For Fox Sake

Chapter 19

Jake

Mindy rests a hand on Taylor’s shoulder. “She’s right, Jake. There’s even a song. Something about the moon hitting your eye like a big pizza pie, or whatever.”

Ugh. They’re ganging up on me now. I shake my head in disgust. “I miss when you two hated each other. Family dinner just isn’t the same.”

Taylor lifts her brows. “Are you saying you enjoyed it when we would start yelling at each other randomly?”

“Yes. Someone would start a fight, people would stomp off, and then someone else could eat their feelings by devouring the food left behind.”

Archer, standing at the head of the table cutting up the grape pie, hands Ryan a slice. “It’s Jake. He was the one eating all the food left behind.”

I cross my arms over my chest and shrug. “I don’t believe in food waste.”

“How very noble of you,” Piper says drily.

“I think so.”

We laugh and talk and eat the pie. Every time I glance over at Ryan, she and Finley are leaning close, chatting with each other. Ari is in my lap, her mouth smeared with fruit from the pie.

The whole scene spreads contentment through my bones. I’ve always loved time with my family, chatting, debating, and laughing with them, but it’s like Ryan and Ari’s presence adds an extra layer of satisfaction.

Once the pie has been demolished, Taylor, Atticus, Mindy, and Luke all bail for the night. They have work in the morning because of the upcoming festival, and Mindy and Luke are staying with them at their place, on the other side of town.

With their departure, the volume in the room cuts in half.

Ari yanks on my hand, jumping up and down. “What are we doing now?”

Ryan winces. “I’m afraid after the nap on the plane and all that sugar in the pie, someone is a little hyper.”

I shrug. “It’s only about six back in Dull.”

“True.”

Archer grabs a stack of dirty plates and cups, heading toward the kitchen. “You can take her down to firepit one. We have glow-in-the-dark ring toss and one of those giant-sized Connect Four games.”

“Yes!” Ari shouts, the hopping growing more enthusiastic.

We pile into a couple of golf carts parked on the side of the house, Ari, Ryan, Piper, and me in one, and Archer, Finley and Oliver in another, and drive down into camp to the main firepit.

Archer lights the fire, and Piper and Finley pull out the games.

After about an hour of ring toss and Connect Four, her boundless energy finally starts to ebb.

Piper and Oliver head back to their cabin to turn in for the night, and the rest of us settle around the fire.

Ari sits between Ryan and me on one of the long benches, while Finley and Archer tell us about some of the recent happenings with the camp.

When there is a lull in the conversation, Ari speaks up. “Do you have any campfire stories?”

Finley grins at me from across the fire, the flames making her eyes glitter. “Remember Squinty Pete?”

A bark of laughter bursts from my throat. How had I forgotten? The memory rushes back, the first time Dad told us about Squinty Pete. We couldn’t have been more than seven or eight. We had been helping him with some routine maintenance issues, Aria and I. More like following him around and annoying him, and then running around playing in the trees while he was working in the cabins.

“Don’t go too far,” he would tell us. “Squinty Pete might be out there.”

It was his way of keeping us from wandering too far.

“Squinty Pete lives deep in the trees,” I tell Ari now. “And he only has one eye, but it’s a giant eye.”

Her nose wrinkles. “One giant eye?”

“Yep,” Finley says. “And he watches from the trees, waiting for little children to go deep enough into the forest and close enough for him to snatch.”

I squeeze Ari’s side, making her giggle.

“At night,” Finley continues, “Squinty Pete comes out and looks for any candy or food little kids have left out to gobble up.”

I chuckle. One of the clever ways Dad came up with to get us to throw away our trash without him having to ask over and over.

We share more camp stories, until Ari starts yawning and crawls into my lap, laying her head on my shoulder.

We make plans to all meet up for a tour of the camp after breakfast the next morning, and then I drive Ari and Ryan to their cabin.

I help them carry the bags inside. Ari races from room to room, excited about everything, from the kitchen already stocked with her favorite snacks to the bunk beds in her room and the flat-screen TV on the wall in the living room.

“Can I sleep on the top bunk?” she yells.

Ryan lifts her brow at me.

“There’s a wood railing.”

“Sure, honey,” she calls out.

Ari’s excited shriek is the only response.

We grin at each other.

Ryan glances around the kitchen. “This is really nice. Your family is...”

