Chapter 14
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Roxanne
The police came and hauled off the two men, who by now were conscious but still bleeding enough that they needed to be taken to the hospital to be stitched up.
In the meantime, someone thought to call Rodney Hunt.
Fortunately, far from being angry about the blood on his carpets or the mess his pharmacy was in, he thanked both me and Jackson profusely.
He even told me to take a few days off to recover from the ordeal, with pay.
Jackson and I had to go down to the police station and give statements. It clearly made him antsy being there, but he gritted his teeth and got through it. When we were finished and they let us go, the two of us walked out of the station in silence toward my car.
What Jacks had said to Les back in the pharmacy had been on my mind ever since, and I decided now to take a deep breath and bring it up.
“So,” I said, turning towards him and leaning up against my Ford. “What you said to Les earlier. About us.” I tried to keep my face from registering anything. “We’re ‘together’? How come I didn’t know that?”
“I’m not sure I knew it either,” he admitted. “Until just a little while ago.”
“You gonna give me any choice in the matter?” I asked, cocking my head at him with a smirk.
“Probably not.” He drew me to him and looked deep into my eyes.
My lips parted slightly, my breathing growing shallow as he kissed me hungrily.
There was something in his kiss — a fierceness, a possessiveness — that took my breath away and made me slightly faint with the strength of it.
After a few moments, he broke away. Both of us were breathing heavily.
“After all,” he continued, his voice thick with emotion despite his attempts to hide it.
“Looks like you need someone around, to make sure you don’t get into any more trouble. ”
“Psh,” I scoffed. “Are you forgetting that I’m the one who took down the second guy?” I jutted my chin out at him in defiance.
“No,” he murmured against my hair. “I’m not forgetting that at all. You were something else back there.”
“Okay, then,” I said, nodding once. “Just so we’re clear.”
We stayed like that for a few moments, not speaking. I listened to the sound of his deep, even breathing, feeling his strong heartbeat in his chest. It was soothing. Comforting. It felt like home. I closed my eyes for a moment, letting myself savor the warmth of it.
Then, I took a deep breath and said what needed to be said.
“Jackson.” My voice was soft. “I don’t want to be with someone who’s just going to leave town when he’s finished his business in Lupine.
I mean, I’m not asking for the promise of a lifelong commitment here.
But if you’re just going to take off right in the middle of everything…
” I trailed off. I hated to say it, but I couldn’t be with Jackson if he was only going to walk away whenever he felt like it.
“Rox,” he whispered, pulling me closer. “I haven’t thought all this through.
It’s true, I was planning on getting out of Lupine the second I was able to.
But it seems like Lupine has other plans.
” He drew back for a second and looked at me.
“And it looks like you’re part of the equation.
I can’t seem to get my mind off of you no matter how hard I try. ”
My lips quirked up into a smirk. “Not very romantic, Jackson.”
He stared at me for a minute, seeming to replay what he’d said in mind, and swore softly.
“Shit. I’m sorry, Roxy. I’m bad at this.
” He chuckled ruefully and kissed my forehead.
“I guess what I’m trying to say is, I’ve been trying to stay away from you, as well as I was able, but damned if I just don’t seem to have any will power around you.
Since I got back to Lupine, you’re all I can think about. I think I’m in love with you, Rox.”
I looked up at him, smiling impishly. “That’s better.”
“Thank God.” I laughed, then watched as his face clouded over. “I’m serious, though, Roxy. I don’t know how to do this. I’m afraid Nam, and everything else, wrecked me for this love stuff. One day, one or both of us might end up getting hurt.”
“That’s a chance I’m willing to take,” I said, my eyes shining. “As long as you remember what you told me once.”
“What’s that?”
“That we all have a choice. That everything we do is a choice.”
He sighed. “So, you’re gonna take my words and use them against me, huh?”
“In this case,” I told him, “yes, I am.”
“Okay, then,” he said. He lifted my chin, his eyes staring deeply into mine. “I choose you. Let’s do this, Rox.”
Instead of answering him, I raised my mouth to his and kissed him, standing up on my tiptoes so I could reach. His arms went around me and crushed me to him, his tongue dancing with mine as he grew hard against me. “Fuck,” he rasped after a moment. “I gotta get you home. It’s been too long, Rox.”
“I can follow you in the car,” I said breathlessly, but he shook his head.
“No. We’ll pick the car up later.” He took my hand and led me to his bike, then straddled it and waited for me to get on. “This is faster,” he growled. “And I can’t wait much longer.”
A few minutes later, we pulled into Jackson’s driveway.
As I was getting off the bike, I heard a honk out on the street.
I looked back to see a car I didn’t recognize: a dark red convertible.
The driver was a dapper-looking man in his eighties.
On the passenger side was Mrs. Watkins. She gave me the thumbs-up sign as they drove past.
“Conrad Hale, I presume,” I laughed to myself.
