Road to Redemption (Road Series Book 2)

by Ann, Natalie

  Bending her over at the waist, he pushed her onto the bed. The sight of her half lying over the bed on her stomach in her garter belt and stockings with those high-heeled boots made him pause. He was torn between wanting to stare at the magnificence before him, or sink into her welcoming warmth.

  He shook his head to clear it. With hurried movements he undid his pants and readied himself. Lifting her hips up to meet him better, he smoothly slid inside of her from behind.

  Her purrs turned to shouts while he fought not to end the sweet torture too soon. “Stop moving,” he said when she tried to back into him more fully. “Give me a second here,” he softened his command, grasping her hips tighter.

  She was having none of it. Grabbing his hand, she directed him where she needed it the most, urging him to bring her to a place of ecstasy.

  He understood her silent plea for release and continued to give her what she wanted, holding her in place so he could draw it out longer for himself. He kept rubbing and caressing her the way she liked, all the while listening to her moans of encouragement for what felt the best. He wanted to please her above anything else.

  When he felt her start to tighten around him he pushed in deeper, held her still, his body locking in place inside of her. The only motion was the increased movement of his hand causing her to scream out gloriously.

  He held her like that, not stopping his hand until the last contraction was wrung from her body, marveling at every twitch and contraction that her muscles made around him.

  She lay there panting while he tried to regain some power back. He wasn’t nearly done with her. A few deep breaths, that was all he needed.

  Once he felt he had his body under control, he pulled out of her and flipped her over on her back keeping her feet on the floor. He positioned himself inside her once more and slowly started to slide in and out at a steady even pace, watching her come alive again.

  He loved watching her face as she made that climb. She was so expressive in her movements and her emotions. It was almost as exciting to watch, as it was to be inside of her. Almost, but not quite.

  She grabbed his hands and placed them on her breasts, silently telling him what she needed again. He loved that she did that. She knew what she wanted, what she needed, and she didn’t leave him guessing.

  It was easy to figure out what she liked best, as her moans grew louder and more aggressive when he deepened his touch and tried new things.

  He started to pick up his pace and her back lifted off the bed. “Put your hands on my hips. Hold me. Go faster,” she directed.

  He did as she demanded, watching in shock when her own hand slid down between her legs. A new hunger took control of him while she touched herself. He watched her bring her body to that point of pleasure as he pumped in and out of her.

  “Oh God. Now, Jack. Faster, harder, now.” She groaned, moving her hand at the same speed as his hips, exploding around him, gripping him tight, pulling him in deeper and until he was lost. His shout overshadowing her scream.

  ***

  “You’re not leaving, are you?” she asked an hour later, watching him start to dress, hoping she kept the hurt out of her voice.

  But he heard it, she saw. Causing him to hesitate for a brief moment. Reluctantly, he continued to zip his pants up. “Sorry, but I should. The last time I was out all night it took me an hour to clean up Roxy’s mess.”

  “Oh no.” She tried to hide her smile but ended up giggling. “Bet that wasn’t fun. Poor girl though.”

  “Poor me,” he corrected. “And it’s not the mess you are thinking of. She’s smart,” he said proudly. “She lets herself in and out through the dog door to go to the bathroom. But she was ticked off I didn’t come home and took it out on my pillows.”

  Comfortable in her own skin, Cori pushed herself up to her elbows, giving him a view of her naked breasts. “Sounds like my kind of dog.”

  He grunted. “Yeah, well next time you can spend an hour cleaning up feathers.”

  “She missed you,” Cori explained. “Can’t say that I blame her. I miss you from my bed already,” she said with a big sappy grin.

  He reached down, wrapped his hand in her hair. “Don’t stop,” he said roughly.

  “Don’t stop what?” She wanted to hear him say the words.

  He frowned in annoyance at her question, but complied anyway. “Don’t stop missing me from your bed.” He gave her another brief kiss. “I’ll lock up behind me. Sleep well.”

  Oh, she would. He didn’t want her to stop missing him, she thought excitedly. Maybe, just maybe Dr. Reynolds was coming out of hiding.

  Progress

  It had been five days since their date and there had been little communication and even less contact. Jack had been on-call and it seemed like every night there was some form of emergency causing him to work late.

  They did send a few text messages to each other in that time, but not much more. When she saw him standing in line at the donut shop, she took advantage of it.

  “Hiya,” she said, grabbing Jack’s waist from behind, giving it a gentle squeeze. She giggled when he jumped and looked around nervously.

  “Hi,” he said quickly.

  “What, are you suddenly going to start acting shy again?” She teased when she noticed him looking around at the passersby. “Even after Sat—”

  He cut her off by placing his order and then added her usual sugared coffee and jelly donut to go with it.

  She grinned at his interruption, but played along. “Thanks,” she said, taking her donut and coffee from the counter while he waited for his breakfast to be cooked. “I heard you had a rough one last night,” she said sympathetically.

  “Yes. Gang fight, lots of broken bones to put back together. Thankfully everyone lived and no bullet holes to repair.”

