Their New Beginning (Oh Captain, My Captain #5)

by Lindsay Paige

  “Fuck.” Jax throws his head back, and he guides me up and down. “Avery.” My name on his lips is like music to my ears. I’ve missed that sound.

  I keep going until I feel his legs tense up.

  “Avery, if you don’t stop I’m going to come in your mouth.”

  My heart flutters at the thought. It wouldn’t be the first time we’ve ever done that, but I don’t want it this time. I release him, and Jax throws me on my back. He shoves himself into me, and I’m momentarily stunned. Jax is large, and it take a second for my body to stretch and adjust to him.

  He moves in and out with ease until he knows my body is ready to take the pounding that he’s about to give me.

  “Jax, please,” I beg. That’s all he needs to unleash the sexual beast that’s been hiding from me the last several months. I scream out as he pulls out and pounds back in, pushing me to the brink of my sexual release.

  “Don’t stop,” I order as he continues the same motion. I lock my legs around his waist, and I can feel his muscles tensing up.

  “Come on, Avery.” I love that he says that, and like a light switch turning on, my body reacts. I yell his name, and in two more thrusts, I feel his release inside of me.

  He collapses on me, and I don’t care that I can barely breathe under his weight. This is my Jax. This is my husband.

  He pulls out of me and rolls onto his back, pulling me with him. I curl up on his chest, listening to his rapid heartbeat slowing down to normal.

  “What time is it?”

  “Two in the morning,” Jax tells me.

  “Really? You were gone a long time. Is everything okay?”

  “I guess. Just a hot headed rookie that had too much to drink.” Jax looks down at me. “I didn’t want to leave you.”

  I smile at him. “I know, but I also know that you have responsibilities, too. It’s not that you have to leave to do hockey stuff, it’s how you treat me,” I tell him honestly.

  “I know and that’s not going to happen again.”

  “I love you.”

  “I love you, Avery.”

  ~ ~ ~

  I’m still sore from last night, but it’s so worth it. My cheeks are sore from the smile on my face. Jax had an early practice then needed to go to the children’s hospital. It’s perfect to set my plan in motion for date number six.

  The sad thing is I don’t really remember what happens on this date. I’m not sure if this is date six because it's starting to run together. I know it’s a romantic dinner, and I’m going to cook.

  I’m not a bad cook, but I’m definitely not the greatest. I need to make sure that I pick something that I can’t screw up. I go with pasta. I can’t mess up noodles and sauce, right?

  I text Jax.

  Me: Would you like to have a date night tonight?

  Not even a minute later.

  Jax: Name the time and place

  Me: 5 pm and our house. I’ll be the one in the black mini dress.

  Jax: I’d rather you be naked.

  Me: That could be the dessert.

  I smile because I know one thing I will be doing tonight with Jax. I start the food, run up to the bedroom, and get ready.

  I’m able not to burn anything or get anything on my dress. I consider that a win for me. I plate everything up and sit it on the table. I hear the rumble of the Mustang and my husband is home.

  “Now, that’s a sight that I like to see,” Jax smiles, dropping his bag at the door. I’m leaning against the door frame, holding a glass of wine for him.

  My little black dress is tight, see through on my midriff, and cut very low, showing my cleavage. I only wear this for Jax. I’ve never worn it out without him.

  Jax takes the glass from my hand and picks me up with one arm. He carries me to the kitchen and sit me on the counter, along with the wine. He pushes my dress up over my hips and pulls me closer.

  “Don’t you want dinner?” I pant, knowing what is about to happen.

  “Very much so.” I hear his zipper, and he yanks my thong down.

  My body wants him and he slides easily into me. I throw my head back, hitting it on a cabinet, but I don’t care. Jax thrust in me over and over, and it doesn’t take long to feel the orgasm building.

  “Come on, Avery.”

  There it is. The one line that makes my body jerk with release, and Jax comes the same time.

  “I love this dress.” He kisses my throat.

  I giggle.

