Aflame (Fall Away #4) (20 page)

She lay back, bringing her knees up and closing her legs.

But I shot out, grabbing her knees and spreading her thighs wide. “You just screwed me like an animal that couldn’t get enough,” I teased, loving the sight of her plump breasts ready and waiting. “Don’t get modest now.”

My pants hung loose at my waist, and I palmed my cock, not that I needed much help staying hard.

Leaning down, I pressed my tongue onto her wet clit and moved in quick circles, massaging her, because I knew exactly what she liked but was afraid to ask for.

Tate liked my tongue. She didn’t want fingers as much as that, and even though I was doing this to her—licking and flicking and fucking her with my mouth—I was doing this for me.

It was such a simple act, but nothing we ever did together was simple. It was a moment in an ocean of moments that kept us alive from one minute to the next, and it was heaven.

I had spent my life living and feeding off pain. The neglect brought on by my mother’s alcoholism, the blood spilled by my father, and the loss and loneliness I caused myself by denying what was as simple and necessary to me as breathing.

I ignored truth and reason, because it was easier to believe that my power defined me rather than admitting I needed anyone. Rather than admitting the reality.

That I loved Tate.

That she loved me.

And that together we were invincible.

It had taken me years to learn, but I’d spend the rest of my life making up for it.

I trailed my tongue up the sides of her body and then came down, sucking her into my mouth. She cried out and grabbed my hair, pulling me back as she sat up.

“Now.” She yanked my hips in, wrapping her legs around me.

Taking her underneath her thighs, I slid her to the edge of the hood and thrust back inside of her, her moans traveling down my throat as we kissed.

She wrapped her arms around my neck, and I leaned my hand down on the hood as we stayed chest to chest.

I pumped hard and fast, two years’ worth of desire to unleash as we made love on the hood of my car. Her head fell back as her cries filled the night air, and I thrust deep, eating up her lips and neck as she struggled for breath.

“Tate,” I groaned, feeling the fire inside ready to explode. “I love you, baby.”

And I unleashed, pushing so deep and hard that she bit my lip. I came, spilling inside of her, her body holding me hot and perfect.

I gasped, sweat trickling down my temples as I breathed against her shoulder. I released my fingers, realizing I’d been squeezing her hips, probably to the point of pain.

I heard her swallow. “Again,” she demanded, and I let out a tired laugh.

It felt good that she was so needy. I couldn’t get enough of her, either.

“At home.” I leaned up and kissed her cheek and then her forehead. “I want a bed.”

“Whose home?”

I kissed her nose. “Ours.”

Tate

Jared took my keys, unlocking the front door of my house—or his house, now that I knew he had put in an offer—and I was so thankful that it was dark outside.

My dress and underwear were in pieces somewhere in his car, and I wore only his suit coat, while he trailed into the house behind me in his black pants with his shirt hanging open, since I’d ripped off the buttons.

“I can’t believe you bought the house,” I said, folding my arms over my chest to keep the coat closed. The only time I wasn’t modest was during sex.

“You didn’t have to do that,” I continued, keeping my voice gentle, even though I kept having to blink back the tears as I looked around my home.

“Don’t start looking for something new to worry about.” He closed and locked the door, coming up to wrap his arms around me. “You’re going to Stanford,” he stated, “and who the hell knows where we’ll settle, but I just couldn’t let the house go yet.”

He looked around, a thoughtful expression on his face. I felt the same way. I wasn’t ready to say good-bye, either.

“If we sell it later,” he appeased me, “then it’ll be our decision when we we’re ready, but—”

I darted forward, cutting him off as I wrapped my arms around him and squeezed him tight. “Thank you,” I choked out, tears lodged in my throat. “Thank you so much.”

I knew he was worried about what I thought. Did this mean we were settling here after med school? Did this mean I wouldn’t be able to entertain the possibility of practicing medicine elsewhere if an opportunity arose?

But I wasn’t worried about that. He was just assuring me we didn’t have to make any decisions yet. The house was ours to do with when we were ready, and we weren’t losing it unless we wanted to.

My dad would get a new place with Miss Penley—Elizabeth—and while I’d get used to it, I knew it would feel strange visiting him in a place I’d never lived in. Holidays might never feel the same way again.

Now—I looked around at the warm walls and shiny wooden floors—I’d always have the house I grew up in to keep my memories alive.

Our first Thanksgiving, when we’d invited Katherine and Jared over, and Jared ate my vegetables for me so long as I took his cranberry sauce, which he hated.

The hot summer day my dad chased us out of the house when Jared and I set out to prove that nothing was really nonflammable.

The mornings in junior high when he’d sneak back through the tree to his own room after having slept over, only to show up a half hour later to walk me to school.

I sighed into his neck, smiling. “I bought something for you, too,” I said in a sweet voice.

“You did?” He sounded amused. “Today?”

I shook my head and leaned back, looking up at him. “About a year ago,” I clarified. “I saw it and immediately knew I had to have it for you. I’ve been saving it ever since.”

