by Dee J. Adams
Damn she tasted like sinful heaven. She smelled like clean soap and woman. She worked so hard to be a good mom, daughter, student and girlfriend—fiancée. She never complained about losing sleep when Jess had a rough night or the fact that she didn’t go out and party with friends on the weekend. She deserved the best from him, deserved to know just how much she meant to him.
As he stroked into her with two fingers, he swirled his tongue around that little bud of her sex. She pushed into his mouth, begging for more, pleading with little moans of ecstasy and need. Nothing was better than getting her to the edge and watching her fall over. Feeling the contractions of her inner muscles and tasting all the sweet honey she poured in his mouth. With two fingers hooked inside, a swipe and gentle bite on her clit, Terry came in a shuddering rush, squeezing his shoulders, her nails digging into his back. He stayed with her until she came down, until the shudders subsided.
Jay stood and she leaned against him, spent and breathing hard.
“Oh my, God.” She held him tight. Her heart pounded furiously against Jay’s chest and he kissed her neck then nipped her earlobe before pulling away. She caught him by the belt loop and pulled him close again as she quickly unbuttoned and unzipped his jeans.
“What happened to us being ready if Jess wakes up,” Jay hissed as she wrapped her hand around his hard-on.
“This won’t take long,” she promised with a wicked grin. Hopping off the counter, she bent and swirled her tongue around the tip of his erection. The contact ripped through him like an electrical current. The warm, wet sheath of her mouth had him gritting his teeth. Spearing his hands in her hair, he watched her take him deep—God—so deep that his eyes nearly crossed. His girl had serious skill in the blowjob department.
And she was right. At the rate she sucked and pulled, it was only a matter of minutes before he came, and came hard.
“Ter, it’s so good,” he muttered, holding her head and feeding her the long, hard length of his dick. Every new stroke took him closer to the edge and the roaring in his head grew with every fresh pull.
She moaned and vibration carried through his balls and up his spine. Sweat coated his skin as Terry worked him hard. The undeniable coiling of heat deep in his groin warned of his imminent climax.
“I’m so ready, Ter,” he gritted out. She cupped his tight balls and her light touch sent Jay over the edge. “Oh shit.” Euphoria pounded through him as he unloaded. She blew his mind every time she took him this way, refusing to let go until she had every drop. Holding onto the counter, Jay steadied on his shaky legs.
When she pulled off and stood up, Jay held her close and kissed the top of her head. “I love you so much.” He took her shoulders and looked deep into her eyes. “I swear I’m going to make you the happiest woman in the world.”
“You already have,” she whispered.
Jay kissed her softly and took a few seconds to absorb the love in her eyes. It was a moment neither of them needed to fill with words. Not when they’d spoken so eloquently with their bodies. After another soft kiss, he took the fastest shower known to man, and two minutes later, he stood next to her toweling off the water. It seemed like the perfect time to plan the rest of their lives. “So, I was thinking we could start setting up the guesthouse as soon as possible. There’s no law that says we can’t move in before we get married.” He ran his fingers through his wet hair.
Terry pulled on her jeans, unusually quiet as she zipped and buttoned up. “Do we have to live in the guesthouse?” She finally asked before throwing a tank top on over her bra. “I think we should find a place of our own.”
“It is a place of our own,” he said, stepping into his jeans. “No one else but the three of us there.” He faced her, sensing trouble from the way she avoided his gaze.
“But your parents are there. Granted, not under the exact same roof, but only on the other side of the pool.”
“Since when did you care about that?” He pulled on a T-shirt.
She exhaled hard. “Since you mentioned living in the guest house.”
“It’s not like we can afford an apartment, Terry. I don’t work enough hours or make enough money to cover that kind of expense.”
“So, maybe that means we just wait to move into together.”
What the fuck did that mean? “That’s crazy.” Jay worked to keep his voice level. “The whole point of getting engaged is to get married sooner rather than later. I want the three of us to be together. Is it so hard for you to understand? We have a place waiting for us. I don’t get the issue.”
