Jake (A Redemption Romance #2)

by Anna Scott

  With both of our schedules, finding time to actually look at houses was a challenge, but we discovered pretty quickly that we had very different ideas of what we would need in a house. I thought we needed at least four bedrooms, if not more. My woman was a sex-fiend during pregnancy and I planned to keep her that way as much as possible for the foreseeable future.

  She wanted a large master closet and nice bathrooms. I wanted a good neighborhood, which she agreed with, and schools of course, but I also had narrowed our search to specific areas with the lowest crime statistics. We had gone back and forth with the realtor looking between us like he’d been watching a tennis match.

  That had been our first realtor, this woman was our fourth. Apparently, I’d scared off the first guy who I caught ogling Hope’s ass, frankly, he was lucky I didn’t punch him in his preppy ass face. Hope was angry with me for that, she wouldn’t sleep with me for a week – she told me that, but she lasted two hours. Thank god for pregnancy hormones.

  The second guy told me that our demands were impossible and there was no way we’d find what we were looking for. We didn’t need that shit, seriously? Who says that to their clients? The third, we don’t talk about her. Apparently I yelled at her or something, she made some bitchy comment about us putting the cart before the horse and I was less than pleased.

  That was the day of our biggest argument, since Hope had come back to me. She hadn’t been happy at how I’d responded to the realtor. We’d been engaged since the day Hope officially moved in. I’d taken her to a nice dinner, gave her all the romantic shit I could think of, then came home and in the most romantic way I could, fucked the shit out of her and when she was coming down from her third orgasm, I reached over to the nightstand, opened the drawer, got the ring out and while still inside her, slid that shit on her finger. I asked her really nice, I mean, I thought I did.

  “So, how soon do you want to get married?” I was breathing hard, trying to hold off cumming. I had wanted to fuck her, to cum in her with my ring on her finger, it was kind of a symbolic thing for me. I thought it was kind of romantic. She didn’t think so.

  “You planning to ask me?” She snapped, quickly coming out of her sex-haze.

  “I just did.” I said, still thrusting. By the way, I’d never stopped fucking her, I’d just slowed down enough to talk through it.

  “No you didn’t.” She argued. Was she really arguing with me right now?

  “Yeah, I did, I said, how soon do you want to get married. That was a question.” I wanted to say duh, but thought she might hurt me if I did.

  “You have to ask me to marry you, Jake.”

  “What?” I asked, dumbfounded. She was going to marry me, there was no question. Why was there a question?

  “You have to propose to me!” She was shouting now. I think she was pissed. Maybe I wasn’t doing this right.

  “Hey, baby?”

  “Yes, Jake?” She asked back, sounding exasperated.

  “I love you.” I was still thrusting, though really slowly now.

  “I love you too.”

  “You’re going to marry me baby. There’s no fucking question, so, should we fly to Vegas and get married this weekend or do you want to plan something bigger, here and do it in a few weeks?”

  “You’re impossible.” She still sounded annoyed, but more resigned to her life. I picked up the pace, having kept my own orgasm at bay for a little while longer and was bringing her to the peak again when I stopped. Hope let out an irritated scream and stared at me with widened eyes. “Why did you stop?”

  “Hope, I love you more than life, will you marry me, baby?”

  A huge smile broke across her face, tears sprang to her beautiful eyes and she wrapped her arms around my neck, then nodded her head. I’d kissed her that night for so long, moving inside her once more, long and slow, making love to my future wife. This woman I’d love forever, no matter what.

  She’d decided that we should wait a while, maybe get married after the baby came. I wasn’t happy about that at all and fought her on it at every opportunity.

  When that third realtor made her little comment, we’d fought about how I’d spoken to the bitch, but I’d gotten my way. We were married twelve days later.

  Hope’s mother had attended; they were trying to maintain some kind of relationship without her father or nasty sister. My mom and sisters came as well as all of our friends. It was relatively small, but Hope, Aurora, Amber, Dawn and Gillian had been masters at throwing it together. It was a perfect day and now, I had Hope Thompson as mine, forever, standing in the closet of the house we’d buy together and raise our family.

