Grace
Everything was right again.
My body hummed with the relief of that truth as Jaxson carried me through his home. We wouldn’t make it far before he was pressing me into a wall and kissing me breathless, and then we were on the move again.
My fingers twisted in his hair. His pressed into my hips and my waist. It was as if I’d been living in an alternate universe, one where my heart didn’t beat properly and my world revolved too slowly around the sun, and now everything had snapped back into place.
“God, I’ve missed the way you taste,” he breathed against my lips, and I tried to take in his beautiful house, but couldn’t admire much before my ass was propped on the cool granite of his kitchen island. “The way you smell, the way you feel.”
The moment his hands didn’t have to carry me up any longer, they slid up into my hair, framing my face and holding me to him.
“Every night, I thought about how I’d never get to do this again, how I’d never be able to kiss you and hear the sweet moans you let loose when I do.”
I took the cue, moaning just like he’d said as he bit my lower lip and sucked.
“It drove me mad,” he confessed, his voice gravelly like he was savoring that sound he’d elicited from me. “I was absolutely fucking crazy without you.”
He paused then, pulling back enough to let his eyes roam over me. They searched my face before sliding down over my chest, and his jaw tightened a bit.
“I know he’s your brother,” Jaxson said, tugging on the Ospreys logo sprawled over the front of the jersey I wore. “But fuck, this pisses me off.”
“What does?”
“Seeing you in any jersey that isn’t mine.”
The possession in that statement rippled through me, and I squirmed at how it shot electricity right between my thighs.
“Hmm…” I said, curling my fingers in the hem of the jersey until I had a good grip. “Maybe we should get rid of it, then.”
“Please,” Jaxson agreed, all too eager to help me.
But when I peeled off the jersey, he stopped, blinking as he took in the one he didn’t know I was wearing underneath — the one no one knew I was wearing all night.
I didn’t give a fuck if it looked like I was wearing a burlap sack the entire game, if I looked frumpy as hell. Wearing two jerseys was worth it to see this look on Jaxson’s face.
His lips parted, fingertips trailing over the blue fabric, and every spot it clung to my skin. He traced a line from the collar to my shoulder, and then his fingers danced down to skate over the number stitched on the sleeve.
Seventy-seven.
“You had mine on this entire time?” he croaked, and fuck, it was so hot seeing how that unraveled him.
I nodded, threading my fingers through the hair at the nape of his neck. “You’re the one I wear closest to my heart.”
Jaxson let out a long, slow breath like he was trying to garner control. Then, his hands snaked up under the jersey, hooking around the top of my jean shorts. He felt blindly along the waistband until he found the button and zipper, making quick work of them before his mouth crashed down on mine.
“Up,” he said, landing another bruising kiss, and he smacked the side of my thigh to hammer home what he meant.
I pressed my palms into the island, lifting enough for Jaxson to drag the denim fabric off my thighs and down to my ankles. He flipped my sneakers off next, sliding the jeans the rest of the way off and flinging them behind him before he removed my thong in the same swift motion.
I reached for the hem of the jersey, but he clamped his hands over my wrist.
“Not a fucking chance, Nova,” he said, pressing into me until I had no choice but to prop my palms behind me again. “That jersey stays on until I get my fill of you in it.”
He spread my legs wide before I could respond, hands pressing against my inner thighs and sliding up until he had my hips in his grasp. He yanked me forward, tongue sweeping in to claim my mouth as my ass hung off the ledge of the counter.
Jaxson cupped me roughly, both of us exhaling a shaky breath when his warm palm covered my aching pussy. I rocked against him, desperate for friction, and then whimpered a moan into his mouth when I got what I was seeking.
“Goddamn,” he whispered, his thick fingers sliding between my lips. “You’re fucking drenched.”
He nestled his middle finger in more, toying with my entrance and smiling against my lips as I bucked my hips in an attempt to have that finger pressing inside me.
“Mmm, so impatient,” he mused, licking along my jaw as I let my head fall back. “I should make you beg for it.”
“Please,” I ground out without him having to ask twice.
“I love that sound. I love how fucking needy you are for me.” He pressed inside me, just the tip of his finger, just enough to make me squirm and writhe for more. “You want me inside you, baby?”
His words sent chills racing down to my toes, which curled in anticipation. He wasn’t the only one who thought about this every night for the last two months, who thought it would never happen again.
I was savoring every touch, but I was also eager to be filled.
Still… my insecurities were quieted, but they weren’t altogether silent.
“Have you… has there been anyone else since we…”
Jaxson’s hands stilled, his muscles taut in a way that made my heart leap into my throat.
