As her laughter tinkled in the quietness, Jake suddenly felt something shift inside him. She was so adorable when she was like this – relaxed and happy. He had no idea what made her so angry all the time, but he was beginning to think that it wasn’t just him. Whatever it was though, he suddenly had a need to ensure that she only experienced happiness in the future.
Chapter 8
After a week of what seemed like house arrest, due to Jake’s incapacity and the poor weather, Amber and Jake were thrilled when Jake’s ankle improved and he was able to walk without crutches. The weather was still miserable, but at least he was no longer in pain and could move around much more easily. They had come up with a colour scheme for most of the rooms in Jake’s house and Amber had surfed the net, purchasing various pieces of furniture for him. Jake’s heart had swelled each time he’d handed his credit card over. He loved the shine of excitement in Amber’s eyes.
To amuse themselves, aside from designing the interior of Jake’s house, they had watched a few of Luke’s action films and a couple of Amber’s chick-flicks. Amber had also taught Jake how to boil an egg, the fact that he didn’t even know how to time boiling water for three minutes giving her a fit of the giggles.
“Really, you’ve never boiled an egg?” she asked, wiping away tears of mirth as she peered up at him and watched as he gingerly lowered an egg into the bubbling water with his tongue poking out of the side of his mouth.
Jake shook his head. “Never had a need.”
“But, what about when you were looking after your mum? Surely you had to cook for her?”
“Nah, we survived on sandwiches, crisps and Pot Noodles.” Jake didn’t look at Amber but continued to study his watch as he timed his egg with the concentration of a scientist.
“Honestly?” Amber’s shoulders sagged. The more she heard about his childhood, the sadder she felt. “Didn’t your grandparents make sure you had a decent meal?”
“Yeah, up until my Nan died when I was twelve. After that Grandad could barely look after himself, never mind me and Mum.”
Amber looked at Jake’s long legs in his pink, camouflage pattern shorts and wondered how he had managed to grow so tall on such a poor diet. It was a wonder he hadn’t had rickets or some other such disease.
Jake clapped his hands. “Three minutes, Freckles, let’s get that baby out of there.”
As he took the pan from the heat and spooned the egg into an egg cup, Amber buttered the toast that had popped out of the toaster, and cut it into soldiers.
“Here you go,” she giggled. “Some soldiers for your eggy weggy.”
Jake gave her a delectable smile and cracked the top of his egg with a tea spoon.
“Freckles, it’s runny,” he cried giving a little hip wiggle. “I did it.”
Jake took a toast soldier and dipped it into his egg. He lifted it to his mouth and took a bite. With his eyes closed, he gave a groan of satisfaction. Watching Jake enjoy such a simple pleasure, was so endearing that Amber felt a warmth for him like she’d never felt for anyone before. She gazed at his face and as Jake licked the corner of his mouth she felt her stomach flutter. At that moment, there wasn’t anywhere that she would rather be than here, spending time with Jake.
“Hey,” she said as Jake smacked his lips. “How about we have a Scrabble tournament?”
Jake’s eyes flashed open. “Scrabble?” His nose screwed up in disdain. “It’s not really me, Freckles.”
“Ah, come on,” Amber cajoled. “What else were you planning on doing? The weather is still crap, we’ve watched the only decent films that Luke has, as well as all my romantic comedies, plus you’ve read every music magazine in the house...twice.”
Jake tilted his head to one side and grinned. He didn’t have anything planned: nothing that would take him away from Freckles’ company anyway. He had only watched all those chick-flicks so that he could spend time with her. They were all garbage – Gone with the Wind aside, of course.
“Okay,” he said, pretending to heave a sigh. “If we must.”
“Oh goody,” Amber chirped, and skipped off to get the game.
“Yeah, goody,” Jake shouted as she disappeared. “I’ll make the ginger beer and cucumber sandwiches eh?”
The Scrabble tournament - the best of three games - had been in full flow for almost two hours, and with one game each the levels of competitiveness were soaring.
“No way,” Amber cried. “There is no such word as twizwaddle.”
