Authors: Lexy Timms
She was lucky. Really lucky, she reflected as she drove. She had Alex, who would give her the world if she asked for it, and she had Benton and Lilli. And maybe she would soon have another little one on the way. There had been a lot of ups and downs lately, but they were worth it, for all of that. Because, no matter what else happened, she had her family, and in that she was well and truly blessed.
Erica was staring at the ring on her finger again. Mark kept catching her doing it, looking down at the visible sign of their commitment with a smile on her lips. It always made him smile in answer. She’d said yes. Soon, the whole thing would be official. The question was just how soon.
“When do you want to have the wedding?” he asked.
Her eyes finally lifted from her hand to his face, and she tipped her head slightly to the side, considering. “Not too soon. We’ll need time to finish planning everything and putting it all together, but I don’t want it to be too far from now either.” The smile she had been wearing came back. “I don’t think I can wait that long.”
“I’d like to do it after the tournament,” Mark said. “I know that’s still a while off, but I don’t see how we can fit it in before that without rushing it, and I don’t want to do that.”
“No. I don’t either. I think you’re right about that, although I don’t want to wait too long after, with it that far away. Not more than a month.”
Not more than a month. That meant they’d be getting ready for both at the same time, although Mark supposed that he would be more involved in preparing for the tournament than he would be in most of the wedding decisions. And the tournament had its own team of staff who knew exactly what they were doing. Maybe they could hire a wedding planner, too, and leave most of the stress to other people.
“If we do that, I think we need to be careful.” Mark took a breath and let it out again, reaching across the table past their half-finished sandwiches to take Erica’s hand in his own. “I don’t want stress to come between us again.”
Erica’s fingers curled around his and she squeezed gently. “This time we know what to look for.”
Knowing what to look for didn’t meant they could avoid it in the heat of the moment, but Mark didn’t say that. He wasn’t going to lose her again. Whatever happened, they would work through it.
“Where do you want to have the wedding?” he asked, still holding her hand in his, thumb gently stroking back and forth against smooth skin.
“Why not have it here?” She smiled at him. “It’s a beautiful place. And it’s yours. I can’t think of anywhere else that I would want to get married.”
“It’s ours,” Mark said. “Yours and mine. You helped build it as much as anyone else did, and if you’re marrying me you’re going to own half of it.”
Her eyes widened. “Are you sure you want to do that? The country club is your project. If anything ever happened…”
“Nothing is going to happen,” Mark said, firmly. “We’re not going to split up. And don’t tell me that you don’t love this place as much as I do.”
The smile that had fallen away when he told her that the club was hers as much as his returned, brighter. “Okay,” she admitted. “I actually do kind of love it. And you.”
She leaned in, and Mark lifted one hand to rest against the curve of her cheek as their lips met. When he pulled back, it was with a smile of his own, the taste of her on his lips.
“So,” he said, “you want to have the wedding here?”
“Absolutely.”
It was a beautiful place. Mark had worked hard to make it one. And it was going to be even more beautiful by the time they were done preparing for the tournament. But it wasn’t whether or not the club was good enough as a venue for their wedding that worried him. He’d always planned on holding weddings on the property. What made him anxious was how close to the tournament they were already cutting it. Having the wedding on the grounds made that even more of a potential problem.
He looked at Erica’s face, at the smile that she couldn’t seem to stop wearing lately, and couldn’t deny her what she wanted. “Then it’s settled. This is where we’ll have it,” he said, and he didn’t have to force the smile that he answered hers with, although he wasn’t sure that the worry didn’t show on his face.
The hand that still held his squeezed again. She must have seen the edge of nerves in his expression. “It’ll be fine,” she said, her gaze meeting his and holding it. “We’re going to get through the tournament, and we’re going to blow their minds with how awesome our course is, and then we’re going to have a wonderful wedding, and after that we’re going to do nothing but lie on a beach somewhere and make love for at least two weeks.”
“That’s your plan, huh?” Mark laughed.
“It’s a kick ass plan,” Erica shot back. “And you know it.”
