Under My Skin (Skin Deep)

by Stone, J. M.

  Jackson nodded. “I called him and talked to him about what I wanted to do. It didn’t feel right, you know, wanting to propose with everything that had just happened, but…I didn’t want to wait anymore. He and I had talked about what would happen in the future with the three of us and I had told him then I wanted to marry you. I…I know that him breaking things off was sudden and out of the blue, but I did talk to him about that, too. That’s what we were arguing about the day it happened. I didn’t want him to do it, because I know you love him. And I know it wasn’t easy to move so fast with all this, especially with him standing there but not being a part of it. I’m so sorry for that, baby.”

  He sighed, and his tone was resigned when he continued. “He wasn’t going to change his mind, but he wanted to be there for when I asked you. He said he’d need to be there to show you that it was okay.”

  “He was right. I don’t think I would have been able to do that without him there. It’s so weird, isn’t it? That he’s not here with us? I mean, we didn’t all spend all of our time together all the time anyway, but…it was just us. We were happy, right?” I asked cautiously.

  I had been happy…was happy. Am happy. But I still wondered if maybe there was something I had missed that made Brandon walk away from me, something I had done.

  “Yeah, baby, we were happy. He was happy, I promise. But now we’ll just have to concentrate on other things…” He waggled his eyebrows exaggeratedly, which made me laugh.

  “Oh, yeah?” I asked, still laughing. “And just what else are we supposed to be concentrating on?”

  He shrugged and replied, “Oh, I don’t know…wedding bells, baby names…and hot monkey sex!”

  Did he just? Yup, he did. I lost it, laughing so hard I snorted. “Hot monkey sex?” I cried. “Jesus, Jackson what a way to turn someone on!”

  He narrowed his eyes at me and growled before his hands were on my sides, tickling me mercilessly. “Okay! Okay! Ohmigod! Stop!” I barked out between bouts of laughter. I could hardly catch my breath and my stomach hurt from laughing.

  I ended up sprawled across his lap, trying to breath normally again as he looked down at me fondly. He softly traced his fingers across my forehead, pushing my hair out of my face as he smiled tenderly at me. And just like that, the mood changed…desire pooled between my thighs, and my body ached for his touch.

  It had been so long since we’d been together like this and I wanted him more than I wanted my next breath. I carefully sat up, maneuvering around until I straddled his thighs, taking care not to put too much weight on the casted leg propped up on the ottoman in front of him. “You sure you’re up to this?” I asked him softly.

  He nodded and I leaned in to trace his bottom lip with my tongue. He moaned as I nipped his lip with my teeth and the sound set me off. The kiss turned wild, tongues, teeth, and lips tangling as we ate at each other’s mouths. Hands flew in a frenzied rush to remove clothing until I was naked and straddling his lap again, although we compromised on Jackson’s basketball shorts and just shoved them down far enough to let his jutting hardness spring free.

  I wrapped my hand around him, stroking him firmly before teasing him by rubbing the head of him over my slick folds, shivering at the feel of his silken, heated flesh against mine.

  “Inside,” he gasped, the rock hard length of him throbbing in my hand.

  I moved my hand, dragging the tip of him through my wetness and positioning him at my entrance, sinking down slightly. We both groaned as he breached me, and I pushed myself down to take him deep inside my body. When I was fully seated on him, I brought my hands up and braced them on the back of the couch, arching my back and grinding against him.

  “Are you okay?” I gasped, wanting to make sure I wasn’t hurting him.

  He nodded, his hands grasping my waist and grinding me even harder against him. When I let out a guttural cry, his fingers tightened, gripping my hips almost painfully as he began to move me up and down on his shaft. I let him move me for a minute before I took over, rolling my hips as I moved up and slamming myself back down, loving the gratifying sound of flesh slapping flesh, the feel of the heavy sac hanging between his thighs smacking against my ass.

  I felt that familiar wave building, taking me higher and higher as I moved faster and faster over him; I knew this time wouldn’t last very long for either of us because we were wound so tightly with desire, and two thrusts later, Jackson was spilling himself inside me, triggering my own toe-curling orgasm.

