SEAL'd Perfection The Complete Collection: A Navy SEAL Romance (38 page)

When she stilled, she sagged against the headboard, her legs still spread over my face. “That was insane,” she panted.

“It’s not over yet, baby.”

She giggled and worked her way back down my body, coming to rest on my hips, my cock rock hard and pulsing for attention as her soaking wet pussy neared. She stopped short, but reached behind her and stroked the shaft. “No, it’s not.” With a wicked smile, she lifted up and lowered onto my cock, letting me slide into her slowly, one tight inch at a time, until I was fully inside her, stretching and filling her. She sighed, and stayed completely still for a moment, her eyes pressed closed. “God, you feel good.”

“Likewise,” I teased, my fingers finding her clit and gently rubbing the tender bud. She moaned and began rocking back and forth. I hissed out a breath of ecstasy as she rode me hard and fast, desperate for another release. Her walls tightened and gripped around me, driving me insane. I couldn’t hold on for long, but waited until she was ready, her pussy impossibly tight around me, and we exploded together, clinging together for dear life as we came down from the peak. I was still inside Kat when she sank down against my chest, her forehead slick with sweat, her breath coming in pants. After a while, she rolled to her side and we rested together, lazily touching and exploring each other, recommitting each detail to memory. When my hard-on reappeared half an hour later, Kat smiled and stroked it with a suggesting smile.

With a little fumbling, I got onto my side and fucked her slow and intense, as we stared into each other’s faces, seeing every flicker of pleasure, as we built to a steady, and deeply satisfying climax that reverberated through us.

“Jace,” Kat mumbled, her face halfway buried in my chest.

“Hmm?”

She raised her head, and I could see the glimmer of her eyes in the moonlight from outside the window. “Don’t go.” She swallowed hard. “To Chicago, I mean. I can’t do long distance, not with Jax, and I can’t move there with you until I’m done with school.”

I stroked her hair, soothing her back down against my chest. “Shh, baby, it’s okay. I’m not going anywhere. We’ll figure something out.”

“Really?” The surprise in her voice made me laugh softly.

“Really.”

There was a long pause, and then her sleepy little voice said, “I love you, Jace.”

“I love you, Kat.”

Seconds later her breathing evened out and I knew she’d fallen asleep. I knew my body was going to hate me in the morning, but I took a deep breath of the soft, floral scent of Kat’s hair and found it impossible to care. Kat was in my arms, where she belonged, and everything else faded to the background.

True to his word, Jace finagled a way to stay in town. The owner of his shop and small apartment hadn’t managed to find a new occupant, and were all too happy to let Jace stay in the space. He still moved his tattoo equipment to a storage space, but other than that, very little changed. Well, other than having to buy all new furniture and dishes. Weeks melted into months, and it surprised me how quickly Jace, Jax, and I settled into a new routine. Jace fit in seamlessly, and if anything, served as an anchor to our lives, rather than a distraction—or burden, as Jace had feared. He was able to stay home with Jax when I went to work, and took care of him most nights when I was at school. I was nearing the end of my program and spent most evenings working on schoolwork, even if it wasn’t a school night. Hilda was around to help out when Jace was having a bad day, but even those were becoming less frequent. I knew he wanted to get off the pain medication, but his back still hurt him most days, despite his progress with physical therapy and other treatments.

Jace had put his Chicago home up for rent, and planned to keep it as an investment property since there was no way Jax and I would be able to relocate to Chicago anytime soon, at least not without another custody war with Mitch. For the time being, everything was as it should be. The best part of the arrangement was having someone to come home to every night, even when Jax was with his dad. With my breakneck school and work routine, home with Jace and Jax was my safe haven.

Especially on nights after a long day at work, and school. Like tonight.

I let myself into the house, and smiled when I heard Jace call out, “Hey baby!” I shut the front door and went into the living room, after dropping my school bag by the front door, unable to find the energy to drag it to the couch. I knew I’d have to get up again to put it in the closet where I normally stashed it in order to keep Jax out of it—a lesson learned after he’d busted into my highlighters and “colored” the front of the fridge. Jace was sitting on the couch and his face fell after surveying my condition. “Damn, you look beat.”

I nodded. “This final project is gonna be the death of me. Between the drive, the demanding clients, and hauling furniture around all day, I’m worn out. I’m an old lady, remember?” I winked at Jace and he laughed. It was a running joke between us that somewhere along the way, I’d become a cougar, preying upon young, impressionable men like Jace who fell into my trap.

