by A. D. Ryan
Smiling softly, I dropped my feet to the bed and shifted away from Jensen—doing what he was struggling to do—before reaching into the night stand to grab one of the condoms I’d put there last night before dinner.
He pushed himself up onto his knees as I rolled over and fumbled with the damn foil packets again—unable to find the loose one from last night in my impatience. When I was finally successful, I got up onto my knees in front of him and tore the packet carefully. Smiling, I crawled toward him and lowered my hands between us and slowly lowered the condom down his length as I leaned in for a kiss.
When my hand reached the base of his erection he hissed, moving his right hand over my thigh and inward until he was stroking the sensitive skin at the juncture of my legs. Once again, his fingers worked slowly; each pass he made left me panting until I could feel myself teetering on the edge of bliss.
“I want you, Jensen,” I said breathlessly.
A low growl resonated from somewhere deep inside him, exciting me. Before I knew what was happening, Jensen threw me back onto the bed, and I cried out with a playful giggle as he repositioned himself between my thighs.
I lifted a trembling hand and pushed a few stray pieces of hair away so I could look him in the eyes. “I love you,” I told him softly.
My heart soared when he smiled back, his fingers gently stroking my jaw and trailing up to my temple before he kissed me softly. “I love you, too.”
With our feelings out in the open, he slowly moved forward, and we groaned in unison as he entered me. No words could describe the emotions that went through me in that moment. Our eyes locked once more as Jensen moved slowly above me, my climax rapidly culminating within me and threatening to wash over me sooner than I was hoping.
Moving quickly, I pulled his face back to mine and kissed him hard. Everything we felt for one another amplified in that moment as our kiss quickly escalated and our hips moved together. His breathing became shallow and every thrust made him groan and whisper the occasional profanity into my mouth.
My moans grew louder with every pulse of his hips, and my orgasm started surging through my body, my muscles tensing in preparation.
“Jesus,” Jensen muttered softly, pulling me out of my euphoric state enough to hear the soft knocking.
At first, I thought it was coming from the door, and I could feel annoyance quickly replacing pleasure. It wasn’t until I really focused on its origin that I realized it was coming from above me. Every time Jensen pushed into me, he was hitting his head on the headboard.
It shouldn’t have surprised me that the two of us couldn’t even have sex without something stooge-like happening. I mean, really. If you looked back on our track-record, it was full of entertaining mishaps—mostly at my expense. Thankfully he didn’t stop though; he merely slowed and glared at the headboard.
Then, a look of revelation registered in his eyes, and they glinted deviously as he leaned down to kiss me softly. I felt nothing but his love for me as his hands left the side of my head one at a time. We were still kissing passionately when the wooden headboard creaked, causing me to open my eyes and look above me.
Reaching up, his hands gripped the top of the headboard tightly—using it for leverage as he continued to thrust his hips forward and …
I cried out, my short nails digging into the flesh of his muscular back as Jensen picked up momentum in our new position. Soon, my entire body tightened and released around Jensen, pulling him over the edge with me.
Breathing heavily, Jensen released the headboard, dropped to the bed, and wrapped his arms around me as he pushed deep inside me once more, groaning as he came. We both laid there, panting hard, our sweat-dampened bodies pressed tightly together as they started trembling in the wake of our orgasms.
Feeling his lips twist up into a smile against my skin, Jensen kissed my neck before pushing himself up onto his elbows and smiling down at me. “Are you okay? I didn’t … I wasn’t too rough, was I? Your ribs are okay?”
Even though I was pretty sure my entire skeletal system was nothing more than a puddle of goo at this point, I managed to nod my head with a sly look in my eyes. I hummed softly, rocking my hips up into Jensen’s again. We both groaned in post-orgasmic delight. “That was incredible.”
“Agreed.”
“What do you want to do now?” I asked, lifting my head and kissing Jensen softly before letting it drop back onto the downy pillow.
He seemed to contemplate my question for a moment before smiling. “Well, we have yet to take advantage of that Jacuzzi … and, it is our last night here?”