“What?” Jackson murmured in my ear as he wrapped his arms around me from behind.
“Nothing,” I sighed happily. “Let’s go in.”
He led me into the darkened house. We only made it as far as the living room before Jackson and I were peeling off one another’s clothes, our mouths exploring hungrily, our fingers touching, caressing, rediscovering.
As soon as I got Jackson’s jeans unbuttoned and unzipped, they fell to the floor, pooling at his ankles.
I reached down to palm the already hard steel of his shaft, suppressing a moan of pleasure as he drew in a sharp breath.
“Fuck,” he hissed. “God damn, what you do to me, Rox.”
I looked up at him, curving my lips into a saucy smile. “You mean, what I’m gonna do to you.”
Then, before he could react, I was down on my knees.
I’d been fantasizing about doing this to Jackson practically since the day he’d gotten back into town.
I caressed the hot flesh through the fabric for a moment, admiring the size and heft of him, before slowly pulling down his boxers, allowing him to spring free.
Even in the low light of the street lamp outside, I could see the muscles in his thighs tense as he fought to keep control.
I loved that I could do this to him, that I could make him need release so badly.
Looking up, I met his eyes and bit my lip softly between my teeth.
I loved way his eyes grew darker with anticipation as he watched me.
Moving forward, I opened my mouth and wrapped my lips around his large head, my tongue lapping at the underside as my hand moved up to grip his shaft firmly.
He tasted like man. Like sex. I wanted more.
I wanted to make him come like this, shuddering his release down my throat.
I bobbed forward, smiling around his cock as he swore softly and fisted a hand in my hair.
Then I drew back and moved forward again, taking as much of him in my mouth as I could.
I lost myself in worshiping him like that, closing my eyes and luxuriating in the feel and taste of him.
He murmured my name, and occasionally a low groan emerged from deep in his throat as I laved and lapped at him.
He barely allowed himself to move, even though I could tell from the tenseness of his thighs that he wanted to thrust. Instead, I continued to lick and suck as his cock grew larger, harder, and I got ready…
Suddenly, with a loud groan he pulled away from me, and before I knew what was happening he had pulled me down onto the carpeted floor with him.
He had me straddle him and gripped my hips tightly, then pulled me onto him until he was deep inside my aching channel.
I wrapped my arms around his neck, then threw my head back and moaned loudly as Jackson pulled partway out and then thrust into me again.
He was inside me so deep this way, as deep as he could go.
I closed my eyes and lost myself in the pleasure, angling my hips to meet him, crying out in pleasure as he buried himself inside me over and over.
Suddenly I bucked hard against him and exploded, heat radiating through me like a bomb.
I clung to him as continued to thrust, again, again, then tensed and emptied himself deep inside me with a shudder, filling me with his heat.
* * *
“It’s the strangest thing,” I told him lazily, my fingers tracing lazy circles on his muscled chest. We were in his bedroom now, under the covers as the moonlight sifted in the window through the clouds. Jackson had carried me here afterwards, when I was still too weak to move.
“What’s that?” he asked as he brushed a lock of hair from my face.
“Your eyes. They’re not brown. They’re gray. Dark gray.” I looked up at him. “I never knew anyone with gray eyes before.”
“I guess I’m just special,” he said gravely.
“That you are, Jackson Stone.”
A few seconds passed in comfortable silence.
“So, I had an idea,” he began.
“Mmmm… an idea man. I like that.” I yawned sleepily and closed my eyes.
“Well,” he continued. “Since it looks like we’ll be settling down in Lupine, at least for the time being… How about we take a little trip? Take the bike, see a little of the country.”
I opened my eyes again, considering the possibility. “Where do you want to go?”
I felt him shrug underneath me. “Anywhere you want. You told me you’ve only been out of Colorado once. You must have some ideas of places you’d like to go.”
A trip with Jackson. Anywhere in the country. Heck, I’d never even been on a vacation before — not really. I remember Les and me going to stay for a few days at our aunt’s house once when my dad had to have an operation, but that was about it.
“Well,” I said, lost in thought. “Maybe somewhere in the south. Georgia? I’ve always heard Savannah is beautiful.”
“Savannah it is,” Jackson agreed.
“Or, wait! No!” I sat up a little, starting to get excited. “How about Las Vegas? Or maybe Yosemite?”
“All very similar places,” Jackson nodded soberly, but his eyes were dancing.
“You’re making fun of me!” I protested.
“Not at all, babe,” he smirked. “Not at all. But we’ll get to all those places, and more. This trip is just the beginning.”
“Just the beginning,” I repeated, looking into his eyes.
He nodded, smiling. “We’ll see the country. And then: we’ll choose to come back.”
“I love you, Jackson,” I said, trembling a little. I hadn’t said it to him until now, even though it had been practically bursting out of me for hours.
“I love you, too, Rox,” he murmured into my hair, thrilling me with the sound of his words. “I love you, too.”