13. Nine
Nine
Fallon
“ H e said it was delicious,” Jake argued, his palms raised in innocence he’d done little to earn.
The slight quirk of his mouth gave him away. Dark eyes gleamed with satisfaction.
Jake loved messing with Beau, and any protests otherwise were a sham.
My eyes drifted to meet his in the vanity mirror. It proved impossible to form a frown mid-application of my lip gloss.
“In fact,” he went on, “the fucker drank all the water in my bottle. Earned me all kinds of stupid jokes about swapping spit with Beau Dalton.”
“You let me know if you two hunks are swapping spit. I want to be there for it.” I puckered my lips and checked my work.
Jake’s arms wrapped around my waist, his chin resting on my shoulder as I finished my makeup.
“You’ve made no secret of your affinity for multiple men in your fantasies, baby,” he murmured, pressing a kiss to my neck and causing me to squeal. “We share a Kindle.”
“Tease.” I shoved him back with my ass, shaking my head with feigned scorn. “Let me get ready.”
His hands were on me again, hauling my back against his front. “You’re a dream, baby. What else could you possibly do to make yourself any more desirable?”
He had the decency to keep his eyes on mine in our reflection and not on the capri sweats and stained t-shirt I wore.
Not dropping his gaze from the mirror, he pressed soft kisses along the column of my nape. My skin pebbled with goosebumps as his lips brushed over my heated flesh.
“Jake,” I whispered, my head falling against his shoulder.
Slow and torturous, his hand stroked my belly, a tender caress that grazed above the waistband of my sweats. My hands gripped the counter to keep steady when he palmed my breast, his thumb flicking over my nipple.
My breathing picked up, my body thrumming with need and longing to slip his hand into my panties, but he pulled away.
Slapping my ass, he encouraged me to get a move on.
“I told Adam we’d be there by ten because you wanted to finish painting your army before you slaughtered his dragons.”
Cute.
“Newb.” I flipped the light off and headed to change in my bedroom. “Adam only plays Fantasy Battles with Jenny and Cal. I have no interest in his dragons.”
Jake’s rumbling laughter echoed behind me as he followed down the hallway.
“Adam sold his Armadyl crossbow to buy that dragon. It’s the bee’s knees for bossing, but he’s sensitive about it.”
Jake leaned against the door frame, legs crossed at the ankles as his thumb traced his bottom lip. “That makes me hard, and I have no idea why.”
Everything made Jake hard, and rarely did he need a why.
I shot him a sweet smile. “Because strategy games are sexy and fun.”
Shimmying into denim cut-offs and an off-the-shoulder top, I studied myself in the mirror, fluffing my hair. “You love to win, even games you make up.”
Jake groaned and dropped his head against the wall. “I know what you’re doing, baby. Beau’s doing the same.” Thumbs hooked in the pockets of his jeans. “He’s been trying to force friendship on me, Fallon. It’s insufferable.”
The ceiling fan clicked above us as we silently stared at one another. In some ways, Jake and Beau were painfully alike.
“Okay,” I said after a long pause.
Jake pushed off the wall, his eyebrows raised high. “Okay?”
“Yeah.” I shrugged. “Okay. I get it. I won’t push you to accept Beau’s friendship. If you wanted me to be friends with a girl you’d hooked up with while we were broken up, I might struggle to refrain from plucking her eyes out of her skull and feeding them to her.”
“Baby,” he whispered. “You’re cut off from podcasts.”
I hugged his waist and nuzzled into the soft cotton of his t-shirt. A basic jeans and tee kind of guy, Jake was comfort personified. But it went beyond his casual wear and unpretentious nature. He felt safe. Right. He always had. I really would pluck eyeballs for this man.
A tenuous friendship between Jake and Beau was unrealistic, and Jake’s feelings deserved priority over my optimism.
I just… I hated the conflict in my heart, the guilt of wanting Beau to carve out a place in my life when things finally settled.
As much as I wanted to resent Beau for reappearing, I couldn’t. Not when it was so damn good to see him.
“All I ask is that you’re civil. If you can’t be, avoid and ignore him. Please,” I added. “You don’t have to be friends or even share space. You’re free from the burden of my friendships, and this one will be distant, okay?”
I’d avoid Beau.
He scratched the stubble along his neck, glancing at the wall behind me. “Yeah. Okay, then. It’s done.”
Exhaling slowly and shaking his head, he continued mumbling. “I’ll never have to see or talk to the jackass again. Monday, he gets kicked to Jim to shadow. So. Good riddance.”
I released him, stepping back and noting the tension in his shoulders. I intended to relieve him of any expectations to share a friendship with a man who’d known me intimately, but it almost felt like…
“Yeah,” I agreed softly. “He said he’d be at the bonfire tonight, but we can skip.”
