Truly, Madly, Deeply

by L. S. Scott

  “Yeah, it really does,” Jake nodded. “You really didn’t have to go to all this trouble for me.”

  “No trouble,” Jaron said quietly, filling his plate and passing the rolls to Jake.

  “We eat like this every day Jake. I mean, sometimes it’s just chili dogs or blt’s, but we always sit at the table at six and eat. It’s kind of our thing. Well, it was Jaron’s thing, and now it’s ours.”

  Jake nodded his approval as he regarded us, considering Jaron and me, together, and at last I saw acceptance in his eyes.

  “Well that was a complete success,” I gushed, sliding my hands around Jaron’s waist as he stood at the sink and washed dishes.

  “Yeah, nobody lost any teeth or blood,” he teased.

  “Thank you.”

  “For what?”

  “You know, not kicking my brother’s ass like you said you were going to do the next time you saw him.”

  “You’re welcome.”

  I snuck my hand under the front of his shirt and began to rub his belly, just above the waist band of his jeans, lightly tickling with the tips of my fingers. His body went rigid.

  “Natalie,” he said, stilling my hand with his. “I don’t think,” he trailed off.

  We had lain around the house together for days since the attack and had not had sex or even shared a real kiss. I took a step back.

  “You don’t think what Jaron? You don’t think you want me anymore?”

  He turned abruptly, his face pulled together in a deep frown.

  “What?”

  “You heard me. It’s been days Jaron. You’ve barely touched me.”

  I felt an unexplainable anger start to brew inside me.

  “Natalie, stop it.”

  His voice was soft and he lifted his hand to touch me gently on the shoulder and it just pissed me off even more. I slapped his hand away.

  “Answer me Jaron,” I demanded.

  “What is the question Natalie,” he raised his brows in frustration.

  “Do, You, Want, Me?”

  “Of course I want you. I’ve wanted you since the second I saw you.”

  He was still talking to me in that soft voice full of pity and guilt. He reached for me again, cupping me face with a feather like touch. I snarled and slapped his hand away.

  “Natalie stop it.”

  “You stop it! Stop tip toeing around me and touching me like I’m going to crack. So some jerk got rough with me and shoved his hand down my pants. He didn’t rape me. He didn’t even get a finger in me.”

  “Shut up God Dammit,” his voice started to hardened and I felt my heart rate pick up.

  “Why? I’m not a victim Jaron! I’m over it!”

  “Well, I’m not, okay?!”

  He put one hand on his hip and pinched his forehead with the other, his eyes closed tight. I turned on one heel and stalked out of the room. Half way down the hall his hand latched onto my arm and jerked me around to face him.

  “What do you want me to do?” He gritted out.

  “I want you to fuck me!”

  The words flew out of my mouth before I could think. The tense silence hung heavy between us, toe to toe in the hallway. I could hear my heart pounding in my ears and Jaron’s ragged breath as his hand tightened around my wrist.

  His eyes darkened. The soft sympathetic look he had been wearing around was gone. The stormy, dangerous man, that I knew well, was back. Taking two steps forward he pushed me against the wall, pinning my hands above my head. His lips crushed mine, parting them with his tongue. He pushed my legs apart with his knee and almost lifted me from the floor. I stood on tip toes as he moved his leg slightly side to side, grinding into the swelling mound between my legs. A deep husky breath escaped me.

  He spun me around and splayed my hands on the wall above my head. His hand slid in my shorts and under my panties, wasting no time separating the folds of wet skin beneath them. I could feel his arousal against me as I arched my back into him, but it didn’t remind me of the attack. It didn’t trigger any kind of reaction. It was all Jaron, passionate and hungry for me the way I wanted.

  He kneaded my breast with his free hand, pulling the cup of my bra down enough to find my nipple. He rolled it between his fingers until it was a hard pebble. My body shivered. My hips rolled and my ass grinded against him as he worked my inflamed clit skillfully. My breath hitched as I pushed the air in and out, each breath more shallow than the last.

