Chapter 33
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
DREAMS
Lennon
It’s official. I’ve now taken more days off work than ever before.
Jett and Devon insisted I take it easy for a few days. That paired with the weekend, and I’m not sure what to do with myself. If I didn’t have Jett, I’d be lost.
It’s engrained in me to keep going and not take any downtime. After I escaped, weekends were a new beast that I had to get used to.
But not with Jett. He’s a bright spot in life that I’ve never had. A hovering one, but one so bright, it’s almost blinding.
“One more day off. What am I going to do when you have to go back to work?”
I squeeze the water from my hair with the towel and lean down to kiss him where he’s sitting on the foot of the bed watching me get ready.
When my alarm went off, he got up and took a shower with me, which has become a norm for us.
If there’s a level of togetherness that’s too much, we haven’t reached it yet.
“As much as I’ve enjoyed this, I feel guilty and I’m behind.
I fear my inbox when I get back tomorrow.
” Jett is wearing nothing but a pair of boxers.
His skin is still warm from the shower, and his hair is damp and curling at his forehead.
I can’t get enough of him and lean in to press my lips to his and grin. “Not all of us have trust funds.”
He grabs me around the waist and pulls me to his chest. “You act like I’m a trust fund baby. Don’t forget I’m also a mooch since I’m living here for free. Devon won’t let me pay.”
I run my hands through his thick, wavy hair. It’s more overgrown than ever, and I’m obsessed. “You hit the jackpot. I want to be you when I grow up. Some of us still have to work.”
He presses his lips to my collarbone. “My jackpot was a new kidney and a new family. I’m going back to work soon.
In fact, I told Patrick you were going back tomorrow, and I’ll have free time.
He was all too happy to dedicate his time to schooling me on Stonebridge.
I have no clue what I’m going to do when I start working there next week.
My only goal is to not look like an idiot. ”
I shake my head. “You could never. The majority of the shares will be yours and Harlow’s someday. The sooner you get started the better. I’m sure Patrick is anxious to school you on ... everything, whatever that may be.”
He falls back to the bed and takes me with him. I yelp when he flips and has my back to the bed grinning down at me. “I’d rather be here.” He nudges my legs open and lowers his hips. “Maybe I’ll tell Devon you need a few more days to recover so we can spend them just like this.”
I drag my hands up his back. “You’re bad for my career.”
He leans down to kiss me and lowers his voice. “You’re good for my soul.”
That takes my breath away.
“You’re too sweet and perfect. I can’t measure up.”
He smirks. “As much as I want to, I can’t control my perfection.”
I lift my hips to meet his and feel his cock grow by the second and press into my clit, making me wetter than I was.
My hands drag up the back of his neck into his hair. I’m done with the teasing and my tone sobers. “What are your dreams?”
He gives me a little more of his weight. “My dreams?”
I nod. “I never allowed myself to dream. I’m starting fresh—the whole peacock theory, remember? New life ... rebirth. That’s easy when it comes to work and being right here. I can do day-to-day no problem. It’s the future that I’m afraid of. So I want to know, what’s something you dream?”
He brushes my damp hair away from my face where it’s fanned on the pillow. “You don’t dream?”
“No. That’s why I want to know yours.”
He drags the tip of his nose up the side of my face before rolling us to our sides and hikes my leg over his hip.
“My dreams have changed recently. Just when I think one dream is so far out of my grasp it’ll never come true, all of a sudden it lands in my lap like a gift straight from God.
In an instant, another one surfaces. But I’ve never once sat back and plucked them out of the air like a random feather flying by.
The universe must know I need help. They hit me like a ton of bricks, and then boom, I need those fucking dreams to come true more than I need my next breath. ”
Like so many times when we’re like this, I’m mesmerized by his words. I lower my voice to a whisper because this seems so private, I don’t even want to share this moment with the universe. “Please, tell me your dreams.”
His dark eyes burn into me, and I never want to forget this moment. “I’m a simple man, there are only two. To not die ... and you.”
We’ve been over the not-dying one time and time again, strictly because I’ve asked him a million questions about the transplant.
But the other one...
That’s a surprise.
“Me?”
