He rolled his eyes, but his twitching lips told her he thought the whole thing was funny. “Story of my life.”
“Honey, don’t worry about it,” Ginny said. “Your run-on sentence is nothing compared to some of the things I’ve seen. I’ll tell you about some of them over dinner.”
“Yes!” Mila piped up, appearing at their side without warning. “Let’s eat! Come on, Abby and Ginny. You guys sit by me!”
Ginny smiled. “Now there’s an offer I could never say no to.”
Abby thought that, in a different life, she could’ve been good friends with the warm and gracious country singer. She was excited to be sitting near her during dinner, where they’d have more of a chance to chat.
Hey, she thought, I can even let her get a word in edgewise this time!
Still, though. Even the prospect of spending an entire meal sitting next to her favorite country star, a woman who she now knew was not only talented but also sweet and amazingly cool, couldn’t entirely take the sting out of the idea that she’d had to turn down Jet’s proposal to blow off the gathering in favor of some naked time. Because, dayum. Naked time with Jet was a mind-blowing experience.
Well, she reasoned, maybe delayed gratification will make the whole thing even better.
Chapter 9
Jet
“Hey. Can I talk to you a minute?” Ginny asked. “Maybe somewhere a little more private”?
Jet glanced around at the bustling dining room, and the kitchen and living room beyond. He gestured toward the back slider, and they made their way out to the deck.
“Oh, God, it’s beautiful,” Ginny mused. “Even at night. It seems like there shouldn’t be a view, but the moonlight reflecting off of the ocean is stunning!”
Jet never tired of hearing people’s first impressions of the view. It only served to remind him how lucky he’d been to grow up in Valentine Bay. As they settled themselves into two of the Adirondack chairs that always sat out on the back deck, he said, “Yeah. I know. It was one of my favorite things about the place growing up. I used to sit out here just to be alone with my thoughts. Or to write lyrics, sometimes.”
“I can see that. I could write some doozies looking out at that view. About the darkness of heartache, but even at midnight, there’s some light glinting through. If you just look up at the moon.”
They sat in companionable silence for a few moments, both of their eyes fixed on the view. Finally, Jet asked, “So, you never did tell me what you’re doing here.”
“Sure I did.”
He shook his head. “Nah. You’ve been looking into your genealogy for months, but you just now decided it was time to drop in, unannounced? Without even knowing where we lived? And on a day when you can only be in town for less than twenty-four hours? I don’t buy it.”
She inclined her head. “You caught me.”
“So, what is it? You’re upset with me for ‘sullying the family name’ or something?”
She reached over and patted his arm. “Oh, lord, no. Nothing like that. I came here because I was kind of worried about you, Cuz.”
They exchanged quick grins over the joke, and then Ginny continued, “Look, if there’s anybody who knows all about starting over – and doing it in the public eye, no less – it’s me. I could teach a master class on that particular concept.
“When you’re going through something like this, it’s great to have friends and family around to talk to. They know you better than anyone else, and they can be really useful sounding boards. But you know what’s even better than someone who knows you?”
“What’s that?”
“Someone who knows what you’re going through.”
Something inside Jet unwound. He hadn’t even realized he’d been holding a piece of himself so tight. Just hearing Ginny say those words, he recognized the truth of them.
“How did you figure out what to do next? And how do you make that mental shift when the path you’re on, that you always saw stretching out straight to the horizon, suddenly takes a huge, twisting turn?”
“Well, you certainly cut straight to the heart of the matter, don’t you? And with such a pretty metaphor, too. I tell you, it’s nice to talk to another songwriter.
“As for what to do next, you’ve got to figure out what feels right to you, deep down in your soul. It’s not about what makes the most sense, or what other people tell you. It’s about what’s going to bring you deep satisfaction.
“At the end of the day, if you don’t have that, what’s the point of making art? It would be a hell of a lot easier to do another job, outside of the public eye, where only your immediate circle judges you when you make a fool of yourself.
“What we do comes with a steep price, and we pay it because it’s the only way to do what we love. So what do you love enough that the price you pay to do it seems cheap? That’s what you have to figure out.”
He let out a low whistle. “Damn. That really puts things in perspective. There’s just one problem.”
“What’s that?”
“What if nothing feels right?”
“Oh, yes,” she nodded sagely, “I see what’s happening. And I know exactly what you need to do to fix it.”
His heart beat a little faster. Could she really have the answer? What a fucking relief that would be! He tried to keep the eagerness out of his voice as he said, “What? What do I need to do?”
“Well, it kind of has to do with the second part of the question you asked me. There’s only one way to deal with a twist in the road, and it’s not easy. You have to grieve the loss of the future you’d envisioned for yourself. You have to let go of it, understand it’s not coming back.”
He grunted. “Believe me, I understand it’s not coming back. In fact, I understand that all too well.”
She shook her head. “You understand it with your head. What about your heart?”
“Oh.”