Oh, God.
He pulled back, nestling between my legs and framing my face with his hands. His eyes searched mine as he let out a heavy breath.
“Nova, don’t you understand?” He shook his head. “You fucking ruined me for anyone else. There will never be anyone else. Not after you.”
He kissed me hard with those words, sealing them like a promise, and then his hands were exploring again, revving me up with every touch. He started crawling back down my body, his eyes set between my thighs.
“I haven’t been with anyone else, either,” I whispered.
That made him snap his gaze to mine, his jaw tight. “That’s because you belong to me.”
“Yes,” I breathed, shivering as he ran his finger along my slick heat. The feminist inside me didn’t even pretend to rage.
I wanted to belong to him.
I loved that he belonged to me.
“Talk to me, baby. Tell me what you want,” he said, teasing me with just a centimeter of penetration again. “You want my mouth on this swollen clit?” he asked, hiking one of my legs up onto his shoulder. The other grappled for purchase on the counter as he descended, shoving his jersey up enough for him to kiss down my navel.
“God, yes,” I breathed, pinning my lower lip as I watched him suck and bite along my inner thigh. He was such a beast of a man, and he had to bend to accommodate, to kiss me where I was sprawled out on that counter.
I loved that thought, that sight — of Jaxson Brittain bending for me.
Every touch of his mouth and tongue sent shivers up my spine, reminding me he knew just how to use them. And when he slid that thick finger all the way inside me, curling it deep as his tongue swept from where he penetrated me up to circle my clit, it was pure ecstasy.
I shook violently at that first touch, that first taste, at what I thought I’d never have again crashing back into my life like a train. I was in his house. He was touching me, kissing me, fucking me with his finger and mouth with a promise to give me more.
It was every fantasy come true, every nightmare that had killed me over the last two months coming back to soothe me and make me whole again.
Because this wasn’t a dream, and it wasn’t something I would ever have to lose again.
I didn’t let myself think too much about how the fuck we were going to figure this all out, not when Jaxson settled in-between my thighs and worked me like I was a machine only he knew how to program.
My legs shook where I held them apart — one slung over his shoulder and the other spreading wide along the counter. I wanted to watch him, to soak in the way it felt to slide my hands into that messy head of hair as he licked and sucked in the perfect rhythm to coax my orgasm to the surface.
When he added a second finger to the first, I cried out, giving in and letting myself lie fully back on the counter. My back bowed off it when he sucked my clit and curled those fingers inside me, wiggling them and calling a hot flame to lick along my spine.
“Jaxson,” I breathed, popping back up with my eyes hooded. I clawed at his arms.
He knew without me asking what I wanted.
As soon as his mouth released me, his fingers withdrawing and leaving me empty, I shuddered. He pulled me into his arms, my legs like Jell-O as I wrapped around him and held on for dear life. Jaxson walked us through his house with his mouth punishing mine, and I tasted myself on his tongue, felt his heady urgency like a drug through my system.
“Where are we going now?” I asked breathlessly.
We swung into a dim room, Jaxson taking only enough time to push his foot on a pedal that illuminated it with the soft glow from a lamp. My back hit a shelf before I could ask again, before he could answer, and I gasped as we sent several books and something that sounded a lot like glass spiraling to the hardwood floor.
“When I was in my most masochist of states,” he said, pinning me against the wood with his hips so he could strip his jersey over my head. He kissed me as soon as the fabric was discarded, his hands snaking around to unfasten my bra next. “I’d imagine bringing you here to my house, to this room, and fucking you against these shelves.”
“This is a very bookworm fantasy,” I teased, though the words came out breathier than I wanted when he palmed me again, rolling the hot heel of his hand against my clit. It called my orgasm right back to the surface, and I ground my hips against him, gasping a little as my climax teased me.
It was within grasp, my blood ready to rush to that spot where he touched me, but it seemed to hold back, like it didn’t want to let go until I had him inside me.
“Are you complaining?” he teased.
“Definitely not. Now put me down and get naked.”
He smiled against my urgent kisses, dropping my feet to the floor only long enough to strip. I leaned against the shelf and watched eagerly, one hand plucking at my nipple as the other slid down between my thighs.
Jaxson watched me playing with myself as he toed out of his Oxfords, and he kept those deep blue eyes on me as he shrugged out of his suit jacket next. Button by button, his dress shirt opened, and if I’d thought it was hot to watch him strip out of his usual joggers and t-shirts, it was nothing compared to watching him slowly shed a suit.
If I wasn’t so focused on him slowly revealing his god-like body that I’d been missing so much, I might have taken the time to appreciate the beautiful library we were in.