  “I need to clean up.” He pulls out of me.

  “Me too.”

  We both go upstairs, and I freshen up. I go back downstairs while Jax does the same. I make sure that everything is set on the table when he comes back down.

  “I’m very hungry.” He kisses me hard and sits down.

  The conversation is light. He tells me about sad the children's hospital was.

  “Well, at least you made their day today.” I smile at me. We finish and clean up the kitchen.

  This is our normal life.

  This is how it was before.

  This is the man I love.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Jax

  Avery closes the dishwasher, turns it on, and then looks at me. I grin and pull her against me.

  “I love you.”

  Her smile widens. “I love you, too.”

  “I'm going to shower. It's been a long day, and a shower sounds pretty damn good.”

  “Okay. I think I'm going to lay down in a bit.”

  I kiss my wife, tempted to ask her to join me in the shower, but I don't. Honestly, I'm a little tired. The past couple of days have worn me out. The steaming, hot water works wonders on my body, relaxing my muscles, and leaves me feeling refreshed. My hand reaches out for a towel, but there's not one. Shit. I didn't set one out. Avery hates it when someone doesn't dry off before stepping out of the shower and gets the floor all wet.

  Peeking out, I reach to open the cabinet, but there's none in there. At all. What the fuck happened to all our towels? I'm tempted to call for Avery, but I don't want to bother her if she's already sleeping. I'll be quick about cleaning up my mess once I find our towels. I step out and open the door quietly, stopping short once I see Avery on the bed.

  “We forgot about dessert, Jax,” she smiles before eating a spoonful of ice cream. There she lies in the middle of our bed, naked with a pint of vanilla ice cream in her hands.

  Within seconds, I'm crawling onto the bed, hovering over her.

  “Jax!” she laughs as droplets of water fall from me and onto her. “You're still wet.”

  “There weren't any towels.”

  Her mouth forms a perfect O, and she laughs again. “Oops. They’re still in the dryer. I knew I was forgetting to do something today.”

  I pluck the ice cream from her, resting on my knees as the memories blindside me. “I'm living a dangerous life by leaving the bathroom like this, you know. My wife hates water on the floor in there. I can't believe she would start dessert without me, either.”

  “I saved the best part for you,” she grins.

  Oh, yes she did. I hand her the ice cream, slip my hands underneath her knees, and pull her down, so she’s laying on her back, her legs on either side of me. Avery returns the ice cream to me and I work on getting a big scoop.

  “I think we should make a bucket list, but make it a sex version,” I say offhandedly as I turn the spoon over and the ice cream drops onto Avery’s chest between her breasts. She inhales sharply at the cool touch.

  “Okay,” she breathes as I drag the quickly melting ice cream around each of her breasts, leaving a trail for me to follow. “Don’t let me sticky, Jax. All the towels are downstairs.”

  I glance up at her with a grin. “Don’t worry; I won’t stop until it’s all gone.”

  Avery’s breathing becomes even shallower when the warmth of my tongue and mouth follow the path left behind. Mmm. Vanilla ice cream and Avery, two of my favorite things to taste. Her muscles tense and shiver beneath me
before relaxing at my touch. I lick up all the ice cream until it’s gone, just like I promised. My wife sighing my name in that breathless kind of way fuels me. I drop a melty scoop onto one of her breasts and bend to lick and suck it away. The soft sounds Avery makes are ones I love, but I love her loud more. Running my mouth over her body has me aching to hear her.

  “Here,” I murmur, handing the tub to her. “Leave me a trail.”

  Avery smirks. “What if I don’t want you up here?”

  My mind debates it for only a half a second. I’m ready to be inside her, but I want to fully satisfy my wife, too. Reaching for the spoon, I put a scoop in my mouth and quickly move down until my shoulders are between her thighs. With the taste of the vanilla ice cream in my mouth and the coolness still on my tongue, I kiss her sensitive skin. I lick once finding that she’s already wet for me.