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  Gavin

  Dawn

  That man is going to be the one, I will give him everything – tonight. My body, my heart and my virginity; I’ve saved it all for him.

  I reminded myself of all that, as I watched Gavin unfold himself from his truck and walk up the sidewalk toward my front door.

  “You’re home!” I all but squealed as I watched Gavin stride through the front door of my mom’s house.

  “I didn’t think you were going to get leave.” I’d wrapped myself around him the moment he stepped inside. Thankfully, Gavin returned my fierce hug, but didn’t bounce up and down on his toes like I did.

  I didn’t care if I looked silly, I was excited. Gavin McNeil had been a close family friend for the past ten years. His family had moved across the street from us when I was only eight, I’d looked up to him, at the age of twelve. He had seemed so worldly and mature to me.

  Even then, he was tall and handsome. The first time he’d come to my defense with the neighborhood mean-girls, I’d fallen in love.

  “I couldn’t miss your birthday, what is it now, sixteen?” I started to take offense, but saw his teasing smile, so I pulled back and slugged him in the stomach. Unfortunately, it hurt my hand more than his taught belly.

  “Ow, that was rude.” I mock-pouted indignantly. “You could at least have the decency to act hurt.”

  Pinching my side, Gavin used his other hand to rub at his middle and gave me a feigned expression of pain. Shacking my head, I laughed at his silliness.

  One thing I’d always admired was Gavin’s ability to make light of almost any situation. He was a jokester for sure, but he had great skill at diffusing heated situations with his whit.

  “Come on, I need some food. The Marine Corps doesn’t feed us, you know.” He slung his arm over my shoulder and practically dragged me toward the kitchen.

  As soon as we turned into the room, I heard his mother’s loud shout of excitement. Looking over my shoulder, I watched her run full-speed to her son. He turned and grabbed her up, hugging her tightly to him. He was so tall, her feet dangled almost a full foot off the ground.

  “Of course, the favorite son is home.” I whirled around to meet the dark, irritated gaze of Zach, Gavin’s older brother. His sneered words made me so angry. I couldn’t imagine how two such different men could have been brought up by the same soft-hearted woman.

  “Don’t be a jerk.” I snapped back. I was never good about holding my tongue. I hated the way Zach treated his younger brother, at least he seemed much kinder to his mother.

  I had often wondered if Zach’s animosity came from years of comparing himself to the taller and exceedingly more handsome Gavin. It wasn’t that Zach was ugly, he just didn’t have that same thickly muscled frame or the striking good looks of his brother. He was also at least three inches shorter than Gavin.

  I’d always wanted a sibling, an older brother would have been wonderful, but I’d want one like Gavin, not like Zach. Gavin was fun but always protective. Zach was just irritable and easily angered, all the time. I’d never known him to protect anyone – but himself.

  “Here, just one more.” My best friend Selene handed over a refilled Solo cup a few hours later. I knew it didn’t just have the punch in it, my mom had made, Selene had spiked it with the vodka bottle she hid inside her bag.<
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  I’d already had three of these, and was beginning to feel pretty buzzed, but if I was going to find my courage and do what I’d planned to, I needed the confidence booster.

  “Thanks,” I whispered back, not letting on what we were doing. If my mom or Gavin’s figured out that we were drinking, they’d give us a stern lecture, and take away the alcohol. The last thing I wanted was for Gavin to see that, I didn’t want him thinking of me like a scolded little girl, I wanted him to see me as a woman.

  My body had changed a lot over the past year. My breasts had grown, my hair had gotten longer and my curves had definitely made themselves more obvious. I’d had a couple of boys at school show interest, but I always rebuffed their advances, knowing just who I was waiting for. Tonight was the night.

  “So, what’s the real reason you’re home?” I heard Zach snap at his brother after our moms had gone to sit and relax in the front room.

