by Jillian Neal
“I’m sorry,” he offered. “And not just for slamming the door, but for everything you’ve endured since we arrived here.”
She gave him a slight smile. “I think I’d be way more offended if they actually liked me, so no need to apologize.”
At that, Jack turned the lock and shook his head. “He’s the only person on the planet that makes me lose my temper like that.”
That made her laugh. “That probably works well for us because literally any dumbass anywhere can make me lose my temper.” She shrugged. “I’ll try to work on that…maybe.”
He shook his head. “If someone is dumbass enough to take you on, honey, they deserve what they get.”
Slipping out of her heels, thankful to be done with them, she made her way to him and wrapped her arms around his waist. “I’m sorry your family sucks so bad, but my family is awesome and they already like you.”
He cradled her in his arms. “That’s because they aren’t yet aware that I’ve broken down the castle walls and made off with the princess.”
She nuzzled her head against his chest. “I was helpless against the lure of your broadsword.”
Jack growled deliciously in her ear. “Just how I prefer you to be.”
Try though she did, her nervousness made her shift on her feet.
“What’s wrong, honey?” He lifted his head to meet her gaze.
“I know if he’d called my parents, they would’ve called me. I don’t know. Your dad having spies is weird.”
“I grew up knowing that my every move was being watched, but this time I don’t believe him. He didn’t phone anyone in Oklahoma. He was hoping to call our bluff.”
“He knew we’d gone to Hearst Stone,” she pointed out.
“One call to either Brent or Tiffany or any of the staff at the club would’ve confirmed that for him. Money and control are the only two things that make my father feel like he’s accomplished something, so he seeks both constantly.”
“But if all your dad had to do was call people to check up on you, how did you learn to trust anyone?”
Jack’s head lowered a notch as he considered her question. “I’m…not sure that I did. Not until I went to college and was able to get out of this bubble ever so slightly. I learned to stay away from people who owed my father things, because knowledge about his kids was a valuable commodity.”
Meridian hugged him tighter. “I can’t believe you grew up thinking that you’re a commodity.”
“I can’t believe I’m standing here with you in my arms, with a chance to make this work.”
“That’s why you wanted me to trust you so much.” The realization breathed from her soul.
He planted a kiss on top of her head. “I know how important that is. Without trust, relationships are doomed.”
“I know. It’s just I’d made it a policy never to trust anyone outside of my family. It’s dangerous for me to do that. In law school, men who thought I was taking something away from them by being there would constantly throw blockades in my way, hoping I’d stumble. My success was somehow their failure. And now, people need my family’s help and we want to be able to help cattle ranchers everywhere, but we get held up by people like Marsden. So, I decided it was safer to push everyone else away, I guess.”
“I know,” he assured her. He took her hand and guided her to the bed before he continued. “I know what it must’ve been like for you, especially at Northwestern, and the way that I know is because my family would’ve been the men throwing the blockades and setting you up to fail because…” He sagged under the weight of whatever was coming next. But he looked up at her and smiled. “Because it’s easier for them to call you a threat than for them to man up and own the fact that you scare the hell out of them because you’re better than they are. They’d never admit even to themselves that if they’re going to compete with you, they’re going to have to get off their asses and work for it.”
Grinning at that, she lifted her eyebrow. “You called me dangerous just a few hours ago.”
“Yeah, well, I told you I come from a long line of idiots who thought that way. Old habits die hard, maybe.”
She shook her head. “No, that’s not it. You’ve never been afraid to work hard or to challenge me or to tell people that I knew what I was talking about.”
He gave her an almost boyish grin that sped her heart and tied her breath in her lungs. “I think maybe we’re not all that different. I have a very select handful of people that I trust. The Bastards, Senator McCoy’s family, and that’s it. So, for me to bring you here and show you this disaster of greed meant that I had to trust you. I knew that as soon as I really let myself do that, as soon as you proved that you could handle this, I’d willingly hand over my heart. That’s…why you’re dangerous.”
Meridian scooted closer to him on the bed. “I’ll take good care of it. I promise. Just…trust me.”
“I do.”
Chapter Forty-One
God, she was beautiful sitting there on the bed of his youth asking him to trust her instead of the other way around. How could he not trust her? His ego was the obvious ugly truth. That and the consuming confusion that came with accepting something good in his life that didn’t come bound to terms and conditions.
Just then, all he wanted, all he needed was to lose himself in her. His ego and his hope, his terror and his solace, all of the good and all of the bad that made up the two distinct halves of his past and his present.
He had no idea how she could love either, but he vowed to himself that he would somehow become a sentinel guard over her heart. He would never let anything hurt her. He would destroy every barricade people threw in her path. And…perhaps even more importantly, he would let her protect him.
She wore her intelligence like custom lingerie, her capability a diamond crown on her long auburn locks—his princess indeed.
“What are you thinking about?” she whispered.
He’d gone quiet for too long it seemed. “How beautiful you are. How I don’t deserve you.”
“I have a better idea of how you could spend your time,” she whispered.
Pleased with that, he grinned. “How?”
“Making love to me.”
