CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Christmas Day
Rebecca—
JJ’s shifting movement awakens me, and my eyes flutter open to see him stepping to the window. The fire in the fireplace is still blazing, but the TV is now scrolling through credits.
I hear pelting against the glass and stretch.
JJ turns, his eyes sweeping over me. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to wake you.”
Joining him at the window, I peer out. All week we’d had no snow, and the few inches we’d had on the grassy areas had all melted away to nothing but a few patches in the shady spots.
Now snow blankets everything. It’s pretty, but the big soft flakes that had gently drifted into my hand earlier have been replaced by a blizzard with strong blowing wind. Icy crystals pelt the window.
“This must be the storm you talked about earlier.”
“It could last all night. They say we could be buried in eight to ten inches by tomorrow morning.” He studies the sky, the low gray clouds lit by the lights of the nearby town.
I thread my fingers through his. “I’m glad you made it home before it started. I’d be worried sick if you were caught on the road in this.”
He cups my face and smiles. “I’d have pulled off and found a place to hole-up. I’d never put you through that worry, babe.” He brushes a lock of my hair from my forehead. He swallows and seems like he’s struggling with something he has to tell me.
I frown. “What is it? What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” He shakes his head. “Got something I want to say to you, something I’ve never said to another soul.”
My mouth parts, hoping what I think he’s going to say is correct.
I’ve held the words in myself for so long, fighting against them, trying to deny how deep my feelings go for this man, reciting my damn list in my head a million times, but none of that can stop my heart from what it knows is true. I love this man.
And if he doesn’t return those feelings, I’m doomed to a future I don’t even want to think about.
“Becca…” he starts, then swallows like it's hard to get the words out. I want to make it easier for him. I even think about blurting out how I feel, but everything in me needs him to say the words first.
“Yes?” I cup his cheek, and he turns into my touch, kissing my palm. It seems to reassure him, and his muscles relax.
“I love you. I know I’m not worthy of you. You deserve someone better, but no one on this earth will ever love you more than I do, and—”
I break into a grin, happiness flooding me, and I want him to shut up about not being good enough for me, because he’s everything I want and everything I need. I’m so excited to finally be able to blurt the words out, so I cover his lips with my fingers to stop him.
“I love you, JJ. I think I’ve been in love with you for a long time. I was just afraid to say the words, afraid you didn’t feel the same way I did. Don’t you dare say you’re not good enough for me. I don’t want to hear those words out of your mouth ever again.”
And there’s that killer smile I’ve fallen in love with.
“Yes, ma’am.” With that, he swoops me up in his arms, and I yelp.
“What are you doing?”
“Taking you to bed so I can show you how I feel about you.” He carries me across the cabin and through the bedroom door. “Maybe I’m not so good with words, but I’m gonna spend all night showing you.”
A moment later, I’m flat on my back on the bed with JJ’s hard body on top of me, his biceps bracketing me in. His jean-covered leg thrown over mine, and I feel his erection through the soft denim.
His hard-muscled body presses against me, and he smells so good, like leather and outdoors and a scent all his own.
His kisses my lips, one palm trailing over my hip while his knee parts my thighs. He shifts, rubbing against me through my jeans, and I moan into his mouth. He doesn’t let up, keeping at it until I feel an orgasm building.
But he doesn’t seem satisfied with that, and rolls us until I straddle him, a knee on either side of his hips. He touches the hem of my Henley.
“Take this off.”
Smiling, I pull it over my head and shake out my hair. It falls in waves around my shoulders. I’m wearing a black bra, and his eyes drop to it.
Then he’s all action, sitting up and wrapping his arms around me. He buries his face in my cleavage, kissing each swelling mound.
He hooks a finger in one bra strap and draws it down my arm.
I reach behind me, unhook it, and toss it aside.
“Beautiful,” JJ whispers, his warm, calloused hands immediately closing over my bare breasts, squeezing them. Both of his thumbs brush over my nipples, sending ripples of desire through me.
JJ takes one in his hot mouth. My breath stutters at the sensation of his facial hair brushing against my soft skin. Oh God, I love it.
He sucks and tugs until I’m writhing, thrusting my breasts out for more of the exquisite torment. My fingers thread through his hair, clutching his head to me. He moves to my other breast, giving that nipple the same attention.
“Oh, JJ…” I rub myself against him, needing that friction.
He growls and rolls us again, hovering over my body to work my jeans until they’re undone. Easing off the foot of the bed, he yanks my boots off, then jerks my jeans free, tossing them to the floor.
I gasp.
I’m in just my panties, but those don’t stay on for long.
JJ curls his fingers at my hips and peels them off my legs, dragging out the anticipation.
When I’m naked, he stands at the foot of the bed, his gaze sweeping over my naked body, his chest rising and falling.
He undoes the buttons on his denim shirt, then rips his Henley over his head.
My eyes trail over his ink-covered muscles. God, he’s beautiful.
He makes short work of stripping the rest off, and his erection springs forward, long and hard.
My breathing is shallow and quick, and I’m so wet for him now that I lift a hand toward him. But he shakes his head with a wicked smile, making me wait.
His fist closes over his erection at the root and strokes upward, twisting at the tip.
My need spikes off the charts watching him. I know if he keeps at it, I’ll lie here and watch as long as he wants me to, but God, how I need him to touch me. I want that inside me, and I want it now.
“Are you my greedy girl?”
JJ knows exactly what he’s doing: giving me a show. He’s loving every minute of this, watching my reaction, seeing how my fingers fist in the coverlet to keep from reaching for him, seeing how I writhe, my body quivering with need, craving his touch, needing his hands on me desperately.
And suddenly I know what he’s doing. He’s making me wait, dragging this out to amp up my desire.
“JJ, please. I need you.”
As if he’s been waiting for me to voice my need, he puts a knee to the bed, and I melt.
“Know how much I want you, Rebecca?”
I nod and lift a hand out to him.
He crawls over me, his hot skin pressing to mine, and it feels delicious.
For a little payback, I glide my fingertips along his spine until he’s moaning, then I wrap one leg around his thighs, locking him to me.
His palm strokes up and down my thigh and I melt like butter under his touch.
Adjusting his position, he settles between my spread legs, and oh, God I love having him there, pinning me down with his weight. I feel safe and loved.
“This is where I belong, Becca. This is where I’ve always belonged.”
He takes the head of his dick and swirls it in a circle at the entrance to my pussy, coating himself in my wetness. It takes my breath, and I can only stare into his eyes.
“You’re my missing piece, baby. The one I never knew I needed until you came into my life. I think I’ve searched for you forever and didn’t even know it until I found you.”
“This feels right. This feels meant to be,” I whisper.
He lowers his head and gives me a sweet kiss, then stares into my eyes as he enters me and begins slowly thrusting in and out. It’s the most erotic thing I’ve ever experienced, but the love in his eyes and the importance of this moment wrap around me, and my eyes fill.
He threads his fingers through my hair. “Don’t cry, Becca. I’m never gonna leave you again. Never gonna give you a reason to doubt me. Never gonna stop loving you until they put me in the ground, and not even then.”
“I love you, JJ.”
With that, he makes love to me, and it’s soft and tender and sweet, and I love every second of it.
When we finish, we fall asleep in each other’s arms, and I’ve never been as content and happy.