  I collapsed forward, leaning heavily into his chest and burying my face in the crook of his neck as I tried to catch my breath. He peppered the side of my neck and the curve of my shoulder with kisses and small love bites as his hands smoothed down the bare expanse of my back.

  “Fuck, I missed that!” Jackson growled.

  “Hey!” I cried, sitting back to look him in the eye. “Is that all you missed?”

  He leaned in and kissed the tip of my nose. “No, baby. I missed all of you, but I especially missed the feel of your tight, hot, wet little-”

  “Jackson!” I interrupted him, laughing at his words even as my face turned red.

  He chuckled and kissed me again before asking me if I was okay, making sure I wasn’t uncomfortable or that we didn’t anything to hurt the baby. I assured him that we didn’t (trust me, I asked the doctor about sex during pregnancy) which made him kiss me again and before long, we’d started all over.

  I wasn’t complaining about it…but poor Jackson’s leg was throbbing when we were done, so I felt bad. But not bad enough that I let him sleep when I woke up in the middle of the night wanting him again…

  The next morning, I was crying again. Of course, I seemed to be doing a lot of that lately, but this time I had a reason.

  I’d been in the kitchen making breakfast when the doorbell rang. I answered it, surprised to see a woman standing there with a bouquet of lilies and roses, a long envelope in her hand.

  “Allie?” she’d asked.

  I had nodded and she had smiled, handed me the flowers and the envelope, and turned to leave. I had thanked her and made my way back into the kitchen so I could see what was in the envelope.

  And what was in the envelope is what made me cry. It turned out to be a letter from Brandon, telling me he was leaving, among other things. This is what it said:

  Dear Allie,

  I know I told you goodbye yesterday at the welcome home party for Jackson, but I just couldn’t leave things like that. I need you to know that I’m completely good with you and Jacks getting married. He asked me about doing that whole thing at the hospital and I told him to go for it. I’m even going to be his best man, unless Luke throws a fit cause he’s supposed to be his best friend…But anyway, I’m sure he’s told you by now, because he really can’t keep anything from you (not that it’s a bad thing) but I even went out and picked out your engagement ring. So, in a way, it was from both of us, even though it is definitely an indicator that you will be marrying Jacks and more of a ‘one last thing’ from me. I shouldn’t have even said it like that because I don’t want you to think that I’m going away to lick my wounds and this isn’t what I really want. It is. I know I sprung it on you out of nowhere, but I knew it was time that I made the break. If not, it would have been that much harder than it already was. My timing was shitty; I know that. I also know that, knowing you, you think that you pushed me away, especially by staying at Jackson’s side every night. You didn’t push me away, Allie. I do think that the time we spent apart when you stayed at the hospital and I was working and then went home without you did give me time to think. That’s when I realized that the love you and Jackson shared, like I said that night at the hospital, is something special. I do love you, Allie, but my love for you pales in comparison to the love that Jackson has for you, and you for him. I don’t say that to hurt your feelings or to sound like I’m whining because I’m not. But I know that, in time, I probably would have ended up resenting the relationship you have together.
I know we said in the beginning that we were good with the whole sharing thing, but…I watched you two together and I know now that I want that for myself and I don’t want to be a third thrown in. I hope you understand what I’m saying, and I really hope I’m not making a mess of this. Regardless, by the time you read this, I’ll already be gone. I’ll be back in a couple of weeks but I didn’t want to leave this until then. I’ll see you when I get back, but until then, take care of yourself, Jackson, and the little peanut. He and Uncle Brandon have some future plans to see to.

  Brandon

  The steady thump-step-thump-step coming towards me indicated that Jackson was up and making his way to the living room on his crutches. He came around the corner into the kitchen and stopped dead when he saw me.

  “What’s wrong? What happened?” he asked me frantically.

  I gave him a shaky smile and shook my head. “Nothing is wrong, I promise. Brandon sent flowers and a letter to me and it just made me cry.”

  “You sure?” Jackson asked.