“Annoying? Pushy? Overbearing?”

She shakes her head. “Try amazing.”

I make a face. “Yeah, I know.”

Ari comes running out from her bedroom. “Jake, can you read me a bedtime story?”

“Of course.”

“We have to at least wash up and brush your teeth first.” Ryan leads her toward the bathroom, throwing me a glance over her shoulder. “Will you grab Shirley and the book from my bag? It’s on the bed.”

“Of course.” I cross the living room into the master bedroom, easily locating her bag, opened on the bed. I move a sweater to the side and my hands still over an unopened box of condoms.

My heart picks up speed. My mouth goes dry. My cock is immediately at half-mast.

Did she want me to find this?

I swallow, hard. I have to pull myself together and read Ari a story.

After taking a few deep breaths, I locate Shirley and The Velveteen Rabbit and make my way back across the living room to the bathroom by Ari’s room.

I stop outside the door, leaning against the wall. Ari is brushing her teeth while Ryan sings “Shake It Off” and they both shake their limbs, Ari giggling around her toothbrush.

My heart swells.

I have to convince Ryan to stay. What does she need to go back to Dull for? She hates it there. Her mother is gone, which is terrible, but true. She could live here, go back to school, work... anywhere, really. She wouldn’t have to worry about care for Ari—we have a damn village already in place—and every person here would bend over backward to help with anything she needs.

Did she bring those condoms because she’s hoping for the same thing I am? That we can find a way to be together?

They finish up in the bathroom, and I follow them into Ari’s room still holding Shirley and the book.

Ryan climbs up on the ladder to give Ari a kiss. Then she hops down and walks over to me.

“I’m going to get myself ready for bed while you read to her, if that’s okay?”

I hold the rabbit up in front of my face. “Shirley that’s a rhetorical question because of course.”

Ari giggles.

Ryan smacks me lightly on the shoulder. “Funny. And thank you.”

I clamber up the ladder and squeeze in next to Ari, the bed only squeaking slightly in protest. She hugs Shirley to her chest while I read the book, adding as many ridiculous voices as I can, making Nana’s voice deep and masculine, and giving the Boy the best British accent I can muster.

Ari giggles so hard she gets the hiccups.

We finish the story and despite my entertaining performance, her lids are already drooping. I kiss her forehead good night before climbing back down the steps and shutting off the light, leaving her door halfway open.

Out in the living room, Ryan is sitting on the chair in the corner, gazing out the window into the dark night.

“Hey. She’s out.”

She pushes herself to her feet, walking toward me.

“She seems pretty exhausted. I don’t think there will be any waking up wanting wat?—”

She reaches up, grabs my shoulders, and presses her mouth to mine, hard and quick, and then pulls back and searches my eyes. “Is this okay?”

I lick my lips. “It’s more than okay. But are you sure?”

In response, she takes my hand, leading me to her bedroom, thankfully located on the opposite side of the cabin from Ari’s room.

“What about Ari?”

“She’s a deep sleeper once she’s out.” She shuts her bedroom door behind us, turning to face me. “But try not to scream.”

I chuckle, but then she whips her shirt over her head and the laughter dies in my throat.

We’re less than a foot apart. There’s a lamp behind me somewhere, casting a soft, buttery glow over every dip and curve. My mouth goes dry.

She reaches for the snaps on her bra, and I stop her, resting my fingers on her hand. “Wait.” I swallow. “I don’t want to rush this.” I haven’t done this in so long, and never with someone I care about this much. I’m suddenly terrified I’ll screw it up somehow. “I want to unwrap you myself.”

And I want to make sure she experiences as much pleasure as possible before I take my own, because my cock is already throbbing against my zipper in time with the drumming of my heart.

I reach out, cupping her face in my hands and dipping my head to hers.

Our lips meet, mesh, move together.

Her hands grip my shoulders.

I brush my tongue against hers, over and over, until the pads of her fingers are digging into me and she’s gasping into my mouth.

Pulling back, I reach behind me to pull my shirt up and over my head, then we’re kissing again, the silky fabric of her bra rubbing against my bare chest and setting every nerve ending aflame.

Our mouths go from sweet, to sensual, to straight-up erotic. A tidal wave of desire sweeps over me. I lift her into my arms, turning us toward the bed and laying her down before coming over top of her, kissing along her jawline and then down her chest.