  My tongue works her body, licking, sucking, and teasing until she’s dying for more. Inserting two fingers into her, Avery moans loudly. My already hard dick seems to get even harder. She tightens around me, but I suddenly stop all movement. Avery lifts her head in a confused daze.

  “I need more ice cream, Avery.”

  Just like the first time we did this, she props herself up on her elbows and drizzles the last bit over her body from her navel to her hips to her belly to her ribs and on up her chest. I move my fingers once more and quickly lick up the ice cream as Avery drops the carton on the floor. I linger on her neck for a moment, slowing down the movement of my fingers, and then kiss her.

  “You’re trying to kill me,” she accuses me happily when I remove my fingers before she has a chance to reach her release.

  “I need a chance to catch up,” I reply, easing myself into her even though she’s more than ready for me. After three more slow thrusts, everything else but Avery falls away as I plunge into her hard and swift. I have one mission here. All I want is to hear my wife scream my name as I give her body what she’s craving, give her an orgasm, and find my own.

  “Fuck, you’re so close, Avery,” I breathe heavily.

  Avery’s back arches as she clutches the sheets in her hands when I grab her hips, keeping them in place. “Oh,” she starts, squeezing her eyes closed, “Jax!” she finishes in a shout. My name is a warning that she’s more than ready and a way of ordering me to push her over the edge.

  Just as I hit my climax, I whisper, “Open your eyes.” She does, so I add, “Come on, Avery.” The love I have for that phrase is unbelievable. Ever since the first time I said that as a way of giving Avery a little nudge, it’s caused Avery to crumble beneath me in waves of pleasure. Every. Single. Time. And it feeds my ego, making both heads swell, but I’m positive Avery loves it as much as I do.

  She screams out my name, shuddering as I slow down my movements to drag out her high. This is one of the moments when she’s most beautiful. Pure bliss is in every part of her body and her love for me flows right behind it. I pull out and fall onto the bed next to her.

  “Damn, Avery.”

  “Ditto,” she agrees and I laugh.

  After a few minutes to re-energize, she turns her head to look at me. I’ve already turned onto my side and started running my hand over her leg.

  “C’mon. There’s still water on the floor and,” she faces away to peek over the edge of the bed, “I made a mess with the ice cream. Plus, we should probably shower.” She grins at me from over her shoulder. “Just in case I’m still sticky.”

  I laugh. “You’ve been thinking about that water since I walked out the bathroom, haven’t you?”

  “No,” she denies. “Once you stopped distracting me, I remembered. Besides, I’m adding shower sex to the bucket list.” Without another word, she walks her naked self across the room and disappears. “Don’t forget to go get the towels,” she calls out as she turns the water on.

  Oh, I’m going to be so tired tomorrow, but it’ll be so worth it.

  ~ ~ ~

  “Avery, I’m home,” I call out.

  “In the office,” she shouts back.

  I came home for a quick lunch with her before I leave on a string of road games. The playoffs are coming up and the pressure is sitting on my shoulders as if I’m attempting to balance a house on them. We’re looking good to make the cut, so I’m feeling good about that. What’s bothering me is the looming end of my contract.

  Part of me is itching to be at the rink right now, improving on every aspect of my play. It doesn’t help that I can feel the hunger for the Cup, so strong and clear. I honestly believe we have a good chance this year. But I am fighting off that nagging feeling that the closer we get to the playoffs, the more I should immerse myself into hockey. Not doing so is a bit more difficult than I thought it would be.

  Not because of my priorities, because Avery is, without a doubt, my number one, but because of how I’m thinking about it almost all the time. Before I made captain, before I met Avery, my team won the Cup. It was amazing. Last year, when I was feeling the pressure, it clicked in the back of my mind that during our best seasons before I met Avery, all I did was hockey. It consumed every aspect of my life.

  I can’t lose myself in my job again. I don’t want that for me and definitely not for Avery or for our marriage. My thoughts bounce back and forth between Avery and my raging desire to succeed my own expectations as well as the team and our fans.

