Chapter 21 Jamie
JAMIE
Be her peace. Be her home.
Don’t be another war she has to survive.
—Advice from Aiden Murphy to Jamie
Once I get Kyrie down for the night, I knock on Ashton’s door and slowly crack it open. “Ashton . . .”
“Hey,” she smiles, pushing up to sit, sleep-rumpled and so damn pretty. “What time is it?”
“A little after nine,” I tell her as I cross the room and squat next to the bed. I tuck her hair behind her ear and drag my finger over the delicate line of her face. “How are you feeling, beautiful?”
“Like I’ve been run over by a truck. My head is killing me.” She turns her face and presses her lips to my palm. “And maybe like I need a bath.”
“Oh yeah?” I hold her face in my hand, wondering exactly when I fell in love with this woman. Was it last week or last month or the first time she showed up at one of our football practices in her ballet skirt?
“Yeah, charmer . . .” Her gold-flecked eyes twinkle mischievously. “Think you can help me with that?”
“Pretty sure I can help with that, baby.” I press my lips to her forehead and lift her in my arms, loving her smile as she rests her head against my shoulder.
I carry her into her bathroom and carefully sit her on the vanity, suddenly very grateful for the extra-large tubs I had installed when I built this house.
“How hot do you like the water?”
“On a scale of one to ten?” she questions. “Maybe a twelve.”
Okay. So basically boil my balls hot.That sounds painful, but I’m not the one currently baking a human in their body, so I’m going to keep my mouth shut and go with the flow here. With the water on, I look for some body wash or bubble bath. Something I can add to the water.
“What are you looking for, Jamie?” she yawns, and maybe I should feel like shit for waking her, but I can’t. Not when she looks soft and warm and so damn pretty sitting on the edge of the counter.
“Bubbles,” I admit, feeling like an ass.
“There’s some in the closet,” she points past me to the linen closet.
I grab two towels and a bottle of cherry-vanilla body wash and hold it up. Jackpot. “Have I ever told you how much I love the smell of your skin?”
A crimson flush rushes to her face as she shakes her head.
I squeeze more gel than we need into the tub and turn around as the delicious scent of ripe summer cherries fills the air. Stepping between Ashton’s thighs, I run my hands up her legs. “Think there’s room for both of us in there?”
Her fingers play with the hem of my Crucible gym tee. “Oh, I think we’ll manage.” She presses her lips to mine, then shoves my shirt up. “I also think you have on too many clothes, Murphy.”
“Well we can’t have that now, can we?” I tease, loving this new relaxed, carefree version Ashton is sharing with me as I reach behind my head and tug off my shirt, dropping it to the floor.
She shakes her head slowly and presses her lips to my heart. “No . . . We definitely can’t have that. Now . . . pants off too.”
My lips tip up. “Bossy . . . I like it.”
“I’m going to remind you, you said that. Now pants off. You have to get in the tub first. You’re bigger.”
“Yes, ma’am.” I do as I’m told and strip off my sweats, enjoying the way her dark eyes dilate once I’m naked in front of her. “Like what you see, Ace?”
She presses her lips together, holding back her smile. “It’s all right. Now get in the tub.” She shoves me playfully back, and I catch her hand and press my lips to her open palm. “Need help getting down?”
“I think I can manage . . .” Ashton waits until I’m sitting in the warm water before she stands and shimmies a pair of cheeky black shorts down her shapely legs, leaving that magnificent fucking ass high in the air as she kicks off her socks, then rips her tank over her head and adds it to our pile of clothes.
She turns and hits the light switch, bathing us in darkness with just the moonlight leaking through the leaded-glass window, framing her.
And she is breathtaking.
My eyes drink in every exquisite curve of her body. The dip of her hips, her still-flat stomach that I cannot wait to see full and round with our baby. Her strong, toned dancer’s thighs and high, tight teardrop breasts . . . One look and this woman can bring me to my knees.
“You’re staring, Jamie . . .”
“I’m in awe, Ashton.”
