“Just wait until I get to knock on your door and ask Jackson where his sausage is,” Mercy proudly said.
“Babe, you are not asking my cousin where his dick is. Not ever. Not even as a joke.”
“Come again?” Jackson asked from behind me.
Shit, I really wished Jackson had stayed in the car and hadn’t heard our embarrassing exchange. He’d driven me over so he could pick up Jason. They were headed to the batting cages, while the girls all met at Mercy’s to go over wedding plans.
“Nothing,” Mercy and I said at the same time.
“Oh, hell no. Finally, I’m not outnumbered. Cousin, please tell these two it is not cool to call a man’s dick a sausage.”
Mercy and I both stood with our arms crossed over our chests, brows raised, and waited. The longer Jackson took to answer, the larger my smile became. When his eyes started dancing, I knew I’d won.
“I don’t know, Jay, I’m telling you right now, Tuesday wants to play hide the sausage, I’m game. She can call it pretty much anything she wants except junk, because it is not that.”
I busted out laughing, and Mercy soon followed. By the time I was done I had to wipe a tear from my eye.
“Fuckin’ perfect,” Jason grouched.
“I was thinkin’ the same thing,” Jackson said.
My hilarity died when I saw the look Jackson was giving me. I knew that look well, and it never failed to dampen my panties. Luckily, Mercy knocked my shoulder with hers, pulling me from my sex-fueled thoughts.
“Well, you two better hit the road,” Mercy said.
With a quick kiss as he passed Mercy, Jason made his way to the door.
“What are you waiting for Jack?” I asked when he didn’t follow Jason.
“For my woman to get her ass over here and give me a kiss.”
Well, okay then, I guess we’d moved to public displays of affection. I took the three steps needed to get to Jackson, leaned my head back, and gave him a soft but firm kiss.
“See ya’, Sweetness.”
“Yeah. See ya’.”
The guys left and Mercy turned on me, grabbed my hand, and yanked me into her dining room. Once we were there, she ordered me to spill.
While we were putting out the spread of lunch meats and cheeses, along with three different kinds of breads, fixings, and condiments I spilled. I told her about the conversation Jackson and I’d had at Gran’s, the next morning, and what had happened last night after she’d left my house.
Through it all, I got a bunch of “wows” and “I knew its” but other than that she didn’t interrupt. I was finishing up filling her in as we were arranging the last of the food.
“Well, don’t you look happy.” Mercy smirked.
“Don’t be smug.”
“I’m your best friend, I’m allowed to be smug,” she informed me. “Besides, you’re in my house. I’m the boss. If we were at your house, you could be the boss.”
“I’m happy,” I confirmed.
She brushed a non-existent piece of something off the skirt of her dress and looked at me sweetly. “I’m happy, too.”
I knew she was. Mercy soon-to-be-Walker was the best friend anyone could ever ask for.
Her face split into a huge smile before she said. “We have like two minutes before everyone gets here so there’s no time for details. Besides, you’ve been smiling since you arrived, so I can guess that he’s good in the energetic kinda way.” That comment was complete with her brow wagging up and down. “Right?”
“I can confirm he’s better than good in the “energetic” kinda way.”
“Please, sweet baby Jesus, don’t be talking about Jackson.” Mercy and I both peered around the corner to see Quinn Walker standing there holding a huge salad bowl.
“Would you prefer we were talking about your brother?” Mercy asked her soon-to-be-sister-in-law with a smile.
“Hell, no,” Delaney answered for her, coming to a stop next to her sister.
“Are the twins coming?” Mercy asked, thankfully changing the subject.
I knew Delaney pretty well. We were buds. She’d come to my place a few times to hang out. At first, we only got together when Mercy had time, but then it slowly morphed into the two of us forging our own friendship. I knew there were things about the time she and Mercy were kidnapped that still plagued her. Delaney had never opened up to me about her demons, and I didn’t push. All I knew was whatever happened cut her deep.