  “What do want Natalie,” he growled in my ear. “Hmm, tell me what you want.”

  “I want you to fuck me Jaron,” I answered.

  “You know what I want,” he asked.

  “You want me to come,” I answered.

  “Beg me. Beg me to make you come,” he ordered, his words hissing through his gritted teeth.

  “Please Jaron? Please make me come?” I begged, my hands pressed against the wall and my head hanging between my shoulders.

  Immediately he found the exact spot, like only he could, and like flipping a switch, my body shuddered and waves of orgasm ripped through me until my knees gave out. Jaron held me up with one arm around my waist and walked me through the bedroom door, his hand still between my legs, reveling in the feel of the juices flowing out of me. My clothes were off before the fog cleared and I watched as Jaron peeled away his. I relished the sight of him, rigid and breathless, that voracious look in his eyes.

  He spread my legs with his thighs and entered me hard and fast, throwing his head back and moaning. Finger nails dug into his back as he pumped in and out of me. I pulled him to me. I wanted to feel all of him on me, taste him. I tangled my fingers in his hair and angled his head so that I could sink my teeth into his neck. I bit and teased and sucked until he groaned at the decadent pain and lowered his head to return the favor.

  I panted and whimpered with each breath as he latched down on the soft skin at the nape of my neck. My skin stung as his teeth dug in and the blood pooled beneath it. His hips kept pumping, ratcheting the pressure in the deepest part of me until I could stand it no more. I grabbed handfuls of his hair and pulled his mouth away from my neck and pulled his lips to mine as I cried out in release. I felt his body stiffen and I felt him pulse inside me as the spasms of my orgasm milked him dry.

  We stilled and he hovered above me, his lips still touching mine, our breaths flowing in and out of each other.

  “I love you,” he said, gruff and authoritative, just the way I like him. “You’re mine, and nothing will ever change that.”

  Those were the words I needed to hear.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Jaron dropped me off at Tiffany’s at 10:00 am the day of her birthday, the last Saturday of spring break. Going to her big birthday bash at Nate’s was out of the question, but Jaron agreed to let me spend the day with her for birthday cake and presents with her parents.

  Bossy, possessive, controlling Jaron was back in full force, but I wasn’t about to complain because it was way better than the pity filled gentle giant he was after the incident. He was a little like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and for some reason, I preferred Mr. Hyde.

  “Happy Birthday,” I said in Tiffany’s ear.

  She wheeled around in her seat at the kitchen counter, wide eyed with a squeal. We had barely spoken since the day Jaron got out of jail and picked me up at her house. I placed her beautifully wrapped gift on the counter and caught her as she hopped off the stool and wrapped her arms around me.

  “Easy sailor,” I teased. Meredith smiled at me from across the kitchen as she dried her hands on a dish towel.

  “It so good to see you Natalie,” she said sincerely crossing the room with her arms open wide.

  “It’s good to see you too,” I replied, laying my head on her shoulder as she embraced me.

  It was a wonderful warm feeling being hugged by Meredith. It was a mom hug and something I hadn’t gotten from my own mom in many years.

  “You look good, everything’s going good,” she asked, holding me at arms-leng
th.

  “Yeah, things are better, getting back to normal,” I nodded.

  “That’s good. Normal is good,” she said, patting my arm and turning her attention back to her baking.

  “Come on,” Tiffany demanded, dragging me away and up the stairs.

  We piled on her bed and caught up on girl talk. You would have thought we had been apart for months. She gave me the low down on the gossip that went around school about Holbrook and I gave her the real story. She grimaced a couple times and I could see sadness flash in her eyes, but it passed. She could see that I was unharmed and unaffected by it.

  “I had a harder time dealing with the way Jaron acted afterward than I did with the attack itself,” I told her.

  “But ya’ll are okay now, right,” she asked.

  “Yeah, we are back to being us again, for better or worse,” I said, smiling. “So, what about this big birthday bash of yours. You ready to party like its 1999?”

  She froze. Her mouth closed and her lips pressed into a thin line.

