42. Melissa
42
MELISSA
“ F uck,” Jase sputtered, releasing a breath as he leaned in and rested his forehead against mine. His chest heaved, heart racing as he pulled me into his arms. He held me tight like he was afraid I was going to vanish into thin air. “I love you,” he rasped before pressing his lips to the side of my neck. “Goddammit, I love you so much, Mel. I’m so sorry.”
“I love you too,” I whimpered as I tried my hardest to blink back tears. And all at once, I exploded into word vomit. “And I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I promise I did my best. I tried, Jase. I tried to get her to tell you. To tell anyone. To go to the cops. But I didn’t want to get pushy and scare her off.” I wiped my eyes when I realized I was staining the shoulder of his shirt with tears. “She was so skittish to come to me. I didn’t want her to feel like she couldn’t ask for help.”
“I know,” he murmured as he wrapped those thick biceps of his around me, cradling my head against his chest. He pressed a kiss to the top of my head. “Thank you.” It was almost inaudible, the syllables barely fused together as hurt and sadness choked him. “Thank you for keeping your promise.”
“I’ve felt like I’ve been holding my breath for years,” I admitted. “I’ve been afraid that, if I did or said the wrong thing, Kyle would escalate even further. I’ve had nightmares… They’re horrible, Jase. I—I’ve been terrified that she wouldn’t live long enough to leave. I’ve been afraid that he would kill her. That she would die, and I wouldn’t have told anyone what he had been doing to her. I felt trapped between taking action and doing what I thought was right, and standing still and being what she needed.” I buried my nose in his shirt. “I wanted to tell you. I needed you to know?—”
“Hey, hey,” he said, gently cradling the back of my head. “Shhhh—hey, it’s okay, baby. It’s okay.”
I fisted his thin cotton t-shirt, drawing him closer. “Is… Is she alright? Now, I mean. Did you talk?”
“Yeah, baby,” he murmured as he held me. “We talked. About everything.”
I didn’t care that the parking lot spectators were there to witness me sobbing into his chest.
Gently, I pushed him away. I needed to text Bee and let her know I was off work. I pulled my phone out and swiped across the screen. I didn’t know if she had turned on the burner phone I gave her yet, so I texted her main number.
Melissa
Off work. Are you still feeling sick, or do you want to grab a drink?
Bridget
I’m just gonna hang out at home tonight. Must be one of those twenty-four-hour bugs. It should pass by tomorrow .
Jason frowned as he watched my screen and read the text from Bee. “She wasn’t sick when I left earlier.”
I shook my head. “She’s not sick. It’s just her way of telling me where she’ll be. It means we’re still on for tonight.”
I hated how Jason found out about Bridget’s situation, but I was relieved to have someone else going with me to pick her up tonight.
“If she had said something about Kyle—like that they were planning to watch a movie tonight—it would have meant that he showed up and the plan was off.”
“Y’all have a code?”
I nodded and scrolled up on the screen, showing him our $2 bottles and cans message. “That’s what she texts me when she needs help. Usually, she would come to my apartment. Sometimes I would meet her at the bar and check on her there if she didn’t think she could get away with stopping somewhere close to my place. Kyle only ever showed up to the bar to get cheap beers once, so I’d say it worked pretty well.”
He held his lips against my temple and closed his eyes. “I hate how ingenious y’all are.”
“You and me both.” I sighed. Looking up, I noted the circles under his eyes. He was just as spent as I was, and it was going to be a long night. “She told you everything?”
Jase gripped the edge of the tailgate and let his head hang low. “Yeah, but there’s some stuff you and I need to talk about.” He swallowed and tangled his fingers in his hair out of frustration. He was so accustomed to being in control. I could only imagine the tailspin he was in after today.
“Was she okay after you left?”
He looked at me with pain in his green eyes. “Define okay .”
“Point taken.”
Without warning, he wrapped his arms around me again like I was his anchor. The only thing keeping him from getting swept away. “I feel like I’m sitting in the cockpit waiting for clearance to take off before a big mission. Powerful and powerless all at the same time.”
“Me too,” I admitted in a whisper. My stomach, however, had no such qualms about the gravity of the moment and decided to let out a rip-roaring growl.