I didn’t know Delaney before it happened, and the only comment Mercy had ever made to me was that she was afraid Delaney would never heal. Not because she couldn’t, but because she didn’t want to. I’d never wished my best friend to be so wrong before. And it wasn’t lost on anybody the way Jason and his dad stared at her anytime they were around.
“Yeah, they stopped by Aunt Reagan’s first. They’ll be around,” Delaney told her.
Quinn made her way to the dining room and turned to Mercy, “Wow. All of this looks great.”
“Thanks.”
I loved that my best friend was beaming. For so long it was just the two of us. Now she had Jason’s sisters, too. All four of them had welcomed her into the fold. Actually, all of them had, the whole family. Not that I found it surprising because Mercy was a likable person.
“Drinks?” Mercy asked.
“Yeah, I’ll go with you.” Delaney followed, leaving Quinn and me in front of the mammoth spread of food.
“Before they come back, I just wanted to say thanks for making Jackson happy.” Quinn smiled at me.
“Have you talked to him?”
My stomach suddenly felt like there was a swarm of butterflies circling. Quinn was Jackson’s best friend, of course he’d talked to her.
“I don’t have to talk to him to know. Your smile says everything. If you’re smiling and happy, then he’s happy. So, thank you.”
I didn’t know what to say, and, thankfully, I didn’t have to. Mercy poked her head around the corner and called for us to come into the kitchen.
We spent the rest of the day laughing, drinking, eating, and most importantly putting the final touches on Mercy and Jason’s wedding plans.
* * *
“Did you have fun?” Jackson asked.
“I did. Did you and Jason?”
We were in Jackson’s truck on the way back to my place. My stomach was full, and the six of us had polished off three bottles of wine. With Mercy and I being the only two not driving, we drank the lion’s share, so I was a little tipsy, too.
“We did. Hit a few balls, then headed to the clubhouse and had a few beers,” he told me then asked, “Did you guys finish everything up?”
“I don’t understand how the men got out of wedding prep. I thought everyone was supposed to participate,” I grumbled. “There was a lot to finish, but, yeah, it’s done. We even wrote out the place cards.”
“Place cards?” Jackson chuckled. “It’s just family. I think we can all manage to find our seats without name cards.”
“That’s not the point. Mercy wanted pretty monogrammed cards on the tables. And so what if it’s just family? It’s a wedding. It’s supposed to be fancy.”
Jackson pulled to a stop at a red light and looked over at me.
“Is that what you want?”
“It’s not my day; it doesn’t matter what I want. Mercy gets whatever she wants.”
“No.” He shook his head. “Your wedding. Do you want a big, fancy church wedding, or a small, fancy, backyard, family wedding?”
“Um . . .”
Unlike many young girls, I’d never fantasized about my future wedding. I had no idea where or what kind of celebration I’d want. And the longer I thought about it, the more I wondered why that was. Why hadn’t I ever allowed myself to dream about the day I’d walk down the aisle?
I was thinking how weird that was when Jackson’s next words rocked my world.
“You should start thinking about it, Sweetness.”
“What?”
/> Was he serious?
“Where do you think this is headed?”
He was serious.
I couldn’t breathe. My lungs were burning from the lack of air moving in and out of them.
“Babe, I told you I was all in. So, I’ll ask again, where did you think this was going?”
“It’s only been like a hot minute,” I told him when I was finally able to suck in some oxygen.
“And?”
Was he nuts?
“That’s just crazy,” I told him.
“Probably.”
“You can’t know after only a hot minute.”
“Sweetness, I told you I knew the second I saw your smile from across the room. Knew it then, know it now. Another day, another week, another year, doesn’t matter, I don’t need time, because I already know what I know.”
He was crazy. But damn if I didn’t like the way he thought.
“Something small. At The Manor. There’s a clearing in the orchard, it’s beautiful. I don’t want anything big. I don’t even think I want a big, traditional dress. Something simple and elegant. Maybe even a sundress depending on what time of year it is. I don’t want anyone to be stressed. Just a celebration and good memories.”