His sexy mouth curled into a smile, a curious look in his eyes. “I’m a hard guy to shop for,” he warned.

I backed away. “Come up in five minutes.” And I turned around, jogging up the stairs.

As soon as I entered my bedroom, I tossed his jacket on the chair in the corner and went into the bathroom to freshen up.

He’d made a mess of me. My hair was tangled, my body was sore, and I had red marks on my hips from his hands.

But I’d be lying if I said I didn’t love it. Jared devoured me like food. No one loved me like he did, and I lived him. And loved him.

Jumping into the shower, I spent maybe fifteen seconds rinsing the sweat and sex off, before jumping back out and brushing through my hair.

Going to the top drawer of my chest, I reached into the back and pulled out the lingerie that I knew he never needed me to wear but would definitely love.

The black lacy top was a cross between a tank top and a corset—however, while traditional corsets laced in the back, this one laced in the front. I stepped into the matching G-string and slipped my arms into the top, lacing the long, black silk ribbon through the loops, so that they crisscrossed in the front, leaving the skin of my stomach exposed through the ribbon as it threaded upward to tie between my breasts.

I’d always been embarrassed to try stuff like this. Jared was low maintenance, and he never gave the impression he wasn’t perfectly happy with my pajama shorts and tank tops. And I had been intimate with Gavin so rarely that I never got around to experimenting with lingerie.

But Juliet inspired me. She and I had trailed into a shop one day, and then the very next day we had to go back, because Jax had destroyed the nightie she bought and gave her his credit card with instructions to replace the negligee and to buy some more as well.

I was jealous at the time. Her giddiness and happiness made me long to feel that again.

I glanced up, seeing a light fall across my floor, and I stepped over to the window, peeking through my sheer curtains to the house next door. Jax pulled down Juliet’s dress to expose her naked back, and then he reached behind her to pull the curtains closed.

I smiled to myself, remembering the day almost two years ago that I’d had to tell them, “Hey, I can see everything. Would you mind . . . ?”

Since then, they’d been careful about making sure the window was closed—because they were loud, too—and the curtains drawn.

I was glad Juliet had her happily ever after, but I also knew it was past time for my own. Spinning around, I walked for the bedroom door, not wanting to waste another second of the five minutes I’d told him to wait.

***

“Tate, baby,” a sleepy voice whispered against my hair. “Your phone.”

Jared’s arm tightened around my back and jostled me gently awake. I blinked my eyes open, realizing that my phone was ringing on the nightstand. I lifted my head off his chest and looked down at him, my dreamy cloud not lifting from my brain as I smiled at him.

His head lay to the side, facing the French doors, and his eyes were closed as he breathed peacefully.

Reluctantly turning away, I held the sheet up to cover my chest as I reached over to grab my phone.

“Hey, what’s up?” I answered, seeing Juliet’s name on the screen. Glancing at the clock, I saw it was only six thirty in the morning. Jared and I had been asleep for only a couple of hours.

“Sorry,” she shot out. “I saw Jared’s car over there, so I’m sure you’re . . .” She hesitated just long enough to make an innuendo. “Busy,” she finished.

A grin tugged at my jaw. “Nooooo,” I drawled out. “I was sleeping. What do you want?”

She cleared her throat. “I know you wanted to work out today, but I need to cancel. I’m drained this morning, okay?”

“No problem,” I sighed, twisting my head at the sound of thunder rolling outside. “I’m not going anywhere, either. Would you text Fallon to let her know?”

“Yeah, sure.” She yawned.

If it was going to rain, then it would be a bad day for an outdoor workout anyway.

“Are you okay?” I prompted, noticing that she sounded unusually tired for a morning person.

“Yeah,” she reassured me. “Just up too late. See you in a while.”

“All right, see you later,” I told her, shivers lighting up my skin as Jared’s hand trailed up the inside of my thigh.

“Bye.” And she hung up.

I put the phone back down and looked over, seeing Jared still half asleep, his wandering hand creeping farther up my leg.

Nuzzling back into his arms, I traced the lines of his jaw and lips with my eyes. Trailing my hand down his chest and farther to his abs, I took in the script tattoo on the side of his torso that he’d gotten when I was in France five years ago—
Yesterday Lasts Forever, Tomorrow Comes Never
—and the
Until You
he’d had Aura, his tattoo artist, add more than a year later when we finally got together senior year.

He’d added more tattoos since we’d been apart.

There were two feathers on the other side of his torso, one inscribed with
Trent
and the other inscribed with
Brothers
.

And looking up on his left pec, I raised myself up, struggling for shallow breaths as I read the script.

I exist as I am, that is enough.

Right there, my quote inscribed over his heart. Happy tears sprang to my eyes. I couldn’t believe it. He’d remembered the poem.

Lowering my head, I rested over his chest, promising myself that I’d never let him go.

His hand came up and started caressing my hair as he began to stir, and I felt him brush against my leg, his arousal growing harder.

I leaned over the side of the bed, picking up my now useless lingerie, which had two hooks ripped off because he got impatient fiddling with the ribbons in his mad rush.

