Resilient Love (Navy Love Series Book 3) (13 page)

His lips quickly find mine again, cascading kisses to them and down my neck.

Pulling back, he takes my face in his hands and gazes into my eyes.

“Do you know how much I missed you?
Fuck
, I don't ever want to be away from you again, Darlin’”

I smile. “Show me how much you missed me.”

He does just that, laying me back as he runs his hands along my arms and down to my panties. In one fluid motion, they're pulled off, followed just as quickly by my bra and his boxers.

My body hums with anticipation and excitement as he settles himself on the floor between my legs.

“Fuck, I’ve missed this pretty pussy.” With that he swipes his tongue from top to bottom in one fluid motion, causing my back to arch and a moan to fall from my lips. “I can see how wet you are, darlin’. You’ve waited on this just as long as me, huh?”

I should be ashamed at just how wet I am, but I could not care less. If this man is touching me, there’s a good chance I’m wet from it.

He doesn’t give me an opportunity to respond, his tongue quickly goes to work on me, licking and sucking my clit, pulling an orgasm to the surface within minutes.

I thrash my head from side to side, calling out his name while I grip my hair in both fists and lock his head in place with my thighs.

My orgasm subsides, but it does little to slow my sex drive. I’m already itching for another one. Unlocking my legs, I grab his shoulders and guide him up my body where I’m waiting to devour my taste from his lips.

“Jo, baby,” he says between kisses, “I don't have any condoms with me,” he says once he completely covers by body with his own.

My pulse races and I have to stop the grunt from escaping at my sexual frustration. Before I can say anything though, I'm stunned silent.

“I don't want to wear them anymore. You're my wife, I love and trust you and you will be the mother of my children one day.” he looks at me expectantly, waiting for my vote.

“I've never had sex without a condom, who better to be the first man to go bare than my husband?”

He nods and slowly pushes inside me, stretching me to accommodate his size.

A deep groan comes from his throat just as he fully plants himself all the way inside me.

“Jesus, you feel amazing, baby.”

He plants another kiss to my lips and slowly starts moving his hips. He slides almost all the way out, then pushes back in fully again. It’s a gruelingly slow but sensual pace. I feel everything; the firmness of his thighs as he thrusts, the tightening of his abs, the hot breath against my neck...all of it making the experience that much more sensual and sexual.

I raise my hips to meet him with each thrust, our breathing heavy and the slight pants coming from each of us being the only sounds echoing through the room.

J.C. pulls a nipple into his mouth, swirling his tongue around and causing my back to arch from the intense pleasure of it. His tongue is the catalyst to my orgasm; I cry out as it racks through my body.

My moans send J.C. into his own orgasm, calling out my name as his pleasure consumes him.

He quickly goes to the bathroom, brings a warm washcloth out, and cleans me before tossing it back and climbing in behind my satisfied body.

“Fuck, what better way to experience going bareback for the first time than with your wife.” He pulls me more into his arms. I smile even though he can't see it and nod my head in agreement, exhaustion already taking over.

It does bring me great joy to know that we shared a first with each other.

I'm almost asleep when I hear him speak again. “Jo, baby, we've been married for about four hours, we've consummated it and I've confessed my love for you three times now and have yet to hear the words from you…”

I turn to face him, trying to gage his mood. Thankfully, I'm met with a glint in his eyes and a smirk on his lips.

“You know I love you—Suga.”

We both laugh at my poor attempt at his southern dialect. He called me Suga the first time we met and ever since, I've teased him by calling him that.

I feel much more like the ‘old Jo’ that everyone has been missing, and I'm very much aware that the man who has his arms wrapped around my waist is responsible for that.

I know some will believe that we rushed into this marriage, and that’s fine. Love doesn’t work on anyone’s schedule. I know in my heart that my family and our friends will be happy for us. Anyone who is familiar with us and our relationship, even with all the drama we’ve been through, knows that we truly do care for each other.

I'm equally excited and nervous to tell everyone what we've done, especially Mom, she’ll be thrilled. Somewhere in my mind, I can’t help but to think that she knew something like this would happen when we went away together.

With that thought, I fall asleep knowing we still have a long road ahead of us but finally seeing it in a positive light instead of a negative one.

Jo

Packing up to head back to Los Angeles, my nerves begin to get the best of me. While I was confident lying in my husband’s arms last night, now I’m questioning this impulsive decision.

Well, not the decision; I’m married to Jared freakin’ Collins, I won’t ever regret that choice.

I’m worried how my family will take the news. What if my brothers hate this idea? What if Mom is upset that she wasn’t present for it?

J.C. must sense my hesitation and nervousness. Without a word spoken, he gets up from where he’s been casually lying on the bed watching television, waiting for me to finish, and pulls me into a hug. With my face pressed against his strong, wide chest, he strokes my long hair and whispers all the reassurance I need to hear.

“Stop stressing, I’m with you through this darlin’. I’ll always be with you.” He pulls my chin up with his hand to look into his eyes. “You okay? What’s goin’ on in that gorgeous head of yours, wife?”

“Just nervous.” I pull away to continue with my packing, but I don’t get far before J.C. is on me again, halting my plan. He watches my face as I look around, trying to avoid expressing my concerns. I roll my eyes when I finally cave, knowing he’ll stand here with me until I tell him what’s going on.

