Surrender to Love (17 page)

He rammed home, pulling a gasp out of her that he muffled by sealing his mouth over hers. He pumped into her, swallowing the constant stream of sexy pants and groans that spilled out of her.

It was going to be a short ride, but it couldn’t be helped. He needed Patricia like he needed his next breath. There was nothing he enjoyed more than being inside of her. He was addicted to her. And they needed to get back downstairs before someone came searching for them.

“Fuck, Patricia, baby, I’m not going to last.” Resting his forehead against hers, they turned their eyes to where they were joined
, and together they watched as he entered her. It was a breathtaking sight. Coated in her milky cream, his shaft penetrated her with brutal force. Her soft, swollen folds parted to receive him, welcoming him into their hot embrace. Before he knew it, he felt himself begin to swell. As his orgasm took him, Patricia wove her fingers in his hair, holding him to her breast as he emptied himself into her.

He rocked into her slowly, riding out the last of the aftershocks. His body shuddered once, twice, and then he slipped from the
shelter of her body.

Raising his head, they looked into each other’s eyes, a languid smile playing on both of their flushed faces. “I love being inside of you,” he said, kissing her hard on the mouth. “If I could, I’d move in.”

Patricia chuckled. “I don’t know. The rent is pretty steep.”

“
Doesn’t matter. It’s worth the price.”

She smiled serenely. “We should head back.”

“You didn’t come yet,” Jon said, staying her with his body.

She pursed her lips.
“Jon, I don’t need to come every time. It can wait until later.”

He shook his head. “I don’t know about the men you dated before me, but I never leave a woman unsatisfied.”

“Jon,” Patricia said, grasping his shoulders as he dropped to his knees before her. “Really, I’m very satisfied, so this isn’t necessary.”

“It really is,” he insisted, hooking his fingers in her panties and holding them out of the way. His eyes locked on her rosy, swollen clit and his mouth watered. “You see,” he told her, stroking one finger through her cleft and plunging it
deep into her opening. He scented his own fluid mixed with hers and felt his cock twitch between his thighs. “Something this pretty deserves to be licked.” He dragged his tongue over her tight little nub and circled it once. “It deserves to be pleasured.” He repeated the action, and then ventured further out, running his tongue over her lush, swollen folds. “It deserves to be worshiped.”

Pure male pride suffused him as Patricia tipped her head back, moaning long and low. Her teeth dug into her bottom lip, her eyes squeez
ing tightly shut as her hips bucked subtly.

Pinching her clit between his lips, Jon sucked, flicked and licked her until he felt the strength of her orgasm clutching the fingers he held
deep inside of her. Her entire body trembled with the force of it. Sliding her panties back into place, Jon scooped up her discarded shorts, lifted one foot off the floor, and helped her step into them.

He smiled devilishly as he rose to his feet and drew his hand down his mouth to wipe the evidence of her release from his lips. “Now we can head back.”

Patricia placed her hand in his and let him lead her out. “Are you hungry?” he asked as they descended the stairs together. “I’m thinking I could go for a sandwich and maybe one of those brownies.”

Patricia laughed under her breath. “After the meal you just had, I would have thought you’d be full.”

Jon whirled around and pinned her to the wall, framing her with his arms. He lowered his face to within an inch of hers and dropped his voice so his words wouldn’t carry. “Make no mistake, Patricia, with you I’ll always be a starving man.”

Her eyes darted back and forth between
both of his, measuring the weight of truth in his statement. When he was certain she’d found what she was looking for, he tugged her the rest of the way through the house and back outside, no longer hungry for food, but something infinitely sweeter.

17

“Should I tell your mother to start knitting booties?” Walter asked as Jon stepped back into the garage.

“What?” Jon
shot his father a dubious look as he bent to pick up a small wooden table.

“I cut my finger on a staple earlier and came inside to get a Band-Aid, but it seemed the bathroom was occupied.” One bus
hy eyebrow arched up. “You know they make beds for that kind of thing, right? More to the point, they make beds that you can put in your bedroom, in your home. Get my drift?”

“Yeah, yeah.” Jon waved him off, burying the
twinge of embarrassment at having been caught in the act by his good old dad. It wouldn’t be the first time, but the cool thing about his dad was that he’d always been very relaxed about things. Even sex. “But if you had a girl like her on your arm, you’d understand why it couldn’t wait.”

“I do have a girl like that,” his father said, turning his head to
look out across the front lawn. “See that woman over there with the killer legs and smile? That’s all mine, and once we’re done here and I can get you out of my house, I won’t be able to wait either.”

“Gross, Dad. Just gross.” Jon’s face pinched in disgust. The last thing any kid wanted to hear was that their parents had sex more than the one time it took to conceive them. Even then
, Immaculate Conception would have been preferable.

“So,” his father
said, plopping down in a dusty Adirondack and blowing out a tired breath. “How has life been treating you?”

