Music of the Soul

by Katie Ashley

  “Oh Jake, my love for you doesn’t stop just because there’s a rough patch in the road, or I don’t get what I want.”

  “Really?” It was hard for me to wrap my mind around the fact that someone could sacrifice so much for me just because they loved me.

  She nodded emphatically. “Of course not. I may be disappointed or hurt, but I could never love you less.”

  I stared into her eyes, seeing the unconditional love for me burning bright in them. I felt like such a fool for ever doubting her. “Angel, I love you so much,” I blurted before jerking her into my arms. The motion caused us to lose our balance, and we dipped under the surface of the water. We remained lip-locked with our arms wrapped around each other as our feet kicked to keep us from sinking. When we broke the surface again, I pulled away. “Let’s get to where we can touch.”

  “Okay,” Abby murmured, her blue eyes hooded.

  We swam closer to the shore, and the moment our feet could touch again, I took her back in my arms. Abby gripped my shoulders before hopping up to wrap her legs around my waist. My fingers went to the strings at her back. With one tug, the bikini top gave way, and her delicious tits spilled out. Gripping her hips, I pushed her further up my body where I could suck on her nipples. As they puckered and hardened in my mouth, Abby gasped. Her fingers came to tangle through the wet strands of my hair. “Jake,” she moaned.

  “I want to fuck you, Angel,” I growled against her chest.

  “Not here,” she panted.

  “No love-making in the ocean?” I questioned as I ground my erection against her core.

  Her hooded eyes met mine, and she gave me a lazy smile. “It’s not good for the girl.”

  “Oh, really?”

  She shook her head. “You’d be good, but the potential infections from the salt water wouldn’t.”

  I laughed. “Okay, Angel, I’ll take you to the house.”

  With her legs wrapped tight around my waist and my arms underneath her ass, I started walking us out of the water. I kept my mouth firmly on Abby’s. Anxious to be inside her, my tongue thrust in and out of her deliciously warm mouth just like I wanted my dick to be doing. At the same time, Abby kept up a relentless pace of rubbing herself against my dick.

  We’d only made it half-way up the beach when she broke our intense kiss. “Take me out here, Jake,” she insisted.

  My brows shot up in surprise. “You can’t wait for the house?”

  “No,” she moaned. “I want you right now.”

  “Damn, Angel, are you trying to kill me?”

  “Please,” she begged.

  Gazing at the palm trees below the house, I steered us over to them. I eased her down onto her feet on the sand before ripping her bikini bottoms down. I couldn’t resist bringing my mouth between her legs. When my tongue flicked against her clit, Abby cried out, and her knees buckled. With one arm, I pushed her back upright. Her fingers tugged on the strands of my hair as I licked and sucked her pussy. I didn’t bother thrusting my tongue into her. No, I was reserving that one for my throbbing dick.

  Just as she was about to come, I pulled away. She whimpered in protest and thrust her hips forward. “You’re going to have to wait until I’m inside you,” I said, as I rose up off the sand.

  “No fair,” she pouted.

  “Well, I could say you’ve been a bad girl—you know, refusing to talk to me last night and making me think you’d left me on the island.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “So you admit you were a bad girl?”

  She eyed me for a moment, trying to decide how playing along with me would benefit her. “Yes, I guess I was a little bad.” After nibbling on her bottom lip for a moment, she floored the hell out of me by saying, “Maybe you should spank me and teach me a lesson.”

  At just the suggestion, my head snapped back like she slapped me. We’d never gotten real down and dirty like this. Sure, a playful smack here and there, but never like what she was suggesting. “You think you deserve it?”

  “Mmm, hmm.”

  “Fine then.” Grabbing her hands, I jerked them above her head. I then whirled her around and placed them on the tree trunk. For a moment, my hand massaged the globe of her ass. Glancing at me over her shoulder, Abby waited expectantly for my next move. Deciding to really play the part, I barked, “Did I say you could look at me?”

  Abby jerked her gaze from mine and stared ahead. I pulled my hand away and then cracked my open palm against her cheek. She gasped as her whole body jerked. Just as she was getting used to the sensation, my hand went to her other cheek, and I smacked it good. “Do you like that?”

