Adrenaline: A Fall Away Series Bonus Content Collection (3 page)

Jesus. My mouth went dry, and I could only stand there.

His back was to the bathroom mirror, and I faced him, studying the image in the reflection. It was unmistakable.

It was our tree. Down to the last branch.

The trunk travelled up the right of his back, and then the branches and leaves started spreading out about halfway up. Some of the leaves went over his shoulder and down the back of his arm. It was all in black, and my stomach felt like it sat in my feet.

I could barely speak. “Jared. You’re beautiful.”

Jared

Beautiful? I laughed to myself. It wasn’t really the look I was going for, but I guess a tree tattoo wasn’t that badass.

Tate always saw what she wanted to see in me, and I loved it. I still didn’t see the man I wanted when I looked in the mirror, but every day I felt better and better about who I was.

The tree was for her, and it was for me. I wanted my scars covered, and I wanted to take the tree with us to New York in the fall. Aura saw a picture and wasted no time drawing it up and getting started. It had cost a lot of time away from Tate and some stealth maneuvering so that she never saw my back, but it worked. Aura saved the last part for today. The part that I wouldn’t be able to hide from Tate that traveled down my arm and over my shoulder. The skin still burned to the touch, but there was no way I was telling her not to touch me tonight.

“Enough talking.” I reached out and grabbed her hip, pulling her to me. “We haven’t showered together since your birthday, and we only have an hour left.”

“Why? Do you have somewhere to be?” She leaned into my ear and whispered. “Because my dad texted two hours ago that he had to hop a plane to Colorado for business until Tuesday.”

My nerves fired, and my eyes widened. “Hell, yes!” I took no time scooping her up and planting a fat kiss right on her mouth.

She pulled back and pointed her finger at me. “You’re not allowed inside the house, though.”

“I don’t want inside the house. I want inside you. Right now and at two A.M. or whenever the hell I feel like it tonight.”

The idea of waking up next to her in the morning, or—hell—even in the middle of the night, and having what I want right there made me feel all kinds of selfish, but I didn’t care.

I loosened her necktie, and pulled it over her head while she unbuttoned her white dress shirt. In no time at all, she’d shed her bra, too, and I pulled her naked chest against mine, feeling the very familiar fire pool in my dick. I had three levels of of horny: 1. Eh, I can if I want to. 2. Wow, I wish Tate was around. 3. Now.

And with Tate naked, it was always number three.

I unbuttoned her black pants and slipped my hands inside the back, cupping her ass and bringing her up against me like glue. She wrapped her arms around my neck, and I ignored the slight discomfort on my back. Who the hell cared?

“Are your shots up to date?” I asked in between kisses.

“Yeah,” she gasped as I took her breast in my hand and nibbled her neck. “Jared. So much time now. What will we do?” she teased, rubbing me through my pants.

Shit.

I squeezed my eyes shut and hot air poured in and out of my nose. Backing us up, I opened the shower door and turned the knob. Two shower heads sprayed water from both sides, filling the small area with thick steam. I pulled away from her but kept my eyes trained on her panting face. Her cheeks were flushed, and her lips glistened. She’d taken out her ponytail, and I could see her nipple peeking out from under her hair. God, she was beautiful.

All fire and passion. All mine.

Yanking off my belt, I tossed it and tore out of the rest of my clothes. She did the same with her pants and backed into the shower, not losing my eyes for minute. I probably looked like the lion stalking its prey, but that wasn’t it. She was the predator luring me in.

Closing the door behind me, I watched her watch me as she leaned against the shower wall, waiting for me. Even though Tate was the one in control, she always let me feel like I was hunting her. I loved that. Pressing the length of my body against hers, every muscle tingled with chills. I was warm and high.

Lifting her leg, I held it at my hip and put my fingers between her legs, rubbing long, slow strokes as I looked down at her. Tate preferred my cock to my fingers inside of her, but she loved to be rubbed. Slow. Always slow.

So slow that I could see the exact moment when her body started to lose control, and it was addictive. Her breathing dipped, and she almost lost eye contact when her lids fluttered.

The water poured around our legs, and the steam made our bodies stick together. The air was thick and hot. I used the tip of my tongue to lick her bottom lip. “Fuck my hand, Tate,” I whispered against her mouth.

She moaned, and her eyes closed as she grasped my shoulders and started rocking herself against my hand. Soft and slow at first. Then the friction started getting harder. She pushed against my palm rougher and faster, more demanding. I felt her wet against my fingers.

She grabbed onto my hand, and I hooked her at the neck, tasting her lips and feeling her orgasm spring up from her throat and echo into mine. She shook and rocked against my hand, slowing down more and more. I swear I could hear her heart pounding.

“Goddamn, Tate,” I gasped out as she shuddered against my body. Pulling up her other knee, I guided her legs around my waist, and pushing her into the wall, I slammed inside of her.

“Ahh,” she cried out again. “Jared,” she whimpered.

I grasped her thighs hard, probably leaving bruises, but she felt so good.

We’d stopped using condoms two months ago. I got tested, she got on birth control, and we never looked back. After that first time without one, there was no way in hell I wanted to go back to using them. Feeling her, not having that barrier between us, was as close to Heaven as I’d ever get.

“I like it when you moan my name.” I took her bottom lip between my teeth and drew it out while I slid in and out of her. “You’ve been turning my world upside down for eight years. I can’t get enough of you.”

“Never enough.” She brought her mouth to mine, covering my lips. Her tongue tasted mine and darted out to flick my lip.

Never enough.

Jared

I blinked awake in the nearly pitch black room to my phone beeping. Looking at the clock on the bedside table, I saw that is was just after one in the morning. Tate and I had only been asleep for about an hour.