Jace gestured for me to join him on the couch, and I noted the way he was sitting up, ramrod straight, which was a sure sign that his back was bothering him. I snuggled up to him, careful not to put too much pressure on him as I leaned in. He wrapped an arm around me and stroked the ends of my hair between his fingers.

“Where’s Jax?” I asked.

“Bath time. Hilda came over a little while ago to check on us. I was having some trouble getting on my knees to scrub him down, so she took over.”

I reached up and stroked the side of his face, silently reassuring him. He hated to admit when he needed help. “Do you need anything?”

He shook his head. “Nah. I’m just waiting for the drugs to kick in. Should be any minute.”

“Tell me about your day? What did you guys do?”

“The usual,” Jace answered, smiling down at me. “Little man and I took Mickey out for a walk, stopped for a hot cocoa at that coffee shop on fifth, and came back to have dinner and do the bedtime bit.”

“Sounds nice. I wish I could have been there.” I frowned, battling off a wave of mommy guilt. I hated that school had kicked into overtime and was sucking up every spare minute. I’d lost enough time with Jax during the custody war with Mitch. “Thanks for being there with him. He adores you, you know.”

Jace smiled. “That feeling is pretty mutual, you know?”

I nodded. I
did
know. Jace and Jax had made an impossibly adorable duo since the moment they had met. Those two spending so much time together had only turned the cute dial up, and the result was pretty hard to resist. Jace still slept at his own apartment, neither of us wanting to cause Jax confusion over our relationship until we figured out our next steps. But every morning, Jax shot out of bed, raced down the hall, and stood watch at the front window, Mickey by his side, to wait for Jace to come over for the day.

“There is something I wanted to talk to you about,” Jace said. I sat up straighter, the tone of his voice setting me on edge. “You know how I’ve been getting emails and stuff from fans?”

“Yeah?” After Jace’s series finale interview had aired, his fans had rallied around him, sending messages on social media, emails, and even some physical letters or gifts.

“Well, I got one today from a Dr. Hannigan. He’s the lead surgeon at an institution in Texas. They’ve been doing a lot of research and trials with a new type of back surgery. Anyways, he contacted me because he is confident that his team could repair my disks and relieve me of my back pain. He’s willing to do the surgery for free, and said he is available at my earliest convenience to do a consultation.”

“That’s great!” I turned to face him, to get a read on his expression. He looked pained and conflicted. “Isn’t it?”

Jace sighed. “I’ve been going back and forth. The procedure itself sounds promising, but I mean it’s not without risks. There’s a chance, a small one, things could end up worse than they are now. I don’t know what I would do…”

I took his hand and squeezed it. “I understand. But, I think it’s worth going to at least talk to the doctor. Right?”

Jace nodded. “There’s one other thing,” he paused, and I knew that whatever he was thinking wasn’t going to be easy for him to say. My heart raced as he hesitated, an illogical grip of fear taking hold. “I’d need a lot of help, you know, for the recovery part. I don’t think I could live on my own, and I wouldn’t want to stay in Texas at their aftercare facility, at least, not long term. I know you have Jax and it wouldn’t be easy, but…maybe we need to revisit the idea of me moving in.”

I nodded, the implications rolling around in my mind. It wasn’t that I didn’t want Jace to live with me. The idea of going to sleep with him every night and waking up to him every morning thrilled me to the point where I thought my heart might burst with joy. As it was, we had to sneak in times to make love, and only got to sleep together on the weekends when Jax was with Mitch and Hannah. “Honestly, having you here full time would be amazing. I think about it all the time, Jace. I only hesitated for so long because of Jax and not wanting to confuse him. When we first decided to do this, to be together, I knew we would have to slow down and ignore our impulse to dive in head first. But things have changed, I want you here, to be an official family.”

Jace’s smile brightened twenty watts and his eyes softened. “Really?”

I smiled back and nodded, tears pricking at my own eyes. “Yeah.”

Jax raced into the room, butt naked, Hilda quickly following behind with his discarded bath towel in her hands. She was laughing, but kept her voice stern, “Mr. Jax, you get back here so I can dry you off!”

Jace turned his face away but I heard the snicker of laughter as he ducked into my shoulder. I smiled but heaved off the couch. “Come on Jax, mama will get you into some PJs. Then Jace and I have something we want to talk to you about.” At this part, Hilda shot me a questioning look. “You too, Hilda.”

