How The Cookie Crumbles (55 page)

“No. I’m not letting go,” he said firmly. And then he reached down and picked me up and took me over to the couch. He held me in his lap and kissed me on the forehead. It wasn’t completely awful to be holding each other again.

“Frankie, I want you to come back and stay here. But I don’t want to feed you a bunch of bullshit to get that to happen.”

“Why don’t you tell me the truth then?”

Jake

The truth? I didn’t think I could really tell her the truth. How could I tell her that I was kind of afraid that if we went out and she really got to know me, maybe she wouldn’t be into me any more? But I could tell her some of my other worries.

“First off, I’m sorry. I’m sorry if I hurt you while you were here.”

“It’s okay,” she said, but she put her head on my chest, and I knew she was sad.

“There was lots of shit I didn’t understand,” I told her, but it sounded feeble.

“It’s okay,” she repeated.

“Frankie, I think we’re good together. We have fun, right?”

She nodded, “Yeah, you make me laugh.”

“And you know I’m into you, I think you’re really special.…”

“I can hear that there’s a ‘but’ coming,” she said, watching me suspiciously.

“But I really love my life. I like hanging out with the guys and going out after games and everything. I want to be with you, but I don’t want to give everything up.”

Frankie laughed, “Um, dating is not life imprisonment. You have a life, and I have a life, I don’t see why everything would change. I hadn’t lived here for a week before I could see that you go out a lot more than I do.”

Could that be true? She didn’t have any friends here at first, but now she seemed to have quite a few. Of course, if you got rid of the guys trying to get with her, it might not be as many.

“Well, I guess maybe it could work out, we could give it a try anyway.”

“Your enthusiasm is not really selling me here,” she said, giving me a disgusted look. She tried to get up, but I linked my arms around her.

“Sorry, I’m trying to be honest here. I’m not good at this shit. But I want you back.” I wasn’t ever going to be able to sweet-talk her into anything, because Frankie saw right through me.

Then Frankie held my face in her hands, “There’s only one big question here, and you’re the one who has to convince me. What about other women? I don’t care if you’re on the road or not, have you got what it takes to be faithful?”

Shit, she knew how to cut right to the point. And she was right as usual; this was one area where I was worried about giving up on stuff I’d regret later. But what the hell, the season was almost over and there was only one road trip left before the playoffs.

“I can do it. Frankie, will you come back to me?”

65. Romantic Heroes

“I can do it. Frankie, will you come back to me?”

Of course there was a part of me that wished Jake would be more romantic, telling me that he had missed me and that he realized that he loved me. But even though we were in L.A., we weren’t in Hollywood. Instead Jake was this guy backing reluctantly into a relationship with me, looking more like he was facing bungee jumping than dating. Actually, that was wrong, since he’d probably be happy about bungee jumping.

Still, as I looked over to the dining room table, where the candles were still burning and the perfectly imperfect cake was sitting untouched, I figured that I needed to judge his actions more than his words. I had dated some great guys since I got here, guys who were probably a lot better suited to me, but it always came back to Jake. No matter how I tried, I still wanted to be with him. And for once, I couldn’t plan and have things turn out perfectly, so I’d just have to take the chance that maybe it could work out. And if it didn’t, I knew we’d have some fun in the meantime. Although it hurt when we broke up the first time, what was worse was never even getting a chance to see if things could work.

“Uh Frankie, you’re kind of taking a long time to answer me,” Jake interrupted my thoughts.

“Oh sorry,” I looked at him. His lips were full and pouty and surrounded by his latest beard/goatee combination. Then I leaned in and kissed him softly on his mouth, which tasted slightly like steak sauce.

He leaned his forehead against mine and grinned. “That’s yes, right?”

“Yup.” Maybe I should be playing harder to get, but I felt like we had already wasted enough time. I was only here for a couple more weeks.

“All righty, then.” He pulled me even closer and gave me a big wet kiss. He was bristly as usual, but even that felt nice and familiar.