He kisses the tip of my nose and presses his cock into my sex. Sweet and hot, all at the same time.
“You,” he confirms. “From the first time rolling around on the marble of the atrium with you, something shifted. You can call it planning, dreaming, scheming ... when it comes to you, I do it all. I see us now, tomorrow, a year from now. Hell I see us in twenty years and when we’re old.
I thought I lost you, baby. I’ve never been more scared in my life. ”
I still at the memory and his sobered tone. “I’m sorry. I know what it’s like to be scared. I don’t want that for anyone, especially you.”
“That’s why I know you’re the dream. My ultimate dream. I’m trying not to go zero to sixty here but it’s hard. It’s really hard to wait.”
“Wait on what? I have to know, because these are the things my heart yearns for. But my brain is sometimes downright mean. It won’t let me think of the future.”
“I don’t want to wait to make plans with you.
To buy a house or piece of land to make our own.
Wait to make you mine the way I want to.
To put a ring on your finger, stand up in front of the handful of people important to us in this world and declare that I’ll do everything I can to keep you safe and happy until the end of time.
And it’s really fucking hard to wait to tell you what I’ve never felt for anyone else, let alone uttered aloud. ”
My heart beats in my chest like a gong, and emotion floods my eyes. “You dream about that?”
He presses his lips to mine to steal a kiss. “I do.”
My voice dips to barely a whisper. “I wish I could dream about that.”
He brushes my cheek. “It’s okay.”
I shake my head. “It’s not. I want to. I really do. But I’m scared. All I know is I don’t want this to end. I’m perpetually in the present. Right now, you could lead me anywhere and I’d follow. That’s something I know with my whole heart.”
His full lips pull up into a small smile. “I’ll take it. If that’s what you can give me until the end of time, I’ll take it all day, every day. Don’t try to be something that doesn’t feel right. I want you just the way you are.”
I swallow over the lump in my throat. “One more thing.”
“Anything,” he answers too quickly. The word warps around my heart like the four letter one does for most people. “I’ll do anything for you.”
“Just...” I pause and force myself to say the words, because this is important. “I might be afraid, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want it. Dream enough for the both of us, Jett. Please, lead me into your dreams.”
He crushes me to his chest, and his mouth slams down on mine. It’s greedy and controlling and desperate.
I love it all.
This man owns all of my firsts, and I just gave him permission to lead me into a life together. After everything I’ve been through, that should scare me, but it doesn’t.
I can’t wait.
He rolls me to my back again and presses his cock into my sex. I moan when he rocks into my clit and stays there. “The things I want to say to you, Lennon. Hell, I want to shout them from the rooftops for the world to hear.”
He grabs my panties at my hip and yanks them down my legs desperately—even violently. I kick them off and pull my knees up his sides to feel every inch of him exactly where I want it.
“Jett,” I whisper and try to lift my hips to get more of him, but he pulls away just long enough to free himself from his boxers.
Then he’s there. Skin to skin, his bare cock against my bare sex.
We haven’t done this often. Jett doesn’t allow it. He always goes straight for a condom.
But he’s inside me bare, even if it’s just an inch or two. And there’s something about the way it feels...
“Please,” I moan.
His face is buried in my hair, and he doesn’t move a muscle. “Baby, don’t say that. Whatever you do, do not say please in a way like you’re begging me to slam into you bare.”
“But—” I start.
He interrupts, and his tone is tight and strained. “I could list a million buts, but I’m trying to be good, and you’re tempting me like the devil.”
He’s been careful. And I say him, because it is all him. It doesn’t matter whether it’s dreams or sex, he always leads. And I’m more than happy to put my hand in his and follow.
His body tenses over mine. Every muscle in his back goes taut under my fingers. I press my nails into this skin and try to arch my back for more, but he gives me more of his weight and holds me in a place I can’t move.
“You want to know what I dream?” His tone is tight and controlled.
“Yes. I’m desperate to know.”
He doesn’t say a word, but he does move. And his one movement is sliding inside me all the way.
“This,” he whispers against my lips. “I dream of this. Not just this, but what this means. I want to tie you to me forever. I want to do this over and over again until we can fill a house with babies.”
I’m taken aback. “I don’t know what to say.”