The Commitment (19 page)

“What if they hear us?”

“First of all, they’re way the hell on the other side of the house, so if you just hold your shit together, no one’s going to hear squat,” I say, watching her cheeks redden beneath the light coming in from the window. “Second of all, how the hell is that fair?”

“How is what fair?”

“Drake fucks up so I don’t get sex?” I look down at her in disbelief. “I didn’t fuck up. I’ve been a good boy all fuckin’ day, Baby.”

“Yes, you have,” she smirks. “But what if Ana needs to talk and she comes in here? The last thing she needs to see is our asses in the moonlight.”

“Are you serious?” I ask her, gaping at her in surprise. “You’re really not gonna give me any pussy?”

“Well, as sweetly as you’re asking,” she scoffs, rolling her eyes and pinching my side. “I’m afraid not.”

“Oh my God,” I groan childishly as I rub my palms over my face. “He really is a jackass.”

“I know,” she agrees quickly, settling in against my chest. “I love you.”

“I love you, too,” I say, bending to meet her lips.

When she parts her lips slightly and lets me dip my tongue into her mouth, I seize the opportunity and slowly roll her onto her back. Moving my hand down her side, I swallow the whimper that leaves her lips as I push my hand into her pajama shorts, cupping her sex.

“Get outta there,” she sighs weakly against my mouth.

“I don’t want to,” I argue, moving my lips down her neck and pushing two fingers inside. “I very much want to get in there.”

“Chase,” she pants her objection weakly.

“That’s right, Baby,” I whisper as I grin against her skin, pushing her T-shirt up and dipping my head to pull her nipple into my mouth. “Say my name.”

“Damn you,” she groans in defeat.

“Do I win?” I ask, smiling as I make my way back to her lips.

“Yes,” she sighs. “But I swear if anyone hears us, I’m gonna be so pissed.”

“You better lock it down then, Gorgeous,” I tease her as I push her shorts down in one swift movement, lowering to taste her.

The second my tongue makes contact she lets out a deep shudder, driving me insane with lust. She’s already wet for me, the sweet taste of her arousal something I crave. As I cover her with my mouth, fully tasting her for the first time all day, I can’t help the low hum of appreciation that leaves my chest.

“Fuck, Sophie,” I ground out as I grip her ass in my hands and spread her wider, resting her thighs onto my shoulders. “I could eat your pussy all fucking day long, Baby.”

Letting out a low moan, her hand flies to my hair, gripping hard as I begin to suck on her clit. Teasing her lips with my fingers, I continue to lap at her until she’s heaving wildly beneath me.

“Chase,” she husks, her voice frantic before long. “I need it now.”

“What do you need, Baby?” I whisper, immediately replacing my lips over her and sliding my fingers inside. “Are you going to give me my come?”

“Oh my God, yes!” she whimpers, tightening around my fingers.

“Let me taste it, Sweetheart,” I croon before covering her with my mouth and sucking gently.

As she grabs the pillow on my side of the bed to help muffle her cries, I savor in the taste of her orgasm on my tongue, slowly running it up her hot center. As I push my tongue inside her, I groan as I feel her pulsing around me, sucking her bare lips and making sure to not waste a drop.

Once she’s licked clean, I sit on my knees in front of her, raising her slightly and sliding into her. Pulling the pillow away from her now weakened grip, I gaze down at her and watch as she pulls her bottom lip in between her teeth.

“Fuck,” I husk out as I grip her braid into my fist and begin pushing into her with more force. “Jesus, you’re so fucking hot, Baby.”

Before she can answer me, I bend down and take her mouth, effectively pushing into her deeper and swallowing her moans. I stretch and fill her over and over, holding her eyes as she takes what she needs from me.

Once she’s close to her second climax, I pull away slightly and she licks her juices from my lips, forcing a low growl from my chest.

“Taste good, Baby?” I whisper against her mouth.

“Yes,” she pants.

“Good girl,” I husk as she tightens around me once more. “You ready to give it to me again, Princess?”

“Please,” she begs.

“Take it, Sweetheart,” I tell her, pushing into her faster and watching her fall as I hold her eyes. “Go, Baby!”

