Determination

by S. E. Rose

  Eventually, I move up the bed, kissing and sucking her skin as I go, leaving a trail of her wetness on her skin. I kiss her, and she groans again as she tastes herself on my lips. I run my cock back and forth between her legs until I’m dripping from her wetness. All the while, I trace her jaw, her lips, and her earlobes with my tongue, knowing she wants me to suck on her neck. She tilts her head, trying to show me physically. I smile against her cheek.

  “All in due course, mon étoile,” I whisper as I gently kiss her lips. Her breathing is errant, and her eyes are squeezed shut. “Open your eyes,” I command. I want to see into her soul as I move inside her body.

  She complies and slowly opens them. I suck in a breath as I look into the bottomless blue orbs with flecks of green in them. The outer edge is a dark gray, and I’m fascinated with everything about them. I position myself at her entrance and slowly enter her. She half closes her eyes and then remembers my request and forces them to open all the way as I bury myself as deep as I can. She grips my upper arms as I steady myself, not moving, just lying still and allowing her to feel herself impaled on me.

  “Please,” she begs and attempts to move against me, but my weight keeps her in place. I slowly trail kisses along her jaw again and down her exposed neck. I begin to thrust inside her as I do this, pulling almost all the way out before plunging back in as far as I can go. I can feel the neck of her womb as I ram against it, again and again. I place my hands under her ass and pull her hips up and it gives me just a fraction more of her to impale. I can tell she’s fighting to keep her eyes open now as I continue my movement, unrelenting.

  I know now what she likes, how to make her explode in five seconds flat, but I draw it out. She feels too hot and wet and silky against me that I don’t want this to end any time soon. My body begins to glisten from the sweat and so does hers. I can tell she’s on the verge of coming several times, but each time I stop and wait. She moans in protest, and I smile as I trail kisses down her neck and fondle her breasts in my hands. I know she can take more.

  Each time she is on the precipice her body begins to clench tightly around me, and I know it’s only a matter of time before I can no longer hold back my climax. I string it along until I know I’m on the edge, and then I tilt her hips and stay buried inside her as I move at a rapid pace. Her body tenses, and I suck lightly on her neck as I feel her muscles begin to convulse around me, and I explode. I call out her name in the darkness of the room, and I continue to pump, letting her clenching spasms milk every last ounce of my orgasm. When I finish I look down at her.

  Her eyes are shut, and her breathing is erratic as she comes down off her high. I trail light kisses along her jaw and cheek and across her lips.

  “How do you do that?” she half-moans and half-whispers.

  “Do what?” I ask her as she opens her eyes to greet me post-climax.

  “Have the stamina to go for that long?” she asks with a shy smile. “I think I might need to sleep a week to recover.”

  I laugh and kiss her again. “Does that mean I met your standards?”

  “Exceeded,” she replies as she nuzzles my neck.

  “Oh, baby, you have no idea what I want to do to you. It takes all my restraint to not keep you locked away for my sexual pleasure all day long.”

  Her eyes widen, and I smile at her. “Of course, even though I don’t like to share, I do realize your fans might be a little angry if you couldn’t work.”

  She rolls her eyes. “Oh dear, did I just stroke your ego one too many times?”

  I laugh again. “Baby, you can keep on stroking my ‘ego’ all you want.”

  She laughs. “You’re incorrigible. You know that?”

  I nod. “I may have been told that before.”

  She raises her eyebrows.

  “I think there are some ladies in this house that might have said that to me,” I explain, and she smiles.

  “Let’s get you clean, and we’ll go to bed,” I say as I pull out of her and immediately wish I was back inside.

  We shower and fall asleep to the sound of the lapping water outside our window.

  Chapter 17

  Jesse’s Playlist: “Something I Need” by OneRepublic

  I wake to the smell of pancakes, eggs, bacon, and coffee. I smile. Nothing says home like waking up to one of my mom’s famous breakfasts. I laugh at the thought of her cooking on her birthday weekend. I know though that cooking for her family is what will make her happy.

  Vanessa is still fast asleep and curled into a ball next to me. I watch her for a few minutes. Her wavy blonde hair falls around her face and half blocks it from my view. She looks lovely. I kiss her forehead, and she groans.

  “Five more minutes,” she grumbles, and I laugh.

  “How about twenty-five, mon étoile? I’m going for a quick run with Jack,” I say, and she smiles without opening her eyes.

  “That sounds fan-fucking-tastic.”

  I laugh and get up to change into some running shorts. I meet Jack in the kitchen. He is drinking a cup of tea and is already dressed. My mom is busy cooking, and Laura is helping her. Lily is feeding the twins, and I can see Leidy in the family room watching cartoons with Lance. I give my mom a quick peck on the cheek, and she smiles.

  “Shall we?” he asks, motioning to the door.

  The beach is only about two miles long in this part of the Bay, but it’s long enough for us to do a few laps and chat. Once we are a good distance from the house, Jack begins.

  “I have some rather disturbing intel, Jesse,” he explains.

  “Such as…,” I reply.

