The Lover: Book 3 in The Bride Series

by S Doyle

  She smiled. SHE FUCKING SMILED. Like no woman had ever smiled at me before. Like I was a sex god and she was in perpetual heat.

  “That sounds like a plan. Let me just finish my bacon.”

  I had us both on our knees, her back pressed up against my chest, her head leaning back on my shoulder. I was slowly thrusting up inside her, only my hands cupped over her breasts keeping her in place.

  We were like a choreographed dance. With each push she tilted her hips back against me. So that with each thrust and parry I got so deep into her. It was unlike anything I had ever done.

  It was un-fucking-real.

  “Jake. Jake.”

  She liked to do that. She liked to just say my name.

  “I’m going to make you come so hard you’re going to scream.” I moved my hand down her body, slid a finger through her pussy, circled her clit.

  “Yes, yes, please do that!”

  My hips were snapping now. I could feel it coming.

  “Come for me, baby. Now.”

  “Ahhhhhhh!”

  And there it was. I could feel her squeezing me hard even as I shot my load inside her.

  She practically melted back against me. Her head rolling back and forth on my shoulder.

  “Is that sharing, Jake?”

  “Yes,” I puffed out.

  “Mmmm. I like sharing.” She lifted herself off me and fell face forward on the bed.

  “Nap,” she said and I watched as she closed her eyes.

  Yeah, a nap felt about right after hours of the most amazing sex I had ever had or even expected to have in my life.

  But I needed to deal with the condom and take a piss first.

  Looking back on it, I don’t know what was the truth.

  Had I seen it and decided to ignore it and the possible consequences?

  Or was it as simple as I wasn’t paying attention so I didn’t notice the drop of come that was outside the tip of the condom?

  Either way I tossed the condom in the trash, pissed, washed my hands, and went back to bed with Ellie.

  And I didn’t say a thing.

  Seven

  Ellie

  The next morning

  I almost did it. I almost said the words. I woke up and I was facing him. He was already up. He was looking at me and playing with a piece of my hair.

  It would have been so easy.

  I love you, Jake. Take me home.

  But I didn’t. Because again, I thought this had to be his move. He had to choose me. He knew how I felt, and in many ways I knew how he felt. But Jake wasn’t a man who would fall in love easy. I knew that.

  His mother had left him when he was a boy. There had to be scars from that. Trust issues. Not that he ever talked about her leaving, or talked about her at all for that matter. Sometimes it was like she never existed, but of course she had.

  He’d dated Janet for nearly two years, and never once had I ever heard him say he loved her.

  Which thank God! Right?

  A. Janet would have been horrible for him. B. I wouldn’t get to have him.

  I had Jake. I mean I HAD Jake. Because in my mind, no two people could share what we did for two days and not want a lifetime of that. It was ridiculous to even think it. But he had to get to that conclusion himself.

  “I am really good at sex,” I told him.

  He laughed.

  “Seriously. Who knows how you’ll be until you do it? Shy, awkward, hesitant. Not me. I fucking rocked it.”

  He touched my nose with the tip of his finger. “You destroyed me.”

  Now I was smiling.

  So this was the time to say it. To end this farce of a divorce. To go back home and live with Jake and the whole happily-ever-after thing. Except he didn’t say it. Instead, he got us both up and we took a shower together. No funny stuff. I think our bodies were both too worn out for that.

  We dressed and I took my bouquet of flowers, which were wilting but not enough for me to consider throwing them out. We got breakfast again at that same place and Jake drove me back to my dorm.

  We were quiet for a minute when he turned the engine off, and I thought he might do it then. Ask me to come home. Tell me he loved me.

  Instead he sighed, and I knew some really hard stuff was rolling around in his head.

  “When should I come back to pick you up? For the summer.”

  “Uh, actually I might be able to get a ride from someone. There’s a girl from Jefferson I know who goes here, and she offered to drop me off.”

  “We’ll need to talk about what happens when you’re home. Come up a with a plan.”

  I nodded. Because there was no one in Riverbend who was going to think it was normal for Jake and me to live together now that we were divorced. Not that I was overly concerned with my reputation, but it was more than that.

  Jake and I knew it. If we were going to live in that house together, it was because we would have made a decision. Or at least he would have made one.

  I was already there.

  So I knew exactly what I had to do.

  I leaned over and kissed him on the cheek.

  “That’s not how lovers say goodbye,” he told me. Then he proceeded to kiss me senseless.

  Another sigh. This time from me.

  I smiled. “Best birthday ever, Jake.”

  “Yeah. It was. You’ll call me Sunday?”

  “Yep,” I lied.

  Then I got out of the car and walked away from him. I didn’t even watch to see him leave. Let him see me walk away for a change.

  I used my key to get in my dorm, and I was grateful Maryanne wasn’t there. She would want details and I wasn’t ready to share any of that. These past two days were for me and Jake only.

  Then I got started on my plan. The first step was finding a vase for my flowers. The second step was packing.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me,” Denny said. “There is literally like one street.”

  “I told you it was small.”

  “It’s almost like a Hollywood set.”