“So, you want to make out?” Jake asked, nuzzling my neck.

Yeah, not exactly romance central, but I did want to make out.

Without waiting for an answer, he pushed me down on the couch and got on top of me, pressing his body onto mine. He was pretty heavy.

“Ack, you’re crushing me!”

“Sorry, you feel so good,” Jake kept kissing my face everywhere, and squished me more.

“A gentleman takes the weight on his elbows,” I told him.

“Why are you telling me, then?” he laughed, and started searching for the zipper on the back of my dress.

“No, wait! Are you, um, healthy?”

“Yes,” he murmured, kissing my neck and unzipping my dress.

“Do you have proof of that?”

Jake stopped. “C’mon Frankie, don’t you trust me at all?”

“No, but you get carried away in the moment.”

“Don’t worry, I got checked out, I’m fine.” He looked me in the eye. “Fine.”

I smiled apologetically at him. “Okay then, where were we?” I reached up and pulled his head down and kissed him, gently at first, and then I darted my tongue into his mouth. He kissed me back enthusiastically.

He finished unzipping my dress and then pulled it down to my waist. I was trying to remember which underwear I had worn, and luckily I had on this pretty bra and panty set in a bright floral print with lace insets.

Jake looked down at me, and then started running his hands over the tops of my breasts, then cupping them and squeezing them. “Fuck, you always look so hot,” he said, and then eased one hand into my bra cup and began teasing my nipple.

“Frankie, did you know how hard it is to live with you?”

“Why?” I asked breathlessly, pulling up his t-shirt.

“Because you’re so fucking hot. Sometimes I could see down your top,” he cupped both my breasts, “or you’d bend over and stick your ass out, and then I’d get a hard-on looking at you.”

I licked his nipple and sucked on it, and he sighed contentedly. “Frankie, I wanna look at you.”

I rolled from under him and stood up, shimmying out of my dress and stretching out in only heels, bra and panties. Jake looked me over, his eyes half-closed. “Oh yeah, you are so hot. Take off your bra.”

I turned my back to him, and then reached around to undo it. When I looked over my shoulder, he was watching me and pulling off his jeans and underwear at the same time. His cock was hard and pulsing upwards, and I felt a breathless anticipation seeing him naked. He wasn’t the only one who had been frustrated being together and not doing anything.

Jake slapped my ass, “C’mon babe, stop teasing me and show me your tits!”

“I can’t believe you just said those words, you’re like a frat boy.”

He laughed, “Or like any junior hockey player. Oh well, I’ll make do.” And then he eased my panties off and I stepped out of them, my high-heeled sandals still on.

“You want me to keep the shoes on, right?”

“See, this is gonna be the good part about having a girlfriend, I can train her in all my kinks.”

“Train me? Jake, you’re such a pig!” I whirled around and started whacking him, and he put his hands up, laughing.

“Oh yeah, hit me babe, if you want to slap me with your tits, that’d be good too,” he laughed harder, and then reached up and grabbed my wrists and pulled me towards him. “It’s fun to get you mad, ‘cause you get all crazy and hot,” he said to me in a soft voice, and then he Frenched me hard. He ran his hands over my body, squeezing my breasts, my ass, and my thighs. He was right: I was mad and hot and ready for him. I leaned over him, and he caught my nipple in his mouth and sucked hard, and I could feel the desire vibrating through my body. He reached his hand between my legs, and felt how wet I was already.

“You want me bad, Frankie. Hold on a sec.” He scrambled off to his room and came back with a handful of condoms. Jake sat back on the couch and slid a condom over his straining cock. “Okay, don’t think we need much more foreplay here,” he observed, and he positioned me so I was straddled over him. I lowered myself onto his cock and watched his face tense with pleasure. I felt him inside me, filling me up and touching me in all the sensitive places inside. It felt so fantastic, so right. I started out slowly moving up and down on him, but Jake gritted his teeth and starting thrusting faster, arching his back and pushing up higher. After holding back for so long, we were soon a messy blur of sweaty bodies smacking hard into each other. I could feel the sensations building up in me, and when Jake reached between us and started stroking my clit, that sent me over and I started to come even as he thrust harder and deeper inside.

