Chapter 10
CHAPTER TEN
I rolled Eden beneath me, needing to see her face, needing to watch her this time.
I braced my weight on one forearm while my other hand traced the path I’d memorized ten years ago—past ribs that fluttered with each breath, over the dip of her waist where she’d always been ticklish until I was gripping her thigh and drawing it higher around my hip.
Her breath stuttered, and her nails dug into my shoulders, clinging to me like she couldn’t get close enough. I rocked into her, slow and deep, savoring the way she gasped beneath me.
“Jake,” she moaned, her voice wrecked.
Fuck, she felt like heaven. Like everything I’d spent the last ten years trying to forget, only to realize I never really had.
I dipped my head to kiss her, then moved lower, trailing my lips over her jaw, her throat, the soft skin just beneath her ear where I’d marked her in the barn. She arched up into me, a pleading, desperate sound falling from her lips as her hands slid into my hair.
Every breath, every movement between us felt like we were trying to memorize each other. Relearn every detail we’d once known by heart.
I stilled for a beat, brushing her cheek with my thumb as I held myself deep inside her.
Her breath caught.
“I love you, Eden,” I whispered. “I never stopped. Not for a second.”
She cupped my face, pulling me down for a kiss that felt like an answer. “I love you, too,” she said when we broke apart to breathe. “So, so much.”
I rolled my hips again, pulling almost all the way out before thrusting back into her in one long, slow push. She was soaked and hot and tight around me, her breath catching with each stroke.
Her head fell back against my pillow, her lips parted, and her eyes fluttered shut.
“Eyes on me,” I rasped.
They flew open, locking on mine. I reached for her wrists and gently pushed them above her head, threading our fingers together and pinning them to the mattress.
I kissed her again, deep and claiming, letting it stretch out until we were both breathless. When I pulled back for air, I made sure she knew exactly what was happening. “I’m gonna fuck you now, okay?”
“Please,” she whispered, writhing beneath me, her hips arching off the bed, chasing friction. “Ruin me, Jake. Remind me that I’m yours.”
That did it. The last thread of my control snapped.
The room filled with the sound of skin meeting skin, our breathing growing rougher, ragged, even more desperate. “Still like it when I lose control, don’t you? Still want me to mark you up so you remember who you belong to?”
A broken sob escaped her lips. “Yes. Please.”
I drove into her in a sharp, brutal thrust, and she cried out beneath me, her back arching and her eyes fluttering shut.
“Don’t look away,” I growled, adjusting my angle and slamming into her again.
Her gaze locked on mine instantly, and she whimpered.
“That’s it,” I said roughly. “That’s my good girl.”
Her mouth parted on a gasp, the tension in her body coiling even tighter.
I fucked her harder, each thrust pushing her up my mattress. My name spilled from her lips over and over again, high and wrecked and desperate.
When I could tell she was close to breaking apart, I reached between us and found her clit, rubbing fast and tight in those little circles I knew drove her wild. Her body bucked beneath mine, her thighs trembling.
“I’m there,” she cried. “Jake—oh fuck—I’m coming?—”
“Give it to me,” I coaxed, driving into her. “Come on, baby. Let me feel you.”
Her whole body seized, her pussy clamping around my dick and pulsing hard enough to pull a strangled curse from my throat as I chased my own release.
“Fuck,” I groaned, my hips jerking as I spilled into her, the strength of her orgasm dragging mine right out of me. My body shook, every muscle tightening and releasing all at once.
Afterward, we lay there tangled, our bodies sweat-slicked and our chests rising and falling in tandem. I didn’t want to move. Couldn’t, really. Eden’s fingers were stroking absently at the nape of my neck like she didn’t even realize she was doing it.
I kissed her shoulder. Then her collarbone. Then her cheek, just below her eye, where her skin was still flushed and damp.
She turned her head slightly and looked at me, a soft smile ghosting across her lips, lazy and content. Her eyes were half-lidded, her hair a wild mess across the pillow.
“You okay?” I murmured.
She nodded, her fingers drifting down to trace the curve of my jaw. “That was … I forgot it could be like that.”
A wave of satisfaction surged through me, deep and primal. There wasn’t a doubt in my mind that her ex had never made her come apart the way I could. Hell, I’d bet good money he’d never even tried. Knowing I still had the power to undo her like this? Yeah, I felt that shit in my bones.
I rolled onto my side to face her fully, dragging the sheet with me and tucking it loosely around her hips.
