by Mj Fields
Four years ago it was much different than it is now. We put all our extra money into this place. It was for a purpose. An unspoken purpose. If we headed in the DC direction, career wise, we wanted a place for us to regroup, and relax. A place to retreat.
I unlocked the top drawer and pulled out the file I had received from Johnny. It showed all movement for the past month of the key players, the suspects. My father on base at least three times a week and three evenings at the club where Mimi’s father met him. My mothers schedule was the same. Monday through Friday she was at the gym. Tuesdays after her work out she had a massage, and Thursday she had her nails done. The weekends were spent campaigning.
Mimi’s father, Arthur Deveroux, spent a lot of time with influential lobbyists. His wife by his side. This past week he had also been on post twice, alone. We had discovered Maxine Deveroux had a bit of a drinking problem. When she was alone, which wasn’t often, her car was spotted at a liquor store a block away from their family home.
Mimi, had been going out more often. I assumed she felt that now I knew the secret she was safer. It was no longer her burdened to carry alone.
When I confronted her about Joel, she told me he was lying and she cried. When I told of my intentions with Frankie she grew cold. From what I had learned about Joel, he seemed to go out every night and Mimi was alone the night that he allegedly had sex with her in the parking lot in her car. Unusual for her to be in that area, but not him.
My number one suspect was her father. He had the most to lose. Second was Mimi herself. When I left her cold and emotionless there was a glimpse of malice in her eyes.
I knew that Sunday night my parents were going to meet Francesca and I for dinner in a very public place. They wouldn’t know she was coming with me, that way they couldn’t make any excuses not to join me. I would introduce her as my wife and they would accept her as such. She would be under the protection of our family. An act that would have been nearly impossible if I had waited and done what they expected I would.
Francesca Irons would be fine. As far as I was concerned she was safe. When I brought her fully into the light there would be nothing or no one who could harm her, ever again.
There was only one thing that I would always regret. Frankie could never know about the Firefly, and the Firefly would fly, unharmed, loved, and free.
Chapter 7
Frankie
Beginning of forever
I woke in the dark room. I sat up and reached over expecting to feel Jax’s warm, hard body and I didn’t. I glanced at the clock and it was four AM. I used the bathroom and grabbed his white tank top off the ground, threw it on, pulled it up and took in a deep breath. I loved how he smelled.
Thirsty and missing my husband, I decided to go downstairs and see if he had went to get a drink too. When he wasn’t in the kitchen I grabbed two bottles of Voss and walked around the first floor trying to find my husband. I walked back up the stairs and looked down the hall and saw a light in the room at the end.
I stood in the doorway and saw Jax sitting behind a large dark cherry desk in a black leather chair. He didn’t have on a shirt and I stood admiring his broad shoulders, washboard abs, and a chest that was un-believably formed. His looks were obviously the first thing that drew your eye to Jax, but beneath that chest was a heart that was loyal, strong, protective, honorable, and mine.
Whatever he was reading seemed to be troubling him. His brows were knitted slightly, I hated seeing him worried or upset.
He looked up at me and closed the file. “Can’t sleep?”
I started towards him and he shoved the file in the drawer and closed it.
“I woke up to an empty bed,” I said as I walked towards him. “And a worried husband.”
He pushed back from the desk and patted his lap, “Not worried just contemplating some things.”
I sat down and his arms surrounded me, “We’re married now Jax. Whatever is bothering you is my burden too. Is it your parents?”
“No,” he pushed my hair away from my neck before leaning in and kissing it.
“Jax as nice as it is to have your lips on me and arms around me, you have to be straight with me.”
He sighed, “Reenlistment.” I turned toward him and waiting for him to continue. “Not sure that’s what I want anymore.”
“What’s changed?”
“Everything,” his body tensed and his eyes turned cold.
“Jax, whatever you decide I will support you. If you want to—oh,” he lifted me up and swiftly walked to the door, turned off the light and made his way to the bedroom.
He set me on the bed and his lips covered mine. I laced my fingers behind his neck pulling him towards me, “Jax.” I whimpered as he pulled away.
“I need you to sleep,” he growled.
“I need you to talk to me.” I said pulling him back towards me. “You’re hiding--.”
“I’m not hiding Frankie, I’m right here.”
“Whatever you want--.”
“Just you and me. Just us, like we have been since you became my wife. I could stay holed up here forever like this. Nothing--.”
I took his hand and pulled him next to me and lay on my side. “Okay. Just like this Jax. Just you and me.” I had never seen Jax so out of sorts. I never wanted him to feel that way around me. He laid down and pulled me into his arms. “You’re tired.”
“Exhausted,” he admitted as his fingers rubbed up and down my back.
“Then we sleep, just like this. Will you talk to me tomorrow?”
He let out a sigh, “I’ll talk to you any damn time you want.”
I didn’t want to tell him if that was true he would have opened up about what was bothering him.
“You don’t want to reenlist?”
He was quiet for a moment and then, “I don’t think I want to. Will that make you think any less--”
“No!” I tried to sit up.
“Just stay here.”
“Why would you think that? I would love you if you were the trash collector Jaxson Irons.”
