Let It Snow (The Hope Falls Series) (26 page)

A part of Jake couldn’t really make himself believe that this was actually happening, that he was actually here—in bed with Tessa—after all of these years. He couldn’t stop touching her, running his hands over her smooth, soft skin. Of course, part of that was because he simply loved the feel of her, couldn’t get enough of touching her. But another big part of it was an effort to convince himself that he wasn’t dreaming, that she was actually here, that this was real.

Jake began peppering small kisses down her neck again, then her chest, moving past her breasts this time, and continuing down her belly. He trailed his tongue down the flat expanse and reveled in the feeling of her muscles jumping underneath her skin at his touch. He loved that he affected her that way. He just loved the fact that he could bring her that much pleasure with a simple touch.

When he reached the waistband of her jeans, he unbuttoned them and slipped them down her legs, bringing her lacy panties with him. He needed to see her naked before him. He needed to have nothing covering her, nothing hiding her from him, nothing between him and her gorgeous body.

When he had completely undressed her, his eyes traveled slowly up her naked flesh and he could see her trembling, whether from arousal or vulnerability—or a combination of both—he was not sure.

Without a word, he knelt at the side of the bed. Looking down he saw that her toenails were painted red. She was happy. He ran his finger over her toes.

“What’s wrong?” she asked as she lifted up on her elbows.

“They’re red.” He looked up and answered. “So that means you’re happy. Here.”

Her brow knitted in confusion. “What?”

“The night you got here, they were purple, so I knew you were sad. Now they’re red so I know you’re happy.”

Her lips parted as she shook her head a little in disbelief. “You remembered that?”

“I remember everything about you,” Jake said as he ran his fingertips up the outsides of her perfectly shaped legs and over her hips, feeling her skin shudder deliciously at his touch.

When his hands had reached her waist, he grasped her firmly and pulled her closer to the edge of the bed. Her arms gave out and she was once again flat on her back. Then, slowly…ever so slowly…he pushed her knees apart and positioned himself in between them. He sharply drew in a breath at the glistening wetness he saw there.

Unable to wait even a moment longer, he buried his head between her legs, covering her entirely with his mouth, tasting her sweet arousal, devouring her, and running his hands up and down her body as his mouth moved furiously on her core.

Tessa began to wriggle and shudder underneath his hands, and he could feel the passion building inside of her minute by minute. He worked his tongue, stiffening it and moving it up and down and in circles around the center of her pleasure, building her up to a stunning climax.

He felt Tessa’s fingers grasping his hair in her fists, felt her raising her hips to meet his mouth, pressing herself into him and encouraging him onward. He continued his steady pace, nearly as desperate to bring her to release as she obviously was to get there. He’d always known it—he lived to give this woman pleasure.

He could go for the rest of his life and never get tired of making love to her. Night after night, day after day—every time he looked at her, every time he touched her, he was amazed by some new aspect of her body and soul that he had never before fully appreciated. He knew with ever fiber in his being that it would always, always be that way.

He loved Tessa. Not just a little bit. Completely and totally, down to the core of his soul. He was entirely and irrevocably in love with Tessa Hayes and he always would be, for every moment until the day he died.

He didn’t know what the future held for them in the long run, so he didn’t know if that was a good thing or a bad thing, but he did know that it was true. In fact, it was probably the truest and most definite thing about him.

He felt her coming up to the edge of climax, and he continued his efforts to push her blissfully over, but she yanked on his hair to pull his head up and gasped, “No, Jake. Inside me. I want to come while you’re inside me.”

He grinned at her. Far be it from him to argue with a beautiful, naked woman.

Jake stood, shedding his pants and boxers as quickly as possible and then reached into his nightstand and grabbed a condom. He unwrapped it and smoothly slipped it on, turning back to Tessa to see that she had scooted back and repositioned herself in the middle of the bed. She held out her arms to him and he happily climbed into her embrace.

Jake leaned on his elbow, framing her face, his manhood positioned at her tight, wet opening. Her beautiful blue eyes looked up at him as she panted for breath and her hands roamed up and down his back.

Jake was overwhelmed with love as he stared into the sky blue pools of her eyes. He knew that he couldn’t say those words to her, so instead he said, “I missed you.”

She nodded as tears filled her eyes. Her lip quivered as she said, “I missed you too.”

Holding her gaze, he pushed himself slowly inside of her, groaning as her tight wetness fully enveloped him. His body shook from the power of the love, pleasure, and satisfaction that filled him so fully and completely. Tessa’s eyes closed as her hips rocked into his and she let out a needy moan. He felt a slight sting in his back as her nails dug into his skin, her thighs trembling against his hips.

Resting his forehead against hers, Jake rocked his hips, moving inside of her, slowly building up his pace. He didn’t want to rush this no matter how incredible it felt. He wanted to stay like this forever. Connected to Tessa. Body and soul.

With the pleasure intensifying unbearably as Jake felt the inner fire of his passion begin to build to a peak, he recognized the telltale signs in Tessa’s body that the same thing was happening to her. Her hips matched his rhythm, thrust for thrust. Her hands raked up his back as she arched her breasts against the hard planes of his chest. Her gasps and moans became ever more desperate as his pace increased.

All too soon, he was at the very edge of climax. It was simply a matter of holding himself back until she was also ready so that they could experience that physical and emotional explosion together, entangled in one another’s arms, the way that it should be. He hoped he would be able to. The intensity of sensation he was experiencing was so extreme that he was afraid it was going to overtake him and he would be carried away in an uncontrollable rush of pleasure.