  “I got leave,” Gavin replied shortly. I knew there wasn’t any love lost between these two.

  “You going to the sandbox?” My head snapped around to look at them, not really sure what that meant, but having a bad feeling about it. Gavin’s mouth tightened in frustration as he took a swig of his beer and looked away from his brother. I had no idea what they were talking about, or why Gavin seemed so irritated tonight by his brother’s questions, but I was just drunk enough to do something monumentally stupid.

  Leaning up on my tiptoes, I whispered, “let’s go outside,” into Gavin’s ear. I felt his rigid body tighten against me even more, but as he relaxed, I saw him nod slightly and he turned to head to the back yard.

  Turning to follow, I glanced at Selene one more time and almost laughed out loud at her audacious wink. Thankfully, I held it inside, but as my foot crossed the threshold after Gavin, I heard Zach’s last muttered barb.

  “Bout fuckin’ time you hit that.” My body tensed at the sneer in his voice. I didn’t hate anyone, but sometimes I really wanted to hate Zach.

  Thankfully, I didn’t think Gavin had heard him, if he had, my plans probably wouldn’t be successful. I needed them to work. I’d been in love with Gavin forever it seemed, I’d saved everything for him, for this night, I knew he would make it perfect.

  Gavin

  The last thing I needed right now was to punch my brother in his face. It was Dawn’s night, we should all behave, not act like idiots. Also, I knew that punching him wouldn’t change anything. He seemed to like his asshole behavior. Why he took it out on me, every time I saw him, didn’t make sense though. Zach had been an asshole since we were kids, even before Dad died. Zach was just like him.

  Taking a seat on the bench near the farthest fence, I forced myself to relax. It was nice of Dawn to come out here with me, to help me settle down. She was always like that, thinking of other people, always sensing what they needed and doing her best to help them.

  Considering how she’d grown up, she was remarkably unmarred, naive even. She’d been born to an eighteen-year-old single mother who had been kicked out on her ass by her judgmental, up-tight parents and abandon by Dawn’s father - whoever the hell he was. I wasn’t sure who even knew. I’d never seen him coming around, not in all the time I’d known her had I even heard of him meeting her.

  She sat down next to me, much too close for comfort. I tried to shift away from her, but she followed, pushing her hand into the crook of my arm. The touch was unsettling, causing feelings I had no business acting on. She was way too young, besides, I was going to be deployed for parts unknown.

  With an uncertain future, there wasn’t any way I could start something with Dawn, no matter how much I wanted her. Her scent wafted through my nostrils, and as she rubbed the side of her breast against my arm, my dick went from semi-hard to throbbing with need.

  “What’s going on with you these days, little girl?” I asked, adding the last on to remind myself of just who she was. When her body tensed next to me, I knew the comment had hit its target perfectly. I wasn’t sure, but I had a feeling she’d brought me out here for more than just getting me away from my brother. That couldn’t happen, not now.

  Dawn seemed to relax back into me, pushing herself closer. The November air was cold, but with her sitting this close, I couldn’t feel it. Her heat at my side was all I could focus on, well that and the feel of her luscious tits that seemed to have doubled in size since I’d seen her last. She’d always been pretty before, but now with her long blonde hair that curled at the ends and her body that was definitely that of a woman, she was gorgeous.

  “Not much, just working so I can start school next semester. How long will you be home?” Her soft, melodious voice rang through the silent night, wrapping me up in her sweetness. I wanted to stay right there, forever. Not. Going. To. Happen. Asshole! I had to remind myself over and over again, I couldn’t touch her.

  “Good, how’s your mom doing?” I decided to go for the trivial. I knew how Sarah was, whenever I spoke to my mom, I got a full update on everyone, including Dawn.

  Instead of answering though, she moved in even closer to me, she’d be in my lap next. This shit was ridiculous. Moving her hand down from my arm, she traced little circles on my thigh - my fucking thigh. Was she trying to kill me?

  “Gavin?” She purred into my ear, when had she moved her lips to my neck? Jesus, she was kissing the side of my neck. I loved the feel, loved the way her lips were soft against me.

