Perfect Fit: Book 4 of the Fated Hearts Series (21 page)

“I thought you had dinner plans with Senator Thompson.” I purposely chose to use Baxter’s title rather than his name in attempt to keep their relationship as professional in my mind. “What happened?”

Jag froze momentarily as he opened the cabinet where he kept his plates. He took a deep breath and pulled out a plate before he shut the cabinet and turned to face me. “You were right about his intentions, Bones. He didn’t want my assistance on the campaign after all.”

“You mean he just wanted to fuck you.” Jag only nodded as he loaded up my plate and put it in the microwave to reheat. “What happened?”

Jag turned and looked at me and I saw the dark emotion in his eyes. The hunger that had been gnawing at my guts turned into dread. In my heart, I knew that Jag wasn’t unfaithful to me. Remorse or guilt wasn’t the look I saw in his eyes; I saw humiliation and hurt. No matter how much I didn’t want to hear what he had to say, I needed to let him talk it out with me. I reached for his hand and tugged him closer.

“Talk to me, Jag.”

“I showed up at the hotel where I thought we were having a meeting with a group of supporters. It turned out to be just the two of us in a private dining room. I should’ve left right then but my ego wouldn’t let me. I wanted to work on the national campaign so fucking bad that I pushed aside the warnings and stayed.” He felt me tense against him and cupped my face in his hand. “I didn’t do anything, Bones. I need you to believe me.”

“I do.” I turned my face and kissed the palm of his hand. I reminded myself that beneath that confident exterior was a man who constantly searched for acceptance – personally and professionally. He had thought that he could only achieve it professionally. The urge to tell him how much I was in love with him was so strong, but I held back. I didn’t want my confession to look like some kneejerk reaction to jealousy.

“We sat down for drinks and I saw the look in his eyes. He was a man on a mission to get laid.” Jag swallowed hard before continuing. “I didn’t even take the first sip of wine. I looked him in the eyes and told him I was in a committed relationship and I was very happy.” His words were a balm to my franticly beating heart.

“To which he said?”

“He said that he didn’t care and no one had to know. He had booked a room at the hotel under an assumed name and we could spend hours getting to know each other again. He told me that he’d never had anyone fuck him the way that I had and he wanted to feel it again.” I would’ve truly been okay if he left the last part out, but appreciated the fact that he wanted to tell me everything that transpired. I didn’t have the right to be upset about his past. He never pretended he had been a saint and I had been no different than him. We both went into our relationship with eyes wide open. “I told him that I wasn’t interested and he got really angry.”

“Angry? How angry?” That wasn’t a normal reaction to have when someone told you that they weren’t interested in hooking up. I’m sure the arrogant ass wasn’t used to being told no, but that didn’t give him the right to get angry. I felt my anger rising and my indignation growing.

“He told me it was a bad move for my career. He basically told me that working on the campaign would have cemented me for a brilliant future both in law or politics. He said that he could’ve molded me to reach my full potential and that we could become the most powerful gay couple in the country.” Jag shook his head at the memories. “Molded me to reach my full potential?” He gave a short bark of derisive laughter. “Since, I’m not interested in fucking him, he doesn’t want my help with his campaign. What a putz.”

The microwave dinged and Jag turned to get my food, but I stopped him. “I don’t know what to say, Jag. I’m sorry about the campaign. I know how excited you were to be working on something on the national level and it sucks that he…” Jag silenced me with a finger over my mouth.

“He was a dumb fucker if he thought I’d sell out what I have with you to work with him. There will be other campaigns, but I’ll never find another you.”
Oh, dear lord.
His words lit me up on the inside and emboldened me to be brave.

“I love you, Jag.” It was the right moment that I had been waiting for. I held my breath while waiting for his reaction. His eyes widened in shock, but then a smile slowly spread across his face.

“Bones,” his deep voice sounded almost raw, as if it was nearly painful for him to speak. “I love you too. It feels so fucking good to finally say it out loud.”

We stood there grinning at each other for long moments and then we were all over each other like kids on candy. I forgot about being hungry, angry, and every other feeling except the desire to take and be taken.

“It’s my turn to top,” I said teasingly. “You rode my ass like a champion bull rider the last time.”

“You begged me to fuck you so it doesn’t count,” Jag growled against my throat. His hands were fondling my ass through my leather pants. “I was prepared to give it up to you, but you were all ‘fuck me hard, Jag,’ so what else could I do?”

