The Storm Inside (20 page)

I pulsed again.

His free hand caressed my backside, sending an electric current over my sensitive flesh, before smoothing up the arch of my back and hooking over my shoulder. His mouth was at my ear again and I was all anticipation, being held captive at the edge of orgasm. “Come. Right now, Eve.” he demanded, pulling down on my shoulder at the same time he thrust up with his palm and fingers inside me. The sudden pressure was my undoing. I came hard, my sex squeezing and savoring his large fingers inside me. He turned my head, thrusting his tongue almost painfully into my mouth to quiet my cries. He held me tight while I fell apart, his strong arms destroying and protecting my body simultaneously.

The moment I was calm again he slid his fingers away and my skirt flitted back down into place. His free hand on my hip spun me to face him and I leaned lazily back against the rail, still weak. He stepped between my thighs, his arm all the way around my waist holding me close, and locked his green eyes with mine.

I was caught in his stare, completely unable to look away as he raised his glistening fingers and licked them clean. “Dessert,” he murmured.

I don’t know why it was so damn erotic that Jake liked the way that I tasted, but it was. Knowing that the most intimate part of me drove him wild to the point of distraction and lust… was
hot
. It just was.

“I’m glad I could help with that.” I replied huskily.

He grinned wickedly as he licked the last of me from his fingers and pulled me tight against him, “Can we go home? I’m ready to fuck you in our bed like a good boyfriend.”

I bit my lower lip as a fresh wave of excitement rushed through my veins. “As you wish.”

***

Jake took me out for a special dinner. Dinner turned into a walk along the water. His fingers were threaded through mine and a small smile played on his lips.

“You’re happy tonight,” I murmured.

“I am,” he agreed.

I looked up at him questioningly and he chuckled. “I’ve got a couple of good things to tell you, actually.”

I paused, turning toward Jake. The sun was set, but the sky was still glowing a brilliant orange behind him. I loved the long summer sunsets. It made the days seem so eternal and the nights so short. “You’ve been holding out on me all night?”

Jake looked down at me with a satisfied look, “Darlin’, there is a time and place for everything.”

“Spill it.” Sometimes I really hated how patient Jake could be.

He chuckled, the warm sound of his voice washing over me. “I landed a very, very large contract to develop a new piece of equipment. It will require both Greg and I to oversee a whole new division at the company.” He shoved his hands casually into his pants pockets and shrugged his shoulders, “I beat out a lot of major firms for this.”

“That’s fantastic!” I cried jumping up and hugging him. He laughed heartily and put his arms carefully around me, his head dipping into the crook of my neck. I felt him breathe in my scent. The tender gesture made my heart race and I hugged him closer. “I’m so proud of you.”

He squeezed me and whispered in my ear, “I’ve got something else, too.” His lips grazed my earlobe before his teeth tugged, sending a shot of pleasure through me and making me gasp, “Oh really? Do tell Mr. Spencer.”

He pulled back and grabbed my chin between his thumb and forefinger; studying me with a gaze so intense it scorched my panties. “Are we ok? Since my little freak out?”

I nodded slowly, incapable of looking away from his intense stare. “Yes, we are. But I do wish you’d talk to me more. I feel like I’m still trying to get to know you.”

“What do you want to know?”

I laughed, “Jake, so far I’ve got lots of sun, lots of sand, that you worked a lot, occasionally went to Germany, and fucked a girl named Ashley for five years. It’s not a pretty picture in my head right now.”

Did he really not understand how his lack of information was confusing me?

He let go of my chin, but didn’t move away. His physical presence was a little overwhelming. “I was lonely.” It was a confession and one he wasn’t comfortable providing. “I had Tom, who was busy as fuck running a company. He worked my ass off and when I wasn’t working I was looking for an outlet for my anger. I was always looking for something to make me feel like I wasn’t alone. I went to Dubai, I went to Germany, but otherwise I stayed in Iraq and Afghanistan almost entirely. I didn’t want to be anywhere else because the only place I really wanted to be was here with you.”

When he said shit like that, it made those ten years we spent apart seem eternal.

“You were lonely?”

He took a step back away from me and sighed, running his large hands through his messy hair. “Yes, Eve, I was lonely. I had no family except a man who was often more like a stranger than a relative. And I had you.”

“Greg?”

He nodded, “Yeah, he and I really got friendly about five years ago. We hit it off pretty well and he was probably one of the first consistent people I could really count on.” Jake looked up at the darkening sky, the pain and confusion clear on his handsome face, “He’s kinda the big brother I always wished I had. I mean, we’re more friends than anything, but for a couple of years he was the guy I looked up to.”

He stepped away to talk and I felt like there was a mile between us. Maybe it was easier for him to tell me these things if I wasn’t so close, but I couldn’t stand it. I needed to be touching him. I slid my fingers inside his hand, “I love Greg then. I’m glad he could be there for you when I couldn’t.”

Jake’s eyes snapped back to me, clear and intense. “I don’t think I’ll ever be able to explain to you how much you
were
there for me. We weren’t together, but you and everything we were… that was what kept me sane in the end.”

I’d been knocked on my ass a few times. Jake had been the one to do it most of those times. Even if you combined each and every one of them into one giant push, it wouldn’t come near how floored I felt by what Jake just said.

There were declarations of love, and then there was that.

I was stunned into silence as his eyes bored into mine. “Eve, you were always with me. Always in my heart.”

I wanted to burrow in close to his heart, listen to it beat and feel the rise and fall of his chest as he breathed.

“I love you Jake.”

He’d said it to me a hundred times since we’d gotten back together, but I hadn’t really felt comfortable saying it back. I did now.

