by J. S. Scott
Hope peeked into the bag and gasped when she pulled out his gift. It was a top-of-the-line camera that could be used underwater. “It’s wonderful. But I don’t shoot underwater.”
“I’m hoping you will someday—or at least from my boat. I think you’d like snorkeling. With your eye for color, you’d love shooting underwater in the Bahamas.”
Hope smiled and crossed her arms. “You keep calling it a boat. Exactly how big is your little boat?”
“It’s not all that small. It’s around seventy feet, with incredibly comfortable cabins,” Jason admitted sheepishly. “But it’s not gigantic.”
Hope let out a startled laugh. “It is gigantic.”
“She’s named after you,” Jason confessed. “It wasn’t a coincidence. And I couldn’t buy just any old boat if I was naming her after you.”
Jason would never buy any old boat. He was a billionaire, and he liked the finer things. The fact that he didn’t consider his “boat” a yacht amused her, and she was touched and surprised that he’d named Sutherland’s Hope after her. “She’s really named for me?” she asked tentatively. “Why?”
Jason moved to the other side of the bed, scooted close to her carefully, and eased himself onto the bed to keep from jostling her ankle. Sliding his arm around her shoulders, he rested his back on the headboard and pulled her head onto his shoulder. “I think I’ve probably been in love with you since you were eighteen,” he started out thoughtfully as he stroked a hand over her hair. “I’ve had a hard-on for you ever since. Every time I saw you after your high school graduation was difficult for me, and I guess over the holidays, I lost it. Finally, there was no boyfriend, you were finally available, and I was elated. Even if you were Grady’s sister, I couldn’t ignore how attracted I was to you anymore. I was devastated when I got up and you were gone after our night together. It destroyed me when I heard you were actually marrying the boyfriend you’d broken up with months before.”
Jason released a long, masculine sigh. “What you said to Grady is true. I did want you so desperately that I wasn’t willing to let you marry anyone else.” His body tensed. “I didn’t think about the consequences, Hope. All I could think about was somebody else touching you, holding what belonged to me. When Tate made his crazy plan, I agreed readily. I was willing to do anything, even face your wrath, to have you. I was worried that you’d be miserable with a loser, but most of my motivations were strictly selfish. I wanted you for myself.”
Hope was floored. She had never realized that Jason felt the same things she had all these years. “Do you remember the wedding?”
“Of course. I picked the rings. I planned on getting you wasted so I could marry you. I’m not going to lie about it anymore,” he said fiercely. “I told myself I’d let you go once we’d satisfied ourselves, but that was never going to happen. It just took me awhile to admit it to myself. I was angry with you for marrying someone else after what happened on New Year’s.”
“But he wasn’t real.”
“I didn’t know that,” he countered.
“How was the wedding?”
“For me, it was the happiest day of my life, even if you were intoxicated. I put my ring on your finger and you became mine after years of torture. Purely selfish…but true. We got married by a justice of the peace, and it was short. Tate stood up for me, and I found a young woman to stand as witness for you. I’m sorry. It wasn’t the wedding you deserved, and we can get married again—the right way this time.” Jason rubbed her back and shoulders comfortingly.
“I don’t think the wedding is important. It’s the marriage you have after the wedding that matters,” she told him thoughtfully. Honestly, she didn’t care how it happened, as long as it was legal. She belonged to Jason, and it was how they went on from here that mattered. “The thing is, I’ve always felt the same way about you. I have since I saw you at my graduation. That was why I was still a virgin when I was attacked. Nobody ever measured up to you.”
“I should have told you a long time ago how I felt, how much I wanted you,” Jason rasped, sounding disgusted with himself.
“We can’t change the past, Jason. Can we just go on from here?” Hope didn’t want to think about the past now that they were together. They couldn’t change things, go back and redo anything. But they could have the happiest life imaginable together. “I love you.” She let out a happy sigh. “And I’ve always been waiting for you.”