  Avery doesn’t glance up when I walk in. This is supposedly my office, but I never use it. Avery does though.

  “Jax, did you buy plane tickets? What for? Or should I call the bank?” She finally looks over at me as I sit in the chair next to the desk. “There’s a charge for an airline up here, but I didn’t make it, so I didn’t know if you did or if someone else used your card.”

  “I bought them,” I answer, leaning my head back against the chair and closing my eyes.

  “Okay,” she drags out, waiting for me to fill her in. This wasn’t how I was going to tell her.

  For now, I ignore her. “Do you think I’m successful?”

  Her silence causes me to open my eyes and look at her. She doesn’t seem sure of herself.

  “You don’t, do you?” My chest tightens at the thought.

  “No, I do,” she quickly answers, “but I don’t know why you would ask. I mean, you’re the captain of an NHL team, you’re on the way to the playoffs, and you’re worth thirty million dollars.”

  “Yeah, I guess you’re right,” I shrug.

  “You don’t think so?” Before I can answer, the worry enters her voice. “What’s going on, Jax?”

  “Nothing,” automatically leaves my mouth.

  Avery stands and sits sideways in my lap. “Hey, talk to me. What are you thinking about?”

  The words mull over in my mind before I speak. “I don’t need the game, Avery. All I need is you and you come first.” I want to make sure she knows that. She nods that she does. “I play because I’m good and I love it. It’s fun, even with all the work that goes into it, and I’m too damn competitive not to love it.”

  “But,” she says, trying to help me along.

  “I don’t feel like I’ve accomplished anything sometimes, or not enough to be really successful. I’ve won the Cup, but not as a captain. And…” I stop, unsure of how I want to say this.

  “You’re starting to feel the pressure again,” she fills in. Avery pauses before slowly stabbing me in the heart as she adds, “Like last year.”

  I lean my head back again, closing my eyes. “Yeah.” That one word is painful to say because look at what happened when I stopped focusing on everything but my job. Look at how much I hurt Avery and our marriage. “The need to win and not let anyone down has been bothering me. And I don’t want to give into it. It made me think about what I’ve accomplished and what I haven’t.”

  “Jax.” Avery waits until I open my eyes and look at her. “I think you put too much pressure on yourself. You want to please me, the team, your fans, the family, but you forget about yourself. You’ve accomplis
hed so much on every level. Some players will never reach those achievements in their entire career, but you’ve done it and still have a lot of time left in the league. Don’t worry about last year. Think about you and what you want.” She wraps her arms around my neck, but I don’t really feel better about things yet.

  “I want to win, but I don’t want to ignore everything else in my life to do it.”

  “Listen to me, Jax. Last year was rough on you and on me, but we’ve both learned from that.” Her voice turns very determined. “If you want to win that Cup again as a captain and be the first to lift it up, then I’m going to be in the stands yelling the loudest. So, your sexy ass needs to get back to the rink. I’ll be right here, waiting for you.”

  I smile because she’s erased those nagging thoughts in my head. She’s not getting rid of me that easily today. “We haven’t had lunch yet, though, and I’m starving. We need to do that first, and then I’ll go.” I told her we would have lunch, and we will.

  She grins and kisses me. “I think that sounds perfect.”

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Avery

  Jax’s leg is bouncing up and down, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen him this nervous. Ever. I think he might burst at any moment.

  “You do realize that you know Mr. O’Connell right? I mean it’s not like you’re being drafted all over again.”

  “I feel like it.”

  “It’s not customary for the wives to be at a contract negotiation, right?”

  Jax looks over at me. “You’re here as my accountant.”

  I scrunch my face. “You don’t need your accountant for renewing a hockey contract, Jax.” I roll my eyes at him. We’ve been sitting outside the general manager’s office for over twenty minutes, but it’s felt like an eternity. I’m not nervous because I know they will offer him something. He’s number one in the league, and the Gamblers are finally on track to win the Cup.