I brush my lips over the smooth material, gently sucking.

She arches underneath me, her breath coming out in pants.

“Jake.”

I keep moving, kissing over the soft skin of her belly to the top of her jeans. I fumble with the button, flicking it open and then unzipping to wiggle them down her thighs and off, chucking them over the side of the bed.

I slide my hands up her thighs, spreading them wide enough for me to settle in between.

Her fingers grasp and twist the bedspread underneath her.

She still has her panties on. Just a tantalizing swath of black cotton.

Nerves coil in my gut. It’s been so long. What if I suck at this? “I haven’t done this in a while, so...”

Heart pounding, I smooth my fingers up and down over her panties.

“Oh, yes,” she moans.

Well, she likes that.

“Show me.” I take her hand, moving it between her legs. “Show me what you like.”

Her fingers move. Lust squeezes me in a vise. Only two of my brain cells are functioning, and they’re both too horny to think clearly, but I bang them together a few times and focus on Ryan’s movements, paying attention to the places she touches, how she touches, the motions and the force behind them.

After a few minutes of careful study, I take over. The undies get yanked off and thrown on the floor with the pants, and then I use my mouth and hands and fingers.

I don’t stop until Ryan is trembling and shaking underneath my mouth, smothering her groans with one hand as release overtakes her.

I kiss my way back up her body and collapse next to her on the bed.

“Holy shit,” she breathes. “For someone who hasn’t done this in a while, you did a stellar job. Gold star.”

I grin up at the ceiling. I don’t suck. Awesome.

She rolls into me, kissing my shoulder, her hand running down my stomach to the top of my jeans.

She smirks at me, her eyes drowsy, and shoves at my pants.

I clench my jaw. She must be exhausted from traveling all day, plus staying up late playing games with Ari. “We can stop now if you want,” I murmur.

She stops pushing at my clothes and blinks at me. “What?”

“If you’re tired, we can just sleep.”

She shakes her head. “No. We’re doing this. I am not too tired for this.”

Thank Christ.

“Here, let me help you.” I shuck my jeans off, then we both fumble with her bra, and then we’re kissing again, limbs tangling.

“Condom,” she says, rolling away from me to reach into her bag on the floor by the bed.

The wrapping crinkles as she rips it open, then together we slide it on. The grip of her hand around my length shoots stars across my vision. Before I can make any other moves, she swings a leg over my hip and slides down.

My eyes are trained on the place where we’re joining as I disappear inside her.

We both moan.

Pure bliss. Rapture. Ecstasy.

Oh yeah. This is not lasting long.

She moves over me, riding me, and the whole world evaporates. It’s only me and Ryan and this moment. I cup her breasts in my hands, flicking the tips with my thumbs.

She throws her head back and moves faster.

I thrust my hips upward in time with her movements, focusing all my energy on not spending.

It’s brutal. The orgasm builds and builds, ready to burst through me like a geyser about to blow.

Not yet, not yet, not yetis a mantra beating in my veins until I can’t take it any longer.

My spine tingles. My balls tighten.

The release overpowers me, reverberating through me, stealing the breath from my lungs and crowding my vision with black spots.

I grip Ryan’s thighs, my eyesight returning just in time to witness her quaking and shuddering as she comes.

She collapses on top of me, sticky and sweaty and so goddamn perfect I’m about out of my mind with emotions too immense and fragile to put a name to.

We lie there, breathing together for a few long minutes, until she pushes herself up slightly to meet my eyes.

“Shower?”

“Hell yeah.”

We rinse off, making each other slippery with the soap, which leads to another orgasm each using fingers and hands and it’s the best shower I’ve ever had in my life.

After toweling off, we fall into bed, folding into each other perfectly. Like peanut butter and jelly, or mustard and hot dogs, or cheese and... more cheese.

I brush a kiss to her forehead. “I’ll get up in a little bit and go back to the house before morning. Before Finley notices I’m gone, or Ari realizes I’m here.”

She nods, tucking her head into my neck. “Mmmkay.”

I’m going to shut my eyes, just for a minute.

“Momma!”

The shriek jerks me awake.

The sun is shining through the blinds.

It’s... daytime?

“Can we have pancakes for breakfast?”

My head rolls toward the door.

Standing in the open doorway is Ari. Her eyes are wide. “Jake? What are you doing here? Did you have a sleepover?”