“It does sound like a pretty decent plan,” Mark agreed.
What sounded really good, actually, was a two-week vacation. At least the managers were in a place where they could run the club without him if need be. It had taken a while to get to that stability, but the effort was going to be worth it when he could leave Little Lake in the hands of people he trusted and head off to the tropics for two weeks with the woman he loved.
“Tournament. Wedding. Honeymoon.” Erica snuggled into his side, and Mark wrapped an arm around her narrow shoulders, drawing her in closer. “When the planning for the other two are driving you crazy, just remember we’ve got that third one coming up. We’ll make it through.”
Mark let his head tip to the side to rest his cheek against the top of Erica’s, her hair soft against his skin.
“We will,” he said.
With Erica by his side, he was sure that they could do anything they set their minds to.
Before the twins, she and Alex sometimes hadn’t even made it out of the kitchen after work before they were wrapped in each other’s arms, leaving a trail of clothes behind them on their way to the couch. These days, things were a little different.
When Alex arrived home from work, Jamie was putting the twins to bed. She looked up from kissing Benton good night to find him standing in the square of light that spilled into the nursery from the hallway, watching her. She gave Lilli a good night kiss, too, then joined him, slipping out of the room and shutting the door quietly behind her, the baby monitor in one hand.
“Long day?”
He looked tired, the way he’d looked every day after work since Zander had started destroying Reid Enterprise’s reputation.
“Longer than I wanted it to be,” Alex said, drawing her in close. “But successful. We didn’t lose the investor company.”
They had lost some. Especially right after everything came to light. The rate had declined recently, though, and Jamie had started to hope that there wouldn’t be any more jumping ship. With any luck, they’d seen the last of the trouble caused by Zander’s manipulations.
“That’s good, then,” she answered. “Did you get anything to eat? Are you hungry?”
At that Alex smiled, his hand sliding down her side to curl around her hip. “Not for anything but you, baby.”
Jamie turned to look at him, her eyebrows lifted. “Is that so?”
“That
is
so.” Alex let his fingers tease along the waistband of her pants, dipping just beneath. “In fact, I was thinking that I’d really like to lay you out on that big bed we keep in our room exactly for nights like these, and taste you. And then we’ll see about that trying.”
Heat coiled in her center, and her heart beat a little faster behind her ribs. Damn, she wanted him. She’d thought that maybe after more than a year of marriage, after the kids, her libido would slow down, but it hadn’t done anything of the sort. Alex still filled her with desire every time she looked at him, and moments like these only made him more irresistible.
“What do you say to that?” Alex asked.
“I say you’re walking too slow,” Jamie answered, and he laughed, his arm tightening around her before he let her go with a swat to her backside.
“Get up there, then, and wait for me.”
She didn’t need any further prompting.
By the time Alex arrived in the room, only a few seconds behind her, Jamie was already down to bra and panties, kicking her sweatpants aside. She felt his eyes sweep over her, taking her in from head to toe, and then he shut the door at his back and started toward her, muscles rolling under his suit. Jamie swallowed past a suddenly dry throat as she watched him approach, his desire and his intent obvious in the way his blue eyes had darkened.
Watching him want her was one of the hottest things she'd ever experienced. No one else had ever wanted her the way he did. No one else had ever made her feel so beautiful.
Alex's big warm hands wrapped around her waist, his thumbs stroking over the skin on either side of her belly button. “Have I told you lately how unbelievably gorgeous you are?” he growled, stepping forward so that she had no choice but to take a step back toward the bed, guiding her until she fell onto the mattress.
“I think you could probably tell me again, if you wanted to,” Jamie said, and he smiled.
“You. Are. Unbelievably. Gorgeous,” he said again, this time punctuated by the brush of his lips against her jaw and the line of her throat while his hands moved over the curves of her hips and stroked along her thighs. Jamie sank against the mattress, tension relaxing out of her muscles. “I still can't believe that I'm lucky enough that you chose me. That I get to touch you every night. Have as much of you as I want.”