“I waited for you, too, Peaches.” He dropped a sweet kiss on her forehead. “I’m sorry that I lied. Are you going to let me out of the doghouse?”
“I don’t think I have a choice.” She tried to make her voice sound beleaguered. “I love you now. And you’ve ruined me. I’m addicted to you.”
“Sweetheart, I’ve been ruined since you turned eighteen. I love you. Forgive me. Please,” he begged gravely. “It will kill me if you don’t.”
“Okay,” she said dreamily, agreeably. A remorseful Jason was hard to resist, and he’d groveled long enough. Hope just wanted to get on with loving him, and having him loving her back. “I’m so easy.”
“You’re anything but easy. It’s taken me years to make you mine,” Jason said dubiously. “And now you’re going to scare the shit out of me every day with your career. I have to admit I have a love/hate relationship with your fearlessness.”
“I’m not fearless,” she whispered huskily. “And I’m not going to chase storms anymore.” She’d made her decision after she’d talked to Tate. “When I first started doing it, I was excited. I loved the adrenaline rush, and I wanted to make a name for myself. After I was…kidnapped, I had to go back to prove something to myself. You were right when you said I didn’t need to prove anything to a dead man anymore. I actually don’t think the last few years have been about conquering my fears. I’d already done that. I think I was disconnected and lonely, and I didn’t know anything else. Lying to my family had separated me from my brothers, and I kept everyone else at a distance because I was used to it. I don’t want to do that anymore,” she finished breathlessly.
“Thank Christ,” Jason blurted out emphatically. “I don’t want you to quit if you really love it, but if you don’t want to do it anymore, I’d be fucking ecstatic.”
Hope laughed. “Then be ecstatic because I think I’d like to take some underwater pictures, and I really love doing my landscape and wilderness shots. I still love storms, but I think I was chasing them for the wrong reasons. I was lonely, and I didn’t know how to be any other way.”
“Not anymore, sweetheart. You have me, and you can let yourself be close to your brothers again now that you don’t have to cover anything up.”
“I’d like that,” she answered happily. “Do you think I should tell them everything?”
“Your call, baby. I’ll stand behind whatever you want to do. But I don’t think you need to do it because of them. I think you only need to do that if you want it.”
“Maybe someday I will tell them. Right now, I’d just like to spend some time being happy with my husband, and see what it feels like to not be lonely anymore.”
Jason fiddled with a lock of her hair. “Me, too. I’ve been restless and moody for a long time because I missed you.”
“Filling your time working for charities?” she asked curiously.
“Actually, yeah. I have my own work to do, but I think I’ve found more satisfaction from starting this organization for battered women than anything else I’ve ever done.” He hesitated for a moment. “Tate must have told you.”
“He did. I think you’re amazing, Jason Sutherland. Can I donate? I have a very rich husband now, so I don’t need to worry about money,” she teased him mercilessly.
“Keep your money safe,” he advised. “I’ve donated enough for both of us. Put it in safe investments and leave it for our children.”
Hope’s heart accelerated. “Are we having kids?”
“I sure as hell hope so,” Jason answered emphatically. “I’d love to have a sweet little girl just l
ike her mother.”
Hope’s heart stuttered. “I didn’t think I’d ever have children, but I’d like to someday.” She’d always loved kids, but had never imagined herself being that intimate with a man. “Do you know a good investment counselor who can help my money grow for my children?”
“I know the very best,” he said arrogantly.
Hope laughed merrily and stroked his whiskered cheek lovingly. “I’m sure you do,” she whispered, leaning over to kiss him tenderly on the lips. Her heart swelled as he kissed her with a gentle affection that made her feel wanted…and very much loved. “Does he have a boat so I can take underwater photos? He might just be the man of my dreams,” she told him as she pulled back and left her lips only inches from his.
“Baby, I don’t know if you were dreaming about me, but I’ve had more wet dreams about you than I can count, and I am your man. I always will be,” he told her bossily.
