Rose bounces on her toes and grabs onto my bicep as she stares up at the giant hot air balloon tethered on the lawn behind the main house. It’s the Silver Estate open day that Logan and Jasmin have arranged, and there’s a buzz of anticipation in the air as we get ready. We’ve got a band setting up on a temporary stage behind the main house, an outdoor bar and tasting stations. A catering company is putting on a buffet, and the distillery is open for working tours to see the machinery in action. Jasmin even arranged a make-your-own flavor gin class with personalized bottles for each guest.
It’s going to be a success. Usually, this would elicit a warmth in my chest that pride brings. That swell of short-lived happiness at seeing something great come together.
And it still does. But those moments in the past when I thought I was happy; they were nothing compared to today. To the cozy fucking log fire that’s happily glowing away in my chest at the look on Rose’s face when she saw the balloon. It’s official. I’ve entered sappy as shit territory. And I couldn’t give a fuck. I like it here.
She wraps her arms around my waist, hugging me as she watches Seth, the balloon pilot, do his checks.
I hold her to my side and kiss the top of her head. It’s been two days since I spent the night at the cottage with her, two days and two nights. And all I’ve wanted to do is be with her, even though I’ve had a lot of meetings, and late-night commitments taking care of other business. But I’ve spent both nights—when I did finally make it back to the estate—with Rose in the cottage. I told myself I should let her sleep. Keep away and not wake her. Yet both nights I found myself knocking on her door, my heart lifting into my throat when she opened it and smiled at me. We never even shut the front door the first night. We had sex up against the door frame. Wild, gasping—can’t get her panties out of the way fast enough—sex as we grabbed at each other, trying to get as close and as deep as possible to one another. Last night she answered the door with no panties on at all… And we made it as far as the stairs.
“Looks great, doesn’t it?” Jasmin comes to stand next to us, folding her arms over her chest as she looks up at the inflated balloon.
“It does,” Rose agrees as Logan comes to join us, standing with his hands on his hips.
“You were right about making the logo bigger, Dax.” He purses his lips as he looks at the giant black S and E logo on one side—the trademark Silver Estate’s logo.
“This is new?” Rose’s brow wrinkles as her gaze stays transfixed to the balloon.
“Um, yeah.” Jasmin snorts, stopping abruptly when I catch her eye and shake my head.
Rose looks up at me curiously.
“It’s been planned for ages.” I shoot Logan a death glare as he coughs the word bullshit only loud enough for me to make out.
I don’t know who’s fucking worse, him or Jasmin.
The two of them watch me with smug smirks on their faces, and I scowl back.
“You want to try it out before the guests arrive?” I arch a brow at Rose as she turns to me, her mouth dropping open.
“Um… y-ye-yes! Oh my God, Dax. Are you serious?”
“Deadly.” I slide my fingers between hers and walk us toward Seth and the balloon, ignoring the gleeful whispers between Jasmin and Logan. Jasmin was ecstatic when she found out what I had planned.
The two of them chuckle and I hear them high five.
Fuckers think they’re funny.
“Hey.” Seth smiles at us as we approach. He’s a decent guy from what I can tell. The only local qualified balloon pilot I could find. He usually does this sort of thing for events with his own balloon. But the offer of an upgraded truck and trailer and a new balloon, as long as it held the estate’s logo, and he was happy to come to a deal about some things with me. One of which is taking Rose up today.
“Good to see you, Seth.” I shake his hand and then look at Rose. “Rose, this is Seth. Seth, this is—”
“I’m Rose.” Rose takes his hand and beams. If I wasn’t convinced that bearded mature guys in plaid shirts aren’t Rose’s type, then I might be bothered by just how fucking radiant her smile is for him. But as nice a guy Seth is, I’m sure it’s the giant silver contraption behind him that’s got her so excited. Either that or I’m going to have to learn to pilot a balloon damn fast by myself when I hurl him overboard.
“It’s amazing! I bet it’s incredible up there.” Rose grins as she accepts Seth’s invitation to go closer to the basket, which is lifting away from the grass where it’s tied down.
