Run to Love (Triple R Book 1) (27 page)

“That’s beautiful.” I skimmed the butterfly’s journey.

“I got it while I was losing the weight. It’s my journey. Every twenty-five pounds I went back and got a new addition of the transformation to butterfly. That’s a hundred pounds of tattoo, Jude.”

“Presley, I can see in your eyes that you’re worried about the weight coming back, but sweetheart, with the amount of exercise I have planned for you, well, you’ll be working off lots of calories, both vertically and horizontally.”

“I hope so.”

Normally those words were almost a question but not this time. She meant them.

I cupped her supple breast. Lowering my head, I circled her nipple with my tongue, teasing the baby-pink skin and blowing air across it to watch it pucker to a stiff peak.

“Jude…” Her back arched at the combination.

I warmed her other breast with my mouth, enjoying her response as well as mine. My body kicked into high gear, hardening to an almost painfully aroused state. I kicked off my jeans and underwear while she watched, licking her lips, creating a dewy look that I couldn’t resist. I pulled her to a sitting position and kissed her like tomorrow would never happen.

“I need you in my life forever, Beautiful.”

“I need you, too, but like now!” She panted the words.

“Okay, hint taken.”

After removing her yoga pants, I glided a finger inside of the slickened and engorged tissues that already tensed in small vibrations around my finger. Her body was ready. I just needed to know where her head was.

“Are you sure it’s okay if I don’t wear protection?”

Her hands searched my face. “That’s up to you, but, please, Jude…” She extended my name as I rolled my thumb over her clit.

My heart crashed against the wall of my chest.

“Presley, I know you have my heart because every time you say
please
it makes that me want to make you happy, whatever it takes.”

She jerked on my ponytail with insistence. “Then, Ponytail,
please
, make me happy.”

I laid over her, soft body to hard body, lifted her legs around my waist, and in one smooth motion I thrust deep inside her welcoming body, flesh in flesh. The gasp we both released was full of excitement and a little apprehension.

“Are you okay, Beautiful?” I waited to move. Although she was slick and seemed ready, she was also tight and my concern seemed warranted.

She took several quick breaths with her eyes closed. Her long onyx lashes parted and the green orbs flashed. “I’ve never been better. I’m full of you. My heart, my body, my soul are all so full of you, Jude.”

The words entered my body through my ears, but they stayed in my heart.

Our bodies synched and found a tender rhythm. Our eyes never left each other’s, a circle of love. I reached between us to stroke lightly across her hard clit, and she inhaled quickly at the touch.

“Yes,” she sighed. I rubbed again, her internal walls quivering along the length of me. “Jude! Oh, my Pony…” Her body began to spasm before she released the rest of the word. The sight of her lost to reality brought me closer to my own.

Presley’s back arched and her whole body trembled. Her slickness embraced me, like every part of her wanted to hold onto me. I bucked against her faster, enjoying the continuing waves of fluttering pressure against me.

Heaven … pure heaven.

“Presley, I love you.”

I reached my own release. My face burrowed into her soft hair as the relaxation traveled through my body, and her hands trailed over my backside soothingly. When we both regained our strength, I rolled us onto our sides, disengaging our bodies. She let out a sigh that was satisfied but told me she already missed our connection.

“How are you, Beautiful?”

A gradual and amorous smile slipped across her face. “My universe isn’t shattered, Jude. It’s better. It’s complete.”

I drew her in close and we fell asleep in each other’s arms.

I may run for exercise, but I would never run from her love. More importantly, she would never run from me again.

She can’t … asthma.

Epilogue

“Bro, chill out.” Zane came up behind me and muttered semi-supportively but mostly with irritation in my ear.

I paced in the kitchen, pretending to get steaks ready for the grill.

I glanced over my shoulder. “I’m trying to.”

“I’ve never seen you this nervous.” Zane’s hand gave my shoulder a squeeze. “Jude, she’s going to say yes, and with all the work you put into this, if she doesn’t I’m pretty sure any woman out there would marry you when they hear your speech of how much you love Presley.” He carried the steaks out to the grill. “You got this. You’re a Saylor. We’re a natural at love.”

Four months ago, the girl of my dreams was going to run from my life, from me. But, thankfully, I was able to help her see what a relatively nice guy I was, and most importantly, we were meant to be together. She moved in a month after and there wasn’t a single day that I didn’t have a smile on my face.

Waking up next to her was having sunshine in my life from the moment I opened my eyes.

We were throwing a Labor Day backyard fest with twenty-plus of our friends and I was ready to ask Presley to be my wife. It was quick, but it was love. No need to wait. I wasn’t nervous like Zane assumed. I imagined the excited anticipation was making me act a little crazy around her.

Maybe I should just do it and enjoy the rest of the evening with my fiancé in my arms?

“Hello? Jude?” a voice called from the entry.

“Come in! I’m in the kitchen, Kiki,” I yelled back.

My redheaded friend rounded the corner and kissed my cheek. “Hey, thanks for inviting me. Here’s the dessert. Where’s that beautiful woman of yours?”

“Thanks.” I examined what looked questionable as a dessert, or even food. Kiera was never known for her cooking or baking skills. “Um, Prez is outside with Willow and Sage.”

“Sage is here? Oh, I can’t wait to see her!”

Thankfully, Kiera, Presley, Willow, and my ex-coworker, Sage, all hit it off and they hung out together. It was kind of odd having my ex-girlfriend and my current girlfriend as good friends, but I rolled with it.