Arching my right eyebrow, I smirked devilishly. “I think that sounds like a great idea.”
Placing one last kiss on my lips, he stood from the bed. As the tub filled, he called down for a bottle of wine before leading me to the oversized tub. The next couple hours were spent drinking wine and making love before passing out wrapped in each other’s arms.
Chapter 10. The Morning After
“No, she’s still asleep,” Jensen whispered as I breached consciousness. “I’m going to let her sleep a few extra minutes, and then we’ll come down to meet you all for breakfast.” There was another brief pause as my eyes fluttered open and focused on the pale blue wall ahead of me. “Yeah. We’ll be down in about an hour … See you then.”
I heard a light click as he set his phone on the bedside table, and the bed shifted slightly beneath him. I was lying facedown on the bed with my arms up under the pillow and didn’t have to turn around to know he was watching me; I could feel his eyes on me.
“You sure like to stare a lot,” I mumbled into my pillow before propping myself up on my elbows and turning to face him. Fuck me if he wasn’t the most gorgeous man on the planet.
The duvet was pulled up to his hips as he lay on his left side (naked from the waist up, I should add), his arm propping him up as he stared at me. His lips twisted up into a smirk as he chuckled lightly. “Did I wake you?”
I shrugged. “Not really. I think I was waking up anyway. Who was on the phone?” I asked.
“Mom. Just reminding us to meet them for brunch.” When his eyes fell to the sheets and I saw his cheeks turn pink, I smiled. He was so adorable. “She wanted to tell us last night, but she hadn’t noticed we’d snuck away.”
I was no longer focused on how adorable he was, but by the very real possibility that his mother knew we had … that we had snuck away to … Shit! There was no way in hell I was going to be able to face her.
Jensen’s eyebrows pulled together with worry the longer I stayed silent. “Love?”
I shook my head, still freaking out inside. “Sorry. Was she …?” I paused for a minute. “Was she upset that we left?”
“Nah. Quite the opposite. She felt pretty horrible about us not really getting a lot of time to ourselves this weekend,” he explained before moving across the bed and pulling me into his arms. “How was your sleep?”
“Phenomenal,” I said, curling up against him with my head on his chest. The heat of his naked body against my own was too much to ignore. “So … We have a whole hour before we have to go downstairs?”
When I tilted my head up to look at him, I was met with a cocky smirk. “Well, aren’t you just insatiable?”
I shrugged. “What can I say? You’re like an addiction I can’t feed fast enough.”
“You’re twisted,” he said with a laugh, pressing his lips into the top of my head. “Why don’t you go hop in the shower?”
Slightly disappointed that he was ignoring my lame attempt at seduction, I frowned. “Okay,” I said, pulling out of his warm embrace and crawling off my side of the bed. Completely naked, I walked about three feet from the end of the bed toward the bathroom before turning around and smirking. “You sure you don’t want to join me?”
In a flash, the blankets were thrown from the bed and Jensen had me hanging over his shoulder, carrying me to the bathroom where we spent the next thirty or forty minutes ravaging each other in th
e shower. It was unclear if our glowing complexions were from the hot water or the love-making—perhaps a combination of the two—but, honestly I didn’t care.
Because we had spent so much time in the shower, it didn’t leave me a lot of time to do much of anything with my hair, so I added a bit of mousse and blow-dried it into loose waves before applying a touch of mascara and lip-gloss.
I couldn’t tear myself from Jensen’s side the entire walk to the elevator or the ride down to the ground floor. And I didn’t want to. Based on the way Jensen had his arm wrapped tightly around me and kissed the top of my head on several occasions, it would seem he felt the same way. It was the happiest I’d been in my entire life; the constant smile on my face would attest to that.
When we arrived at the restaurant downstairs, everyone was already seated and laughing. We were about ten minutes late—which wouldn’t have been so bad had Kyle not turned to call us on it.
“Well, well, well,” he boomed, drawing the eyes of everyone at the table toward us. “Look who finally decided to grace us with their presence.”