  He accepted his breakfast and looked down to see her wiping white powder from her fingers on her lipstick-red scrubs. She watched him narrow his eyes on a tiny pair of lips attached to red headband and shake his head. She wore the craziest things on purpose. She loved watching his reaction to her clothing. Oddly enough, he always kept his opinion to himself, though.

  “They seem to get younger every day. Makes me kind of sick,” he said after he took a sip of coffee.

  “Yeah, you get used to it here. Not as many gang related injuries as other bigger cities. But we get our fair share.”

  As they headed toward the elevator, she suggested, “I’ll walk with you for a bit.”

  He hesitated and looked around again.

  She got annoyed. “What? Embarrassed to be seen with me?” She stopped walking and placed a hand on her hip, forcing him to stop with her.

  “What? No,” he assured her hastily. “It’s that I don’t like being the subject of gossip. I’m cautious, that’s all.”

  “Oh.” She waved, dismissing his concern and started walking again. “That bus left a long time ago.”

  “What do you mean?” he asked worriedly.

  “You’ve been the subject of gossip since you arrived,” she said with a grin and a wink.

  He hesitated. “About what?”

  “Duh. Have you looked in a mirror? You’re pretty hot, you know.” She smiled up at him. “A young single doctor joining the staff is always subject for conversation.”

  He had to be aware of the grapevine in the hospital, and she bet he hated it.

  Cori knew that he was a widow. Thankfully she’d heard it from Brooke and not the nurse’s grapevine. So she knew the truth, or bits and pieces of it. It’s just no one had ever brought it up. Matter of fact, everyone steered clear of the topic, at least in his presence. She really wished he would talk about it but didn’t know how to broach the subject. But then again, she didn’t really know what they had right now between them. That was another topic that hadn’t come up. Were they dating, boyfriend and girlfriend? She hoped he didn’t think of her as a friend with benefits. She might have to hurt him if that was the case.

  She knew h
e would never allow her to give him a kiss in the hallway, or even a hug, so she settled with grabbing his hand and giving it a squeeze. He smiled, but still looked at her questioningly.

  She explained, “Sorry, I needed to get my hands on you for a minute. It’s that hotness thing.”

  He returned the squeeze. “Goes both ways.” Then he walked into his office.

  She turned with a bounce and rushed away. “Progress,” she whispered to herself with a smile.

  ***

  Progress was slow when you didn’t get to spend any time with a person.

  Another reason she avoided dating doctors. They always worked. Unless of course they were Chiropractors or Dermatologists. But she never really thought of them as real doctors anyway.

  A full two weeks had passed, and the only times she and Jack managed to be alone were a few brief conversations at work. And since Jack wasn’t much of a conversationalist those few moments were almost nonexistent. And because it was at work, they really weren’t alone.

  Except for one night when he stopped by her apartment for what she teased was a booty call on her part. Not that she had intended it to be that.

  She had suggested they have dinner together even though she knew he was on-call. And like the last pizza they shared, she decided to jump him the minute he walked in the door in case he got called in.

  It turned out to be good thinking on her part as his phone went off the minute their breathing returned to normal. He got up, dressed, apologized and gave her a quick kiss as he rushed out the door.

  She was trying not to let it bother her. She knew what she was getting into. That was part of the reason she chose the floating position, so she could have normal working hours.

  Even though she didn’t consistently work in the same department, or even the same hours, it was still first shift and weekdays. Most of the other nurses her age were working nights and weekends and never saw their significant others or family members.

  Deciding it was past time for the two of them to have some time together, she hatched a plan.

  ***

  “I know you aren’t on-call this weekend,” she said a day later. “I thought maybe we could make plans for Saturday night.”

  Jack looked up from the file he was reading at his desk. He had gotten behind with his patients again. His office never seemed to run as smoothly as when Cori worked with him. “Sure. What do you have in mind?” he asked, hoping she didn’t suggest a surprise again.

  “How about I surprise you this time?” she asked excitedly.

  That was a first for Jack. He was almost afraid to think of what kind of date she would plan to surprise him with. But he didn’t want to burst her bubble.

  He had been missing her smile lately. Working too much, he didn’t get to spend much time with her. “Ah, OK,” he said, hedging a bit nervously.

  “Don’t look so scared. You’ll be happy, I promise.” She got up from the chair, walked to the door and shut it slightly without closing it all the way.

  “What are you doing?” he asked in a warning tone.

  “Nothing scandalous. Geez.” She walked over to him after double-checking that no one could see them if walking by.

  “I need a kiss. Just a quick one.” She leaned down to him in his chair and placed a quick kiss on his lips. But he grabbed her hips, pulling her closer. Her mouth opened under his and drew his tongue in, then bit down to tease.

  He couldn’t keep the groan from escaping his lips and he knew he was going to have to stop her before he embarrassed both of them. In a minute. After he got a better taste of her.

  Deepening the kiss a bit more, he returned the move to her, pulling her tongue into his mouth, but holding onto it longer while his hands moved over her hips.

  The sounds of distant voices broke them apart and bought them back to reality. “So much for a quick kiss,” she commented when he pulled down her shirt that he had managed to slide his hands under.