He guided her back so that she lay fully on the bed, and then he was unfastening her bra and tossing it aside, hands cupping the weight of her breasts. His thumbs flicked over nipples that were already pulled tight with wanting, and he paused to rub them with just enough friction to make her squirm, little gasps escaping her throat.
“Love the way that you move for me, baby,” Alex said, low and rough in his throat. “Love those little sounds, just for me.”
“Just for you,” Jamie agreed breathlessly. One of her arms wrapped around his shoulders, and her other hand curled over his bicep for something to hold onto while he played with her nipples. She wanted him. Needed him skin to skin with her and inside her. All around her. “You're wearing too much.”
“Don't worry about that. It’ll all come off.” He dipped his head to press a kiss to her throat, and then his mouth moved down, licking and nipping along her collarbone and her sternum. He paused to look up from between her breasts, his gaze catching hers, and Jamie wanted to pull him in close for a kiss and then to push him down to where she ached for him. Wanted everything all at once.
One of Alex's hands moved down, and two fingers stroked her through her panties. She knew he must be able to feel how wet she already was. He moaned, and his fingers stroked her again. Jamie arched up into the touch, her legs falling open wider so that he could fit his body between them.
“You want it, baby?” he asked, practically purring, a sound that went all the way to the core of her.
“Hell, yes, Alex. Give it to me.”
“Tell me what you want.”
“Your mouth, Alex, please.”
There was a low chuckle, and then he was moving down again, hands sliding her underwear off her hips. Jamie lifted up to let him. He tossed them aside, and his palms pressed against her inner thighs to spread them even wider. Jamie took a deep breath and let it out again. One of her hands tangled in his hair.
He smiled when she tried to guide him downward. “So bossy,” he chided. “You're really impatient, naughty girl.”
“You'd be impatient, too,” Jamie gasped. “I know exactly how good you feel.”
“Flattery? You must really be desperate.”
Jamie growled. “Just do it already. Fuck.”
That got her a groan. Alex pressed his lips to the place just below her navel, and then drew back enough to shift into a more comfortable position between her legs, her thighs up over his shoulders.
“I was going to tease you a little more,” he said, hands sliding under her butt to tilt her to the right angle. “But I just want you too much.”
Jamie might have answered, except that was the moment that he leaned down and licked her, tongue sliding over her clit, and all she could do was moan. He licked her again, and then he was pulling her clit into his mouth, and Jamie writhed under him, her fingers curling in his hair and in the sheets. She hadn't been exaggerating when she said how good he was. How good she knew that he was. He always knew exactly how to get her off, and Jamie couldn't help the way that her body responded. She didn't want to help it.
“I want to feel you come for me, baby,” he pulled back long enough to say before his mouth was on her again. This time he moved one of his hands out from under her so that he could slide a finger inside her where she was empty and aching for him, and Jamie whimpered. She wanted more.
Another finger, and he started sliding them in and out, crooking them to perfectly hit that spot that made her press a hand over her mouth to keep from crying out with pleasure.
Then suddenly, Alex stopped.
“Fuck. What are you—”
“None of that,” he said. “I want to hear you, Jamie. Scream for me, baby. I promised that I would make you scream in all the right ways.”
Jamie dropped her hand back to the mattress, nails clawing at the sheets, and when he sucked her clit into his mouth again, three fingers filling her up, she cried out, his name on her lips.
“That's right, baby. Exactly that.”
It was only an instant, but even that was too much, and Jamie whined through her teeth, rocking her hips up for the stimulation that he was denying her. Alex's mouth and his hands went back to her sex, and this time he didn't stop. Just kept on, his lips and tongue and fingers making the pleasure and the pressure build until it felt like she would explode with it, her whole body flushed with heat and trembling on the edge.
“Alex,” she gasped.
He rocked his fingers deeper inside her, his tongue pressing flat to her clit, and the pleasure shocked through her, making light dance on her closed eyelids. She cried out again as it raced along her nerves.
“That's it,” Alex said. “Give it to me. It's mine. Come for me, baby.”
