by Iris Morland
The greenhouse was north of the city, an almost thirty-minute drive. By the time I arrived, my coffee was cold, my palms were sweaty, and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to wring Jacob’s neck or kiss him until we couldn’t breathe.
The greenhouse was one of a dozen on the property, each one about twenty feet apart. The area seemed deserted; there were only two other cars in the parking lot.
I found him trimming hyacinths. The sweet smell of them wafted to me; he hadn’t heard me come inside.
“Why didn’t you tell me your shop was in trouble?” I said to the back of his head.
He stilled, his shoulders stiffening. I drank in the line of his back, the wave of his hair. It had grown since I’d last seen him, enough that it brushed his collar. But when he stood up and turned toward me and I saw his face, I almost collapsed—with relief, with love, with confusion.
“How did you find out?” was all he said.
“Your dad, for one.” I decided not to mention Tiffany spilling the beans.
His mouth screwed up into a mockery of a smile. “I didn’t know how badly the store was doing until it was too late to turn it around. Then my dad got sick, and the medical bills started piling up. Not only had my parents taken out a second mortgage on their house, but they used all of their savings to dig the store out. Suddenly they had to use their retirement to pay for the hospital stay.
“My dad isn’t old enough for Medicare,” Jacob added, “his insurance is shitty, and—well, you can guess the rest.”
“I’m so sorry.” I meant it.
“Don’t be. I should’ve found a different way to get the money.”
“It didn’t sound like you had a choice.”
Jacob shook his head. “The arrangement was actually mine, for the most part. I mean, it was your idea, but everything else was me. My dad had some input, but he can’t do things like he used to. I knew I should stop, especially as things between us…progressed. I thought I could get away with winning and you never finding out, that it was the price I’d had to pay.”
His eyes darkened. “But the price was too high. Because I never thought it would mean losing the woman I loved. Still love.”
“Oh, Jacob.” I sighed.
He reached inside a bag near his feet and drew out an envelope. “I was going to drop this off for you today.”
I frowned, opening it. Had he written me a Dear John letter? Or the opposite of one? As I began to read it, I realized it had nothing to do with our relationship. Well, everything and nothing.
“You disqualified yourself?” I whispered.
“I explained what I did, and I told the judges I shouldn’t have the prize. They agreed. Since you got second place, now you’ve won it. It’s yours, Dani. It should’ve been yours to begin with. I know it can’t make up for what I did, but it’s a start.”
I couldn’t stop the tears this time. “This was never about the money. It was about the fact that you lied to me, and used me, and then told me you loved me. I trusted you with everything.”
“I know.” He cupped my face, staring into my eyes. “I know. I’m sorry. If you give me a second chance, I’ll make it up to you every way I can. Starting with letting you have this money.”
“I don’t want the money!” I covered my face, sobbing. “How can you be so smart and such an idiot at the same time?”
He looked adorably confused now. “What?”
“I just wanted to know that you really loved me. Me, the weird plant girl. That’s all I really wanted.”
“Christ, Dani.” He moved my hands away from my face. “I love you so much that I was going insane, waiting for the fucking convention to give me a damn answer about the prize money. It was like pulling teeth, except all the people were old and took twenty years to answer all of two emails.”
I laughed. “I’m so sorry for your pain and anguish.”
“Put me out of my misery, then. Tell me you still love me.”
“Okay, now you really are stupid.” I threw my arms around his neck and kissed him, because it was easier to show than to tell right then.
Jacob seemed to get what I meant pretty easily. He kissed me until I couldn’t breathe, his mouth hard and slanted over mine, kissing me until my lips felt bruised.
“You love me?” he demanded. “Say it.”
“I love you. Jacob West, I’ve loved you since I was five years old and you made me that dandelion crown. How can you not know that?”
He smiled, that kind of smile that’s like having rays of sunshine penetrate your heart. Reaching down near the bag where he’d pulled out the letter, he went down on one knee and presented me with a dandelion crown.
“Because you told me you tore up the other one,” he said simply. “And I’ll make it my life’s mission that you never have a reason to tear this one up. I was going to bring it by your place later, but since you’re here…”
It was like the most ridiculous pseudo proposal ever that I started laughing, but it was through tears, and I couldn’t say anything except, “You are the worst person ever.”
I took the crown and placed it on my head. It was a bit lopsided, which made me love it even more.
“You look beautiful,” he said, completely sincere.
“I’m wearing a crown made of weeds, but I believe you.” I kissed him again, and soon the kiss heated up into something way more interesting than just a handsy make-out session.
Jacob pushed pots and tools off of the nearby table, the collection of items making a nice crashing sound. I would’ve chastised him for breaking perfectly good pottery, but then he was setting me on the table, never breaking the kiss, and suddenly I didn’t give two solitary shits about broken pottery. Not with Jacob’s hands and mouth on me.
It had been way too damn long.
“I can’t go slow,” he said, echoing my thoughts. “I need you way too badly.”
“If it makes you feel better, I’ve been basically soaked since the second I saw the back of your head. I should’ve brought an extra pair of panties.” I sighed in mock annoyance.