She runs her free hand over the wicker, her other still holding mine. She squeezes my fingers in hers and looks up at me, her eyes bright with pure, untainted excitement.
Heat swells in my chest and I pull her into my side and dip my nose to her ear. “You ready?”
“Yes.” She turns and plants a fast, breathy kiss to my lips, not caring who might see. But I don’t give a shit. My staff aren’t stupid. I’ve been holding her hand for the last hour while she watched Seth set the balloon up. Besides, I like the way it doesn’t even register with her to act any differently when we are in public, compared to when we are in private.
Rose Jacobs is mine, and I’m more than happy for the world to know it. At least, this part of my world. The other part—
“Do we climb in using that?” Rose points to a fold-out plastic step to one side of the balloon’s basket.
“Ah, yes.” Seth goes to retrieve the step, but I’ve lifted Rose into my arms before his hand even touches it.
“Dax.” She giggles as I place her on the edge of the basket, her long legs draping over the side in those black suede over-the-knee boots that have kept my thoughts occupied for many lonely nights.
“You better be wearing panties underneath that skirt when I swing your legs over,” I growl in her ear. The idea of anyone seeing anything of hers makes the blood boil in my veins.
“Of course I am.” She tuts at me, then leans in close, grazing my ear with her lips. “Wet ones.”
She laughs as I curse and help her down inside the basket, then I climb in, joining her and Seth, who is already inside and adjusting the burner that’s inflating the balloon.
The heat it’s giving off is impressive, and I can’t help but gaze up at the giant balloon above us.
“Envelope’s good to go,” Seth says, reaching over the side of the basket and releasing some sandbag weights that are connected. He says something to his assistant, a guy called Trevor, who is helping to release the ropes. Seth said they work together because it’s not like he can turn the balloon around when the passengers have had enough. He’s got to fly with the wind direction and land somewhere suitable. These guys know the area and have agreements with local landowners to use their fields where necessary. Trevor keeps an eye from the ground, and follows along with the truck and trailer, ready to meet Seth at the landing site and then pack the balloon up. I’ve learned a thing or two about ballooning already since meeting them both.
“You ready?” Seth asks Rose. She nods her head and clasps her hands in front of her face as the final rope is undone and the basket wobbles and lifts from the ground.
There’s a cheer from Jasmin and Logan as we rise, and Rose grips onto my arm, sucking in a breath as we climb higher.
“Now’s not the time to tell me you’re scared of heights.” I chuckle as she loosens her grip on me and leans forward to peer over the wicker side at the rapidly retreating ground.
“I’m not,” she breathes. “It just made my stomach go funny.” She squeezes my arm and then lets go, stepping forward and wrapping both hands around the side of the basket as she gazes down at the estate below. “Dax, it’s incredible. It looks like a toy.” She turns to me, beaming, and my heart swells to at least twice its size as the sunlight catches her blonde hair, making it shine like gold.
Seth’s busy firing more flames into the balloon as I move behind to Rose, caging her in between my arms as I hold onto the basket either side of her.
“You like it, Sunbeam?”
She nods, a look of pure joy lighting up her face as her eyes dart left and right at the rolling fields on the horizon, and then down to the ground far below.
“Look at those sheep.” She points at miniature white dots inside a field, so small they look like maggots on a leaf.
I press a kiss to her neck beneath her ear as she points out one thing after another after another, her voice never wavering in its excitement.
But other than a quick glance, I don’t see any of them.
I’m too busy looking at her.
“This is about as high as we’ll get.” Seth smiles at me as I look at him over my shoulder. He looks at Rose’s back, his eyes full of warmth. I told him this was important to me. That coming up here would mean a lot to Rose. Seth is married and has a daughter. He understands.
He tips his chin to me as he turns his attention out over the view to the other side, giving us some privacy. Rose shivers inside my arms as I turn back around and follow her gaze to the clouds around us. I wrap one arm around her upper body and hold her against me. It’s cooler up here, but something tells me that’s not why she’s shivering. Or why she’s gone quiet, and her face is now emotionless.
I rub my hand up and down her arm, warming the skin beneath her off the shoulder sweater she’s wearing.