I was still a little unsure about where Jason and I stood after this morning.
I had gone into the supply closet and cried no less than four times during my short shift.
The thought of hurting him and losing him when I was just trying to do the right thing absolutely gutted me. I had been splayed open, and had my heart ripped out.
Before I clocked out, I had prepared myself to have my calls go unanswered and get Bridget out of her gilded cage alone.
But then I saw his feet hanging off the edge of the tailgate as Tony walked me out to my car.
Jason reached up and trailed his finger along the back of the thin silver chain I wore around my neck. He found the clasp and, with nimble fingers, unlatched it, dropping my engagement ring into his waiting palm.
“I feel like I should be begging for your forgiveness,” I admitted. “But all the words come up short.”
“You have nothing to be sorry for,” he said gently as he slid the ring back on my finger. “Neither of us do. Okay? No apologies. There’s no way in hell to know how to react to something like that, especially when it’s someone we love. When I said bye to Bridget earlier, I told her I was sorry that she felt like she had to carry this alone.” He leaned forward and gave my lips a soft kiss. “I’m sorry you had to carry your part alone.” Strong hands skated down my biceps and squeezed, gentle but firm. “But you are so goddamn strong. And I’m so fucking thankful that she had you.”
We decided to watch the clock from the air-conditioned comfort of my apartment in Morehead City. We both wanted to be as close to Bee as possible; that way, we could be there at a moment’s notice. Sitting outside her house like a stalker wasn’t optimum.
Jase and I brought both of our phones into the bathroom—volume turned all the way up—as we stripped down and showered. It was a good thing we still hadn’t moved all of our things to the airfield yet. I was covered in all kinds of hospital funk and needed a serious scrub.
He stepped out first, wrapping a towel low on his hips, then waited with a towel opened for me in his outstretched hands. I pulled my shower cap off, letting my hair down as he dried me off.
The gentle way he massaged me as he soaked up every drop of water felt so god. I melted as he dryed my front—my arms, my breasts, down to my stomach. He knelt, teasing my slit for a split second, drawing a low moan out of me as the tips of his fingers mingled with the warmth of his breath on my pussy.
But it was over too fast. He moved on, drying my shins and the tops of my feet.
“Turn.”
A single word had fireworks exploding through my limbs. Slowly, I faced the sink, gripping the edge of the countertop as he knelt behind me.
Jason and I had been through the wringer today. I could only imagine how pent-up he was. How restrained he had to be.
And right now, I wanted him unleashed.
The soft terry cloth returned to my ankles as he dried up my calves. Lips pressed against the back of my knee. First the left, then the right. He slid his hands up my thighs, forcing my legs apart. He trailed the tip of his nose along the curve where my thigh met my ass. Teeth nipped at my cheek, and I whimpered as I relished the bite of pain.
“Turn,” he said again, dropping the towel and urging my hips around the other way. I looked down just in time to see his tongue dart out and lick a slow line down the center of my pussy.
My knees buckled, and I reached back, grappling the smooth porcelain for purchase. “Jase?—”
“I need to fuck you hard and fast, baby girl. I want to throw you down on the bed. Tie you up. And spank that ass I love so much,” he growled, sliding his fingers into my wet center.
Without warning, he bit down on my clit. The sharp slice of exploding nerve endings made me cry out in ecstasy.
“ Yes .”
Jason slid his fingers out, and I whined at the loss. His hands shook as he held my hips, digging his fingers into my skin. “But after today…” Jase shook his head. His voice was barely a whisper. “I—I can’t touch you like that. Like I want to.” Pain and despair mingled in his eyes, so he closed them, resting his forehead on my thigh.
Having him on his knees in front of me was something I definitely wanted to revisit in the future. But not now.
It was one of those days where I had seen too much. It would pass. Jase was nothing like the monster that lived in the shadows of my memory.
But I needed him just like he needed me. We needed each other to feel good. To feel safe. To trust with the most intimate, delicate parts of our souls.
I hooked my finger under his chin, lifting his gaze to meet mine. I nudged a little harder, urging him up until he slowly rose to his feet. I slipped my fingers beneath the top of the towel wrapped around his hips, teasing the thatch of hair that led to his thick erection.