“No,” Jake hurried, both hands dragging through his hair, his eyes slightly wide. “No way we change our plans on his account. Besides, I want him to see us together. Thanks, though. For offering.”
I opened my mouth to answer, but he rambled on. “I mean, he’s been clear he’s not trying to get in your pants, and I guess that makes him not an utter piece of shit, but he’s still annoying as fuck, you know?”
I hummed.
With eyes glued to the floor, he shrugged. “But this is great. We’re done. Thanks for freeing that burden. Adios, Dalton. Choke on your L.A. smog and fry in the sun like bacon when you get the hell out of this town. At least I won’t have to deal with him in the meantime. Done with that shit.” He blinked, lifting his chin and smiling at me. “Wonderful.”
I tilted my head, trying to make sense of what I witnessed. “Jake?”
“Hm?” He scratched along his neck again.
The room’s air was stagnant and humid from a hot day. Even with the windows open, it remained uncomfortably warm. But it was unclear if the light sweat across Jake’s brow had anything to do with the weather.
“You know,” I said, gently running my palms over his shoulders, “it’s also okay to want to be friends with him.”
A quick peck to my cheek and Jake backed out the door. “Not a chance.”
Babies.
Both of them. Two glaring children engaged in a battle of dumbassery of epic proportions.
Jake and Beau stood on opposite sides of the bonfire, arms crossed, and immersed in separate conversations. Beau tossed Jake an exaggerated smile and waved. Jake made the motion of slitting his throat.
Loudmouthed claims of spite and loathing. Jake and Beau grew up infatuated with competition… against one another. Regardless of how those roots came to seed malevolence; they’d been watered with moronic conflicts.But neither fooled me.
What Beau did, Jake joined. Where Jake went, Beau followed. Elbowing each other out of the way and grunting like barbarians. Neither knew how to stop a decades-long feud because their pride overruled commonsense.
Chest-pounding idiots.
Smoke drifted in billowing clouds from the pit, carrying the suffocating scent of the bonfire. It would linger in clothing for days. Partygoers stumbled through the yard, chatting, laughing, and yelling, tripping over lawn chairs on their way to the bar on Adam’s deck.
I squinted, sipping my drink, and turned back to Jenny. She brushed her long blonde hair over her shoulder.
“Which doesn’t say much,” she continued our conversation, pausing to glance at where Jake stood with Adam. The two had been best friends since they were kids.
I sipped my beer and resumed inconspicuously spying.
“Hello!” Jenny flicked my knuckle, causing me to startle and spill my drink over my hand.
“Ouch.” I rubbed my skin. “What gives?”
She sighed, gesturing toward Jake and letting me know I hadn’t been as inconspicuous as I’d believed. “What do you mean, ‘what gives?’”
I muttered, “Just babysitting.”
Adam’s parties drew big crowds, but he lived on an isolated property three miles out of town. Neighbors were sparse. Assuming no fights, the sheriff left it alone.
Jenny looked from Jake to Beau and grinned. “Two for one. Nice.” She nodded enthusiastically.
Slapping my palm over my mouth to hide my crowing laughter, I choked.
“What?” My best friend quirked a brow. “You’re telling me it’s never occurred to you that their rivalry might involve hard-ons not directed at you?”
I gaped, shaking my head and glancing behind me. Heated stares locked on one another… No. That’s…
But it would explain some things.
The heat of that fantasy churned plenty of guilt, sexy as it was. Definitely hot. But my straight boyfriend disliked Beau, not from repressed desire, but from liberated resentment.
“They hated each other. Still might.” I chewed on my lip, regarding Beau as he chatted with Chloe Parker, her cousin Trevor, and his wife Tori. Old friends from Woodburn. Whatever they talked about didn’t hold Beau’s attention, but Jake’s irritated scowl did.
I gestured to the group. “I mean, remember that year they both showed up for the wrestling team, and the coach made the mistake of pairing them? Jake had a busted lip, and Beau got a black eye.”
Jenny shrugged. “Foreplay, and how thrilled would you be?”
She poked me in the side. I slapped her away. Jenny tapped out when her eyes locked on Adam’s, and he crooked a finger to beckon her.
“Well, oh my,” I puffed. “Somebody doesn’t learn her lessons.”
Jenny sauntered away, flipping me off. Adam patted Jake’s shoulder, disappearing into the house to meet her inside.
Jake stood alone, sipping his beer as people fluttered about. Shadows danced across his face with each lick and crack of the fire as he broke his focus and stared toward the dark woods.
Unshy about his desires or falling into naughty and lewd fantasies as we fucked, there would have been something to encourage my X-rated daydreaming if it existed. But nothing sprang to mind.The only dick in our uncensored dirty talk was his, and neither of us was unhappy about that.
Chucking my cup into the garbage bag hanging on the nearby fence post, I approached Jake from behind. My fingers traced over his shoulder and glided across his broad back as I circled to face him.