Jake grinned and batted his long eyelashes at her. “There is, it’s an African snake.”
“Oh please, don’t give me that load of old twaddle.”
“Yeah, that’s it,” Jake said excitedly. “Excellent, thanks, Freckles.” He picked up his letters and then set them down again, spelling out the word ‘twaddle’.
Amber groaned and dropped her head into her hands.
“Get in!” Jake shouted, his fist pumping the air. “Triple word score, that’s thirty points to me.”
“Hardly a mega score is it?”
“Hey, it’s better than anything you’ve scored so far in this game.” Jake pouted as he looked down at the score sheet. “Your best so far has been twenty-six.”
“Yes but,” Amber giggled, “you’re still almost ninety points behind me in this game and you’ve only got three tiles left, so I reckon that makes me the winner. You may as well retire now.”
“I could still pull it back,” Jake said. Then, his eyes suddenly wide with fear, he pointed behind Amber. “What the hell is that?”
Amber quickly spun around, her eyes searching the room behind her.
“What?” she squealed. “What is it? I can’t see anything” She turned back just in time to see Jake scribbling all over the score sheet while his other hand tipped the board up.
“Oops, sorry,” he laughed. “You said you’d won, but I can’t see any evidence of that here.”
“You cheating little git.” Amber reached over and clipped Jake around the back of the head. “I won and you know it.” She started to laugh and pelted Jake with Scrabble tiles.
“Be careful, you might maim me with those.” Jake said, picking the tiles up from the floor and throwing them back. Within seconds, a full on tile fight was underway, with both of them running around the dining room, dodging tiles and scrambling along the floor for more ammunition. As Amber threw double handed, Jake ducked to avoid them and scuttled around the table, grabbing hold of her waist and dragging Amber to the floor.
“Jake no!” she cried as he pulled her down.
As Amber landed on top of him, Jake grabbed hold of her hands and started to flap them against Amber’s face.
“Don’t hit yourself, Freckles. It was only a game, don’t beat yourself up about it.”
“Jake no, stop it,” Amber screamed down his ear. “I think I’m going to wet myself,” she cried in between gasps of laughter.
“Ugh, dirty girl.” Jake climbed on top of Amber and, straddling her, he pinned her arms down with his knees. “Did you wet your pants?” he asked, grinning down at her. .
Amber shook her head, tears of laughter crawling from the corners of her eyes.
“No, not yet.”
“Not yet eh? What if I tickle you, will that get you wetting your knickers?” Jake started to tickle under Amber’s arms and down to her waist. His breath quickening as his fingers skimmed under her top, against cool, bare skin.
Amber thrashed around, kicking her legs and gasping for breath. “Please Jake, no.”
Jake leaned closer to Amber until their lips were only a couple of inches apart.
“Do you submit, and admit that I’m the Scrabble champion?”
Amber shook her head and grinned. “Nope.”
“Submit?” Jake’s gaze landed on Amber’s soft lips. He felt adrenalin suddenly surging inside him.
Amber held her breath, her own heartbeat quickening as she felt Jake’s breath on her face. So close. “Nope,” she finally whispered.
Amber shook her head and gazed at Jake, her eyes full of lust as she saw the same reflected in his. Jake released the pressure on Amber’s arms and suddenly the air between them shifted. Amber raised her hands and cupped Jake’s face as he ran a trembling finger along her jaw.
“Shit, Freckles, you’re beautiful,” he whispered.
Amber smiled. “So are you.”
“Can I kiss you?” Jake asked as he gently held her little pointed chin.
Amber’s eyes narrowed as she thought about it. God, she wanted to say yes, but what if she was just building herself up for one almighty fall. Could she trust him, with even just one kiss because she was sure even just one kiss would ruin her? Jake Hughes was probably going to be the best kiss she had ever had, or ever would have. She could tell just from those luscious pink lips of his.
“Well, can I?” Jake asked again.
Amber nodded. Sod it, she wanted to be ruined by this man. Her body was on fire at just the thought of the possibilities. She fizzed with excitement as Jake’s head dipped lower.