  “What is it,” I asked, chuckling at the ‘cat that ate the canary’ look on her face.

  “Um, well, about the party,” she paused. “I’m not having one.”

  “What? This is your eighteenth birthday. You’re telling me that party animal Tiffany Gates is welcoming the big eighteen with cake and Kool-Aid, at home, with her mommy and daddy?’

  “No,” she said in an exaggerated voice. “I have a date.”

  “Uh, huh,” I grunted, fighting the knowing smile that was trying to spread across my face. “And who would this date be with? It must be someone pretty special for you to cancel the epic eighteenth birthday party, that you’ve been planning for weeks now.”

  Tiffany rolled over on her back and covered her face with a pillow. I waited patiently for her to build her nerve.

  “It’s Jake,” she said, her voice muffled by the pillow.

  “What was that,” I asked.

  She lifted the pillow, “its Jake. I’m going on a date with your brother,” she said, her eyes closed tight as if she were afraid to look at me.

  I sat silent, just looking at her, all smiles, waiting for her to open her eyes. Finally, she raised her head and peeked at me through one eye to gauge my reaction. All the air left her body and she fell back in relief when she saw me smiling impishly.

  “You already knew, didn’t you?”

  “Well, I didn’t know, know, but I figured after seeing Jake yesterday. His eyes absolutely lit up when he talked about you.” Tiffany blushed, for the first time I could ever remember. “You’re in love with him aren’t you? You are in love with my brother.”

  “Are you mad?” she grimaced.

  “Of course I’m not mad. I’m surprised. But, I couldn’t have picked a better guy for my best friend or a better girl for my brother.”

  “Thank you Natalie. I’ve been so worried you would be mad because I didn’t tell you we’ve been talking. It really did start out innocent. When you guys got into it and stopped talking, he started calling me to check up on you, then it just became a regular thing and the next thing you know we were sitting up late at night talking because we didn’t want to hang up, and…”

  “Ok, ok,” I said, raising my hands up in front of me. “Save me to gushy details.” She laughed and smacked me with the pillow.

  I called Jaron and told him about the date and he let me stay and help Tiffany get ready and hang around until Jake picked her up. I wanted to be there to surprise him and give him a hard time.

  He smiled and blushed and looked like a teenager meeting a girl’s dad for the first time on prom night when I answered the door.

  “Well, hello Jacob. What a surprise,” I said, trying to be serious. “I’m not stupid you know. It was way too obvious when you were talking about her last night.”

  “Stop giving my date a hard time,” Tiffany called from the stairs.

  I opened the door wider and turned to smile at her over my shoulder. She looked beautiful. Her blonde hair was pulled back in a messy bun with soft golden ringlets falling around her face. Her baby blue sundress contrasted starkly against her tan skin and made her eyes sparkle like diamonds. I looked back at Jake. His lips were parted slightly as he looked at her, spellbound. All the air was sucked out of the room as they stared at each other and I knew in that moment, my best friend would someday be part of my family.

  In the dark of our bedroom, he absent mindedly pulled a strand of my hair through his fingers from my scalp all the way to the end, over and over.

  “Jake and Tiffany are in love,” I said softly, smiling at the memory of the way they looked at each other. “I bet money they get married.”

  “Married huh,” Jaron replied.

  “Yep.”

  “So, school Monday. You ready to go back?”

  “Yep, I’m ready to get this year over with and graduate already.

  “Then what?”

  “What do mean, then what,” I asked, knowing full well what he meant.

  “Then what are you going to do?”

  “I’m going to college Jaron,” I answer matter of factly.

  He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, but never responded. He rolled over on his side, rolling me with him and pulled me tight against him, his hand resting around my throat, a position that, strangely, we both found very comfortable and calming. I tried to continue the discussion.

  “Jaron..”

  “Ssshhh, just go to sleep.” End of conversation.

  Chapter Sixteen

  “Get in the car.” Tiffany said, looking up at me through the rolled down passenger window.

  “What, why? The bell’s gonna ring in like two minutes,” I retorted.