As it was, I couldn’t give a damn where we were.
I was entirely focused on where his hands wrapped around his belt, how excitement fluttered in my stomach when he flicked the top button of his slacks through the slit and then slowly unzipped them next. He pulled them down along with his briefs, kicking out of them when they hit his ankles.
I bit my lip on a moan when his cock sprang free, my core firing up at the memory of what it felt like to have him inside me. It had been months, and yet I could still remember the distinct combination of pleasure and pain that came with him stretching me.
“You need a napkin?” he asked with a smirk as he descended on me again. “You’re drooling a little bit…”
He thumbed the corner of my mouth with the tease, but I couldn’t find it in me to joke back as I mounted him, climbing into his arms until he had no choice but to take my weight again.
“Please,” I begged, holding on tight as he pressed me into the shelf again. A few more books knocked to the ground, but I didn’t care. I hooked one arm around his neck, and my other hand flew up and over my head, gripping the first shelf I found.
I bucked against him, reveling in the way we both trembled at the feel of his thick shaft sliding in-between my legs. I rolled my hips, riding his length without taking him inside me until we were both shaking and cursing and seeing stars.
I could feel the restraint Jaxson was using as he pinned my squirming hips and lined himself up at my entrance. He rocked in only an inch before stopping, his nostrils flaring as goosebumps paraded over every inch of my skin.
“God, yes,” I breathed, rocking against him. “More.”
I used my grip on the shelf and his shoulder to help lift me before sinking down another inch.
“Christ,” he cursed, dropping his forehead to mine. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
“You’re not hurting me,” I promised him. “You’re healing me.”
He sucked in a stiff breath before kissing me hard, and a flex of his hips had him burying himself another two inches inside me.
I gasped, but the pain zipped through me only a second before pleasure washed in to take over. Gripping his shoulders, I rolled until I took more, until he was meeting me thrust for thrust and stretching me open to fit him all the way inside.
“You have consumed my every waking thought. You have wrecked every dream I’ve had,” he cursed against my lips, kissing along my jaw and my neck next. “I am obsessed.”
I couldn’t handle the emotion that swirled inside me, the combination of having him after thinking I would never again and the way he whispered those words against my skin.
“I’ve been thinking of this every night,” I confessed, riding him as we sent more books to the floor. “I’d fuck my fingers or my toy and think of this, of you.”
“Damn, baby,” he breathed, sucking my earlobe between his teeth. “You’re so filthy, aren’t you? Fucking yourself to the thought of me.” He held my hips hard enough to make me gasp, and then he slammed into me, stealing my next breath. “I want to hear it. I want you to come and scream my name loud enough to make up for all those times I missed.”
I was so close, I knew he wouldn’t have to wait long to get his wish.
He fucked me harder, hips slamming into me as the shelf rattled against the wall each time. More books and décor slid off, the crashing sounds around us like a symphony as Jaxson claimed my mouth. And when I slid one hand down between us, it took only a few circles of my clit for my climax to catch.
“Oh, God. Oh, fuck, Jax,” I breathed, circling faster as he fucked me in a pace that matched my need.
And I combusted.
I thought I’d had orgasms before. I thought I knew what it was like to have the best release of my life ripping through me. But every time before was nothing compared to this, to how the wave consumed me from the inside out and drowned out my cries.
I knew I was screaming his name. I knew I was digging my nails into his back hard enough to draw blood. But it was like watching from above, like an out-of-body experience as my body shook and my pussy pulsed around him.
“Fuck,” he cursed in my ear, and I felt him spill inside me, rocking in so deep I blacked out for a moment. My orgasm was still wrecking me as he found his, and each flex of his hips slammed me into the shelf. I knew the wood would leave bruises on my back. I knew no orgasm in my life would ever feel as powerful as this one.
And I knew even if we were about to set fire to the world we lived in now, I would gladly live in the ashes if it meant I got to be with him.
We surrendered everything.
We laid our old lives to rest, knowing there would be hardship and pain ahead of us. We jumped headfirst into the risk, hand in hand, willing to forsake it all in the name of each other.
There was no walking away this time.
There was no end to this summer.
Jaxson Brittain branded me against that bookshelf, and I inked myself into his skin. One round ended only for the next to begin, and neither of us could get enough, not even when we were too sore and exhausted to go again.
We were desperate, like it wouldn’t be enough until we were one person instead of two.
I didn’t know what would happen after tonight, but one thing was certain.
We were forever.
We were always.
And there was nothing, and no one, who could ever keep us apart.
