What to Read After FSOG: The Gemstone Collection (WTRAFSOG Book 7)

by Lexi Buchanan

  “What?”

  I looked down and his cock was outlined behind his zipper. “Oh, okay.” I smirked, sitting back down on the swing.

  “Oh boy,” he said picking up his plate of food. “Tell me about you, about where you grew up. What your family is like.”

  My family pissed me off whenever I was home. At a distance we got along real well, but together – a total no no. “I have parents who still treat me as though I’m in high school, which is why I don’t tend to go home that often and usually end up in Texas with Callie. They had me late in life, and I guess have raised me like their parents raised them.”

  Leaning back I took a long draw of the beer, pressing the cool bottle to my forehead. “I love them and I know they love me, I just find it stifling. My uncle’s cool though, he’s fifteen years younger than my dad, and I used to love hanging around his house and chilling with my cousin Donna, but she moved away to college and we don’t see each other that often. When she does come home she usually has her boyfriend with her, who treats her like shit.”

  Looking out into the night, I sighed. “It makes my uncle sick to see her with him, but what can he do. She says she loves him.” I shrugged my shoulders and looked across to Jack who’d nearly finished eating. “You were hungry.”

  “I sure was. Thank you for making me this, I appreciate it. It was damn good.” He looked so cute, grinning with a mouth full of food.

  Grinning back, I realized I could spend forever sitting on the porch just watching Jack. My smile slipped.

  “Hey,” Jack put his plate back on the table, “why do you suddenly look sad?”

  Shaking my head, I turned away. Seconds later he was sitting on the coffee table in front of me with his hands on my face.

  He turned me back to look at him. There were mere inches between us as he caressed my face. My breath caught in my throat and came out in small pants. My nipples were pebbled; my panties were wet, all because he had his hands on my face and his breath on my lips.

  “Thalia,” he said as he moved in to kiss me.

  I quickly moved my face out of the way, which had his lips landing on my cheek. He paused before leaving a trail of kisses from my cheek down to my neck. Reaching up I ran my fingers through his hair and felt his hands shake on my neck.

  My heart felt like it was about to jump right out of my chest. Jack was kissing along my collarbone while I massaged his scalp with my fingers. I needed something and I wasn’t sure what. Without a thought I moved forward and climbed straight on to his lap, coming into contact with his cock. Jack moved his mouth away from my neck and looked into my eyes while I couldn’t help but grind my pussy against the bulge in his jeans.

  He groaned, loudly, taking hold of my hips and pushing me into closer contact with him as he strained up towards me.

  Without thought, I wrapped my arms around his neck, leaned forward and kissed him – our first kiss. I plunged my tongue inside his mouth and tasted him; he tasted of beer, which was one hell of an aphrodisiac. My hips had a mind of their own as my sex ground against him while the kiss went on and on.

  My tongue tangled with his in a duel for supremacy, my hands moved up to cup the back of his head, holding him in place.

  Jack slanted his mouth over mine to deepen the kiss with one of his hands going to caress my breast and pinch my nipple.

  The sensations running through my body had me so ready to orgasm that I broke from his kiss and groaned.

  Jack used that to his advantage and trailed wet, openmouthed kisses down my neck, along my collarbone, then sucked my nipple into his mouth through my clothing.

  I came apart in his arms with Jack’s unsteady hands holding me against him while he rocked his cock up against me. Just when I thought I’d finished I’d be hit with tiny tremors, which caused me to continue to rub against Jack, whose breathing was as labored as mine.

  “Fuck,” Jack said, as he thrust up against me and held me tight against him while he groaned in my ear, sending more shivers right down to my toes.

  “That wasn’t supposed to happen,” Jack said into my neck.

  “I know.”

  We just held each other while we caught our breath. In truth, I was also embarrassed, because we’d both orgasmed without even being naked. A first for me. If he made me feel like that without being inside me, I’d probably go up in flames when he finally got me naked.

  “Thalia, are you okay?” he pushed me slightly away from him and looked into my face. He looked worried.