“Yeah. I told you it wouldn’t be easy. In fact, it might be the hardest thing you’ve ever done, but as long as you are hanging on to that idea anywhere, in either your head or your heart, you’ll never be able to put your soul into something new.” She paused to let out a sharp laugh. “It’s like trying to commit to a new relationship when you’re still texting your ex. You’ve got one foot in the past.”
That hit him right in the chest. “Damn,” he breathed.
“I know.”
“I mean…damn.”
“Yeah. I know.”
They sat in silence for another few moments. He wondered fleetingly if the view was part of what made the space so conducive to big, important, emotional conversations. It was a natural place to focus your attention when the words weren’t flowing. It acted as a buffer so the silence wasn’t quite so awkward.
That was important, he realized, because the time you took to process the words someone said to you was almost as important as the words themselves. That was what gave them meaning.
Maybe that’s what his time here in Valentine Bay was like. One giant pause to process where the “conversation” of his life went after this – well, that was entirely up to him.
“Speaking of new relationships,” Ginny said after the silence had stretched on a bit, “Dax entering my life was another thing that was invaluable to me during my biggest crossroad. When choosing what branch of the path to take next, it became very clear to me that any road I wasn’t walking with him was leading me to the wrong place.”
Of course, Abby popped into his mind. How could she not? His heart beat harder. He knew, now, that this was so much more than a fleeting attraction, or working out his feelings about “the one that got away.” She was, in fact, the one that he wanted to make sure he never let get away.
The silence stretched out before them again, long and comfortable, until finally Ginny said, “She seems like a real good woman.”
Jet didn’t have to ask which woman she meant. As far as he was concerned, there was only one worth talking about.
Chapter 10
&
nbsp; Abby
Abby closed her front door behind Jet, every inch of her skin tingling in anticipation. It had been, in fact, ever since the hot little exchange that they’d shared right before the doorbell had rung. Their words had caused a parade of naughty images to start a progression through her mind, and they hadn’t stopped all evening.
Now, she and Jet were finally alone and they had the opportunity to bring some of those erotic images from the realm of fantasy into reality, and the heat that danced through her body told her that the time was now.
She turned away from the door to face him. “Would you like a glass of wine?”
“We never did get around to tasting any the other night; I don’t see why tonight should be any different.”
Lightheadedness exploded through her at his words, and a moan tore from her throat. He crossed to her in two fast steps, sweeping her to him and crushing his mouth to hers.
His tongue plunged between her lips, pressing against hers as his hands explored the planes and curves of her body. Her cheeks burned with a fever at his touch.
It was so much more intense even than the last time, which – although incredibly pleasurable – had been shrouded in gauzy disbelief that it was actually happening after all those years.
There was none of that this time. It felt more real, even, than her daily life did, as if the majority of her experience passed by her in faded sepia tones and this encounter with Jet was bursting with hyper-saturated Technicolor.
He pulled his head back. “Where’s your bedroom? I want to take you to bed.”
She giggled breathlessly. “You mean literally, as opposed to just metaphorically, like before?”
“Exactly.”
“Yeah. I guess you could call that taking me to floor. Or taking me to wall—”
“Hey, Abs?” he interrupted.
“Yeah?”
“Do you think you could pause the babbling long enough to show me where your bedroom is? When you’re naked and I’m tasting every inch of you, you can feel free to pick up the babble again.”
She laughed and took his hand, leading him down the hall. “I don’t know if I should be offended or turned on, so I’m just going to go with turned on because it’s more fun.”
He leaned his head down so that his hot breath fanned across her neck as he spoke, “Oh, trust me, Abby. You haven’t seen ‘fun’ yet.”
His words caused such a flurry of arousal to pulse through her system that it stopped her in her tracks. Jet bumped into her from behind, and they both laughed, but it sounded shaky and unsettled to her ears. They were both riding such adrenaline highs, she figured, that they’d better get horizontal quick. She didn’t trust either of them to be able to stay upright much longer.
Still grasping his hand, she rushed the rest of the way down the hall and burst through her door, dragging him behind her all the way to the bed. They were both still laughing as she tumbled onto the bed, pulling him with her.
She loved the playful mood between them, but when their bodies rested on the bed, it abruptly came to a halt. He was on top of her, his hand still in hers, although now he was holding that hand above her head, pressed down hard into the mattress.
He grabbed her free hand with his other one and raised it up above her head, pressing it to the mattress with the other. He stared into her eyes, and their rapid breath mingled through the soundtrack of their pounding hearts.
“I like you holding me down like this,” she purred. “It’s hot.”
He lowered his head and kissed his way down her body. It was all she could do to keep from constantly squirming and jumping like bacon on a hot griddle, every nerve ending was firing off about once a second.
Finally, he let go of her wrists. She was disappointed for a moment until she realized that, of course, he had to that if he was going to use those hands to take her clothes off.
She decided that the trade-off was well worth it.
She did her best to make it easy for him to strip off every piece of clothing by lifting up her hips, rolling to the side, and extending her legs. Before long, he had her completely naked. He lifted up slightly to give himself room to look at her and his eyes raked over her with maddening slowness, grazing every inch of her skin with his laser gaze.