  It wasn’t. It was home. Jake left me Thursday morning. Now it was Saturday, just past evening, and I was back in Riverbend. Denny had a friend, who he suggested was maybe more than a friend, who had a car. Denny was able to borrow it to offer me a ride home.

  I was sad to leave Maryanne, but she obviously understood why I was doing this. I was going to miss Denny too, but he said this separation would allow him to have one other person he could always be texting with, which he liked do in public because he thought it made him look super popular.

  “You’re sure you can’t stay?” I said. He’d pulled over in front of the Hair Stop, which was across the street from the diner. “I’ll buy you a burger, but warning they are not as good as Eddy’s.”

  “No, I told Chad I would have the car back tonight.”

  “Thanks for doing this.”

  “You are sure you know what you’re doing?”

  “One hundred percent positive.”

  “You love him,” Denny said.

  “Of course I do.” I looked over at him and I could see he wanted to say something. “What?”

  “You’re doing all this for him. Dropping out of school, coming back home. And you’re doing it because you think all the signs point to him loving you back, but… what if he doesn’t?”

  My heart sank. Because wasn’t that the one-million-dollar question? What if Jake never did get to that place where he was deeply in love with me? As much in love with me as I was with him? Because if he didn’t get there, then we would never work. It would be too lopsided and I knew I couldn’t live my life that way.

  “One hundred percent positive,” I repeated stubbornly. “That’s how much I believe in what I’m doing.”

  I had to.

  “Okay. Ugh. You suck. No one who is nineteen should be one hundred percent positive about what they want out of life.”

  I shrugged. “What can I say? Early bloomer.”

  “Let’s get you
r stuff.”

  We got out of the car, and the first thing I did was knock on the door next to the Hair Stop. It was a small house where Bella, who owned the Stop, lived. She smiled when she opened the door, and she gave me a hug.

  “Welcome home, honey.”

  “Thanks.”

  She held out the key. “Why do I think if Jake finds out I helped you with all of this, he’ll be madder than a bucking bull?”

  “If he is, it will be with me. And trust me, I can handle Jake Talley.”

  “I bet you can. All right. Here you go. You know there is nothing much to it. A bed, a bathroom, and a kitchenette.”

  The room over the Hair Stop. The only place to rent in Riverbend. Every husband who had ever been thrown out of his house by his wife would have rented that room at some point. Now it was my turn.

  “That’s all I need.”

  “I’ll tell you something else. This Monday, Kathy broke her leg. She’s all messed up and staying with her sister in Billings. Bernie has been helping Frank out when she can, but you know how clumsy she is.”

  Bernie—Bernice actually, but everyone called her Bernie—was Frank’s wife. She managed the money and the food ordering and stuff. But she did not wait tables. Mostly because when she did, she usually spilled something on someone.

  I glanced across the street at the diner, and lo and behold, saw the Help Wanted sign.

  Perfect. I was sorry about Kathy’s leg, but this couldn’t have worked out any better.

  Denny carried my suitcase up, and I had my scales and another bag. Maryanne was going to box up all my other stuff and ship it. I left her with enough money to hopefully cover everything.

  Denny gave me air kisses on each cheek and then said ta in that way he did.

  Then I was alone. In my new place. I took my scales out and set them up on the table by the bed. Nine disks on the right side. One on the left.

  Because while I was back in Riverbend, I still wasn’t where I was supposed to be.

  One step closer, though.

  I smiled and wondered how Jake was going to react to all this.

  I walked into Frank’s early the next morning. Bernie was running around with coffee, mostly screaming at everyone that she would be there in a minute.

  I took a booth and waited. Finally after ten minutes she stopped by.

  “What in the hell are you doing here?”

  That was about right for Bernie.

  “I’m home from school and I’m actually looking for a job.”

  I could see her hopes rise, only then she scowled at me. “Don’t you have Long Valley to run?”

  “Jake is doing that for me. He’s got to get his house done before he can move out, so I’m staying in town until then. While I’m here, I figure I might as well work.”

  I could tell she knew there was more to the story. But how did I explain it to Bernie, who had been married to Frank for twenty years?

  Jake and I were lovers, but he wasn’t ready to commit to me. Which meant I couldn’t go back to the house. The cabin too, for that matter, was too close. He hadn’t let me spend more than one night there, and I knew that wouldn’t change over the summer.

  He was probably planning on moving into the bunk house, but I didn’t see that working either.

  There was no way, after our hump fest, we were going to be able to keep our hands off each other. Which meant more than likely we would end up sleeping together in the house.

  All of that was too easy for him.

  I kept going back to what Maryanne said that one time about Jake. Didn’t I deserve more?

  My answer was a resounding yes. I deserved a man who wasn’t reluctantly attracted to me. I deserved a man who told me he liked me and he wanted me. I deserved a man who shared himself and his feelings with me. No matter how hard that was for Jake.

  I had been a dog at heel for two years, feeding off the scraps Jake was willing to dole out. Loving each and every one of them.

  That had to end. If we were going to work we needed a little more balance, which was why I didn’t tell Jake I loved him when I woke up Thursday morning and saw him watching me.