“I liked that stuff,” he mumbled, making me drop the lace. “Who knew I’d like you in clothes more than I liked you naked?”

I leaned up over him, shooting him an insulted look.

He barked out a laugh. “I didn’t mean that exactly,” he backtracked. “But it definitely enhanced your points of interest.”

I rolled my eyes and swung my leg over his body, straddling him as the thunder cracked through the sky.

I leaned down, whispering over his mouth. “Let me see what I can do to enhance your point of interest.”

And I snaked my way down his body, hearing him suck in a breath and grab my hair as I took him in my mouth.

***

Jared stood at the kitchen sink, looking even sexier doing dishes than he did when he worked on his car.

I’d made breakfast, and afterward he started cleaning up, just like he always did. As a kid Jared grew self-sufficient, and he was good about cleaning up, even when we had lived together for a couple of years in college. Thank goodness that hadn’t changed.

I joined him at the island and placed my dishes in the sink.

“Jax borrowed my cooler last month,” I told him, holding his hips from behind and kissing his back softly. “I’ll be right back, okay?”

We were off with a group of other drivers today for a nice cruise up to Chestnut Mountain for lunch. Even with the light drizzle outside, nothing was stopping me from making the trip. Jared with me in a car. And a long drive with music. In the rain.

A perfect day.

He twisted his head, kissing me. “My duffel is in my old room,” he muttered between kisses. “See if he can grab me a change of clothes, would you?”

I nodded, sinking into his mouth again before pulling away to leave through the back door.

My clothes got pummeled as soon as I stepped off the back porch, but I didn’t speed up into a run. I never ran in the rain. My bootcut jeans covered my legs, but my toes were bare in my black flip-flops, and while my fitted black polo shirt wouldn’t go see-through with getting wet, my arms—bare in their short sleeves—already glistened with the light drizzle.

Stepping through the gate, I traipsed across Jax and Juliet’s revamped backyard, complete with a finished deck and a landscaping scene. Fallon had used her engineering and designing expertise to experiment with their space, making it even more beautiful and inviting.

I opened the back door and called out, “Jax!” I stepped in, closing the door behind me. “Juliet!”

“In here,” I heard her voice from the bathroom off the side of the kitchen.

Thunder rippled outside, and I bit back my smile as I damn near bounced to the bathroom.

But I stopped short, seeing Juliet leaning over the toilet, coughing.

“Whoa, are you okay?” I rushed to hold her up.

“Oh, I’m fine,” she grumbled, flushing the toilet and leaning back up and wiping her mouth with a hand towel. “One drink. One damn drink last night,” she complained, “and I wake up feeling like crap. Why am I such a lightweight?”

“You are.” I laughed, drawing her a glass of water. “I remember high school.”

She arched a brow, glaring at me. “I don’t want to relive that. You looked hot, and I was trying to be nice.”

“By throwing a beer on me?” I shot back, handing her the glass. “To cool me off, you said?”

She snorted and shook her head at the memory of how tipsy even a little liquor got her before taking some water. She’d never been a big drinker, which was probably good, because neither was Jax.

“I need to grab my cooler,” I told her over my shoulder as she followed me out of the bathroom. “I assume it’s in the garage?”

She nodded, setting down the glass and righting her dainty red peasant blouse, loosely tucking the hem into her jean shorts.

“And I need to get a change of clothes for Jared. Is Jax in the bedroom?” I inquired, not wanting to walk in on him.

“He’s in his office.” She jerked her chin to the stairs. “You may as well grab Jared’s whole bag. He probably won’t be spending any more nights here,” she teased.

Yeah, probably not.

I turned to leave, but she caught my hand.

“I’m happy for you,” she said, her tone even and serious. “You and Jared . . . I didn’t always think he was good enough for you, Tate,” she admitted. “But there was a time when I didn’t think I was, either.”

I stood there, happy that she’d surprised herself.

She squeezed my hand. “He’s a good man.”

I smiled and kissed her on the cheek. “Thanks.”

Running up the stairs, I stepped into Jax and Juliet’s bedroom and spotted Jared’s black duffel in the corner by the window.

Quickly stuffing the spilled clothes inside, I lifted the bag by the straps and flung it over my shoulder, thankful that his time in ROTC had at least taught him how to pack light.

I made my way for the door but stopped, spotting a circular black leather box on the dresser.

My jaw tingled with excited energy as I picked it up. I knew I shouldn’t open it, but I had a feeling that Jax was going to ask Juliet soon. And if the ring was just sitting out, then he must’ve already asked her. I wanted to see it.

But then if he did, why hadn’t she told me?

I glanced at the door, seeing no one in the sliver of hallway visible, and looked back down, cracking open the box.

My heart pitter-pattered in my chest, and I felt a rush of excitement in my limbs.

The ring was on a platinum band encrusted with small diamonds, while the centerpiece was a princess cut surrounded by smaller chips. I didn’t know about carats, but the stone had to be nearly as wide as her finger.