I was certain my body temperature went supernova as my cheeks filled with a color that was sure to be blinding. Jensen didn’t say anything to deter them from thinking what I knew they all were. Instead, he chuckled and pulled the seat next to his mother out for me before kissing her cheek.
“Sorry we’re late,” he apologized into her ear before taking his seat on my other side.
Janet brushed our tardiness off. “Nonsense. I trust you both slept well?”
“Yes, very. Thank you,” I said quietly, returning her warm smile before looking across the table to see Kaylie glaring daggers at me. Her attitude was really starting to piss me off. For the first time since Jensen and I started seeing each other, I felt more than confident in our relationship. Something changed over the last few days, and I no longer felt uncertain about our future.
Feeling pretty smug, I placed my hand on Jensen’s thigh beneath the table and turned to him. “What are you having, baby?” I cooed. Through my periphery, I was pretty sure I saw Kaylie roll her eyes—wouldn’t have been the first time in the last twenty-four hours; my stunt with the photographer pissed her off too.
“Um, I’m not sure yet, love. What are you in the mood for?”
I rested my head on his shoulder and looked at his menu. “Pancakes, I think. It’s been a while.”
Jensen nodded and closed his menu. “Yes, it really has been. I think I’ll have the same.”
“So, Madison,” Henry interjected. “Jensen tells us you’ve been coaching a few young riders?”
I nodded, turning to Henry. “Yeah. After I got hurt, it’s all I was really able to do. I used to do it before I got into competing, and I never really realized just how much I missed it until a few weeks ago.”
“You used to compete?” Lilah spoke up, garnering a disapproving glance from her maid of horror.
I nodded, reaching for the mimosa in front of me, and was just about to answer when Jensen shocked me by speaking up. “She did, and she’s quite the rider. She won silver in the Masters a couple years ago.” My jaw dropped as I stared at him; I knew he was aware that I had competed, but I had no idea he knew specifics.
“That’s so cool!” Lilah exclaimed as I continued to gawk at Jensen. “I haven’t ridden in years.”
Refocusing on the discussion, I turned to Lilah and smiled. “Well, come out to the ranch sometime. We can go for a trail ride. It’ll be fun.”
Aaaand, one more glare from Kaylie.
“Do you think you’ll compete again?” Lilah asked.
“Um,” I pondered. “I’m not sure, actually. Halley’s injuries were pretty substantial, so I guess it would depend on her progress and your father’s medical opinion. I wouldn’t mind it, but I really enjoy working with the horses we have, and I’ve also found somewhat of a prodigy in one of the girls I coach. She’s quite amazing given her age. I think she could go far.”
Lilah and I talked at length about her visit, and the entire time, Jensen’s hand moved up and down my back as he engaged in a conversation with several others around the table. When breakfast arrived, there was a moment of silence as we all took the first few bites, and then the conversation started up again. I wasn’t shocked—nor did I really care—that Kaylie had remained pretty silent through most of the meal. Her and Lilah talked a little, she even laughed at something Kyle said to Gavin. As I studied her, I could see how Jensen found her attractive; she was quite beautiful—on the outside anyway.
The longer I focused on her, the more annoyed I became, because all I saw was a phony sitting there with Jensen’s family, pretending that she didn’t betray every single one of them in some way. It was disgusting, and I really hoped that Jensen would take my advice and tell his family the truth about her before she had a chance to get her hooks into them any deeper.
Jensen must have been able to sense my shift in moods because he leaned in and kissed my temple. “You okay?”
“Uh, yeah. I just need to go to the ladies room,” I whispered. “I’ll be right back.” I placed a gentle kiss on his lips before excusing myself.
After using the facilities, I washed my hands and gave myself a quick pep-talk before applying a little more lip-gloss and exiting the fancy-schmancy restroom. I made it all of two steps before I halted dead in my tracks, definitely not expecting what I found blocking my way.
“Kaylie!” I said, startled, as I moved to the left a step so she could access the washroom. It frightened me a little when she stepped with me, though. I was no good at one-on-one confrontations.
