30. Jack
30
JACK
SOUNDS LIKE A COUNTRY SONG
“H ow’s your beer?” I asked as I traced the delicate bones on the top of Aurora’s hand.
She smiled over the lip of the bottle. “ Fantastic . How’s the wine?”
I swirled my glass and took a sip. “ Fantastic .”
Dinner and dessert were long gone. We lingered at our table, letting it digest as we sipped our respective beverages and shared coy glances and sly smiles.
“You know, you didn’t strike me as a wine guy,” Aurora said when she had reduced the beer to suds. “ I’ve only seen you drink whiskey and beer.”
I studied her delicate features beneath the glow of artfully exposed bulbs and flickering candlelight. “ I prefer wine, but I drink beer with you and whiskey because of you.”
Aurora blushed. “ Sounds like a country song.”
We sat in silence, thinking about the night we had thrown caution to the wind.
“My mom is into wine,” I said, finally breaking the silence. “ She taught me about all the varietals of grapes and how growing conditions affect the taste. It’s fascinating.”
Her smile was soft, but the twitch of her mouth made her eyes crease at the corners. “ I’ve always wondered what makes you light up.”
“We were supposed to go on a trip to Napa when I turned twenty-one.”
Melancholy settled over us like a dense winter fog as soon as it came out of my mouth, but Aurora wasn’t thrown off.
She slid her hand into mine. “ But your brother passed away.”
“Yeah. We cancelled. Neither of us felt like celebrating anything.”
Her lithe fingers squeezed my palm. “ Have you been since?”
I shook my head.
“You should. Grief doesn’t negate joy. They exist in tandem. You can mourn part of your life and still celebrate the beautiful parts.”
She was the beautiful part.
I could get lost in her eyes. The dancing light from the tabletop candles glowed in her gaze.
“I wish you had been around back then.” I downed the last sip of wine in an improper chug when I realized the implications of what I had said.
We weren’t even dating, but this had gone far beyond what either of us had anticipated.
It wasn’t just hooking up like she wanted. It wasn’t dating like I wanted. It was companionship. Partnership . There was intimacy long before there was sex.
It came in quiet moments where we aired frustrations or didn’t say anything at all. It was sitting in the discomfort of someone having a bad day and not rushing them out of it, simply being there during it.
She was the hurricane and the eye—the storm and the serenity. Without knowing it, we had been doing life together in simple and devout ways. I was her rock, and she was my radiance.
I loved her.
Dammit.
“You okay?” Aurora asked as we slipped out of the restaurant, walking hand in hand back to the truck. “ You’re quiet.”
We stopped at a crosswalk, and I took the moment to kiss her. “ Never been better.”
I was antsy to get her out of that dress. Maybe it was the realization that she was it for me. Maybe it was the realization that she wasn’t mine. Maybe it was the need to hold on to us as long as I could.
The drive back to Cedar Island seemed to stretch on and on. By the time I pulled onto our street, I was ready to leave the truck running in the driveway so I could get her in the house as soon as possible.
All the lights in Aurora’s house were off, leaving it looming in the moonlight. “ Are your girls waiting up for you?” I asked as I opened her door.
Aurora had her flip-flops on her feet and the high heels in her hand. “ No . They have to leave first thing in the morning to catch their flights. They turned in early, but I’ll see them before they go tomorrow.”
I shut the door to the truck and had her pinned against the side of the cab in the blink of an eye. “ Come inside with me.”
Aurora lifted an eyebrow. “ That was the plan. I didn’t get this dressed up to let it go to waste.”
I shook my head as my mouth met hers in the softest kiss. “ Stay inside with me, baby.”
She nodded into the kiss, tilting her head to the side. “ Take me inside.”
Aurora didn’t have to tell me twice. The second I got her in the door, the tone shifted.
The high heels fell to the floor with a clatter. I pinned her to the wall with my mouth on hers as I slipped my hand up her dress and cupped her pussy. Aurora gasped into my mouth.
“Your panties are fucking soaked,” I said as I hooked my finger in the damp fabric and tugged it up, pinching her soft folds. “ Needy , desperate girl.”
“Yes,” she whimpered.
I tugged harder, making her cry out. “ If you get any louder, they’ll hear you next door.”
Aurora dropped her head onto my shoulder to muffle the dirty, depraved sounds that escaped her lips as I teased her cunt.
“Careful, sweetheart. If you get any more wet, you’re going to make a mess of this dress.”
