Chapter Twenty-One
JAX
THE BIRDS outside of Marley’s window are so noisy that I’m surprised she is still sleeping. Once she fell back to sleep, aside from her hands sliding off my arms to her stomach, she hasn’t moved an inch. I’ve been listening to her kitten snore for the past hour, and it’s fucking cute as hell.
When she asked me to sit with her last night, not even Mason’s ‘I’ll fucking kill you look’ could make me leave. She asked me to stay. She doesn’t know it, but she’s sealed her fate.
She’s mine.
In all honesty, she’s been mine since the first time I laid eyes on her, but from a distance.
I’ve been watching over her from afar, biding my time, getting close to her one visit at a time.
But now that I’ve held her to me as she sleeps, when she is at her most vulnerable, that distance between us is erased.
What she gave me last night, innocently, was her complete trust and I will never take that lightly. She is mine to protect, love, and worship. Some would call that obsession. I don’t fucking care. She’s my obsession.
The smell of bacon is tickling my nose, making my stomach growl. Marley twitches at the sound. The fucking noisy as hell birds won’t wake her up, but my growling stomach will. I smile as I watch her slowly wake up.
Her eyes slowly open and focuses on the window where the damn birds are, but she doesn’t move. I half expect her to freak out and jump away from me, but she surprises me.
“That was the best sleep I’ve had in a long time.” Her voice is groggy, and I think I love her even more.
She still doesn’t move, and I smile to myself. “Do you know you snore?”
That makes her move. She sits up and spins her torso around to look at me. Her blond hair is disheveled from tossing during her dream last night and her blue eyes are still groggy, her face puffy from sleep, but she is still the most stunning woman I have ever seen.
“I do not!” She has to clear her throat to get the sleep out. Her beautiful shyness is creeping up her neck and flushing her cheeks.
Booping her nose with my finger, I smile at her. “It’s like a little kitten purring while being petted.”
Her eyes slide to the side like she’s thinking and then come back to me. “So not wall shaking like my dad when he’s had too much to drink?”
Wanting to tease her more, I smile bigger. “Even if you shake the walls, I will still think it’s cute.”
Her face twists into playful disappointment, and her eyes fall to my chest. I can see the exact moment she stops thinking about her embarrassment for snoring.
Her eyes slowly move across my chest and down to my stomach.
My morning wood is turning into something else the longer she looks at me, and when her eyes land on the bulge tenting my pants, they snap back up to mine.
There is no fear in her features, but I do see curiosity and maybe some arousal. I’ve never had to hold back before. Women in my past were chosen to fuck, women who wanted it, and would go away after.
The woman in front of me right now, the angel wearing my t-shirt who is looking at me with complete faith that I won’t do anything to harm her. I never want her to go away. I want her with me always.
Our eyes stay locked. I want her to know what she does to me. She may be mine, but I am also hers. She could tell me to go take an ice-cold shower right now and I would. I will do anything for her.
I slowly sit up and lean closer to her, sliding my hand under her hair to grasp her nape. Her eyes dip to my lips and her breaths have become quicker. My dick is pulsing with need for her to the point of painfulness, but I won’t do anything to scare her.
Softly, I brush my lips across hers and slowly move to the side to kiss her on the rounded apple of her cheek.
She sucks in a small breath and I take my time moving to her other cheek to do the same.
When I move to her forehead and linger with my lips against her forehead, her breaths turn to soft pants.
Keeping my hand around her neck, I lean back to look in her eyes. “I think breakfast is ready. Get dressed and I will meet you downstairs.”
She rolls her lips together between her teeth and I watch relief mixed with disappointment flash in her eyes. I won’t make any move with her until all I see is her need for me in those ocean blue depths, not one second more.
No matter how hard my dick throbs in disappointment.
She nods her head, and I smile at her before I get off the bed, my body stiff from laying in one position all night.
When I step into the room I have sort of claimed as my own because of being here so much in the past eight months, I’m not completely shocked to see Gray standing inside, leaning against the wall. He does not look happy.
I let him see me glance in his direction before going to my bag in the corner to pull out another shirt. He won’t intimidate me, but I will play nice because he is Marley’s brother, and she loves him.
His arms are crossed over his chest. He is a big man, a couple of inches taller than me, but I’ve put down men bigger than him before breakfast before. I have nothing but respect for his love for Marley, but I won’t be pushed by anyone.
I keep my back to him as I dig in my bag, sending a clear message. You don’t scare me. “Is there a reason you are in here and staring at me like you want to squash me like a bug?”
“You know why I’m in here. I wanted to see if you stayed the night in my sister’s room last night.” Anger is in his voice, but he doesn’t move.
“You wouldn’t be in here if you didn’t know the answer to that question.” I won’t give him details, that is up to Marley.
The deep breath he takes behind me is shaking, and I know he is on the edge. If there is a fucking god, he won’t make me fight her brother right now. I really don’t want to.
I hear him push off the wall and I roll my head from one shoulder to the other. The sound of his boot scuffing on the floor is the loudest thing in the room. “You don’t know my sister, she is fragile…”
Turning on him, I step up toe to toe and he stops talking, his eyes narrow and in my peripheral I see his hands curl into fists.
“Oh, I know your sister.” I stare into his eyes, both of us on the verge of pummeling the other.
“I know she is fragile. I also know she has the most beautiful fucking soul I have ever been around. Even with the shadows of her ugly past hanging over her every fucking move, she still has so much love for her animals that she will jeopardize her safety to protect them.”