It turned her on to be the object of such lust and desire. When he looked at her like that, she felt like a fine cut of meat laid out for a panther, and she’d never been so happy to be châteaubriand in her life.
He took her nipples in his mouth, alternating back and forth between them. He switched from one to the other at perfect intervals, like he had some sort of psychic intuition about when her body had reached its peak level of arousal from the stimulation of that nipple, and then he’d move to the other and do the same thing.
Her body gave him plenty of cues, probably including a lot she wasn’t aware of. All he had to do was pay attention, to be in tune with her, body and soul. And that clearly wasn’t an issue for him – it was like he was made to tune into her frequency.
He moved his kisses farther down her body, trailing his tongue across her clenched belly muscles.
By the time he reached her legs, they were already spread wide open. She hadn’t consciously done that. It was as if they had a mind of their own. She was moving on instinct – she felt Jet’s touch moving toward the center of pleasure between her legs and her body just naturally opened up to receive him, it was as simple as that.
He planted small, soft kisses up one of her inner thighs and then the other, drawing out the anticipation and making her absolutely crazy with lust and arousal.
When finally he did extend his tongue and trail it up the center of her womanhood, she was dripping wet. Her juices slid down her body to the bed in small rivulets.
He made a low humming noise deep in his throat as he explored her folds with his tongue, deeper and deeper with each time it passed up and down.
“God, you taste so sweet,” he breathed, and then covered her entire mound with his mouth, kissing her much as he’d done when they’d started tonight, except that instead of his tongue exploring her mouth, he was exploring a much more intimate and pleasurable area of her body.
She grabbed the back of his head and pushed him in closer to her body, raising her hips to meet his mouth. “Oh, Jet,” she breathed, barely even aware of the words she was saying, “this feels so good. I never want it to stop.”
His eyes locked onto hers. “Then, simple,” he replied, his husky voice more of a growl than anything else. “We won’t let it.”
Chapter 11
Jet
Jet moved his tongue faster and faster over Abby’s most sensitive flesh. With every stroke of his tongue, he could feel her getting closer. At first, the cues were subtle – a sigh here, the tensing of a muscle there. But as the moments wore on, it became more and more obvious until her entire body was little more than a writhing mass under his hands and tongue.
He pulled back just far and long enough to murmur, “Come for me, baby. I want to taste you when you do.”
She spun over the edge or the timing was a coincidence, he’d never know, but at that moment her body exploded in an orgasm so fierce that he had to focus every ounce of his concentration on keeping his mouth melded to her body.
As her movements and whimpers slowed, he kissed his way up her body again. He wanted to look into her eyes the moment she opened them, be the first thing she saw when she came back to consciousness.
He brushed wisps of her silky hair back from her face and held her gaze for a long moment when she did meet his eyes. The connection between them was so strong, so palpable, he could almost feel the energy tangibly passing between them.
Finally breaking eye contact, she buried her head in his neck. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close.
“God, Jet. It feels so good being here with you, like this. It feels so right.”
He kissed the top of her head. “Yeah, Abs. It does. That’s the perfect word for it.�
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He trailed his fingertips up and down her bare back, loving the silky feel of her skin under his touch. Goosebumps popped up in his wake, and a slow smile spread across his face.
His dick throbbed with every movement of her body against him, no matter how minor. When she finally tilted her head and started kissing down his neck, he groaned with relief.
She slid her hands under his T-shirt and pulled it up over his head. Never breaking her mouth’s movement against his skin, she swung her leg up and over his waist.
He watched her move above him, her breasts swinging gently, and thought his cock might just explode from how damn sexy she looked. Her nipples still shone with his saliva, for fuck sake.
“Abby, I need to be inside you,” he growled, digging his fingers into her waist.
She didn’t respond, at least not with words. Rather, she slithered down his body, lithe as a cat, and undid his jeans with a few swift motions. She grasped the sides and pulled them down his legs, and his boxer briefs soon followed.
Giving him a sultry smile, she knelt to the side of him and took his length into her mouth, bobbing her head and sucking him until he thought he’d blow right then and there.
He balled his fists and pounded them into the mattress. Damn, that hadn’t been what he meant when he said he needed to be inside of her, but he sure as hell wasn’t going to complain.
The friction between her tongue and the hyper-sensitive skin of his shaft was torture – the best, sweetest kind of torture. The kind that he wouldn’t mind enduring for eternity, more heaven than hell.
When he was on the brink of wondering if he actually was going to shoot his load right into the back of her throat, she finally slipped her mouth off of him, her lips making a slurping noise as they passed the tip.
She hopped down off the bed and grabbed up his jeans, pulling his wallet out of the back pocket and fishing out a condom. He reached out to take it from her, but she yanked her hand back, placing the palm of her other hand flat on his chest and pushing him back against the bed.
Rocking Her Heart Page 5