“Maybe the issue is—” She clamped her mouth shut and it was easy to see she had a major obstacle in her way.
Enough dicking around. “What? Spit it out. What’s the problem?”
Chapter Five
Too late. Terry never should have said anything. She felt a cold sweat break out on her skin as she ran a nervous hand along her arm. She swallowed back the tension and looked Jay in the eye. “Your mother, okay? Your mother is the problem. She hates me and I can’t live on the same property as her. I can’t be that close to her and deal with her when you’re not around.”
“What?” Jay’s eyes rounded. “That’s bogus. My mother doesn’t hate you. Why would you think that?”
She ignored the part where he just called her a liar, because he really had no clue the act Lou Ann put on when he and his father were around. “Trust me. She does. She told me very clearly—to my face—that I’d ruined your life and your whole family’s lives by getting pregnant.”
His brows narrowed dangerously. “When?” His low voice carried a rumble she didn’t often hear from him.
Terry exhaled a slow breath. He wasn’t going to like this. “The day we told them about the baby.” She turned to the mirror, ran a comb through her wet hair and let the time frame sink into his brain. It wouldn’t take long.
“That was over two years ago? Why didn’t you tell me about it then?” The calm in Jay’s voice didn’t match the tension Terry saw in his muscles and that worried her more than anything. She’d never purposely kept anything from him with the exception of her relationship with Lou Ann.
She held his gaze in the mirror. “Because I was afraid, okay. I didn’t know if you’d even believe me and I didn’t want to lose you. I know you’re close with your folks just like I’m close to mine. I didn’t want to get between you.” She hated his icy stare and her skin prickled at the quiet force of his anger. She’d never seen him like this and her fear of losing him built like a giant ball of frustration and pain in her stomach.
Jay shook his head, his eyes flat. “You also didn’t trust me.” He ran a hand through his hair and walked out of the bathroom.
Trust him? What about trusting her? Believing her? With fear came Terry’s anger, and it built in increments. “Well excuse me,” she said, following him. “But it seems like maybe I was right?” Apparently so was Lou Ann.
Jay spun around. “What are you talking about?”
“This.” She gestured between them. “You didn’t even ask me about specifics just now. What exactly did she say? Where? When? Has she said anything else? You got mad and walked away. How do you think that makes me feel?”
“How do you think I feel knowing that’s what’s been between us all this time? I asked you to marry me before Jess was even born and you didn’t say a word. All I got was a no, not now. You tell me you love me, but you’ve kept something this important under your hat this whole time. How am I supposed to trust you if you can’t trust me?”
“Are you listening to yourself? This is the exact thing I worried about. You’re mad at me because I didn’t want to get between you and your mother. What if I had told you then what she said? What would’ve happened?”
“I don’t know, Terry. It’s not like we can go back. I would’ve said something though. I would’ve made sure she apologized.”
Terry shook her head. “Your mother isn’t going to apologize to me no matter what anyone says. She’s g
oing to deny it or spin it because that’s what she does. She runs the ship and she always will.”
“That’s not—”
Jess cried from the other room and the two of them stared at each other. “I’ve got her,” Jay said. Without a backward glance, he went to take care of their daughter.
Terry finished her hair in the bathroom and walked into the den. Jay had brought his boom box in from the car and Jess was dancing to Madonna’s hit Papa Don’t Preach. They’d discovered early on that Jess loved music so they’d made it a point to play it often.
“Mama!” Jess ran to her and Terry lifted her into a big hug. She smelled like baby lotion and sunshine. Like love and happiness. “Dada make milk.”
No way did she plan to argue with him in front of Jess. “He is, huh. That would be pretty amazing if he made milk.” She gave Jess an Eskimo kiss.
“Speaking of milk,” Jay said from the kitchen entryway sounding testy. “I don’t see any. Didn’t you pick up a carton at the market on the way up? I saw it in the cart.”
Terry set Jess on the floor and went into the kitchen. “Yes, I totally did. You mean it never made it in a bag?”
