The Heart (27 page)

There was something so enigmatic about him and yet he’d spoken so freely with me in our time together. Still, I knew there was so much about him to explore. That thought mixed with the sight of him had me ravenous with need for him, for his words, his touch.

“I’m over here,” I said, standing to announce myself in the blue lights next to the waterfall.

“Hiding from me, beb?” he said, taking two steps at a time and crossing the porch with authority until he reached me. Without another word, he gripped my hair and landed a consuming kiss on my mouth. I let the blanket fall off my shoulders and pulled him to me hard. I looked for and found everything in his kiss, my doubts from the day erased with just the feel of him around me. I pressed into him with every ounce of passion I possessed. He tore his lips away and I followed, recapturing my unrelenting want of him. He obliged with a growl as he took and savored me until we were both panting.

“Not hiding,” I said as he looked down at me with a mix of surprise and hunger.

The slow sexy smile I loved so much made its presence known as he cradled me in his warmth.

“I drove almost four hundred miles to kiss you goodnight and fuck if it wasn’t worth it.”

My heart began to pound in Jack’s rhythm as I looked into the gray-blue depths of his eyes.

“You’re so good to me,” I said as I pushed up on my toes and began to kiss his neck. “So damned good,” I whispered as I let my hands wander from his shoulders down to his arms, licking as much of his salty skin that I had access to. “I want to be good to you, too.” My voice was hoarse and I made my intention clear as I started working the belt on his jeans.

Jack looked down at me as I kneeled on one of the cushioned patio chairs just as I freed his hardness from his pants. I felt his hesitation and stifled it with the flick of my tongue across the tip of him. “I want this.”

“Good God,” he gritted out through his teeth as I looked up at him with earnest eyes. I grabbed his hand and pushed it through my hair. He took his cue and wrapped it in his fist. I wasted no time and gripped him eagerly as I licked the underside of his impossibly hard length. I was rewarded by the hiss through his teeth as his grip on my hair tightened.

“I want you in control,” I rasped out between leisurely licks. “Take my mouth, Jack.” He peered down at me, not an ounce of hesitancy left as I took the tip of him inside and molded my lips firmly around him.

“So fucking beautiful,” he grunted as he thrust inside me, slow at first, and then guided my head and lips to consume him. His other hand stroked my face tenderly as his eyes stayed glued to the lips that surrounded him. I moaned in arousal as I felt the wetness seep out of me and took him to the hilt. I heard Jack curse as I kept my eyes on his and he struggled to keep his gentle pace.

“I’m going to lick you back until you beg me to stop, bet on it,” he pushed out as he thrust fully into me and swiveled his hips.

I gripped his hard-ass and pulled him to me as I relaxed my throat further, taking every movement of his hips and asking for more.

“Rose... God... baby... fuck...” He was close, and I felt him twitch in my mouth. I dug in deeper, feeling his need, his desire. It spurred me on to the point of madness. I wanted to taste him on my tongue. He gripped me harder as his body tensed and began to pull me away by my hair. I shook my head and gripped the sides of his jeans in protest as I inhaled his long, thick cock, coating every inch of it with my tongue.

I took Jack’s orgasm and his moans in sweet victory as his body trembled and he sang my praises. I continued to suck until there was nothing left of him and licked my lips with satisfaction as he looked down at me.

“I couldn’t have dreamed that better,” he said as his fingers trailed down my throat and stroked the small amount of cleavage revealed by my low tank top. Jack moved quickly and threw me on my back on the lounger, his eyes liquid black and full of desire. His hungry mouth teased and lit every surface that his fingers had just whispered across.

“Ready to beg, beb?” he said in a growl just as he reached the button on my shorts.

“Ca-caw! Ca-caw!” I heard in the distance as Jack looked in the direction of the intrusion and I groaned in frustration.

Jack looked down at me as I heard a second shriek sound through the air.

“I must apologize for them in advance,” I said, pushing back to my knees as Jack buckled his pants. Mourning the loss of him and what I was sure would have been mind-blowing retaliation, I surveyed my state of dress and refastened my hair. I was just about to pass Jack on the porch when he pulled me back to his chest, his arm wrapped possessively around my neck.

“Not so fast,” he said as he pushed his hand into my shorts and beneath my panties, running a single finger through my folds. Still overheated from moments before, I almost hit my knees at his welcomed touch.

“Your mouth on me turned you on this much?” he said with a hint of awe as he flicked his wrist and I whimpered in his arms.

I turned my face to him as he slipped his finger through one more time and brought it to his lips.

“You turn me on that much,” I said as he took my mouth with desperate hunger. He pulled away just as the next shriek hit the otherwise silent night air.

“Ca-caw, ca-caw,” Jamie belted out as she approached at full speed in one of the center’s golf carts. Jules burst out laughing before she added her own birdcall and they came to a screeching stop just before hitting my new car in the driveway.

“Ca-caw, ca-caw,” Jamie sounded out again as Jack studied them in amusement before looking back to me with a Cheshire grin.

“They truly are smart humans. Really, Jamie doesn’t get out much, and well, Jules is from New Jersey.”

“And that’s an excuse?”

“I’m just going to go with yes.” I pressed my lips together as the cawing continued. The girls ran into my yard with bottles in hand and sauced looks on their faces. Clearly, they had struck out, and now because of them, so had I.

“I’m sorry, Jack. Maybe tomorrow?”

“Don’t worry about it, beb,” he said as he leaned in and gave me a promising kiss before an even more promising whisper. “You better believe I’m going to make that up to you.”