When we returned minutes later, Jax wrangled into his jammies, Hilda was seated next to Jace on the couch. “Well!” She demanded, a smile on her face. “That was quite the cliffhanger dear!”

Jace smiled at me and I looked down at Jax and then over at Hilda. “Jax, what would you think if Jace were to come and live with us?”

“Yay! Yay! Yay!” He shouted, as he started hopping around the room. Mickey joined in and the two of them started their own parade up and down the hallway, leaving all three of us laughing in the living room.

“That’s wonderful dear! Congratulations.” Hilda smiled and squeezed Jace’s hand. The two of them had become quite close in the past months, bonding over their mutual love of Jax. Truthfully, I knew that Hilda would love anyone who loved me.

And Jace did. More than I could have ever imagined.

While Jax continued his celebration, Jace explained the surgery in more detail to Hilda and me, and although I knew that nothing was guaranteed, a tiny spark of hope ignited in my chest. Jace wouldn’t be able to go back to tattoo art, not without his hand, but without the chronic back pain and fatigue from combating it, he might be able to relax enough to find his new passion.

And while I kept it to myself, secretly I began to hope that maybe my dreams of expanding my family weren’t that unrealistic fantasies after all.

As Kat and I began to make plans for the future, things fell into place, everything going smoothly, until the time came to tell her asshole ex-husband, Mitch, about the new arrangement. We both went to drop off Jax for his weekend, and even before I got out of the car, I could feel his hatred radiating towards me from the front porch.

“It’ll be fine,” Kat assured me, rubbing my arm before pushing her door open.

“I know.” I nodded and flashed a smile at her. I knew she was more nervous about it than I was. She had enjoyed the relative peace between her and her ex and was afraid that telling him about our plans would unravel things and they’d go back to warring constantly, something that would only get more and more damaging as Jax aged. In my mind, it wasn’t something to stress about because as she’d told me, he’d been put in his place by the lawyer I’d hired for her and if he stepped out of line, Kirk Folger was only a phone call away. However, I understood that she didn’t want to keep putting Jax through that. I didn’t either. But as I told her, she couldn’t control what Mitch did, that his choices were on him.

Kat got out of the car and I let her lead the way inside once she got Jax and Mickey out of the car. On the porch, I extended my hand to Mitch. “Nice to see you again.”

Mitch took my hand but didn’t offer a smile or a greeting, releasing my hand almost as soon as he took it.

“Mitch,” Kat hissed.

He flicked a casual glance to her and then turned away. “See you on Sunday, Katherine, and Jack? Was it?”

My muscles tensed, and a snarl formed on my lips. Kat placed a hand on my chest, backing me down without a word. I relaxed my shoulders back, but the anger pulsing through my veins was still red hot as I stared at her ex. He was so far the opposite of me in every way, clean cut, dressed in slacks and a polo shirt, and I’d have been willing to bet had never so much as stepped a toe in a tattoo shop, and he sure as hell hadn’t seen anything like the horrors of war or held a gun in defense of his life. He was a rich, fat cat, corporate drone that had a nice house, garage full of cars, and used his money to get what he wanted.

As I studied him, I wondered what Kat had ever liked—loved—about him. Had he been different when they’d gotten together? Or, had she? Was there still a part of her that wanted all of this? The house, cars, money, prestige?

I shook away the questions, they could be answered later, and focused my attention back to the moment, knowing Kat would need me to back her up. “Actually, it’s Jace.” I gave a tight lipped smile with the correction. The dickhead just shrugged.

“Mitch,” Kat warned again. “We actually have something we need to discuss, with you and Hannah.”

Mitch’s face remained masked with smarmy contempt, but there was a flicker of a question in his eyes and I got a thrill, hoping he was picturing Kirk Folger and remembering the thinly veiled threat the family court judge had given him about stirring up trouble. Just as quickly as it appeared, it was gone, leaving his eyes frosty and hard again. “Fine, but it’s going to have to be quick. Hannah and I have a function to get ready for.” He turned without further explanation, going through the entryway and leading us to the living room, where Hannah was sitting with their six month old daughter, Emmaline in her lap. Jax was at her side, dangling a toy in front of his baby half-sister just like he would if he were trying to get Mickey to play with him. Kat smiled at the sight, and my heart ached, knowing that she was wishing it was her with a baby.