  “Such as, Mohammed’s partner and half brother, Saeed, is still actively pursuing the business. We didn’t realize his involvement until recently, but our intel is quite clear that he is taking over the family business. I have Hank working on this and between his work for me and for you, he’s found some interesting overlaps he just told me about last night. He’s working on a report for you as well. We have reason to believe Saeed has interest in you, and we are trying to figure out why.”

  “Well, shit, and you think this is related to the guys following us in LA?”

  “Possibly.”

  “Possibly, Jack? Really? Who the fuck else would want to follow me?”

  “Yes, alright. Yes, we think it’s him.”

  “So now what?”

  “Well, you are using Bryce’s security services, so that helps. I’ll coordinate with him to come up with a better security plan. However, I think it’s better if you sever ties with Vanessa for a while. If they think she’s out of the picture, that’s one less person they can use against you.”

  “What about the family?” I ask, motioning back toward the house.

  “We’re covered, I’ll see to that,” he says gruffly.

  “So, you don’t have any idea why he’d want to come after me?”

  “No, not really. I have some ideas, but nothing carved in stone yet.”

  “Your ideas are?”

  “My ideas are top secret and classified, Jesse.”

  “And I have security clearances,” I grumble.

  “I know, but the less you know right now, the better.”

  “Fine, but know for the record that I am not pleased with information being withheld, and I will also have my own people working on this,” I say. I’m fairly annoyed by all of this. Several years ago, as I continued to expand my company, we got into government contracting, not so much for apps, but for encryption software. I have extremely high security clearance because of this, and Jack damn well knows it. The fact that he’s withholding anything from me when it has to do with me, doesn’t sit well.

  “Fair enough, Jesse, fair enough,” he answers, and we finish our run in silence.

  I walk back in to find the family is gathering around the monstrous pile of pancakes, bacon, sausages, and eggs that my mother has begun stacking on the kitchen island. Vanessa smiles at me. She’s clearly showered and put on a red sundress that doesn’t hide
any inch of her figure. Thankfully these people are all family, or I’d be forced to cover her up immediately from prying eyes. I know I’ll soon have to admit to myself that this woman has gotten under my skin and made me feel like an overgrown caveman. For now, though, I’ll just pretend that isn’t the case because I’m about to send her packing, and she’s not going to like that. I sigh and decide this conversation is best done after the party tonight.

  I grab some food and make small talk before heading up to take a shower and think. The water is hot, and steam fills the shower as I let it cascade over me. I contemplate what Jack has just told me. The past few years fly by in my mind, a haze of insanity that doesn’t seem to be real.

  It’s been about two years since my sister went to Scotland to write a book and met Jack. Jack as it turned out was an undercover operative who ended up dragging my sister into a world of underground international crime. My niece and Jack’s niece were nearly abducted by a Russian crime boss who wanted to sell them as sex slaves. My sister killed the bastard, only to ship her daughter off to South America where my niece learned that her biological father was actually involved in stealing orphans for this same crime boss and in fact had a new boss. That led my sister’s niece into the arms of a second international crime boss who was killed by her boyfriend last year. And now there’s me, this same group is after me, but why? I play the facts over and over in my head. I haven’t been involved except for decrypting a message for my sister’s niece, Zoe. That’s it…wait, that’s it! How could I have been so obtuse? How did I not see this before?

  I replay the break-in that happened at my apartment. The icon that was just moved ever so slightly, that was what I had used to decrypt the message. I turn off the shower and run to my laptop.

  I access my files and pull up the decrypted message and begin to scan it. Jack had seen it already, but I wonder if he knows that’s why they want me. Do they want this message? A million ideas of what would cause such interest in me run through my head as I read the message for a second time. There are a lot of files attached with it, dates, times, names, places.

  I take my computer and head downstairs. I find Jack in a study off the main hallway, and I knock.

  “Come on in,” he says, and I open the French doors.

  “Oh, Jesse,” he says as he sees me and then he looks at my face and motions me to shut the door. “What’s going on?”

  “I reread the encrypted messages. I think that’s why they are after me or the files more likely,” I explain as I set my computer down on the desk.

  “Yes, I had figured that, but I don’t know why they would come after you for them at this point,” Jack says. “The dates on the encrypted messages are old.”

  I frown. I look at them again and see Jack is correct. “I don’t know,” I say.

  Jack pats my shoulder. “I’m on it, Jesse. Go enjoy Vanessa and your family.”

  I know he means enjoy her while I can have her with me because then I have to fucking send her away, and I’m really not happy about it. However, Jack is right. I can’t risk her safety.

  The family hangs out all afternoon. A group of us take the boat out for an hour or two and go fishing. I run some crab traps, so Vanessa can catch a few. She squeals with delight every time she pulls one up and then squeals in fear every time I tell her to pick it up, so we can measure it. I laugh at her childlike curiosity about these creatures she hasn’t had contact with except on a dinner plate.

  Leidy comes with us, and I help her catch a striped bass. She’s overly excited, jumping up and down.

  “You want to keep it?” I ask her.

  “Oh yes, I’m going to name him Carlos, and he can live in my room with me, and we can catch him a friend. Maybe a girlfriend?” Leidy says excitedly, speaking way too fast.

