36. Jane
36
JANE
T he past two and a half weeks had been a whirlwind of joy.
I couldn’t remember the last time I was so happy.
And it was all because of Jackson.
My boyfriend .
That night after we’d had sex at the library and I’d asked if he wanted us to be together and he’d started stuttering, I thought he was going to say no. I felt so connected to him, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that there was stuff he was holding back.
But I needn’t have worried. It wasn’t because Jackson was keeping secrets. He was just afraid of getting into a relationship, that was all. Like I’d said, though, as long as we communicated, we’d be fine.
Jess was the only one who knew it was official between us, but apart from telling Theo, I’d sworn her to secrecy. It was still early days, so I didn’t want the whole town finding out.
That was why during working hours we tried to keep our distance. But as soon as we were alone, we couldn’t keep our hands off each other.
If we were working the late shift together, we’d either make love on the sofa (always covering it with a blanket, which Jackson would wash at home) or against the wall (once again, thoroughly cleaned by Jackson afterwards), and when Jackson was sure his mum would be home late, we’d slept together in his bed too.
Last weekend his mum was away again, so I’d stayed over. I knew my parents were getting suspicious of all my late nights, but I didn’t care. I was having too much fun.
I’d even successfully given Jackson multiple blow jobs. The first time was at the library about a week ago. I’d wanted to do it for a while and after Jackson had gone down on me against the bookcase, I’d fantasised about doing the same to him, but just like Rocco had asked Virginia, I wanted him to ask me too.
‘You want me to order you to get on your knees?’ Jackson had asked.
‘Yes,’ I’d panted. ‘Ask me to… to take it.’
A smile had touched his lips.
‘Now, I’m only saying this because you highlighted it in the book. Not because I’m being disrespectful, okay?’ he’d started.
‘Say it,’ I demanded.
‘Jane. Get on your knees and take this dick like a good girl,’ he’d growled and I almost came on the spot.
I didn’t know why I found it such a turn-on, but I did.
I pulled down his boxers, grabbed his dick and then wrapped my lips around it. I didn’t really know what I was doing at first, I just moved it in and out, taking care not to bite him, and soon I got into a rhythm and it was fine .
The first two times, Jackson pulled out before he came, but the third time when we were at his mum’s place, I offered to swallow.
Yep. Sweet, innocent Jane the Virgin had officially left the building and been replaced by Wanton Jane the cum-swallowing seductress.
So that was my sex life. In terms of work, things were also going well at the library. Although Jess and Theo didn’t get to confront Jess’s ex (apparently he’d been on holiday, so wasn’t there on the two occasions they’d tried to visit him), there’d been no other threats to the library.
Since the electricity had been cut, we’d hosted two more silent reading parties, which had both run smoothly, and Theo said profits were up, so hopefully our jobs were safe.
And Glenda had said if I wanted to move into the B&B at the end of next week, she’d give me a room for a special rate, so I could finally move out. All I had to do was hold on for a little bit longer at my parents’ and I’d be free.
Life really couldn’t get any better.
‘I’m off,’ I said to Jess as I put my scarf around my neck. It was the first week of November now, so the temperature had dropped.
‘Have a nice evening. Oh! You still on for drinks with Maddie and Kara on Friday night?’
‘Definitely! Can’t wait! Enjoy your evening too and see you tomorrow.’
As I left the library, I pulled out my phone. Jess and Theo were doing the late shift, which meant no after-hours sexy library time with Jackson. So because we couldn’t chill alone at his place tonight, we’d agreed to go for a walk on the beach.
He’d gone ahead of me and had just messaged to say he was at the far end, which was much quieter than the section closest to the main part of town, so we’d have more privacy.
Because Jess had let us leave early, the sun hadn’t set yet, which was perfect. I hoped we’d get to watch it together.
As my boots sank into the soft sand and I watched the waves rippling against the shore, I smiled. Sunshine Bay really was beautiful. I couldn’t wait to live here.
