by Marr, Maggie
“Say it again,” she says and slips off the blouse.
“I’m sorry,” I say and get on top of the bed on all fours and crawl toward her wanting to shred that little lace concoction hiding those gorgeous breasts from me.
“Not that.” She looks up her through her eyelashes at me and, at this moment, I would do anything—and I mean anything—for this woman that I love.
“I love you,” I say as sexy and deep as I possibly can. I pull her close to me and look at her, because I need her to understand. “I’m not joking about this, Becca, I’m completely serious. We do this, and it means something this time. No running away. No hiding in New York. No pretending this didn’t happen. I love you and I want us to be a real couple, not just now but for the rest of our lives.”
Her eyes widen and suddenly there isn’t excitement in them…uh-oh…no, now there is something completely different. Is that…is that…
“I’m sorry, I can’t do this,” Becca says and scoots off the bed. She grabs her shirt and her jacket and scurries into the bathroom and slams the door.
Fuck. My. Life.
Chapter 10
Becca
He loves me? He loves me? After all these years and all these chances and all the times I wanted him to say those words…now, here, in this house he loves me?! I pace in front of the bathroom mirror that is as long as a semi-trailer in a master bathroom that is bigger than my entire apartment. I pull on my blouse and sit on the edge of the soaking tub. I press my hands to the side of my head.
What is wrong with me?
Then I see it, my phone, on the far end of the marble counter, near the steam shower big enough for twenty people. I get up and grab my phone and call the one person I know will understand why I’ve locked myself in a bathroom after the man of my dreams just told me he loves me.
“Little early on a Saturday for a call,” Torrey mumbles and I imagine her yanking up her eye mask and rolling over onto her bed with her hair a huge mess.
I cup my hand over my mouth and turn away from the door that leads into the bedroom. “He says he loves me,” I whisper.
“Becca, who the hell has your phone?”
“It’s me, he says that he loves me.”
“Okay, girl, what the fuck are you talking about? Is it edibles? A psychotic break? Who loves you and who has known you long enough to even think about saying those three words to you?”
“Jake,” we both say together.
“Oh my fucking God, you slept with him, didn’t you?” she shrieks. I press my hand over my phone and get into the steam shower and close the door. Please let it be soundproof.
“Yes,” I whisper, “I did sleep with him but there were extenuating circumstances—”
“Extenuating…like his cock?” she says. “I can’t believe we are going down this road again.”
“Did you hear the part about how he said he loved me?”
“Before or after he came? Becca, you know the rules, when a man—”
“Fully clothed.”
Torrey gasps into the phone. “No sexy-time involved?”
“Not when he said it.”
“Damn,” Torrey says. “Have you tamed the untamable Jake Warner, Tiger?”
“Do not call me that,” I hiss. “I told you that in confidence.”
Torrey giggles into the phone. “Alright, alright, I’m sorry. So he was dressed when he said the magic-trinity…hmm…that puts a whole ‘nother spin on things.”
“Becca!” Jake pounds on the bathroom door, proving that the steam shower is definitely not soundproof. “Becca, can you let me in?”
“What is that noise? Where are you? Are you with him right now?’
“No. Yes. I mean, I don’t know.” I press my hand to my head. “It freaked me out. I don’t know what to do. I mean, the man of my dreams just told me that he loves me and wants to spend the rest of his life with me. What do I even do with that?”
“I know what I’d do,” Torrey says, “and it would not include locking myself in a bathroom and calling you.”
“Right,” I say and close my eyes.
“Becca, please?” Jake says.
“Boo, this is bigger than Jake, okay? This is some upper-level higher-power shit because you have just gotten everything you ever wanted and now…you don’t know what to do with it.”
“He broke my heart three times,” I say.
“Oh sweetie, he broke your heart way more than that, because I was there for every damn time.”