  “Yeah?” I asked, my voice sounding strangled, which was about right, since my dick was being strangled in my pants.

  “Let’s go to your mom’s house. No one’s there right now.” Was she out of her mind? Somehow she’d grown three extra hands, I felt on my chest and on rubbing my thigh, moving way too high up. She was about to find out just what she did to me.

  Instead of allowing her to discover how she affected me, I jumped up, ran my fingers through my almost non-existent hair and started to pace.

  The nervous energy that was bottled up inside me, was overpowering, I wanted to pounce, wanted to grab her up, toss her over my shoulder and run to my mom’s. I wanted to throw her down on the grass right here, spread her creamy thighs and sink into what was surely the tightest pussy I’d ever feel. I couldn’t, wouldn’t do any of that. I’d never leave her, abandon her to an unknown future, if I claimed her, it would be forever and I didn’t know if I had a forever right now.

  “Dawn, I -” I started to speak, but before I got the chance, to finish I looked down to explain, something. I wasn’t sure what, but I was going to explain something.

  When my head dipped, she was right there, again, right fucking on me! How did she move so fast?

  “What?” I got out, before she lifted up on her toes and slammed her lips onto mine.

  It took me a full thirty seconds for my body to get the message that kissing Dawn wasn’t what I was supposed to be doing. She felt so good pressed to me, her soft curves under my hands, my cock pressing hard into her stomach, I wanted her like nothing I’d ever wanted before.

  I can’t have her, I can’t fucking have her, not now, not yet! I was screaming inside my head until finally the message was relayed to my body. I took a giant step backward, moving my hands to her shoulders to keep her back, away from me.

  “Dawn, stop, I can’t do this, I can’t, we can’t. You’re too young, I’m going to be gone, I can’t. It’s not right, we can’t do this. You have to understand.” I was frantically pacing around now, trying to get my thoughts in order. I needed to make her see, I didn’t want to hurt her, but she had to understand that this just wasn’t the time.

  “I’m not too young, Gavin McNeal, I’m eighteen! I’ve loved you forever, I waited.” She yelled indignantly.

  “You are, you’re too young for me. I can’t see you that way, it isn’t right.” I meant that I couldn’t see her that way, now, not that I wasn’t able to, because damn, I saw her exactly like that.

  Unfortunately, I figured out what I’d said and what it had sounded like when her
face paled, her eyes widened in horrified embarrassment and her entire body stilled, as if frozen in place. I watched as Dawn Adams’ heart broke, right there in front of me and there wasn’t anything I could do about it.

  I wanted to take her into my arms and explain, but she didn’t give me the chance. I would have given anything if she would keep waiting for me, but that was something I couldn’t ask for.

  “No, god, no. I’m so sorry Gavin. I, I can’t believe I did that. I guess I’ve had a bit too much, right? Party and all. I think I’ll just-” She just stopped, didn’t say any more, just motioned toward the house and looked at it, longingly, as if all she ever wanted in life was to be inside that house.

  I watched, dumbstruck as Dawn rushed away from me, going in the side door, closest to her room. She was escaping. I’d fucked it all up. I’d wanted to explain that this wasn’t the right time, that I couldn’t do that, not now. I’d needed to be honest, but I’d fucked it up.

  …

  Two weeks passed without a single sighting of the blonde haired beauty. She graced my dreams every night and stayed in my thoughts every day. My mom had noticed my bad mood, but chalked it up to the deployment that was coming all too quickly. I wanted to talk to Dawn, to explain what I’d meant, to ease her bruised pride, but I’d never been given the chance.

  Considering that she lived across the street, it was odd that I hadn’t seen her. She must have been working hard to avoid me. I had one chance left, just one, before I was gone for who knew how long.

  Kissing my mom’s cheek one last time, I left her standing in the living room of her house with tears in her eyes. She’d been an Army wife and now had two sons in the military, so she was a pro at the hardest goodbyes.