Home to You (32 page)

“Nope.”
 

“Fine then,” I said in a forced whisper, turned on my heels, and headed for the back exit.
 

“Katie! Where are you going?”  

THE BLACK OCEAN BECKONED ME as the storm of frustration cluttered my mind. I knew I was overreacting about the cards, but I couldn’t help it. The stubborn look on Jake’s face made me want to scream. How could I accept them when Justin’s words still haunted me?

My bare feet sank deep into the icy sand with each step, and I tried to focus on the sound of the waves instead of the chill that washed over me. It was cold. Colder that I wanted to admit, but the goosebumps that covered my arms and legs made it impossible to deny. I cringed. Jake still had my damned panties, and the cool breeze that blew between my thighs made it painfully obvious.
 

The bastard.
 

But he wasn’t a bastard. Deep down I knew that. I was frustrated and confused about so many things. Angry with Justin for the things he’d said, angry with myself for being the type of person someone wanted to save.

I had no idea where I was going. All I knew was that I needed to walk. To cool off, clear my head, and let go of some of my irritation.
 

I only made it past the first lifeguard station before he called to me. “Katie, wait!”
 

My heart constricted at his voice and I slowed. I was annoyed, but I wouldn’t make him chase after me.
 

“You can’t just run away every time I do something that pisses you off.”

I could sense his irritation but wasn’t calm enough to really care. “Well, stop pissing me off then.”
 

“Not gonna happen.”
 

He was probably right. He’d been doing it since I was six. Why would he stop now?

“Why won’t you just return them, Jake?” I stopped and gripped my shoes tighter in my hands.
 

“Because they’re yours.” His voice grew serious and hit me in the pit of my stomach.

“They’re not mine. I sold them.” I turned around to face him.
 

“They’re yours.” His hands were shoved deep in his pockets, his face serious as shadows played on his chiseled features. Damn, he was hard to stay mad at.
 

“What the hell did I do wrong?” He looked confused.
 

I rolled my eyes and scoffed. “Contrary to what everyone seems to believe, I’m a strong woman. I know how to take care of myself, and I know how to kill my own spiders.” Even to my own ears it sounded silly, but when he started to smile, I glared at him. “What’s so funny?”

He covered his mouth with his hand and took a step closer. “Nothing.”
 

He stopped in front of me, his face composed. “Don’t you think I know that?” He began again. “Don’t you think I know how strong you are? What I don’t understand is what baseball cards have to do with it.” His voice was soft but his expression hardened.

I let out a breath and looked out to the ocean. “Because it was
my
shitty situation, and I got myself out of it. Because I don’t need you saving me.” I turned around to start walking again, but in a second he was there, his hands holding my arms secure.

We stood still a moment, frozen by the electric charge that shot through me every time we touched. His body was stiff behind me, and I closed my eyes, torn between wanting him to let me go so I could run, or throw me to the sand and make love to me.
 

His hands loosened, and he bent down until his mouth brushed my ear. “I know you’re a strong woman, Katie. The strongest woman I’ve ever known.”
 

I closed my eyes and relished in his warmth.
 

“I know you don’t need me. I know you can take care of yourself.” His lips trailed along my jaw. “Kill your own spiders. But all that has nothing to do with those cards.”
 

I leaned back in his arms knowing I couldn’t possibly resist him any longer and let my high heels drop from my fingers to the sand. “It’s too much.”

“Don’t you know I want to give you everything?” His arms wrapped around my waist and his chin rested on my shoulder.
 

 
Why did it mean so much to him? Why did he have to be so stubborn?

“I—” He started to speak but stopped.
 

Something reminiscent of fear gathered deep in the pit of my belly. “What is it, Jake?”
 

He took in a breath, and his grip tightened around me. “I can’t give you Dave back.” His voice low, and filled with an emotion that twisted the deepest part of me. “But I can give you his cards.”
 

I turned around and placed my hand on either side of his face. The strong man who still tortured himself with the loss of his best friend stared down at me. “Jake.”

His brows were gathered in that way that left creases in his forehead, and my heart ached. “It’s not your job to give me anything.”
 

He shook his head but didn’t speak.
 

I narrowed my eyes at him. “You remind me of him sometimes.”
 

One brow lifted, and his lips twitched. “I do?”
 

I nodded. “Usually when you’re frustrated with me.”
 

His grinned. “Must happen a lot.”
 

I bit back a laugh, and he wrapped his arms around me and pressed his lips into my hair.
 

“It’s been so long since I’ve talked to anyone who remembers him. I know it’s silly, but I felt him slipping away from me in San Diego. I couldn’t hear his voice anymore…it scared me.”
 

“He’d never leave you, Katie.” His voice was deep and gravely, but I kept my eyes on the waves.

“Do you think he’s happy we’re together?”
 

He took my icy fingers between his hands and played with them a minute before answering. “I think he’d hate the fact that I have your panties in my pocket… But yeah… I think he’s happy we’re together.”
 

I laughed, then nodded against his chest, somehow finding comfort in his words. I knew he was right. Even though Dave had been more protective of me than a mama grizzly to her cubs, he trusted Jake more than anyone in the world.
 

“I’m so stupid, Jake.”

He pulled back and looked at me with confusion.
 

 
“You were so sweet to give me those cards, and I don’t know what I was thinking. I’m just stupid, and stubborn, and hot-headed sometimes.”