“You realize it won’t last, right?” she said, her tone sounding awfully bitter.
Good at confrontations or not, I wasn’t going to stand there and listen to her venomous words. Shaking my head I shifted to walk around her. “Think what you want, Kaylie. He’s moved on. Deal with it.”
“Where do you think you’re going?” she asked, wrapping her scrawny fingers around my bicep. “I’m not done talking to you yet.”
“Funny,” I snapped, yanking my arm free of her grasp. “Because I’ve said all I have to say to you.”
“You’ve known each other a few weeks.” My head snapped back toward her, curious to see where exactly this was going. “You’re a phase.” Her nose curled up into a sneer as she spoke. “A rebound. What he and I had was—”
“A fucking joke,” I interrupted with a dry, humorless laugh. “After what you did …” I shook my head and took a step back. “I honestly don’t know why he hasn’t told anyone the truth about you.”
Kaylie laughed, and I really, really wanted to punch her in the throat. “You think that because you’ve spent one weekend with them that you’ve managed to worm your way in? I have a history with these people, Madison. Actual relationships wi—”
“Based on lies! And from what I could tell, his parents seemed to enjoy my company over yours all weekend,” I retorted arrogantly.
Kaylie’s eyes moved back and forth rapidly between mine, almost as though she was unsure what to say; I should have known better. “You think you know me?”
Crossing my arms tightly across my body, I arched an eyebrow at her. “Oh, I know you. You’re a selfish, manipulative bitch. Did you give any consideration at all to how he would feel? You didn’t even give him a choice.”
I watched, slightly afraid, as Kaylie’s eyes widened and her face went red; there was a very good possibility she was about to explode. “What about me?” she shrieked, a little louder than I’d have liked. We didn’t need an audience. “I never wanted kids. Ever. I couldn’t be saddled with such a burden—especially with him sitting in a prison cell for three years. So yeah, I got rid of it when I knew he couldn’t stop me.”
“What?”
My heart skipped a beat, and I gasped as I quickly turned to face our uninvited spectator. When I saw Lilah’s angry face, her wide eyes moving between Kaylie and me, I panicked. My hands were sweating as I turned to her compl
etely. “Lilah, I—”
Her hand flew up to silence me as she focused her fierce eyes on Kaylie. “You did what?”
For the first time, I saw real fear in Kaylie’s eyes. She stepped forward, holding out her right hand to Lilah as she spoke. “Lilah, honey—”
“Save it!” Lilah barked, making me jump in fright. She lowered her head but kept her enraged blue eyes on Kaylie. “What. Did. You. Do?”
Then Jensen entered the small hallway, and my heart sank. This was all my fault. If I had just walked away, Lilah wouldn’t have found out this way. Tears of regret burned my eyes as I dropped them to the floor, completely ashamed.
“Hey,” he said softly, glancing at each of us curiously. “What’s going on in here?”
Lilah’s eyes left Kaylie’s, and she glared angrily at her brother. “Oh, nothing really.” Sarcasm dripped from every word out of her mouth, and I bit the inside of my cheek to keep quiet; I had already done enough damage. “I just walked in on Kaylie telling Madison that she terminated the pregnancy. Is that true, Jensen?”
Glancing up, I saw Jensen’s eyes widen as he looked to me for an explanation. I couldn’t look at him—couldn’t respond. Instead, I choked back a sob and mumbled a quiet apology as I rushed from the room, through the restaurant and out the main doors of the hotel until I collapsed on the front steps. He was going to hate me after this.
I sat there crying for a few minutes, cursing myself for opening my big fat mouth at all instead of just walking away like I had originally intended, when a voice spoke behind me. “Madison? Sweetheart?”
Sniffling, I looked up to see Janet above me. She settled in next to me and wrapped her arms around me. I melted into her embrace, feeling the need to spill everything that just happened like word vomit. I held it back because I knew I’d already done more than enough to this family. “Oh, honey, what’s wrong?”
Her hand began to move softly over my hair in an effort to calm me as I bawled into her shoulder. “I just did something horrible,” I blubbered.
