Chapter 31 #2
Losing her mom. Dumping her ex. Finding out she was pregnant.
Choosing again and again to be brave on her own.
Those moments in her past required so much more bravery than I’ve ever had to muster, but she’s still serious about understanding what a massive shift a small-town, quiet existence will be compared to the movie-star life I’ve led to this point.
“A very wise lady once reminded me that I don’t have reason to be afraid of much,” I murmur.
Her lips tip up. “She was right.”
“Only about everything outside of here.” I tap my chest. “ Inside of here, I’m still a pretty tender guy without a lot of safety nets. Money can’t buy a guard for a heart.”
“Promise me you’ll keep Bash safe. From?—”
From the press. From rumors and whispers and judgment. From the haters.
She doesn’t have to fill in the blanks lingering between us.
“I will move mountains to keep Bash safe,” I say. “ That , I can promise you.”
Her shoulders drop, her breath leaves her in a rush, and then she makes all of my dreams come true.
She pushes forward and kisses me again.
Those lips on mine. Her fingers sliding back across my face to trace my ears and sink into my hair.
My entire body is on fire, and it’s not the temperature of the water.
It’s Emma. It’s wanting Emma.
Drowning in her kisses. Pulling her closer. Her shifting in the water until she’s wrapping her legs around my hips, my dick cradled between her thighs.
Slow , I remind myself.
So slow .
Her pace.
Whatever she wants.
But I still cradle her ass, loving the feel of her cheeks in my palms.
Her breath mingles with mine. Her tongue darts out to swipe along my bottom lip, and my already aching cock pulses against her.
Her legs tighten hard around me, and she rocks her hips against my erection.
This .
This is what I want.
Emma. In my arms. In my life. In my bed.
Every night.
“Oh, god, Jonas, we can’t,” she whispers as she shifts to pepper my jaw with soft kisses.
“Why?”
“No birth control. And it is triple or nothing with you.”
That’s not funny.
It’s truly not.
Especially when she’s raking her hands down my back and pressing her pussy against my dick and nipping at my earlobe.
I suck in a breath and have to take one more before I can talk, and even then, I’m hoarse with pent-up desperation.
Having her this close , with two layers of fabric all that’s between my cock and her vagina, is driving me half mad. “Can I touch you?”
“Just…stay…there.”
“I want you to feel good.”
“I—do.” She bites my neck while she tilts her hips and rubs faster against me, her breath coming in shorter and shorter pants. “You feel—so good.”
“How can I help?”
“Touch—my breasts. Loved—when you—played—my nipples.”
I wrap one arm around her waist, holding her tighter against me, and use the other to yank her swimsuit down and bury my face in her breast.
Her nipple is salty from the hot tub and hard as a diamond. I swirl my tongue around that perfect little point, taking my cues from the way she gasps my name, holds my head, and pumps harder against me.
“Thank you,” she pants. “Oh, god, thank you.”
I’m on the verge of coming. My balls ache. My cock is a steel rod. And I’m smiling against Emma’s breast because she thanked me. “My absolute pleasure.”
“Less talk. More tongue.”
I suck her breast into my mouth.
She gasps and strains against me, her legs trembling and her chest lifting. “Oh, yes, yes —forgot—how good— yes there yes yes yeeeessss .”
This is the best torture I’ve ever experienced.
Emma straining into an orgasm in my arms while I fight back the urge to come myself.
I don’t want to blow my load in a hot tub. I want to be buried deep inside her the next time I come, and I haven’t earned it yet.
But holding her while trembles rack her body and she rides out the waves against my cock, holding my face to her breast—yeah.
Yeah, this is the best kind of torture.
“Oh, god, Jonas, you—bear. Bear. Bear .”
My brain is scrambled and my body is completely consumed with being this close to Emma, so it takes me a solid two seconds to understand why she’s scrambling to her feet.
“Go!” she yells, waving her arms in the air and distracting me with one swaying breast. “Go away! Bad bear. Bad— urp! ”
The jets.
The jets push her over, and she disappears under the water. I lunge for her again while my security team comes running, and when I realize they’re pulling weapons, the first sliver of fear courses into my veins.
I look at what they’re running toward as I pull Emma above the water, and holy shit .
That’s a fucking big bear.
It’s standing—yes, standing , on two legs, making it at least seven feet tall on the other side of the fence, watching us.
Emma pushes to her feet again. “Go away! Bad bear! Bad !”
“Get down, ma’am,” one of the security agents orders.
“Don’t shoot.” If I move between Emma and the security, she’s closer to the bear. If I move between her and the bear, she’s closer to the guards.
The bear grunts.
Emma growls back, then howls and waves her hands in the air like one of those floppy dancing tube things that are always outside car dealerships.
“Ma’am—” the security agent says.
“If you shoot this bear and wake up my kid and I have to explain what happened to him, you’ll wish you were the bear,” she growls.
Goosebumps prickle up and down my skin, including on my dick, which is stubbornly insisting that he still gets to have happy playtime in Emma’s lady garden.
“Ma’am—” he starts again.
“Go the frickety-frack away ,” she shouts at the bear.
It snorts, drops back down to all fours, and after one last look at us, lumbers toward the chicken coop.
“I’ll let them shoot you if you go after my chickens,” Emma says to it. “Even if it wakes my baby.”
The bear snorts again and changes direction as the second security agent gets between the bear and the coop and mimics Emma’s wild waving.
And that’s when I realize they can both see her breast.
I shove in front of her and glare at both of them while they alternate between watching us and chasing the bear away.
“Can you cover up?” I murmur to her.
She squeaks.
Lowers herself back into the water.
And is instantly blown sideways by the force of the jets.
I probably need to get those jets looked at.
But not right now.
Because now, she’s once again lifting her head out of the water, flipping her hair back, and laughing.
She grabs my hand and tugs me back into the water with her.
“That was fucking terrifying,” I tell her as the jets finish their cycle and shut off.
“Mama? Dona say duck?” Bash says above us.
Her eyes meet mine, wide, telegraphing oh my god, we got caught , and that’s when I start to feel it too.
The absolute hilarity of all of this.
I cough to cover a snicker, but Emma knows.
She knows what I’m doing.
And before I realize it, we’re both laughing so hard we can barely stay above water, her clinging to my shoulders, me wrapping my arms around her waist, just being .
“Mama?” Bash says again.
“I’ll be up in a minute, sweetie. Sing a song while you wait, okay? Did Zen teach you a new Waverly Sweet song? The one about catching a case of the feels?”
“You know it’s fucking hot when you stare down a bear and win, right?” I murmur to her.
“Don’t fuck with this mama bear,” she replies.
I love you .
It’s on the tip of my tongue.
But I bite it back.
I don’t want to move too fast and scare her.
I just want to be here . For her. With her.
She kisses me softly on the cheek and pulls away. “Thank you for coming over tonight.”
“Can I stay?”
She pauses.
“On the couch,” I clarify.
“Mama?” Bash calls once more.
Emma glances up at his window, then smiles at me. “If you’d like.”
I’d like.
I would very much like.