“God Jake, yeah,” I gasped. I could hardly speak. Every sensation inside me was focussed between my legs, and it was intense and overpowering. I started to come and I was barely aware that Jake was coming too, his face twisted and his groans loud.

I collapsed onto him, and Jake grunted happily.

“Fuck. It’s always better with you,” he said. And I knew exactly what he meant.

A few minutes later, Jake hopped up and went to the bathroom and washed up. I got cleaned up after him, and when I got back to the couch, Jake was proudly cutting up two pieces of cake. We ate cake naked, which was a first for me.

“Pretty good,” I told him, licking my fork after a few bites. The icing was slightly lumpy, but still chocolaty good.

“I’d say fantastic,” he said, looking at me. “Oh! You’re talking about the cake. Wait, I think you dropped some cake, there.” He pointed with his finger and smeared some icing on my breast.

“Jake! What are you doing?”

“It’s okay, I’ll lick it off for you.” He bent his head down and licked all over my breast and then sucked the nipple. I breathed in deeply and then dipped a finger into my icing and did the other nipple.

“You missed a spot,” I told him, and he sucked away until every bit was long gone and my nipple was rock hard. I moaned happily, and then I trailed a line between my breasts and down my tummy. “I am such a messy eater.”

“Me too,” he said, smearing some chocolate icing on the tip of his softened cock. I laughed, and we got positioned for a little 69 action. I felt his cock growing in my mouth, and he was making me feel all kinds of fantastic. After a bit, I sat up, and we were kissing when I remembered I had said I’d be home after dinner.

“Oh man, what time is it? I better send Sofia a text and say I’m not coming home.” I grabbed my purse and started looking for my phone.

“Tell her what’s up. Why don’t you take your car tomorrow, you can pick up your suitcases and move back in here afterwards. I’ve got practice but I can help you unload after that.”

“Wow. Back here, just like that.” I guess he was right though, why waste our limited time together? I texted the news to Sofia. She got right back to me.

<
Damn it, Frankie, you’re back with Jake! I just lost a $20 bet to Cameron!>

I laughed and showed the text to Jake.

“Actually, that reminds me, come to my bedroom, I’ve got a present for you,” Jake said.

“What a line. And please, if you tie a ribbon around Mr. Whitesnake, that doesn’t make him a present.”

“No really,” Jake pleaded, “And I can’t bring it out without ripping the paper.” He looked sincere.

“Okay, but I can’t believe I’m falling for this,” I warned him. He grabbed my hand, and we went to his bedroom.

There was something big, square, and vaguely familiar, all wrapped in brown wrapping paper with a blue ribbon and a ton of tape around it. I tore it open and it was the painting that Cameron had lent me.

“You got me my painting?”

“Yeah, I wanted to get you something, and I wanted to get you something you liked. I knew you liked the painting a lot.”

“How did you know?”

“I saw you looking at it. You looked happy when you were staring at it. And Cameron told me it was your favourite, when he came to pick it up.”

“So what happened with you and Cameron?”

“Dude was totally bullshitting me. He told me the painting was worth about 15 grand. But after we had a few beers and I told him my sob story, I got the price down.”

“What’s your sob story?”

“That I had a beautiful, wonderful chick in my life, and then I screwed up. So I was trying to buy her love back.”

“I can’t imagine that moving Cameron.”

“Well, he needed the cash.” I knew exactly how true that was, and this explained how he managed to take Sofia out for a nice dinner last week.

“It’s a beautiful gift. Thank you so much.”

“So, you’re grateful now right?”

“I guess, why?”

“‘Cause maybe there’s something you might like to do for me….” Jake’s shit-eating grin appeared.