Pulsing around me, I release her hair and gently cover her mouth with my hand, stifling her moans. I suck the skin at the bend in her neck and shoulder, marking her as I fill her to the brink.

Running my lips over her as we come down, I move to find her eyes and give her a soft kiss. Moving to her side, I pull her back to my chest and hook her leg around mine. Gently resting one arm behind her head and palming her breast, I cover her still pulsing sex with the other.

This has always been my favorite way to hold her at night, but soon she’ll be too far along in her pregnancy to sleep comfortably like this. As I savor in the sound of her contented sigh, I let my thoughts linger over our time together. So much has happened, but there’s still so much ahead of us. The thought of being the one she’s chosen still puts a lump in my throat after all of it.

“I love the fuck out of you, Sophie,” I whisper as I kiss her coconut scented hair.

“I love you, too, Baby,” she says softly, turning her head slightly to kiss my bicep.

In no time at all, she’s fast asleep in my arms.

Jack

After being enlisted for so long, no matter how late I stay up, I can’t sleep in for shit anymore. Even though Ana’s always been an early riser and Drake seems to be the same, I’ve grown used to being the first one awake. When I come in from what’s become my daily ritual of running the beach before the sun rises, I’m surprised to see Sophie on the couch.

“Hey,” I say quietly, pulling my earbuds out and cutting Alt-J’s latest track short.

“Morning,” she yawns, covering her mouth and making me smile.

“I’m surprised you’re up already,” I say.

“I had to pee,” she sighs. “Then I laid there for about an hour and couldn’t get comfortable again, so I just gave up. How long have you been up?”

“Couple hours,” I tell her, sitting next to her on the couch. “I don’t sleep well anymore, Babe. I’m up at about four thirty every morning.”

“Eww,” she says, scrunching her nose up in disgust.

“You’re tellin’ me,” I smirk. “What are you watching?”

“Nothing really,” she says, muting the television.

Lifting the front of my shirt to wipe the sweat from my face, I don’t miss the way she glances at my chest before nervously looking away. The way her cheeks begin to flare causes me to laugh.

“Sorry,” she groans in embarrassment, her blush deepening once she knows she’s been caught.

“Soph, we were together for more than five years,” I chuckle. “I don’t think that would have worked if we weren’t attracted to each other.”

“Still,” she says, shyly meeting my eyes. “Things are different now.”

“Yeah, that’s true,” I sigh, glancing down at her with a smirk. “Thank God we’re still hot though, right? It would suck to go through all that and not even hold onto our looks.”

“You’re nuts,” she laughs, pushing my arm playfully.

“I’m right, though,” I grin. “We might be emotionally fucked, but we look damn good doin’ it.”

The sound of her laughter is contagious and before long, I’m joining her. When she quiets, she leans her head on my shoulder and lets out a long sigh.

“Jack, can I ask you something?” she says after a long moment of silence.

“Of course,” I say immediately, absentmindedly playing with a strand of her hair.

“You swear you’ll be honest?” she asks nervously. “Even if you think your answer will hurt my feelings, will you promise to tell me the truth?”

“I’ll always be honest with you, Soph,” I tell her. “I promise.”

“You said you had a hard time sleeping,” she starts after a long moment, causing me to nod. “Is any of that because of me?”

“Not as much anymore,” I admit, my voice low.

“It was, though?”

“I mean, a lot of its shit that happened while I was out there,” I tell her, taking her hand and squeezing it consolingly. “But, yes, if you want me to be honest, seeing that things weren’t going to be the way I’d always thought for us? It was a tough pill to swallow, Babe. It kept me up a lot of nights.”

“And now?” she asks quietly.

“Now I see how happy you are and yeah, it still hurts, but I get it.”

“I never meant to hurt you, Jack,” she says, looking over at me with tears in her eyes.

“I know,” I say, giving her the best smile I can manage as I use my free hand to wipe her tears. “You know, Ana was pretty pissed at you after you called me that day, but I’ve never been angry at you, Sophie.”

“How is that even possible?”

