48. Jackson
FORTY-EIGHT
Jackson
I’m dropping Lee off when my phone rings. Blakely’s name flashes across the screen and a spike of concern shoots through me. It’s odd for her to call when she’s supposed to be working the rest of the night. My car is idling on the curb in front of the hotel, and I hold up a finger to Lee so I can answer.
“Hey, princess.” It’s silent on the line and I pull the phone away from my ear, checking to make sure it’s connected. “Hello?”
“Jackson.” Her voice is strained—a pained whimper that has me sitting up straighter in my seat.
Lee looks over, lips turning down when she sees my shift in position.
“What’s wrong?” I ask.
“I just—I need…”
She pants into the line, and my heart surges at her shortness of breath.
She hasn’t had a panic attack in over a month. At least, not any that I’ve seen, and the sound of it happening when I’m so far away is a sledgehammer to my insides, making me feel as though, once again, I’m not with the people I love when they need me the most.
“What do you need, baby? Are you okay?”
“I ne-need you to come get me.” She hesitates. “Please.”
“On my way. I’ll be there in about twenty minutes. Do you need to stay on the phone with me?”
“No, I just…I can’t be here anymore.” Her voice breaks and my heart cracks along with it, wishing I could fly there instead of having to depend on four tires and a road.
“Okay. Deep breaths, yeah?”
She breathes deeply in and out on the other end of the line. I hang up, suddenly desperate to say my goodbyes to Lee and make my way to where Blakely is. To take her back to my house and hold her in my arms until she works her way through her panic.
“Is everything all right?” Lee asks.
Shaking my head, I snap my hair band off my wrist, using it to throw up my hair. “No. Blakely needs me. She…” I trail off, not wanting to spill all her issues into the open. Even though it’s Lee, and I know secrets are safe with her, it still feels wrong.
It’s Blakely’s story to tell, when and if she chooses to tell it.
“Say no more.” Lee smiles, her eyes shimmering. “She’s amazin’, you know? Young.” She laughs. “But amazin’. You did good, Teeth.”
My chest inflates with happiness. Lee always told me when I fell in love, she’d be front row, cheering me on the hardest.
“Leave it to you to fall for a girl who lives her life in the spotlight. If you ain’t careful, Hollywood’s gonna try and snatch that pretty smile right off your face.” Lee grins, reaching out and pinching my cheek.
I bat her hand away, laughing, my eyes glancing to the dashboard clock, anxious to say goodbye and head to where I’m needed.
“Yeah, yeah,” Lee says. “I see you starin’ at the clock. I’ll leave. But you gotta answer the phone when I call, okay? And call Becca too. She misses you.”
I nod.
“Promise me, Jax.” She sticks out her pinky finger.
I loop mine with it and swallow. “I promise.”
Opening the door and stepping onto the sidewalk, she looks back, smiling. “Here’s to goodbyes, so we appreciate the hellos.”
“You’re never gonna let me forget I said that, are you?” I chuckle.
She shrugs. “It’s a good line.”
“Be safe, sweetheart.”
She smiles and when she closes the door and walks away, it feels like we also closed a chapter. Moved into a new space where I don’t long for her the way I once did—where we can love and support each other the way we were always meant to.
I wait until she’s inside the building before I leave, shifting onto the road and hoping Blakely will be okay until I get to her.
When I pull up to her estate, I see a hunched form curled against the outside of the gates and realize it’s her.
My stomach somersaults, wondering what the hell could have happened from the time I was here until now. It’s only been a few hours. I move to put the car in park and grab her, but her tearstained face looks right at me and she hops up, running to my car. Black smudges contrast against the pale skin of her face. She throws herself across the center console, wrapping her upper body around me.
“Princess, what happened?”
She sniffles, her body trembling in my arms. Cradling her to my chest tighter, my hand brushes down the back of her head.
“Kayla told Sierra about us,” she whispers. “It was bad.”
My stomach jumps at her words, but hope swells inside of me. I didn’t even realize Kayla knew, so the fact she did tells me that maybe Blakely is more open to going public than I originally thought.
And if Sierra knows…then the only person left to tackle is her father.
But now isn’t the time to focus on that, so I push it to the back of my mind and hold her tight. She falls apart in my arms, like she was waiting for me to show up so she could, and I catch all of her pieces, waiting until she gets through the worst of it to drive home and help put her back together.
When the worst of it has subsided, she moves back into her own seat. I keep her hand locked with mine while I shift gears, letting the nighttime air flow in from the windows, hoping the wind will help calm her thoughts.
Her body still trembles as we walk to my front door and concern snakes up my spine. I grab her before we move inside, drawing her into my chest and bringing my lips to hers for a chaste kiss. She grabs my shirt and wrenches me closer, her tongue diving into my mouth.
I give in, my hands reaching around her and gripping tight, showing her that she can use me for whatever she needs.
“Thank you,” she whispers against me.
Leaning back, I kiss the tip of her nose. “Nothing to thank me for, princess.”