  I nodded again and showed him the letter. Jackson read it and then held his arms open for me; I moved into his embrace and hugged him tight. He pulled away after a second and asked if I was okay.

  “Yeah…I am,” I said. And I was. It still hurt that Brandon broke things off the way he did, and that he just plain broke things off, but I understood. If I was honest with myself, I knew that what I felt for Jackson had overshadowed what I felt for Brandon just a bit…but I also think that Jackson showed his hand emotionally a lot sooner than Brandon did, and maybe that made all the difference.

  Now, we’ll never know because things happened the way they did and, as the old saying goes, everything happens for a reason. So I guess we’ll have to see how it all plays out…

  Chapter 23

  “Shut up! Are you serious? You aren’t fucking with me, are you?”

  I yelled the words into the phone at Emma, who did nothing but laugh. I could tell she’d been crying, too, and I was initially worried but when she told me what she told me, I quit being worried. Now I was simply in shock.

  “Well, you are my best friend, so I guess we’re destined to go through everything together!” she said, still laughing.

  Emma was pregnant! Holy shit! Both of us, pregnant at the same time…how crazy is that?

  “How far along are you?” I asked her, betting in my head that she’s probably a week or so behind me if not due at the same time. As far as I can tell, I conceived the night of Luke and Emma’s wedding so it stands to reason that maybe she did, too. “And what did Luke say when you told him?”

  “I don’t know yet, I’ve only taken a home test. But if I calculated correctly, then I got pregnant either on my wedding night or sometime during the honeymoon. Our kids are going to grow up together, like we did! That’s so fucking cool!” she shouted gleefully. “And Luke was over the moon. He called Brandon immediately and ever since we’ve gotten into the shop this morning, he’s been telling everyone that comes through the door. I swear, you’d think he’d won a Nobel Peace Prize or found a solution to end world hunger rather than just knock me up!”

  I laughed. “I can imagine!” The bell dinged over top of my door at my store. “Gotta go, Em. Someone just came in but we seriously have to celebrate! I can’t wait to tell Jackson!” I quickly promised to call her later and hung up, turning to greet my customer.

  I stayed pretty busy for the rest of the day and by closing time, I was exhausted. These damn pregnancy hormones were hitting me hard and I found myself wanting to take naps all the time. I headed home once everything was done and found myself wishing that Chloe was back.

  She was a big help in the store and my Nanny was driving my mom nuts again because she’d had a fainting spell and now had a bunch of doctor appointments to go to, so Mom wasn’t able to come in and help. The last time Mom had tried to tell Nanny that she couldn’t go with her and Poppy to the doctor’s office, Nanny had laid a guilt trip on her big time, telling her, ‘Well, okay if you don’t want to help your elderly parent go to the doctor. I guess you don’t owe me anything for carrying you for nine months, birthing you, and then raising your ass for eighteen years…We’ll be fine. I just hope we don’t get lost…’

  That conversation had prompted another phone call to me from my mom doing her whole apology bit again. Truthfully, I think she’s just trying to make sure she stays on my good side so I don’t put her and Dad in a home when they’re old. Really.

  Mom had opened the store for me the first week Jackson was home just so I didn’t have to leave him alone in case he fell or something. But then that whole thing happened with my Nanny so I had to go in the following week because I didn’t have anyone else. Emma had come over and worked long enough for me to take Jackson to his appointment to have his cast removed, but now I was all by my lonesome again. I guess I just got used to Chloe working with me every day before the accident.

  Chloe was due back in a couple days; she was bringing her car with her this time, so she and Brandon were driving from L.A. They’d left, from what I’d heard, this morning to head back to Ohio, but that trip is going to take them a couple days, because I can’t imagine that they’d try to drive straight through. That would be ridiculous!

  The house was dark when I pulled into the driveway, which scared me. I parked my car and rushed in, yelling Jackson’s name. I got no answer and the kitchen was empty. I headed for the living room to check there, planning to go room by room until I found him or figured out what the hell was going on. He wasn’t on the first floor, so I headed up to the master bedroom, hoping and praying that nothing was wrong. I skidded to a stop in our bedroom doorway when I saw dozens of tea light candles flickering throughout the room from every available surface.