Thankfully—because he honestly did not know how much longer he could’ve held out—after just a few moments, he heard her cry with encouragements as her body convulsed around him. He felt her arms and legs encircle him and grasp with steel-like strength, and her inner walls pulsed tightly around his shaft.

Jake moaned and surrendered to his own climax, grateful that he had been able to wait. Happy that he had been able to do that for her. He’d needed to share that with her. It felt significant to him. It felt like it meant something.

When their bodies had exhausted themselves and he looked up and into her eyes, he could see that he was not the only one who felt that what had just happened between them had been significant. Tessa did not say anything, but her eyes said it all. He’d always been able to read her like an open book, and this had meant something to her. It
was
significant.

A little voice in the back of his head popped up.
But…does it mean that she will stay?

He pushed the thought from his mind. He didn’t want to ruin the present moment with worries about the future. He had wasted too much time doing that. Instead, he simply kissed her softly, held her, and enjoyed the knowledge that—for tonight at least—he was falling asleep while holding the woman he loved in his arms.

‡

T
essa could feel Jake’s eyes on her as she sat in the passenger’s seat of his SUV, headed to Gran’s memorial service. She still couldn’t believe that Jake had put this together in just the short time she’d been back. She’d been totally shocked when he’d told her about it yesterday. He said that the town needed to say goodbye, too. Tessa couldn’t get over how amazing Jake was being. After how long she’d been gone.

She stared out the window, pretending to be even more lost in thought than she actually was because she simply didn’t have the emotional strength to deal with saying goodbye to her grandmother
and
to deal with anything Jake-related on the same day.

Of course, there were a couple of issues with that statement, she realized. First of all, she had ‘said goodbye’ to her grandmother months ago—hell, if not years ago. So in that respect, it didn’t really make sense that she was so emotional today. But who said emotions have to make sense? When she had dealt with her grandmother’s passing before, it had been a highly personal thing. It had been a solitary grieving. The only people who’d even known she had been going through it or sympathized with her were her roommate and the staff who had been taking care of her Gran. Although they, of course, had felt bad for what she’d been going through, they had not known her Gran. Not really. Not when Gran had actually
been
Gran.

Today was different. Today was when a lot of people who loved Grandma Adie– really, truly knew her and loved her—were going to stand up and grieve for her right along with Tessa. Tessa knew that she should be grateful that her Gran had been so well-loved, and she was—seriously, she was. Still, there was a little part of her that selfishly wished that she didn’t have to go through this today. It was going to hurt like hell.

Tessa shook her head a little to herself as she looked out the window at the beautiful pine trees they were passing. She knew that the pain wasn’t the worst part. What Tessa was really afraid of was that today’s service was going to make Adeline’s death seem
real
.

Tessa sucked in a breath as that epiphany hit her. Damn. That was it. That was the core of it. She’d recognized it as soon as the thought had occurred to her.

There was a tiny corner of her mind that clung to the thought of Gran alive, in a different place or something. As if Tessa were just off on a photo assignment and would pop in to visit her after she got home. Of course, that idea wasn’t rational, but it wasn’t a rational part of her mind that harbored it.

And that was the real issue. That was why today was so hard—Tessa was afraid that going to the memorial service was going to shatter that one, tiny, last remaining illusion she had that she would ever see her Gran again.

She felt tears dropping into her lap and was surprised. She hadn’t even realized that she had been welling up. Jake, who had not stopped giving her long and concerned glances since she had climbed into the SUV—longer, in fact, than what was probably safe while driving!—reached over and squeezed her hand.

“You’re sure you’re okay?” he asked, his warm brown eyes melting her heart.

“I’m fine,” she assured him, realizing even as she said it that her shaky tone of voice belied the certainty that her words implied.

Jake just smiled at her sympathetically. She sighed. It was a great smile. It was a smile that made her want to tell him to stop the car, pull over, forget the memorial service, and just curl up in his arms and stay there—forever.

She turned her head and stared resolutely out the passenger’s side window as they pulled into the church parking lot—not sure how she was going to get through this. There had been so much going on since she had been back. Physically and emotionally exhausted, she was running on empty.

Jake pulled into the closest parking space available and turned off the ignition. He immediately opened his door and got out, walking around to Tessa’s side and opening her door for her. She took a deep breath. She would have preferred to sit in the car for a few moments and take the time to gather her thoughts, but this was probably better in the long run.

Reaching out to grasp the hand Jake was offering her, she gingerly stepped to the ground. Immediately, she was struck by the power and strength she felt emanating from his hand. It poured into her, strength she could lean on, strength she could depend on. She instantly felt calmer. She could do this. She could do this for Gran because today was not about her at all—today was for Gran.

As they walked towards the front door of Hope Falls Community Church, Jake held Tessa’s hand in his, and she loved how familiar and safe it felt. The years between them melted away, as did every painful thing that had ever transpired between the two of them, and suddenly they were just Jake and Tessa, holding hands. Normal. Natural. Meant to be.

She sighed at the deep sense of loss that thought engendered in her, and Jake put a protective arm around her shoulder. Tessa instinctively leaned against him. It seemed her body wasn’t waiting to see what her mind or heart thought about leaning on Jake—literally and figuratively.

As the two of them stepped through the doors of the church, they were met by a sea of people gathered to honor her Gran. Seeing her there, they began coming up and expressing their condolences. Tessa was extremely grateful to have Jake with her, holding her up, offering silent support. If Jake had not been there, she would’ve certainly felt overwhelmed. She was, after all, a largely solitary person. She had been, by necessity, for nearly her entire life—the one year she had lived in Hope Falls being the notable exception.