We go inside and I draw a bath in the clawfoot tub, wanting to give her some way to try and relax—quiet her mind.
She slips out of her clothes and submerges her body in the bubbly water as I light the candles I keep on the shelves just for her.
“This is always so nice,” she croons. “Why don’t I ever take baths at home?”
“Never too late to start.” I move to sit next to her, dipping my hand in the water and swirling my fingers around.
“Are you gonna get in with me?” Her eyebrow quirks.
I smile. “I thought you’d never ask.”
Pulling off my clothes, I sink in behind her, the heat of the water causing goose bumps to sprout along my exposed skin. My legs settle around her body, her ass nestling against my groin. The intimacy of the moment isn’t lost on me or my cock, and despite wanting this to solely be about comfort, I harden against her.
Her head leans against my chest as I wrap my arms around her waist, kissing the side of her face. “What happened, princess?”
She sighs. “Sierra found out about us and she’s… not happy.”
Of course she isn’t. “No offense, but I could give a fuck about what Sierra thinks.”
She chews on her bottom lip, sinking farther into me. “Yeah, I guess you’re right.”
I tangle our fingers and bring them out of the water, staring down at how perfectly they fit together.
How can someone who feels so perfect for me have so many people against us?
“Blake…I want to talk to your dad.”
Her upper body twists toward me. “What for?”
My chest pulls tight. “What do you mean what for? So we can be together. Really be together.” I pause, my stomach turning with nerves as I think about how to say what I need. “I love you. But I don’t know how much longer I can keep doing this in secret.”
Her eyes water.
“It’s killing me, Blake.”
She sucks her bottom lip into her mouth, her eyes staring into mine, softening the longer they stay locked on my gaze. “Okay.”
My heart skips. “Yeah?”
She smiles, leaning in to kiss me. “Yeah. Fuck them.”
Her hand slips under the water, reaching between us to palm my growing erection. The water sloshes as she strokes me, her fingers slipping up and down my length, coaxing me to grow until I’m throbbing in her hand.
“Baby,” I groan. “As good as that feels, are you sure you don’t want to talk first?”
“Mmm,” she hums, her hair rubbing against my collarbone as she leans against me. “I just want to feel you.” Her free hand grabs mine and moves it down her body until I’m cupping her pussy. “Touch me, Jackson.”
I listen, the air charging with a thick tension as my fingers slip between her folds, caressing her clit in small circles.
She sucks in a breath, her hips pushing against my hand, starting a slow grind. On every backward motion, her ass grazes against me, making me jerk, desperate to fuck her until she can’t speak from the pleasure.
My free hand cradles her jaw, head dipping down so I can mold my mouth to hers. She grips me tighter, her hand massaging me until suddenly her touch disappears. She moves forward, standing in the tub and then getting out, her naked body glistening under the lights of the room.
“You coming?” She looks back at me.
After the past couple days of us feeling off and then everything that happened with her tonight, I just want to take care of her. Show her that I’m what she needs.
I jump out of the tub and follow her into the bedroom, water dripping off our skin. Catching her around the waist, I throw her on the bed, crawling on top of her and then diving down to sweep my tongue up her neck.
She moans, her legs wrapping around my waist, my dick twitching against her as she rubs her pussy along the length of my shaft.
Our tongues weave together, a type of carnal passion infusing itself into the moment, overwhelming me with the lust that’s burning through my insides.
I kiss her deeper, hoping that she’ll taste it on my tongue and swallow it down to feel it in her soul.
My cock leaks, precum creating a sticky mess between us as she continues to work herself against me, and my gut coils tight.
I need to be inside her.
My hand wraps around my dick and I stroke it once before angling the head to rub against her clit, tingles spreading up my length.
“Goddamn, princess. Do you want me inside you?” I run my nose along the side of her neck.
“Jackson,” she mewls.
Positioning myself at her entrance, I plunge to the hilt, my body tensing from the pleasure of being surrounded by her heat.
Fuck . She feels so incredible like this.
I work up a steady motion, thrusting in and out, long, deep strokes that send shivers racing up my spine.
Her hands push against my chest, moving me back on the bed where she can climb on top. My abs tense as she hovers over me. Inch by inch, she drops down until I’m fully inside of her. My cock throbs, pushing against the walls of her pussy, aching to paint her insides with my cum.
My hands grip the cheeks of her ass, squeezing hard as she moves back and forth, her clit rubbing against my pubic bone with every pass of her hips.
She’s close. I can feel it in the way her walls clench and release, fluttering around my dick, her wetness gushing out until it soaks my skin. Heat collects at the base of my spine, my balls drawing up so tight they hurt.
Cum rises through my shaft and pumps out of the tip in rhythmic pulses, my cock flexing inside of her. My head hits the pillow, vision going black from the pleasure that’s cascading through my body in waves.
She moans and throws her head back, her pussy squeezing out every drop as she explodes, shattering around me.
Incredible.
Pulling her to me, I try to catch my breath.
And as we both come back down to Earth, my body buzzes, happy as hell this is the last night we’ll have to hide.
She’s choosing me.