  I looked to see Jackson standing on the far side of the glass fireplace looking positively edible in a black fitted button down and sharply creased smoke-grey dress pants. Pushing away from the wall he was leaning on, he sauntered toward me with a sly half-smile creeping across his face.

  With a huff I drew myself up, bracing my hands on my hips. More shrilly than I intended, I asked, “What the hell are you doing? You scared the hell out of me with the lights off and you not answering when I yelled!”

  Jacks stopped in front of me, his hand coming up to softly cup my cheek. “Sorry baby,” he murmured, running the pad of his thumb lightly over my bottom lip.

  I nipped at it as he made a second pass and he chuckled quietly, the low, deep sound sending a shiver up my spine. Dropping my hands from my hips and stepping away from him to take in the room, I noticed that not only were there candles everywhere, there were rose petals strewn across the bedspread with a single red rose laying across my pillow, and a trail of rose petals leading to the bathroom. I followed it to see that he’d drawn me a bath, complete with rose petals floating on top of the water, and a bucket of sparkling cider chilling on the counter.

  I looked at him in confusion and he drew me into his arms, capturing my lips in a sweet, altogether too brief kiss before he knelt before me, taking my hand in his.

  “Jacks…” I whispered, but he just shook his head, stopping my words.

  “I didn’t get to do this part. I know the whole candlelight, rose petals thing is pretty clichéd, but I just wanted to do something romantic and special for you. And I wanted to ask you again, this time on bended knee, if you would please do me the honor of becoming my wife. So, Allie…will you marry me? Still?”

  I laughed and nodded, charmed and completely falling in love all over again. “Yes!” I said out loud, and then tugged at his hands until he rose and pulled me into his arms again. He kissed me breathless as he stripped me out of my clothes and then pulled me into the bathroom.

  “I wanted to carry you in here, but I’m not allowed to lift heavy objects quite yet,” he said in complete seriousness.

  I gasped, “Jacks!” and laughed as he stumbled over himself trying to apologize. “I know what you mean, silly man. It’s oka
y…this is perfect.” I smiled up at him and stepped into the tub, sinking down into the blissfully hot, scented water with a sigh. I took a sip from the icy glass of crisp, bubbly cider that he handed me, and then sat up when he knelt beside the tub, still fully dressed with the exception of his dress shirt, which he’d taken off and hung on the back of the door.

  “Aren’t you getting in with me?” I asked.

  “Nope. This is just for you baby…let me pamper you a bit.”

  With that he pushed me down gently by my shoulders until I was lounging in the tub once more. With slow, methodical movements, he carefully and tenderly washed and conditioned my hair before moving on to my body. But, instead of washing me, his hands smoothed down my shoulders, massaging all the way to my fingertips before lifting my legs one by one and doing the same to them. I moaned as he continued his ministrations all over my body, caressing me…teasing me mercilessly.

  “Jackson…” I groaned, arching my hips as he studiously ignored those specific parts that were aching the most for his touch.

  He didn’t say a word, just smiled and continued to run his hands over my body, soothing yet building the anticipation, heightening my senses. I was writhing in the water, chasing his hands, trying to make him touch me where I needed it the most but he still refused, driving me crazy with want.

  I finally had enough of his torture and, grabbing my loofah and my favorite body wash, I made short work of cleaning my body and standing, the water sluicing off my body and splashing Jackson.

  “Impatient much?” he said sardonically, standing and brushing the water droplets from his face and arms. He grabbed a large, fluffy towel and wrapped it around me as I stepped out of the tub. I dried myself off as he let the water out of the tub and grabbed the cider, taking it into the bedroom.

  I followed him, intending to get him onto the bed and torture him for teasing me like that…but he had other ideas. Before I could move, he jerked the towel away and pulled me against him, cradling my naked softness against the still-clothed hardness of his body. He walked me backward until the backs of my knees hit the edge of the bed and then pushed me gently so that I fell onto the bed, the silky, soft feel of rose petals surrounding me.