“Hey, handsome.”
An approving groan rumbled low in his throat. “Hey, baby. I missed you. Jenny hogging you like usual?”
Jake grabbed my hips, his eyes locked on mine as he pushed me backward until the back of my thighs connected with the fence.
“Jake!” I gasped, disoriented in the dark.
A sinful grin was all the warning he gave before his lips pressed to my neck, kissing softly and nibbling on my earlobe.“Mm. Been thinking of dragging you off all night like the brute I am.”
My palms flattened on his chest. “Is that so? It seemed to me your attention was otherwise occupied.”
With a grunt, his hands gripped my waist to flip us and spin our positions. He leaned against the fence post, and his thumbs locked into the belt loops of my cut-offs. He cocked his head. “Something on your mind, baby?”
His teeth raked over his bottom lip, and that devilish glint in his eye had my heart pounding like a war drum. The intensity of his look sank everything around us, and the world disappeared into the shadows.
With a hard tug on my shorts, he pulled me forward and spread his legs to make room. Releasing his fingers, his hands caressed a languid pass up my thighs. The warmth of his palms against my cool skin caused goosebumps to bloom over my entire body.
“So smooth. Nothing feels better than your skin on mine, sliding and rubbing and fucking.” He gave a slanted smile. “You have my attention now. Want more of it?”
I glanced behind me toward the party. It was considerably darker in the shadows on the outskirts, but someone could stumble this way. Perfect for a bit of raunchy fun.
He gripped my chin, tugging me to face him. “I’m right here, baby.”
“I know,” I whispered, dropping my head when he kissed the soft pocket at the base of my neck. My hands feathered through his hair, my eyes closing with the warm lick of his tongue over my skin.
“Do you?” he murmured.
Rough hands spun me to face the party; my back pressed to his chest. The hard ridge of his erection jutted into my lower back. I reached behind to stroke him over his jeans, enjoying the deep groan against the shell of my ear.
“You love me?” he whispered.
I bit back a moan, my eyes fluttering closed with the heat of his breath fanning over me. “Yes.”
“You know I love you?”
He inched up the hem of my shirt, his hand slipping underneath to sweep across my belly.
“Yes,” I breathed, grinding on him. “Show me how much you love me.”
He hissed a slow exhale, burying his face in my neck.
“I saw you watching him,” he mumbled over my burning skin, kissing the top of my spine.
His hand dipped, flicking open the button of my shorts and lowering my zipper. Two fingers danced along the waistband of my panties.
“Could practically read your mind. Your face doesn’t lie.”
He cupped my pussy, thrusting harder against my ass. “Seems your pussy doesn’t lie, either. Your panties are drenched, baby. Fuck, yes.”
Pushing aside the fabric, he entered me with two fingers. He pumped slowly. His other hand gripped my hip and held me in place.
Sliding out, he circled my clit, nearly sinking me. “What has you soaked like this, Fal? Is it him or me?”
I licked my lips, panting as I stared at the moonless sky. My head rested on Jake’s shoulder, his hand working me into a quick frenzy. His body felt an extension of mine with the skill and familiarity of his movements.
“I wasn’t thinking of him. Not like that.”
Jake hummed, changing his grip to fist my hair and steady my head. “Go on and look now. Tell me who you’re thinking of when it’s my fingers fucking you and my mouth stealing those breathy little whimpers. Is it him?”
I closed my eyes. “No.”
“Come on, baby. Open those pretty eyes. You want to look at him? Go ahead because it’s not him playing with your sweet cunt, is it? Did you come on his fingers, too?”
“Jake,” I panted, my body ignoring everything telling me to shut this down. We had to stop before his competitiveness carried us to a place neither wanted to go.
Dirty talk and taunts got me going, but Jake scraped against raw and sensitive nerves. A salacious fantasy was one thing, but I didn’t want to hurt him with the details.
“Is that a no?” Our cheeks pressed close as he followed my gaze. “I could kill him for not giving you what you deserve.”
I moaned when he nipped along my jaw, bracketing beneath my chin to hold me still. His lips brushed my ear, his voice husky and aching.
“Does he know what you taste like when you come? How delicious your pleasure is?”
My toes curled in my shoes as I dug my heels into the soft grass to shamelessly grind harder against the thick length of him.
“Did he beg to have you? Did he fall to his knees and worship you?”
A slow drag of his tongue along my pulse point had blood rushing to my ears, the sounds of the party disappearing. The erratic beat of my heart combined with Jake’s heavy breaths.
“Please,” I whimpered.
“Please, what?” he taunted, his fingers fucking into me slowly. I lifted onto the tips of my toes with each thrust, working myself on his hand.