He shook his head and smirked. “You’re not stupid, Katie.”
 

I smiled at the fact that he stopped at stupid, and looked into his eyes. I was lost in the moment. Alone with Jake under the stars. The cool breeze softly lifted my hair, and he pressed his forehead against mine. “Katie?”
 

“Yes?”

“Thank you.”
 

 
Such simple words that were spoken every day, but the way he said them took my breath. “For what?” I whispered.

“For tonight.”

My throat thickened. How could he possibly thank me? If anything, I’d ruined our first date. My fingers moved along his jaw, then dipped into the sexy indent of his chin. “I’m sorry I had a tantrum.”
 

He pulled back, raised his brows, and smiled at me. “I like your tantrums,” he said seriously.
 

I shook my head. “You’re crazy.”

“Crazy about you.”

It was the first time he’d said something like that, and excitement pulsed in my belly. I took his hand and walked backward until I led him under the lifeguard station. “I don’t want to talk anymore.” I placed his hand on my thigh and ran it up until it came to the hem of my dress.
 

His fingers brushed the fabric higher, and I smothered a moan in the crook of his neck. When he reached the juncture of my thighs, he groaned, then stripped off his coat and laid it on the sand. With his hand on the small of my back, he lowered me to the soft suede, then knelt in the sand between my legs.

My hands flew to his waistband, but he grabbed my wrists and moved them slowly away until he held them above my head.
 

“I want you,” I protested.
 

“And I’ve wanted to taste you ever since I knew you were naked under that dress.”

With one hand holding both of mine secure, he yanked the front of my dress and bra down, exposing my breasts. “God, you’re beautiful.”
 

His open mouth covered mine, silencing further protests and making me forget everything except his lips, his tongue, and my drenched center aching for his touch. Lazy kisses traveled down my neck, his tongue teasing a trail along my collarbone until his mouth covered the rock-hard bud of one of my nipples.
 

I arched against his mouth, my hands straining from his grip. “I want to touch you.”
 

He smiled down at me, then guided my hands until they gripped the beam of the lifeguard station above my head. “Trust me.”
 

My eyes fluttered and my head fell back in the sand as he continued his descent down my abdomen. When he reached the bottom of my dress my breath came in quick pants. And when his teeth grazed along my inner thigh, my legs began to tremble.
 

He gripped my bottom with both hands and lifted me. My heels dug deep in the sand in anticipation of his mouth, and I squirmed with excitement. His warm breath met my clit, sending shivers down my spine, cooling my sweltering heat, and causing all my muscles to clench with sheer pleasure.

When his tongue found my aching nub, I gripped the beam tighter, and bucked against him. Long fingers plunged into my center, curling and stretching inside me, massaging me and driving me crazy.

Between each kiss he spoke to me, urging me on, telling me to let go, to trust him, that he would take care of me.
 

“Jake, I—”
 

But I couldn’t finish. His fingers and tongue moved in a torturous rhythm that made my toes curl and every nerve in my body to come alive.
Yes, yes!
 

In one swift motion his mouth was on mine, and I tasted my sticky arousal on his lips. He plunged inside me, filling me with the thick, hard length of his erection, and I wrapped my legs around his hips. My hands flew to his back, gripping his shirt as he pushed me higher, my whole body rocking as he pounded into me over and over. Every time he entered, my body clung around him, needing what I knew only he could provide. And then I slipped over the edge, gripping him tighter as rippling waves of my orgasm surged through every part of me. Jake stole my shredded cry with his mouth and drove inside me one last time. His breath caught. He groaned deep in the back of his throat and collapsed on top of me—his weight anchoring me deep into the ground.
 
Without it, I was sure I would have floated off to heaven.
 

Minutes went by before either of us spoke, his face buried in the crook of my neck as I traced the lines of his muscles through his thin shirt.
 

“I’ve never had sex outside before,” I said, smiling into the darkness. “Or with a man who was fully clothed either.”

He grinned down at me, his hair ruffled and disorderly. “Yeah, well, you didn’t seem to mind a minute ago.”
 

“I didn’t say I minded.” I took one of the curls at his nape and played with it between my fingers.
 

His face sobered and his features etched with devotion. He rolled off of me, helped me adjust my dress, and pulled me to sit between his thighs.
 

I leaned back against his chest and burrowed into his warmth. It was so peaceful here. Not a soul in sight, the only light cast by the stars and the few buildings off in the distance. The ocean played its love song, and I knew I would never forget this night, this moment, not for all eternity.
 

We stayed like that for another half hour. Me nestled between Jake’s thighs as we watched the tide roll in and erase the day. But when I heard his yawn for the third time, I rose to my feet and pulled him to stand. We dusted each other off the best we could, then walked hand in hand back to his car.
 

“Have you talked to Em or John?” I asked, stopping at a bench and putting on my shoes.
 

He scratched his head, and I couldn’t help but wonder what he was thinking.
 

“John yes, but only at work.”
 

Under the light of the nearby parking lot, I noticed more sand on my dress and busied myself brushing it off as an excuse not to look at him. “Em called me today and left a message. I didn’t call her back—I didn’t know what to say.”
 

He went silent for a second. “What do you mean you didn’t know what to say?”

I shrugged. “I didn’t know what to tell her about us.”

“What do you want to tell her?”
 

I shrugged again.  

He took my hands and lifted me from the bench. “Tell her I’ve had you tied in my bedroom as a love slave.”