  “Yes, I do.”

  “Is it making you a little wet?”

  “Maybe.” She glanced over her shoulder and shot me a defiant gaze. “Why don’t you check and see?”

  “You better hold on tight. I plan on fucking you hard.”

  “Good.” She gripped the trunk of the tree as I made work of getting out of my boxers. “Please, Jake.”

  Without any more foreplay, I slammed into her with one brutal thrust. We both groaned. When I recovered enough to think more about my actions, I asked, “Did I hurt you?”

  “No. And don’t stop.”

  “My pleasure.” My hands came to grip her hips so tight I hoped I didn’t end up bruising her. With a relentless pace, I thrust into her while pushing her on and off my dick. The sound of wet skin slapping together, echoed around us. I leaned into to lick and bite at her neck. My teeth scraped along the sensitive skin below her ear.

  “Jake, oh yes, Jake!” Abby cried, as she fought to keep her hold on the tree. It was only a few moments later when I felt her walls tense around my dick, and she went over the edge. She collapsed against the tree trunk, but I pulled her back against me so she wouldn’t get scraped. After a few minutes of harsh thrusting, I came with a loud shouting curse, burying my face in the silky strands of her hair. As I started coming back to myself, I slipped my arms around her waist while nuzzling her neck.

  “You okay, Angel?”

  “I don’t think I can walk,” she admitted.

  I glanced down at her sheepish expression. “Aw, come here, baby,” I said. I picked her up and then gently deposited her into the hammock next to us. I grabbed her bikini bottoms off the ground next to us to do a little clean-up on her.

  With a lazy grin, she said, “Aw, thanks. You’re my hero.”

  “No, thank you. That was some fantastic fucking.”

  She giggled. “You’re terrible.”

  “It would almost be worth another fight to have make-up sex like that, I mused as I eased in beside her.

  Her eyes drooped closed, and she yawned. “No, I don’t want to fight anymore,” she protested feebly.

  I kissed her cheek. “I know, Angel. I was just teasing you. The last thing I want to ever do again is hurt you.”

  She snuggled against me, draping her hip over my thigh. “I love you.”

  “I love you, more.”

  Her index finger came to trail circles over my chest. “You know, I really missed you last night.”

  “I missed you, too. And waking up with you.”

  She grinned. “So you could have your morning wood taken care of?”

  I rolled my eyes. “No, so I could feel you next to me.” I stared intently into her eyes. “I’ve never felt more safe or more content than when I’m in your arms.” I stroked her cheek with my finger. “You make everything better, Angel. Hell, you make it easier to breathe.”

  Tears pooled in Abby’s eyes before she dipped her head to kiss me, letting her love for me flow out through her actions. When she pulled away, she smiled before lying her head on my chest right above my heart.

  Completely sexually satisfied and exhausted from my restless night before, I fell into a deep sleep. When Abby and I finally woke up, it was mid-afternoon. “Did you have a nice nap?” I asked her.

  “Yes, because I was with you.”

  “You’re such a sweet litt
le flatterer,” I said, as I kissed the top of her forehead.

  “You’re welcome.”

  “Hungry?” I asked.

  “Mmm, hmm, but just for you,” she replied, her hand coming to cup my dick.

  My eyes widened in surprise. “Damn, I think I’ve married a nympho!”

  She grinned up at me. “Would you want me any other way?”

  I laughed. “No, I suppose not.”

  Within seconds, her hand managed to work me to full mast. “I’m not sure this is going to work,” I said, motioning to the hammock and how easy it was to have a foot or arm poke through the ropes.

  “Where there’s a will, there’s a way,” she replied, with a wink. She then rolled over to straddle me. Her hips rose up, while her hand guided my erection deep inside her.

  “Ready for me already, Mrs. Slater?” I panted, as my dick slid in and out of her wet core.

  “I’m always ready for you,” she murmured breathlessly.