“Take it off of me,” she panted. “ Take me to bed.”
I pulled on the zipper and pushed the straps off her shoulders until they fell on the floor. Her bra and panties were quick to go. I grabbed her ass and lifted her until she wrapped her arms and legs around me. I loved the feeling of her entire body clinging to me as I carried her.
It’s what I wanted for the rest of our lives.
“Jack, get inside me,” she pleaded as I laid her out on the bed and started to strip.
“Ask nicely,” I said rather nonchalantly as I unbuttoned my shirt and shucked it off.
“Don’t edge me tonight.”
“Still not hearing a ‘please,’” I said as I dropped my pants and boxers and crawled over her.
She wrapped her hand around my cock and squeezed. “ Now .”
“You and that fucking mouth,” I said as I braced my arms on either side of her. My cock nudged against her slick pussy. “ You want me to fuck you bare and fill this pretty little cunt? Ask nicely. ”
Aurora wrapped her legs around my hips and tried to pull me into her.
I chuckled. “ That wasn’t nice.” Instead of fucking her the way I wanted to—rough and raw— I stretched one of her legs out wide and left the other hooked around my hip. I cupped her breast and pulled her nipple between my teeth.
Aurora gasped and arched off the bed, but I had her pinned. She whipped and thrashed as I lavished her tits with deep pulls from my mouth, but couldn’t do a damn thing about it.”
“Jack,” she begged. “ Please .”
“Now, that’s a little nicer. Look at you being my good girl.”
Her lazy smile turned desperate when I sucked on her throat. “ I can’t wait anymore.”
“Patience, baby.” I cupped her sex in my palm and teased her clit with the heel of my hand.
Aurora bucked immediately, nearly delirious with need. “ I need you. I need you. I need you.”
Those were the three words I wanted. I need you.
I slid into her tight core inch by inch. Aurora went silent as I fucked the breath from her lungs. She clawed at my arms, my shoulders, and my chest. She begged and pleaded. She whispered and screamed my name.
I craved every piece of her. Every touch. Every taste. Every sound. Everything . I wanted her abundantly and infinitely.
“Jack,” she rasped as I slowly slid my cock into her. “ I’m close.”
“Me too,” I said as I shifted my arm to shield the top of her head and pressed my mouth to her temple.
Our breath mingled and pulses raced. Her body tightened around mine as I buried myself deep inside her and rocked against her pelvis.
Her silence as she shattered was treasured. It was sacred. She trusted me to carry her through it without having to say a word. As soon as she came, I filled her pussy with my release.
We collapsed into each other, still joined as stars of ecstasy rained down on us in an illicit meteor shower.
I held Aurora as long as I could before we had to separate to clean up. While I packed my station bag for my morning shift, I watched Aurora brush her teeth with the toothbrush she kept here. I watched her grab one of my shirts to wear to bed. We had two washcloths by the sink. She had a stack of clean underwear wedged in my dresser drawer beside my boxers and undershirts. I kept her favorite beer in the fridge and an endless supply of Doritos in the pantry. All of the Juniper Whitlock clues that she had found hidden in the beach house were sprawled out on my kitchen table.
Because whether Aurora realized it or not, she was meant to be here.
* * *
Moonlight streamed through the cracks in the blackout curtains as the ceiling fan made them drift together and apart. I reached across for Aurora , but the bed was empty, and the place where she had been lying felt cool.
My heart jumped into my throat as I yanked back the covers and flipped on the lights.
She wasn’t there.
I cleared the house, but there was no sign of Aurora . Her flip-flops were gone, but the heels were still in the entryway.
I yanked open the door and jogged out to the driveway.
Silence. Only the steady crash of waves.
The lights in Aurora’s house were still off, so I didn’t think she had gone there. Her car was still in the driveway beside the rental vehicle that her friends were driving, and she hadn’t stolen my truck.
Fuck.
I scrubbed my hand down my face. Where the hell was she?
My bare feet swished across my sand-spattered driveway as I rounded the house in nothing but my boxers. I didn’t give a shit if the summertimers saw me. I just needed to find her.
I picked up my pace, my feet slapping the wooden boardwalk that crested the sand dune.
My pulse slowed the moment I saw her silhouette in the moonlight. Aurora sat on the bottom step, staring out at the onyx sea.
She looked over her shoulder as I neared.
“What are you doing out here, Roar ?” I asked as I sat down and wrapped my arms around her from behind. “ You okay?”
She leaned back into me. “ Couldn’t sleep.”