Jon dragged another chair over and sat down beside him. Together they watched the activity going on outside. It felt like they were in their own little world apart from the rest. “Pretty well.”

“Business is good?”

“Yep.”

“Your mother said something about you looking for an accountant?”

Jon nodded. “Yep. Mine quit. Not a big deal
, though. I have one of my workers on it.”

“That’s good. I’m glad to see that you’re successful. It’s hard running your own business.” He glanced over at him. “I’m proud of you, son.”

“Thanks, Dad.”

Outside, a few people milled around, hunting for random treasures among their used junk. Patricia and his mother moved with them, answering questions and pointing out prices of things that were clearly labeled.

“So what is it about this one that made you want to bring her home?”

His father’s question startled him, and Jon had to sit and think for a minute before a suitable answer came to him. “She’s a challenge. She makes me smile, and I feel like I haven’t really smiled in a long time.” His eyes followed her every movement as he spoke, soaking her in inch by inch. “I feel happy when I’m with her.”

His father’s rough hand patted him on the knee. “That’s good, son. That’s exactly what I want to hear.”

Doubt dropped like a stone in Jon’s gut, as it always did when he traveled this line of thought. “
I’m afraid I’m going to screw it all up.”

“I’m sure you will,” his father said definitively. “Men tend to screw shit up. I mean, look at me. I’ve been married to your mother for thirty-two years and I screw shit up every day. You just have to make sure you find a woman who’s willing to put up with you.”

“Yeah, but my baggage…” Jon hesitated, the words sticking in his throat. “That’s a tough pill to swallow. I’m afraid it’ll destroy everything when she finds out.”

Meeting his eyes, his father grew serious. “If she loves you, you’ll find a way to get through it. But, Jon, the probl
em here isn’t her, it’s you.” He looked out across the yard at their women. “At some point you have to forgive yourself and move on. You have to surrender everything, your past, your present, your future. If you want to be happy, you’re going to have to let go and surrender to love and trust that it’s strong enough to carry you through the worst so you can find your way through to the best. You’re going to have to tell her, son. The sooner the better.”

Swallowing thickly, Jon nodded, hearing the truth in his words ringing loud and clear. He was willing to surrender everything for a chance at som
ething more with Patricia. Would she be willing to surrender her love to him after he revealed his secret to her?  

***

So Stephanie put her in charge of the cash box. Patti wasn’t sure if that was a testament to the woman’s trust in her, or a test. Just the idea that it could be a test brought out the wicked and playful side of her. Had Stephanie been anyone other than Jon’s mother, she might have been tempted to stuff a couple of small bills in her pocket just to shake things up a bit. The girls would have had a real hoot over it, but she didn’t want to do anything that would engender any bad feelings.

She knew this was important to Jon, even though they hadn’t been together long
, which meant it was important to her, too. Crazy how things just worked out sometimes.

She’d just finished counting out change to a woman who’d bought a country-style duck statue
clothed in a dress when Jon and his father approached the table.

“We’re going to head across the street to give the Shelbys a hand,” Jon informed her. Sweat dampened his brow and
stained his t-shirt darker under his arms and across his chest. Patti couldn’t help thinking about how delicious he looked, all hot and tired. His muscles bulged in places from the constant workout of lugging around heavy objects, but she wasn’t about to complain. Rather, it made her want to crawl over the table separating them and climb his body like a tree. She couldn’t wait until later when she had him all to herself. Oh, the things she wanted to do to his body. Sinful, wicked things that could get her arrested. The spot between her thighs, already saturated by their earlier lovemaking, clenched tight, and she felt the liquid heat of Jon’s semen wet the inside of her thigh.

How embarrassing.

It was a good thing no one else could see what was happening just then.

When she looked up at Jon, heat still lingering
in his blue eyes, Patti felt herself blush all the way down to her toes. Not just because Jon was staring at her as if he wanted to eat her up all over again, but because Walter was standing right there, watching the silent communication pass between them as if he knew the details of the message being sent.

“Oh, okay,” she said,
forcing her smile up a notch. “I would say have fun, but, well…” She shrugged. There was nothing fun about hard labor in this kind of heat, and they well knew it. She was sweating enough as it was, and she had the benefit of being shaded by a tree.

Jon winked at her
, and then turned to walk away. Patti’s heart thumped wildly in her chest. Just being near him drove her wild. If she weren’t careful now, he might take her heart as his prize when he walked away. Because he would. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but one day. They always did.

But for now, Patti smiled to herself. For now, she had him, and she was going to enjoy him.

“Uh oh, I know that look.” Stephanie joined her at the table and dropped an armload of clothing on to it. Patti reached out and picked up a pair of jeans to help fold.

“What look is that?” she asked curiously.

“The one that says you’re hopelessly, madly in love with my son.” Stephanie flashed her megawatt smile at her.