Her smile is breathtaking as she reaches over and takes my hand. “Good answer, charmer.” Slowly, she lowers one foot, then the other into the warm water, leaning on me until she’s comfortable between my legs, her back resting against my chest like two pieces of a puzzle snapping into place.
A perfect fit.
I grab a spongey-looking loofah thing from the shelf next to the tub and add some of the bodywash to it, sudsing it up, then run it slowly along her arms.
Ashton hums her contentment, relaxing into me, and my cock jumps to attention. “How are you feeling now? Still feel sick to your stomach?
“No. Thankfully, that’s passed. My head hurts, but I don’t feel like I’m going to throw up again.” I run the loofah along her shoulder and across her collarbones, and she hums again. “This is helping.”
Gently, I drag the sponge over her chest and along her soft stomach, imagining what it’ll look like soon, before continuing down to the apex of her thighs.
But I refuse to go there.
Not yet.
For now, I stick to the route of a gentleman. One with an extremely active, dirty mind. But one who wants to take care of his woman and makes sure she feels good, even if it means he doesn’t get to taste her tonight.
“Can you pass me the hand shower, Ace?” I ask, pointing at the black and white detachable showerhead resting just out of reach above the hot and cold dials.
She hands it to me and sits up, as if she knows what I want to do, and wraps her arms around her knees, giving me room to wash her hair. And man, do I love getting to take care of her like this. “Have you thought about how you want to tell your dad yet?”
“I guess I’ll talk to him when we reschedule lunch, probably sometime next week. When does your camp start?”
“About six weeks,” I tell her as I lather shampoo into my hands and massage it into her hair.
“Oh God, that feels good.”
Fucking hell . . . this woman . . .
I massage her scalp, making sure to get every inch of her long hair before gently rinsing it out, careful not to get shampoo or water in her eyes. “A girl could get used to this, Jamie.”
“Good,” I tell her and lean back as she carefully turns in my arms. Water sloshes over the sides of the massive double-slipper freestanding tub, and I’m suddenly thankful for my expensive taste.
She adjusts her knees on the outsides of my thighs, her cunt teasing my cock with every small movement and her fingers tracing the lines of my face.
“I need to make sure I have lunch with Dad before your camp starts. I don’t want him finding everything out from team gossip. Even he doesn’t deserve that.”
“Do you want me to go with you?” I offer, having a hard time reconciling the coach I know with the shit father he’s become.
“No.” She drops a kiss to my lips and sighs. “But I can’t even tell you how much it means to me that you’d be willing to do that for me.”
I push a damp handful of hair away from her face. “Do you really not know, Ashton?”
“Tell me,” she whispers reverently.
“I’d do anything for you, Ashton. Anything .
. . because I’m so far gone for you, I don’t remember a time when I didn’t love you.
It was always there, lying dormant, waiting for the right time.
For the time when you’d be ready and we’d get our chance.
” I gather her face in my hands as she hovers above me.
“Evan said we weren’t ready back then. I’m ready now, Ace.
We’re ready. We’ve put in our time. We’ve put in the work. I love you, Ashton Carmichael.”
“I’m a package deal, Jamie. I’m going to petition the court for custody of Kyrie,” she warns me, like she’s giving me an out.
“Good, so when you take my name, we’ll give it to her too.” I’m not sure when it happened, but that declaration doesn’t scare me the way I thought it would. It doesn’t even give me pause the way it would have months ago. If anything, it’s a relief to finally say it. To her.
“Jamie . . . You want to what? Be her dad? I’m not even her mom . . .”
“You’ve been her mom for four months. She’s spent more time with you as a mother than her own mother, Ashton.
I know it’ll be complicated. And I know she’ll have questions when she gets older, but I also know we’ll love her and help her through it, in whatever way she needs.
Do you really not see it? Kyrie’s mine just as much as you and this baby are. ”
I slide my hands down her ribs and rest one over her stomach. “I can’t wait to feel him kicking inside you, Ace.”