“What if Mom is mad that she wasn’t here? What are my brothers gonna say? And everyone back home? I can’t believe we got married like this without telling anyone.”

“Do you regret it?” he asks quietly while staring into my eyes.

There isn’t a second of hesitation in my answer.

“No.”

He visibly relaxes and whooshes out a breath I didn’t realize he was holding.

“Thank fuck for that. Now, as far as Pat goes, do you honestly think I’d ask you to marry me without gettin’ permission first?”

My eyes widen as I realize that this entire weekend was staged. Everyone was in on it, my entire family.

“Are you kidding me?” He shakes his head while beaming that panty-dropping smile of his. “Jared Collins! You planned this?”

He shrugs his shoulders as an answer.

“I didn’t plan anything, necessarily. Your family sprung this trip on us, I just used it to my advantage. We had the perfect opportunity to do it, we worked through a lot of our issues and finally admitted we want to be together, so why not?”

I shrug my shoulders; I don’t want him to think I regret our decision to get married because it’s far from that. There’s just a lot to take in right now.

“Then how did you get my mom’s permission?” I ask.

“Her and Christina were asking a ton of questions while you were at the store...well, some of them referred to us and our future…”

I nod, encouraging him to continue.

“Your mom flat out said she’ll be happy the day we get it together and get married. I took that as her approval.” He hesitates for a second before continuing, “Right? That was her way of giving me permission to marry you, right? That’s what I thought it was, a subtle hint.”

I giggle at his sudden insecurity.

“I’m sure that’s what Mom was doing was giving you a hint that she’d be okay with this.”

There’s still the possibility that our choice to get married could easily be misinterpreted as a drunken night in Vegas or just a mistake, a poor choice in judgement, but as long as J.C. is by my side, I’ll defend our marriage.

It doesn’t matter if anyone else understands or not, we love each other. No, we haven’t had the traditional order of a progressing relationship, but this is the path that was handed to us. And one that, although at times has been rough, I’m not ashamed to have taken. I’ll walk anywhere with J.C., just as long as he’s beside me.

J.C. kept the mood light on the drive home; he even did a couple rounds of American Idol with me. However, I’m sworn to marital secrecy on that one.

And Marshall and Tessa will be sworn to friendship secrecy as soon as I tell them about my husband rocking out to Shania Twain’s
That Don’t Impress Me Much.

The best part, though, was hearing his southern accent come out as he sang along to
T-shirt
by Thomas Rhett though. The accent and the meaning of the song were enough to make me wish we had time to pull over on the side of the road for a little quickie.

My husband.

How crazy is that?

We pull up at my mom’s house shortly before dinner time. J.C. ensured that we would make it back before Kandice left for the evening. I won’t lie and claim that that move didn’t cause butterflies in my stomach; I love that he’s so caring of my mom.

Whatever was said between the two of them the other day before I arrived home seems to have made my mom even fonder of him and vice versa. As much as it drives me insane to be out of the loop of what brought them closer together, I love the bond they’ve formed. Mom already adored J.C. but now I think she might choose him over me if it came down to it.

I can only assume the conversation they had included our trip to Vegas. I don’t know why I didn’t connect the dots and figure out that everyone in my family had to have a hand in this entire thing. Miguel with booking the King size room, mom insisting I leave her, Christina pushing me to go shopping before we left. The realization hits me as soon as J.C. opens my door.

“They know don’t they? My whole family knows about the wedding, right? That’s why they were all for me going away with you.” I playfully smack him in the chest and he feigns an injury.

“I'm sure they can all assume. I told everyone whatever happened would depend on how you acted towards me once we were alone. If you’d continued to keep me at arm’s distance, then I would have kept that ring in my suitcase.”

I look down at the wedding band. J.C. told the lady at the front desk that a ring wasn’t needed; I just assumed it was something we would get later on since the wedding was so spontaneous. When the time came for exchanging of the rings during our ceremony, I was shocked when he pulled out the beautiful solitaire diamond ring.

“Let’s go inside.” My husband pulls me from my thoughts.

With a nod, we head inside, ready to introduce ourselves as Jared and Joanna Collins.

Perhaps it’s my imagination playing tricks on me, or maybe not, but when I go to hug my mom, I swear her eyes hone in on my left ring finger before she even acknowledges my hug.

“Hey, Joey,” her eyes shimmer with mischief, “how was your little escape?”

With an arch of an eyebrow I do my best to act angry. “As if you don’t know, Mom.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about, Mija. I’m just wondering if you had a good time...do anything
crazy
?” She smiles big.

I immediately turn around and smack J.C. on his chest again; who also is wearing a mischievous smirk, one that I happen to find sexy as can be. Again, he feigns injury.

“What was that for?” he barely gets the words out around the laughter bubbling out. “I didn’t even do anything!”

“Whatever!” I laugh looking between my mom and husband. “You two had this whole thing planned!”

“I did no such planning, Joey. I happened to mention something about crazy things happening in Vegas. I can’t help it if J.C. took some intuition and sought out an opportunity to do something spontaneous. Although, he knew beforehand that I wouldn’t be opposed to it.”