Save Me (Saved Series, Book One)

by Laura L. Cline

  "I'm entirely too territorial to go in for that shit," Jack says, biting at my earlobe.

  "I appreciate that about you most of the time. Just not when it leads to things like last night."

  Jack's dark eyes go serious. "I know."

  I think he's learning to let go of his past, like he keeps asking me to do. I have to admit, seeing him ready to kick the shit out of that guy last night was a turn on. Maybe it's for the wrong reasons, but I like that he claims me.

  "Just think, we have only one more day here, one more night," I say.

  "Did you mean what you said? About being perfectly happy at my place with a beer and a blanket?" His face is earnest.

  "Yes, I meant it. I love your house and I love being in it. With you," I kiss his scruffy cheek.

  "Let's go ahead and leave today," he says. "Head back home, have one more night that's ours before we have to go back to day-to-day shit. Whadda ya say?"

  "That sounds perfect," I answer. Jack's shirtless body is stretched out next to me, his long arms where I want to be. I run my fingers around his shoulder and then touch his face. "You know, last night made the second time you've gotten physical over me. I might start to think you're overly protective."

  "I am. I just take care of what matters to me, of what belongs to me." He kisses the palm of my hand. "You do belong to me, Carly."

  "I know I do," I say and lean in to kiss his fat lips. "And you belong to me, no matter how many hot husband swappers wanna get in your pants."

  He kisses me then and pulls my bottom lip between his teeth. "I wanna get in your pants," he growls.

  I pull the sheet back and expose my naked body. It's a bold move, one I'd never dream of trying with any other man, but Jack has awakened the sleeping, sultry part of me that's inside every woman, just waiting for the right man to stir it. "I'm not wearing any pants," I tease.

  Jack whips his arm around my waist and pulls me to his side of the bed. He plants a multitude of kisses all over my neck, pausing to bite and suck at the tenderness of my shoulder. His hands, so familiar and warm, dance up my back and around my shoulders. He pulls me on top of him, kissing the top of my breasts. We're going to make love in the early morning sun.

  "Lean back," Jack whispers. His hair is tousled and his eyes are needy.

  I sit back on him and feel the bulge pressing at my pussy.

  "Your body is a temple," Jack says. "And I want to worship you."

  I push up off him and pull his jockeys down. His cock springs free and fully erect, glistening on the top with fluid. My hand guides him into me and I shift my ass so I can move. His chest muscles tense as he clamps his hands down on my hips.

  His dick feels so good inside me as it hits my clit. I grind my body on him, relishing each time he closes his eyes and moans. Jack's hands pull me down so he can suck my nipples.

  "Slow down," he says. "We don't have to be in any hurry."

  I relax my speed and he thrusts up into me slowly. I let my legs slip back a little and he hits higher inside me. His teeth graze the tenderness of my nipple and I groan in his ear. My hair hangs down in his face, so he twists it in one fist and holds it at the base of my neck.

  "You have no idea what you do to me, what you're like," he mutters. His hips push into me over and over. My body practically hums, vibrates around him. This much passion in one man shouldn't be allowed.

  I hold on to my orgasm, waiting to go with him when he tenses up. He spills inside me and I throw myself into the pulsing as I come. My body trembles in the release.

  "Goddamn," he mumbles, letting my hair down in a cascade around us. I fall into the pillow beside him and wait for the tremors of satisfaction to subside.

  "I love it when we go at it hard, but sometimes," I kiss his collar bone, "taking it slow is the way to go."

  "I'll take you any way I can get you," Jack says. I move off him and he pulls the sheet over us. He slips his arm underneath my neck and pulls me close.

  "Do you think we'll always be like this? This crazy about each other?" I ask, lacing our fingers together.

  "I'll always be crazy about you. You do it for me, doll." He kisses my temple.

  "I've just never met a man with stamina like you," I confess. "It blows my mind."

  "Stop," Jack puts up a false resistance. "I have no control over little Jack. He's in love with you."

  "You do your dick a major insult when you call him 'Little'," I say.

