The Promise of Rainbows

by Ava Miles

  There was something here, something waiting for her. That much she knew. She pressed her head back into the floor and moaned, long and deep.

  He rose up and took her mouth in a drugging kiss, increasing the press of his hand between her thighs. “Show me what you’re feeling, Susannah. Let me feel all of it.”

  Her eyes squeezed shut as he increased the pressure of his hand and mouth on the parts of her body that wanted him the most. Something was rising inside her, something strong and beautiful.

  “Oh, God!” she cried out, awash in a divine magic more powerful than any she’d ever known.

  “Come for me,” he whispered, raining sensual kisses across her skin now.

  The pulse of her body rose until all she felt was that incessant throbbing. And then it broke free. She exploded in a long rush of sensation, moaning with abandon now, completely out of control.

  She heard the tear of a wrapper and then felt Jake open her legs wider. She was too awash in the glorious sensations running through her to open her eyes. Something pressed between her thighs—and she knew it was him, seeking entrance.

  Struggling to the surface, she forced her eyes open. He was gazing at her with an intensity that made her skin feel tight all over again. His pulse beat hard in his neck.

  “I need you,” he whispered harshly.

  Oh, those words. She raised her shaking hands to his shoulders, trying to soothe him as he had her. There was a press of strange flesh inside her, and she winced a little.

  “Sorry, honey,” he said, kissing her cheek. “I promise it’s going to get better.”

  It took some time for that to be true. He seemed too large, and her body too small. Her earlier passion evaporated like water on hot sand. But then he kissed her and her breasts, and she felt the urgency inside her return.

  There was still discomfort, but the last vestiges of pain faded away. A flash of heat raced through her belly. Her hips surged to him, her muscles tightening around him.

  There was a hiss of his breath. Her gaze shot to his face. The tension in his jaw looked agonizing.

  “I’m sorry,” she whispered, running a hand over the tightness there.

  He turned his head to press a hard kiss to her palm. “Don’t be. This is the good stuff.”

  When he pressed deeper inside her, she didn’t think she could take it. Suddenly she couldn’t keep her eyes open. “Oh, God!”

  “Come with me now,” he said, kissing her mouth.

  The slow slide of him retreating and then surging back inside her redefined any concept of pleasure. Every time he moved, the friction of their flesh meeting seemed to burn through her.

  His movements grew more urgent, as if he too couldn’t hold back the tide. Her hips started to rise to his instinctively. She pushed back at him, not to press him away, but because she needed a stronger connection to him amidst all the wildness inside her. He rose onto his knees and increased the power and depth of his thrusts until she was panting and crying out, unable to hold back.

  The line of tension in her body snapped suddenly, and she cried out, surging into him like a stormy sea finding its home against the jagged cliff face of the shore.

  He froze over her and called her name in the most beautiful voice she’d ever heard utter the word: “Susannah.”

  She floated on a sea of pleasure greater than she’d ever known. The very heavens seemed to surround her. When Jake folded over her, his heart racing against her own, she wrapped her arms around him and surrendered to the love between them. She knew she was his, and he was hers. The knowledge seemed eternal.

  He managed to roll to his back and bring her onto his chest. She rested her cheek against his hot skin and sighed. Life seemed so much bigger, and their life together… Well, it was forever. She knew that in a new way now.

  “I love you,” he whispered, kissing the top of her head. “More than I ever imagined loving anyone.”

  Nestling closer, she pressed a kiss to his heart. “Me too.” In that moment, she knew she’d made the right decision.

  He was the husband of her heart, and their bodies had forged the vows of their love.

  Chapter 27

  Awakening next to Susannah filled Jake with a contentment and joy he’d never known. He’d made love to her in the middle of the night again, and the magic between them had only increased. She was warm and curious and more than generous.

  She was sleeping on her side facing him with her hands tucked under her head. There was a pillow crease on the side of her face when she rolled onto her back, and he leaned in to kiss the mark. How was he supposed to resist? Her skin was as soft as goose feathers, and he placed gentle kisses along her jaw. Then he saw the smile.

  “So, you are awake,” he said huskily.

  “Yes. Again,” she replied, turning her head at him on the pillow. “Isn’t it funny how we both woke up at the same time in the middle of the night? I didn’t tell you before, but I was dreaming you were making love to me. And then I turned to you.”

  “And I woke up, wanting you too,” he admitted, kissing her nose and then her chin. “I can’t keep my hands off you.”

  “Me either,” she concurred, sliding even closer.

  “How did you sleep after we made love again?” he asked, kissing his way down her neck.

  “I was out,” she said, lifting her chin so he could kiss the underside. “What about you?”

  “Truth be told, I didn’t sleep much,” he said, loving the scent of her this morning, a combination of flowers from her perfume and their passion—the sexiest fragrance in the world.

  “Why didn’t you sleep?” she asked, turning onto her side to face him.

  Her big moss-green eyes were a little puffy, and without a stitch of makeup on, she looked even more beautiful than usual.

  “I was too happy,” he answered, wrapping his arm around her waist. “We got engaged and made love for the first time last night. It was a red-letter day.”