Hope could feel his hot breath caress her mouth, and she froze for a moment, loving the warm intimacy of his possessiveness. “I think you’re right. You’re perfect.” She smiled as she breached the distance between their lips and gave him an embrace that wouldn’t leave him with any doubt where her heart was, and how much she loved him.
He let out a strangled groan as his tongue entwined gently with hers, a triumphant, ardent sound from a man who had just gotten everything he wanted…and more.
A week later, Hope limped into the bedroom of the guesthouse, curious to see where all of the noise she could hear from the living room came from. She’d been working on her photos on her computer, but the incessant pounding sounds coming from the bedroom had intrigued her.
Her ankle was better, although Jason spent most of his time carrying her around. At this rate, he’d be babying her for the rest of her life. It wasn’t that she didn’t enjoy being treasured, but she missed him, and she wanted to drop her panties every time she looked at him. Unfortunately, he was having none of that, afraid he’d hurt her ankle if he did anything other than give her a gentle kiss, and he held her as if she were as fragile as blown glass.
God, she loved him. Jason took care of her completely, but she needed him to touch her, and she needed him to fuck her or she was going to die of frustration.
They were headed back to New York tomorrow; Jason needed to take care of some business there. He’d been worried about her being unhappy in the city, but she’d assured him that as long as they were together, she’d be blissfully content. He had a job to do, responsibilities, and she was perfectly fine with living in his penthouse for a while. He’d decided he didn’t want to live there full-time, and that was fine with her. She’d follow him just about anywhere. They still had her condo in Aspen to escape to, and she had her lovely house in Amesport, Maine. His idea was to eventually travel to New York for business only and make their home in Amesport.
Hope had been ecstatic, thrilled that she’d be close to Grady again. She really liked Emily, and she knew she’d make new friends in Amesport through Grady and Emily. She was more than willing to live there for most of the year, after Jason wrapped some things up in New York. Something told her that Jason would like to be closer to his mother and Grady, too.
Her feet hit the plush carpet in the bedroom, and she peeked into the bathroom. Jason stood in front of the bathroom mirror.
He’d been putting it back on the wall.
“Disposing of the kinky evidence?” she asked him merrily.
“Why are you out of your chair?” He turned and gave her a stern look.
“Because I need to walk occasionally, and it doesn’t hurt to put weight on my ankle anymore.” She examined the mirror and then went to the bed to look under the canopy. “It looks good. I’d never be able to tell.” She giggled.
“I told you I was good with tools.” He moved behind her to wrap his arms around her waist.
Turning, she put her arms around his neck. “You’re a man with many talents. You’re good at a lot of things.” You’re great at making me orgasm. Please do it.
Taking the initiative, her patience gone, Hope opened his buttoned-down shirt.
“Hope. It’s too soon.” He groaned and caught her roaming hands in his. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
“I already hurt.” She moved one of his hands down between her thighs. “I ache, and nobody can fix that except you. Fuck me, Jason. I can’t wait any longer.”
“Fuck,” he growled. “It’s hard for me, too, Hope.”
She reached down and fondled his erection over his jeans. “I can see that it is,” she murmured seductively. “I can fix that.” She pulled her other hand from his and finished unbuttoning his shirt. “Please. I’m fine. I need you.”
Jason speared his hands into her hair. “I don’t want to fuck you, even though I love it when you talk dirty to me. I want to make love to you, baby.”
“I want that, too,” she confided. With his shirt now open, she placed wet kisses on his chest. “I want to touch you.”
Jason tore the shirt down his arms and groaned. “Touch me, then. Just let me know if I hurt you.”
Her core flooded as she ran her palms down his muscular chest, over his powerful biceps and down his back. He felt like hot, hard sin, and she already trembled with the need to have him inside her.
Her hands went to his jeans, fumbled with the buttons until they were all open. Jason pulled them down, taking his boxer briefs with them, and stepped out of them before he reached for the bottom of Hope’s summer shirt. She lifted her arms obediently, ready to be naked, feel them skin-to-skin. “It seems like it’s been forever,” she told him plaintively.