Huh. It seems I could be that woman, I just needed the right man by my side.
32
Jackson
I had a new favorite way to wake up.
Not that I’d had one in the past, but this, right here, with Tuesday’s bare ass snug against my morning wood, with my arms wrapped tight—nothing better.
This was how I wanted to wake up for the rest of my life. I’d learned a long time ago not to question my instincts. And every instinct I had, told me Tuesday Knowls would be my wife. She was the woman who would give me babies. She’d be the one walking through life with me, and if I went before her, she’d be the one I waited for on the other side.
That morning, unlike the others, I didn’t prepare for the fallout. I didn’t brace as I waited for her to open her eyes. I simply enjoyed the feel of her, because I could and I wanted to.
Last night when we got into her bed, she attacked. There was no other way to describe it. Tuesday was the aggressor, and I learned those pretty, full lips could do something else besides steal my breath when they curved up into a smile.
She’d tasted every inch of my chest and stomach. She was torturously slow in her exploration. By the time she’d made her way to my dick and fisted it, fluid was freely leaking. Upon seeing what she’d created she promptly lapped it up before she sucked me deep and commenced giving me the best blowjob I’d ever had.
She was talented, but it was her excitement that made it out of this world. She moaned and mewed around my cock as she glided up and down. It was wet and sloppy with lots of tongue. I was begging for her to pull off so I didn’t blow in her mouth. By the time she climbed on top of me and rode my cock, I was counting backward from one hundred to stop myself from climaxing.
I didn’t have to tell her to keep her eyes on me, she was watching, memorizing my every reaction and when she saw something she thought I liked she did it again. She fucked me senseless and when she finally came, in screaming, wild abandon, I watched. Seconds after she was done and she smiled down at me, I blew. That was all it took for me. Her perched on my lap, my dick deep inside of her, neither of us moving. Her smile took me there.
“Morning.” Her husky voice pulled me from my memory.
I tightened my arms around her and shoved my face in her neck. “Morning,” I mumbled.
“Mmm.” Tuesday wiggled her ass against my hard-on.
“Sweetness,” I warned.
“Jackson,” she returned and pushed back again.
“Last warning, Tuesday.”
She didn’t heed my warning. Her hand found mine resting on her stomach and she started moving it between her legs. We hit the soft curls between her thighs, and she pushed my middle finger in with hers.
“Jesus.”
I shoved mine deeper and our fingers tangled together in her pussy.
“You like fingering yourself for me, Sweetness?”
“Yes,” she hissed.
Together we brought her to the edge. I yanked our fingers free and fisted my cock. Keeping us on our sides, I lined myself up from behind and slid home.
“Jackson!”
Fuck I loved hearing her moan my name.
“Yeah, Sweetness.”
“Harder.”
Damn, I loved that, too.
I drove in, and at the same time, Tuesday shoved her ass back to meet my thrusts.
“Touch yourself, Tuesday.”
I felt her fingertips brushing my shaft every time I pulled out. Sexy as fuck. Knowing she was rubbing her clit while my dick was working her tight, sleek pussy was too much.
I jerked her leg up higher, going deeper and harder with my thrusts.
“Faster, Sweetness. I’m gonna blow.”
“Almost.”
My balls were drawing up, heat had started to spread, and I was seconds from losing it.
“Come on, baby, come with me.”
“Jack. Don’t stop.”
There it was, her pussy clamped down, and I planted deep, letting her climax detonate mine.
The words “I love you” were on the tip of my tongue as hot jets of come spilled into her. I held them back, not because I didn’t mean them, but because when I first said those words to her we’d be face-to-face so I could see her smile and know she’d felt them.
* * *
“Are you coming with me to see Gran today?”
I glanced over my shoulder to see Tuesday pouring her second cup of coffee, her wet hair wrapped up in a towel, face free of makeup, and toned, tanned legs on display.