I sigh and close my eyes. “Right, but he never…we never…” In the mirror across from the shower, I look at the reflection of me standing barefoot in a steam shower in a suit jacket and an unbuttoned silk shirt. Half my hair is down and the other half is in a knot on my head, smeared lipstick and mascara under my eyes.
“What do you want to do about this? With him?”
“I want to be brave,” I say.
“Then girl, you go and do that.”
Chapter 11
Jake
I have a screwdriver, and I could get into the master bathroom. Last night I let myself into Becca’s house and that worked out pretty well for me (who am I kidding it was fan-fucking-tastic), but today is different. Way way different. She’s not angry. What I saw in Becca’s eyes was fear. Absolute and pure fear.
And I can relate. Because a half of a dozen times before today where Becca was concerned she was brave and I was a coward. Becca’s not even being a coward, she’s just being realistic. I mean come on, our track record—okay, my track record—where Becca Ryan is concerned isn’t so great. Some major losses there. And then I go and spring those three giant words on her.
Not such great timing, Jake.
But that seems to be our primary problem, Becca and me: timing. Every. Damn. Time. Well, that and my fear—in the past. How could a girl—no, woman like Becca settle for a guy like me? But now I see it so clearly…there was something about seeing that couple, Cole and Meg Jackson together—this super-happy couple and this life they were creating and the way the smiled and joked and bam! It was like finally, I simply got it! Got it, that Becca is mine and I love her and no matter how I try to fight it, I will always love her.
I put my jeans back on and sit on the bed across from the door to the master bath and wait. I can wait. I can wait as long as Becca needs. I will wait. I slip my phone from my back pocket and text my touch-up guy not to come by until after two. If Becca needs time to sit in that bathroom and think then I’m going to let her and I’m going to be here when she walk out. I’m going to be here until she knows that I’m always going to be here no matter how long it takes for me to prove that fact to her. I’m not going to run away, forget to call, lose her number, ghost her…I can’t guarantee against emergency surgery but I’m pretty damn sure I only have one appendix so we’re golden there.
We’re closing in on forty-five minutes with Becca locked in the bathroom. Earlier I heard her talking, I’m guessing to Torrey, who has not always been my biggest fan—fair enough. I sit with my elbows on my knees leaning forward and willing Becca to come out and talk to me, just talk to me.
I start to stand when the bathroom door opens a crack. There she is, my Tiger. She peeks her face out and looks at me. Her hair is down and not quite as disheveled, but her nose, lips, and eyes are red and puffy.
“Becca?” I say and walk to the door, trying to gage if she wants me to wrap my arms around her or leave her alone, because I truly don’t know. There’s nothing I want more than to give her what she needs, but I am unsure what that is right now.
“I…I’m sorry,” she says.
“Oh baby, you don’t have to be sorry,” I say. I stand beside the door and look at her. Those sweet beautiful eyes are filled with hope and I step forward and open the door the tiniest bit and I take a chance. I wrap my arms around her and pull her as close and as tight as I can. “I…all I want is for you to be happy. To spend my life making you happy,” I say.
Becca pulls back an
d looks up at me. Her eyebrows are knit tight. “You have to admit this is a big change and it feels really sudden.”
I press my lips together. “It’s not…” I scrub my hand through my hair and look at her. How to explain? “It’s not and it is.” I take both her hands and look into her eyes. Here goes. “So here’s the thing, I have always loved you.”
She shakes her head and looks away like I’ve just shoveled her a heaping pile of manure.
“No really, listen…please.”
She turns back, looks to me, and takes a deep breath. She hasn’t let go of my hands or walked away or locked herself behind any more doors so I take that as a good sign and keep going.
“I have always loved you, but I’ve always been afraid. Scared. Because if I love you and let myself love you, there is no going back. Okay? I’ve always known that and I guess…I guess I was always afraid of…of if I was all-in and you weren’t, what that would do to me. And I know that sounds selfish and like an asshole, but maybe I just had to grow up enough to know, to realize that it doesn’t matter what it does to me, I still have to take my shot and if that means you don’t want to be with me or you can’t love me back or—”
She presses her fingertips to my lips. “Stop talking.”