“Because I know you in ways that nobody else ever will, Soph, not even him,” I start quietly, resting my chin on her head. “Not only do I know how much you love me, I spent nearly six years calling you mine. I’d be a fool to not notice how painful that was for you. It took me a while to get there, but I know now that it was something you had to do. Not just for yourself, but for me, too.”

“What changed?” she asks.

“The day I came home,” I start. “I remember being so happy to see you. I didn’t even bother to look around, to see that you weren’t alone,” I admit, letting out a weak laugh. “I just… I was so happy to finally see you that when I kissed you, I didn’t even notice at first…”

This is the first time I’ve fully admitted these things to anyone, maybe even to myself, so it takes me a minute to move past the lump in my throat. Sophie understands, though, so she waits patiently, still holding my hand in hers.

“Regardless of how much I meant what I’d said in that letter, I was so shocked when I found out you’d moved on that I couldn’t even really accept it at first,” I admit, clearing my throat. “I had it in my mind for a while that you would come around. I think I knew deep down that first day, but it was just too much, so I convinced myself it was temporary. You were happy, safe… I was sure that I just needed to wait him out and everything would just fall back into place, you know?”

Unable to speak, Sophie gives me a slow nod as she wipes her cheeks clean.

“By the time Christmas came around, I was a fuckin’ wreck,” I shake my head. “When I walked in the house, I heard you standing up to your mom, defending us even after everything we’d gone through. I just… Sophie, you reminded me so much of the girl who walked into that English class that day. So many things about you have changed… you’ve always been strong, independent, but when you came to me, you were so broken,” I whisper, moving the strand of hair away from her face. “Over time, you showed me what an amazing heart you have, you found your voice and my God it was so beautiful to watch you transform into the woman you were meant to be. In that instant, you were the same girl I fell in love with that day in second period English.”

“Jack,” she whispers, her voice thick.

“I just wanted to call her mine again so badly that I just… I couldn’t wait anymore, Soph. I had to know if she was ever coming back to me,” I admit through glassy eyes. “Something deep inside me knew that kiss was going to give me my answer and it did,” I sigh. “All I wanted was to kiss that girl, but she wasn’t there anymore, not like she used to be. It should have been the same. Same two people, same lips… How could it be different, right?” I smirk, facing her teary gaze once more. “But it was and that’s when I knew.”

Turning to face her fully, I take her in. The bright emerald hue of her eyes, her thick eyelashes, now coated in unshed tears, she’s beautiful. She’s absolutely perfect, but she’s just not the same girl who was standing at the other end of the jetway that day at the airport.

She’s changed.

We both have. Not because we wanted to, but because we had to.

How could we not?

“These lips,” I continue as I gently run the pad of my thumb over her lower lip. “I dreamt of them night after night. I dreamt of holding you, kissing you, making love to you… There was a time when I knew your whole body, your whole
soul
like the back of my hand,” I whisper, my voice cracking slightly. “But when I kissed you that day, it wasn’t the same because you weren’t mine anymore.”

“Jack,” she says in a soft voice, her lip trembling slightly as the tears fall over.

“Shh,” I start, wiping her tears and giving her a small smile. “It’s okay. I had to face it, Sophie, we both did. You just don’t belong to me anymore.”

“A part of me will always be yours, Jack,” she says softly, squeezing the hand she’s still holding in hers.

“I know, Baby,” I smile. “And part of me will always belong to you. You weren’t just my first love, I was yours, too. There are pieces of our souls that will forever be entwined, no matter what comes next. That’s something we’re always going to keep and no one else will ever have it. It took me a long time to see that, but I see it now.”

“How?”

“After everything that happened that day at the house, Ana came and talked to me. She told me how hard everything had been on you, how hard you’d grieved when they said I wasn’t coming home,” I start. “That’s really the first time I let myself see the whole picture, because before that, I just couldn’t. Once she told me and I saw it all though, I realized I’d been looking at everything the wrong way.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’d been so hung up on us being together because that’s what I always thought would happen. I never even considered that just because we won’t have the forever I thought we would doesn’t mean we won’t share one at all,” I begin, looking over to find her eyes still locked on me. “That whole thing about soulmates and forever? I always thought that your soulmate had to be someone you married, had babies with, but that doesn’t make any sense. I mean, could you ever live without Ana? Don’t you feel like you’ve always been meant to be a part of her life?”