He squeezed his eyes shut, grunting as I teased the head of his cock. “Take me to bed, flyboy.” I pushed his towel off his hips.
Jason scooped me up in his arms like I was light as a feather and carried me into the bedroom.
There were no pillows. We had taken them and the comforter to the studio apartment at the airfield. Luckily, there was still a fitted and flat sheet covering the mattress.
He laid me down in the center of the bed. I grabbed his arms on the way down, pulling him over me, drawing his lips to mine. We moved as one, slow and sensual, and reacquainted ourselves with each other’s bodies even though we had barely been apart for a few hours.
It only took one slide of my tongue to have him relax as he hovered over me, grinding his cock against my clit.
“Make love to me,” I whispered, tipping my head back to catch my breath.
“Mel—”
“Please, Jase,” I begged. “I need it. Please—fuck me like you’re going to put a baby in me.”
His eyes widened. “Did you?—”
I smiled sheepishly and shrugged. “I left the loft before I could take my pill this morning.”
Slowly, he teased my clit with his thumb, rubbing slow, rhythmic circles. He leaned down and growled in my ear. “I know it stays in your system for a while, but…” Jase cracked a grin. “I like the idea of playing the odds.”
“Then do it,” I whispered. “Maybe luck will be on our side.”
He notched the tip of his dick in my pussy and braced his hands on either side of his head. “I love you,” he said as he kissed the corner of my mouth.
Another inch .
“I love you.”
And another.
He grunted as he held back, keeping his cock only half-sheathed. “I love you, Mel. For all the days I knew you before, and all the days we’ll have after this.”
Everything. Jason pushed his hard length into me, bottoming out as my back arched off the mattress. He tilted his hips with each thrust, stroking every wanton inch inside of me. I keened as he filled me over and over again, sputtering through absolute nonsense as he invaded my body and my heart.
I love you.
Yes.
That.
Right there.
Your eyes.
Cock.
Please—
Jason grabbed my hips as I babbled incoherently and held himself deep inside of me, giving me every inch of him. We were connected in the most intimate ways. Body and soul.
“You’re going to come first,” he said, leaning forward and pulling my breast into his mouth. He sucked on my nipple, making me moan from the hard, deep pulls as I writhed beneath him. I begged for him to move. To thrust that piece of weaponry between his legs into me.
He stayed still, lavishing my tits with attention, kisses, and nips. Slowly, he rocked his hips, grinding against my clit. My pussy clenched around him as every muscle in my body tightened. I could feel every ridge of his cock as I neared the edge of pure bliss. Jason rolled my nipples between his fingers, and I came undone, shattering beneath him.
He withdrew and slammed into me as my body seized around him. My orgasm was enough to trigger his. Like bumping a tripwire, he exploded inside of me, his release filling me to the core.
Jason leaned down and kissed me as we flew together. We were sticky with sweat and would definitely need to shower again, but I wasn’t going to push him away. Not when he was holding himself so deeply inside of me, whispering quiet vows in my ear.
We hadn’t even begun to talk about a wedding, but this moment felt sacred.
We laid together under the sheet. Jason’s chest was against my back, his hand splayed across my belly.
I let my mind wander while our bodies relaxed as we came off our high.
“What are you thinking about?” he asked as he nuzzled his chin into the crook of my neck.
“Nothing,” I snickered.
Jason nudged the back of my skull with his nose. “Liar. Talk to me, Goose.”
“Are you ever gonna stop calling me Goose?”
He smirked. “Nope. I like calling you Goose, so getting out of it just isn’t in the cards for you.”
I tilted my head and pecked his cheek. “I was thinking about all the kids we’re going to have. How cute they’re gonna be.”
“Oh yeah?” He stroked my stomach with his thumb. “Think we got lucky?”
“Mmmm. Only time will tell.” I closed my eyes and sighed contentedly. “What are you thinking about?”
I felt the twitch of his lips as he bit back a smile. Jason pressed a kiss to my bare shoulder, then craned his head up and pecked my lips. “I’m thinking that I love you more today than I did yesterday, and I’ll love you more tomorrow than I do today.”