“You know I don’t believe that.” I pressed a kiss into her hair. “ What’s on your mind, baby?”
She didn’t say anything; she just swept her hair away from her face as the wind picked it up.
I tightened my arms around her. “ I can’t make it better if you don’t tell me what it is.”
“I had a really good time tonight.” Her words were carried off by the sea breeze like a stolen secret.
“And that made you upset?”
It was then that I saw the glassiness blurring her eyes. “ It’s gonna hurt when it’s over.”
“Why do we have to worry about that now?” I rested my chin on top of her head and held her as close as I could, even though she was slipping through my fingers like sand in the undertow. “ What happened to enjoying it while it lasts?”
“Because I’m hurting you the longer I pretend that this could actually be something.” She wiped her eyes. “ I think I’m hurting myself, too.”
The ocean churned as it brewed for a storm, matching the unsettled acid in my gut. I worked my jaw back and forth. “ Then stop pretending that it could actually be something and admit that it already is.”
“Jack . . .” Aurora dropped her head into her hands.
Was I about to do it? Was I going to throw out those eight letters? Was I going to use those three little words as a Hail Mary ?
For a minute, I rehearsed how it would sound in my head. But the moment I opened my mouth to tell her that I loved her, she spoke up.
“I got an offer on the house.”
My world came crashing down with only seven words. Every sense was dulled, and I went numb.
“What?” I shook my head, trying to break free from the stupor, but it was no use. “ But . . . you haven’t put it on the market. It’s not even done yet.”
“It was a reality check, Jack . A seven-figure reality check. I have to sell the house, and I have to leave.” Her voice had an edge to it that I hadn’t heard since she crash-landed on Cedar Island .
“How the hell did you get an offer this fast? Who even knew it was an option? No one around here has that kind of money.” My one-bedroom cottage paled in comparison to the behemoth that loomed next door.
She sniffed back her tears and sucked in a steadying breath. “ One of the firefighters who came to my party told some real estate tycoon he knows in Beaufort that it was coming up for sale soon. The real estate guy’s company— Lawson International or something like that—hunted down my mom since she owns the property, and she forwarded me the email they sent while we were getting ready for bed. They’ll buy it as-is. I don’t have to lift another finger. My mom gets the investment back and I get my life back.”
“So that’s it?” I leaned back and blew out a sharp breath. “ Just like that.”
“We knew this was how it was going to end.”
“But not now!” I shouted. The ocean roared in response as the waves piled in, one on top of the other. “ I was supposed to have more time with you! More time to?—”
“To what?” she cried as she pushed to her feet to pace. “ To convince me out of something we both knew was inevitable?”
“ We are inevitable,” I countered as I stood. “ Why would you throw away what we have just to stick to a plan?”
“What do we have?” Tears streamed down her cheeks. “ Good sex? That’s not a life, Jack ! I have nothing here!”
“You have me! Why is that not worth your consideration? Why am I not worth your consideration?”
“Because I used to be somebody before all this. And since I can’t be her anymore, I have to figure out what the hell I’m going to do for the next fifty-something years that I’m alive.”
“Why do you have to make everything so fucking complicated? Aurora , you can do whatever the hell you want to do with your life. Be whoever the fuck you want to be. Just let me be there for it, goddammit! Don’t push me out just because that was the plan. We are more than a plan.”
She dug her hands into her hair. “ This was a rebound. And rebounds aren’t meant to last.”
I knew she was picking a fight so she could walk away with her head held high, but I wasn’t playing that game. “ This isn’t a fucking rebound and you know it. Don’t lie to me, and don’t lie to yourself. You’re better than that.”
“I can’t do this right now,” she muttered, shaking her head.
I grabbed her hand. “ Don’t go.”
The corner of her mouth wobbled as she fought tears. “ I’m going to vet the buyer, and we’ll see what happens after that.”
In an insult from nature, rain began to pelt us both.
“You should get some sleep,” she croaked. “ Storm’s coming in. It’ll be a busy shift for you.”
“Come back to bed with me.”
Aurora pinched the bridge of her nose. “ Jack . . .” she said in a huff as she glanced at her house.
I didn’t give a shit that we were both mostly naked and getting soaked to the bone. I cupped her cheeks and kissed her. “ Come back to bed. We can fight about it tomorrow. Promise me that we can fight about it tomorrow.”
I swept her rain-drenched hair away from her face. Her tears were hidden by the downpour.
Mine were too.