“Okay.” His lips pressed against my head and his grip tightened and ten minutes later his breath slowed and he fell asleep.
He couldn’t answer my question. He couldn’t tell me why I would think less of him but I knew. I knew the way Jax was raised and it broke my heart that he felt he was so one dimensional. I would do everything I could to show him everyday why he was a man whose depth was beyond what he even could see in himself.
He was asleep when I woke at ten. I slipped out of his arms, quickly placing a pillow where I had laid before going down the stairs to the kitchen to make my husband breakfast.
I was anxious, I had never been good in the kitchen. Toast, and pasta I could handle. Eggs and I had a few successes and many, many failures. I wasn’t gonna let that stop me. I was a wife now and I wanted to do this.
I cracked the eggs into a bowl and surprisingly only had to fish a couple pieces of shell before adding the vegetables I had chopped that were on the vegetable tray in the refrigerator.
I turned down the flame on the stove and popped some bread into the toaster. Things were going well. I grabbed the bacon out of the meat drawer and then wanted to turn on the radio. I went to find the remote Jax had used to turn on some music.
I hit the power button and the music came on, it was loud. I turned it down remembering it played throughout the house and pushed the key indicating the different sections in the house so that it only played downstairs. A voice came through the hand held remote tablet, ‘First floor security system unarmed.’
I hit another button and a voice came from the tablet again, ‘Finger print required to continue with this request.’
“Shit,” I cursed as I tried to arm the system again.
After several attempts the alarm sounded. It was loud, ‘Warning, warning, the access requested is denied. The authorities have been contacted. Warning, warning--.”
Jax raced down the stairs in his black bo
xer briefs and I quickly handed him the tablet. He placed his finger on the screen, ‘System disarmed, system disarmed.’
He looked up at me through his lashes and smirked, “What are you trying to do, escape?”
I laughed and shook my head no, “Just trying to turn on some music.”
“Why are you out of bed?”
“I was going to surprise you with breakfast in bed.”
“I prefer my breakfast hot and ready Frankie,” he said before setting the tablet down and wrapping his arm around my waist pulling me into a kiss.
“Mmm,” I moaned as his tongue took entrance into my mouth.
He pulled back and lifted his nose in the air and sniffed, “Angel are you--.”
“Shit!” I wiggled out of his arms and ran to the kitchen. “Damn it!” I grabbed the cast iron handle and cried out when it burnt my hand.
Jax grabbed my hand and led me to the sink and put my hand under the cold water. “Helps stop the burn.”
I nodded trying to stop from whining as he held my hand before bringing my hand up and kissing it.
“Sit, let me get you some ice.” I sat and waited as he put ice in a cloth and walked over and took my hand. I opened it and he flinched, “Damn Angel.”
“I know, it was stupid.”
“You were trying to make me breakfast in bed?”
“Yeah.” I winced as he put the ice on my hand.
“That was nice,” he held my hand as he pulled the stool over with his foot and then sat knee to knee with me.
“I guess I get an A for effort.” His lip turned up slightly as he stared into my eyes. “Jax, I’m not a good cook.”
He started laughing and so did I. When we had finished he stood up and kissed my head, “It’s a good thing I can cook.”
He walked over and grabbed a towel and lifted the pan, he smirked as he walked out the door that lead to the garage and came back in empty handed.
“Ruined?” I asked as I slouched in the chair.
“Destroyed,” he smirked. “I will say I think it may have been good if the security system hadn’t kicked your ass.”
He disappeared out of the room and returned with the tablet.
“That thing is not my friend,” I pouted and purposely stuck out my bottom lip.
“She just doesn’t know you yet.” He said as he punched his big old finger around the pad.
“She?” I asked and he nodded.
“Maria,” he looked up and winked at me, “Add Francesca Irons to the list of authorized personnel.”
“She’ll be jealous,” I whispered.
He smirked, ‘Please enter access code.’ Maria answered.
“Foxtrot, Romeo, Alpha, November, Kilo.”
“My name?” I whispered.
He held up his finger and pointed to the tablet, “She’ll change it on us.”
“Can she really?” I was shocked.
He shook his head no as he laughed at me.
I scowled and the voice asked for ‘Fingerprint’ and then another finger and another.
“I’m gonna give her a finger,” I whispered in to Jax ear, “Trifling bitch.”
He pushed the screen a few more times and then handed me the tablet, “Pick your access code.” I started for the J and he stopped me, “Something someone won’t guess.”
“You think I am that unoriginal? You think--.”
“Jaxson isn’t all that original.”
“Frank is?” I smiled.
“Will picked Frank as the admin code. Said you and Marie were both pains in the ass so it would be a perfect name.”
“He did not.”
“Yes he did,” he leaned forward and kissed my nose, “And I agreed.”
After we had set me all up, we went back in the kitchen and Jax made us breakfast. He pulled up a stool and I sat and watched my husband, in boxer briefs cook me eggs, bacon, and perfectly browned toast.
He plated the food and sat in the stool next to mine.
I climbed up on the counter and sat directly in front of him, placed my bare feet on his legs, and smiled.
“What are you up too?” He said as he looked me up and down.