Jay opened the fridge and gestured inside. “Unless you see something I don’t, then we left the store without it.” His surly attitude pissed her off and matched her mood.
“Damn.” Fresh tension stiffened Terry’s shoulders. “We can’t function without milk.” She spun and headed for her purse. “I’ll head back to the market.” A little time away wouldn’t hurt either one of them. “I’m sure they’ve figured out we left it behind. I’ll be back in twenty minutes.”
“Mama milk,” Jess said, looking up at her with adorable whiskey brown eyes.
“I’m going right now. Daddy will give you a little grape juice while I’m gone. How’s that?”
“Gape juice!” Jess spun on her tiny legs and ran for the kitchen. They saved grape juice for special occasions and parties. They’d figured that a family vacation deserved a celebration as well. “Dada, gape juice, gape juice!”
Jay peeked out from the kitchen, his white T-shirt outlining the definition of his muscular chest and faded jeans hanging low around his hips. He was so damn sexy and she was so damn mad at him. “Don’t take the curves too fast. It’s a windy road.” He didn’t sound quite as surly, and his words placated her enough to ease some of that tension in her shoulders.
“I know. I was in the car on the way up here.” She sounded bitchy even to herself. They locked gazes and some of the fight went out of her. She didn’t want to be angry with him. This weekend was about spending quality time together, not arguing about his mother.
“Hold on, Peanut. I’ll be right back.” Jay crossed to her, determination in his eyes. “We’ll talk tonight, okay. We’ll work it out.” He took her hand and linked their fingers.
She nodded. Everything would be fine, because she refused to live her life without him. Both Jess and she needed him, and his mother had been in the way for too long. Time to get that issue resolved. A moment later, Terry eased out the door. They’d find a way to work it out. They had to.
It took her ten minutes to wind her way down the mountain and one minute to run in and retrieve the milk the store had failed to bag for them. With their apologies, she ran back to the car. A cool evening breeze sparked goose bumps along her arms. She spotted one of Jay’s plaid button-up shirts in the back seat and shrugged into it before cranking the engine. It smelled woodsy and clean just like her man and she took a deep breath before concentrating on the drive.
Ten minutes later, she pulled onto the road that led to the cabin. The setting sun cast streaks of pink and orange through the surrounding pine trees and the serenity filled her.
Until she saw the blue four-door sedan parked in front of the cabin.
Terry’s heart raced like she’d just run a marathon and she swallowed hard though her mouth was stone dry. It was the car from her nightmare this morning. Parking next to the sedan, Terry couldn’t get her thoughts together.
Who was here? And why?
It didn’t matter. What mattered was making sure this car never left. It seemed like a ridiculous thought, but even if whoever owned it tried to take Jess—as it happened in her nightmare—then as long as the car couldn’t go anywhere, Jess would remain here.
Maybe she was crazy, but she couldn’t live with the chance that ignoring her dream would result in something bad happening to Jess or Jay.
So how did she disable the sedan? In her dream, the tires of Jay’s Audi had been slashed. So what if she did the same to this car? Terry’s pulse quickened as she rummaged in Jay’s glove compartment for the Swiss Army knife he kept there. She found it under the mileage book.
Terry eased out of the car and stayed low. The last thing she wanted to do was call attention to herself. Hopefully, no one heard her pull up. Starting with the back tire nearest her, she shoved the blade into the sidewall just outside the rim. A hiss of air escaped from a one-inch puncture before she moved on, repeating the process with all the tires before securing the blade and sticking it in her back pocket.
Should she even go inside? Should see sneak around back and see what was happening through a window? Or should she—
The door opened and Jay took a step on the porch. “There you are. Come in.” He sighed and gave her a half grin. “I have a surprise for you. Unlike this morning when you found the ring, I actually pulled this one off.” A surprise? So Jay knew whoever drove this car here? And if that person meant to hurt him—hurt them—and take Jess, then why? Who was it? “Terry?”