Patti sucked air between her teeth and shook her head in denial, but the words that spilled out of her mouth surprised her. “What’s not to love? He’s intelligent, successful, confident, strong and…” She blew out a steadying breath as her eyes sought him out among the growing crowd. She found him, arms flexing, butt firm as he helped another man load up a mattress set into the bed of a truck.

“Hot?” Stephanie offered.

“Hot,” Patti echoed.

“Yeah, he gets it from his father,” she sighed whimsically. “When we were younger, I had to practically beat the girls away, until one day I got so sick and tired of keeping guard over him, I let him know it. And do you know what he said to me? He said, ‘Babe, you’re the only girl I see.’” They sighed as one at the sheer level of romance packed into that single statement, which surprised the hell out of Patti. She was
not
a sigher! “He knew he had me, and that was when I finally realized that I had him, too.”

“That’s a really sweet story,” Patti told her honestly. “Maybe one day I’ll find someone like that.”
Okay, so maybe she was still suffering from a bit of denial. It would pass.

Dropping what she was doing,
Stephanie placed her hand on Patti’s shoulder and turned her so they were standing face-to-face. “You already have. Jonathon might not know it yet, but he’s completely in love with you.”

Patti’s eyes widened. She didn’t know what to say to that. “How do you know?” Again, her gaze strayed to the house across the street, searching. When she found him, she felt a weird
twisting sensation in her stomach.

“Because a mother knows,” Stephanie said beside her, following her line of sight.

Just then, as if feeling her eyes on him, Jon lifted his head and looked her way. His mouth turned up in that wide, sexy smile she loved so much, and suddenly, the rest of the world fell away. It was just the two of them, in their own little world, smiling at each other. And she knew, beyond a doubt, with one hundred and fifty percent certainty, she had fallen head over heels in love with the man.

Shaken by her revelation, she passed him a brief smile and got back to work. The next
couple of hours passed with relative ease. Patti handled dozens of transactions, met what seemed like half the neighborhood during that time, all of which seemed to have already heard about her and Jon dating. They gushed over that, though Patti couldn’t understand why. It was as though everyone there was deeply embedded in one another’s lives, interested and invested in their happiness and success in life. She was so baffled by the close-knit community that she felt almost like an imposter. She had never in her life witnessed such caring between strangers. It was nothing at all like living in the city where everyone was out for themselves, too busy putting one foot in front of the other to bother caring about the person beside them.

Possibly even more disturbing: she nev
er expected to feel so at home here. All the smiling faces, the innocent questions of people genuinely interested in her well-being, threw her for a loop, but it felt damn good, too. It gave her a new respect for Jon’s life while growing up as a child, and what it must have been like to know so many people cared. His parents alone were amazing.

Patti found herself studying Walter. He was as tall as Jon
was, with the same thick build and gorgeous blue eyes. His smile was wide and brilliant and so expressive, she imagined he could pull attention from women of all ages just as well today as he had forty years ago. If Jon aged half as well as his father, she could see herself tripping over her own feet every time he walked into a room well into their golden years.

Thinking of Jon’s father, his absolute kindness and sincerity, the warmth that seeped from him, the way he put his arm around Jon and patted him on the shoulder, called up memories of her own father.

She remembered all the times her dad had made the same gestures toward her. That type of smile was unmistakable, even from this distance. He did it every time he was proud of her, which was often. He never let an opportunity slip through his fingers to let her know how much he loved her, how proud of her he was. He was never short on advice. Through his eyes, Patti saw how worthy she was of all the good things in life, and with him now gone, she felt a deep pain at the loss. That is, until she met Jon. Now, the pinch of sorrow grew less and less each day.

Her brows furrowed as she realized she had missed her regular visit to the cemetery that morning, and she hadn’t even realized it. It simply hadn’t crossed her mind. Could it be that Jon was an even bigger influence on her life than she had initially thought?

Tears stung her eyes as a note of guilt attempted to wiggle its way into her conscious. She shoved it away, swallowing convulsively. She shifted her focus on the older couple that approached.

“Hello,” she said as cheerfully as she could manage. Their drawn faces caught her attention first. Standing before her, they
studied her with grim faces. Her immediate impression was that they didn’t fit here. They weren’t like the other people she had met earlier. Everything about them, from the dark circles under their eyes to their pinched mouths and lack of friendly demeanor, had her immediately on edge.

“Is there something you were looking for in particular that I can try to help you find?” she asked, noticing that their hands were empty.

The woman spoke first. “Are you Patricia?”

“Yes, that’s me,” she replied hesitantly. The smile she wore strained as her gaze shot between them. “Can I help you?”

“And you’re Jonathon Bradshaw’s girlfriend?” the woman asked her.

Patti’s growing nerves made her feel twitchy. “I am. I’m sorry,” she said, shaking her head. “I didn’t catch your names.”

“I’m Cynthia Collier and this is my husband Max Collier,” the woman said casually. She pinned Patti with worry-filled gray eyes. “We’re Nora’s parents.”