  “That makes me a very happy man,” I replied. My hand came to cup her bouncing breasts. Abby moaned and gasped with pleasure as I pinched and tweaked her nipples to hardened buds. As our movements grew more frantic, the hammock started to jerk and sway. One hand abandoned Abby’s breast to stroke between her legs. Her moans grew more and more intense the harder I stroked her clit. She then cried out and threw her head back as the first wave of the orgasm hit her. The feel of her walls tensing around me caused me to come. Once I finished shuddering inside her, I grabbed Abby’s shoulders and pulled her down to me. As she rested her head on my shoulder, she remained straddling me with my dick still buried inside her.

  I ran my hands over the silky strands of her hair. “That was amazing.”

  “I thought so too,” came her muffled reply against my chest.

  When I opened my mouth to say something else, the rumbling of Abby’s stomach made me smile. “Guess we worked up an appetite, huh?”

  She pulled her head up to smile sheepishly at me. “I didn’t have breakfast, either.”

  “Then we better get up and call the island. I can’t be the reason why my beautiful bride passes out from hypoglycemic shock.”

  Abby eased up her hips, and I regretfully slid free of her. On wobbly legs, she got out of the hammock. I followed quickly behind her. I wrapped my arm around her waist not just for support, but because I couldn’t imagine going one second without touching her. Yeah, I was that crazy in love with her.

  One Year Later

  As the buzzing hum reverberated through my ears, I pinched my eyes shut and bit down on my lip. “Hang in there, Angel,” Jake said, his voice cutting through the pain.

  I squeezed hold of his hand. Being too much of a chicken, I didn’t want to watch the needle entering my skin. Sure, I had drawn blood from countless people in nursing school, but this was different. This was…me. My skin. My blood. My pain.

  “Damn, you’re going to look so sexy with this ink,” Jake mused.

  My eyes popped open to stare into his twinkling blue ones. “You think?”

  “Mmm, I’m pretty fucking sure.”

  “Please, with the way you act around her, she could wear a Hefty bag, and you’d want to bang her,” Steve, Jake’s favorite tattoo artist, teased.

  “Can I help I married a woman who is sexy as hell?” Jake countered with a cocky grin.

  Steve snorted. “Not touching that one, dude. You’ll just wanna kick my ass if I say anything about Abby.”

  “Or tattoo ‘Property of Jake’ on her forehead,” another artist quipped.

  Jake rolled his eyes. “She is mine. Aren’t you, Angel?”

  I gritted my teeth through another round of needle pain before I responded. “You’re so cute when you’re a possessive caveman.”

  Jake nipped my bottom lip with his teeth before giving me a lingering kiss. I guess most people would have found our one year wedding anniversary gifts to each other a little odd, but I was thrilled beyond belief to finally be getting a tattoo. I’d talked about doing it since I’d first met Jake, but like a lot of things, the time hadn’t been right. For some reason, I’d decided that my foot and ankle were the places I wanted to start with, which of course were the worst for pain.

  “Okay, we’re done outlining,” Steve said.

  Peeking open one of my eyes, I gazed down at my foot. “Oh wow,” I murmured, as I took it all in. It was a vine of flowers that also included a butterfly. The vine itself was made up of lines of song lyrics as well as scripture I liked. It started across the top of my foot and went all the way up to wrap my ankle.

  “Think you’re going to live through the coloring?” Steve teased.

  Oh God, there was more? I gulped. “I’ll be fine.”

  “Maybe you should give her a leather strap to bite on,” AJ suggested from his chair across the room. When I glared at him, he chuckled. He and Mia were also getting more ink as well. For AJ, it was having Mia and Bella’s name written on his chest above his heart, and for Mia, it was an infinity symbol on her wrist with AJ’s and Bella’s initials.

  “Don’t listen to him, Abby. He about pissed his pants when I did his half sleeve,” Becs, the only female tattoo artist, said with a grin.

  “Whatever,” AJ replied.

  As Steve started in on the pastel coloring of flower, I gritted my teeth. Focusing on Jake, I eyed the temporary tattoo on his pec. “It sure was luck that your left side was the side you hadn’t gone crazy with the tattoos,” I remarked.

  “I knew I was saving it for someone special,” Jake replied, with a wink.

  “Yeah, I bet.”