His eyebrows twitch, but his eyes stay locked on mine, and I continue.
“She takes care of her family with an iron will and loves them with everything she has. From the first day I walked into this house, I made it my mission to know your sister, to be able to stand next to her without her shying away from me.”
Tipping my head to the side, trying like fuck not to let my anger get the better of me.
He has no right to assume or accuse me of threatening his sister in any capacity.
“So, yes, your sister asked me to stay with her last night because she wanted me there after being terrorized in her sleep by her past. And let me make something very fucking clear, it never crossed my mind to take advantage of the trust she put in me when she asked, and I sure as fuck was not going to leave her.”
The anger has drained from his eyes, but he is not backing down. I take a step back, something I never do, to offer an olive branch. “One more thing, the next time you infer I will do anything to harm your sister, you and I are going to have a problem.”
He sucks in a deep breath, but doesn’t take his eyes off me as he scrubs his jaw with his hand. “I won’t apologize for being concerned for my sister, I’ll never stop being concerned for her.”
I nod my head. “As it should be.”
A slight shock of regret, guilt, and sadness all bundled together in one fucking emotion, moves through my chest when I think I would do the same for my sister if she were still with me. But I wasn’t able to save her.
He nods his head and turns to leave the room, but stops at the door. He doesn’t turn around to face me but says over his shoulder, “It was good of you to cover her wet shirt last night after she woke up, so thanks for that.”
Staring at his back, I say, “You’re welcome.”
After breakfast, Marley goes right to her stables and starts her day with the same routine I’m sure she’s had for a long time. She feeds her horses, cleans the stalls, and then one at a time, she leads them to their areas and works through exercises and bonding with them.
She always wears old clothes that she’s not afraid to get dirty when she’s in her stables, so when she walked into the kitchen in the tank top and worn cutoff jeans shorts, I nearly fucking passed out.
I had to jack off in the shower this morning after leaving her and now I have to watch her be innocently and accidentally sexy as fuck in an old tank top and scrappy shorts.
The gelding that regressed after the explosion the other day walked up to her again today and the smile of triumph on her face made her glow all over.
I’ve never been in love before, never even wished for it, but I think the suffocating demand deep inside my fucking soul to keep her safe, see her smile, and feel her touch might be as in as I can get.
When she finishes with the gelding, she finds me in the stable sweeping the main walkway. “Do you mind taking me into town now?”
Her blond hair was in a tight French braid before breakfast, but some of the shorter hairs around her face have pulled loose and are hanging in pretty wisps.
Not able to stop myself if I tried, I lean the broom against the wall and stalk up to her.
Those blue eyes watch every move I make, her chest lifting higher with each breath, and I stop when my toes bump into hers.
“I’m going to kiss you.” I say.
Her eyes are bright and the corners of her mouth tip up. “Okay.”
I pull her to me and press my lips to hers with a fiery passion that expresses only a fraction of what I’m feeling right now because I’m barely holding back what I want to give with a weak fucking dam that is cracking.
But she gives it right back in spades. Her hands slide up my arms, the tips of her fingers dig into the skin on my shoulders.
Her tongue dances with mine sensually. There is years of pent up sexuality, expression, and love behind her kiss, all of which I plan to explore when the time is right.
Gripping her hips, I push away from her, and she looks at me in confusion. Her eyes volleying between mine. I take a deep breath and say, “I don’t want to scare you.”
Confusion turns to playfulness, a lively sparkle in her eyes, before she smiles and shakes her head, looking at me through her eyelashes. “I’m not scared of you.”
Cupping her face in my hands, her fingers curl around my wrists, I slowly give her another kiss, letting my lips linger on hers for a few seconds before pulling away. “Come. Let’s go get what you need.”
The feed store is right on the edge of the center of town, the old building obviously one of the original buildings of the little town. It’s situated right next to an older neighborhood that has been revitalized, the quaint little houses look like they were all refurbished recently.
Across the street from the feed store is the original train station and next door to it is a newer strip-mall, which includes a store called Tech Emporium.
As we pull into one of the narrow parking spaces that barely fits Marley’s enormous truck, I turn to her. “Do you mind going with me to the tech store after so I can get some batteries?”
She turns and looks at the store that is walking distance to the feed store and shakes her head, “Go on over there now if you want, Chuck is right there,” she points at an older man helping a customer load bags of feed in his truck from the loading dock.
“I’ll be a few minutes because I want to ask him about special ordering some stuff for me. ”
Shaking my head, I say, “No, I’m not leaving you. I’ll wait.”
She waves her hand at me. “Really. I’ve been coming to this store my whole life, Chuck’s like an uncle to me. It’ll be fine.”
Looking past her through the window at the store that’s less than a block away, I turn and look at the older man in the feed store and then look around the area, nothing is suspicious. I’ve been wanting to look at some GPS equipment.
“Really, go. I’ll be right here.” She says and pulls the handle to open the truck door.
Getting out, I meet her at the front of the truck, my nose just inches from hers, and grab her hip. “You don’t leave this store. Wait for me inside.”
She smiles like an ornery teenager when she says, “Is this your ‘do as I say or else’ persona?”
One corner of my lips pulls up and I dip my head to brush my lips across hers. “Yes, it is.”
As she walks away, her round little ass swaying in her shorts and her boots tapping on the sidewalk, she turns her head to say over her shoulder. “I like it.”
My dick springs to life in my pants. Never in a million years did I expect her to say that.
Fuck me.