“And brilliant as well.” He sank his lips to hers, tasting her quick gasp of breath, absorbing it.
A rush of memories of the past few days flooded his mind. He’d studied her for years, but now he knew the sounds she made and the way her breath caught when he moved his fingers just the way she needed. He knew how her kisses were a cipher to her needs. Slow and thoughtful when she wanted a protector for her vulnerability, hard and frantic when she needed his force. The way her nipples hardened just before she came. The way she’d gasp for a breath before she let him take her over the edge. The way she liked to be teased and tended. When she longed for him savage and when she needed him sane.
He was slowly constructing the puzzle he’d made in his mind of her, but he knew it would never be complete. She’d grow and change. They both would. Perhaps they could do that together.
He brushed kisses along her jaw while he worked through the buttons on her blouse. She reached and yanked his polo out of his khakis so she could splay her hands over his abdomen.
She trusted him and she was all fucking his. He’d never felt such a blinding desperation to protect and own her, even though those desires were with him constantly. One almost always in opposition to the other. Perhaps he’d gotten that wrong. Maybe what she needed was both sides of himself. He’d spend his life proving that he’d learned something from the mistakes of his past and proving to her that he would be better.
“Tell me what you need tonight, princess.” He hummed against her neck as he shoved her blouse off of her shoulders and made quick work of her bra. “Tell me what you imagine when I fuck you.” Her bottom lip slipped between her teeth nervously. “Trust me with that,” he urged.
“I…”—she glanced away momentarily—“liked when you watched me dance.
” Her eyes closed and her body swayed with the truth. “I like…that you like to think of people watching us.”
Jack grinned at that. “Maybe you like the thought that people might see the way you let me touch you.” She nodded against the pillow as he went on. “I love the idea of people seeing the way I get to own you.” She was his rebellion and his truth tied together in the most beautiful package.
Her eyes blinked open. “I imagine weaker men seeing how powerful you are and that you want me.” She choked on the edges of her confession.
Jack slipped to his knees beside the bed, unzipped her skirt and eased it off, leaving her in nothing but a wet pair of panties. “I think we both need to feel seen, to be recognized for who we really are. There’s nothing wrong with wanting that, with enjoying that.” He hooked his fingers in her panties and removed them. That was precisely why she’d had the photographs made. She wanted to be seen for who she was, not for what everyone else wanted her to be, and that was precisely what he would give her. “Let me enjoy you, princess. I’ll know when you want me to be gentle, and I’ll know when you need me to make you ache. I know you. I love you. Let them all watch me take what’s mine.”
“Yes,” hissed from her. “Please, Jack.”
He growled against her inner thigh. Her arousal was perfumed with rebellion—a tailor-made scent all for him. He pressed his mouth between her legs, indulging in the fragrance and the need.
Her sounds that evening were quieter, as if she was focused solely on the way he made her feel. They held notes of her ache and the antidote she knew he would provide. He kissed at the top of her slit, spinning his tongue there gently, then eased away to watch the shiver he’d elicited.
“I know it’s sensitive, baby. I’ll be gentle.” He guided her legs farther apart. “Let me take care of you.” He teased at her still-hidden clit with his tongue, tempting it, coaxing her. He longed for her body to trust him as well. Her pussy pulsed against his fingertips as he slid them along her opening. “That’s it,” he soothed. “God, I love the way you respond to my touch. All for me.” He rewarded her neediness and dipped his fingers in slightly just to feel her body begging for more of his.
Returning his tongue to her mound, he focused only on her pleasure. She lifted her head and watched him move his fingers rhythmically inside her as he kissed and teased and devoured. “You taste so fucking good,” he groaned against her folds. “I’ll never get enough.”
She gave him those little, desperate gasps that assured him his fingers were right where she needed them, and slowly he earned his reward. Her body bloomed. He hadn’t been patient enough the other times he’d held her this way. He hadn’t allowed her to give herself to him, or perhaps he hadn’t yet earned her trust.
Tenderly, he rewarded her clit with openmouthed kisses and soft suckles.
“Oh fuck, fuck,” she whimpered. He managed to keep up the motions despite his grin.
“Say my name, honey. Tell them who makes it feel good.”
“Jack, oh god, mmm,” spilled from her lips as she writhed in the bed. Her hips pressed hard against his mattress. Her back arched and her fingers wove through his hair, holding him right where she wanted him now.
But as she began to fall, she eased her hands away and clasped her breasts instead. She lifted her head and watched. Those whiskey eyes locked on his as he tended and suckled. Her lips parted as her breath washed away. She fell apart for him while never looking away, crying out for him as the need shattered and he freed her.
He shed his clothes and climbed over her. Her hands drifted down his chest as he climbed until she wrapped her hand around his dick, so stiff and swollen he burned hot against her fingers.
“Where do you want that, princess?” he urged. “Show me where it hurts. I know my greedy girl needs more.”
She pressed his dick to her folds and bucked against him. He watched intently as she slid him back and forth, soaking him with her cream. Leaning over her, he kissed his way from her breasts to her lips. “Taste yourself on my tongue,” he demanded. She sucked her dew from his lips, and his tongue, and his jaw.
