragged his semi-erect dick against my clit over and over. It was both lazy and sensual.
“You’re going to think I’m crazy,” I complained, but only a little, and Jake chuckled.
“Only if you keep thinking about Archie while I’m trying to distract you.”
Okay, now I rolled my eyes. “I’ve had you come down my throat while his face was buried in my pussy making me come all over him. You’ve also fucked my ass while he’s been in my pussy. I’m pretty sure I had his dick in my mouth when you were in my pussy too. Frankly, I think we ran out of combinations over my birthday. It’s hard to separate any of you from sex now.”
Mouth open, Jake studied me a beat, then shrugged. “Fair enough. Also, talk dirty to me some more.”
They were all terrible. Absolutely terrible. And I loved them, but my next words went unspoken because there was a quiet knock on the door. Jake’s eyes narrowed, and he made a face.
“Stay here,” he ordered, then gave me a hard kiss before climbing out of the bed and grabbing a pair of boxers on his way to the door. I rolled onto my side to watch him. I really did love his body and the way the muscles moved when he did. I would never get tired of studying him.
The room we were using had been Jake’s when the family lived here. Apparently, they hadn’t moved to smaller accommodations because the girls still came over to visit. He cracked open the door. As it was, they hadn’t changed Jake’s room though. Granted, it wasn’t dressed up with posters from when he’d been younger, but there was a catcher’s mitt on the dresser that was ridiculously small when compared to his hand now. The one concession to his age, however, had been to add a full bed to the room rather than the single he’d claimed had been in there.
“Yeah?” he asked as he cracked it open.
“Sorry,” Klara said. “I did wait until the moans stopped, so I assumed you were done.”
Oh. God.
I yanked a pillow over my head and hid.
Jake chuckled. “I like fucking my girl, Klara, but thanks for waiting. What’s up?”
I sputtered at Jake’s direct response, but my face was on so much fire, I couldn’t bring myself to emerge and say anything.
“I bet. I need a hand with your dad. He’s being difficult, and I want to shift him out of the bed and into the chair for a while.”
“And he’s being a dick and refusing?”
“Jake.” One note of censure, and he sighed. I peeked, and he stood one hand braced against the open door but still blocking it so she couldn’t see around him.
“Yeah, gimme a sec and I’ll come help.” Then he closed the door and glanced at me. “Sorry, Baby Girl.”
I sat up, embarrassment forgotten. “He’s your dad.”
“He’s being a dick.” The scowl on his face worried me. “Would you do me a favor?”
“Anything.”
“There’s a place off base and in town that makes the best ice cream. Get dressed and ask Klara to take you? Tell her you have shark week and chocolate cravings? Just get her out of the place for a bit.”
I slid out of the bed and reached for some tissues to clean up. Then glanced at him. “I can, but…”
“It’ll be fine,” he promised as he pulled a shirt out of our suitcase and tugged it on. “I promise. Dad being a dick to me is one thing, he’s in pain and he hates being seen as helpless. I get that. But him being a dick to Klara is out of bounds.”
My heart squeezed as I dressed. “You going to give him the lay of the land?”
“Damn straight. He raised me to treat women better. He and Mom both did, and I’ll be damned if he gets to slide because he broke his leg.” He hesitated a moment and then added, “And I need to talk to him, just him and me. Maybe set some things straight between us again. I don’t know if it will help, but after what Klara said, I owe it to him to try.”
I stuffed my feet into shoes and then rose up on my tiptoes to hug him. He picked me right up and held me tight.
“Fucks with my head that he could have died, and he might have died thinking I was still pissed at him,” Jake said softly. “He could have set me straight a long time ago, but he didn’t. He just let me think what I did and protect Mom.”
“Because he was protecting her too,” I answered him and stroked my hand through his hair. “I get it. Give me five to ask her for help and then take all the time you need.”
He gave me another squeeze. “Thanks, Baby Girl.”
