Roped In (Strings Book 2)

by J. C. Hayden

  “I don’t…” I didn’t want to tell him what I felt. I knew it would upset him. And at least a small part of me knew that it was an unfair comparison. “I don’t know.”

  The rest of the short drive back to my mom’s was silent. I could feel the waves of stress wafting off Jack like a fog, but I didn’t know what to say. I just kept thinking about the question he asked and wondering if he was right, while knowing deep down that he was. That that’s what I thought. That I worried what his family would say, what they would think about me, if they would tell him he could do better.

  When we parked the car, Jack sat there, and I looked at him. I thought he was going to say something, but instead, he opened the car door and got out. I watched him walk inside, and I followed him because there was nothing else I could do.

  He had his hands braced on my mom’s small kitchen island when I walked in, his back to me. It reminded me of the first day we were together after we reconnected when we’d stood in his kitchen and he fought his feelings for me.

  I stood in the doorway of the kitchen, not knowing what to say.

  “I have no idea how to convince you of how much you mean to me.”

  “Jack—”

  When he whirled toward me, I went silent.

  “Do you really think that I’m—what?—slumming it with you? That you don’t mean everything to me?”

  Hearing my thoughts echoed back to me felt like a knife to the gut.

  “How can you not be?” I could hear the quiver in my voice. I could hear every bit of fear and uncertainty folded into every syllable.

  Jack gaped at me. “Talia, I’ve wanted you since the day I met you. Since before I knew where you were from or whatever the hell you think is important to me. I’ve never once thought that you weren’t good enough. When you flirted with me at that party when we first met freshman year, I thought I was the luckiest guy in the room. It took me years to even try and pursue you because I thought I wasn’t good enough. That you could have any guy you wanted. I’m the one who isn’t good enough for you. I’ll never deserve you, but I want to try.”

  A tear slipped down my face before I could stop it, and Jack closed the distance between us, wiping the tear away with his thumb.

  “You are so much more than enough. You always have been.”

  I hated the sad, insecure words that came out of my mouth next, but I had to say them. Had to know how he would respond. “What about Rachel?”

  Jack’s face hardened. “What about her?”

  “She was… Jack, she’s the opposite of me. She’s the type of person you should be with. Sophisticated. Gorgeous. Refined.”

  Jack growled and pushed against me until he had me pinned against the wall. “She is not the type of person I should be with. You are the type of person I should be with. You are who I should be with. You. You are gorgeous. You’re passionate and talented and funny and alive.” He slid his hands up my arms until they were cupping my neck, and I shivered. “I wasn’t waiting for her to come along and replace you. I was with her when you didn’t want to be with me. But Jesus fucking Christ, Talia, when are you going to get it?”

  “What?” I breathed.

  His eyes darted between mine. “You are all I’ve ever wanted.”

  It was me who closed the distance between us completely. I stood on my toes and threw my arms around his neck and pressed my lips to his.

  He kissed me back with a ferocity he never had. Our teeth clanked and our tongues dueled. He tasted like the coffee he’d had for breakfast mixed with the sweet taste that was uniquely him. The taste that I could never get enough of. The same way he’d tasted six years ago. Jack.

  “Jack.”

  When I breathed his name, Jack grunted and bent his knees, wrapping his arms under my legs so he could lift me up. He spun us around and sat me down on the island. It was just like that first night, just like the day I’d remembered every single button of mine that only Jack Harding had been able to push.

  We stood there kissing for I don’t know how long. We each whispered each other’s names several times as we broke apart. He feasted on my neck and I did the same to his. His hands were on my ass—his favorite spot—as he ground his dick against my center, driving me crazy with each slow thrust. My legs and arms were wrapped tightly around him. I clung to him desperately, unwilling and unable to let him go. I needed more than his words. He told me I was enough, that I was what he wanted, but I needed more. I needed him to show me. It didn’t matter that he had already shown me so many times. I needed it right here, with his words as the backdrop and his actions as the proof I craved.