“You’re going to be a disgustingly good daddy, aren’t you, Jamie?”
“Yeah, baby, I will. I promise.” A possessiveness like I’ve never known thunders through me, and I brush my lips over hers. “You and the kids will always come first.”
“I love you, Jameson Murphy. Maybe I always did, I’m not even sure. But now that I’ve accepted it, it’s like I don’t remember a time I didn’t love you.”
“Thank fucking God for that, baby. Because I’m not letting you go.”
Ashton smiles as she pushes up and lines my cock up at her center. “Good. Now show me I’m yours, Jamie.”
Ashton
Ilift up on my knees and press Jamie’s cock against my sex, then plant my hands on his chest as I slide down over him, taking him inside me. Pleasure spikes, streaked with pain, as my body trembles and vibrates around his. Stretched so thoroughly, I’m not sure how I’ll ever survive.
“Breathe, baby,” he soothes, and I blow out a breath and move. Slowly. So slowly, my eyes locked on his. Wanting this moment to last forever.
The quiet. The trust.
The calm. The want.
“Fuck, beautiful. That’s it. Take your time. I don’t want to hurt you.” He grips my chin and pulls my face down to his. And the hungry look in his eyes is spectacular.
Goosebumps cover my skin as Jamie grips my hip, and I wrap my arms around his neck and rock my hips. “I love you, Jamie.” I chant and press my lips to his. They’re firm, warm, and so deliciously demanding, I’m not sure I ever want to stop kissing him.
Jamie angles my head and takes control, pulling a slow moan from my lips as his tongue slips inside my mouth, deepening our connection and thrusting up with his hips in time with the swipe of his tongue.
Water spills over the edge of the tub, but we’re too lost in each other in the moment to care. My only concern is us. Right now. I want him closer. I want him deeper. I want everything he has to give, and I want to give him everything.
“More,” I pant between each nip of his lips as I slide farther and farther down his cock until he’s finally completely sheathed inside me. Until I’m stretched and full and yet still aching for more. “Please, Jamie. I need more.”
“That’s my good girl,” he murmurs, licking into my mouth, and his soft praise is like a hot stroke against my sensitive skin.
One arm bands around my waist as he shifts, and more water spills.
But I don’t care because Jamie is moving.
This is so different from before. His movements are lazy and loving, like there’s no rush.
No fear. No crazy adrenaline pushing us. This time, it’s just us. Falling.
“Tell me what you need, beautiful,” he groans as his hips slowly pick up speed. His body grinds against mine. Into mine. And oh my God, the friction is divine when he rocks against my clit while his cock drags along my walls, hitting my G-spot over and over and over again.
I whimper with his words.
Lost in my lust.
Unable to form a coherent thought.
Unwilling to care.
Chasing my orgasm.
Jamie drags a decadently calloused thumb over my peaked nipple and pinches it as his mouth captures mine. He fucks me over and over as my orgasm threatens to break me completely.
“Harder,” I moan, gasping and keening.
And when he pinches my nipple tighter, my breath catches and my world tilts.
“Just like that.”
Jamie drags his tongue over the same nipple, then teases me with his teeth as he finally fucks me harder. Rougher. With the kind of intensity I love from him. And I’m lost. To him.
White hot heat races through me, scorching me from the inside. “Fuck, baby. Your cunt is so fuckin’ tight. You’re taking me so fucking good.”
His praise sends me spiraling as I meet him thrust for thrust.
My orgasm teases the edge of my sanity as my body tenses and my clit throbs, and I lose myself entirely in this moment. In this man. I shatter in his arms, his name a silent plea falling from my lips as Jamie slams into me one final time and comes on a roar.
He holds me, like I’m the most precious thing in his world. Like without me, he’s nothing. And I realize that’s what I want. From him and for him. When did Jamie Murphy become the person I can’t live without?
“Jamie . . .” I lie limp in his arms with my lips pressed to the warm skin above his heart. “I love you.”
“With every ounce of my soul, Ashton.”