“Ca-caw!”

Jules was feet away now, and Jack and I both jumped in surprise.

“Jules, we can see you.” Jules stood there with a shit-eating grin on her face. Her hair was a rat’s nest, which I was sure was a result of driving around on the cart, and her dress was situated in a way that barely kept her valuables covered.

“Hey, you two,” she said as she stood and pointed between us. “I have a very important question... for Rose.” Jack looked at me with brows raised as she turned to me with a sudden, serious expression. “If you both end up on a sinking ship in icy waters, will you move your big ass over so he can fit on the floating headboard?”

Jack laughed hysterically as I blew out a breath of dread. It was going to be a long night. Looking for Jamie, I spotted her over the railing as she chased my traumatized ducks.

“Ca-caw!” she shrieked at them as they ran for their lives.

“I’m going to get dumb and dumber into a cold shower and make some strong coffee,” I said as I gripped Jules by the strap of her dress and pushed her through my bedroom door.

“Good idea.” He winked as he made his way down the porch steps and Jamie made her way up.

“Hey, you!”

“Hey back at you,” Jack said without stopping.

Smart man.

Jamie paused at the top step and bent halfway over, examining Jack’s ass closely as I cleared my throat.

“That,” she said in a whisper, “is a work of art, I say!”

I crossed my arms as she approached me with pouty lips, equally as drunk as her predecessor. “In my deflense, I don’t drink shots and Jules made me have sleven.”

“And that’s why you sound like Daffy Duck?” I gripped her purse strap, pulled her inside, and caught Jack’s laugh as he turned back in our direction to let out his own “ca-caw!”

Jamie quickly answered back enthusiastically as she blew out my eardrum.

“Thanks a lot, buddy, really. You’ll pay for that!” I called after him. I looked to my bedroom where the girls stripped themselves of heels, chunky jewelry, and half of their attire before raiding my kitchen. I sat with them at my counter as they devoured a large pizza and started on cheese and crackers.

“I’m too old for this shit,” Jules said as her glossy eyes began to close while she preached. “I am! I’m in my thirties. I shouldn’t be going to bars chasing cowboys and raising hell.”

“I’m with you,” Jamie said as they fist bumped. “Tomorrow will be hell. I can’t handle my liquor anymore.”

Jules downed her water bottle as she eyed me. “And just what exactly were you up to when we got here?”

“He’d just got back from Lubbock and stopped by,” I said sternly in an attempt to ward off the confession of the flaming whore I’d behaved like with my lips around him minutes before they arrived.

“Sorry,” Jamie said as she looked at me with regret.

“This is punishment, right?” I said with a shrug.

“No,” Jules answered sharply. “We just want you around, and if you won’t come out, we’ll come to you, babe.”

“I’m flattered,” I said dryly but with a wink.

“You should be,” Jamie said, “not many people get to experience all this awesomeness.”

I raised a brow as I herded them out of my kitchen and we made our way to the couch. The girls spent half an hour telling me about their night out and how cool their Uber driver was before they passed out face first, Jules in my bed and Jamie on my couch. Instead of being turned off by their behavior, I decided to join them the next time they went. Maybe I wasn’t ready for it when they’d initially taken me out, but I was now. I wanted to experience more now that I was coming out of my numb state. I sat up alone, drinking a glass of wine and ignoring Netflix as I thought of what Jack had said to me.

“Everyone has to roll the dice at least once in their life.”

Hadn’t I done that with Grant? And hadn’t I watched those dice circle the drain, helpless to stop them from going down.

Though I was still knees deep in an identity crisis, I was positive I was finally getting rid of the bitter and jaded version of myself, the one who blamed loss and declared her life over.

Life was a bitch, but I had to forgive her. It was time.

I’d already driven over four hundred miles on my bike, and though I was exhausted, I’d purposely missed my motel exit as my mind reeled. I rode on through the dark night on the surprisingly empty Texas highway, reveling in what had just happened, and at the same time hungrier than I’d ever been in my life. I’d never had a wife to come home to, a woman to call home. I’d made it that way. I was fine with it. The woman who had come before her had no expectations. I was always on my way out. Tonight when I’d stared into Rose’s home, I’d expected to meet her at her door. I wanted inside that house, to feel the warmth of the woman who owned it. Just kiss her lips, look into her eyes, and wish her better dreams. That would have been enough for me.

What I got, I would fantasize about for the rest of my living years. Jesus, those eyes, those lips, her need to please me, to take possession of her, I could never get enough. If heaven were a sexual act, I’d just visited.

The French call the orgasm la petite mort (the little death). I’d gladly die a little every day to keep that feeling alive inside of me. But the comfort of her had been a far sweeter reward. At thirty-seven, I’d never had that, never felt that, and never wanted anything more than to feel it again. I pulled the throttle as the world passed me by in a blur of lights. Another shift had hit me tonight. All my years of traveling, I’d felt slightly privileged over the majority. That maybe my decision to turn in my tie and put on my captain’s hat had given me an edge on the masses and the never-ending rat race. I felt justified as the tortoise that had stopped to appreciate the beauty of the world.

Hindsight was a bitch, especially when she told me I might have been the one who’d been missing something. Either way, I was too fucking far gone to look back. I zipped through the summer night with a new craving. A need I’d never known had now become my new obsession. I wanted a new kind of home. I wanted to belong, but I wanted to belong to her. She was that home, she had the heart I needed, and I wanted in.