I tilt my head to the side and she smiles at me and the fear is gone from her eyes.
“I love you too.”
My heart fills to the brim and I grab my Tiger by the tail and pull her close to me because I am about to give her one wild ride.
Chapter 12
Becca
Jake Warner is my guy. I know it’s true and I know that this is exactly as it should be. His hand presses against my ass and he pulls me forward. My fingers curl through his hair and I pull his face down to mine. Heat rolls through me when his lips meet mine.
This kiss.
I’ll forever remember this kiss because it’s the first kiss of my forever with Jake. I lean into him and my unbuttoned silk blouse slides off my body and Jake has my bra off in seconds. We’re a fumbling mass of want and need. My skirt is off and his jeans are off and we are again naked in the master bedroom. He lifts me and swings me around to the bed. I stop—I need to catch my breath as my eyes roll over the man that is pure perfection, with his hard-quilted abs, giant pecs, and arms that’ve spent years swinging hammers and lifting two-by-fours, and that…oh my God, that cock that has already given me so much pleasure over and over and over again, but now it’s not only Jake’s cock, but it’s my cock too.
I smile. He smiles. And there is this added feeling to the heat that has always inhabited the space between me and Jake—the feeling of permanence. The absence of fear and the joy of hope and knowing that we’re in this together. I’m not leaving. He’s not leaving. We are actually doing this.
“We’re actually doing this, right?” Jake asks and the corner of his mouth lifts.
“Yes, we are,” I say.
He bends forward and places his palms on the mattress on either side of me and that muscle in his bicep twitches and my sex tightens. I lick my bottom lip because the twitch of that muscle just sends me over the edge. Now he’s over me, his lips close to the side of my face.
“Ready, Tiger?” he whispers in my ear.
“You have no idea,” I whisper back.
His lips are on my lips and I fall back onto the mattress. So ready for Jake and the future and sinking into this moment of pure pleasure. His hand slides over my body and his fingers are on my nipple. He pulls and presses and then pulls his lips from mine and slides my nipple into his mouth. I’m hot and wet for him. I grasp his cock in my hand and stroke up and down. My thumb brushes over the tip of his cock and there is slick precum on the tip. I pull away from his mouth and bend down, I gently push him onto his back and press my lips over each of those thick, hard ab muscles. Each one deserves a kiss.
Then I slide over him and lick down one side of his thick shaft and up the other. My tongue darts out and circles over his cock and now it’s Jake’s hips that roll up and back. I look up at him and into his eyes: they are dark with want and desire and fixed on me.
“You’re killin’ me, tiger,” he says and presses a hand to his head. His other hand clasps the duvet and crumples it tight. I slide his cock deep into my mouth.
“Ohhh, fuck,” comes out of Jake’s mouth.
I suck hard and slide my mouth up and down over his cock. My hand grasps his balls beneath his shaft and I gently squeeze them. My other hand follows my mouth up and down over his cock.
“Baby, I’m going to—” His hand grabs for my shoulder, but I stay where I am, ready to take him, to take all of him. His hot cum sprays into my mouth and I swallow and suck taking all of him deep into me. His body shakes and trembles. I lick over the tip of his cock making sure I’ve taken all of him and release him. He pulls me up to him and his mouth is on mine.
“My God, babe, that was amazing,” he whispers around our kiss.
His hand is between my legs and he circles my clit with his fingertip. His kisses hot down my neck and across my chest. I’m pretty sure he’s going to need a break when—
What the fuck?
He’s hard.
Jake Warner is hard…again.
He smiles at me. “Ready, babe?” he says.
“Oh, my God, yes,” I say. I see his cock and I am so ready.
He rolls me over so that I am above his cock. I press it to the edge of my sex and slowly slide down letting him fill me. His fingertip finds my clit and rubs me as I slide up his cock and back down. Ever so slowly.