  “Get back to work,” she said teasingly. “I’ll text you with a few details in a day or so.” Then she turned to leave. She stopped and paused, turning around before she reached the door. “Think of me tonight,” she ordered him before she walked out the door, disappearing around the corner.

  Like he had much of a choice.

  Candles

  Jack dragged his tired and sore body up the few front stairs to Cori’s apartment. He was beat. He lost track of the number of hours he worked this week. He wasn’t sure if it was living in the North at the wintertime that caused all the injuries and accidents, or if it was just bad luck. Either way all he really wanted to do was sleep. But he hadn’t exactly paid much attention to Cori in the last few weeks. And he was feeling a bit guilty about it.

  It was his first twenty-four hours off in a long time, thoughts of sleeping, eating, relaxing and watching football were the only things consuming him. At least he had been able to sleep in a bit this morning since he didn’t get home until almost midnight the night before.

  Unfortunately Roxy had other ideas on how he would spend his morning, waking him up earlier than he wished and then wanting to play. He had been ignoring her lately, too. And the guilt got to him there. He wanted her to feel loved. She deserved it after what she had been through before he rescued her.

  So he obliged and took her for a long walk, then threw the ball around the yard with her hoping to wear her out good so she didn’t get into any mischief later tonight.

  He knocked once at Cori’s, then opened the door, stomping the snow off his feet and shaking it off his wavy hair. He really needed a haircut, but he was too busy to even find time for that.

  When he saw her come out of the kitchen in her tight little yoga pants, bare feet and a T-shirt he was confused. She had told him jeans were good for today, but asked for him to come over around three. He figured she had some type of plans to go out, but maybe he was wrong. Especially since those yoga pants brought back fond memories from a few weeks ago.

  “Hey, coming down hard out there?” she asked, noticing the remaining snow on his boots when he took them off in the doorway.

  “Yes. Don’t know for how long but it’s miserable out there now.”

  She reached up to give him a kiss, brushing his hair off his forehead a bit. “I like this look on you. Kind of messy-got-out-of-bed look.” She grinned at him. “Want a beer?”

  “Sure.” He cheered instantly and followed her into the kitchen. When he noticed her small table cleared off and paper plates set at two place settings, he asked in horror, “You aren’t cooking, are you?”

  She snorted. “Yeah, right. I don’t want to spend my night in the ER.” She giggled. “We’ve got lasagna, meatballs and salad, courtesy of Chez Brooklyn,” she said with another giggle.

  He popped the top on the bottle of craft beer she knew he liked. “Where’s that? Chez Brooklyn?”

  She looked up at his confused face and laughed. “Brooke,” she clarified. “Brooke Malone, her name is Brooklyn. You didn’t know that?”

  “No, why would I?”

  Shrugging, she poured herself a small glass of wine. “Sorry, thought you might have noticed it on her medical files. Anyway she took mercy on me and put everything together this morning and left detailed instructions on cooking. I figured between the two of us we were smart enough to turn the oven on and bake everything. I hope,” she added as an afterthought.

  “Anyway,” she continued, “enjoy your beer, relax and then we will get to the other part of our night.”

  He followed her into the living room to sit for a bit. “If your clothing is any indication of the next part, my beer can wait.”

  “Nope, not yet.” She pushed him lightly into the chair. “That’s for later. After the next part.”

  He frowned, too tired to make heads or tails of what she was talking about. He took another sip of his beer, leaned back and relaxed like she ordered him.

  ***

  Setting the empty beer on the coffee table twenty minutes later, he
turned and said, “All done, now what?”

  “Give me a second.” She jumped up. “Don’t come in until I tell you, okay?” She looked back at him on the couch as she made her way into her room. “Promise?”

  “I promise.” She looked so darn cute and excited as she ran out of the room that he started to feel his energy return.

  “You can come in now,” she called from her bedroom.

  Rising, he made his way the short distance and stopped in the doorway. The lights were off, but there was a dim glow about the room from the few candles burning in their jars. One on each bedside table and one on her dresser opposite the bed. He smelled vanilla, guessing they were scented. The blankets and comforter were stripped from the bed, leaving only the bottom sheet tucked into the mattress and the top sheet turned down.

  Then he noticed how hot the room was and located a portable heater tucked into the corner. “What’s all this?”

  “You’re getting a massage. A full body massage.” Laughter jumped into her eyes. “And it might even include a happy ending,” she said with a wiggle of her eyebrows.

  Heat rose up his neck. “A massage?”

  “Yeah. Haven’t you ever had one?” At the shake of his head, she said, “Don’t worry, I’m a licensed masseuse. You’re in good hands.”

  “I didn’t know that,” he said, referring to her massage license.

  “It’s not something I broadcast. I did it in college, thought it would be fun. But I’ve never really done much with it. Now I can put it to good use. So come on, get cracking, strip for me, Big Boy.”

  He didn’t know why she called him that ridiculous name. Of course, next to her he was rather big. Still, it was embarrassing, but he did as she asked.

  “Underwear, too. Completely naked. I want to get something out of this, too, you know,” she said, bouncing on her toes, excited.

  Once he was done complying with her request, he lay on his back as instructed.