“This is going to be immense,” he whispered.
As their lips touched, Jake groaned. She tasted sweet and heavenly like nothing he had ever tasted before. He ran his tongue along the seam of Amber’s lips, gently enticing her to open up to him and as she did, Amber moaned quietly into Jake’s mouth. The noise was so erotic that it sent an electrifying pulse right down to his groin.
“Freckles,” he groaned as he slid his hand behind Amber’s neck and pulled her deeper into the kiss.
Amber could feel a swell in the pit of her stomach as the heat flooded through her and down between her thighs. God, he felt wonderful, and his hard body pressed against hers sent her mind reeling. She clutched at Jake’s back, digging her fingertips into his hard muscles as their kiss deepened and intensified. She was right, no kiss had ever been this good. Jake Hughes really knew what he was doing, and Amber was a prisoner to him as his skilful lips and tongue controlled her.
As Amber’s hands moved from his back, to grab at his hair, Jake’s own hands moved to cup her breasts, the feel of them making him hard. He stopped kissing her, for mere seconds, just to check that she was okay with where they were going with this. Amber craned her neck and pulled Jake back towards her mouth. He continued his delicious assault on her, his mouth slowly working its way down her neck and across her collarbone. Amber shifted beneath him, pushing her hips upwards so that Jake’s erection was rubbing against the seam of her jeans.
“Oh my God,” she groaned and tilted her head back, giving Jake a better access to the pale, soft skin of her neck.
“Shit, Freckles, we need to stop,” Jake groaned even though his body told him otherwise. “If we don’t, then…”
“I know,” Amber gasped breathily as she pushed her breasts closer to Jake’s chest. “But you feel amazing, this is amazing.”
Jake fought with himself. He knew that this was going too fast. He wanted to do this properly and not make Amber feel like every other girl he’d had sex with. He wanted her to feel special, but shit, she was so enticing and addictive. As Amber whispered his name, Jake slowly pulled away. He moved his hands to her cheeks, not wanting to relinquish his hold on her. He needed to touch her.
“God Freckles, you’re awesome. That was…fuck.” Jake dropped his forehead to Amber’s and wrapped his arms around her.
“Jake, maybe we shouldn’t…” Amber stumbled over her words, not sure what to say.
It had been the most beautiful and sexiest kiss that she’d ever experienced, but this was Jake, the man who, up until she’d seen a different side to this womanising joker, had irritated her beyond belief.
“I know,” Jake groaned still on top of her. “I just had to kiss you though.” He looked down at her and his heart thumped rapidly in his chest. He didn’t know what had happened to change things between them, but it had and he was glad because it was incredible. With her long blonde hair fanning out around her, and her gorgeous silver eyes full of nervousness, Jake realised that she wasn’t just cute and pretty, she was beautiful.
“So, what now?” Amber asked with trepidation in her voice.
Her mind was in turmoil. She wanted Jake so badly, but was petrified that she’d end up hurt again.
Jake slid from on top of Amber and onto his back, looking up at the ceiling in silent contemplation. Amber watched him, unsure of what to say or do as he was obviously regretting their actions.
“Jake it’s fine,” she muttered, finally breaking the stillness in the room. “Let’s just forget about it.”
He moved to his side and snaked his arm across Amber’s stomach, pulling her closer to him. “Do you want to forget about it?” he asked leaning forward to drop a kiss onto Amber’s lips.
Without hesitation, Amber shook her head.
Jake grinned widely. “Okay, we take this slowly, Freckles,” he said. “I don’t want to fuck this up.” And he really didn’t. Amber was different to his countless other conquests. It surprised him, but he wanted to see where things went with her. It was a pretty scary thought, but a good thought at the same time.
Amber turned her head to face him. “Okay.”
“I really like you, and I think we could be pretty awesome together.”
“You do?” Amber asked shyly.
“Yeah, I do, but you have to know I don’t really do the relationship thing.”
Amber stiffened against him, and Jake realised that she’d misunderstood him. He gently ran a finger down her cheek.
“That doesn’t mean I don’t want to do the relationship thing with you because I do.”
