“Nope.” He sighed, and I could tell the answer troubled him.
“Does anyone talk to him anymore?”
“Liam and Sophie went to visit him around the holidays, but what they saw wasn’t good. He’s walled himself off.”
“That’s so sad.”
“You worried about him?” He kissed me on my head, letting me know with his gestures as he’d told me many times, he thought I was a good person. He was always so complimentary, making me feel like I was so special when to me it was just common decency. But I didn’t exactly mind him doting on me.
“I am.”
“This time last year I would have said it didn’t look good for Ian. But now that I have you?” He swept a hand down my back, pressing me to him. “Now I know anything’s possible.”
At times over the past year I’d worried that my fixation on Jax wasn’t so much about him, but instead was about my desire to escape. I’d certainly relied on my fantasies of him to get me through the dreariness of my reality. During those long, difficult months of separation, I’d even tried to convince myself that Jax couldn’t be all I’d built him into. There was no way he was such an incredible blend of strong and sweet. No one who looked like the badass hero from an action movie could actually be so caring, considerate and thoughtful. And no way could the sex be as good as I’d imagined it would be.
Hello, reality better than the fantasy! Jax was everything I’d lain awake dreaming about and more. Every day I felt like I discovered something new about him that made me love him even more, hearing about the mischief he and his friends Liam, Chase and Ian had gotten up to as kids on the island. Learning how much he’d had to stay strong with his parents so volatile and unreliable. Seeing him lighten up more, relaxing, I couldn’t believe how much more my heart grew full for him every day.
He was already talking to a couple of friends of Liam’s about opening a bar on Naugatuck. That man had so many friends, I had to wonder, who wasn’t a friend of Liam’s?
One afternoon, we enjoyed a moment sitting out on the deck listening to the sounds of the surf. It was brisk out, with bright sunshine but a chill in the wind. A California girl like me would have felt cold, except I had Jax. He hugged me onto his lap, keeping me so warm. The man was a walking radiator.
“Just think, if I ran a bar here, no motorcycle clubs.” He sounded like a kid in a candy shop.
I had to laugh, picturing the tough crowd that used to hang out at Ace Bar. The crowd I’d married into. That all seemed so far away now, such a different life. “Nope, that is not the scene here.”
On Naugatuck, I’d seen more men in pink over the past two weeks than I had all my life. The tourists seemed to all think they were in a photo shoot for a preppy clothing brand. I’d seen women sporting tortoise shell headbands and madras plaid skorts, like they’d found an ugly tablecloth and decided to wear the thing.
But I loved it. The whole place felt like a perpetual vacation to me, a safe haven where nothing bad ever happened. Sophie had told me all about the Naugatuck historical preservation society and how they liked to keep things the same way it had been since it was a whaling town in the 1700s. Some streets were still cobblestone and the street lights looked like old fashioned gas lamps. Hydrangeas bloomed all over downtown, carefully tended, never vandalized. The dogs looked better fed and groomed than most of the people I’d known back in Cavallo.
I knew Jax and I needed to start making money sooner rather than later. We both had some cash reserves, but instead of spending it all it would be far better to invest it into something else—a place to live, a new bar, who knew, maybe even a pie shop? The nice woman who owned Jax’s favorite childhood bakery had loved the first set of pies I’d brought her. It felt like a promising start. Everything did.
“I think I’ve seen you smile more in the last two weeks than the whole past year.” Jax held me to him, and I could hear the smile in his voice.
“I’m really happy.” A simple statement, I spoke it from the heart. “I never thought I could be this happy.” I felt a little choked up, burying my head in his chest. I loved listening to his heart beat, so steady and sure.
“You deserve it, Sky. I used to see you in that retirement home making everyone else happy every day. Now it’s time for you to feel happy.”
I kissed him, because sometimes that communicated better than words how I felt. And then, quickly, kisses weren’t enough. They rarely were with Jax. I pressed against him, needing him inside me. He could light a match in me with a single glance, a tempting stroke across my skin and I’d be ready to go.
He stood, picking me up like it was no big deal, not even breaking our kiss as he carried me inside our rental house. Right next to the water, the place had a lot of windows. He set me next to one in the living room, stripping down my jeans and off my shirt like the pro he was. I moved to start undressing him as well, but he turned me around, facing the window.