  "What do you mean? You don't think it's little?" Jack lifts the sheet up and my eyes go to his softening dick. It's still thick and long. He lets the sheet fall, much to my displeasure.

  "Are you fucking serious?" I ask, knowing full well he's not. "I have to soak in the bathtub some nights, just because my pussy aches."

  "You're full of shit," Jack laughs. I can tell he's eating this up.

  "No lie," I say, holding my fingers in the sign for Scout's Honor. "You and that anaconda cock."

  Jack laughs in my ear and I return it. He exhales heavily next to me.

  "What time do you wanna leave?" I ask.

  "No rush. We can grab some breakfast here and then there's one more thing I wanna show you."

  "What might that be?" My dislike of surprises forces me to ask.

  "Nope," Jack shakes his head. "You'll see when we get there."

  I curl my body against his and rest. I wasn't lying about the hot baths; Jack has taken a toll on my body, but it's totally worth it.

  We sleep again, this time until almost eleven. Jack is such an early riser, but I like my sleep and he lets me have it.

  I find him in the kitchen setting up breakfast.

  "Safe to say you ordered one of everything," I gape, looking at all the boxes of food.

  "Not everything, but mostly," Jack says, sticking a strawberry in his mouth. I take a plate and pile on some pancakes, eggs, blueberries and a biscuit.

  "Hungry?" Jack asks with a smile.

  "Well, I didn’t really get to eat dessert last night, ya know." I shoot him a 'piss-off' look and then a grin.

  "Me and my alpha male bullshit," Jack says, taking the chair across from me at the table.

  "I can't wait to get home," I say between bites of pancake. "I miss your house."

  "You should stay with me this week," Jack throws out. "I mean, all week. No more of this going back to your house bullshit." He takes a bit of bacon before sticking it out at me, "You should just go ahead and move in with me."

  I take a drink of orange juice and look at him. "I like it when you make jokes. You're so funny!" I grab the piece of bacon from his hand and stick it in my mouth.

  "I'm serious," Jack says. "I want you to live with me."

  We've both stopped eating at this point as I try to guess what's going on in that gorgeous head of his.

  "Come on," I dismiss it. "We can't live together."

  Jack's expression never changes, but he puts his fork down on the plate. "Why not?"

  "Um," I start, "let's see. We've only been together for less than a month, we both have trust issues, you hog the covers, we've only been together for less than a month." I search him for some type of agreement. "Isn't it too soon?"

  "Says who?" Jack asks, picking up his fork and stealing one of my blueberries.

  "Pretty much every relationship expert on the planet," I mutter.

  "Don't you wanna live with me? We make good bed buddies," he grins.

  "I know that, but I've never lived with someone before. You have. What if I can't do it?"

  "What's there to do? You just do what you've always done, except we're together and we're committed."

  I pick at the biscuit for a second, pondering this piece of logic. Waking up next to Jack every morning has been amazing, but I like my own space. I like being able to walk around the house without makeup and I leave my cereal bowls on the coffee table long after I've finished the cereal.

  "You wouldn't wanna live with me," I warn. "I'd be a horrible roommate."

  "Who said anything ab
out roommates?" he asks, taking a sip from his coffee cup. "You'd be my live in lovah." He jumps his eyebrows up and down at me.

  "So I'd be fucking you every night instead of paying rent?"

  "Fucking, sucking...things would vary," he grins again.

  "Let me think about it, if this is a real offer, okay?"

  Jack drops all playfulness and takes my hand. "It's a real offer, Carly. I love you and I want you to live with me. Think about it."

  I smile at him and hide behind my glass of juice. Live with him? Can I actually do that? I do feel like it's too soon. It has to be too soon. Claire hasn't even met him yet. Would it wreck such a good thing if I said yes? He's got a jealous streak a mile wide, normally that alone would be enough of a reason to say no, but I kinda like Jack's possessiveness. What has this man done to me?

  §

  I’m honestly a little sorry to see the cottage in the rearview mirror as we pull away from it. I'm still running the idea of living with Jack back and forth in my head, but no closer to an answer. He seems like he already thinks I'll say yes. It’s evident with his more-chipper-than-usual demeanor.