  “I’m fine, maybe a little bit embarrassed.”

  He brushed the hair away from my face. “Don’t be embarrassed… besides I made more of a mess than you,” he said grinning.

  I swatted him on the back and climbed from his lap. Then I took a deep breath and asked what I needed to know. “Jack, I need to know about Mia.”

  Standing he walked towards me and took my face in his hands. “I don’t love Mia. I’ve never had sex with her and I’ve only ever given her a peck on the cheek when we’ve been in public. I need to tread carefully with how I handle cancelling everything, because our fathers jointly own the law practice. There are also other things to take into consideration, which I don’t want to get into right now.”

  God what a mess. “You’re not marrying her?”

  He smiled at me. “No, I’m not marrying her. It’s just going to take some careful planning, okay. After tonight though, I think it might be best if we stay away from each other until everything is sorted out, because if I have to spend one more night sleeping in the room next to you, you’re going to find me in your bed.”

  “I wouldn’t object,” I told him as I reached up and ran my fingers along his lips.

  He groaned, pulled me in for a quick kiss then shoved me towards the door. “Go up to bed. I’ll see you in a few days.”

  Jack turned and headed back around to the front of the house.

  I’d just had an orgasm with Jack on the coffee table and nothing had ever felt as good.

  My only hope was that everything got sorted out soon, because it would kill me to hear more talk about weddings, especially when it involved Jack and Mia.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Jack

  I was a mess, both on the inside and outside. On the inside I had no idea how to go about keeping everyone happy and on the outside I had semen in my jeans. What happened on the porch with Thalia had been hot. Hell, she’d gone off like a firecracker and taken me with her. Which brought me back to the fact; I needed to clean up, before I arrived at Donovan’s place.

  Pulling over to the side of the road, I rooted around in the glove box for some paper towels that were still in the car from a visit to Krystals or McDonald’s. Yeah, I loved my junk food.

  Undoing the button and zipper on my jeans, I peeled them away and cringed. My cock was still semi-erect and sticky as hell. I took a deep breath and started to clean myself up and just hoped that neither, Donovan or Reece would notice anything.

  Fastened back up in my jeans, I was just about to pull away when my cell started ringing.

  Without glancing at the display, I answered, “Yeah.”

  “Jack, where are you?”

  “I’m on my way to Donovan’s. Why?”

  “Can you meet me? In the car park at Old Mill.”

  What the hell. “Yeah, I can do that.”

  “I’ll see you there.”

  That had to be the strangest call I’d ever received from Liam, and why did he want to meet me at that spooky place?

  After I checked to make sure there wasn’t anything on the road, I turned my car around and headed towards Old Mill. I felt panicked and couldn’t explain the feeling that something wasn’t right.

  Why meet at Old Mill and not at the house. Old Mill had been closed for years, ever since the fire that had caused part of the building to collapse.

  It was a creepy place even in daylight, but at night local kids would dare each other to go inside to claim a souvenir. I’d been one of the k
ids and had scared the shit out of Donovan and Reece. Fond memories.

  As I drove into the car park, I saw Liam’s car parked up ahead so I pulled in beside him and climbed out of mine and into his.

  He was sitting back with his head resting against the headrest and his eyes shut. He looked tired.

  “Liam, are you okay?”

  He sighed and turned his head to look at me.

  “I’m sorry,” he whispered.

  Liam was apologizing to me. That didn’t make much sense.

  “Why are you apologizing? As far as I’m aware you haven’t done anything… Have you?”

  He rubbed at his temple before dragging his hand down his face. “I brought Thalia here for you.”

  I stared at him, not sure I’d heard him right.

  “I’ve been in love with Mia since I was fifteen.” Liam paused, staring out of the window. “She loves me as well…I know she does. She’s still pissed because I was a bastard to her, which I’m not getting into. With your wedding not far off, I brought Thalia home, hoping you’d like her and get distracted with her, calling this whole thing off. I’ve tried to talk to Mia, but she keeps walking off every time, and if I ring, she doesn’t answer her phone.”