  “Get. In. The. Car.” She demanded.

  I opened the door and reluctantly slid into the passenger seat. My eyes widened when she pressed on the gas and zoomed out of the parking lot.

  “Are you abducting me,” I asked, feigning concern and smiling.

  “Yes, I am,” she said. “It is senior skip day. I wouldn’t be much of a best friend if I allowed you to go to class.”

  “I can’t skip school Tiffany. Jaron thinks,” she cut me off.

  “Today is not about Jaron! Look, I can respect that you are in a relationship, all be it a somewhat screwed up one. And because he is a panty dropping, smoking hot, full grown man that is apparently a beast in bed, I understand your insane dedication to him. But, today is a once in a life time, never gonna happen again day. You won’t get another chance to make these memories with me Natalie.” She glanced at me with a crinkled forehead. “You didn’t make one ball game, not even homecoming and you have no plans on going to prom. So, you are going to spend this one day with me, and our class, just hanging out and being stupid and having fun at the lake. Please,” she begged pitifully.

  “Okay, you’re right. But I don’t have a bathing suit or anything.”

  “Don’t worry, got you covered,” she said winking.

  She reached into the back seat and grabbed her beach bag and plopped it in my lap. I smiled and shook my head.

  “This was premeditated,” I said smiling at her.

  “Yep,” she replied. “Now let’s go make some memories!”

  We hopped the mountain to Belleview, picked up some snacks and a styro foam ice chest and whizzed through Sonic, before heading out to Spring Lake around 10:00 am. I was fidgety and anxious to get out of town because I didn’t really know what Jaron did all day while I was at school and I worried about running into him.

  The beach was already full of our classmates. Richard and Brian helped Tanner and Ben put up a volleyball net and Claire, Sidney and Rachel were setting some lawn chairs around. There were 22 kids in our class, and like any school, some were geeks, some were jocks, some were popular and outgoing and some were wall flowers, but in one way or another, we were all friends. By noon, all but five of our classmates had showed up to celebrate.

  It was a beautiful, warm day in mid-May.
When the sun started to heat up, Tiffany dragged me to the bathrooms to change into bathing suits.

  “God, I’ve gotten fat,” I complained. “Jaron and his damn dinners!”

  Tiffany laughed out loud. When she turned to look at me her brows shot up and her eyes opened wide.

  “I know. I look like a heifer.”

  “No, you look amazing. I would kill to have your curves. I still look like a little girl. But your boobs have gotten bigger.”

  “I know,” I grunted, trying to push them down into the cups of my bikini. “I can’t go out there in this.”

  “Yes you can. You look great, really. Women pay big bucks to look like you Natalie, so stop whining and come on.” She grabbed my arm and dragged me out the door.

  I could feel the stares as we walked down the hill and I immediately felt self-conscious. There was a small group of guys I didn’t recognize to the left, shaking hands and introducing themselves to Richard and some of the other guys in our class. They all stopped and looked our way, mouths slightly gaping.

  “Everyone is staring,” I hissed in Tiffany’s ear.

  “Of course their staring, bitch, we’re hot,” she smiled.

  Just then she was accosted from behind. Brian lifted her and threw her over his shoulder and barreled toward the water. I smiled and wondered what Jake would think about the scene.

  I sat on my towel and rubbed some suntan lotion into all the places I could reach. While Tiffany was occupied, I slipped my phone from the bag and checked for any missed calls or texts. We almost never texted, Jaron was all about the whole hearing my voice thing, but I checked just in case. There was nothing and I was relieved.

  “Hi, this towel taken,” an unfamiliar voice sounded above me.

  I looked up to see a cute, but unfamiliar face smiling down at me from behind a pair of mirrored sunglasses. His sandy blonde hair was messy and damp and his smile was perfectly straight and white. He had the typical, high school jock build, tall, toned and fit. I couldn’t help but compare him to Jaron who was so much manlier. I chuckled to myself. Jaron had definitely ruined me from guys my own age.