“He used to tell me to look for the silver lining.” Her eyes shine as she stares straight ahead. “You know, in the clouds.”
“I know.” I dip my head and kiss the exposed skin on top of her shoulder softly. She sighs as I press another kiss to her skin. “You told me the night of the gong bath.”
“Right. At the bonfire.” Her focus is still somewhere else, somewhere in front of us, not fixed on a particular thing. Just on space. Air. A memory. She drops her voice to a whisper, the hidden pain in it so heavy that I don’t know how my heart falling to my feet doesn’t bring us and the entire balloon crashing back to earth. Weighted down by the gravity of the grief and regret held in her words. “He didn’t tell me how to do it though.” She draws in a shaky breath, her chest shuddering. I tighten my grip around her, afraid that if I let go she won’t have the strength to stay on her feet. “He didn’t tell me how to do it if he wasn’t here,” she sobs, clasping a hand to her mouth as she squeezes her eyes shut.
“Hey,” I soothe, pressing my nose into her hair and just holding her as she wipes away invisible tears and stares out at the clouds. “I’ve got you.” My chest tightens and I kiss her temple and keep holding her. Because what else can I do? I can’t say anything to take away her pain. I can’t bring her dad back. I can’t do anything other than be here for her now. And the knowledge that it isn’t enough to heal her kills me.
Her shoulders straighten as she exhales slowly, gaining composure. “I could hunt my entire life. What if I never find it?”
“You will.”
“How can you say that?” She pulls her brows together, turning in my arms to face me. “How can you be sure, Dax?”
She looks at me with wide, shining eyes and more than anything I pray that she will listen to my words. Really listen. Let them reach her soul and truly sink in.
She has to.
“Because I believe in you. Because you are strong, and you’re capable. You’re Rose Jacobs. The girl who came from New York and crashed into my world like a meteor.” My lips curl into a smile as her face softens. “You can do anything. You can find every silver lining, in every cloud, in a whole world of stormy skies. And you’ll be stronger for it. You’re a warrior. You show up day after day, always hunting for that beauty. For that magic. But it’s in you. It’s always been in you.”
“Day after day… Like the sunrise?” Rose’s eyes narrow as she regards me thoughtfully.
“Yeah.” My chest buzzes with warmth. I push her hair back from her face and cradle her cheeks in my hands as I pull her to me for a kiss. “Like the fucking sunrise.”
We kiss, and I try to convey all my thoughts, the fucking power of these feelings I have for her through the way I take her lips in mine and mould myself with her like we used to be one entity, which was split apart, but has now been brought back together.
I kiss her in a way that shows how these feelings I have for her—that have knocked the air from my lungs and caught me off-guard—are deep and real, and raw. I never expected to meet anyone. Not now. Not with everything that’s going on. I shouldn’t be doing this. I’m risking it all if I lose focus.
But for the first time since I was arrested, I don’t give a shit about any of it. One feisty, strong-willed blonde with legs that drive me wild and a quick mouth that renders me in awe some days did this.
She did this.
My Sunbeam.
And the thought of her hurting ruins me. It fucking destroys me.
My head spins, and it’s not from the altitude. It’s from the axis in my world shifting. My priorities changing.
Suddenly everything and nothing makes sense.
I stroke her cheeks with my thumbs, swallowing down her content sighs as she sinks into me, and we continue kissing. We stay completely wrapped up in each other until Seth coughs to mark the final stages of our descent. Rose’s eyes flutter open, and she blinks at me. I press a final kiss to her lips before I slide my hands from her cheeks and hold the basket either side of her, shielding her inside my arms as the ground gets closer. “You okay?”
Her eyes search mine as her lips curl into a soft smile. “Yes… I am… I will be.”
I rest my forehead against hers and we stare into each other’s eyes as the basket touches down. Seth jumps into action, adjusting the burner and calling out to Trevor who is waiting nearby in the field we’ve just landed in.
Her pupils dilate as I return her smile with my own, something unspoken passing between us. She’s a little lighter, a little freer. It’s like she left some of her troubles in the sky and let them float away.