“Yes,” she says immediately, her eyes softening as she begins to understand.

“See? We had it right, Sophie. You’re still my best friend, my soulmate, nothing’s ever going to change that. Even knowing that the parts we play in each other’s lives aren’t what we originally thought, there’s no one I’m ever going love the same way I love you. You’re a part of me, absolutely a piece of my forever. We’ll always be in each other’s lives, things will just be a little different than what we thought. You’ve got a piece of my soul, Sophie, same as me. You can’t say goodbye to part of your soul.”

“You promise?” she asks, letting out a gentle sob.

“I promise, Beautiful Girl,” I hold her eyes, wiping her face clean and returning her tight hug. “I already told you, Babe. I’ll never say goodbye to you again.”

“I love you, Jack.”

“I love you, too, Soph.”

Sophie

Shortly after our talk, Jack leaves to shower and I feel lighter than I think I ever have before. When Chase and JT make their way out a few minutes later, I can’t stop the grin that covers my face.

JT comes out first, his dirty blonde hair a tousled mess as he rubs his eyes awake. His Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles pajamas are twisted around his waist and he looks utterly irritated.

“Aunt Sophie,” he whines through his yawn. “A stupid bird woke me up.”

“Aww,” I say, unable to contain the chuckle that leaves my lips. “Come here.”

As he climbs onto the couch, he snuggles up on my right side and leans his head against me. I’m finding cartoons when Chase comes out next, his hair looking very much the same.

“Good morning, Baby,” he yawns, kissing my hair on his way to the kitchen.

“Good morning,” I smile as he returns, coffee in hand and sitting to my left, nuzzling into my neck. “Did you sleep well?”

“I did until that loud ass freakin’ bird started his shit,” he grumbles.

“I know, right?” JT groans from beneath the throw he’s hiding under on my other side, pulling a loud laugh from my chest.

“Hey man,” Chase chuckles. “I didn’t see you over there. What are you doing up so early?”

“Bird,” JT grunts, pulling the blanket back over his head.

“How are my girls?” Chase asks me, pushing a stray strand of hair away from my face, before placing his hand over my belly. When I turn to face him, he sees my eyes, still puffy from crying and concern fills his features. “You okay?”

“Yeah,” I say, leaning into him. “Me and Jack were talking.”

“Did he make you cry?” he asks protectively.

“Yeah, but it was good,” I tell him. “Everything is finally good.”

“Okay,” he says, kissing my hair. “How’s my Peanut?”

“He’s awake,” I smile. “He’s been kicking the crap out of me all morning.”

“She’s probably sick of you calling her a boy,” he teases.

“Nah,” I grin. “He’s a mama’s boy. He’d never do that to me out of spite.”

“Aunt Sophie? What are you gonna name the baby?”

“I don’t know, Sweet Pea,” I tell him.

“Could we name her Raphael?”

“Probably not, Buddy,” I laugh.

“Why not?”

“Yeah, why not?” Chase chuckles. “Raphael Mitchell has a good ring to it.”

“We are not naming our baby after a turtle,” I tell him. “Especially not Raphael, everyone knows Michelangelo’s the cool one.”

“That’s not true,” Jack says as he walks in, overhearing our conversation. “Raph’s a pimp.”

“Hey Uncle Jack,” JT says, giggling when Jack musses his hair.

“Mornin’ J-Man,” he smiles, settling in on the opposite couch, facing us. “So what are we talking, baby names?”

“Yeah,” I nod.

“Let’s hear ‘em,” he says.

“We don’t really have any for a girl yet,” I admit. “I actually thought of something for a boy this morning.”

“Oh yeah?” Chase asks with a surprised smile. “What did you come up with?”

“Well, I was thinking it might be cool to name him after our dads.”

“What’s your dad’s name?” Jack asks him.

“Benjamin,” he tells him.

“Seriously,” Jack smirks. “What’s his name?”

“Benjamin,” I tell him, looking at him weird for a minute.

“Soph,” he laughs. “You’re kidding right?”

“No,” I say. “What’s so funny about the name Benjamin?”