“Step back into your shoes.” I shivered, not knowing exactly what he had in mind but knowing I’d like it. I slid my feet into my heeled wedge sandals, giving me a couple of extra inches. All the better to line us up. He growled in appreciation, running his hands along my ass, my thighs, my lower back.
“Put your hands up to the frame.” I positioned my hands, one on either side of the window, shivering as he pulled off my panties. He leaned against me from behind and I could feel his huge cock, hard and throbbing with heat. I pressed back into him with a long, “mmmm,” letting him know just how good he felt.
He reached around, cupping my breasts, massaging them as he whispered hot in my ear, “I’m going to fuck you against this window. Are you ready?”
I whimpered in response, my “yes” a breathy exhale as I spread my legs. I wanted him to ram into me the way only he knew how, practically making me come with just the force of his first, possessive thrust.
He snapped open my bra, throwing it to the ground. Then he pushed the center of my back forward, pressing my breasts to the cold glass. My nipples pebbled, from the feel of his control as much as the cool, smooth pane pushing against them. I turned my face, resting my cheek there as well, arching my back, my legs wide apart, feet jacked up in my heels.
His impossibly thick and long cock at my entrance never ceased to make me tremble. I wanted it so much, but it was always intense, stretching me so wide. I shook with anticipation, fingers gripping the wood frame. One hand on my hip, the other grabbing my ass check, he entered me with a predatory thrust. I screamed at the assault, the feel of him pushing into me, fucking me with long, powerful, strong strokes.
He returned his hand to the center of my back, holding me there as he forced my hips back into him, burying his cock again and again into my soaking wet pussy. Fevered as he made me, a strange calm overtook my mind. No worries, no anxiety, no wondering about the past or the future. I was completely in the moment, aware of nothing more than our bodies, the juncture where we joined, so slick and hot, the feel of his hands on me, holding me where he wanted. I could completely let go, surrender to it and I almost felt like I was floating, pleasure buoying me up as I moaned in rhythm with his thrusts. He fucked me so hard I had no words, no thoughts, only desire, shivering and shuddering through me.
“You’re mine. All of you, Sky,” he growled, bringing his hand to my hair, gripping it in a fist. “Mine.”
“Yes,” I groaned spreading m
y thighs as far as I could manage, keeping myself upright so I could take it all, take all of his pounding. He could feel me tremble, sensing the tension in my body right before release. He pounded me, fast and sweaty, demanding and relentless.
I came so hard he had to support my body, holding me up with his hands as he came deep inside my pussy. My head fell back onto his chest as I cried out, shuddering with orgasm, feeling him pulse in me. I never wanted it to end. I never wanted him to stop. With Jax, every moment made me crave another, and another.
“I’ll never get enough of you.” He echoed my thoughts as he scooped me up and carried me into the bathroom. He turned on the shower, getting the spray hot and steamy the way we both liked it. With a mischievous grin, he told me, “Now climb in here and show me how dirty you are. I’ve got just what you need.” He held up the detachable shower nozzle and even though I’d just been soundly fucked, still feeling the ebbing throbs of a stunning orgasm, my clit throbbed once again, knowing what he was capable of with that shower head. Just when I thought I’d hit a new high, Jax introduced me to the next level even higher up.
I didn’t know what I’d done in life to deserve him. But I planned on spending the rest of my days devoted to living up to the ideal he seemed to worship. Even though he made me feel like I didn’t have to do a thing. He loved me exactly as I was.
Epilogue—Jax
Liam really hooked us up on Naugatuck. Sky and I had only been there three months and already we were established and settled. He helped us find a cottage out in back of a gigantic property. It hadn’t been rented out before, but, as was Liam’s way, he knew a guy who knew a guy and in exchange for promising the elderly owner an all-inclusive remodel, she rented it out to us way below market rate.
Liam and his firefighter buddies, all of whom had other careers as carpenters and plumbers and electricians, were crawling all over the place, but we didn’t mind. We had a sweet spot with an ocean view on one of the most gorgeous islands I’d ever seen. Plus, we could weigh in with what we liked, and Sky had a lot to say about the kitchen. She knew a lot about stoves and oven ranges and even types of refrigerators. I let her do her thing, happy I’d played any part in helping her live out her dream of designing her dream kitchen. True, this was just a rental unit at the moment, but the owner had indicated there might be an opportunity to buy in the future. What a coup that would be, owning on Naugatuck Island. I might have to buy myself a bow tie and start putting on airs. Just to crack Sky up, of course.