Realistically I couldn’t stay at the B&B forever, but even if it was for a month or so, it’d be better than my current accommodation.
Just think: Jackson could come and stay, it’d only take minutes to get to work and I could go for beach walks every morning or whenever I wanted. It was going to be amazing.
‘Excuse me, miss. Do you know how to do CPR, because you just took my breath away.’
My head snapped away from the sea and I saw Jackson standing there, smiling.
‘Did you just use a cheesy chat-up line on me?’ I raised my eyebrow, trying to look serious, but knowing I was about to burst out laughing.
‘Yep!’ He grinned. ‘Did it work?’
‘Hmmm, not sure…’ I tilted my head.
‘I have more if you need convincing? How about, “good thing I have my library card, because I’m totally checking you out!”?’
‘Oh my God,’ I groaned. ‘That was terrible!’
‘What?’ Jackson clutched his chest as if he’d been wounded. ‘You’re not even giving me credit for the fact that it was a library-related chat-up line? ’
‘Nope!’ I grinned.
‘ Cold! Okay, what about… “if I could rearrange the alphabet, I’d put U and I together”?’
‘Stop!’ I winced, shaking my head but still unable to wipe the grin off my face.
‘No, no, wait! I’ve got it: “If you were words on a page, you’d be fine print!” Convinced yet?’
We both burst into a fit of giggles.
‘Those were all terrible chat-up lines. Lucky for you, you don’t need any smooth words to impress me.’
‘No?’ Jackson wrapped his arms around my waist and my body melted.
‘Nope.’
‘Good to know…’
Jackson pressed his lips on mine and as we kissed, the rest of the world fell away.
There were no sounds. Nothing else existed.
All I felt was the softness of his mouth and the sensation of his heart beating against me.
My head grew fuzzy and my whole body tingled, not just with desire but sheer contentment.
And I knew why.
I loved this man. With all my heart.
I wasn’t lying when I said that I wanted to make things official because I was falling for him.
The truth was, the years we’d spent together at school already made him have a special place in my heart. Even though we hadn’t seen each other for years, I’d still kept space for him.
So with all of the time we’d spent together since he’d come to work at the library, it didn’t take much for those feelings to resurface .
And then when you added in the sex, how patient and caring he’d been, the way he looked out for me and how he rocked my world, it was easy to see why I’d fallen head over heels for Jackson.
I wasn’t sure when I should tell him. I’d never told someone I loved them before and didn’t want to scare him off. His actions told me he felt the same, but I couldn’t know for sure.
‘Mmm.’ Jackson pulled away slowly. ‘I could seriously kiss you all day.’
‘No objections from me.’ I snaked my arms around him and we deepened the kiss.
It was such a shame we couldn’t go back to his place. It wasn’t just about having sex. I’d be happy just to lie in his arms for the rest of the night.
‘You dirty dogs!’ a woman’s voice called out.
We sprung apart and when I looked round, I saw Celeste standing there, grinning.
‘Oh, er, hey, Celeste!’ I smoothed down the front of my skirt nervously. ‘What are you doing here? I thought you were at uni?’
‘It’s reading week, so I’m back home. I was just on my way to see Jess to ask about doing some extra shifts, but thought I’d have a walk first. This beach is one of the few things I love about this tiny town. I certainly wasn’t expecting to see you two snogging ! How long’s this been going on?’
‘Not long,’ I said. ‘We’re keeping it to ourselves for now, so if you wouldn’t mind not saying anything, we’d really appreciate it.’
‘If I was banging this hottie, there’s no way I’d be keeping it a secret! I’d put it on billboards!’ She turned and winked at Jackson.
‘We don’t want the town gossiping,’ he added.
‘Some of the residents here do love to gossip! Anyway, I’ll leave you two shag buddies to it. And if you ever fancy having fun together, I’m your girl! See you around!’ She blew us a kiss and strutted away towards the town centre.