She finally turned her head and begged in earnest. “I need you. Please, I…want to watch you watch me.”
He throbbed against her at that request. “Oh, you’re going to watch me fuck you, princess. Watch me take what’s mine. Watch that tender little pussy spread around my dick. Watch me fill you full.”
“Please,” whimpered from her again.
He grabbed a condom from the bedside table and rolled it on in record time. He propped pillows behind her so she had no choice but to stare as he thrust deep. “That’s it. Fuck,” he groaned. “You feel so damn good.”
He held her knees over his arms, awarding himself a front-row view of his dick bathed in her juices, of her lips parting over him, of her clit as he pressed inside her slow and deliberate.
“More,” she demanded. “I need more. I need faster.”
“I know, honey. I’ll take good care of you, but this is for me.”
He sank himself slowly inside of her, watching with each pass, until her restless hips were frantic for more and her pussy clenched tight with every thrust trying to lock him deep inside.
There was nowhere else he ever wanted to be, but his princess needed his friction and his force. He knew.
Giving in to her body’s demands, he eased her legs back to the mattress and lay out over her. “Hold onto the headboard, cowgirl.” She immediately complied. “That’s it. Now, take it for me.”
He pounded into her without relent, rewarding her patience with his force. Her eyes closed as she met him thrust for merciless thrust. She was utter perfection, and he was so far gone, he would never recover. He never wanted to.
He threw himself into her tides and rode hard and fast. Her entire body tensed. The headboard creaked as she clung to it. Her mouth parted on a frantic plea of his name. She cried out for him as she collapsed weakly to his mattress.
The intense pulls of her pussy against him spiraled him over the knife’s edge he’d clung to. She continued to shudder against him as hot spurts of cum filled the condom and his breath was torn from his lungs.
Eventually, he cradled her close in the bed that had seen him turn from boy to man to hers in whatever form she needed him to be.
Chapter Forty-Two
Jack kept his eyes closed the next morning as the autumn sun warmed River Chase. He could hear the kitchen staff preparing breakfast, and the knot of tension in his gut tightened.
Focusing instead on Meridian, he timed his own breaths to the whispers of hers over his chest. What would it be like to wake up like this every day for the rest of his life? Surely, no mortal man deserved such an extravagant pleasure. He may not deserve it, but he’d be damned if he wouldn’t fight for it and fight against anyone who wanted to take his place.
His mind tumbled to the interactions with his parents. They were never warm, certainly never allowed him to believe that they heard him or even liked him, but this trip had been particularly gruesome. Their attacks normally had a notion of brutal politeness. This trip, they were just brutal.
Another bolt of tension twisted in his gut. Meridian was the obvious answer as to why his parents were behaving deplorably, but it made no sense to Jack. She wasn’t a threat to them, only to the things they’d planned for his life. Surely, his abrupt departure years before had given them a pallet load of indication that his life wasn’t theirs to direct anymore. But there were none so blind, he supposed.
Meridian shifted against his chest, and an automatic grin spread the width of his features. “Good morning, princess.”
She made several whimpered huffs of frustration. Chuckling, he brushed a kiss in her hair. “Do you want to go back to sleep? We can lie here as long as you like.”
“No,” she fussed. “Maybe,” she countered her own argument.
“I’m glad to know you even argue with yourself, my obstinate little cowgirl.”
“I’m littl
e but I get shit done…after I’m finished sleeping.”
“No argument there. It smells like biscuits, and I’m sure there’s coffee,” he tempted.
She grinned against his chest. “I like those things. I like you more.” She wiggled until her left leg was threaded between both of his. His morning wood throbbed almost painfully.
Before he could suggest they indulge in each other before breakfast, his bedroom door opened.
“Oh my god,” Meridian gasped and yanked the covers up to her neck to cover the fact that she had nothing on.
Shocked to the point of speechless, Jack glared at his mother like she’d lost what was left of her mind. “Is there a problem?” he finally managed.
“Tiffany has called off the wedding!”
Taking care to keep Meridian completely covered, Jack ran his hand over his face trying to urge himself awake. “Why would we need to know that at”—he checked his phone—“seven thirty in the morning?”
“You are the only person who can convince her to go on with the wedding as planned,” his mother urged.
“What is it, Mom? What is it about Tiffany and Brent getting married that means so much to you? I both cannot and will not convince either of them to do anything. I don’t think they should get married. They like the idea of the wedding far more than the idea of a lifetime commitment.”
His mother drew herself up to full height and then glared down at Jack and Meridian. “It is in the best interest of Denton Distilleries that this wedding goes off. I learned long ago that you can’t see outside of your own selfish interests enough to help out your own family, but you do seem to care about the staff. So…do it for them,” she fumed.
The fact that they were both naked made this argument far more difficult to navigate. His mother was likely bluffing, but he needed to consider this from every angle, and he needed Meridian’s help. His next thought repelled him. He might even need Tiffany’s help. “If you’ll let us get dressed, we’ll be happy to discuss this further outside of my bedroom.”