And I meant it. For some reason, hearing him say I’d always been with him, even after years and thousands of miles… I needed to say it.

His arms came around me hard and fast. He held me so close it hurt, but I didn’t care. Hell, I’d probably be happy if he accidentally melded our bodies together permanently. He could crush me against him all he wanted.

“I love you, too.” he said simply, a painful smile on his face. But it was his eyes, so deep and green and boring into my soul that took my breath away. He really could see straight into my soul.

I opened my mouth to say something, but nothing came out. I tried again, but when the words didn’t come, I giggled.

Jake cocked his head to the side and smiled, “I know…” he said simply, his eyes lowering to my lips.

“Just kiss me.”

His smile fell away as he tenderly brushed his lips against mine. I melted against him as my knees went weak and desire rushed through my body. I wove my fingers up into his messy hair, needing to feel him any and every which way I could. His gentle kisses did more to turn me on than anything blatantly sexual. He could be buried deep inside me with any part of his body and not do what his lips just did with that kiss.

“You have another surprise?” I asked breathlessly. The mood between us was thick and ripe. If I didn’t deflect some of the intensity we’d really start pushing our luck with the whole ‘sex in public’ thing. It may be dark but this was a wide-open park and I was not about to test that boundary.

Not even for massive declarations of love.

He loosened his grip slightly, his painful smile transforming into something truly happy… and seductive. “I do.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small black journal. “It’s actually two surprises.” Jake was perfectly still for a moment and he looked off at something past me when he spoke. “One of the things the therapist had me do was write. I wrote a lot. This journal is probably the most important of them all.”

He let go of me and took half a step back, flipping open the black book to a page that was bookmarked. “I don’t need these anymore, but I think they’ll help you understand me better.”

He was giving me his personal thoughts. There really wasn’t anything much more intimate or telling than the words you scribble down at your weakest moments. Giving them to me meant he wasn’t worried about anything. He was willing to share every piece of himself; he wasn’t going to hold anything else back.

“Thank you.”

“It comes with one stipulation.” He cocked his head and eyed me. I nodded. “Read it when I’m not around. I’m more than happy to answer any questions, but I don’t want to see you read it.”

“Ok,” I agreed. I was floored. This was incredibly heavy and intimate stuff. I had never expected him to let me this far into his past.

He smiled a genuine smile. “Well then, you earn the second part of this surprise.” The bookmark wasn’t really a bookmark; it was a necklace. At the end of the chain was a beautiful golden sun. “I was going to give this to you at graduation and I never got a chance.” He swallowed and took a deep breath as he stared at the sun pendant. “I was wearing the damn thing—I didn’t want to lose it with all the chaos at graduation. So when Tom took me, it stayed with me.” He stared at it as he held it up for me to see. “At first I couldn’t look at it, you know? It hurt. But then… I couldn’t live without it. It kept you close to me.”

I touched the necklace and took it from his hands, holding the sun in the palm of my hand. “Why a sun?”

He didn’t answer so I looked up and found him smiling at me, “Because you are my sun. You light up everything in my life. I wanted you to know what you meant to me then, and I need you to know that just as much now. I don’t need it anymore since I actually have you.” He snaked his hand around my waist and pulled me against him, “I want you to finally have it.”

I was speechless as he took the medallion out of my hand at put it around my neck. He smiled approvingly at the way it fell between my breasts. Normally I’d roll my eyes and punch him in the arm. But not this time. This was far too important.

Chapter 14

We turned our exhibitionism into a game. It could be initiated by either of us, and it always started with a phone call. Even though we didn’t come right out and say ‘here’s how we’re having sex tonight’, it was clear from the sound of either of our voices what those phone calls were for. It could be dinner or just an after-work event—it didn’t matter. But from the moment the call ended, the foreplay began.

We reveled in the anticipation, in the maneuvering and the planning. It was a high. The call had come in at two o’clock. His voice was deep and husky and the way he spoke so low and quiet turned me on the instant he said, “Hey, darlin’.”

“Hey,” I murmured back.

“We’ve got to stop by the club and make an appearance. Greg is schmoozing some new client. Can I pick you up at five?”

“Of course. But you’ll have to bring me to work in the morning…”

I could hear his sly grin through the phone. “Nothing would make me happier. We’ll have breakfast together as well.”

“Nothing would make me happier.”

“I’ll see you at five.”

By the time I set my phone down my panties were damp and my nipples were tingling.

Three hours of anticipation.

I couldn’t be happier with my clothing choice of the day. I was in a sheer white blouse with gorgeous folds where it opened at the front. Beneath was a thin matching camisole, underneath of which was my bra. My skirt was a black, high-waisted pencil skirt with a gold belt, and three-inch snakeskin heels.

I was going to have so much fun with this.

I stood up, seductively fluffing my hair and turning my camera phone to the front-facing lens. I took three pictures and sent one to Jake. “
Do you think this will do?”

To my extreme satisfaction I got an immediate response. “
You look delicious…”

At four-thirty I went to the executive bathrooms to freshen up my makeup. I took the eyes up a notch and painted my lips with nothing but lightly tinted gloss (because hot red lipstick leaves too many clues behind). Then I went into the stall and carefully removed all my underwear.

The lack of barrier between my nipples and shirt set them tingling again and my naked sex started to throb with anticipation. I was going to be in trouble if I couldn’t get myself under control. So I spent a moment calming down with deep slow breaths before I returned to my office.

The bra went into my giant computer bag, but the lacey panties? Those went inside a Rays handkerchief. And that handkerchief went inside my clutch purse.