“Jake,” I said as he set me down. “Give yourself a break. The same one you’re about to cut him. You didn’t know what they didn’t tell you, and you were doing the right thing. You were protecting your mom, and right now, you want to protect Klara too.”
He nodded slowly. “It’s hard not to be mad. And I don’t have the best temper.” He sounded so damn sheepish, it took everything I had to not laugh.
“You don’t say,” I murmured, and he gave me a wry grin. “You can only be you. And as far as I’m concerned, you are the best you on the planet. Now, go talk to your dad. Try that, and if that doesn’t work…well, I guess yelling is the next best thing.”
He laughed and then gave me another kiss. “Go get ice cream.”
“You don’t have to tell me twice.” I gave him a little shove, and he chuckled. Fortunately, Klara seemed to be on the same page, because I’d barely asked and she grabbed her shoes and a hat. It was definitely colder at night here than in Texas, but I was pretty convinced most of Europe would seem colder to me and I was okay with that. It was never too cold for ice cream.
I didn’t know what Jake said to his dad exactly, I didn’t ask and he didn’t offer, but the tension in the house dropped appreciably by the time Klara and I returned with all the supplies I could ever want for shark week. I wasn’t due for another few days, but like I said, I never turned down ice cream.
The second week of our stay included card games that Jake’s dad—he insisted that I call him Bill, and yes, that was weird for me—and Klara taught us, along with board games. Jake and I bought them a game console, and Jake spent an entire afternoon teaching his dad how to use it so they could actually play over the internet once Jake got home.
Klara’s relief was a tangible thing, whether we were at their place or she was giving us directions to some sightseeing we might want to do. Bill and Jake also seemed more at ease with each other, even if their teasing still seemed a bit on the prickly side. We were happy to celebrate the Fourth of July with them, but I was missing the guys, even if I talked to them every day.
I was also missing the work they were doing, though it sounded like they had everything moved up to the new place. Then again, the tour Coop had given me over the phone had proven just how fantastic the new place was, and I had been floored by how gorgeous it was. The only room I hadn’t been allowed to see was the master suite on the top floor.
Archie had interrupted the tour and announced I got to see that when I came home.
Fair enough.
The ache to see them just grew, and by the end of the third week in Germany, Jake’s dad had been fitted for a leg brace and boot. It would give his leg support and help him
walk while he continued to heal.
Essentially, he and Klara would be fine without us. While I was eager to get back to Archie, Ian, and Coop, I wasn’t leaving Jake behind. So as long as he needed to be here, I was staying with him.
Also, phone sex had gotten very interesting, at least the way Coop and Archie played. Ian was killing me with new music. He’d been writing up a storm in the new place. I had picked up souvenirs for them, including a little beer girl outfit that Jake promised would drive them nuts if I wore it at home.
At home being the key phrase there.
I kidnapped Jake out of the house one day at Klara’s request, and we went to see the Mercedes-Benz and Porsche museums. While I didn’t care anywhere near as much about the cars or their engineering as he did, I soaked up his excitement and the notes he took. He also sent Archie about a hundred texts.
When we got back to the base, Klara and Bill had prepared an outdoor grill, and we barbecued like we were at home. It was a great night, and for the first time in my hearing, Bill asked Jake about his engineering degree and his plans.
Something inside me relaxed as the tension in Jake also eased. No more discussions about Jake entering the military and no more judgment either. If anything, Bill appeared genuinely interested. Klara raised her glass of wine toward me, and I clinked mine with hers and we settled in to enjoy it.
It was the last week of July when I called Archie and asked him to send the plane.
“Oh thank fuck,” he said at the request. “I wasn’t sure I could go much longer without seeing you, babe.”
“You saw me day before yesterday on video chat, but I get it… I miss you too. I miss all of you.”
“Yeah well, you’re gonna have to suck up to Tiddles, I’m his new favorite.” He sounded almost smug about it.
“Oh, I miss them too. Jake and I could book a flight…”