Jacob hummed under his breath as he cupped my breasts. “Sounds like a real problem. I’ll help you with that.”
“You’re always so helpful—” The word was cut off when he sucked my nipple through my bra, and the friction of the lace against the swollen peak was almost painful. Painfully good.
I was very glad that I’d worn shorts and flip-flops today. What would happen in wintertime, with all the boots and pants and socks and coats? I realized I hadn’t had sex yet in the winter, but I was very much looking forward to it, since Jacob would be the one stripping me down, layer by layer.
“Wait,” I said suddenly. I looked around. “What if someone sees us?”
Jacob considered the question, before pulling my shirt down to cover my breasts. “No one can see the rest of you through all of the greenery.” His smile turned wicked. “You’ll have to be very quiet, though. Otherwise somebody might come to see what’s wrong.”
“You’re assuming you can get me to make a lot of noise.”
He cocked an eyebrow. “Did you just dare me?” He rolled my panties down my legs and spread my legs in a smooth movement. “That was a very bad idea, sweetheart, because now I’m going to have to make you suffer.”
“Oh, noooooooo…”
Parting my pussy lips, he groaned when he saw how wet I was already. I had to bite my lip to keep from crying out when he licked me, slowly drawing more moisture from my body. I grabbed onto his hair, and he grunted when I pulled rather hard on the golden strands.
“This pussy is mine,” he said, almost growling, the vibrations of his voice enhancing the sensations he was coaxing from me. “And I’m the only man who’s ever seen it, tasted it, and fucked it. Do you know how hot that is, Dani? That your tight little pussy was saved just for me?”
“I didn’t mean to save it.” I squealed when he sucked on my clit. “It just never happened before.”
Jacob’s expression wa
s wry. “Baby, we need to work on your dirty talk and foreplay. Let a man have his fantasy, all right?”
“I am glad it was you, though.” I leaned my head back, my thighs burning as Jacob held them apart to keep me wide and open for him. “I’m so glad it was you. I think I was waiting for you, actually.” I sighed and moaned at the same time as he pressed two fingers inside me as he thumbed my clit.
“Say it again, Dani.” He rubbed harder.
“Which part?” I felt my orgasm drawing closer, and if I weren’t so desperate for it, I would’ve been embarrassed by the wet sounds my pussy made with each thrust of Jacob’s fingers inside me.
“The part where you waited for me.”
I squealed when he found that magical spot inside me that set fireworks off in my brain. I couldn’t think now. “It’s always been you. I told you that. Oh my God, please, please—”
He mouthed my clit again, and that was all it took to make me come. I shook so hard the table rattled. Jacob lapped at my pussy as I came and came until I was boneless. I had to hang onto his shoulders, otherwise I would’ve slid onto the floor and never have gotten up again.
He didn’t give me time to recover, though. Freeing his cock from his jeans, he thrust inside my still clenching channel until he was balls deep. I couldn’t get enough air inside my lungs. As he pounded into me, our bodies slapping together, my release seemed to go on and on and coiled more tightly deep in my belly again. I was going to come so hard that I would probably die, and I didn’t even care.
Jacob had hooked his arms under my legs, which gave him complete control of how fast and how deep he fucked me.
“Look at how you take my cock,” he said. “So tight and so wet for me as I take this pussy and fill it.”
I looked down at where we were joined, and a full-body shiver racked my body. Jacob wouldn’t let me look away now. I watched him stuff me, over and over again, my pussy tightening around him until he could barely thrust back inside.
“I’m coming,” I screamed. “I’m coming, I’m coming—”
Jacob laughed roughly and put a hand over my mouth. So much for keeping quiet. When he pushed one last time inside me, his pelvis glancing off of my clit, that was it. I died. I exploded, and as he poured his seed inside me until it leaked out of me onto the table, I was pretty sure every bone, every muscle, every internal organ just melted away.
He groaned loudly into my ear as his orgasm took over. I loved watching him shake, suddenly losing that control he was so good at. And the woman who’d done it was me. Yeah, I was a little proud of myself for that, I had to admit.
I whimpered when he finally pulled out of me. He drew a finger lightly through my folds, smearing his come around and looking inordinately proud of himself.
“I’m going to be dripping out of you for the rest of day,” he whispered into my ear. “Which is probably the hottest thing ever.”
I sighed. “You’re such a man.”
“But you love it.”
“My burden in life, I guess.”
After we’d cleaned up as best as you can do in a greenhouse, I realized I hadn’t asked Jacob the most pressing question that had been on my mind. Until he’d kissed me and my mind had apparently gone utterly blank.
“What are you going to do about the store? Your parents?” I said. “What’ll happen if you don’t have that money?”
“We’ll have to close, file for bankruptcy. I’ve talked to an attorney, and I hope we can save their house, but there’s no guarantee.”
How could I take this money when Jacob’s parents would be out on the street, his dad still not completely well? Would they have to move in with Jacob, three people in a one-bedroom apartment?