  Show me, Jack. Show me how much you want me. Show me you need me as much as I need you.

  “Please,” I whispered against his lips.

  My plea seemed to unleash something in him. He let out the sexiest, neediest groan I’d ever heard, and a moment later he was lifting me again.

  We kissed fiercely as he walked us to our room. He kicked the door shut and walked over to the bed, and I was wild for him. I wanted him with an urgency I couldn’t control. I hadn’t had him since the morning we’d left for Vermont almost a week earlier. Except for that day on the lake, we hadn’t even gotten close to this. We’d been spending so much time with my mom and exploring the area since then that by the time we got home every day my mom was home as well. My mom’s little two-bedroom cottage was not at all big enough for Jack and I to have sex undetected. Not when I was incapable of being quiet.

  This point was evidenced by the fact that I let out a soft moan as soon as we landed on the bed. In the week and half between Halloween and our trip to Vermont, I’d been with Jack every day, sometimes multiple times a day if I stayed at his apartment overnight. Being without him for so long was wreaking havoc with my system.

  Once we were on the bed, Jack tried to pull back, but I couldn’t let him go. I needed him close.

  “Baby,” he whispered against my neck as I clung to him. “Let me undress you.”

  I shook my head, holding him tighter. If I let him go he might disappear. This apparition of a man, the perfect, beautiful, wonderful man might cease to exist.

  Jack murmured my name and pulled back enough so he could meet my eyes.

  “Let me love you,” he rumbled as he slowly pulled my arms from around his neck. My breath caught in my throat. I felt numb but in the most perfect way. Like Jack could do anything to me and all I could do was let him. His words—the exact words I’d been thinking all day—should have scared me. They should’ve caused me to seize up with panic and stop whatever was happening. But all they did was cause this slow hum to spread throughout my body. It was just this faint buzz of joy and contentment and peace that settled into my bones. I was still desperate for him, but his words gave me permission to let go and just feel.

  “Let me,” he whispered as he unbuttoned my jeans and slowly slid them down my legs. “Please,” he breathed when he peeled my shirt off me. “Just let me.”

  His words were unraveling me, breaking me apart piece by piece and allowing him to seep into all the cracked parts of me.

  I was writhing on top of the bed by the time I was fully naked and Jack hovered—clothed—above me. He stared down at me, taking in my body, a dark and hungry look in his eyes. I basked in the glow of his perusal, spreading my arms out on the bed as if to say, “Yes, look. I’m all yours.”

  “Fuck,” he growled before he dove in to kiss me. I dug my hands in his hair and kissed him back with as much passion as he was showing me. I spread my legs and bent my knees so he could settle there, and when he slowly thrust his hips, the friction against my folds was delicious. I spread even further, wanting more of that feeling, but Jack pulled away only slightly. I wanted to protest, but then he was sliding down my body, leaving a trail of kisses on my neck and chest. When he sucked one hard nipple in his mouth, I moaned loudly and tightened my fingers in his hair.

  Jack could do the most wicked things with his tongue. He sucked hard on my nippl
e, almost to the point of pain, but then he would pull back. The cool air would cause the nub to tighten even further and then he would take just the tip of his tongue and swirl it around, igniting every nerve ending. He repeated the move, alternating between my nipples while massaging my breasts until I was strung so tight I thought I was going to come just from his mouth there.

  I’d never done it before, never thought it was possible, but the relaxed feeling that had settled over me along with his expert attention to every detail of my body was making me think it would be a first for me.

  He sucked hard, and when his teeth came out to nip, I bowed off the bed.

  “Jack, please.”

  I didn’t know what I was asking for. More? Yes. Definitely more.

  “You want more, baby?” His hot breath on my nipple made me shudder.

  Had I spoken my last thought out loud?

  “Yes.”