  “Uh, no…I mean…” I’m momentarily lost for words at how to explain that we could eat Carlos. Vanessa starts laughing at my predicament, but fortunately my niece comes to the rescue.

  “I think we should let Carlos go,” Lily says.

  “But why?” Leidy asks, as she makes a giant pouty face. She’s so fucking adorable, it’s really hard to explain that we will eat the poor fish.

  “What if his mommy is missing him?” Lily asks.

  “Oh,” Leidy responds. “We should let him go.” Then she leans into Vanessa and Lily and whispers, “Plus, I’m pretty sure Uncle Jesse wants to eat him.”

  We all burst out into laughter, realizing that Leidy isn’t as naïve as she lets on, and we throw Carlos back into the water. We all decide we’ll eat crabs tomorrow for dinner, and then we slowly meander back home, and I clean up the boat with Lance while the girls go in to get ready for the party.

  “How have you guys been?” I ask him.

  “Good, really good,” Lance says. “We have a meeting next week about the new venture I’ve been working on. Will you be attending?”

  “Yes, I’ll be there. This is the one with that new app company we’ve been in talks with, right?”

  “Yeah, we’ll host the app off our servers and help with some of the algorithms, and they’ll do the grunt work.”

  “Nice. Should be a good project,” I say as we walk up to the house.

  “Hopefully so,” Lance agrees as we walk inside, and a scream fills the house.

  We both take off running up the stairs, following the sound. I hear the twins crying, and just as we get to the landing, Vanessa runs out of our room. Her face is ashen white, and tears fill her eyes. She’s completely freaked out, and I run to her.

  “What’s wrong?” I ask, gripping her shoulders.

  My mom runs out of the twins’ room, where she must have been trying to put them down for a nap, and Nick pops his head out as does Lily.

  Vanessa opens her mouth to speak, but no words come out, and she points toward our room. I run inside and see it’s been ransacked. My mom and Laura had stayed home with the twins and had taken them to a park to play. Otherwise, no one has been here.

  “Where’s Jack?” I ask my mom as she comes to stand behind me.

  “He had to run an errand,” she says. Laura comes in next carrying one of the twins.

  “Jesus,” she exclaims as she looks at the room. “I know we locked the door, Mom. If I’ve learned anything from Jack, it’s to lock the door.”

  I take my cell phone out of my pocket, and call Jack.

  “Jesse?” he answers.

  “Jack, where are you?”

  “I met up with someone who is working on further decoding those files.”

  “We have a problem.”

  “What?” he asks.

  “Someone’s been here.”

  Jack is silent for a long moment. “What do you mean?” he asks.

  “I mean, we came home, and Vanessa and my room has been completely ransacked.”

  “Is everyone alright?”

  “Yes, yes. No one was here. Mom and Laura just got back with the twins right before we got back.”

  “Good,” Jack says, and I can hear him exhale loudly. “Anything missing?”

  “I don’t know yet. I’ll have to clean this up and see.”

  “Very well. But we should dust for prints, so maybe wait till I’m back. Where were Dean and Pierce? I’m heading back now.”

  “With us,” I answer as I begin to pick up items that are strewn around the floor.

  “I’ll call in backup for the rest of the weekend,” Jack says.

  “No, it’s my fault. I’ll call Bryce and get some more guys here.”

  “Your call,” he says. “I’ll be back in thirty minutes.”

  “Alright.” And we hang up.

  I turn to Vanessa and pull her into an embrace. She’s shaking like a leaf, and I soothingly run my hand up and down her back and kiss her forehead.

  “It’s alright, sweetness. I’m getting us more security, but I think you and I should have a chat,” I say as I look at my mom and sister. They nod and exit the room.

  I pull back. Vanessa
has tears streaming down her cheeks. Her look of fear breaks my heart, and I know what I have to do. I take her hand and lead her to the bed. We sit, and I put my arms around her.

  “Remember I told you about my sister’s crazy run-in with some criminals,” I start. She nods. “Well, Jack did some digging and for some reason, we believe that they are after me. I don’t know why yet, but I’m working on it.”

  “I don’t understand,” she says, sucking in a breath.

  “Neither do I, but I think it’s best if you go home tomorrow.”

  “What?!” she exclaims, her eyes popping up to meet mine.

  “Home. It’s safer if you aren’t with me,” I explain.

  “No,” she says, shaking her head. “No way. I feel safer with you, Jesse.”

  I cup her face in my hands. “It’s not safe, mon étoile. I need you safe.”

  Tears stream down her cheeks again. I wipe them away with my thumb. She sniffles, and I feel like shit. I lean down and tenderly kiss her.

  “You already made up your mind,” she states, her voice flat.

  “Yes,” I admit. “I can’t protect you. I need you safe. We can still meet in Tahiti in a few weeks.”

  She sighs. “I wish you’d reconsider.”

  I pull her against me and kiss the top of her head. “I won’t reconsider your safety, mon étoile. That is one thing I will not compromise on. Jack and I already spoke about this and it’s for the best. It’s the only way I know you’ll be safe.”

  She pulls back, and I can see fire in her eyes. “Oh, so now Jack gets to dictate my life too. That’s great. When do I get to weigh in on my life?”