One hand settled over her lush ass, my fingers splaying possessively.
The other reached up to brush a damp strand of hair from her temple.
The amber lamplight caught the freckles scattered across her shoulders, the same ones I used to trace with my tongue.
For a moment, I just looked at her, soaking up her presence in my bed.
“Stay,” I blurted.
She blinked at me, clearly startled, her lips parting as if she wasn’t sure she’d heard me right. Her eyes searched mine, and I could see the war happening behind them—desire, doubt, caution.
Before indecision could win out, I leaned in and kissed her again, my tongue tangling with hers in a slow, languid dance.
When I pulled away with a sigh, I rested my forehead against hers.
“I mean it,” I said. “Don’t go back to your aunt’s house.
Spend the night with me. Wake up in my arms, sweetheart. ”
She hesitated, her gaze dropping. Then she shifted slightly, drawing lazy circles on my chest with the tips of her fingers. “What about Cole?” she asked, her voice a near whisper. “I’m his teacher. Won’t that be weird, him seeing me sneak out of here in the morning?”
I let out a low laugh, surprising her.
Eden raised an eyebrow, her eyes narrowing. “What’s so funny?”
I tucked her hair behind her ear and smoothed my palm over her side. “Eden, my kid’s been hoping I’d ask you out since he found out we used to date.”
Her brows shot up. “Wait, really?”
“Really. You should hear the way he goes on and on about you. You’re his favorite. He thinks you’re brilliant and cool and—what was it he said?—‘makes math not suck.’” I grinned. “He even asked me the other day if he could invite you over for dinner. Kid wants to play matchmaker.”
She chuckled, the sound muffled as she buried her face in my chest, her shoulders shaking. “No way,” she mumbled against my skin.
“Oh yeah. When I didn’t answer right away about dinner, he said—and I quote—‘What if someone else wants to be her boyfriend, Dad? Then what?’” I reached out and ran the back of my knuckles gently along her arm. “So no. It’s not gonna be weird for him. If anything, he’s gonna be thrilled.”
She shifted again, sliding her leg over mine and settling in closer. Her breath warmed my collarbone.
“He’s gonna lose his mind in the best possible way when he sees you at breakfast,” I murmured, trailing my hand lightly up and down her spine.
She tilted her head up. “You want me to stay for breakfast?”
“I want you to stay forever,” I said, brushing a kiss to the corner of her mouth. “But I’ll start with pancakes.”
Eden’s soft, happy-sounding laugh rumbled against my chest as she settled deeper into my arms. I pulled the blanket higher around us and let myself memorize the weight of her body against mine, the way her hair smelled like rosemary and mint, the feeling that for the first time in years, everything was exactly where it should be.
I must have dozed because the next thing I knew, the scent of coffee was pulling me from dreams of Eden and I growing old together, sitting side by side in matching rocking chairs, watching our granddaughter tossing a lasso over a fence post.
I blinked up at the ceiling for a moment, momentarily disoriented by the unfamiliar weight pressed against my chest, then smiled.
Eden.
She was still asleep, curled into me beneath the tangle of blankets, her cheek pressed to my shoulder, one bare leg draped possessively over mine. Her breath rose and fell in a steady rhythm, the kind of deep sleep that only came after being well and thoroughly fucked.
I shifted carefully and pressed a kiss to the top of her head before slipping out of bed. She stirred slightly but didn’t wake.
Down in the kitchen, I found Colt at the stove, flipping pancakes. The scent of butter and browning batter filled the room.
I narrowed my eyes and rubbed a hand through my hair. I leaned against the door frame, crossing my arms over my chest. “Those the same clothes you had on yesterday?”
He didn’t look over at me, just kept working the griddle with tight, efficient movements. “What of it?”
“Nothing,” I said with a frown, pushing off the frame and stepping farther into the kitchen. I grabbed a mug off the shelf and moved to the coffeepot. I poured a cup, steam curling up into my face as I spoke. “You go out last night after we talked?”
“So what if I did?” he asked, his voice tense and his shoulders stiff.
“Anyone I know?”
Far as I knew, Colt wasn’t seeing anyone. Hadn’t been seen with anyone in a long while. But given he was in the same clothes he’d been in yesterday, I didn’t think he’d slept here. So, where had he been? And with who?
His grip on the spatula tightened, and his stance shifted slightly, the muscle in his jaw ticking. “I don’t want to talk about it.”