  Jack eases the Escalade onto the side road that leads us away from the farm. Instead of getting back on the interstate, he travels further up the road toward the mountain, the lane winding around and around.

  We drive up and up, eventually stopping at a clearing at the very top. Jack puts the Escalade in park and unclicks his seatbelt.

  “Where are we going?”

  “You’ll see,” he answers, stepping down from the Escalade. I open my door and follow him, carefully dodging rocks and tree roots. We walk down a tiny, one person path toward a small thicket of naked trees. Some leaves cling desperately here and there, but in a week’s time, they’ll be on the ground with their brothers.

  The path gets narrower the deeper in we go, until it widens out in front of what looks like a chain link batter’s cage.

  Jack leads me around to the side and opens a gate in the fenced cage. A huge brown rock juts out from the mountain like a pouty lip.

  “You want me to step in there? Out on that rock?”

  “Yeah, I do,” he says simply.

  “I’m trusting you,” I warn.

  “I hope you do,” Jack says, though I know he means in more ways than just this. He holds his hand out to me and I take it firmly.

  We walk through the gate and onto the rock and I immediately see why Jack brought me here. The view is time stopping. He wraps his arms around my waist from behind as we look out onto the mountains. The trees have leaves at the very top, like orangey red hair. Evergreens break up the flaming shades of color like dark freckles. The air is so clean and pure and I breathe in deeply, and he rests his chin on my shoulder.

  “This is gorgeous,” I whisper, fighting off a shiver as the cold air settles on my face.

  “I wanted you to see it before we left. We’re at the highest reachable point in the mountains,” he says, pointedly.

  I say nothing for a few minutes, the view and the altitude robbing me of the breath to speak. “I’m glad you showed me this,” I finally manage. I turn around and kiss his stubbly cheek in appreciation. "We're so high up!" I squeal.

  "I've never felt so high, except when you told me you loved me." His voice is so intense, so full of truth and his words ring in my ears, exactly the way I’d say it if he hadn't beat me to it. He leans down and kisses me, his lips never failing to give me chills.

  We stand that way for a few minutes, taking in the landscape of The Smokies and the feel of each other. There's no one else on Earth except us. His arms, so hard and yet yielding, much like his heart, wrap me into a protective cocoon. I am no longer a caterpillar. I am a butterfly.

  On the mountaintop, the view stretching out and up and down, I realize that maybe we've already skipped so much when it comes to how we feel about each other because it's right. I’ve never believed in the fairy tale, happy ending, love at first sight bullshit, but there may be something to it. He pulls me closer, the smell of him enveloping me like a blanket, and I know that at least right now, right here, I've spread my wings and I'm soaring.

  Chapter 12

  The ride home seems shorter than the ride to Tennessee and Jack's house creeps up on us. I played about a third of my iPod catalog, to much protest on Jack's part, and listened to some of his classic rock CDs with a more open mind than him.

  He parks the Escalade next to the Chevy and I open my door, the stiffness in my legs finally getting some relief as I stretch them. Jack grabs our bags and I follow him up the steps to the front door. I take my bag and wait for him to let us in.

  "I'm glad you wanted to come home," he says, sliding the key in first the deadbolt, and then the knob.

  "Me, too," I say. His smell is so clear when we get inside and I drop my suitcase to kiss him.

  "Home," Jack murmurs against my lips. "My home, your home, our home?"

  "Jack," I say, knowing full well he wasn't gonna let me be quiet much longer about his offer.

  "I know," he laughs. "Just testing the waters."

  "The waters are still," I say. "I'm thinking about it, though," I promise. He swats me on the ass playfully and turns the lights on in the kitchen. I kick off my boots and wiggle my toes.

  "It's still early," Jack says, glancing at the clock on the microwave, "wanna grab dinner?"

  "I believe I owe you pizza and beer," I call out from the living room. I pick up one of the little carved wooden figures.

  "Sounds like a plan," Jack says, coming into the living room with two bottles of water. "Whatcha got there?"

  "This is so cute," I say, turning to hold the penguin out to him. "Did you make this?"