  He left me speechless. I’d known my brother had a thing for Mia and could never understand why he never acted on it, but perhaps he had at one time. He’d brought Thalia here for me?

  “Jack? Say something.”

  What to say? “Well, your plan with Thalia worked, because I can’t get her out of my head. You wanted me to fall for her and cancel the wedding so you’d get the girl, right?”

  “Yeah. Except, the girl is supposed to cooperate.”

  I started to laugh. “Just what the hell did you do to Mia? At one time I thought you’d both get together before everything went to shit.”

  He blushed. My brother actually blushed like a girl. “Let’s just say I acted like a first class jerk right after. Ah, well, you know.”

  Glaring at him, I looked at the roof of the car. I could be a jerk, but even I hadn’t done what I thought he was admitting to doing. “There’s only us here, spit it out, because I can tell you, I’m thinking all sorts.”

  “Fuck, you really are going to make me spell it out aren’t you?”

  “Yeah. I am.”

  “When we were eighteen I took Mia out to the lake, and we…had sex…for the first time. Oh God. I freaked. I realized that I wasn’t just infatuated with her. I realized I loved her and freaked the fuck out. I couldn’t get her home quick enough, and then I left for college having never spoken to her.”

  Liam hit the steering wheel with the flat of his hand in a rush of breath, and continued, “I fucked up. I know that, but now, before it’s too late, I need to get her back and I thought if you got distracted with Thalia everything would work out, but the stubborn woman won’t even talk to me.”

  “I’d say when you fuck up, you do it big time. The thing is I need Mia to call the wedding off in order for Dad not to withhold my tuition. I don’t think he would, not when I’m so close to finishing, but I can’t risk it, at least not until I can come up with another way of getting the money. There is also Mia. What are her reasons for agreeing to marry me in the first place? Is it to get back at you? At least it makes more sense to me now. I’ve asked a few times, but she answered with a question of her own, like she always does when she doesn’t want to answer. A bit like you.”

  “Yeah. That’s my Mia.” Sitting further up in his seat, he looked at me. “I need to get back. For now can we carry on as though we’ve not had this conversation and I’ll try and find out what’s going on from her end.”

  “Isn’t that going to be difficult if she won’t talk to you?”

  “I have a plan,” he said grinning.

  I frowned. “Why does that make me nervous? You aren’t going to do anything stupid are you?”

  He started to laugh. “No.”

  “I’m going back to Donovan’s place. I still need to keep my distance from Thalia until this whole mess is sorted.”

  “You don’t need to stay away, because you aren’t marrying her, even if I have to stand up in the middle of your wedding and announce that fact to everyone.”

  Shaking my head, I climbed out of his car. “Thanks for telling me, and just be glad Thalia has me tied in knots, otherwise I’d be using my fists.” I slammed his car door, wondering how the hell we were going to get out of this fucking mess.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Thalia

  The days had dragged on since the last time I’d seen Jack. Three days, it had been three miserable days. I missed seeing his face, and the hot look that would cross it when he’d meet my eyes. I’d missed hearing his voice. I was falling in love with him. I’d met him close to three weeks ago, and although we hadn’t spent much time together, my heart knew what it wanted and it wanted Jack.

  He was downstairs. I’d heard his voice about five minutes ago so I was rushing through getting dressed and quickly pulled my hair up on top of my head with a clip, before I dashed out of my room. I quickly walked downstairs and was about to push my way through to the kitchen when I heard another voice. ‘Her’ voice; it stopped me dead in my tracks.

  What was she doing here? Hadn’t Jack spoken to her yet? Cancelled everything?

  It would kill me if I walked in there only to find them all over each other.

  Suck it up, Thalia. With a deep breath, shoulders back, I walked into the kitchen.

  Mia was sitting at the kitchen table with her face buried in her hands crying. Jack was standing with his back against the sink, rolling his eyes and Liam was hovering over Mia.