  Jack slid down, placing kisses along my stomach, until his head was between my legs. I was panting as I watched him spread my thighs open. When he looked at my pussy and licked his lips, I bit back a moan. It was so dirty, having him look at me like that. But then he took it even further.

  Jack slid one hand up the inside of my thigh. When he was right at the juncture of my ass and my thigh, he moved his hand and raised one finger. He looked up at me, then back down, and slid that finger, slowly and gently, just right on the inside of my folds. I inhaled a shaky breath and then exhaled heavily when he pulled back his finger and I saw the glistening moisture on it. I knew I was wet for him, but seeing it right there, in between us, was something else entirely.

  Then he brought his finger slowly to his mouth and licked every bit of my juices off. He made a soft noise in the back of his throat like it was the most delicious thing he’d ever tasted.

  “Jack,” I was frantic now. Seeing him savor the taste of me was too much. I needed him. I needed him inside me, pounding me, taking no mercy, and giving me everything he could. “Jack, oh my god, you have to fuck me.”

  “Not yet.”

  And then he dipped his head between my legs, and I almost screamed. He licked my mound first, just a tease, not nearly enough. His fingers spread my lips apart, and he continued his teasing. Just little flicks of the tip of his tongue, causing violent jolts of sensation to my clit interspersed with moments of nothing. The lack of constant pressure, that combination of intense pleasure and relief, was doing something strange to me. My whole body felt like it was on fire. I was clutching the sheets on the bed, grinding my pelvis against his face, desperate, more desperate than I had ever been. I wanted to moan, to cry out, but every sound was caught in my throat. My body was strung tighter than a bow, and all I wanted was for Jack to take me over the edge but also to never stop. Never, ever, ever stop.

  After continuing with the teasing flicks for what felt like hours, Jack started doing to my clit what he’d been doing to my nipples, alternating between the flicking of his tongue and sucking hard. I was finally able to get noise out of my mouth, and I started moaning constantly, muttering incoherent begging and pleading. He was doing something to me. Unspooling something deep and hidden within me that I didn’t know existed, bringing me to a brink of pleasure that I’d never known.

  Without warning, without the usual build to the finish, my climax was on me in an instant. It was like the entire time had been one slow, gradual, powerful build, that my body didn’t even need that final acknowledgement that the end was close. I just toppled over harshly, moaning Jack’s name over and over, begging him not to stop, begging him for more, more, more.

  “Fuck, Talia.”

  His mouth was on mine a moment later. I could taste our combined flavors, and I devoured his mouth. He rubbed his jeans against me, and even though he’d just given me the most powerful orgasm of my entire life, I wanted more.

  He pulled back and started unbuttoning his shirt as I fumbled with the button and zipper on his pants. It felt like he was naked in record time. And then he was moving over me. I wrapped my legs around him and could feel his thick, long, hard cock rubbing in between my folds, sliding along my core.

  “Jack, now,” I moaned. “I need it.”

  His head slipped just inside my entrance and I moaned like I was coming because it felt so damn good. God, I wanted him. I wanted him inside and I wanted him to never leave. I wanted everything, anything, he was willing to give me. The buzz that had settled over me intensified, making my limbs shake with it. I wanted him so much I couldn’t stand it.

  He slid further in, and then cursed.

  “Fuck.” He pulled out. “Fuck, I need a condom.”

  “No!” I shook my head frantically. Somewhere—somewhere far, far away in the deep recesses of my mind, I knew I was in a fog of lust, and I knew it was the lust that was talking. I knew it was probably irresponsible and that we hadn’t had the conversation about getting tested, but in that moment, I didn’t care. And more than that, I trusted Jack. He had been my friend for ten years, my lover for almost a year total out of that time, considering our time at Klein and now. I knew he wouldn’t put me at risk. I knew if he thought there was even any remote possibility of danger he would stop.

  “Talia…”

  “Please.” I wrapped my legs around him and felt him slip in again. He groaned and I sucked in a breath. “I want it. I’m safe. I trust you.”