Terry swallowed again. Jay didn’t seem worried or nervous at all. Their fight still bothered him, she could tell. It bothered her too, but he seemed calm. So maybe she was overreacting and the person who drove the car was not the person from her dream. And maybe this wasn’t the exact same car from her dream and even if it was, it didn’t mean that any other part of the dream would come true. Except for the fact that she recognized so many landmarks on the road up here. Or the fact that she’d dreamed this exact house even though she’d never been here before today.
“Hey, what’s wrong?” Jay took a few steps out of the house before she snapped back to reality. Jess was alone with whoever remained inside, and every motherly instinct Terry possessed shot to the forefront. She hustled toward Jay with new determination. Whatever—whoever—waited for her, she’d face it head on.
“Hey,” she said, wrapping her arm around his waist. “I never got a chance to tell you all of my dream last night and I think you should hear it.”
“Right! I forgot.” He lifted a suggestive eyebrow. “Right after my surprise.” Before she got another word out, he gently pushed her through the door.
“Surprise!”
“Sapise!”
The greeting shocked her. Stopped her in her tracks. Too many things hit her at once. First of all, Jess was back in the white shirt with pink hearts. The shirt she’d made sure to take off her that morning. The shirt she’d been wearing in the dream when a woman with brown hair had grabbed her up in her arms and taken off with her. And second, Marcella stood next to her daughter, a smile on her face that seemed a little brighter than usual.
“Marcella? What are you doing here?” She couldn’t hide the surprise in her voice. It was the twinge of fear that she hoped no one noticed.
“Mawla sit me, Mama. You an’ Dada out.”
Terry turned to Jay, didn’t want to believe the words she’d just heard. “What?”
“I called Marcella before we left and asked her if she’d mind meeting us up here tonight to babysit Jess. That way we can take the boat out for a late night glide around the lake. Just the two of us.”
Terry took a measured breath, not sure how to respond. “That’s great,” she finally murmured, except it blew their family time out of the water if Marcella was here.
“I’m not staying all night, silly,” Marcella said, clearly reading her thoughts. “Jay offered to put me up at a be
d and breakfast down the mountain.”
Put her up? What happened to saving every dime for their future?
“It’s not costing me anything.” Jay knew exactly how she thought. “The owner owes my dad a favor so he’s letting Marcella stay for free.” He looked at her hands. “You get the milk?”
God, she’d completely forgotten about the milk. “Yeah. I’ll just run out and get it.” Actually she bolted out, trying to wrap her brain around the whole situation in the first place. “Chillax, Terry,” she told herself. It was only Marcella. She wouldn’t hurt Jess. She needed to shake off these jitters before everyone called her crazy. When she got back inside and put the milk in the fridge, she looked at Marcella. “Is that a new car, you’re driving. I didn’t recognize it when I pulled up.”
“It’s the neighbor’s car.” Marcella tucked a bottle of wine in a basket and added some fruit next to it. “She’s ninety and just quit driving. She’s going to sell it, but after I asked and I told her the circumstances, she loaned it to me.”
A perfectly logical explanation. The fresh dread in Terry’s gut had everything to do with slashing the tires. Marcella wasn’t a threat. She was her friend and one of Jess’s favorite sitters. Of course, Jess loved everybody, but still there was no reason to worry about Marcella.
So why couldn’t she shake the sick feeling in the pit of her stomach.
Maybe because she’d have to explain the flat tires to everyone. How long would that take Terry to pay off? She didn’t want to think about it. She sure as hell wasn’t about to bring it up now, because the drama would ruin Jay’s plans. She’d already botched his plans once today, and she didn’t want to do it again.
“Where’s Jay?” she asked, heading down the hallway toward the bedrooms.
Marcella grabbed the basket and blanket sitting on the counter. “He took some blankets to the boat. I told him I’d follow him with this basket.” She headed out the back door with a smile on her face. “You are going to have a night to end all nights.” The door banged closed behind her, and Terry got a wave of chills down her arms. She stared at the door, the memory of her nightmare swirling around in her head like the tornado that took Dorothy’s house to Oz.