“Jude, hey, Zane wants the veg—”

I scanned over my shoulder to see what stopped Drexel from talking when he normally didn’t shut the fuck up. Ever.

Never thought Drexel and I’d end up friends. I continued to use the term “friends” loosely and always guardedly. But since he sincerely apologized to Presley
and
she forgave him
and
she asked me to make an effort
and
since she said
please
in the sexiest, I’m-gonna-rock-your-world-if-you-do-this-for-me kind of way, I didn’t say no.

Drexel isn’t bad. He’s just … Drexel.

“Hi, Drexel Mason.” He beelined to Kiera with an outstretched hand.

Over my dead body, Mason.

“Hi, Kiera Maxwell.”

“Nice to meet you, Kiera. Let me help you get something to drink. This way to the outside bar.”

He tagged the plate of vegetable kabobs for the grill and guided her to the side door to the back patio. Quite like a gentleman. Then he spun to me and shared a juvenile hip-pumping movement before following her out.

I shook my head and he chuckled.

Drexel, grow up.

“Honey…” Her soft voice filled my ears. I put down the knife I used to chop tomatoes, washed my hands, and turned around. An arm wrapped around my waist and the other hand raked through my hair. “Jude, what’s wrong? You’ve been acting weird and uncomfortable all day, actually all week. Are you getting sick?” She touched my forehead and frowned.

She was right. This week I’d been different. I wanted to make tonight special so I dismissed her advances at every turn and every night there was a sharp turn to avoid. In a couple of instances my efforts had almost killed me. Those eyes and that body, they spoke a different language, and my lower half acted as interpreter for my body.

“No. I feel great.”

She frowned even deeper.

I slid her closer and skimmed my hands up and down her toned back.

“Then what is it?” She swallowed hard and brought a hand up to my mouth to stop me from talking. “If … if you’ve decided I’m not what you want and you need me to leave … I won’t lie, it will hurt, but I want you to be happy.”

I chuckled, and she leaned away. Her emerald orbs shimmered as her lips quivered.

She thought I was unhappy? How far from the truth that was.

I couldn’t bear the thought of her torturing herself all night over what might be going through my mind.

Gazing into the eyes that confiscated my heart to be hers, I dropped my head to meet her lips-to-lips, joining our bodies in a kiss that was infinitely soft and tender. My love conveyed right at the connection of our bodies.

I rested my forehead onto hers. “Presley, my heart has never been as full with love and happiness as it is with you in my life. Every moment of every day has a smile because of you. The way you love me, the way you comfort me, the way you know when something is up with me. I really can’t imagine any day without you. I want forever with you, Beautiful.”

“Jude, but…” She inhaled quickly as I lowered to one knee.

I pulled out a silver box with a burgundy bow from my cargo shorts and held it toward her. Presley smiled down at me, her glassy eyes shimmering green pools in the afternoon sun.

This moment is perfect … just us.

I opened the box to show her what cost almost as much as a Ducati Panigale S, but she was worth more than that bike ever would be to me.

“Presley Bradenhurst, will you do me the honor of being my wife?”

“Oh, my God … yes, Jude Saylor, nothing would make me happier than to spend forever with you.”

I placed the diamond ring on her finger. She leaned down and sealed our engagement with a tear-soaked kiss. I stood and guided her into an embrace.

“Thank God. I couldn’t live without you,” she mumbled against my shoulder.

“I couldn’t live without you, either.”

“I love you, Ponytail.”

“I love you, too, Beautiful.”

The back door opened. “Presley, our pale green-eyed friend is turning green. She needs an antacid. Pregnancy is a biotch.” Willow bounded into the kitchen on a mission but stopped when she saw us holding each other. Her eyes narrowed at me and she screamed. “Oh, my God, you did it without us?”

Presley giggled at her friend. “You knew?”

“Do you like the ring?” Willow ran toward us, her jet-black hair reminding me of her continuing depressed emotional state. The color was gone from her and her hair, but there was hope that the color would come back.

Maybe tonight she can move on.

My fiancé held her hand up, examining the diamond. “It’s stunning. I bet you had something to do with that?”

“Congratulations, I’m so happy for both of you.” Willow’s blue eyes churned dark like the midnight sky, filling with shimmering waterworks.

Presley and I exchanged a look and both stepped forward into a group hug while Willow sobbed between us for a couple of minutes.

Things had ended between Kanyon and Willow right after Presley moved in with me, and three months later, Willow still hadn’t recovered. Her perpetual state of sadness made me want to throttle Kanyon into next year. I took Willow’s side. Only because he was being the idiot this time and wouldn’t own up to his idiocy. His reasoning for breaking things off wasn’t even remotely worth mentioning to another human. He and I texted occasionally about doing something that rarely happened, and I stopped by the store a couple of times to chat for a few minutes, but we weren’t the same.

“Come on, let’s go tell the girls!” Willow snapped from her self-pity and wiped her cheeks. She yanked on Presley’s hand, and I gave her the go-ahead nod.

“I need to do something first.” Presley peeped up into my eyes. A secret sparkle told me I was going to like what she needed to do.

“Okay, see you in?” Willow smirked and raised her onyx eyebrows.

Presley pulled on my hand. “Give us at least thirty before you send out a search party.”

With a mischievous grin on her face, my amazing fiancée led me into the garage and to my motorcycle. It was a dream she was going to make come true.

This is going to be the best ride of her life.

The End

www.julesdixon.com

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