  At my last words, his eyes snapped up to mine. We held there for several moments, letting the meaning behind those words sink into us both. And then he was sliding all the way in and there was nothing else in the world but us—but this moment, this feeling.

  “Fuck… Jesus fuck, Talia, you feel so good. I’ve never…”

  He slid in and out of me, staring at the point where we were joined, and for a moment I clung to his words. Had he really never? Not even with…

  No. I wouldn’t think of her right now. I refused to bring anyone else into this bed but the two of us. So I closed my eyes and let myself feel.

  He was hot and hard inside me. I felt like I could feel every bit of his flesh sliding along my walls—every inch, every movement, every twist. I clutched his arms that were on either side of me and lost myself in the feel of him pounding in and out of me. It was everything.

  I could feel the climax building this time, and I was grateful that I would have some kind of warning before he sent me over. He was making the sexiest sounds, and I was moaning loudly in the silence of the guest room, not even caring if my mom came in from the diner. I didn’t care if anyone heard us in that moment because there was no way I could contain the feelings that he was eliciting.

  “Look at me.”

  My eyes flew open and he leaned down. We were close enough to kiss, our lips brushing occasionally, but we kept our eyes on one another. He slowed his movements and grabbed a hold of me under my ass. He tilted my hips up and moved me so I would meet each of his slow thrusts. He pulled out, so only the tip was still inside and then slowly but surely slid all the way back in. He held there, deep inside me, pulling me close while he pressed in. I didn’t think he could get any deeper, and I thought he would pull out and repeat the move, but then he gripped me even tighter and twisted his hips, going impossibly deeper, never taking his eyes off me as he did it.

  Let him love you.

  My arms were wrapped around his shoulders, and when he rotated his hips again, going deeper than he’d ever been, I let out a soft whimper.

  “Jack.” My voice sounded desperate and frantic.

  “I know, baby,” he whispered. “I feel it, too.”

  Tears stung my eyes as I clung to him, but they never fell. I was overwhelmed with emotion, the pleasure making me feel raw and exposed. He moved his hips, slowly starting to move in and out, though staying deep each time, and I quaked. I trembled with need and held onto him, never looking away from his eyes, letting him see—for the first time, maybe the only—every single thing he made me feel. I held nothing back, hid nothing from him, and when I came, I held his
gaze, falling over the edge with the sound of his name on my lips. He did the same only a few moments later, his hot release flooding my insides along with just a whisper.

  “Talia.”

  We panted against each other for a long time after that. He slid his arms around my back and buried his face in my neck, and I held onto him just as tight as he held onto me. It felt like he was still hard inside me, and he proved that when he ground his hips against mine. I gasped, feeling and hearing both of our wet releases squish inside me. The sound was wicked and debauched and I twisted my hips to get more of it. Aftershocks were shooting through my channel as we held there. Our bodies were sticky with sweat, but I didn’t care. I couldn’t let him go, not just yet.

  I had given so much of myself to Jack already, but there was still so much more to give. I’d revealed to him a part of myself, a part of my life that I’d never revealed to anyone else. No matter what happened, he would always have that piece of me. I hoped he knew how much that meant to me, to share that part of myself with him. Maybe he would never know, but I did and that’s what I held onto.

  Jack squished his release into me even more, and I moaned softly in his ear. He kept moving, grinding his hips against mine, until—to my complete and utter shock—I felt myself start to climb again. This had never happened, not even with him, not in my entire life, but as he ground into me, I knew he was going to make it happen. I knew he was going to bring me another orgasm and he wouldn’t stop until he did it.

  “Jack,” I moaned. “Oh god, I’m going to come again.”

  “Me too,” he panted. “Fuck.”

  “Don’t stop. Don’t ever stop.”

  “Never.”

  We moved like that together for several minutes, and after what felt like an eternity of being joined with him but also no time at all, we were both coming again, crying out into each other’s skin, whispering desperate words to each other as we reveled in this moment.