“I know,” he answered roughly. “And it’s only been a week.”
Hope pulled the drawstring on her shorts, wriggled them down with her panties and let Jason pull them off her feet gently.
He laid her lightly on the bed. “I took the mirror down,” he reminded her, as he came between her open thighs.
She wrapped her arms around his neck. “I don’t need it. You know that. Make love to me the way you want to, Jason. I need to feel you inside me.”
She shuddered as his body came over hers, relieved as their bare skin finally connected. Her nipples were hard, and his chest abraded the sensitized peaks.
Hope let out an elated sigh; the feel and scent of Jason drove her desire. Thrusting her hands into his hair, she gasped. “I love you.”
Jason fisted his hands in her hair; his mouth roamed over every inch of the delicate skin on her neck and lingered to flick out his tongue and taste her flesh. “I love you,” he answered back, his voice muffled against her throat.
He took his time, his lips moving over her shoulders and down to her breasts. He took one of the hard nipples between his lips, worshipped it with his mouth before he paid homage to the other one. Hope whimpered as she held his head to her breasts, needing more, needing him.
“Jason. Please.” Hope wasn’t going to be able to endure his teasing for very long.
Moving up her body carefully, his tempestuous, covetous gaze roamed over her face before he lowered his mouth to hers.
Hope stroked her fingers over his neck and down his back; she met his kiss with the same urgency as his. Their tongues entwined and meshed, fusing them together. She moaned with the ecstasy of being in this intimate position, the two of them melding together. Her legs wrapped around his hips, she bucked against him, eager to feel him conjoined with her.
Tearing his mouth from hers, his chest heaving, he told her gently, “Easy, baby.” He pinned her hands over her head and held them tightly. Jason looked at her possessively, his blue eyes swirling and turbulent. “Mine. You belong to me.” Although his tone was covetous, it was also awed, incredulous.
“Forever,” she whispered, feeling his need along with her own. “Make love to me, Jason.” She loved his bossy possession in the bedroom, and it ramped up her need, heated her body until she felt as if she was going to go up in flames.
He reached one of his
hands down between them, held her wrists in one hand, and ran his fingers through her drenched, torrid folds. He hissed as he found her clit. “You’re so responsive, so wet for me.”
“Only for you,” she keened, wanting him inside her.
“I love the way your body responds to me,” he whispered huskily near her temple. His warm breath wafted tantalizingly over her ear.
Hope cried out as he teased her clit. His thumb first circled the pulsating mass of nerves and then rolled over it with not quite enough pressure. He released her wrists to grasp her ass.
She raked her fingernails down his back, pushed her heels into his ass to make him act.
“Mark me,” he grunted. “God, I fucking love that. Make me yours, Hope. I’ve always been yours.”
His words inflamed her, and she cried out his name as he thrust powerfully into her sheath and buried himself to the root of his cock. “Yes,” she mewled as she dug her nails into his back. “Oh, Jason, you feel so good.”
“You feel incredible, sweetheart.” He groaned. His cock moved out and then back in with a powerful stroke, both hands now on her ass to keep her positioned right where he wanted her. He pulled her up to meet every entry; their skin slapped together with the force of their joining.
Hope moaned, touched every inch of Jason her fingers could find, moved over his back and down to his ass, grasped his tight rear end and urged him to take her harder, faster.
Jason shifted and pummeled in and out of her channel, stimulating her clit.
“Yes. Please,” she begged. Her body shuddered, heat shooting through her belly and down to her core.
“I love you, baby. Come for me,” he demanded. His thrusts went deeper, faster. He leaned forward and captured her mouth; his tongue speared between her lips and mimicked the hard, fast strokes he gave her with his cock.
I love you. I love you. I love you.
The words pounded through her mind as her body came apart, and she held onto Jason as she spun out of control and her core clenched around him. She moaned into his mouth, and felt his responding groan.