“Mmmngod,” I breathed, ready to shatter into pieces beneath his touch. “Please. Let it go. You don’t need—”
A sharp bite to my shoulder cut me off. The warm flick of his tongue over the sting settled the burn. “I don’t need .”
My eyes flew open, my head tilting to the side to catch his eyes blazing. Not with anguish or anger.
Desire.
He didn’t need to know.
“You want to know?” I whispered, my thighs trembling as he stroked me faster. “You get off on thinking about me with him?”
Jake’s tempo increased with his excitement. Just as he knew my body, I knew his. Hearing how another man touched me turned him on.
Unabashedly aroused, he murmured, “Yeah. Maybe I do.”
Lust took control of my senses. “You want to hear me say that his hands and cock got me off?”
Jake grunted, rubbing harder against my ass. “Naughty fucking girl with your filthy mouth.”
“Oh, he used that, too,” I taunted.
The pained groan he released was intoxicating. I wanted to hear it again.
“Dirty, scandalous seductress. Bet you took him deep. Did you cry for him the way you do for me when I fuck your throat?”
I vibrated from the indecency of teasing him like this. Jake matched every lewd and dirty word that rolled from my tongue with a hotter and more punishing scrape, pinch, sweep, stroke, or thrust.
“You’re bigger,” I whimpered, my body on fire. “Harder to take you like that.”
“Mmm. Liar. I know how greedy you are—you can take it.” Jake’s voice was rough and slightly hoarse, like he would unravel with me.
Greedy was precisely how I felt. I wanted more when I had this, had him, when I was happy. What the hell was wrong with me ?
“I’m sorry,” I breathed, my skin hot. “I should never have—”
Teeth bit into my shoulder again, and the sting sent a wave of pleasure through my belly. “I’m glad you did. It makes me hard that you did. You’re mine , Fallon. You’ll always be mine, and now he knows how lucky I am for it and how miserable he is without it.”
Jake’s cock rubbed against my ass as his hands roamed wildly over my body. I believed him, believed every salacious word from his mouth and every heated stroke of his erection.
My presence fueled their competition. It should have made me feel bad, objectified, offended, and minimized.
But it didn’t.
Power and pleasure burned bright, the flames of arousal licking up my spine with the thought of these men fighting for my desire, my gratification.
“You love to ride my dick, don’t you, baby?” he murmured, running his nose through my hair as he palmed my breast and plucked at my nipple.
I whined my agreement, nodding furiously. My stomach tightened, and my entire body shook.
“God, yes. I love to ride you. It feels so good to have you inside me, your eyes watching as I work myself until my thighs ache and I can’t think straight.”
Heat flamed my cheeks, everything going hot with the pleasure burning along my spine. I was going to come, and it wouldn’t be quiet. Sensing it, Jake’s hand covered my mouth, my ragged breath fanning through his fingers as I whimpered and writhed against him.I tapped his thigh, and he dropped his hand.
“Jake, I’m going to come,” I gasped, sucking in a sharp inhale. “Don’t stop.”
He rumbled a dark laugh. “What was your favorite way to fuck him? You ride him, too? Or is that just for me?”
“From… behind. Hard and from behind,” I whispered. “I’m coming. Nnnnn, god.”
He stroked me through my climax as I caught my breath.“Wondrous tease.”
Before I could answer, he was in front of me, lifting me. My legs wrapped around his waist, my mouth slanting over his. He groaned as my hands tangled in his hair, and I kissed him.
He somehow stayed steady as he carried me toward the edge of the woods. He didn’t stop until my back slammed into the tree, indelicate and forceful—exactly what I wanted, what I needed , to know he didn’t think I was broken.
His breath huffed into my mouth as I lowered my feet, our kiss not breaking. Still pinned against the rough bark, I hurried to tug down my shorts as he worked his jeans open. “You love me?”
“Of course I do,” I panted.
Gripping beneath my thigh, he hooked my leg around his waist. “You know I love you?”
My fingertips trailed his cheek. “More than I know anything else in life.”
“Good,” he murmured. With a hard snap of his hips, he drove into me. My head fell back, both of us groaning.
“You remember that, and we’ll be good, baby.”
The force of his thrusts knocked the breath out of me, my hips rolling to match each drive.
“You want hot and fun? I’ll give you hot and fun.” He grunted and dug his fingers roughly into the flesh of my thigh.
My hands balled the collar of his shirt, gripping harder with every punishing thrust. Rough bark scratched my skin through my shirt.
“I love you,” I moaned. “So much, baby. I want nothing without you. Nothing in this life without you.”
He cradled my face, forcing me to look at him. “I love you. You always have me. Always. Nothing changes that.”
I believed him. The fact he stayed despite everything I couldn’t give him proved it.
My head fell against the tree when he slid his hand between us, stroking me until my eyes closed and everything disappeared again.
Even the shadow in the distance.