She was beautiful.
“Yeah. Brady will be over this afternoon to install your alarm. We don’t have to be here when he’s working. I thought we could hit Tommy’s for lunch.”
“Tommy’s Burgers?” she questioned.
“Yeah, you been?”
“Um, hello, they only have the best chili fries known to man. Though, I limit them to once a year.”
“Once a year? Babe, that’s a travesty.”
Her hip hit the counter and she leaned to the side with her elbow resting on the granite top. She stared off into nothing for a second before she blinked and refocused on me.
“You know, you’re right. Depriving myself of the things I like is a travesty. For years I couldn’t wait to break free of my mother’s bullshit. Yet, when I’d had the chance, I didn’t. Her shit was so ingrained, she didn’t even need to be around for me to follow her rules. No more. No more limits. No more rules. I want to be happy and if that means I eat five donuts, or five Tommy’s burgers, I’m gonna do it. If that means I never step foot in front of another camera, that’s what it means. And, Jackson, I don’t want to.”
“Then don’t.”
“Then don’t,” she repeated. Shrugging her shoulders she added, “Guess it really is that easy, isn’t it?”
“It is. If you don’t want to model, don’t. If you want five Tommy’s burgers, I’ll get them for you. If you want to unpack your garage and breathe some life into this house, then that’s what I’ll help you do. Whatever you need to be happy, I’ll get for you.”
“And if I told you all I needed was you in my kitchen making awesome coffee and handing out advice over breakfast?”
Christ, that felt good.
“Then, I’d say it’s my lucky day. Because, Sweetness, that’s a given.”
“And what do you need to be happy?”
That didn’t just feel good, that felt like a shot of whiskey straight to my veins. Warm as it slid down until it burned all over.
“You. Just you. Any way you’ll let me have you. Standing in your kitchen, lying with you in your bed, sharing our day, out on the town, watchin’ a movie, across from you at dinner, under you, over you, any goddamn way I can have you. As long as, at the end of every day, I ge
t that pretty smile. I’m ecstatic knowing I’m the man who’s going to have it for a lifetime.”
“I know it hasn’t been too long, but I need you to know, even when I was pushing you away, I was the happiest I’ve ever been. Even then, I knew the best part of my day was going to be when you showed up unannounced and scared the hell out of me.”
Fuck, fuck, fuck. She was killing me.
“You totally left your door unlocked for me.”
When that slow smile hit her face, I wasn’t prepared, therefore, when I saw it, the intensity of it, I jerked in surprise.
“I totally did,” she admitted.
“Bedroom,” I growled as I stalked toward her.
“Bedroom? What about Tommy’s?”
“Lunch is gonna have to wait, Sweetness.”
“But, what about my five burgers?” Damn, but I loved Tuesday’s playful side.
“We’re gonna help you work up an appetite.”
Her arms wrapped around me as soon as I stopped in front of her. “Does that mean I get to be on top again?”
“Whatever you want, Tuesday. But we’re finishing with you on your knees.”
Her smile slipped, and her eyes turned hazy. “Whatever you want, handsome.”
Goddamn, I liked that, too.
33
Tuesday
I didn’t eat five burgers yesterday, and it wasn’t because of my lack of appetite. When Jackson had said he was going to help me work one up, he’d meant it. Not only did he mean it, he delivered. He let me climb on top but then cut my fun short when he proclaimed, I was “done fucking around” and placed me on my hands and knees, showing me another way he could bring us to the edge of insanity before he provided bliss.
Thinking of all the ways I’d almost screwed this up had me wanting to go back in time and duct tape my mouth shut. God, I’d been so stupid. So stupid. I needed to think of ways to make it up to Jackson. He’d tell me it wasn’t necessary. I knew he’d say, as long as I was smiling that was all he needed. But I had to give him more. He’d worked his ass off proving to me I was safe to be who I wanted to be, and he was a safe place for me to land.
Claiming Tuesday: The Next Generation Page 20