  Yes, I was a basic novice when it came to sex, but I wasn’t an idiot.

  When Jake said I had destroyed him, he was telling the truth. So I had power now. Power in this relationship to ask for what I wanted. What I wanted was simple.

  How I got it, was not.

  “When can you start?”

  I thought about it. “Now?”

  “You’re hired. Five dollars an hour and tips. Although I have to say the tips aren’t all that.”

  Not when you spilled coffee in their laps, no.

  I stood up and she handed me an apron I put it on and got to work.

  It was just after nine at night when I let myself into my room. I was dead tired, having worked until closing. Ranching wasn’t a walk in the park, but Bernie had me work the full eight-hour shift, and eight hours on my feet the entire time was no joke.

  I fell on to the bed and thought about just kicking off my shoes and falling asleep, but I smelled a little from the effort I exuded today and I knew I wouldn’t be able to sleep. I sat up, making the effort to get undressed and showered, when I felt my cell phone vibrating.

  Oh that’s right. It was Sunday.

  I pulled the phone out of the back pocket of my jeans and smiled.

  I answered. “Hey, Jake.”

  “Hey, is everything okay? You didn’t call.”

  No I didn’t. Every Sunday for weeks I called him. Never once, not that whole time, had he called me first.

  That was not balance.

  “I’m fine. The time just got away from me.”

  “Oh. Okay. I was afraid… after my trip…”

  “That you fucked my brains out so hard I forgot to call you?”

  He laughed.

  “I’m not china, Jake. Not something that you have to worry about breaking.”

  At least not physically. Emotionally, he’d been breaking me for years now.

  “I know that. I… I realized I was probably rougher with you than I should have been.”

  “Guess I’m like her then, because I really like you… rough.”

  “Her who?”

  I smiled again because I could tell his voice had deepened.

  “You know. The Fifty Shades chick who likes to get her ass slapped around. We might need to look into toys. Whips and cuffs and that sort of thing. But maybe this time you could not open them in public.”

  “Ellie,” he growled.

  “Just an idea. Think about it, Jake. Hey, I’m super tired. I was going to grab a shower and go to bed.”

  “Oh.”

  Right. Because I had never ever once ended a call when he wanted to keep talking.

  “Okay,” he said. “I’ll let you go.”

  “Night, Jake.”

  “Night, Ellie.”

  “Dream of me.”

  I didn’t wait for his reply. I ended the call and took my shower and thought of Jake spanking my ass. Then I thought about spanking his ass, which resulted in a self-induced orgasm (I had finally mastered the art) followed by a blissful night’s sleep.

  The next Sunday

  I called Jake. See how that works? He calls me, I call him. Balance. Well, mostly balanced. Sure, I was lying to him about where I was and what I was doing, but eventually he would come into town and we would straighten it all out. In the meantime the regulars at Frank’s were loving the fact that Bernie was back in her office and not staining the shirts of Riverbend citizens everywhere.

  “Hey,” he answered.

  “What are you wearing?” I asked him in what I hoped was my sexy voice and not just my raspy voice.

  “A pair of jeans and a t-shirt.”

  “That sounds hot. Are you touching yourself?”

  “Ellie,” he grumbled. “Knock it off.”

  “What? We’re not allowed to have phone sex?”

  “I don’t do phone se
x.”

  That made me laugh. It was so… Jake. “Why? It’s not that you can’t talk dirty. I distinctly remember you saying you were going to make me come so hard I would scream. That’s some raunchy shit right there.”

  “That’s different. That’s during sex.”

  “So? Phone sex is just sex over the phone.”

  “It’s not private,” he said.

  “Are you with someone at the house right now?”

  “No, I’m alone.”

  “Okay, I’m a alone too.” Again, a little lie there, since I was always alone now in my new room.

  “It’s different.”

  “Worried we’re going to be intercepted by the NSA? You probably should be, but I have to figure there isn’t anything those guys haven’t heard when it comes to phone sex.”

  “I’m not doing it. Sex should be between two people, not between two phones.”

  “You’re such a prude.”

  “I am not a prude,” he snapped.

  Rattling Jake was always fun, but rattling Jake about sex was ridiculously fun.

  “So you don’t want to hear how I’m lying on my bed. Naked. My hand cupping my breast.”

  Pause.

  “No. And should you really be doing that? What if Maryanne walks in on you?”

  I winced. I really did hate to lie to him. “I lied, I just wanted to see what you would do.”

  “Stop messing with me, Ellie.”

  “Why would I do that when it’s so much fun?”

  “Tell me how your week is going.”

  I definitely did not want to do that. “It’s fine. Did you get my email I sent on the numbers?”

  “I did. I don’t think we have any choice but to think about really expanding the insemination program. It’s yielding the best results.”

  “Which is sad in a way,” I told him. “The whole science over nature thing. But I can’t argue. What about you? Any progress on the house?”

  “Some.”

  That was it. That was all he ever said about the house. I didn’t care, because in the end if I had my way he wouldn’t need his house, but he had to see he was stalling for a reason. “Let’s start with the basics. Are there walls and a roof?”