I pulled back from his embrace and looked into his eyes. “Let’s flip for it.” I repeated his words from our first time together. Even though we had been together for over a year by that point, it felt like a first to me. It would be the first time we made love with our feelings out in the open and I knew it would be stronger and more meaningful than anything we previously experienced.

I was right. The heat of him nearly burned me alive when I slid inside of him. I felt him in every part of my body when he eased past my ring of muscle and filled me. Neither of us was willing to close our eyes or look away while we truly made love for the first time. The whispered words of love between tender kisses fueled our passion for one another. I had never loved or been loved so thoroughly; my orgasm had never been as strong as when I came inside him at the same time he came all over both of our stomachs. That night changed everything between us.

I was never eager to disengage from Jag’s tight heat and that night I held on even longer than usual. It was the moment I had been waiting for and I clung to it as long as I could while we laid in a tangled knot with our foreheads pressed together. Every breath we took was shared with the other and I finally understood all the sappy crap that Gray had been saying ever since he met Chase. Jag breathed life into me and I him. I wasn’t the same person that I was before he came into my life and I knew the same was true for Jag. Together, we were better.

“Don’t you dare let me turn into a fucking sap,” I said to him after we showered and got back in his bed. “I mean it, Jag. You need to slap me if I start drawing hearts, writing poems, or sending you flowers.”

“I won’t let the sickening saps get you, Bones. I’ll keep you grounded.” His chuckle was the last thing I heard before I fell asleep.

As usual, he was gone before I woke up. I went about my normal routine of getting ready for work, but it was obvious there was an extra gleam in my eyes and pep in my step, which was commented on as I made my way to my office. I opened my door and was shocked to find an enormous bouquet of red roses sitting in the middle of my desk. My heart beat erratically in my chest as I pulled the card from middle of the bouquet. Inside was a roughly drawn heart and inside the words were written:

I must have read the card four or five times before I finally stopped laughing. I leaned forward and breathed in the fragrance of the roses. The sickening saps had caught me too and damn if it hadn’t felt good. I sat in my chair and began to plot my counter move – work was the last thing on my mind right then. A fun idea occurred to me, but I’d need some help to pull it off. Gavin came through the door just then and grinned like an idiot when he saw my flowers and the goofy smile on my face.

“Shut up,” I said, before he could even get a word out of his mouth. “I need you to do something else for me instead of grading papers. It’s personal and I shouldn’t ask you to help me, but…”

“I’m in,” Gavin replied, without hesitation. He listened intently as I laid out the materials I needed him to buy for me while I gave my lecture. I handed him my credit card and shooed him out the door.

I only had a few minutes before my first class, but I couldn’t teach without taking the time to thank Jag for his gift. I shot him a quick text that ended with
I love you
.

I whistled through my morning and spent my lunchtime putting together the surprise package for Jag. I barred Gavin from my office and locked the door so no one could witness my humiliating display of sappiness. I would’ve loved to deliver it in person, but my schedule just wouldn’t permit it, so I hired a courier service to deliver his gift to his office.

I SAT AT
my desk a few days before Thanksgiving and pondered what kind of sappy ass gift I could give Miller next. Ever since I sent him flowers, we had been exchanging gifts that got more and more elaborate over time. I started the game with simple flowers and a lame ass poem that was supposed to make him smile and let him know how serious I had become about our relationship. He fired back that same day with an elaborate gift that made me laugh and touched my heart.

I had grinned when my receptionist called me out to the lobby to sign for a package. There had been strict instructions that only I could sign for it. It could’ve been from many people, but I knew in my heart that it was from Bones. My heart raced when I cut through the tape on the outer box to see what was inside. I lifted a shiny red box out of the larger one and placed it on my desk then I just stared at it like it was ticking bomb or something.

I finally lifted the lid off the box and peered inside. At first, I was confused about what I was looking at because it looked like a box of scrap construction paper. I pulled one out, flipped it over, and noticed that it had a few words printed on it, but they didn’t make sense. They appeared to be random words printed on scraps of paper. I then noticed the odd shape of the pieces of paper and realized it was puzzle pieces. I began to pull them out one at a time, placing them all on my desk so that I could put the puzzle together. Once assembled, I sat in my chair and laughed until my stomach hurt as I read the poem he’d written and then cut into puzzle pieces.