  As the needle tapped along my skin, I stared at the cursive lettering over Jake’s heart. In a few hours, he would have Angel forever inked on him. It didn’t bother me that it wasn’t actually my name. Everyone knew who Angel was. There was no mistaking that it was anyone other than me. The very thought caused a surge a love to pulse through me.

  When I looked back over the last year, I had so many wonderful memories to reflect on. It had sped by in a bliss-filled blur of mine and Jake’s love. We remodeled the house to make it more into mine and Jake’s home, rather than Susan’s. In between tour stops, we returned to our honeymoon island to have some alone time. Sure, we’d had our arguments and disagreements about everything from paint choices to my wardrobe. Now that we were married, Jake suddenly wanted my stage dresses to be longer and show less cleavage. Basically, he would have been happy if I had gone out on stage in a nun’s habit. That was probably the longest we hadn’t spoken to each other since our honeymoon blow-up. I’d even slept on AJ and Mia’s bus because I was so pissed at his Neanderthal ideas. He’d come around the next morning with flowers and a grand apology. Mia had snatched Bella up and taken her for breakfast in the diner before our vigorous makeup sex could scar her.

  While it had been a wonderful year, it had also been stressful, intense, busy, and at times absolutely manic. Another album released and another cross-country tour had meant more and more time away from home. Jake had finally consented to bring furry Angel along with us because I was so homesick for her. Having a dog on our bus was definitely interesting, but it inspired Mia to bring Jack Sparrow along on hers and AJ’s bus. Miraculously, the two animals got along pretty well when we all hung out together. Both seemed united in their protectiveness of Bella.

  Jake’s and my duet, Music of the Soul, shot to number one the day it was released, and everyone was talking about a repeat win at the Grammy’s. The label was looking into booking our European tour. While I should have been the happiest woman on the face of the earth, something was missing. Deep down I knew what it was, but I didn’t dare voice my longing to Jake or anyone else. I just tried to keep the faith that one day I would have the desires of my heart—one day I would have a baby of my own.

  In the meantime, I channeled my maternal instincts into spoiling Jude, Melody, and Bella. I was also thrilled when Brayden and Lily announced that they were going to have a third, and final, child. Bray had finall
y talked Lily into buying their own bus and using her teaching degree to homeschool the kids while we were out on tour. The guys of Runaway Train were positively domestic now with their wives and children along. Only Rhys was still unattached. He spent his time on the bus with my brothers, and I didn’t even want to know what kind of bachelor debauchery they were up to.

  Just when I thought I couldn’t take any more of the shading, Steve eased off. As he traded out colors, a sharp pain in my side caused me to grimace and suck in a breath.

  “Hey now, I wasn’t even doing anything,” Steve said.

  “I know. It’s not you,” I moaned.

  Jake’s brows furrowed. “What’s wrong, Angel?”

  “It’s my side, down low. I keep having these pains.”

  “You should get them checked out.”

  “I’m sure it’s just a cyst. I used to get them all the time when I was younger. Of course, I thought the birth control was supposed to stop them since I wasn’t ovulating.”

  Now it was Jake’s turn to grimace. “Um, seriously, babe. TMI.”

  I cocked my head at him. “Oh please. Like you can’t hear the word ovulation.”

  “I’d prefer not to.”

  With a teasing tone, I said, “Ovary…fallopian tube…uterus.”

  “That’s enough,” he said, with a shudder.

  “You’re too funny getting all riled about the female reproductive system.”

  “Just promise me you’ll get it checked out.”

  I held up my hand like I was swearing an oath. “As soon as we get back to Atlanta, I’ll go see my doctor.”

  “Good.” His fingers caressed my face. “I don’t want to think of anything happening to you, least of all, you being in pain.”

  “You’re so sweet and good to me,” I murmured, as I gazed into his eyes.

  A gagging sound came at my feet. When we glared at Steve, he held up his hands. “Sorry. But it’s hard for me to do this when I think I’m going to puke.”

  “Douchebag,” Jake muttered, which caused Steve to grin.

  I held out my hand to Jake, and like the wonderful husband he was, he took it and squeezed encouragingly. “Best anniversary present ever,” I said, with a smile.