“Feel good?” he asks. He presses another hand to my breast and circles around my nipple.
“Uh-huh,” I gasp out, because I can barely speak—I’m completely losing myself in the pleasure of sliding up and down over his cock. I lean forward and grasp his shoulder with my hand and pull up and slide down. “I’m so close,” I say.
“Come for me, Becca, come for me,” he says. His gaze locks with mine and we watch each other as we come together again.
* * *
Sun streams in through the windows of the master bedroom, of a house that isn’t mine! I sit up. Shit! “Jake, wake up! What time is it? Wake up!”
There are noises from downstairs…people…oh my God. I spring from the bed and grab my clothes and start tossing pillows on the bed. “It’s the broker’s open house! Wake the fuck up!” I hiss and throw a pillow into Jake’s face.
“Becca, what are you doing?” he asks.
“It’s the broker’s open,” I whisper. I grab my phone and flip it over, it’s two p.m. “Shit!”
“Oh fuck!” Jake says. He hops out of bed and yanks on his pants and his shirt. He corrals pillows and tosses them on the bed. I grab all my clothes and dash into the bathroom. I look like a wet raccoon. Even worse than when I locked myself into the bathroom earlier today—and I didn’t think that was possible. Fuck. Super professional Becca! I stare in the mirror and put on all my clothes…except…shit where are my underpants? Can’t worry about those right now. I use one of the towels that’s just for show and clean off my face; better to have no makeup than the mess that’s on my face right now.
I pause and stare into the mirror. He really does love me, if I looked like this and he still said it. I smile at the reflection of a woman who just got everything she ever wanted.
Knock, knock, knock.
“Almost finished? I’m gonna go downstairs and try to stall them,” Jake says.
“Got it.” I pull my hair up and grab the hair tie from around my wrist and throw my untamable hair into a messy bun. “Just good enough so I can get out of this house,” I mumble to the messy looking executive staring back at me from the mirror.
Deep breath. I grab my purse, my phone, who the fuck knows where my panties are, and go back into the master bedroom. Damn! Jake is good! That bed looks like it did before we messed up the pillows and the duvet. I take a quick check and nope—nothing on the bed, we’re all good. I peek beneath it just in case my pantie
s are somewhere to be found. Nope. Gonna have to go commando…in a skirt. Making a quick exit. I walk out of the master and head to the back staircase because I can hear Shandra, our broker who is handling the open house coming up the front stairs.
I slip down the back staircase that leads into the kitchen and there stands Jake with—fuckity-fuck-fuck!—my brother Dave and my dad.
“Heeeey, Dad!” I say and lean in for a peck and hope to God I don’t stink of sex.
“Becca! You’re here too? Look at you two, always working! I may be the luckiest man alive to have you two kids helping me with my business.” He turns to my brother. “Now if these two would bury the hatchet, we’d be golden.”
Dave eyes me from top to toe and then Dave’s gaze assesses Jake. Dave lifts a knowing eyebrow. “Oh, I think they may have buried the hatchet,” he says with all kinds of innuendo in his voice.
I shoot him the don’t you dare look and he gives me a teasing older brother smile that says, without him uttering a word, I got one on you little sister.
“So, Dad, don’t you have a tee time on Sundays?”
“I do, but I just wanted to stop by and take a quick peek. We’ve got a good crowd here for this today. Can’t wait to see what kind of offers come in on Monday.” He smiles at me, then smiles at Jake, then looks at me and looks at Jake and this hint of a vague question enters his eyes. “Uh…I’m gonna head on out to go play a round. I’ll…I’ll see you two in the office tomorrow.”
“Sure thing, bye Daddy!” I call then watch him leave. “Think I’m gonna head out too. Looks like Shandra has it covered.” I take a cursory glance around the kitchen, like I even care. I can’t get out of here fast enough.
“I’ll go with you,” Jake says and we both head for the back door.
“You two aren’t fooling anybody,” Dave calls toward us.