His mouth covered her again, and Jamie's hips bucked, her spine arching. Her breath came in gasping pants. He didn't stop, though, kept going while she moaned and grasped at the sheets and shuddered under him until her second orgasm hit her, pleasure exploding from her center to turn her vision white.
When it was done, she was limp and breathless against the mattress, aftershocks still twitching through the muscles of her thighs. Alex slid his fingers free and crawled up her body so that she could feel the heat of him all along her, not quite touching. She wanted more.
“Get out of that suit,” she ordered.
Alex smiled down at her even as he sat up, unbuttoning his jacket and tossing it aside, followed by his shirt. Jamie reached up to help him, still a little shaky, and he caught her wrists in his hands, lifting them above her head and pressing them down to the blankets again.
“Not this time, baby. I want you to just relax.”
It wasn't relaxing to lie there and want him while he teased her by slowly undoing one button after another. “You're a tease,” Jamie accused.
“A tease?” Alex grinned. “I don't think so. I have every intention of following through with every one of my promises. I'm going to take this suit the rest of the way off, and then I'm going to fuck you until you can't remember anything but my name and how much you want me.”
Jamie's head dropped back to the pillow. That just wasn't fair. He was too hot to be able to do that to her with words, too, the low timbre of his voice melting her insides to liquid want.
“You could at least be a little faster about it.”
“I could,” Alex agreed.
He didn't go any faster, and by the time he actually got the clothes off Jamie was thinking about getting on top of him and stripping him regardless of his plans to make her spontaneously combust.
“There,” he said, crawling back onto the bed in nothing but his skin. “It's off.”
Jamie watched the muscles ripple in his shoulders as he moved, and she moaned, reaching up as soon as he was within arms' length and dragging him down to her. “I want you, Alex. Need you inside me. Come on.”
“Please?”
She glared at him, and he laughed again, leaning down to claim her mouth with his own. Jamie opened to the kiss, tasting the intoxicating flavor of her on his tongue, and his hand tangled in her hair to tilt her head back, giving himself even more room to plunder her. Her nails dug into the place below his shoulder blade, and he hissed against her lips, his hips rocking down into hers so that she could feel how hard he was.
“No more teasing,” she growled when he pulled back. “I fucking mean it, Alex.”
“No more teasing,” he agreed.
His hands caught her thighs and lifted them, folding her body under his, and then he was sliding into her, filling her up the way that only he had ever been able to. Jamie's fingers curled around his biceps.
“This what you wanted, baby?” he asked as he started to move, the friction making her gasp.
“Yes. Hell, yes. Don't stop.”
“Never.” He was as breathless as she was. “You feel so fucking good, Jamie. So perfect. Always so perfect.”
Their groans filled the space between them as they moved together, spilling out into the rest of the room, filling her ears with the sound of them together. Her whole world was Alex, his body moving over hers and his eyes locked with her own. His hands on her body.
“I need you… so much.” His voice was strained, his thrusts losing their rhythm.
“Come for me,” Jamie answered. “Want to feel you, Alex.”
That pushed him over the edge. He erupted inside her with a shout of her name, and Jamie followed him over the edge, orgasm exploding through her again. He slumped down over her body, both of them panting.
“Fuck,” Alex said finally. He reached up and stroked a lock of hair back from her face, tender in the way that his earlier touches hadn’t been. “Jamie. Love you so much.”
Jamie wrapped her arms around him, holding him close, the weight of his body over hers feeling like safety and warmth. “I love you, too,” she said.
He pulled back enough to grin a slightly crooked grin at her, blue eyes sparkling. “Do you think that did it, baby, or should we try again?”
She laughed. “Better safe than sorry, I think. We’d better try again, just to be sure.”
Alex nodded gravely. “Maybe a few times,” he agreed. “Every night, maybe. At least twice. If you’re going to do something, you have to do it thoroughly, after all.”
“Thoroughly,” Jamie echoed as he leaned down toward her. “Very, very thoroughly.”
Then his mouth met hers, and she forgot all about speaking for a while. They had to be sure, after all.