  Jack sits the bottles on the table and takes the penguin from me. "My dad. He used to try to teach me, but I couldn't sit still long enough to learn." Jack sits the penguin back in his spot. He sits on the couch and pats the cushion next to him.

  I flop down beside him, put my head in his lap and stretch my legs out on the couch. "It feels so good to be back."

  Jack strokes my hair and I look up into his handsome face. "Yep."

  "Want me to order the pizza?" I ask, digging my cell phone from my pocket. I unlock it and see I've got three text messages. Do I dare check them in front of Jack?

  "I'll order it if you want," Jack says.

  "Nope," I say, locking the screen on my phone. "I'll order and then I wanna call Claire. Let her know we made it home safely."

  "Okey doke," Jack says. "I'm gonna run out for beer then, alright?" He leans down and kisses me.

  "Okay, just be careful." He kisses me again and I rise up off the couch. I watch him walk to the kitchen and put his shoes on. He grabs his keys, "I'll be right back, doll," and disappears out the door.

  I watch from the window as he disappears down the long driveway before going into my messages again.

  They're from Nick. All of them.

  Carly, ignoring me won't make me stop caring for you. I know I was a complete asshole, but I'm sorry. How many fucking times are you going to make me say it? Please, call me.

  Allie says you're dating that guy. Are you?

  Okay, so I get it. You're doing this to teach me a lesson. Well lesson learned Bitch. You don't have to worry about me blowing your phone up again. I'm done with you and your big ass.

  Why the last message makes me laugh uncontrollably, I can't say, but it does. I laugh until tears from at the corners of my eyes. What a little child. What an asshole. I fight the urge to tell him how much Jack loves my big ass, but no contact is the best thing I can do in this situation. Maybe now he'll leave me the fuck alone.

  I call in the pizza and then call Claire, anxious for her to pick up.

  "Hey, baby sis."

  "Hey, Claire." It feels good to hear her voice and more than good to hear how good she sounds.

  "You guys home?"

  "Yeah, we're at Jack's. He went out to get some beer."

  "Classy," she says with a
laugh. "How was your trip?"

  I think of being tied to the bed, spanked and fucked up the ass. "It was great," I say. "We went up in a hot air balloon."

  "Not too bad," she says. "How was dinner at The Barn? I still can't believe you got to eat there. It was on the Travel Channel just last month."

  "It was delicious, except for dessert. We didn’t get to eat it," I tell her.

  "Why not?"

  I walk out on the porch and sit on the steps. "Well, Jack and I were eating, minding our own business, when this guy comes over to our table. He started talking and asked if we'd like to join him and his wife in the bar after dinner. Long story short, they were swingers and wanted us to join them. For sex."

  "What the hell?" Claire gasps. "I hope you're not gonna tell me Jack's a freak and you two did it," she groans.

  "Hell fucking no, Claire," I scowl. "Of course we didn't. He said something to Jack while I was in the bathroom trying not to kick the shit out of his wife when she followed me in. Jack pushed him out of my chair or something, because I came out of the bathroom and the guy was lying on the floor next to our table and we were asked to leave."

  "My god," Claire says with a laugh. "Can't you two go anywhere?"

  "I know," I laugh. "Anyway, that was the only wrinkle in the trip. Oh," I remember, "he bought me diamond earrings."

  "Nice," Claire says approvingly. "I guess you owe Mark a big thank you, huh?"

  "You tell him for me," I say. "I do appreciate it though. I'm so happy with Jack."

  "You're a smitten, kitten," Claire says.

  "I just love him, Claire."

  She goes silent for so long I pull my iPhone from my ear to make sure the call is still connected.

  "You love him?" she asks. "Like, love him, love him?"

  "Yeah, I love him, love him. He told me he loves me, too. Before we even left for Tennessee." I stretch my legs out onto the step below and pull my coat tight. The air is chilly, but it feels good.

  "Damn," Claire says. "Well, good for you."

  I chew my lip again before telling her my other news. "He asked me to move in with him."

  Claire gives a sharp intake of air. "He wants you to live with him? Are you two ready for that?"