She pushes a loose strand of hair away from my eyes. “Thank you. For doing this. It means a lot to me.”
“I know.” I press a kiss to her forehead. “You don’t need to thank me, Sunbeam.”
I take her hand and squeeze it, then turn and move to Seth’s side to assist him. In no time we have the balloon safely secured and I’m able to jump out and lift Rose out and back onto steady ground after I’ve shaken his hand and Rose has thanked him profusely three times.
“Wow, you guys went so high, I lost sight of you for a moment.” Logan rushes across the grass to us, a giant grin on his face.
“I thought Jasmin was bringing the car to pick us up?” I look behind him but there’s no sign of my sister.
Logan’s too busy staring at the balloon—which is now deflating against the grass—to meet my eyes. “She got a phone call. Looked like it might take a while so you got me.” He grins as I groan. “Relax. I can get a lift back with Seth and Trev.” He turns to Rose with a wink. “You can have him all to yourself on the drive back. Just the way he likes it.”
“Fuck off,” I grumble with a smirk, catching the car keys that he throws up in the air.
“See you back at the estate. Be back in time for the guests, please.” Logan laughs, then heads off to help Seth and Trevor with the final pack up as I take Rose’s hand and lead her over to one of the estate’s fleet Range Rovers.
“How long do we have to get back?” Rose frowns as I check my watch.
“It’s fine. There’s plenty of time.” I open the door and my eyes drop to her smooth thighs above the top of her boots as she folds her legs inside the vehicle.
“Good.” She settles into her seat, kissing me on the cheek as I lean over her and click her belt into place.
I close the door and stride around the hood, sliding into the driver’s seat and waste no time getting us out of the field and onto the narrow country track. We drive for a while in silence before Rose places her hand on my thigh and squeezes.
“Dax. Pull in up there.” She points to a tiny dirt track that’s almost concealed with overhanging branches and overgrown bushes.
“Why?” I slow down as we get closer.
“I need to pee.”
“It’s too overgrown to get out the car. We’ll be back at the estate in five minutes.”
Her hand tightens on my inner thigh. “I can’t wait that long.”
“Ro—”
“Just do it.”
I sigh and swing the car into the tiny dirt track that used to lead to somewhere years ago, but now we might as well have just driven straight into a bush.
“You’ll not be able to get the door open.” I turn to Rose as she unbuckles her seatbelt, but instead of reaching for the door handle, she unclicks my belt and then climbs over the center console and straight into my lap, straddling me.
“I lied. I don’t need to pee. I just need you inside me.” She grabs my belt with both hands, undoing it and unzipping my pants in record time, pulling my cock free. She glides her hand up and down me slowly, her eyes holding mine. “Being close to you in the balloon… And this whole morning setting up at the estate… it made me miss this. It made me miss being alone with you.”
I lift my hands and gently cup her breasts, grazing my thumbs over her hardened nipples, which are visible through the thin material of her sweater.
She tilts her head back and moans, the sound thick with desire as I roll them between my thumb and finger. My girl gets turned on a lot. She’s right… this is the longest we’ve gone without me being inside her. Something she’s about to rectify, judging from the way she’s grinding her soaking lace panties over me as I lavish attention on her tits.
“Dax.” She brings her mouth to mine, her tongue sliding between my lips.
“Fuck,” I groan into her mouth as she kisses me and slowly slides her hand up to the top of my cock, her thumb dipping into the pre-cum once she gets there and spreading it around the tip.
“Did I tell you how much I like this?” She smiles against my lips as she rolls her thumb over my piercing.
The sensation it creates in the head of my cock has me biting back a groan as I grab the back of her neck and deepen our kiss.
“Yeah, you did. But I’ll never get tired of hearing it.”
Rose pulls back and bites her bottom lip, her eyes full of mischief as she rubs the bar again, making my groan sound more like a growl from a starved animal.
“I really, really like it,” she whispers playfully, pulling her panties to one side.
I sit entranced as she rises over me, one hand wrapping around the base of my throbbing cock as she positions me at her entrance.