“Really?” Amber sighed with relief.
“God yeah, but I’ve never done it before,” Jake replied. “So I’m not sure how you do it, and I want to do it right, Freckles, I really do. Plus if I mess this up Luke will have my dick and my balls.”
Amber started to giggle and leaned over to drop a kiss on Jake’s cheek. “I understand. My cousin can be a bit of a caveman at times when it comes to family.”
“Yeah and you’ve got to love him for it. So,” he said pushing up from the floor, “what do we call this - girlfriend and boyfriend? I have no idea. Partner sounds so…I don’t know, middle aged and… well… Fuck Buddy just isn’t good enough for you. So, my vote goes with me being your boyfriend.”
Amber gasped at the word.
“What? You don’t like girlfriend and boyfriend?”
“No, it’s not that!” Amber exclaimed. “I mean, it’s just one kiss, are we ready for that? I guess I’m surprised that you even thought it.” Amber had fully expected Jake to sweet talk her into his bed within minutes, with her then having to suffer an uncomfortable four weeks while he avoided her.
Jake laughed and pushed Amber’s hair away from her face. She was so bloody adorable and he really wanted to make this work. She could be the angriest woman on the planet so Jake had no doubt that it might turn out to be a stormy relationship at times. However, he was willing to put in a huge effort for Freckles. There was something about her, besides her sexiness and her stupendous rack, of course. She was tantalising and made him want to protect her and make her smile. They didn’t really know each other that well, despite working together for almost a year, but he was certain that they could be amazing together.
“Okay, we do need to talk, but for now let’s just see how this goes,” Jake said as he stood up. “Is that okay with you?”
Amber sat up and gazed up at him with a huge smile. “Yes,” she nodded, “that’s fine with me.”
Chapter 9
“Come on Freckles, time to get up,” Jake cried as he pulled Amber’s duvet back.
“Jake! I might’ve been naked under here.” Amber sat up and rubbed her sleep filled eyes.
Jake kneeled next to her bed and smiled. “That’s what I was hoping for,” he said before dropping a kiss onto her lips. “N
ow get up; we’re going on a date.”
Amber stretched and yawned. She hadn’t had much sleep the night before, because she and Jake had stayed up talking until almost three in the morning. Then, when they’d finally bid each other good night, she couldn’t sleep for thinking about their kiss earlier in the evening. Worry had also crept in because Jake hadn’t kissed her again, apart from a chaste peck on the forehead at her bedroom door.
“Shit please don’t do that,” Jake groaned and shook his head. Amber’s stretch had caused her chest to swell against the thin fabric of her pyjama vest top. “Morning wood is bad enough, but you’re killing me here, Freckles.”
Amber grinned. From the corner of her eye, she noticed Jake readjusting himself. “Sorry.” She reached down for the duvet and pulled it back up to her chin. “So, what do I need to wear for this date?” she asked trying to change Jake’s focus from her braless breasts.
Jake blew out a long breath and dragged his eyes away from her chest. “What? Oh, jeans or trousers. And none of those skyscraper shoes of yours.”
Amber flopped back against her pillows and watched Jake as he moved towards the door. He was wearing a pair of blue tartan, cotton pyjama bottoms, nothing else, and looked gorgeous. She felt a throbbing need in the pit of her stomach to run her nails down the channel of his back, and then trace them around the dimples at the top of his tight backside. As Jake turned back to face her Amber’s lust levels rose considerably and she bit on her bottom lip to suppress a groan. The thin cotton rested on his slim hips and she could see his dark blonde treasure trail leading to an obvious bulge. Realising what she was looking at, Jake grinned and moved closer to the bed. He could see the desire in her eyes multiplying with each step he took. He loved that he could do that to her – what man wouldn’t love to know that they could turn a woman on as beautiful as Amber?
“Breakfast is nearly ready, by the way,” Jake said, basking in the heat of Amber’s gaze, and imagining how it might feel to have her hands on him. Amber swallowed hard as she noticed Jake’s pyjama bottoms tent a little more.
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