‘Shit.’ I winced.
‘It’s not such a big deal.’ Jackson shrugged. ‘The important thing is that Jess and Theo know and are cool with it. And it could’ve been a lot worse. She could have walked in on us fucking in the library.’
‘Oh God!’ My eyes widened. ‘You’re right! We’re lucky the cameras Theo installed are only in the corridors and not in the library hall—otherwise we’d be in big trouble. And could you imagine if someone like Celeste was looking through the footage? She’d probably post it online or something!’ My blood ran cold just thinking about it. ‘It’s one thing having sex in a library when no one’s around, but the last thing I’d want is to have a video of my naked bits on the internet.’
Jackson’s face fell. He was clearly as mortified as me about being exposed publicly.
‘I don’t think Celeste would do something like that,’ he said.
‘Yeah, you’re probably right. I only said that because I remembered her asking if I wanted to watch a video she’d made of her having sex with some guy at uni, which shocked me, because sex is something private.’
Says the girl who did it in a public library.
What I meant was that it wasn’t for other people to see. I wouldn’t invite the town to come and watch us or do it in front of a crowd .
Of course, Celeste could do whatever she wanted. Each to their own and all that, it just wasn’t something for me.
Jackson stayed quiet and I suddenly felt bad, like maybe he thought I was sounding judgy.
‘Obviously it’s up to her,’ I added quickly. ‘What I was trying to say is that I wouldn’t want you to share videos of me online or with anyone. And I wouldn’t share pictures or videos of you naked to a colleague either. That’s intimate. My body’s for your eyes only and vice versa, right?’
‘Y-yeah,’ Jackson said, his gaze flicking towards the sea. ‘Wow! Look!’ He pointed and I took in the sight of the sky. It was orange with streaks of pink and yellow.
‘It’s so beautiful. I love watching the sunset!’
‘Let’s sit and watch it together.’ He pointed to a wooden bench nearby. ‘I bought snacks. And a blanket.’
‘You had me at snacks!’ I linked arms with him as we walked to the bench, then sat down.
‘Thought so! I know the way to my lady’s heart.’ He placed a soft kiss on my cheek and my heart melted. I adored that he’d just called me his lady . I really did love him.
‘You do! So come on, then. What kind of snacks are we talking?’
‘Do you even have to ask?’ He reached in his rucksack and pulled out a packet of rich tea biscuits and then another of chocolate digestives.
‘ Chocolate digestives? Wow!’
‘Seeing as you’re into having sex in the library and snogging on a public beach, I thought you might want to live life a little more dangerously and add chocolate to your digestives.’ He smirked.
‘Oooh, I dunno…. That might be a little too wild, even fo r me!’ I laughed. ‘I might be partial to recreating my favourite sex scenes from romance novels, but don’t be fooled. I’m always going to be plain Jane who loves digestives and rich tea biscuits.’
It was true. I just had to hope that Jackson didn’t get bored when he realised that I wasn’t that adventurous in life or with my biscuit choices.
Jackson reached over and stroked my cheek.
‘I was only joking,’ he said softly. ‘They didn’t have any plain digestives left, so that’s why I got these. Not because I think you need to change what you like. You and your taste in biscuits are perfect just the way they are.’
Hearing those words made me dissolve faster than a biscuit in a hot mug of tea.
Jackson didn’t want me to change.
Just when I thought I couldn’t love him any more, he proved me wrong.
After pulling out a blanket and placing it over my lap to keep me warm, Jackson put the packets of biscuits on the bench, took out a flask, poured the hot tea into two small mugs, handed one to me, then wrapped his arm around my back, pulling me closer to him.
As I rested my head on his shoulder and watched the sunset with my favourite person in the whole world whilst enjoying my favourite treats, a wave of happiness washed over me.
Before Jackson, the only time I’d felt these kind of happy butterflies was when I was lost in a romance novel. But tonight I wasn’t reading someone else’s love story.
I was living my own.