“Fuck yeah.” A long moan exits my parted lips as she slides down onto me in one slow move and places her mouth over mine, sighing my name around my tongue.
I run my hands up the suede of her black over-the-knee boots and to the silky skin of her thighs, pressing my fingertips into her soft flesh as she keeps me buried deep inside her and tenses around me.
Then she begins to ride me, her tight body sucking me in greedily each time she sinks down.
“For a girl who looks sweet, you sure can take cock,” I groan, grasping her hips as she bounces her gorgeous ass up and down, coating me in her slick arousal.
“Only yours,” she breathes, nipping my bottom lip between her lips and then kissing me deeply, swirling her tongue against mine as I growl into her mouth and drag her up and down onto me, my balls kissing her skin with each deep fill of her body. “Only ever yours,” she murmurs again.
It’s too much. The way she’s talking, the way her body is sucking down onto my cock…
I curl her long blonde hair around my fist behind her back and tug gently, arching her neck and watching the way her pulse beats beneath her exposed skin as she takes my cock. I’m going to come before her if I’m not careful.
I stare into her clear blue eyes as I hit the seat control, throwing the backrest down so I can move more freely and control the angle from beneath her.
“Dax.” She shudders as I thrust up into her, hitting her G-spot with my piercing at the same time I press my thumb to her clitoris.
“That’s it,” I hiss as her eyes roll back in her head. “This one’s going to feel different.”
“What do you—?”
I smirk. “You’re so much fun to teach, Sunbeam. Now let go.”
I’m transfixed to the unfiltered pleasure on Rose’s face as her eyes roll again, before she closes them, and her brows shoot up as she inhales sharply.
“That’s it,” I encourage as she trembles above me.
I hold my breath as her blended orgasm builds. I’ve hit her G-spot with my piercing at the same time as stroking her clit before. But there’s something about this angle that is more intense, or maybe it’s being in the car and the potential risk that anyone could drive down the lane behind us at any second. But I know from the way she’s mewling above me, and the way she’s rippling around my cock, even tighter than usual, that this angle is hitting differently for her.
And fuck if it isn’t the most incredible sight.
“Dax, I think I need to…” She tilts her head back and her eyes screw up as she cries out, her fingers grasping at my shirt and her nails biting through it to my skin as her orgasm takes her.
Warm wetness gushes out around my cock, running over my balls and covering them as they tighten, ready to explode. Her release dripping over me is the final push that breaks me.
“Jesus Christ! I’m coming, Rose.”
I jerk violently inside her as I fill her, growling out my release, one hand fisted around her hair as I pull her head back, the other rubbing circles over her clit as she continues to come on my cock, panting my name. My orgasm stretches on to the point of me growing dizzy.
When the final pulse leaves me, I sit up, my lips connecting straight to Rose’s windpipe as I kiss the vibrations of her last moans away. Then I slide my lips around to her ear, kissing and sucking before I murmur gently, “You’re so fucking beautiful. I could watch you all day.”
She opens her eyes, trying to catch her breath as she kisses me.
“What was…? That was… Wow.” She sighs and smiles at me, before her eyes dart down between us. “I think I made a mess on your pants.”
I chuckle and kiss her again. “You can mess up all my pants like that. I’m not complaining. I’ll grab a new pair on the way back. You know what that was, don’t you?”
She dusts her lips against mine, blinking slowly. “Was it? Did I? Did I squirt?”
The sweet naivety in her voice could make me blow again if my balls weren’t drained. “You’ve never done that before, have you?”
“Another first that belongs to you,” she murmurs with a smile.
“Fuck yeah,” I groan and pull her closer, deepening our kiss.
Another first that belongs to me. All mine.
“Dax?” She pulls back, stroking the sides of my face with her fingertips before her eyes drop to the bird tattoo on my neck. “Thank you for today. For the balloon. It means a lot that I got to do it. And that I did it with you.”
I wait for the pinch at the corners of her eyes to come. The small giveaway of hurt. The… ‘but it should have been with my father, not with you,’ pain.
But it never comes.
Instead, she smiles at me before pressing her lips to mine again and kissing me until I forget where I end, and she begins.