“You cook, I feed you.” His eyes drifted south and I lifted his chin and his eyes caught mine. “Let me feed you.”
And he did, forkful by forkful. I watched him chew, swallow and lick his lips, and he watched me watching him. It was very sensual, very intense, and I can’t explain why.
It was seconds from the moment he swallowed the last bit to when he picked me up and carried me outside. He walked us around the side of the house and towards an amazing view of the valley below.
He set me down on the picnic table and lifted his tank top over my head. “I thought I was hungry before Frankie,” his hands cupped my breasts, “Now I know I was fucking starving. You may not know your way around the kitchen but you found your way around my heart,” he stood between my legs and pulled his boxers down, his cock stood straight and proud as it should, “Thank God you did. I am so damn lucky to be loved by you.”
“Jax--,” I said pushing my chest against his hands and reaching down to grip his cock.
He hissed and rocked into my grip, “Say it damn it.”
“I love you.”
“Don’t you ever fucking stop.”
He pushed my panties to the side and rubbed his thick broad head against my saturated slit making me wetter. “Jax please, I need--. Oh God.” I leaned forward and bit his shoulder as he impaled me.
“Lean back Frankie, fuck,’ he growled, “Hands behind you, legs around me.”
I wrapped my legs around him and he was so far inside me I no longer knew where I ended and where he began. Overwhelmed with emotion tears sprung to my eyes and began to spill down my face as I watched Jax moving in and out of me. His eyes were glued on our connection and a look of awe and raw emotions were in his eyes.
He looked up into my eyes, “Awe damn it, I’m sorry Angel.”
He started to pull out of me and I clenched around him as my orgasm ripped through me, “No Jax,” I yelled out and thrust my whole body against his, “Don’t stop.” I panted as I held onto him.
“Fuck,” he roared as he pumped into me. I felt his cock swell and then twitch with his release. He came so hard, so fiercely that I felt his hot cum filling me and spill out as he continued pumping into me until he couldn’t possible come anymore.
He held me tight against him and rubbed hard up and down my back. “I’m so sorry. I just can’t fucking control myself. I could damn it. When this started, I could. But lately-- Francesca I am so sorry.”
“No. God Jax, I want you like this all the time. I want you as lost in the moment as I am. Don’t you dare take me any other way.”
“Don’t just say that to me Frankie unless--.”
“I mean it. Jax, I mean it with everything I am.”
“You’re fucking mine.”
“I’m fucking yours,” his mouth took mine again and his cock began to grow.
“To protect and love.” He said and kissed down my neck.
“To support and cherish.” My voice squeaked.
“Forever.”
“Forever.” He said as he lifted me onto him. Gripping my ass he slowed his pace. Slow and hard, mixed with words and pleasure filled moans.
He buried his head into my neck. I felt and heard his restraint, “Don’t hold back on me.”
“I’m not ready to come yet,” he hissed.
“You’re holding back on me. Fuck me Jax.”
And he did, until we both came in a synchronized orgasm.
He walked in the house at a slow leisurely pace. Jax lead the way upstairs and then drew a bath for me. He showered as I soaked.
“Tired?” he asked kissing the top of my head.
“Exhausted,” I reached up and rubbed his face.
“Let’s nap. Naked.”
I looked up into his sparkling blue eyes. He could have said lets rob a bank, and I would have agreed i
f the same sparkle was in his eye, and the same playful tone was in use.
“And tangled?”
“Very tangled,” he took my hand, helped me out, held up a towel and wrapped me up.
We lay in bed, naked, and tangled talking.
“Don’t reenlist.”
“I have to find something else Frankie. If I am going to walk away, I have to find out what I want to do next.”
“Security. Hell you have a bunch of people working for you. Which I still have no idea how you have a place like this, and an entourage of secret agents, and hidden priests.”
He laughed, “Just a group of friends who look out for each other.”
“Uh huh.” I laughed as I rested my chin on his chest.
“They’re your people too now.” He pushed some hair back from my face, and behind my ear. “ A loyal crew.”
“Aside from Titan s and Shadows, I don’t know them. You are my people.”
He smiled and then closed his eyes, “Even if I become the trash man.”
“Yes.”
He was deep in thought for a moment.
“It was always the plan to retire from the Navy.” I waited until he continued, “But too much corruption has muddied that dream.” He yawned, “I have no idea how I am so damn tired.”
I reached up and rubbed my thump over his strong jaw, “Emotions. They drain us.”
He shifted and sighed, “I wish I had more answers.”
I wanted to give them to him. I wanted so bad to be able to reassure him that as long as we were okay we would be fine, always.
“Doesn’t matter,” he looked down at me, “We have each other.”
“I agree. Nothing will ever change that.”
He cupped my chin, “Nothing.”
~
I sat on the counter as Jax steamed the rest of the vegetables and warmed up some chicken breast.
I handed him a glass of wine and he declined, “I think I’ll give my liver a break.”
“We have drank a lot this past few days.”
He gave me a slow wink, “We have.”
“You sure you’re alright with cooking every meal?”
“I don’t remember flat Jax cooking in that book of yours,” he laughed when I pushed his shoulder. “But in flat Frankie’s defense, she didn’t cook either.”