  “Thalia, you’re up,” Liam stated, while patting Mia on the back.

  “Yeah, what’s wrong?”

  I looked across to Jack who hadn’t said anything, but looked as though he was hurting.

  “Are you okay?”

  He ran his hands down his face without replying.

  “Why does this have to happen three weeks before the wedding? Why did she have to go and do that?” Mia moaned.

  When she mentioned the wedding I glanced back to Jack who seemed to have a mask in place.

  My heart was beating wildly in panic. Had he not cancelled the wedding?

  I pulled a chair out at the table and sat down before I fell down.

  “Rebecca broke her arm last night when she fell over something in the dark. I’m getting married in three weeks and now my bridesmaid can’t be my bridesmaid. What can I do?”

  Was she saying her friend couldn’t be a bridesmaid because she’d broken her arm? How stupid.

  “Why can’t she be your…bridesmaid?” I stumbled over the bridesmaid word, not wanting to think about her wedding.

  “Didn’t you just hear what I said? Are you an idiot?” Mia screeched.

  “That’s enough.” Jack shouted, stunning her into silence. “Thalia is a guest in this house and she will be treated as such, not called names by you.”

  Inside I lit up at Jack’s defense of me, but outwardly I tried not to show any emotion. He sure looked pissed though and wouldn’t meet my eyes.

  “I’m sorry, Thalia. I just can’t believe this is happening.”

  Okay, I could be nice. “I’m sorry about your friend, but why can’t she be a bridesmaid if she’s only broken her arm?”

  “I don’t want wedding photographs with her having a white cast on her arm.”

  Was she for real? I needed to keep my mouth shut before I said something to set her off again.

  “I need coffee.”

  Standing, I walked towards Jack who was standing next to the coffee pot and kept my eyes on him, until he met mine. I couldn’t explain the feeling I got when we locked gazes, and it wasn’t good. Something had happened within the past three days.

  Without moving away from me, Jack reached up into the cupboard and retrieved a cup, then poured me my first coffee of the day. Passing it to me our fingers touched, sending tiny flutt
ers of awareness through me.

  “We need to talk,” he whispered.

  I quickly glanced across to Liam and Mia, but they were engrossed in conversation.

  “When?”

  “Later,” he said to me then walked towards the table. “I’m going to be late if I don’t leave now.”

  “Okay, I’ll look after Mia,” Liam said.

  “Hey, wait,” Mia said, suddenly lifting her head from her hands and looked at me. “Thalia, you can be my bridesmaid. You’re about the same size as Rebecca. Oh, this is perfect.”

  I was dying inside. This couldn’t be happening. Jack looked as shocked as I felt.

  “Mia, I’m not sure that’s such a good idea.” At least Liam hadn’t lost his voice.

  “It’s the perfect idea.” Mia waved her hands in the air, “She’s going to be here so it’s not out of her way or anything. It’s perfect.”

  “Thalia, you okay?” Jack asked.

  “Speechless,” was all I came out with. My mouth hung open in shock and I snapped my teeth together to prevent the denial that was on the tip of my tongue bursting free.

  There was no way I could be a bridesmaid, not when she was marrying Jack. No way. Out of the question. No way!

  “Jack, why are you looking at Thalia like that?” Mia asked, her gaze darting back and forth between the two of us.

  I hadn’t noticed him looking at me at all; I was still in melt down.

  “I think…” Jack began slowly.

  “That it’s a wonderful idea.” Mia interrupted him, her voice hurried.

  “I’ll take you down to the bridal boutique so you can be fitted for the dress.” Mia started wiping the tears from her face. Glancing down at her hands, she must have just realized she was still holding Liam’s hand because she dropped it quickly, as though it stung.

  Jack turned to me, “I’m sorry,” he whispered looking so sad. All I wanted to do was walk into his arms and hold him, be held by him, never letting go.

  My tears were so close to the surface. I felt a sharp pain in my chest and knew that my heart was breaking. The wedding was going ahead as planned. I knew that with every breath in my body.