  He hadn’t been afraid to fall asleep with her next to him, although the thought had crossed his mind. But only once. Old fears died hard, he supposed. He hadn’t felt comfortable sleeping with a woman since leaving the Army.

  “I feel like I’ve crossed into the Promised Land,” he told her, knowing she’d appreciate the biblical reference. Nothing could take him back to the darkness. He was going to climb this light with all his strength.

  “The Promised Land is a pretty good way to describe what’s between us if you ask me.”

  She pressed herself against his body, and the feel of her warm, soft curves inflamed his senses. “How sore are you this morning?”

  From the way she was stroking the muscles of his chest, he thought she might be thinking the same thing he was.

  “Umm…I don’t rightly know,” she said in a hushed voice, pink in the face.

  “Well, how about we test the waters? If you’re too sore, we can enjoy each other another way.”

  Her eyes were a bit wide as he pressed her into the mattress and leaned over her. She was such an innocent. Sure, she knew things. She’d admitted she’d read magazine articles and books, but the doing of them was a heck of a lot different.

  “Trust me a little more,” he said, caressing her cheek. “I won’t do anything you don’t like. I promise.”

  The smile she gave him was brave and sweet all at once. “I know you won’t. Honestly, I don’t think you could do anything I don’t like. I just…this is still new to me. Even after last night. I don’t mean to get flustered. I…only wondered if you meant what I thought you meant.”

  It was hard not to smile, but he managed even though his lips were twitching. “If you’re wondering if I can pleasure you without being inside you, then you’re on the right track. Same for me.”

  “You’ll have to show me how…to help you.”

  Her voice was low, and goodness if she wasn’t beet red in the face now. Bless her heart.

  “Don’t worry. It’ll be fun. If we don’t end up doing it now
, we will sometime.”

  He wanted to do everything imaginable with her. Well, everything except that Fifty Shades of Grey stuff. He had no desire to truss her up like some chicken, and that was messed up if you asked him.

  Her trust in him paid off, and they were both pretty much giddy as they showered. He washed her hair for her, and she found more boldness and washed the expanse of his body, her lips lingering on new areas of his skin, delighting him.

  As she made them coffee later, she smiled at him over her mug. “I need to call my family and tell them the news. They’re probably wondering why they didn’t hear from me last night. Although knowing my sisters, I bet they called and texted me like crazy. I purposely didn’t check my phone once we got here.”

  No, they’d been pretty occupied. He planned to call his Army buddies to share the news of their engagement later.

  “Good heavens! Do you think they’re going to know we had sex? That would be mortifying.”

  He set his coffee aside and pulled her into his arms. “I’m sorry that bothers you so.” And it did. Though he felt no regret, seeing her distress felt as painful as salt in an open wound.

  “I’m being stupid,” she said, shaking her head. “I don’t want anyone to think less of me. Especially Mama.”

  “If there’s one thing I am certain about, it’s that your mama would never think less of you. She loves you, and I have a feeling…” Did he dare say it? “I hope you don’t mind me saying so, but I have a feeling she knows J.P. and Tammy have…gone down that road.”

  He pressed back so he could look into her eyes. Surely she had noticed the intimacy between her brother and Tammy.

  She bit her lip. “It’s different with J.P. He’s…well…never mind.”

  “What can I do to help you with this?” he asked, not daring to ask why J.P. was different. Better to distract her.

  “Can we get married right away?” she asked, brightening up immediately. “I mean…I don’t really want to wait to live with you anyway. It would make things easier all around.”

  “Music to my ears, honey,” he said, kissing her on the mouth. “I want you here too.”

  “How much of a miracle can your manager pull off?” she asked, fire in her eyes.

  “My manager is the king of making miracles happen. I’ll give Garth a raise.”

  Her mouth twitched. “Your manager is named Garth?”

  “Yes,” he said, his shoulders shaking. “His mama named him well before Garth Brooks took the stage. You’ll have to meet him and the rest of my team. And my band. Now that we’re all official-like.” With their relationship being so new, he’d wanted to keep her to himself.

  “I’d love to meet the people who matter to you,” she said, kissing his cheek.

  “I don’t want the press to get wind of our wedding, or it will be a circus. How about we hold a party and make it a surprise?” The idea had sat with him awhile now, and the more he thought about it, the more he liked it.

  “A housewarming party,” she said, her smile reaching across her face. “How many people do you want to invite?”

  “Only close friends for me,” he told her, thinking it through. “We can hold a bigger party after we get married for people in the industry. If that’s all right.” Now that they were committed to a future together, he would have to get used to making decisions with her—an idea that sat rather well with him.

  “I only want to have my family and close friends there too.” After leaning in to kiss him, she grabbed the legal pad she kept on the kitchen counter for her design notes and tore off a couple of sheets. Sliding a blank page and a pen in front of him, she said, “Start writing down your names. Let’s see how many people we have between us. Then we can call my family. I think we should invite them to dinner tonight and tell everyone at once. And I want to invite our extended family too. Is that okay with you?”