Grabbing my phone, I opened a text from Jax.

Home,
it said.

I smiled to myself, surprised by how much him being safe comforted me and by how quickly he’d come to think of my house as his home.

I had started asking him to check in with me, just to let me know where he was. Since Tate and I had gotten together, Jax and Madoc had grown closer, and who knew what trouble they’d get into together.

I shot a text back.
Madoc?

Should be home. He left the bowling alley an hour ago.

Awesome. At least Tate and I had been asleep by that time, so he wouldn’t have heard anything.

Night.
I texted and put my phone down.

Rolling over and sitting up, I saw that Tate was turned onto her stomach and hugging a pillow underneath her body. She was faced away from me, but I could see the soft moonlight coming through the windows landing across her face and naked back. The sheet sat at her waist. Peering over, I smiled at her relaxed features and swollen lips.

Even though I knew I should just let her sleep, I leaned down on my elbow and ran my other hand up and down her back. I couldn’t not touch her. Like hard candy that I could suck on nonstop or an ice cream cone that I wanted to lick, Tate was food. After only a few months together, there was no part of her body that I didn’t have memorized. I knew that she liked sex in the mornings, that running my fingers through her hair immediately melted her, and that her sweat was the only perfume I wanted her to wear.

Getting up on my hands and one knee, I leaned over her, straightening my other leg over her sleeping ones and began…not leaving her alone. Coming down on her back, I touched the tip of my tongue to her skin and left a moist trail up her spine.

She squirmed. “Baby…” she mumbled, her words muffled by the pillow.

“I want you,” I breathed out, and sliding the sheet down off of her, I opened my mouth and took her ass between my lips and teeth.

“Jared!” she yelped and whipped her head up. “What…?”

But she trailed off when I continued nibbling and kissing, and her head fell back down to the pillow.

“You awake now?” I taunted. I’m sure she heard the smile in my voice.

She sucked in air through her teeth, tensing up her body, looking like she was in pleasure or in pain.

I got my answer when she suddenly squirmed off the bed, and I had to rear back to avoid her kicks as she landed on the floor.

“It’s ticklish,” she squealed. “And it freaks me out.”

My stomach swam with flutters, and I laughed. “I didn’t actually bite you. At least not hard.”

Her eyes darted down to the extreme hardness between my legs, and I raised my eyebrows at her. She looked so cute, legs drawn up to her chest and leaning back on her hands, looking at me like she was ready to run.

“Are you going to take care of this or what?” I gestured to my cock, purposely trying to act like a dick.

What can I say? Tate and I had a weird kind of foreplay.

She pushed herself off of the floor and grabbed the white bed sheet, wrapping it around her body.

“My ass is a ‘no’ area,” she stated firmly, looking at me with her big blue eyes and a lot of fear.

“A ‘no’ area?”

“Yes. Your hands are fine. But not your mouth or…” she stuttered, gesturing up and down my body, “anything else. Got it?”

I smirked, teasing her with mischievous eyes. “What else could I possibly do to you there?”

Her eyes dropped, and she moved her lips left to right, thinking. I chuckled, climbing off the end of the bed and slipping on some black pajama pants I’d left on the floor.

“No part of you is off limits to me, Tatum,” I warned with a grin, and I immediately saw her eyes flare at the mention of her full name that she hated. “Come over here. Now.”

She didn’t.

She launched herself across the bed, and bolted for the bathroom. I moved like a bullet, darting after her so she wouldn’t have a chance to lock me out.

“Nooooo,” she screamed and laughed at the same time as I caught her.

This was how Tate and I played. I knew she wouldn’t come when I ordered. She never did. She gave chase, and I always followed.

And she knew I had no intention of trying to put my dick anywhere new on her tonight. I’d never done that before, and that made me happy. Since I hadn’t been able to give Tate my virginity, at least I could say she was my first with that. Someday.

But damn, I loved her excitement and how she kept me on my toes. She breathed hard, looking at me with fire and a challenge in her eyes while she gripped the sheet tightly around her body.

I stepped forward, backing her into the sink counter.

“Absolutely not.” She shook her head, looking at me like I was crazy. “No anal for me.”

I exhaled a laugh. “I’m not asking for anal, moron,” I joked. “I never did. That’s your overactive imagination at work. But I do want something.”

We were chest to chest, and the low counter had to be biting into her thighs, but I didn’t move. Looking down at her flushed face and stormy eyes, I got hard simply breathing in her scent.

Leaning down, I held her head under her ear and devoured her hot neck, feeling her go limp next to me. I took that opportunity to pull the sheet from her body and throw it to the floor.

She had enough time to yell, “Jared!” before I hauled her up and set her down on the counter, securing her arms behind her back.

Maneuvering myself between her legs, I smiled down at her like the cocky asshole I couldn’t help being.

“Jared, seriously? Let me go.” She struggled against my hands, squirming against my already hard dick, and I closed my eyes for a moment, trying to steady myself.

She wasn’t really trying to get away either, because I knew I wasn’t holding her that tightly.

“We were in this position once before. Remember?” I asked, our lips almost touching as she looked up at me. “I always wondered what would’ve happened if you hadn’t pushed me away.”

She rolled her eyes. “It had already gone far enough. I should’ve pushed you off immediately.”

I rubbed my nose against hers and let go of her hands, placing mine on the counter at her sides. “I’m glad you didn’t. Nothing tasted better than you, and I finally knew what I wanted and needed. It’s what love tastes like.”

Grabbing hold of her, one hand at her neck and one hand on her waist, I brought my mouth down on hers and pulled her against me.

Her knees arched up, and her feet rubbed the backs of my thighs, while her hands slowly roamed. My chest, my back, sliding under the back of my pajama pants…