“I have some money, so I can help my parents get a place, but it won’t be in the city. It’s too expensive now.” Jacob sighed. “But it’s tricky, because my dad needs to be close to his doctors, but I’m not sure what the solution is.”
The idea came to me, so quickly that it immediately felt right. “I’ll buy you out.”
Jacob’s forehead creased. “What?”
“I mean, it might be a terrible idea. But what if we combined our stores somehow? I wanted to expand Buds and Blossoms into teaching classes. We could use your location for that.”
“Dani, I love you for the suggestion, but all you’re going to get is debt and more debt.”
“And I love you for thinking I’d let you deal with this without my help.” I brushed Jacob’s hair from his forehead. “Can’t we at least try? The money from the competition alone should be a huge help.”
Jacob considered my proposal, and the gray cloud that had come over his face seemed to lift. “I still don’t want your money.”
“Then think of it as our money.”
“It’ll probably be a total disaster, if we do this.”
“Probably.”
“Our parents will never forgive us.”
“Also true.”
He pressed his forehead against mine. “It’s totally crazy.”
“But that’s what we’re good at.”
Jacob laughed, shaking his head, and proceeded to show me how crazy the two of us could really be together.
Epilogue
Jacob
When I moved back to Seattle six months ago, I never expected that I’d be moving into a condo with the girl who’d been my childhood friend years ago and who turned out to be my soulmate, or that her evil cat would decide that he actually loved me, or that we’d be in the process of merging our stores together, despite the many protests of our parents.
But life has a way of making the unexpected exactly what you needed. And somehow the universe had known I needed Dandelion Wright, and I’d somehow managed to get a second (or really, third) chance with her.
“Kevin, look at your new window!” Dani lifted her ridiculously mangy cat up to show him the view of Lake Union. “You’ll be able to watch all the birds.”
Kevin yawned, already bored. He wiggled to get down and proceeded to get into one of the many empty boxes to take a nap. I took the opportunity to watch Dani bend over one of the boxes she’d been unpacking, admiring the round curve of her ass through her skinny jeans.
The only reason I didn’t bend her over the only chair that had been brought in so far and enjoy every inch of her curves was because we actually needed things in these boxes. Plus, the movers were still coming in and out with our stuff, so that put a bit of a damper on my libido. But considering I wanted Dani practically all the time, it was only a slight, temporary damper.
I wrapped my arms around her waist. “I’m looking forward to fucking you right in front of this window.”
She let out a startled laugh. “I didn’t think you were into having people watch us.”
“I’m not. We’d do it at night and keep the lights off. Besides, we’re up high enough that nobody could see us.”
“I’m not sure I’d want to test that theory. Besides, we’d get the glass all smudged.”
I bit the side of her neck, and she giggled.
Yeah, I was a goner for her. Had been the second I’d come into her store and seen her all flustered with that vase stuck on her hand. She’d looked so pretty, flushed and frustrated, her magnificent tits heaving. I’d had a hard-on within seconds and it had taken all of my self-control not to kiss her sassy mouth when she’d mouthed off at me.
“Oh, I heard from the bank,” said Dani, turning inside the circle of my arms. “We have an appointment next week to discuss merging the businesses.”
“And so you can take on all of our debt.” I still didn’t love the idea, but Dani could be just as persuasive—and stubborn—as me when she wanted.
“Think of it as a business deal. I’m buying you out for my own gain.”
“It’s a terrible deal, then.”
She patted my cheek. “Not if it helps you and your parents. Who, I think, like me now.”
“Which is to say your parents still don’t like me.”
“I guess it’s better than you both committing suicide,” Kate had said practically. “You know, if we’re ending this whole Romeo and Juliet thing.”
Mari had told me in no uncertain terms that if I hurt Dani, she’d chop off my balls. Except she said it so sweetly that I hadn’t been sure she’d been serious until I’d asked Dani about it.
“After the David thing? Yeah, she’s serious. She’ll kill you in your sleep.” Dani had said it so cheerfully that I’d been a little afraid to fall asleep that night.
The Wright sisters were fucking terrifying when they had a mind to be.
“My parents will come around,” said Dani as the movers returned with more of our stuff. “Once they realize this will be better for everyone, and that we’re serious about each other.”
I could see hurt flash across her face: her dad had suggested more than once that I was still messing with her for my own gain, which had resulted in our first ever argument as a couple when I’d wanted to confront her dad and she’d told me to stay out of it.
I had confronted her dad later on, although Dani had no idea. I’d sworn her dad to keep his mouth shut, and he’d actually agreed. The ring in my pocket felt heavy as I waited for the movers to finish up. I’d planned to propose after we’d settled in and weren’t living out of suitcases, but I couldn’t wait. I wanted to show the world that I was completely serious about Dani and me—beyond the whole “I love her” and moving in together thing. Apparently neither of those counted.
The movers finished just as it started to rain, the drops pattering against the window. Fall was beginning to settle on the city, the leaves dipped in shades of gold and umber and crimson. I’d forgotten how beautiful it was here. New York had its merits, but there was something about the Pacific Northwest that always called you back.