  “I think it’s a wonderful idea,” he said, thinking it would be easier that way.

  “We can call one of the local BBQ joints and order take-out,” she said, scribbling furiously now.

  Jake started on his list, and soon they had an initial guest list.

  “Saying it’s only close friends and family makes it easier,” she told him as she texted her family about dinner.

  Her phone immediately buzzed. “That would be Shelby calling.” She picked up the phone, and immediately said, “I’m not saying a single word until tonight. Tell Sadie the same. I’ll see y’all at seven.”

  Then she hung up.

  “That was…kind of bold,” he said, loving to see how she and her siblings interacted. The realization that he was now part of it—part of a real family—just about floored him.

  “If I don’t draw the line, I’ll be on the phone all afternoon. Plus we have things to do. Do you want to call your Army buddies now?”

  “I can wait a spell.” He was used to seeing her focused—hadn’t she scanned all those showroom floors like a hawk for him? But never like this. “I find you wildly hot right now.”

  Her brow crinkled. “Shut the front door.” And then she shook her head. “No. I’m still sore, and we have some planning to do.”

  He was laughing as she picked up her guest list and shook it. “Focus, Jake. Getting married quickly is going to make things so much easier. If we waited six months and did something big, I’d have to invite Mama’s church friends. Not all of them have been kind to me about being unmarried.”

  He had the urge to call them some pretty ugly names. No one was going to treat her like that again if he had any say about it. “We’re never going to invite anyone who’s ugly to us to our home. I have to put up with haters as an artist, but I don’t need them in my inner circle.”

  She laid a hand on his arm. “It’s hard to imagine anyone saying bad things about you.”

  “It’s their problem,” he said, but felt compelled to continue. “The worst are the ones who say I was better off serving my country than being some famous singer. They sound like my father.”

  Her eyes became troubled. “Do you want to invite your parents to the wedding? I…wasn’t sure what to say when I didn’t see them or your brother on the guest list.”

  A tight feeling wedged in his diaphragm, and he wanted to curse it for ruining his happiness. Hadn’t he just said he didn’t want to invite anyone like that into their home? But somewhere inside he wasn’t fully ready to give up on them. “It won’t make a difference if I do invite them. Daddy won’t change his mind, and neither will my brother. I…don’t even know if they’d come.”

  “Shall we try and extend an olive branch to them?” she asked, rubbing his back in soothing motions. “You don’t have to talk a lot to them, but…”

  “If I don’t invite them, I close the door forever.” He could see her logic.

  “I’ve seen people soften their stances as they get older,” she said softly. “And…when grandchildren appear.”

  Grandchildren. Lord have mercy. They’d used condoms last night, but at some point they would start a family. He had to admit to himself that the thought still scared him. It was one thing to have Susannah agree to stand by him if and when he had another episode, but an innocent child? All he could do was assure himself he was going to be well enough to have kids someday. He wasn’t going to let doubt creep in.

  “All right,” he said with a heavy heart. “We can invite them and leave the decision in their hands.” Louisa talked about forgiveness all the time, and Jake knew he had to work on forgiving his family for not accepting him. He’d get there somehow.

  The rest of the afternoon was a blur. Susannah talked him into setting their wedding date for the third Saturday in March, a little over three weeks away. She asked if her mama could marry them, and it made her laugh when he replied, “Who else would marry us? Rye?”

  He called Garth and told him to move heaven and earth to make his wedding the best day of their lives. Without missing a beat, his manager said he was going to hire a couple extra assist
ants with event planning experience who’d help made it happen. It made it easier that they’d be using Jake’s home as the venue. Between Garth’s efforts and Susannah’s, Jake knew it would be a perfect day.

  Before he knew it, Susannah was already showing him color combinations for their wedding.

  He ended up liking a pairing of deep purple and hot pink the best, though he expected the guys would rag on him something fierce about having pink as a wedding color. Especially Darren, Monty, and Randy—whom he stepped out to call briefly to share his news. His old buddies were overjoyed for him, but not surprised after seeing Susannah and Jake together. All of them promised to make it to the wedding.

  The family came over that night, and pretty much everyone walked in with a knowing smile. There were a few exaggerated nods in his direction, and he saw more than one person whisper in Susannah’s ear.

  Jake saw to the drinks, and when every member of his expanding family had finally arrived, Susannah reached for his hand.

  “So this won’t surprise most of you, but…Jake and I are getting married.”

  A collective cheer went up, and some people even clapped their hands.

  Annabelle and Rory jumped up and down like a couple of escaped ping pong balls, the little girl exclaiming, “Yay! Jake is going to be part of our family for real. Now he can be with us forever.”

  When Annabelle ran over, Jake swept her up in his arms and swung her around. “Forever and ever.” He gave her a kiss on the cheek and set her down.

  “I was tempted to send a hit man after you when you hung up on me this afternoon, Susannah,” Shelby said, bustling up to Susannah. Sadie was trailing only a foot behind her.

  “Yeah,” Sadie said, wrapping Susannah into a hug. “And after all the help we gave Jake in picking out the proper ring and orchestrating a proper proposal.”